Dropping the Banjo

4640 What I was trying to do was basically mathematical, mechanical. It was basically like a dead end, it stopped being interesting. I never really decided, it was just ‘I can’t play this thing anymore’. … LSD made me want to hear longer sounds, be freer, not be restricted, musically, and not be such a victim of self discipline 4704 – banjo is a heavy discipline instrument, and I just didn’t feel like getting that serious, I didn’t want to have that much discipline, I didn’t want to express that much discipline. Plus, the thing of being loud was great.

Note to self the drugs-music connection here, too. For those who say that drug-talk is off-limits and that one should focus on music-talk, I'd note that Garcia himself acknowledged at least a little bit of a connection.

Garcia, Jerry, 1942-1995, “Ben Fong-Torres interviews Jerry Garcia. Interview recorded circa 1975 for the documentary radio program "What was that?" broadcast on KSAN-FM in San Francisco [radio broadcast],” Grateful Dead Archive Online, accessed November 10, 2013, http://www.gdao.org/items/show/379555.