dsl@lzwi.UUCP (D.S.LERNER) (09/04/85)
The Dead were on television last night (9/3/85) on CBS's West 57th Street magzine program. They showed clips from the recent Ventura shows. Songs shown were "Truckin, Might as Well, and Touch of Gray". They showed a clip from a recent press conference and interviwed Dan Healy. They even showed the old clip of the Dead conference in 68 after the bust in New Orleans. California deadheads were interviewed and showed dancing to the Dead. It was a good segment however: They kept referring to the use of "drugs" (gasp), especially LSD. All thru the piece they kept harping on the use of drugs and even bothered asking Jerry about "drugs" when they knew he was recently busted himself and could not promote the use of drugs. He avoided the question by saying "what?" and "psycha what?". Then, they asked some burned out hippie about it and he said the most revealing statement of the film "The Grateful Dead and LSD go together". Surely this only propagates the myth about being a deadhead and being a "acidhead". Some of us have dropped the higher moments in life due to family and career situations. Not everyone trips anymore at every show. Then they interviewed a guy from the Haight Ashbury Medical Clinic who stated "Deadheads know how to take their drugs". This may be true for some but not for all deadheads. Some of my straight friends kept coming up to me today to see if I was hallucinating from the effects from my last show. Some of us go to shows to listen to the music and get together with friends, not just to have a party. Even Jerry is getting tired of all the "drug" questions. Why couldn't they show do a fucken piece on the music and the atmosphere? Don't they know that parents could have been watching the show too and frightened them into thinking their kids were on LSD? Why push the drug issue into the faces of every cop and non-deadhead in the world? This is the third T.V. piece on the Dead in the last three months and each one pushed the "drug" thing way into the front. If they wanted to do a drug piece why don't they look into the acting and television fields where people get paid with Coke and the famous Hollywood coke parties? Bet there are more druggies on West 57th street than there was in Ventura. Dave Lerner "psycha what?"