1947 John Perry Barlow, American lyricist, essayist and activist (Grateful Dead), born near Cora, Wyoming (d. 201
From wiki wiki:
At age 15, Barlow became a student at the
Fountain Valley School in
Colorado Springs, Colorado. While there, he met
Bob Weir, who would later join the
jam band the
Grateful Dead. Weir and Barlow maintained their close friendship through the years.
As a frequent visitor during college to
Timothy Leary's facility in
Millbrook, New York, Barlow was introduced to
LSD; he later claimed to have consumed the substance on over one thousand occasions throughout his life.
[10] These transformative experiences led Barlow to distance himself from Mormonism. He went on to facilitate the first meeting between the Grateful Dead and the Leary organization (who recognized each other as kindred souls in spite of their respective philosophical approaches) in June 1967.
[14]
While on his way to
California to reunite with the Grateful Dead in 1971, he stopped at his family's ranch, though had not intended to stay. His father had suffered a debilitating stroke in 1966 before dying in 1972, resulting in a $700,000 business debt. Barlow ended up changing his plans, and began practicing
animal husbandry under the auspices of the Bar Cross Land and Livestock Company in
Cora, Wyoming, for almost two decades. To support the ranch, he continued to write and sell
spec scripts.
[10] In the meantime, Barlow was still able to play an active role in the Grateful Dead while recruiting many unconventional part-time ranch hands from the mainstream as well as the
counterculture.
[15] Prior to his death in 2017,
John Byrne Cooke intended to produce a documentary film (provisionally titled
The Bar Cross Ranch) that documented this era.
[16]
Barlow orating at the
European Graduate School of
Leuk, Switzerland in 2006
Barlow became interested in collaborating with Weir at a Grateful Dead show at the
Capitol Theatre in
Port Chester, New York, in February 1971. Until then, Weir had mostly worked with resident Dead lyricist
Robert Hunter. Hunter preferred that those who sang his songs stick to his "canonical" lyrics rather than improvising additions or rearranging words. A feud erupted backstage over a couplet in "
Sugar Magnolia" from the band's most recent release (most likely "She can dance a Cajun rhythm/Jump like a Willys in four-wheel drive"), culminating in a disgruntled Hunter summoning Barlow and telling him "take [Weir]—he's yours".
[17]
In late 1971, with a deal for
a solo album in hand and only two songs completed, Weir and Barlow began to write together for the first time. They co-wrote such songs such as "
Cassidy", "
Mexicali Blues" and "
Black-Throated Wind", all three of which would remain in the repertoires of the Grateful Dead and of Weir's varied solo projects.
[18] Barlow subsequently collaborated with Grateful Dead keyboardist
Brent Mydland, a partnership that culminated in four songs on 1989's
Built to Last. He also wrote one song ("The Devil I Know") with
Vince Welnick.
[19]
