Guess these things come in threes -- Vince Welnick has died
Sheesh. As if Desmond Dekker wasn't bad enough. Vince Welnick, Grateful Dead keyboardist from the death of Brent Mydland in 1990 to the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, has himself died -- of self-inflicted wounds apparently. Welnick took a lot of raps for being the worst of the Dead's keyboardists, and his critics were right. Welnick didn't have the talent of Keith, the stage presence of Pigpen or the all-around package of Brent. (And Constantin doesn't count.) But that doesn't mean Welnick was in any way a poor replacement. He was a fine musician in his own right, and, for better or for worse, defined the Grateful Dead throughout the only years in which I knew of them and enjoyed their music. Fare thee well, Vince.
Vince Welnick, 1951-2006. G'bye, Brother Vince.
Comments
If I were Bruce Hornsby I'd be scared at this point...he is the only surviving person who can claim he played keyboards for the Grateful Dead. It's the worst job in rock 'n' roll...
Posted by: scooter | June 6, 2006 12:52 PM
Scooter --
The aforementioned Tom Constantine is also, I believe, still alive. But as I stated in the blog entry, I hate to call him a Dead keyboardist -- he was only in the band from late 1968 to early 1970, with Pigpen also playing keys during that time. Still, I suppose this makes him as much of a Dead keyboardist as Bruce Hornsby.
Posted by: Dan the Doomed | June 6, 2006 1:11 PM