Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead in 1970. Left to right: Bill Kreutzmann, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh.
Background information
Origin	Palo Alto, California, United States
Genres	Rock
Years active	1965–1995, 2015[1]
Labels	Warner Bros., Grateful Dead, Arista, Rhino
Associated acts	The Other Ones, The Dead, Furthur, Jerry Garcia Band, RatDog, Phil Lesh and Friends, Rhythm Devils, Donna Jean Godchaux Band, Missing Man Formation, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Old and in the Way, Legion of Mary, Reconstruction, Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, Kingfish, Bobby and the Midnites, BK3, 7 Walkers, Billy & the Kids, Heart of Gold Band, The Tubes, Bruce Hornsby, Bob Dylan
Website	dead.net
Members	Bob Weir Phil Lesh Bill Kreutzmann Mickey Hart
Past members	Jerry Garcia Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Robert Hunter Tom Constanten Keith Godchaux Donna Jean Godchaux Brent Mydland Vince Welnick

The Grateful Dead is an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California.^[2][3] The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock,^[4][5] and for live performances of long musical improvisation.^[6][7] "Their music," writes Lenny Kaye, "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists."^[8] These various influences were distilled into a diverse and psychedelic whole that made the Grateful Dead "the pioneering Godfathers of the jam band world".^[9] They were ranked 57th in the issue The Greatest Artists of all Time by Rolling Stone magazine.^[10] They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994^[11] and their Barton Hall Concert at Cornell University (May 8, 1977) was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.^[12] The Grateful Dead have sold more than 35 million albums worldwide.

The Grateful Dead was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area amid the rise of counterculture of the 1960s.^[13][14][15] The founding members were Jerry Garcia (guitar, vocals), Bob Weir (guitar, vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (keyboards, harmonica, vocals), Phil Lesh (bass, vocals), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums).^[16] Members of the Grateful Dead had played together in various San Francisco bands, including Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions and the Warlocks. Lesh was the last member to join the Warlocks before they became the Grateful Dead; he replaced Dana Morgan Jr., who had played bass for a few gigs. With the exception of McKernan, who died in 1973, the core of the band stayed together for its entire 30-year history.^[17] Other longtime members of the band include Mickey Hart (drums 1967–1971, 1974–1995, 2015), Keith Godchaux (keyboards 1971–1979), Donna Godchaux (vocals 1972–1979), Brent Mydland (keyboards, vocals 1979–1990), and Vince Welnick (keyboards 1990–1995). Pianist Bruce Hornsby was a touring member from 1990 to 1992, as well as guesting with the band on occasion before and after.

The fans of the Grateful Dead, some of whom followed the band from concert to concert for years, are known as "Deadheads" and are known for their dedication to the band's music.^[6][7] The band and its following (Deadheads) are closely associated with the hippie movement and were seen as a form of institution in the culture of America for many years. Former members of the Grateful Dead, along with other musicians, toured as the Dead in 2003, 2004, and 2009 after touring as the Other Ones in 1998, 2000, and 2002. There are many contemporary incarnations of the Dead, with the most prominent touring acts being Furthur, Phil Lesh & Friends, RatDog, and the Rhythm Devils with drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. The group is slated to officially perform together again for their fiftieth anniversary, with Trey Anastasio of Phish taking the role of Jerry Garcia.^[18]

Formation (1965–1966)

Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia were brought together by Gert Chiarito in 1964 to perform on The Midnight Special, her Saturday night radio program on KPFA, Berkeley.^[19]

The Grateful Dead began their career as the Warlocks, a group formed in early 1965 from the remnants of a Palo Alto, California jug band called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions.^[20] The band's first show was at Magoo's Pizza located at 639 Santa Cruz Avenue in suburban Menlo Park, California on May 5, 1965. They were known as the Warlocks although at the same time the Velvet Underground was also using that name on the east coast.^[21][22] The show was not recorded and not even the set list has been preserved. The band quickly changed its name after finding out that another band of the same name had signed a recording contract (not the Velvet Underground, who by then had also changed their name). The first show under the new name Grateful Dead was in San Jose, California on December 4, 1965, at one of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests.^[23][24][25] Earlier demo tapes have survived, but the first of over 2,000 concerts known to have been recorded by the band's fans was a show at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco on January 8, 1966.^[26] Later that month, the Grateful Dead played at the Trips Festival, an early psychedelic rock concert.

