BOB WEIR - Tribute R.I.P.
Grateful Dead guitarist and founding member Bob Weir has died at 78.
Bob Weir has always felt like one of those rare artists who didn’t need to stand in the center to define the whole room. He was the anchor and the wild card at the same time. What I always admired about him was that he never chased the spotlight, he just kept showing up with heart, discipline, curiosity, and that unmistakable sense of musical adventure. Now that he’s gone, that quiet strength feels even more profound.
He was the guy who reinvented what rhythm guitar could be, not by trying to outplay anyone, but by listening harder than everyone. Those strange chords, those sideways voicings, the way he threaded himself through a song rather than sitting on top of it, nobody else did that. And the truth is, most bands don’t work without someone like Bob. Someone who holds the whole thing together while still pushing it somewhere new. His passing makes it clear just how irreplaceable that role really was.
But beyond the music, what stays with me is his longevity of spirit. Decades of touring, reinvention, loss, rebirth, he carried all of it with integrity. He kept experimenting. Kept learning. Kept giving people a place to gather and feel something real. That kind of commitment isn’t common. It’s earned, lived, and carried across a lifetime, and now it stands as part of the legacy he leaves behind.
So when I think about Bob Weir today, I think about gratitude. Gratitude for the sound he shaped, the roads he walked, the risks he took, and the way he kept the flame alive when it would’ve been easier to step back. He showed that you can be both steady and bold, both humble and iconic.
To me, Bob Weir represents endurance, generosity, and the quiet power of someone who never stopped growing. His music, his presence, and his spirit have been part of the soundtrack of my life and losing him makes that truth land even deeper. And I’m grateful he’s been part of the soundtrack of my life. (B)
Bob Weir - Box of Bob (8x CDs)
Bob Weir - Robert Hall Weir, born October 16, 1947, died January 10, 2026, was an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur, which he co-led with former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. In 2015, Weir, along with former Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined with Grammy-winning singer/guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti to form the band Dead & Company. The band remains active.
During his career with the Grateful Dead, Weir played mostly rhythm guitar and sang many of the band's rock-n-roll and country & western songs. In 1994, he was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead.
Weir was born in San Francisco, California, to John (Jack) Parber and a fellow college student, who later gave him up for adoption; he was raised by his adoptive parents, Frederic Utter and Eleanor Cramer Weir, in the suburb of Atherton. He began playing guitar at age thirteen after less successful experimentation with the piano and the trumpet. He had trouble in school because of undiagnosed dyslexia, and he was expelled from nearly every school he attended, including Menlo School in Atherton and Fountain Valley School in Colorado, where he met future Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow. On New Year's Eve 1963, 16-year-old Weir and an underage friend were wandering the back alleys of Palo Alto, looking for a club that would admit them, when they heard banjo music. They followed the music to its source, Dana Morgan's Music Store. Here, a young Jerry Garcia, oblivious to the date, was waiting for his students to arrive. Weir and Garcia spent the night playing music together and then decided to form a band. The Beatles significantly influenced their musical direction. "The Beatles were why we turned from a jug band into a rock 'n' roll band," said Bob Weir. "What we saw them doing was impossibly attractive. I couldn't think of anything else more worth doing." Originally called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, the band was later renamed The Warlocks and eventually the Grateful Dead.
Included in The BOX of BOB are the following albums.
Bob Weir
Ace [1972]
Weir Here, The Best of Bob Weir [2004]
Blue Mountain [2016]
Kingfish
Kingfish [1976]
Kingfish in Concert, King Biscuit Flower Hour [1996]
Bobby and the Midnites
Bobby and the Midnites [1981]
Where the Beat Meets the Street [1984]
RatDog
Evening Moods [2000]
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Track lists
Ace [1972]
01 Bob Weir Greatest Story Ever Told 3:42
02 Bob Weir Black-Throated Wind 5:42
03 Bob Weir Walk In The Sunshine 3:04
04 Bob Weir Playing In The Band 7:37
05 Bob Weir Looks Like Rain 6:10
06 Bob Weir Mexicali Blues 3:27
07 Bob Weir One More Saturday Night 4:30
08 Bob Weir Cassidy 3:42
Weir Here, The Best of Bob Weir [2004] CD1
01 Bob Weir Cassidy 3:42
02 Bob Weir Mexicali Blues 3:27
03 Bob Weir Looks Like Rain 6:11
04 Bob Weir Playing in the Band 7:38
05 Bob Weir One More Saturday Night 4:31
06 Bob Weir Lazy Lightnin' 3:02
07 Bob Weir Supplication 2:56
08 Bob Weir Feel Like a Stranger 5:08
09 Bob Weir Easy to Slip 3:06
10 Bob Weir Wrong Way Feelin' 5:12
11 Bob Weir Shade of Grey 4:30
12 Bob Weir I Want to (Fly Away) 4:00
13 Bob Weir Easy Answers 6:01
14 Bob Weir Two Djinn 9:05
15 Bob Weir Ashes and Glass 5:56
16 Bob Weir Wabash Cannonball 3:41
Weir Here, The Best of Bob Weir [2004] CD2
1 Grateful Dead Truckin' 9:22
2 Grateful Dead Estimated Prophet 11:07
3 Grateful Dead Hell in a Bucket 6:24
4 Grateful Dead Me & Bobby McGee 6:04
5 Grateful Dead New Minglewood Blues 6:13
6 Grateful Dead Man Smart, Woman Smarter 4:27
