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Jerry Garcia

Jerry Garcia Quotes

Musician

Jerry Garcia was a renowned American musician, known for his significant contributions to rock and bluegrass music. Born on August 1, 1942, and passing away on August 9, 1995, Garcia was the core member of the Grateful Dead band, leading them to become one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s.

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All Thinking Ifs Knows Needs Stuff Want Kind Reality Music Is People Stills Way Drug Mean Musician Real Able Whole America Language

Famous Jerry Garcia Quotes

“I think it's too bad that everybody's decided to turn on drugs, I don't think drugs are the problem. Crime is the problem. Cops are the problem. Money's the problem. But drugs are just drugs.”

Thinking Problem Turns Money Crime Drug Decided Cop Turn-on

Author:Jerry Garcia

“America is still mostly xenophobic and racist. That's the nature of America, I think.”

Thinking Stills America Racist

Author:Jerry Garcia

“I don't think that Slaughterhouse-Five was successful movie material. In fact, Vonnegut's books mostly I don't feel are movie material.”

Thinking Feels Book Facts Actors Successful Five Materials Movie Slaughterhouses Slaughterhouse Five Slaughter House Five

Author:Jerry Garcia

“Yeah, I think we have to. If we want our shows to be - if we want the quality of the shows to be good, and we want the energy to be high, and if we want to be in good enough physical shape to do them, and not exhaust ourselves on the road, and not get stale, we have to pace.”

Ifs Thinking Want Enough Shows Energy Quality Shapes Yeah Be Good Good Enough Pace Stale

Author:Jerry Garcia

“For me, I think the only danger is being too much in love with guitar playing. The MUSIC is the most important thing, and the guitar is only the instrument.”

Thinking Important Too Much Danger Music Is Instruments Important Things Guitar Guitar Playing

Author:Jerry Garcia

“I think The Grateful Dead kind of represents the spirit of being able to go out and have an adventure in America at large.”

Thinking Kind Able America Spirit Adventure Grateful

Author:Jerry Garcia

“I think that America is in danger of losing its adventurous spirit in the cause of some kind of illusion of safety, or substitute of law and order there.”

Thinking Kind America Law Spirit Order Causes Danger Losing Illusion Safety Substitutes Adventurous Law And Order Adventurous Spirit

Author:Jerry Garcia

“I think part of what has to happen, somewhere, pretty soon, is that a human template has to come up. We have to start with, OK let's throw out all this other stuff, everything we have thought about it before, throw out all our models, and start with a human. What is a human?”

Thinking Humans Happens Stuff Models Come Up

Author:Jerry Garcia

“I think the Muslim religious is a little too tight. It doesn't fit humans. Humans can't possibly fit into it, so there are a lot of really unhappy people, terribly repressed. It is a religion that works against you because the template don't fit. It's not human, you know.”

People Thinking Knows Humans Littles Religious Fit Unhappy Happy People Repressed Unhappy People

Author:Jerry Garcia

“Music is more objective, I think, than a lot of art is, but a surprising amount of it is cultural.”

Thinking Art Amount Music Is Art Is Objectives Surprising

Author:Jerry Garcia

“If you think of music as a universal language, it still has some very powerful dialects.”

Ifs Thinking Stills Language Powerful Universal Very Powerful Dialect Universal Language

Author:Jerry Garcia

“You have to be ready, and also you have to discard notions that are fondly held by a lot of musicians, about sequences and notes and about scales and musical systems as a whole. If you think of music as a language, the space part is where you throw out all the syntax.”

Ifs Thinking Whole Language Space Ready Musician Notes Notion Musical Scales Sequence Syntax

Author:Jerry Garcia

“If you think of music as a language, the space part is where you throw out all the syntax.”

Ifs Thinking Language Space Syntax

Author:Jerry Garcia

“In my own musical existence I don't feel that being a guitar player is like the best thing on earth to be. I would rather be a balanced musician. Playing in a group, I'm tending to think more about the music and less about the guitar. That's just me getting older. I'm not interested in being a virtuoso guitar player or anything like that.”

