Top 10 Grateful Dead Songs EVER!

as chosen by the editors of DHL

Death Don’t Have No Mercy: a belated RIP for a friend, Alan James Margeson, Jr.

by deadheads | (~);} | Mar 14, 2023 | Grateful Dead

Alan James Margeson, Jr.
January 29, 1955 – March 03, 2008

This sweet face was my friend Al. He went by So Cal Al, Alan to his family. He was part and parcel to the Grateful Dead scene in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 90s and later he worked with the David Nelson Band and was part of the DNB community.

When I first met Al, I would describe him as a lovable wreck. I was selling my t-shirts in the parking lot of a big show and a way-too-inebriated man purchased my shirt and asked me to sign it as he was a collector of t-shirts and various artwork related to the music. As fate would have it, he ended up being friends with several of my friends and in time became a good and trusted friend of mine.

When I met him, he had worked for the priests at Loyola Marymount college as a cook /chef and was dealing with pain from a back injury. As time went on, he was sober and together for a good while, and he helped others in recovery.

One show where my friend and I saved a couple extra seats for whomever we knew that came by… There was Al! Once in Oregon he had somehow gotten hold of a megaphone and was directing the campers and vendors where to park and set up just for the fun of it. At one show when we missed our train from Oakland to the city, Al drove us all the way to where we needed to be. I shared some front rows center seats with him and he snuck me to his great seats too.

He was often the designated driver to shows. He would get back stage at shows but still come out at the breaks to see me. He copied live show tapes for me from his taper friends, helped me move, watched my house and pets when I traveled. He always had a flashlight handy for all those dark concert moments when you needed to gather your stuff up quickly or buy a beautiful beaded something in the parking lot. I have so many fun and funny memories of times spent with him. He looked to move up north at one point to my area of California, and I wish he had, maybe things would have been different for him.

I know he dealt with some pain and loss in his life… his back injury, and his mother and brother had passed away in the same week in 1998 and about 2003 he told me he was hit by a car while walking in an intersection. The last I ever saw him he was working the merchandise for David Nelson Band. Over the years I would run into people that hadn’t seen him but still had pieces of his artwork or other items of his.

I had been looking for him for years and years; I recently discovered that he had passed in 2008, after some troubles and a brief illness.

I spoke to his aunt who said he was a nice, happy kid growing up. He graduated from college. His father served in Vietnam and Korea in the US Navy as Lieutenant Commander and both parents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

I know that addiction played a role in his family and got the best of his immediate family members, father, mother and brother. While it may have been the defining lesson of his life, it did not define him.

He was a sweet, good guy who was liked and loved and deserves to be remembered. He was a real character. He made my experiences richer and memories sweeter. He knew how to be a friend. I am so sorry for any despair or lack he fell into, sorry for any way I or others may have let him down.

I will always remember you, my dear friend Al. I hope you have peace and security you didn’t have this lifetime. I hope you found love, support and some comfort in the music and community in the time you were here. Most of all, I hope you are front row center rocking out to Jerry!
– Shelly Archuleta,

Happycat’s note: Al Margeson was a friend of mine, and perhaps yours as well, though we fell out of touch many years ago. Shelly Archuleta spent many years trying to find out what had happened to Al, as most of his friends had lost track of him.
A true Grateful Dead Tale of friendship, she persisted in finding out what Al’s fate was, and after verifying the details, shared the news with his friends and remaining family. Al passed in 2008, but is not forgotten. Shelly wrote this obituary, a tribute to Al’s memory, and I agreed to publish it here, and to let his friends in the music world, Grateful Dead family and David Nelson Band family, know what had happened to our now departed friend. Fare thee well Al Margeson, may your spirit now rest in peace.