The name "Grateful Dead" was chosen from a dictionary. According to Phil Lesh, in his autobiography (pp. 62), "... [Jerry Garcia] picked up an old Britannica World Language Dictionary...[and]...In that silvery elf-voice he said to me, 'Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?'" The definition there was "the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial." According to Alan Trist, director of the Grateful Dead's music publisher company Ice Nine, Garcia found the name in the Funk & Wagnalls Folklore Dictionary, when his finger landed on that phrase while playing a game of Fictionary.^[27] In the Garcia biography, Captain Trips, author Sandy Troy states that the band was smoking the psychedelic DMT at the time.^[28] The term "grateful dead" appears in folktales of a variety of cultures. In mid-1969, Phil Lesh told another version of the story to Carol Maw, a young Texan visiting with the band in Marin County who also ended up going on the road with them to the Fillmore East and Woodstock. In this version, Phil said, "Jerry found the name spontaneously when he picked up a dictionary and the pages fell open. The words 'grateful' and 'dead' appeared straight opposite each other across the crack between the pages in unrelated text."

Other supporting personnel who signed on early included Rock Scully, who heard of the band from Kesey and signed on as manager after meeting them at the Big Beat Acid Test; Stewart Brand, "with his side show of taped music and slides of Indian life, a multimedia presentation" at the Big Beat and then, expanded, at the Trips Festival; and Owsley Stanley, the "Acid King" whose LSD supplied the tests and who, in early 1966, became the band's financial backer, renting them a house on the fringes of Watts and buying them sound equipment. "We were living solely off of Owsley's good graces at that time.... [His] trip was he wanted to design equipment for us, and we were going to have to be in sort of a lab situation for him to do it," said Garcia.^[28]

Main career (1967–1995)

One of the group's earliest major performances in 1967 was the Mantra-Rock Dance—a musical event held on January 29, 1967, at the Avalon Ballroom by the San Francisco Hare Krishna temple. The Grateful Dead performed at the event along with the Hare Krishna founder Bhaktivedanta Swami, poet Allen Ginsberg, bands Moby Grape and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, donating proceeds to the Krishna temple.^[29][30] The band's first LP, The Grateful Dead, was released on Warner Brothers in 1967.

Classically trained trumpeter Phil Lesh performed bass guitar. Bob Weir, the youngest original member of the group, played rhythm guitar. Ron "Pigpen" McKernan played keyboards and harmonica until shortly before his death in 1973 at the age of 27. Garcia, Weir, and McKernan shared the lead vocal duties more or less equally; Lesh only sang a few leads but his tenor was a key part of the band's three-part vocal harmonies. Bill Kreutzmann played drums, and in September 1967 was joined by a second drummer, New York native Mickey Hart, who also played a wide variety of other percussion instruments.

1970 included tour dates in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the band performed at The Warehouse for two nights. On January 31, 1970, the local police raided their hotel on Bourbon Street, and arrested and charged a total of 19 people with possession of various drugs.^[31] The second night's concert was performed as scheduled after bail was posted. Eventually the charges were dismissed, with the exception of those against sound engineer Owsley Stanley, who was already facing charges in California for manufacturing LSD. This event was later memorialized in the lyrics of the song "Truckin'", a single from American Beauty which reached number 64 on the charts.

Mickey Hart quit the Grateful Dead in February 1971, leaving Kreutzmann once again as the sole percussionist. Hart rejoined the Grateful Dead for good in October 1974. Tom "TC" Constanten was added as a second keyboardist from 1968 to 1970, while Pigpen also played various percussion instruments and sang.

After Constanten's departure, Pigpen reclaimed his position as sole organist. Less than two years later, in late 1971, Pigpen was joined by another keyboardist, Keith Godchaux, who played grand piano alongside Pigpen's Hammond B-3 organ. In early 1972, Keith's wife, Donna Jean Godchaux, joined the Grateful Dead as a backing vocalist.

Following the Grateful Dead's "Europe '72" tour, Pigpen's health had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer tour with the band. His final concert appearance was June 17, 1972 at the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles;^[32] he died in March, 1973 of complications from alcohol abuse.^[33]

The death of Pigpen did not slow the band down, and they continued with their new members. They soon formed their own record group, Grateful Dead Records.^[34] Later that year, they released their next studio album, the jazz influenced Wake of the Flood. It became their biggest commercial success thus far.^[35] Meanwhile, capitalizing on Flood’s success, the band soon went back to the studio, and the next year, 1974, released another album, From the Mars Hotel. Not long after that album’s release however, the Dead decided to take a hiatus from live touring.

In September 1975 the Dead released their eighth studio album, Blues for Allah. Their hiatus was short-lived, though, as they resumed touring in June 1976.^[34] That same year, they re-signed with Arista Records. Their new contract soon produced Terrapin Station in 1977. Although things appeared to be going well for the band, problems were arising with their two newest members, Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux. While touring during the late 1970s the band began to use freebase cocaine.^[36] Donna frequently had excessive vocal issues while performing live, and Keith was becoming dependent on hard drugs. Both of those issues were causing complications with touring, and they agreed to leave the band in February 1979.

