John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow (born
October 3,
1947) is an American
poet,
essayist, retired
Wyoming cattle rancher, and former lyricist for the
Grateful Dead.
Born in
Jackson Hole,
Wyoming, Barlow attended elementary school in a one room schoolhouse. He was a student at the
Fountain Valley School in Colorado. There Barlow met
Bob Weir, who would later join the music group the
Grateful Dead. In 1969, Barlow graduated with high honors in comparative religion from
Wesleyan University in
Middletown,
Connecticut and spent two years traveling. In 1971, he began practicing animal husbandry in
Cora, Wyoming, at his family's Bar Cross Land and Livestock Company. He sold that business in 1988.
While attending a Grateful Dead show at the Capitol Theater in Portchester, New York in February of 1971, the seeds of the Barlow-Weir collaboration were sown. Until this point, Weir had mostly worked with resident Dead lyricist
Robert Hunter. Hunter preferred that those who sang his songs stuck to his "canonical" lyrics rather than improvising additions or rearranging words. A feud erupted backstage over a couplet in "Sugar Magnolia" from the band's most recent release (most likely "She can dance a Cajun rhythm/Jump like a Willys in four wheel drive"), culminating in a disgruntled Hunter summoning Barlow and informing Weir to "take him--he's yours". In the fall of 1971, with a deal for a solo album in hand and only two songs completed, Weir and Barlow began to write together for the first time.
Fueled by massive amounts of
Wild Turkey and a traditional Native American creativity spell recommended by band friend
Rolling Thunder, the twosome hammered out such endearing songs as "Cassidy", "Mexicali Blues", and "Black Throated Wind", all three of which would remain in the repertoires of the Grateful Dead and Weir's varied solo projects for years to come. Other songs to emerge from the Weir-Barlow collaboration include "Let It Grow", "The Music Never Stopped", "Estimated Prophet", "I Need A Miracle", "Lost Sailor > Saint of Circumstance", and "Throwing Stones". Barlow also began to work with keyboardist
Brent Mydland in a collaboration that threatned to upstage his work with Weir and
Vince Welnick.
He is a former chairman of the
Sublette County Republican Party and served as campaign manager for
Dick Cheney during his 1978 Congressional campaign. By the early 2000s, Barlow was unable to reconcile his ardent
libertarianism with the prevailing
neoconservative movement and and "didn't feel tempted to vote for Bush"; after an arrest for posession of a small quantity of
marijuana while traveling, he joined the
Democratic Party and publicly commited himself to outright political activism since his spell with the Republican Party.
In 1986, Barlow joined The
WELL online community, then known for a strong
deadhead presence. He served on the company's board for directors for several years. In 1990, Barlow founded the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) along with fellow digital rights activists
John Gilmore and
Mitch Kapor.
He married Elaine Parker Barlow in 1975; they were separated in 1992. They had three daughters: Amelia, Anna Winter, and Leah.
Barlow was a good friend of
John F. Kennedy Jr.[[Image:WikipediaBarlow20060529.png|right|thumb|John Perry Barlow. Tenth Anniversary of A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace lecture. {{European Graduate School}}. Switzerland]]
Barlow currently serves as vice-chairman of the EFF's board of directors.
He is a Fellow with the
Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the
Harvard Law School, and a member of the
International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. He spends much of his time on the road, lecturing and consulting.
From 1971 until 1995, Barlow wrote lyrics for the Grateful Dead, mostly through his relationship with
Bob Weir. Amongst others, Barlow's songs include
Cassidy (about
Neal Cassady),
Estimated Prophet,
Hell in a Bucket,
Mexicali Blues,
The Music Never Stopped, and
Throwing Stones.
His writings include
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace and
The Economy of Ideas - widely circulated articles providing a vision for human creativity online.
Barlow has written extensively for
Wired Magazine, as well
The New York Times,
Nerve and
Communications of the ACM.
*
Personal blog*
Barlow's EFF homepage*
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace*
The Economy of Ideas*
List of Barlow's lyrical work for the Grateful Dead*
An insightful interview given to Reason magazine*
A 'This American Life' story (at minute 37) about how Barlow met his fiancé at a convention center, and what happened to them afterward*
John Perry Barlow: Wyoming's Estimated Prophet
