| For the folktale, see Grateful Dead (folklore).The Grateful Dead's fans, some of whom followed the band from concert to concert for years, were known as Deadheads and were renowned for their dedication to the band's music.Many fans referred to the band simply as "the Dead".Charles Mingus and John Coltrane perfected in the 1950s.These various influences were distilled into a diverse and psychedelic whole that made the Grateful Dead "the pioneering Godfathers of the jam band world."Membership
Lead guitarist Jerry Garcia was often seen both by the public and the media as the leader or primary spokesperson for the Grateful Dead, but was reluctant to be perceived that way, especially since he and the other group members saw themselves as equal participants and contributors to their collective musical and creative output.Classically trained trumpeter Phil Lesh played bass guitar.All of the previously mentioned Grateful Dead members shared in vocal performance of songs.Bill Kreutzmann played drums, and in 1967 was joined by a second drummer, New York native Mickey Hart, who also played a wide variety of other percussion instruments.Hart quit the Grateful Dead in 1971, embarrassed by the financial misdealings of his father, Dead money manager Lenny Hart, and leaving Kreutzmann once again as the sole percussionist.After Constanten's departure, Pigpen reclaimed his position as sole organist.Following the Grateful Dead's "Europe '72" tour, Pigpen's health had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer tour with the Dead.Keith and Donna Jean left the band in 1979, and Brent Mydland joined as keyboardist and vocalist.Keith Godchaux died in a car accident in 1980.Welnick died on June 2, 2006, reportedly a suicide.Owsley "Bear" Stanley was the Grateful Dead's soundman for many years; he was also one of the largest suppliers of LSD.All eleven members of The Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and Bruce Hornsby was their presenter.Formation
The Grateful Dead began their career in Menlo Park, California, playing live shows at Kepler's Books.Ashbury section of San Francisco.Of these bands, the Grateful Dead had members with arguably the highest level of musicianship, including banjo and guitar player Jerry Garcia, bluesman Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, the classically trained Phil Lesh and drummer Bill Kreutzmann.The Grateful Dead most embodied "all the elements of the San Francisco scene and came, therefore, to represent the counterculture to the rest of the country".Choosing a name
The name Grateful Dead was chosen from a dictionary.Britannica World Language Dictionary...Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?Cover of Herb Greene's photobook on the Grateful Dead, Book of the Dead.The Grateful Dead formed during the era when bands like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were dominating the airwaves.Listening to their first LP (The Grateful Dead, Warner Brothers, 1967), one is also reminded that it was recorded only a few years after the big "surfing music" craze; that California rock music sound seeped in to some degree as well.The cover of the album American Beauty (1970), which is considered to be the Grateful Dead's studio masterpiece.Individual tunes within their repertoire could be identified under one of these stylistic labels, but overall their music drew on all of these genres and more, frequently melding several of them.Most connoisseurs believe that the Grateful Dead's true spirit was rarely well captured in studio performance.As the band, and its sound, matured over thirty years of touring, playing, and recording, each member's stylistic contribution became more defined, consistent, and identifiable.What is less well known about Garcia was the fact that he suffered for most of his life from a condition called sleep apnea.His sleep apnea was apparently diagnosed before he died, but it is unlikely that he ever took any steps to treat it.In Lesh's book, Searching for the Sound, My Life with the Grateful Dead, Lesh relates how he and others were impressed with Garcia's loud and widely fluctuating snoring.As a small boy, at the age of five, he witnessed his father's death by drowning in a freak accident while fishing in the Russian River.Earlier, at the age of four, in another accident, the middle finger on his right hand was accidentally amputated by his brother while the two boys were splitting kindling.Finally, as a young man, he was involved in a horrendous car accident which resulted in the death of a close friend.In 1998's Furthur Festival, Weir, Hart, and Bruce Hornsby were joined by Phil Lesh to form a new band called The Other Ones.The Strange Remain is a live recording of The Other Ones during the 1998 Furthur Festival.According to The San Francisco Chronicle's Ron Kroichick, these former members of "the Grateful Dead performed the anthem with dispatch, taking 1 minute and 27 seconds."Wave That Flag" tour, named after the original 1973 uptempo version of the song "U.Greatest Artists of All Time.Bobby is my brother and I love him unconditionally; he is a very generous man, and was unfairly judged regarding the Archive issue."Terrapin Station weekend and hopefully we will get it together