Phil Lesh - Newport Folk Festival 2019 - Photo by Jim Brock
“What do you want me to do / To do for you, to see you through?” asks Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh on “Box of Rain,” a rare vocal appearance in the beloved folkie band’s Jerry Garcia-heavy canon. “A box of rain will ease the pain / And love will see you through,” Lesh continues. Though he wrote the song in response to his father’s death, Lesh easily could have been doling out comfort to the scores of mourners who’ve remembered him in the week since his death.
Eulogizing legends is a strange task; their reach extends so far beyond the ken of words that it feels like catching rainbows to try. But for many, Lech was something like a rainbow – a source of ethereal inspiration incarnated in human form for his 84 years on earth.
“Just a box of rain, wind, and water / Believe it if you need it, if you don’t, just pass it on,” Lesh sings in the final verse of “Box of Rain.” It’s apposite and wise advice for catching the proverbial rainbow, and dually for how to consider a remarkable man’s monumental life.
As a bassist, Lesh defied expectations. Instead of walking the rhythmic bass line alone, he brought his notes right up to the melody, twining them around it. His bandmate Bob Weir remembered in an Instagram post how it was Lesh who introduced him (and the band) to John Coltrane and other modern classical music, studiously pushing the Grateful Dead’s musical sensibilities toward innovation throughout their career. Lesh didn’t disregard the norm, so much as fail to remember to factor it in, consumed instead by his own misfit ideals and joyful, intimate relationship with music.
Lesh played many instruments, and first picked up the bass guitar he became known for simply because the Dead (then still called the Warlocks) needed a bassist. But Lesh would continue to harmonize on bass guitar throughout the band’s 30 years. And after the Dead disbanded, Lesh extended his musical reveries through his act, Phil Lesh and Friends, for another two decades, until his death.
Again, Lesh’s own words say it best. Here he is with the last two lines of “Box of Rain”: “Such a long, long time to be gone / And a short time to be there.”
Phil Lesh died October 25, 2024 at the age of 84.
WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO
On the subject of legends, Lucinda Williams recorded a Beatles cover album Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road, which comes out on December 6th. This morning, she released the video of her rendition of “Something”:
Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats – South of Here
Maidin – “Permafrost”
West of Texas – Hot Motel Nights
Crys Matthews – “Cancel Culture”
Robyn Hitchcock – “Madonna of the Wasps”
The Paper Kites – At the Roadhouse
I’m With Her- “Espresso”*
* I’m With Her covers the Sabrina Carpenter song “Espresso”. All proceeds from purchases will support BeLoved Asheville, helping local residents in Asheville, NC impacted by Hurricane Helene. More information about their important work at www.belovedasheville.com
