[Ads-l] Request verification in Rolling Stone magazine - Quote: Somebody needs to do something - it=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99s_?=just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Sun Mar 24 07:00:16 UTC 2019


Thanks to researcher Donna Halper who shared with me (and others) an
excellent citation dated October 10, 1988 in "The Courier-News" of
Bridgewater, New Jersey containing the phrase "It seems pathetic that
it has to be us".

Thanks to researcher Barry Popik who shared with me (and others) an
excellent citation dated September 28, 1988 in "Variety" containing
the phrase "It's pathetic that it has to be us."

Thanks to researcher Barbara Schmidt who shared with me (and others) a
fantastic video clip of Jerry Garcia using an instance of the phrase
during a U.N. press conference:

YouTube video,
Title: Grateful Dead Press Conference
Uploaded on Oct 28, 2010
Uploaded by: EverythingMustGoFilm
Description: Press conference of Grateful Dead members held at United
Nations in New York on September 13, 1988. (Location and date from
superimposed text on video)
Description from uploader: Clip from Len Dell'Amico's personal collection
Quotation begins: 0 minutes 47 seconds of 2 minutes 22 seconds
(Accessed on youtube.com on March 23, 2019)

[Begin audio track excerpt]
Jerry Garcia:
Somebody has to do something. It seems incredibly, in, in fact, it
seems pathetic that it has to be us, you know.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Fri, Mar 22, 2019 at 11:02 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A quick and helpful response was sent to me by Jesse regarding the
> partial "Newsweek" information. There was a "Newsweek" match in a
> ProQuest periodical database, but the "Newsweek" citation occurred
> after the "Kansas City Times" citation, and it contained less
> information. So determining the "Rolling Stone" information remains
> important.
>
> [ref] 1988 December 12, Newsweek, Overheard, Quote Page 17, Column 1,
> Newsweek Inc., New York. (ProQuest News, Policy & Politics Magazine
> Archive) [/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> "Somebody needs to do something—it's just incredibly pathetic that it
> has to be us."
>
> JERRY GARCIA of the Grateful Dead, on his group's support for efforts
> to save the world's rain forests
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson O'Toole
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 22, 2019 at 10:29 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I just received a request to examine the quotation in the subject line
> > which was spoken by guitarist Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. I
> > found a match in the "Kansas City Times" issue of Oct 31, 1988, but
> > the newspaper points to the "Rolling Stone" issue of November 3, 1988
> > (which was available before the cover date).
> >
> > In the past, subscribers of the "Rolling Stone" were able to access
> > all the issues of the periodical. I do not know if that is true now.
> > Does someone have access to the "Rolling Stone" archive? Would you be
> > willing to look for the quotation? The goal is to obtain a complete
> > and accurate citation together with the passage containing the
> > quotation.
> >
> > Here are details from the "Kansas City Times" citation.
> >
> > [ref] 1988 October 31, Kansas City Times, Grateful Dead to help save
> > the life of the rain forests, Quote Page B5, Column 1, Kansas City,
> > Missouri. (NewsBank Access World News) [/ref]
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > "The Grateful Dead have thrown their support behind a group of
> > organizations fighting to preserve the world's rain forests," the Nov.
> > 3 issue of Rolling Stone says.
> >
> > "The band — which announced its intention to back a coalition made up
> > of Greenpeace, the Massachusetts-based group Cultural Survival, San
> > Francisco's Rainforest Action Network and Creating Our Future at a
> > recent press conference in New York — played a special benefit concert
> > for the organizations at New York's Madison Square Garden.
> > . . .
> > "'We've never agreed on anything,' said Jerry Garcia of the band's
> > decision to back the coalition. 'This isn't a weekend charity — we've
> > put a lot of time into this because it's terribly important. It’s
> > imminently life-threatening. Somebody needs to do something — it’s
> > just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.'"
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Barry Popik helpfully examined this topic and found an unverified
> > Google Books match in Newsweek in 1988 somewhere in issues 19-26 of
> > volume 112.
> > https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/somebody_has_to_do_something/
> >
> > Please contact me off-list and I will summarize the results. Or
> > contact me on-list.
> > Garson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list