From: "Brian S. Zaff" <BZAFF@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil>
Subject: Re: new dead context
Reply-To: BZAFF@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil
Organization: The Internet
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 19:58:11 GMT

                       -=*It Must Have Been The Roses*=-

  In a recent posting Tom Jacobs requested stories about hearing the Dead in
different contexts or exotic locals.  Well i guess this story counts...i
certainly found it memorable, and at the risk of boring all who read is...here
goes anyway. 

  Dateline Mahabalipuram, India, January 28, 1982.  

   While traveling in Southern India, and taking in the sights at
Mahabalipuram (the 1000+ year old Hindu temple that was carved out stone of
the side of hill, that are adorned with exquisite sculptures) on the eastern
coast of southern India, I chanced to spend a magical evening with the Dead. 
   The sun was beginning to set and the heat to subside, so i rose from a late
afternoon nap and walked from my hotel room toward the center of town, looking
for a place to eat.  As i walked i began to hear some faintly familiar
sounding music mingling with the hassle and bustle of the village market. I
had grown accustom to hearing the sound of popular hindu musicals being blared
out by loud speakers across the market.  This music was familiar, although at
first very hard to make out.  As i walk toward it became easier to hear...it
became unmistakable, it was a comforting sound, ...a joyous sound...almost
running now, being lead by this music, as a hunger dog would be lead by the
smell of food to the source of the aroma, i found myself standing (well
ok...jumping up and down) at the door of a restaurant named "The American
Beauty Rose." 
  The restuarant was mainly of bamboo, and grass construction (not uncommon
for its warm coastal location), with a tasteful reproduction of its name sake
painted on the door.  From outside one could hear "...Sweet blossom come on, 
under the willow, we can have high times if you'll abide,...." Inside the
smoky room was an assortment of tables (also bamboo), an open charcoal grill
where the cook was preparing the "catch of the day", and an _outstanding
stereo system_, complete with book shelf containing about 200, tapes of the
*Grateful Dead* with a little Dylan, Marley and Santana thrown in to boot! 
  Apparently, the owner of this restuarant had amassed his collection of tapes
in the usual fashion -- trading, well, actually in this case bartering.  The
price for a meal(s) (it said so on the menu) was a tape, preferably of the
Grateful Dead.  It seems that a tape of the Dead could feed you and a friend,
with other artists brought a slightly lower exchange rate.   As it turned out,
the owner would trade a meal for just about any tape, but if it wasn't the
Dead (with a few exceptions such Dylan, Marley, etc), it got erased used to
record Dead shows that couldn't be parted with (yes he had two AIWA tape
decks). (just so you all don't think folks were profiting from the barter of
a dead tape, a meal typically costs 5 - 10 rupees and the current exchange
rate was 10 rupees to the to the dollar - so a tape for 2 meals seemed fair). 
  The owner of this restaurant, it seems had never seen the dead, but it 
remained his dream.  He'd been turned on to the Dead some 10 years earlier, 
and had been trading tapes with the migrating westerners ever since.  I
was traveling light, and only had about 10 tapes in my possession, so i opted
to exchange the legal tender (10 rupees) for what turned out to be a truly
fantastic meal. I was, however happily able to add to his collect (i actually
had something he didn't..he had Harding Theater; 11/7/71, and Capital Theater;
11/24/78, and almost all the other show i was traveling with...) i lent
him my Englishtown '77 tapes to copy. 
   Needless to say, i spent the night listening to the Dead (on an excellent
stereo - instead of on the walkman that i was carrying), drinking tea,
smoking, and eating the fresh seafood that was pulled from the Indian Ocean,
seasoned with fiery curry and broiled on the open grill.  I had blackened
shark if memory serves. (BTW, it seems that the Hindu's in this part of India
do supplement their diets with a bit of fish). 
   Much later, by moonlight, as i strolled among the ancient ruins that lay
above the sleeping town, i could still hear the mystic sounds of the Dead
drifting up to where i sat contemplating the evening, the stars and the
meaning of life...the sounds of Eyes of the World mingling with the chatter of
the monkeys who had been disturbed by my presence... 
 
   This restuarant remains to this day one of the best i've ever visited,
   ...but then again, it could have been the roses... 

-Brian