Igor Stravinsky

An inter-continental influence, Igor Stravinsky was born in Russia in 1882, moved to France in 1920, then to the States in 1940, where he died in 1971. His most famous 1913 composition, Rite of Spring, incited a riot at its premier.

In a Reverb Music interview, Bob Weir recounts hearing Stravinsky at age 18:

...[T]here was a classical record on CBS with Pierre Boulez conducting ‘Le sacre du printemps’ –- or ‘The Rite of Spring.’ If you ask me who the father of rock ’n’ roll is, I’ll tell you Igor Stravinsky. He wrote that in 1913, I think, and people were leaving the theater when they first performed it –- the old guys were leaving saying, ‘Stop this noise!’ But it was a ballet, and it was spectacular. It was dance music. And that rearranged my thinking, and a lot of what I wrote when I was working on the tune ‘The Other One’ I gleaned from listening to that record.

 
The Sacrificial Dance from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Not surprisingly, Stravinsky's work has been called Satanic, and is a favorite of Marilyn Manson. Perhaps the Grateful Dead are Freemason Satanists after all!

During the 2009-2010 Furthur New Year's countdown you can hear Stravinsky's Firebird being played over the PA while a woman (Jerry's daughter?) descends from the sky on a Terminator meets the Dead skull a la Bill Graham.