Phil Lesh, bassist for the Grateful Dead has died at 84

Best bassist in the world in my opinion. I had anout 1000 bootleg tapes before the Dead org started rele!sing CDs from their recording vault. I'm up to about 195 CDs and still counting.

He'd have to be in the short list of best bassists ever -- I'd put McCartney up there, and maybe Jack Casady. In the Dead's glory years (for me, those would be '68-'77), he's essential to all their best moments, and we're lucky that they had the kind of recording crew they did. Hundreds of gigs exist in A+ quality, which means Phil's work can be heard clearly and enjoyed over and over. Everybody knows his rumbling intro to The Other One, and the Phil bombs he would drop in some of their sickest jams. There's another facet to his playing that I listen for; it happens every so often when one of Garcia's long jams drops down to a slow, subdued finish, and suddenly you can hear Phil playing notes that sound like the thump of a canoe bobbing against dock pilings -- or perhaps a heartbeat.