7 Grateful Dead Jack Straw 5:05
8 Grateful Dead Sugar Magnolia 6:00
9 Grateful Dead Throwing Stones 7:53
10 Grateful Dead The Music Never Stopped 8:58
11 Ratdog Masters of War 5:34
Kingfish [1976]
01 Kingfish Lazy Lightinin' 3:02
02 Kingfish Supplication 2:57
03 Kingfish Wild Northland 2:25
04 Kingfish Asia Minor 3:32
05 Kingfish Home To Dixie 3:54
06 Kingfish Jump For Joy 3:49
07 Kingfish Good-Bye Yer Honor 2:56
08 Kingfish Big Iron 4:31
09 Kingfish This Time 4:24
10 Kingfish Hypnotize 4:35
11 Kingfish Bye And Bye 4:03
Kingfish in Concert, King Biscuit Flower Hour [1996] CD1
01 Kingfish Mystery Train, Mule Skinner 8:25
02 Kingfish Juke 3:08
03 Kingfish Jump Back 3:15
04 Kingfish Battle Hymn of the Republic 5:00
05 Kingfish Goodbye Yer Honor 2:54
06 Kingfish Big Iron 4:15
07 Kingfish I Hear You Knockin' 4:26
08 Kingfish All I Need is Time 4:55
09 Kingfish Around and Around 5:50
Kingfish in Concert, King Biscuit Flower Hour [1996] CD2
01 Kingfish C C Rider 5:12
02 Kingfish Home to Dixie 4:08
03 Kingfish Hidden Charm 2:45
04 Kingfish Bye and Bye 3:47
05 Kingfish Promised Land 3:26
06 Kingfish Lazy Lightning, Supplication 6:57
07 Kingfish Jump for Joy 3:21
08 Kingfish Asia Minor 4:10
09 Kingfish New Minglewood Blues 3:28
10 Kingfish One More Saturday Night 5:03
Bobby and the Midnites [1981]
01 Bobby And The Midnites Haze 5:10
02 Bobby And The Midnites Too Many Losers 3:48
03 Bobby And The Midnites Far Away 3:34
04 Bobby And The Midnites Book Of Rules 3:33
05 Bobby And The Midnites Me, Without You 3:13
06 Bobby And The Midnites Josephine 6:06
07 Bobby And The Midnites (I Want To) Fly Away 3:55
08 Bobby And The Midnites Carry Me 4:29
09 Bobby And The Midnites Festival 5:01
Where the Beat Meets the Street [1984]
01 Bobby & the Midnites (I Want to Live In) America 3:23
02 Bobby & the Midnites Where the Beat Meets the Street 3:35
03 Bobby & the Midnites She's Gonna Win Your Heart 3:58
04 Bobby & the Midnites Ain't That Peculiar 3:50
05 Bobby & the Midnites Lifeguard 3:54
06 Bobby & the Midnites Rock in the '80s 3:12
07 Bobby & the Midnites Lifeline 4:25
08 Bobby & the Midnites Falling 4:23
09 Bobby & the Midnites Thunder & Lightning 3:38
10 Bobby & the Midnites Gloria Monday 4:08
Evening Moods [2000]
01 Ratdog Bury Me Standing 9:03
02 Ratdog Lucky Enough 5:10
03 Ratdog Odessa 6:14
04 Ratdog Ashes and Glass 5:55
05 Ratdog Welcome to the World 6:52
06 Ratdog Two Djinn 9:03
07 Ratdog Corrina 8:52
08 Ratdog October Queen 7:45
09 Ratdog The Deep End 5:17
10 Ratdog Even So 9:41
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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.
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It's a sadder day in our sad times!
ReplyDeleteRest in peace Bob, rest in our hearts!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWJ3EHIPZlk&list=RDpWJ3EHIPZlk&start_radio=1
What a shock to hear such sad news
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this great collection which will help to keep his memory alive with joy
Nice tribute Butterboy I'd only just heard the sad news myself - we keep losing them but there's no-one to replace them.
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ReplyDeleteBB, I was a Deadhead for many years -- there was a period when I scheduled all my vacations around Deadtour -- and there was no joy like a Grateful Dead concert when the band & the audience all found the groove together -- I loved Garcia, of course - who didn't? -- but Weir, his songs, his guitar playing, was very special to me. It's the end of yet another 20th century icon, lost in this cruel, cruel time. RIP.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this set BB - Dr Robert is so right that no-one can replace these greats.
ReplyDeletea great compilation for a sad occasion - thank you
ReplyDeleteAs a continental European, I never 'got' the Dead. Understood their philosophy et al, but American society might as well be Mars for a European (or the other way around, as an American student who did Europe with her friends once told me). Tell your parents in Holland you'll get out to discover your country, and they'll give you a ham and cheese sandwich for underway and tell you to be back before dinner. As for the music, I liked their first album, and the two country albums they made early seventies. Live I thought (and still do a bit) they were a scam (especially that 'Drum' and 'Space' thing..). It was after seeing Weir's documentary you posted and where he explained how he not only supported Garcia live, but also kept him on his toes with little teasings. Since then I do pay attention at their interplay, and it's great, yes. But the rest of the Dead... nah. What I appreciate about Weir as that he got his act together at a moment in the Dead's history when it mattered - and he kept his act together, while the rest of 'em at the end of the 80s had become strung out junkies or alcoholics. What really made me turn my back on them was the ghastly attitude by some towards Garcia (Garcia: "another tour? for what? to make more money?") and the way some denied their shared responsibility after his demise. Weir didn't. He's probably the one of the Dead I appreciate most, and thanks to you BB and your posting of the excellent doc about Weir. I'll be looking again at it soon. And no offense meant to anybody, least of all Dead fans. If you like your music, and it makes you feel good, that's what counts at the end of the day. Weir probably led a wonderful and fulfilling life, had a great family too, and God willing he's together with Jerry again. May he rest in peace.
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