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Phil Lesh - The Ouroborus Spins

What a sad day! I can't write anything better than the joint post from Mickey, Billy and Bobby, but I figure the man deserves a chorus of variable quality. For me Phil was alwyas the nucleus of the Dead's sound, and his undulating and writhing bass lines are absolutely central to the psychedelic sound. I've scooped the mids on every EQ I've met since being a deadhead in pursuit of the Phil Zone, looking to bring forward those syncopated and ideosyncratic bass lines. I've learned to expect a lot more from bass players since being a deadhead and I'm still debating picking up a bass.

I've spent last night and this morning knee deep in Phil's "Darkstarathon" series, and it's been the perfect way to celebrate a life deadicated to searching for the sound. I saw a comment on one of the videos saying that these humble jams, in a simple room, were the antithesis of the Sphere shows with their technoloical marvels and enormous screens. I have no problem with the Sphere shows, and had a grand time at the three I went to, but it does go to show the breadth of possibility in these songs. Phil was commited to exploring and expanding the musical universe we all love right up until the very end.

We've lost a true pioneer. A true artist.

Phil had a deep connection to the symbol of the Ouroborus, the snake that is eating it's own tail and contantly regenerating. It's a key image to understanding the deeper philosophical undercurrents present in the Dead's approach to both musicality and writing. We have a scene, and a music, that seeks to imbibe everything that came before it and turn it into something new. As long as Dark Star keeps playing, Phil will be with us, recreated again and again through the infinite muse that drives every act of creation we embark on. Today might feel forlorn, but the snake turns, and life is always reborn.