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8.23.2011

Barney and the Dead

Barney the Purple Dinosaur & The Grateful Dead


Music History They Forgot to Mention

Barney the purple dinosaur taught my generation to share. He taught us  to be nice to other people, and in 1993 he showed us all that he can play a righteous bass guitar. Yes, on April Fool’s day childhood icon Barney joined Jerry, Bob and the rest of the Grateful Dead on stage at the Nassau Coliseum.
Whoa man... It's Barney...
The gentleman in the costume was hired from an entertainment franchise to come entertain the children of the band and crew that were in tow for the show.  Because Barney was a trademarked figure, he was instructed to under no circumstances appear on stage. However, when Lesh asked the gentleman to go onstage wielding a bass guitar as an April Fool spoof, he could not say no.  While Barney went on to play a song and adjust the amp stacks instead of Phil, Phil sat just offstage and played bass. To everyone, it appeared that Barney was playing the bass to “Iko Iko”. To anyone, Barney playing bass is hilarious and probably very, very epic. But these were no ordinary fans. The fans witnessing this greatness were Dead Heads: the largest fan base of any single rock band, known to travel coast to coast over decades following their favorite band in the land. As one who has witnessed deadheads in full swing, there is a lot of marijuana involved, so I wonder how many seriously thought Barney was jamming out or just had their minds blown wide open…just a thought. Another thought, the video shows the children watching as their hero jams out. Anyone wanna bet the TV show never again lived up to their expectations?

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