"I was in D.C. and when I got the message I thought of two things:
I thought of my son going over a cliff and Bill Graham sending a thousand bucks
to put a thing on the hill that points in all directions in Oregon,
so you can always find your direction from the top of that hill.

And I thought of one more thing, it's a little heavy, but that's what it's about,
Nobody else reaches across the distance and puts your hands on your shoulders about this shit,
I mean, that's the way it's been for a long time, reaching across --
when you guys played Brokendown Palace at that gig,
I knew, Shit, This is the Grateful Dead telling me about my son.
It's as big a time as it gets and old Bill knew it, you know he knew it, he knew it.

And the other thought. The second thought, the warrior thought, the hard thought, the final thought is that we ain't many.
In any given situation there's going to be more dumb people than smart people, we ain't many.

And the second thought was this poem by e.e. cummings

A simple old poem that goes:

Buffalo Bill is defunct
Jesus he was a handsome man
He used to ride on a white horse and shoot clay pigeons
1,2,3,4,5 just like that
and what I want to know
is how do you like your blue eyed boy now, Mister Death?"





Ken Kesey's Eulogy for Bill Graham
October 31, 1991
Oakland Coliseum Arena
In the middle of the Grateful Dead's second set segue from Dark Star into Drums.