Dead Heads for Obama
From Reuters:
Saying Barack Obama embodies political hope absent since Robert Kennedy was killed 40 years ago, three surviving members of the Grateful Dead reunited on Monday to back the presidential candidate.
“Every few generations a guy like this comes along,” percussionist Mickey Hart told a news conference a day ahead of California’s primary, in which Obama is the underdog against Hillary Clinton. “It seems like desperate times and we’re desperate people.”
The band known for its loyal fans, known as “Deadheads,” broke up in 1995 after band leader and guitarist Jerry Garcia died. They have since played together occasionally, most recently in 2004.
At a San Francisco concert in front of 2,400 fans, singer-guitarist Bob Weir, 60, said the counter-culture band has never performed on behalf of a presidential candidate before, though they have often embraced liberal social causes.
“The last time hope was in the air, it was ended by a bullet,” Weir said, referring to Kennedy, who was assassinated on the night he won the California Democratic primary in 1968. “We’ve been reluctant to do political events all along.”
Bassist Phil Lesh, 67, said he met Illinois Senator Obama, who told him he has some Grateful Dead songs on his iPod music player, last year.
Obama’s dapper, clean-cut image contrasts with the tied-dyed shirts and long, shaggy hair of fans who lined up for hours to attend the “Deadheads for Obama ’08″ reunion. Some concert-goers, including those with gray in their hair, addressed each other as “dude.”
Dude??? I hope Barack isn’t considering a Grateful Dead song as a possibility for a theme song. Just looking at their lyrics, one can see how much the wacky tabacky contributed to their “far out” mumbo jumbo…
Example:
U.S. Blues
Red and white, blue suede shoes, I’m Uncle Sam, how do you do?
Gimme five, I’m still alive, ain’t no luck, I learned to duck.
Check my pulse, it don’t change. Stay seventy-two come shine or rain.
Wave the flag, pop the bag, rock the boat, skin the goat.
Wave that flag, wave it wide and high.
Summertime done, come and gone, my, oh, my.
I’m Uncle Sam, that’s who I am; Been hidin’ out in a rock and roll band.
Shake the hand that shook the hand of P.T. Barnum and Charlie Chan.
Shine your shoes, light your fuse. Can you use them ol’ U.S. Blues?
I’ll drink your health, share your wealth, run your life, steal your wife.
Wave that flag, wave it wide and high.
Summertime done, come and gone, my, oh, my.
Back to back chicken shack. Son of a gun, better change your act.
We’re all confused, what’s to lose?
You can call this song, the United States Blues.
Wave that flag, wave it wide and high.
Summertime done, come and gone, my, oh, my.
Chicken shack? Thank GOD the 70′s are over 
Here’s the Dead from 1978:
Nice video, I hope Obama can think about the little fellas instead of the Rockafellas if he gets in.
Great Posting and thanks for the video.