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Robert Hunter, the poet and writer who provided the Grateful Dead with many of their vivid and lasting words, passed away Monday night. He was 78 years old. No cause of death has been provided.
"It is with great sadness that we confirm that our beloved Robert died last night," said the Hunter family in a statement. "He died peacefully at home in his bed, surrounded by love. His wife Maureen was at his side and was holding his hand. For his fans who have loved and supported him for all these years, rest assured knowing that his words are all around us and that, in this way, his have never really disappeared. In this time of sorrow, celebrate it as you all know, being together and listening to music. That there are songs to fill the air. "
Considered to be one of the most ambitious and daring rock lyricists, Hunter was the literary counterpoint to the group's musical experimentation. His lyrics – heard in many of Dead's early classics, such as "Dark Star" and "China Cat Sunflower" and going through "Uncle John's Band", "Box of Rain", "Scarlet Begonias" and " Touch of Gray "- were a part of the band like Jerry Garcia's vocals and guitar.
Born in 1941 in California, Robert Burns, Hunter met Garcia in 1961. Garcia asked him to play in a group of pitchers, but Hunter accepted him. At Stanford, Hunter took part in early LSD experiments and was introduced to Scientology before leaving for the Southwest, where he fought against drug problems. There, he sent several words to the Dead in San Francisco before settling in the Bay Area where he would meet Garcia. When the band was working on an instrument at a show north of San Francisco, Hunter listened and began writing lyrics to accompany the music. The result, "Dark Star", was both a benchmark for the group and the official debut of Hunter's new role as the band's in-house lyricist.
The role has completely recast the goals of Hunter's life. "What we were doing was almost sacred. The spirit of the time. … There was a moment when I felt that it was so that the world would evolve spiritually, and we were an important part of it. I did not think we were a pop band. I wanted to write a completely different music. He told RS that his favorite phrase was "Ripple: Know that there is a fountain that was not made by the hands of man.
Hunter was also a proudly irascible member of the Dead scene, sometimes refusing to use Dead's songs in similar commercials or license agreements. He rarely gave interviews. "There are things I need to do, like getting a good photo, and I'm not taking a good photo," he said. Rolling stone in 2013. "I do not know if it's because I'm ugly or if the camera does not like me.
Like all members of the community of the Dead, Hunter had been upset by Garcia's death, although he told RS that it was not completely unexpected: "I have always seen it coming, but seeing it coming is not the same as seeing it. I did not get the impression that he intended to live very long. There are things about Jerry that I just do not understand. Or maybe I can not know.
Hunter's work did not end with Garcia's death. In the years that followed, he wrote songs with Elvis Costello, Bruce Hornsby, country singer Jim Lauderdale and drummer Dead Mickey Hart. His best-known collaborator after Garcia, however, was Bob Dylan. Starting with "Silvio", both co-wrote many songs about Dylan's Together Through Life in 2009.
"He knows how to use the words, and me too," said Dylan. Rolling stone. "We are both writing a different type of song than the one used today for writing songs." After all, he is what he is.
Hunter, who is survived by his wife Maureen (with whom he married in 1982), has recorded several albums in his own album and has occasionally toured. In 2013, he made his last solo tour as a result of medical bills. the previous year, he had had an abscess in his spine and, by his own admission, he had taken the road to pay his medical bills.
"I'm always happy that people are always playing, and the closer they are to the origin, the better," he told RS in 2013. "There will be a moment there is no creator. left."
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