Internet activist, Grateful Dead lyricist Barlow dies
Friends remembered John Perry Barlow Thursday as an independent voice who foresaw the internet’s far-reaching implications, and who turned life’s difficulties into adventures in songs for the Grateful Dead.
Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and lyricist for the iconic Bay Area rock band, “passed away quietly inhis sleep” Wednesday, EFF confirmed. Mitch Kapor, another EFF founder, said Thursday that the 70-year- old San Francisco resident had been ill for some time.
Since EFF’s founding in 1990, the San Francisco- based non- profit has backed legislation and lawsuits related to online freedom and security, and advised tech companies and governments regarding policies that affect us all in the internet age.
“It is no exaggeration to say that major parts of the Internet we all know and love today exist and thrive because of Barlow’s vi-
sion and leadership,” Cindy Cohn, EFF executive director, said in a blog post Wednesday.
Barlow wrote many essays. His famous piece “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” written in February 1996 — shortly after the passage of the Telecommunications Act, which overhauled telecommunications law and which he decried — has taken on a new meaning as the internet has spread throughout the world.
“We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth,” Barlow wrote. “We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.”
Today, the tech industry and the world are grappling with a digital divide, a threat to net neutrality, and controversy over free speech, abuse and harassment online amid the rise of social media. Ardent freespeech advocate Barlow did draw a line at hate speech. Amid a divisive political climate in August, he tweeted: “Neo-Nazis and white su- premacists aren’t even human. They don’t deserve the right to express an opinion.”
Also in Barlow’s declaration, he foreshadowed that governments would have a hard time containing the internet’s power: “In China, Germany, France, Russia, Singapore, Italy and the United States, you are trying to ward off the virus of liberty by erecting guard posts at the frontiers of Cyberspace. These may keep out the contagion for a small time, but they will not work in a world that will soon be blanketed in bit-bearing media.”
Kapor, founder of software company Lotus, said Thursday in a phone interview that he met Barlow after reading his online post about an unpleasant encounter he had with FBI investigators over what they thought was his connection with some hackers. Kapor said he’d had a similar experience, so he sympathized. They met in person in Wyoming and talked about the need to advocate for digital rights. Soon afterward, early Sun Microsystems employee John Gilmore got on board by writing “a significant check” and became an EFF co-founder.
Through the years, Barlow “never lost his incurable optimism,” Kapor said. With all the misuse of the internet now, Kapor said, “I think it’s important that there’s someone who could remind us that it could be different.”
In a 1994 Mercury News interview, Barlow said, “I’m always at a disadvantage when somebody who’s very pessimistic and cynical wants to argue the future with me.”
Rock fans, however, will likely best remember Barlow for his work with the Grateful Dead, primarily as a co- songwriter with Bob Weir. Although he often lived in the shadow of the Dead’s more famous lyricist — Robert Hunter, who worked primarily with Jerry Garcia — Barlow was an amazing wordsmith, who helped pen a number of Grateful Dead staples, including “The Music Never Stopped,” “Cassidy” and “Estimated Prophet.”
“This life is fleeting, as we all know — the Muse we serve is not,” Weir said on Twitter about Barlow’s passing. “John had a way of taking life’s most difficult things and framing them as challenges, therefore adventures. He was to be admired for that, even emulated. He’ll live on in the songs we wrote.”
Barlow, who was born Oct. 3, 1947, in Wyoming, met Weir while in high school in Colorado. The two began collaborating in the early ’ 70s, with Barlow reportedly planning on moving out to joinWeir. Barlow ended up staying in Wyoming to work on his family ranch after his father suffered a stroke.
Still, Barlow became heavily involved on Weir’s first solo album, 1972’s “Ace,” which contained many of their best collaborations, like “Cassidy,” “Looks Like Rain” and others that went on to become Grateful Dead concert classics.
“John Barlow wrote a number of wonderful songs with BobWeir for the Dead, from ‘ Weather Report Suite’ to ‘ The Music Never Stopped’ to ‘ Feel Like a Stranger’ and lotsmore, but he meant more than that,” said DennisMcNally, Grateful Dead historian and author of the band’s official biography “A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead.”
Although primarily associated with Weir, Bar low did some memorable work with Grateful Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland, who died in 1990. The two collaborated on several songs on the band’s 13th and final studio album, 1989’s “Built to Last.”
His tech-world collaborator spoke fondly of the larger-than-life Barlow.
“We had epic escapades,” Kapor said, adding that he and Barlow chipped “pieces out of the Berlin Wall right after the fall of East Germany … He was an enormous amount of fun to be around. With Barlow, there was never a dull moment.”
Barlow is survived by his daughters Leah, Anna and Amelia Barlow, granddaughter Willah Brave Barlow Dunwoody, and his former wife, Elaine Parker.