RIP John Perry Barlow

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Fourplay

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John Perry Barlow, one of the contributing lyricists of the Grateful Dead has passed away.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/john-perry-barlow-internet-pioneer-1947-2018

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life...riter-john-perry-barlow-dies-at-70/110215684/

Barlow wrote lyrics for most of his Dead songs along with musical collaborator Bob Weir. Here is the text of an email I sent to three friends:

My Barlow Favorites:

Hell in a Bucket
Throwing Stones
Feel Like A Stranger
Lost Sailor
Saint of Circumstance
I Need a Miracle
Estimated Prophet
Lazy Lightnin'
The Music Never Stopped
Let It Grow (Weather Report II)
Black-Throated Wind
Looks Like Rain
Cassidy

I think it unnecessary to compare Barlow and (Robert) Hunter. Each added their own flavor, and I believe the overall dish was better for the variety of spice. All of those songs made me happy when they came around, and in fact all made me happier than any of the Dylan covers they did. Of course I am not saying he was a better lyricist than Dylan. I just found the Dead to be an unexciting interpreter of Dylan songs. Guess who was my favorite such interpreter? (My friends know the answer to be Hendrix).

In any case, I am not sad to see Barlow go because my understanding is he had a good run. I am just richer for his time here on earth. So he has my gratitude.
 
It sort of weirds me out to see his death mentioned here since I associate him much more with the copyleft and free internet stuff. He really did straddle both worlds.

Kind of fascinating how the Grateful Dead tape trading scene kind of created the modern internet - Barlow was inspired by it in how he saw the internet and it led directly to his advocacy on behalf of looser copyright and an open internet, and the Internet Archive started as a place to trade Grateful Dead tapes online.
 
Interesting character as I have read the obituaries always loved the dead and his contribution never realised how much he had elsewhere RIP
 
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