Thinking Earth Existence Player Musician Musical Not Interested Getting Old Getting Older Guitar Player

Author:Jerry Garcia

“I think that the revolution in music is over, and what's left is a mop-up action. It's a matter of the news getting out to everybody else. I think that the important changes have already happened, changes in consciousness. It's mostly a matter of everything else catching up to that. Everything is traditionally slow - much faster than it ever has been on earth but still far, far too slow.”

Thinking Important Action Earth Consciousness Revolution Music Is

Author:Jerry Garcia

“You listen to a politician making a speech, and it is like hearing nothing. Whereas, music is unmistakably music. The thing about music is that nobody listens to it unless it's real. I don't think that you can fool anybody for too long in music. And you certainly can't fool everybody.”

Thinking Long Real Fool Politician Music Is

Author:Jerry Garcia

“Music goes way back before language does. And music is like the key to a whole spiritual existence which this society doesn't even talk about. We know it's there. The Grateful Dead plays at religious services essentially. We play at the religious services of the new age. Everybody gets high, and that's what it's all about really. Getting high is a lot more real than listening to a politician. You can think that getting high actually did happen - that you danced, and got sweaty, and carried on. It really did happen. I know when it happens. I know it when it happens every time.”

Thinking Real Age Spiritual Language Religious Existence Listening Politician Music Is Grateful New Age Getting High

Author:Jerry Garcia

“Nobody stopped thinking about those psychedelic experiences. Once you've been to some of those places, you think, 'How can I get back there again but make it a little easier on myself?'”

Thinking Littles Easier Drug Get Back Psychedelic Getting High Lsd Psychedelic Experience Funny Drug Psychedelic Drugs

Author:Jerry Garcia

“Truth is something you stumble into when you think you're going someplace else.”

Thinking Truth Is

Author:Jerry Garcia

“... We have quite a large area, and that makes it more fun for us - certainly more satisfying, because it doesn't restrict us to one particular idea or one particular style. The result, I think, is pretty interesting ... we don't expect to make a fortune at it or ever be popular or famous or worshipped or hit The Ed Sullivan Show or the circuses or the big top. As long as we can play, we'll play, regardless of what it's for, who it's for or anything. It's fun for us - that's the important thing.”

Thinking Long Important Ideas Play Shows Bigs Fun Interesting Results Music Style Particular Areas Important Things Fortune Satisfying Circus Ed Sullivan

Author:Jerry Garcia

“What we're thinking about is a peaceful planet. We're not thinking about anything else. We're not thinking about any kind of power. We're not thinking about any kind of struggles. We're not thinking about revolution or war or any of that. That's not what we want. Nobody wants to get hurt. Nobody wants to hurt anybody. We would all like to be able to live an uncluttered life. A simple life, a good life. And think about moving the whole human race ahead a step, or a few steps.”

Thinking Want Life Humans Kind War Whole Able Moving Peace Hurt Simple Race Steps Struggle Planets Revolution Peaceful Human Race Good Life Simple Life

Author:Jerry Garcia

“I Don't Think There's A Good Excuse For Being Unhappy. I'm Not Particularly Unhappy, But I Know What Pain Is. I think That Life Is Characterized By Pain, Partly. Part Of The Way You Can Tell You're Alive Is By How Much Pain You're Experiencing, Or How Little.”

Thinking Knows Way Littles Pain Life Is Alive Excuse Unhappy Being Unhappy

Author:Jerry Garcia

“The real problems are cultural. The problems of the people who take drugs as a cultural trap - I think there's a real problem there, the crack stuff, the hopelessness of the junkie. The urban angst.”

People Thinking Real Problem Stuff Drug Hopeless Cracks Traps Urban Hopelessness Angst Real Problems Junkie

Author:Jerry Garcia

About the Author

Born: August 1, 1942
Died: August 9, 1995
Known for: Musician
Quotes: 166

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Thinking Ifs Knows Needs Stuff Want Kind Reality Music Is People Stills Way Drug Mean Musician Real Able Whole America Language

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Books & Sources

In the Spirit: Conversations with the Spirit of Jerry GarciaRelated source material

Garcia: A Signpost To New SpaceRelated source material

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