In a 3/31/03 Cleveland Plain Dealer article Robert Hunter said, "My opinion was to call [the 2002 Other Ones] Grateful Dead 5, because I think this is the fifth discrete version of the band, pretty much along keyboardist lines. It leaves it open for a Grateful Dead 6 and a Grateful Dead 7 and - dare I say it? - maybe even a Grateful Dead 56. I'd like to see this thing just run on. As I said in 'Cosmic Charley': 'New ones comin' as the old ones go.' I'd like there always to be a Grateful Dead."

It's a fascinating idea, that of an indefinitely-continuing Long Strange Trip. What could it be like in 2052 A.D.? Maybe there could be annual all-star tours (similar to those of "Experience Hendrix") featuring that generation's best jamming artists/bands performing the music of the GD. Or perhaps Dark Star Orchestra and other GD tribute bands will carry the torch.

Or in 2052 A.D. and beyond could there still be a band called Furthur, just as now there is still a team called the Boston Red Sox, a program called Saturday Night Live, etc. (though none of the players/performers are the same as in the beginning) ? "Furthur" would be a very appropiate name for such a band, because: [1] in 1964 Roy Sebern painted the word "Furthur" on the destination sign hung on the front of the Merry Pranksters' bus, so the goal was not merely for that bus to reach New York, but rather just to keep going. . . and going. . . and going. . ., and [2] in 1996 "Furthur" was the name originally intended to pick up the Long Strange Trip where the Grateful Dead left off (although at that time as an annual festival rather than a band).

In a 2/22/03 Road Journal entry Robert Hunter also said, "Personally, I want to see the remains of the unit survive regardless of name or personnel. But then, I've a vested interest in the survival of the songs which are, after all, my major life's work and likely to remain so. The rest of the founding members, me included, will be dead and gone soon enough and I hope to see a basis for carrying some iota of the gist of what this is all about, for what it's worth, across future generations." Maybe Furthur is that basis. Maybe we are. Who knows?

Furthur needs to continue, Even after the old ones gone

I do feel this music will be played for decades to come. I think the next gen. will include, JK, Jeff, Joe, as well as
all the long time members of the tribute bands, carrying the torch into the next generation. Much like today, we
still listen to the Music of Louie Armstrong, Robert Jonson, Muddy Waters, Charlie Parker. Or Beethoven, Mozart,
and so many others that have built a timeless legacy.

I've thought about this and don't think it is a stretch at all....especially with the "Furthur" brand.

I could see JK, JC and JR take that band on in some form or fashion. Maybe not immediately after Weir and Lesh drop out, but at some time that is right.

You would also have Warren Haynes and Jackie Greene to draw on for continuity and youth....I'm not necessarily talking all in the same band but on the same "team" like the Red Sox analogy.....throw in Brian Lesh and the Rat Dog and P & F alums, and probably others I'm missing, and you've got something.

The fact is, Hunter/Garcia songs (and to a lesser degree Barlow/Weir songs) aren't going away anytime soon.

I would like to to think it. BUT, I've never heard anyone play like Phil. He is the backbone of Dead Music. Well, I've never heard anyone play like Jerry either. I imagine and I would like to see this go on, but I will also after this revolution. We are so all so lucky to be here now, the old and the new

Thanks, y'all. Dug up a few other interesting, related references:


From the New York Times 4/17/05:

Lesh, meanwhile, is helping to pave the road for a future when the Grateful Dead's music could continue without any of the original band members. With Phil & Friends, he says, ''I wanted to treat the body of work the Grateful Dead had created like repertory, like a Shakespeare play or a Beethoven quartet.''

So many people have either played with an incarnation of the Dead or sat in on some shows -- the keyboardist Bruce Hornsby, the saxophonist Branford Marsalis, the singer Joan Osborne, to name a few -- it's not hard to imagine a time 10 or 15 years in the future when the music of the original ''band beyond description'' keeps on truckin' along without any original members at all.


And from a 2008/2009 Dead video at dead.net/sites/deadbeta.rhino.com/files/...ing-on-the-cake.html :

Bill Kreutzmann: I can guarantee you it's going to be new music. I guarantee you that. . .

Mickey Hart: You know, this music was built on that. So, it was kind of made to be played perhaps forever, you know, by whomever wanted to play this kind of music.

Phil Lesh: Yeah. We want to go out and bring as many musicians into this music as I possibly can.

Bill Kreutzmann: Yeah.

Yes! If they keep building up the Furthur brand and then simply let it be carried on after Bob and Phil decide they want to retire, it would be a fantastic legacy. And correct me if I am wrong, but I think they would be the first major band to accomplish this.

When JK left DSO, he pitched the idea to them as DSO being a school in the sense that he wanted to see them continue for a long time, even if in 30 years none of the members are the same

I was also thinking there could be Terrapin Crossroads venues in various metropolitan areas across the country in the future. Another way to continue the Long Strange Trip.

Gordon the Drummer wrote:


Like a HIPPIE CRACKER BARREL!!! That would be awesome!!!