Among the tributes that poured in for John Perry Barlow after his death was one from Sean Ono Lennon, who called the Grateful Dead lyricist and digital pioneer “a master of all trades and a jack of none.”
Barlow, who wrote several Dead tunes with guitarist Bob Weir and formed the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1990 to try to shield online civil rights from government intrusion, died Wednesday in his sleep. He was 70.
Ono Lennon, 42, a singer-songwriter and the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, counted Barlow among his friends. He emailed a tribute to The Chronicle on Thursday:
“John Perry Barlow was a master of all trades and jack of none. He was a wordsmith a songsmith, a tech wizard party maniac car mechanic and bona fide lady magnet of incomparable intellect. He was an angel and double agent, a prophet and pioneer of digital divination, a Master Mason, a Burning Man patron, an internet architect, and political maven, a psychedelic shaman, a counter culture statesman and a hero to great men. In the end he was still a Wyoming cowboy to the core, and above all else, he was a family man because to him nothing mattered more. John Perry Barlow, he set the bar high, with big boots to follow, and many will try, but no one will ever come close to the guy, for this grateful and graceful guru was one of a kind.”.”
Source: Brinkwire