for this summer."Other performers appearing at the event included Tony Bennett, Wyclef Jean and Carole King.On February 10, 2007, the Grateful Dead received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.Ashbury district of San Francisco, late 60's.The Dead also toured with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as the house band for the Acid Tests, where Neal Cassady of On the Road fame, served as the Furthur bus driver.Their largest concert audience came in 1973 when they played, along with The Allman Brothers Band and The Band, before an estimated 600,000 people at the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen.The cohesive listening abilities of each band member made for a very elevated level of what might be called "free form".Their concert sets often blended songs, one into the next (a segue).Wall of Sound
The Wall of Sound was an enormous sound system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead.Healy, considered to be a superior engineer to Stanley, would mix the Grateful Dead's live sound until 1993.Phil Lesh's bass was piped through a quadraphonic encoder that sent signals from each of the four strings to its own channel and set of speakers.The Grateful Dead had two stages for the Wall of Sound.Though the initial framework and a rudimentary form of the system was unveiled in February 1973 (ominously, every speaker tweeter blew as the band began their first number), the Grateful Dead did not begin to tour with the full system until a year later in 1974.The Wall of Sound was very efficient for its day, but it suffered from other drawbacks besides its sheer size.The Wall's quadraphonic format never translated well to soundboard tapes made during the period, as the sound was compressed into an unnatural stereo format and suffers from a pronounced tinniness.Steal Your Face
For more details on this topic, see "The Bear" explains the history of the Steal Your Face Logo.While the origin of the term may be shrouded in haze, Dead Heads was made canon by the legendary notice suggested by Hank Harrison and placed inside the Skull and Roses album:
"DEAD FREAKS UNITE
Who are you?Many of the Dead Heads would go on tour with the band.Tapers
The Grateful Dead allowed their fans to tape their shows like several other bands during the time.For many years the tapers set up their microphones wherever they could.Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA.Long Strange Trip: the Inside History of the Grateful Dead.Oswald's titular pun "Grayfolded" adds the concept of folding to the idea of space, and rightly so when considering the way he uses sampling to fold the Dead's musical evolution in on itself."Islands of Order, Part 2,by Randolph Jordan, in Offscreen Journal, edited by Donato Totaro, Ph.D, film studies lecturer at Concordia University since 1990.The Music Box, May 1999.Simon and Schuster, 102.Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.Rolling Stone Issue 946.Music, Mythos and Throwing a Song at Fascism: College Crier's Bob Weir Interview by T.This page was last modified 05:41, 31 January 2008.See Copyrights for details.The opinions expressed are those of the author, not of the University of California.No further updating to this site will be done, barring unforeseen circumstances.Announcing the print publication of The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.For more information on the book and upcoming events such as book signings, see the information page.This will include no longer updating broken links, or correcting errors of fact.David Dodd
This site provides footnotes for Grateful Dead lyrics.There are two main metaphors for this project that I try to keep in mind: 1) I've always wondered what would happen if, every time you ran into any kind of
reference to a book or a person or a work of art you weren't familiar with, you had to go find out about that thing before you continued with what you were
doing: would you ever finish anything?The scope of the project will be limited to lyrics of original songs performed by the Dead.For a web site on the covers, see Randy Jackson's excellent Roots of the Grateful Dead.Kraemer Family Library of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs during the inception of this project, and of the Grateful Dead, and in particular, Alan Trist of Ice Nine Publishing.Biblical Symbolics and the Grateful Dead, by Bryan Miller.Nature's Paradigm: Systems Science and the Grateful Dead, by
Christopher Chase.Goose: Nursery Rhymes in the Dead's Lyrics.The Grateful Dead wrought a psychedelic revolution upon the cultural landscape of the Sixties.From jazz, the Grateful Dead adapted an improvisational approach.Heavily steeped in Americana, the group derived from blues and bluegrass.From the culture of psychedelia, as pioneered by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the Dead grew attuned to the broad palette of possibilities that could be tapped when imagination was given free reign.Along the way, they added a second keyboardist (Tom Constanten) and second drummer (Mickey Hart).His health improved in the wake of those crises, revitalizing the Dead through a period of heightened activity that included the 1987 hit album In the Dark and Top Forty single ("Touch of Grey").However, drugs continued to haunt the Grateful Dead, who lost keyboardist Brent Mydland to a fatal overdose in 1990.They played their last concert the previous month at Soldier Field in Chicago.The Grateful Dead could not survive the loss of Garcia, but the music plays on.TIMELINE
