The legendary guitarist Jerry Garcia couldn’t take seriously: “There isn’t much there that interests me”
Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia was one of the greatest guitarists of his generation; there is no question. This standing meant that he was regularly asked to comment on the new breed of guitar heroes, and in doing so, he would provide moments of insight into the craft.
In the 1980s, when Garcia had enjoyed nearly 20 years as a cultural icon, his status was concrete. At the time, metal had taken off and became a cultural phenomenon, with the man at the tip of the spear being Eddie Van Halen. A searing player who popularised string-tapping and virtuosity, ‘Eruption’ is widely deemed to be his quintessential offering.
Speaking to Frets in 1985, when Van Halen was at the peak of his powers, Garcia was asked if he listened to his work, to which he responded, “Not seriously, no”. Detailing further, he explained why, stating: “Because I can hear what’s happening in there. There isn’t much there that interests me. It isn’t played with enough deliberateness. It lacks a certain kind of rhythmic elegance that I like music to have, that I like notes to have. There’s a lot of notes and stuff. But the notes aren’t saying much, you know. They’re like little clusters. It’s a certain kind of music which I understand on one level. But it isn’t attractive to me”.
In the same interview, the widely influential Garcia conceded that listening to the new crop of guitarists was “hard” for him. While they might have been more technically accomplished than in his heyday, Garcia thought that this meant that the soul of the playing had been lost.
He said: “Well, it’s a little hard for me to listen. The thing is, they’re much more accomplished than they used to be. But that just means that the instrument itself has a much better book than it used to have. The electric guitar has an enormous vocabulary. (Also) several different kinds of mediums. All of which have expanded enormously in the last 10, 15 years.”
The truth is, Garcia was never against the idea of artistic evolution, but where he struggled was when technical ability overrode emotional intelligence. Playing noodling solos and finger-tapping was all well and good as long as the music being made still meant something. Garcia seemingly lost interest when technical proficiency apparently elevated a guitarist to a top level without the need for the music they made to be of a similar depth.
Continuing, Garcia added: “That’s all to the good. It just means the instrument has expanded. But young players, even if they’re really brilliant technically, there’s a thing like a guy like John Lee Hooker or somebody like that who can play two or three notes so authoritatively on a guitar. There’s like 60 years of real mean person, right, who can scare the pants off you in one or two notes played with such immense authority and such soulfulness. There’s that, and that’s a real thing. For me, I’d much rather hear something like that than a lot of facility”.
Facility is a cutting choice of words. For Garcia, what Van Halen could do was, to some degree, the antithesis of what Garcia and the Grateful Dead stood for. He and his band were the epitome of feel. They operated on jazz principles, allowing music to flow through them as they connected intrinsically with their instrument to express themselves. Van Halen and co instead seemingly attacked the writing of music with the same competitive edge as sports stars.
They competed with one another to be the best, the fastest or the hardest. They were souped-up motor cars ready to power through the starting line and race to the finish line. For Eddie and the band, that finish line was fame, fortune, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. For Garcia, there was only one finish line and it was death.
Watch Eddie Van Halen in action below.
