Beginning 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, ....

Middle of Essay
.... 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 attracted him the most were the sounds that came from the guitar; especially the bluesy "melifluousness" of players such as; T-bone Walker and Chuck Berry. It was something he sa ....