March 15, 1940: Phil Lesh, bassist with the Grateful Dead , is born in Berkeley, California.June 23, 1941: Robert Hunter, lyricist for the Grateful Dead, is born in Arroyo Grande, California.August 1, 1942: Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist and guiding light of the Grateful Dead, is born in San Francisco.September 11, 1943: Mickey Hart, drummer and percussionist for the Grateful Dead, is born in Brooklyn, New York.August 22, 1945: Donna Godchaux, vocalist with the Grateful Dead from 1972 to 1979, is born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.McKernan, keyboardist and singer with the Grateful Dead, is born in San Bruno, California.May 7, 1946: Bill Kreutzmann, drummer for the Grateful Dead, is born in Palo Alto, California.October 16, 1947: Bob Weir, guitarist and vocalist with the Grateful Dead, is born in Atherton, California.July 19, 1948: Keith Godchaux, keyboardist with the Grateful Dead from 1972 to 1979, is born in Concord, California.February 22, 1951: Vince Welnick, keyboardist with the Grateful Dead from 1991 to 1995, is born in Phoenix, Arizona.October 21, 1952: Brent Mydland, keyboardist with the Grateful Dead from 1979 to 1990, is born in Munich, West Germany.The Grateful Dead, having recently changed their name from the Warlocks, provide the music.The concert is produced by Bill Graham.September 29, 1967: Percussionist Mickey Hart joins the Grateful Dead, making them a sextet with two drummers.Europe, even though the political landscape hardly reflected the ethos of peace and love.Rock and roll was becoming a business, and bands continued to proliferate.Some of the other artists include Santana, the Grateful Dead and the Youndbloods.Grateful Dead is released.Fillmore East venue (in New York City).Grateful Dead, is released.McKernan, keyboardist and vocalist with the Grateful Dead, dies of liver failure.July 28, 1973: The Band, the Grateful Dead, and the Allman Brothers Band perform for a crowd of 600,000 (larger by half than Woodstock!June 3, 1976: The Grateful Dead perform at the Paramount Theater in Portland, Oregon, kicking off their first tour in more than a year and a half.May 8, 1977: The Grateful Dead perform at Barton Hall, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.July 23, 1980: Keith Godchaux, former keyboardist for the Grateful Dead, dies of injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident.July 26, 1990: Brent Mydland, keyboardist with the Grateful Dead, dies of a drug overdose.January 19, 1994: The Grateful Dead are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the ninth annual induction dinner.Recommended Reading
Conversations With the Dead: The Grateful Dead Interview Book
David Gans.Grateful Dead: The Official Book of the Dead Heads
Paul Grushkin, Cynthia Bassett and Jonas Grushkin.Garcia: An American Life
Blair Jackson.GD Hour shows from the archive: a new one posted every Wednesday morning on the wonderful new DeadNet.Click on "Features" to find 'em.Grateful Dead Hour program notes, links to music and sponsors, and other news and information you might find useful are posted (almost) daily on the log blog.Interviewed by Randy Ray, for Jambands.Jam In the Dam music festival in Amsterdam, Holland March 16 thru 19 at the legendary Melkweg music hall, where the Grateful Dead played in 1981.Information, video clips, reviews, message board and tickets are available at jaminthedam.Recorded live in Philadelphia, this 7 track CD features Aaron's traditional acoustic songwriting and includes several extended experimental jams.Interested in sponsoring the Grateful Dead Hour?After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.Most Downloaded Items more
Grateful Dead Live at Robert F.Welcome to Grateful Dead
Welcome to the Grateful Dead collection.At this time, the Grateful Dead collection is not open to public uploads.Discussion Resources
The Grateful Dead Forum is focused discussion area for the Grateful Dead.At this time, the Grateful Dead collection is not open to public uploads.The Grateful Dead Internet Archive Project (GDIAP) will continue its direct management of this collection for the time being.Average rating:
Grateful Dead Live at Henry J.Re: last time: Greatest Story Ever Told?Re: Best quote in a review...Re: Best quote in a review...Re: Best quote in a review...Re: Yeah, but wouldn't they forget their PIN all the time?Re: Wall of Sound, the best there ever was, imho Earl B.Re: New Miller Upgrades L.Re: New Miller Upgrades JodyC 0 21 January 29, 2008 03:59:29pm
jam recommendations yesss!Re: jam recommendations yesss!Discovery EDIT: Have To ReName This Thread: Tull Fans Unite shiphappens 0 19 January 30, 2008 09:08:09am
Sorry, Me Again...Re: The Dead Pop up in the background...Re: The Dead Pop up in the background...Re: The Dead Pop up in the background...Re: The Dead Pop up in the background...Re: The Dead Pop up in the background...Re: The Dead Pop up in the background... |
