Patti Smith was one of many musicians who shared tributes to the late Jerry Garcia on Sunday, doing so with her song “Grateful”.
This past Sunday (August 9th) marked 25 years since the beloved Grateful Dead guitarist and counterculture icon passed away, bringing an end to the Dead as a touring band as well as a symbolic nail in the coffin of the 1960s. The first nine days of August saw the annual celebration of the “Days Between,” a weekly-long music holiday within the Deadhead community commemorating the days between Garcia’s birthday on August 1st and the day he died on August 9th.
The video features Patti and her daughter Jesse Smith performing the song in their living room. Clad in a vintage Grateful Dead t-shirt, Patti sings the song she wrote the day Garcia died in 1995 with the same sincere grief as if he had died today. Originally released on Smith’s 2000 album Gung Ho, the song is a more abstract tribute to the guitarist, not quite as direct as songs like Warren Haynes‘ “Patchwork Quilt”. While the grief for the beloved musician still continues to this day, Smith sings “It all will come out fine/I’ve learned it line by line/One common wire/One silver thread/All that you desire/Rolls on ahead.”
Watch Patti and Jesse Smith perform “Grateful” in memory of Jerry Garcia.
Patti, Jesse Smith — “Grateful”
[Video: Jerry Garcia]