Part 1 of Essay
Jerome John Garcia was born in 1942, in San Francisco's Mission District. His father, a spanish immigrant named Jose "Joe" Garcia, had been a jazz clarinetist and Dixieland bandleader in the thirties, and he named his new son after his favorite Broadway composer, Jerome Kern. In the spring of 1948, while on a fishing tri ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... near the city's waterfront. He spent much of his time there listening to the drunks', fanciful stories; or sitting alone reading Disney and horror comics and pouring through science-fiction novels. When Garcia was fifteen, his older brother Tiff - who years earlier had accidentally chopped off Jerry's right-hand middle finger while the two were chopping wood - introduced him to early rock & roll and rhythm & blues music. Garcia was quickly drawn to the music's funky rhythms and wild textures, but what attr ....