Nikki and Molly, Brian and the Grateful Dead
Brian’s friend Nikki has been in town for about a week now, visiting her family. She lives in Los Angeles where she has a fabulous career in show biz.
Her girlfriend Molly arrived yesterday. They spent last night with Nikki’s family. Today they went to Park Slope. Brian and I are going out with Nikki and Molly tonight.
We saw Nikki, and a bunch of other people, on Christmas Eve. We went to a bar that had a great jukebox. I played a lot of Dylan. Nikki had a lot to say about how much she loves Dylan (600 of his songs on her iPod) and that she regretted not being more into the Grateful Dead.
She opened Pandora’s box. I can’t resist evangelizing sharing this music. If she wants, of course, I could give her my mp3s of all 6 of the sets Dylan played with the Dead as his backup band in 1987, or the rehearsals for those shows. Instead, I’m giving her 2 CDs tonight. Dylan and the Dead (selected songs from the 6 shows in the summer of 1987) and Postcards of the Hanging - Grateful Dead Perform the Songs of Bob Dylan.
I’m dying for Brian to get a taste of what I know about the magic of a Dead show. If “The Dead” tour this summer, I really want him to come to a show with me. Today, on an Arc Trainer, listening to 12/28/84, I noticed myself fantasizing about being at an outdoor show, in the sunshine, with him. Maybe if Nikki gets it, she’ll be able to give him context about it all.
It makes me cry that he will never be with me standing in front of Jerry playing live, at least not on this plane.
(The Allman Brothers come close, and I’m hoping Brian will come to at least one of the shows at the Beacon on March.)
