{"id":22678,"date":"2026-07-13T14:40:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=22678"},"modified":"2026-07-13T14:40:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:40:53","slug":"a-blessing-from-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/a-blessing-from-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"A Blessing from the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While working on my second novel, \u201cMakoona,\u201d I created the character Molo, an octopus named in honor of the drummer John Molo, whom I had seen play with iterations of the Grateful Dead. John Molo is 6 feet, 6 inches tall, and when his long arms wave behind the kit, he resembles an octopus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molo became a very special character to me: loose, psychedelic, a little burnt out, and speaking entirely in repurposed Grateful Dead lyrics. I had so much fun writing him that it never occurred to me, until the book was finished, that I might need the band\u2019s permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A reader in Germany connected me with Alan Trist, who oversaw Ice Nine Publishing, the company that handled the Dead\u2019s song rights. When I explained to Alan what I\u2019d done, his response wasn\u2019t encouraging. He felt the story sounded political, which the band was not (by design), but he invited me to send him the manuscript with the lyrics highlighted and agreed to give it a look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A month later he called me back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProfessor!\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve read your book, shared it with the band, and we\u2019ve come to a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I braced myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve identified the one cause we all care about: protecting the planet. There is no better place for our lyrics than in an octopus on a coral reef.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the words I never expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can use any and all of our lyrics\u2014for free!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was like a sloppy kiss from the band that played the music of my soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s rare and reaffirming when the band that makes the music that lives inside you turns out to be exactly who you thought and hoped they\u2019d be. It\u2019s something I\u2019ll always cherish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

John Morano retired this spring after 38 years as a journalism professor at Monmouth University. He is the author of four novels in the Morano Eco-Adventure Series<\/a> and is currently at work on his fifth.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When John Morano sought permission to weave Grateful Dead lyrics into his novel, he expected a legal hurdle. Instead, he received an unforgettable surprise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":22682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":52,\"y\":37}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Currents","issue":"Spring\/Summer 2026","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22696,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22678\/revisions\/22696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}