Three guitar moments that prove Bob Weir’s genius: “That’s all I’m here for”
It’s fair to assume that a lighting director of a live show is almost always waiting for the lead guitarist to rip into a solo, before thrusting the spotlight solely on them. It’s all part of the wider oversight of rhythm guitarists who play an equally important, just far more understated role. That was until Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir revolutionised rhythm guitar playing.
Tasked with grounding the heady experimentation of his guitar-playing bandmate Jerry Garcia, Weir anchored the sound of the Dead, with perfect precision and ambition, allowing for coherence and innovation to happen simultaneously.
There was a humility to his playing, fostered from a background of folk sensibilities. Somewhere in that world of finger-picked melodies, Weir developed a sort of musical modesty that laced his parts in the Grateful Dead, to a point where Garcia would actually demand more.
“There were times when, every now and again, [Garcia would] intimate that I ought to practice more,” Weir shared in the documentary Long Strange Trip. “And generally speaking, I’d pick up my guitar and go sit in the corner and practice a little bit until I got frustrated and put it down. It’s frustrating playing an instrument when the guy over here can just play anything that you can play and then play rings around that.”
But for Weir to develop a virtuoso-like playing style would have been to miss the point entirely. The clever chord progressions that Weir humbly laid down were the undisputed key to the Dead’s wildly psychedelic offerings and for that, the lightning director ought to refocus his spotlight choices.
Take ‘Cassidy’ for example. A song that Weir had publicly professed he would like to be remembered for, Weir adopted a gentle style of guitar playing that incorporated all of his technical influences, be it the finger-picked melodies of folk or the ever-changing chord progressions of jazz, to lay down something appropriately tender. His cautious approach to the song supports the song’s lyrical intent of letting life run its course; he manages to deliver something sonically introspective.
Then there is ‘Truckin’, which represents a similarly anchored role from Weir. Existing beneath the somewhat untidy melodic arrangements, Weir’s rhythm guitar playing is representative of someone flying a kite in the roaring wind, using all their technical might to keep it on course. It’s even more impressive when realising that Weir laid all of this down, while providing lead vocals for the song.
But really, if you were to truly understand what Weir, the guitarist, was like, as one part of the Grateful Dead, then listen to ‘Sugar Magnolia’. Rightly performed over 600 times in a live setting, it’s a truly joyous track for committed deadheads, unashamedly celebrating the trippy melodies that they made their name on. Weir’s guitar playing is integral to the composition of that, moving through chords with ever-changing stroke movements, to create a progression that almost sounds like a solo itself.
Weir provided the much-needed feel to Grateful Dead’s music and created an emotional portal through which we could walk and access the intense psychedelia that lived on the other side. He was the most selfless member of the band, thinking about Garcia sometimes and the audience always, so it comes as no surprise that he encouraged fans to think of themselves when it came to listening to the Grateful Dead.
“Individually, for people who want to remember me, to remember on the moment for a song that relates to that moment for them, because that’s all I’m here for.”
