Steal your Gary

[colterphoto1]

I just noticed that our good friend GaryMD, frequent contributor, and all around good guy in the land of 2 channel and vinyl- has surpassed 10,000 posts. Blew right by that signpost so fast that we didn't have time to thank him for all his efforts here.

In honor of his dedication, I present the story of how the Grateful Deal logo came to be.

Thanks for all the tunes Gary, and for your hospitality at your home (except the bit about the famous collapsing elevated chair). You're a good Forum Brother!

Michael

From thebear.org

http://www.thebear.org/GDLogo.html

In 1969 the Dead were renting a warehouse in Novato, California. I
was sound man for the band at the time, and lived in Oakland. Bob Thomas, an old friend of mine had just moved from
LA to the Bay area and needed a place to stay, and we needed someone to
look after the warehouse, which had had a problem with break-ins.

Bob was a superb graphic artist whose work is now familiar to most Deadheads
in the form of the Live Dead album cover and the Bear's Choice cover, on
which the popular Dancing Bears appeared.

The Dead in those days had to play in a lot of festival style shows where
the equipment would all wind up at the back of the stage in a muddle. Since
every band used pretty much the same type of gear it all looked alike. We
would spend a fair amount of time moving the pieces around so that we could
read the name on the boxes. I decided that we needed some sort of marking
that we could identify from a distance.

I was in the habit of driving from Oakland to Novato in a little MGTF which
had plastic side curtains, which were not very transparent, due to aging
of the plastic. One day in the rain, I looked out the side and saw a sign
along the freeway which was a circle with a white bar across it, the top
of the circle was orange and the bottom blue. I couldn't read the name of
the firm, and so was just looking at the shape. A thought occurred to me:
if the orange were red and the bar across were a lightning bolt cutting
across at an angle, then we would have a very nice, unique and highly identifiable
mark to put on the equipment.

At the warehouse I told Bob the idea that I had, and he made a quick sketch.
A mutual friend, Ernie Fischbach, who was visiting with Bob, said "Give
it to me, I'll show you an easy way to put it on the boxes." Whereupon he proceeded to cut holes in a couple of pieces of stencil
paper. One was a circular hole, about 5 1/2 inches in diameter, and the other
was a part of a circle 5 inches in diameter. But it was a half circle
with a jagged edge. Then he held the stencil to an amp and sprayed a circle
of white paint. Then with one side up, the red half circle went on top of
the dried white paint and after wiping off the red and turning the stencil
over, the blue was applied. This was the first version, and we put it on
to all our gear. It helped make it easier to find our stuff in the crunch.
I still have an old toolbox with one of the stencils on it.

A few days later I was talking to Bob and suggested that perhaps the words
"Grateful dead" could be placed under the circle, using a style
of lettering that would appear to be a skull if you saw it from a distance
(I guess I was influenced by too many posters of the time). Any way a few
hours later he came down from the loft with the design we know and love.

[Dennie]

OK......WOW! Thanks for sharing that great story, Michael! I have got to share that with a couple of Dead Head friends!

And to Gary, thanks for being a part of this great forum. As a relatively new member, it means a lot to me to have people like you here!

Dennie

[sean5340]

That's a cool story. Musta been great times!

[Speedball]

That avatar always captured my attention, interesting.

[fini]

Harumph. Nobody noticed me going past 10K. (notice my lower lip all pushed out)

[Coytee]

(notice my lower lip all pushed out)

Doesn't count if it's not quivering

[dtel]

Harumph. Nobody noticed me going past 10K. (notice my lower lip all pushed out)

Now I feel bad, Congratulations both to Fini and Gary, I am sure both have helped many along the way answering there questions and giving advice, and let's not forget Michael, this place would not be the same without people like yall, sorry... you all.

[BLSamuel]

Harumph. Nobody noticed me going past 10K. (notice my lower lip all pushed out)

Sorry, Fini, but how to say anything worthy of the Amazing Fini? I mean, I'm certainly not worthy to write anything.

[colterphoto1]

dtel, I kinda enjoy 'yall's' any more. After all I do hang out with Trey Cannon. []

[Speedball]

Harumph. Nobody noticed me going past 10K. (notice my lower lip all pushed out)

No, but I have noticed you avatar and don't understand what that's all about.[]

[Marvel]

You can read about 'More cowbell' here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_cowbell

You may also notice the BS Button uses that on his avatar, as well as the pic of Christopher Walken playing a record producer. A really well known SNL sketch.

Having it on a poster with our current pres. is pretty funny.

[dtel]

dtel, I kinda enjoy 'yall's' any more. After all I do hang out with Trey Cannon.

Good deal, Trey is a good old country boy that moved to the big city, kind of like the Beverly Hillbillies but without the oil well, although I think he has a good looking sister.

Although he looks like Einstein compared to Jethro Clampit.

[fini]

Good deal, Trey is a good old country boy that moved to the big city, kind of like the Beverly Hillbillies but without the oil well, although I think he has a good looking sister.

His Mom's a looker, too! Where did Trey go wrong?[]

OK, I feel better now that I got a little lovin' here. I'm now giving Gary a big e-hug! [{][}]

BTW, here's how you express "embracing an idea": [{][}]

[garymd]

Wow! I didn't even notice myself. Thanks Michael (and everyone else except Fini[]). Y'all are way too kind!

I also just realized I blew by my 6th year as a forum member last week without noticing. Time flies when you're having fun!!

j/k Gregg. Back at ya. [{][}]