ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 examines the self-conscious retrospectives composed by Garcia with Robert Hunter in the wake of the losses of Brent Mydland and promoter Bill Graham in the early 1990s amid the crisis of the band’s exploding popularity. The intertextual tapestry of “So Many Roads” and its performance at the group’s final concert at Chicago’s Soldier Field open a portal to Garcia and Hunter’s ironic treatments of the group’s musical heritage from New Orleans to Chicago. The self-critical nostalgia of “Days Between” is explicated as commentary on the Grateful Dead’s tumultuous career. The ill-fated final tour in 1995 is discussed along with perspectives on Garcia’s demise as a kind of tragic sacrifice.