Following the departure of the Godchauxs, Brent Mydland joined as keyboardist and vocalist and was considered "the perfect fit". The Godchauxs then formed the Heart of Gold Band before Keith Godchaux died in a car accident in 1980. Mydland was the keyboardist for the Grateful Dead for 11 years until his death by narcotics overdose in July 1990,^[37] becoming the third keyboardist to die.

During the 1980s the band transformed as the talents of Mydland helped power the group. Shortly after Mydland found his place in the early 1980s, Garcia's health began to decline. His drug habits caused him to lose his liveliness on stage. After kicking his drug habit in 1985, Garcia slipped into a diabetic coma for several days in July 1986. After he recovered, the band released In the Dark in 1987, which resulted as their best selling studio album release, and also produced their only top-10 chart single, "Touch of Grey". Also that year, the group toured with Bob Dylan, as documented on the album Dylan & the Dead.

Inspired by Garcia's improved health and a successful album, the band's energy and chemistry peaked in the late 1980s and 1990. Performances were vigorous and as a result, every show exceeded its maximum audience capacity. The band's "high time" came to a sudden halt when Mydland died after the summer tour in 1990. The band now had to rebuild; both Vince Welnick, former keyboardist for the Tubes, and Bruce Hornsby, who had a successful career with his own band the Range, joined the band on keyboards and vocals. Welnick joined as a proper member of the band and stayed with the band until Garcia's death, but he was never a member of the Other Ones or the Dead. He did, however, play in early incarnations of Ratdog with Bob Weir. Welnick died on June 2, 2006, reportedly a suicide.^[38] Hornsby was an unofficial member until March 24, 1992, and has participated in various post-Grateful dead projects, notably the Other Ones.

Aftermath (1995 to the present)

Following Garcia's death in August 1995, the remaining members formally decided to disband. Since that time however, there have been a number of reunions by the surviving members involving various combinations of musicians.

In 1998, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart, along with several other musicians, formed a band called the Other Ones, and performed a number of concerts that year, releasing a live album, The Strange Remain, the following year. In 2000, the Other Ones toured again, this time with Bill Kreutzmann but without Lesh. After taking another year off, the band was active again in 2002. With Lesh's return for this go-round, the Other Ones then included all four living former Grateful Dead members who had been in the band for most or all of its history.

In 2003, the Other Ones changed their name to the Dead. The Dead toured the country in 2003 and 2004. In 2008, members of the Dead played two concerts, called "Deadheads for Obama" and "Change Rocks". In 2009 the Dead performed on a spring tour, and were at the Rothbury Music Festival on July 4, 2009.

Following the 2009 summer reunion tour bandmates Lesh and Weir formed the band Furthur which debuted in September 2009.^[39] Joining Lesh and Weir in Furthur are Jeff Chimenti (keyboard), John Kadlecik (guitar), Joe Russo (drums), Sunshine Becker (vocalist), and Jeff Pehrson (vocalist) Jay Lane (percussion).

In 2010, Hart and Kreutzmann re-formed the Rhythm Devils, and played a summer concert tour.

Since 1995, the former members of the Grateful Dead have also pursued solo musical careers. Bob Weir & RatDog have performed many concerts and released several albums, as have Phil Lesh and Friends. Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann have each led several different bands and have also released some albums. Recently Mickey Hart has been working with his Mickey Hart Band and Kreutzmann has been touring with BK3, and with 7 Walkers, a band he formed with Papa Mali. Donna Godchaux has returned to the music scene, with the Donna Jean Godchaux Band, and Tom Constanten also continues to write and perform music. All of these groups continue to play Grateful Dead music.

In October 2014 it was announced that Martin Scorsese will produce a yet-to-be-named documentary^[40] directed by Amir Bar-Lev.^[41] David Lemieux will supervise and Weir, Hart, Kreutzmann and Lesh have agreed to new interviews for the film.

Scorsese quoted "The Grateful Dead were more than just a band, they were their own planet, populated by millions of devoted fans. I’m very happy that this picture is being made and proud to be involved." And the Band replied "from The Last Waltz to George Harrison: Living In The Material World, from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones, he has made some of the greatest music documentaries ever with some of our favorite artists and we are honored to have him involved."

'Fare Thee Well' shows

On January 16, 2015, it was announced that Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann, and Hart will reunite for three shows at Chicago's Soldier Field on July 3–5, 2015, with Trey Anastasio on guitar, Jeff Chimenti on keyboards, and Hornsby accompanying on piano. These shows will be in celebration of the band's 50th anniversary, and the run has been dubbed as the 'Fare Thee Well' shows,^[42][43] after a lyric in the Grateful dead song "Brokedown Palace."^[44][45][46] It has been stated that these will be the final shows performed together by all four remaining members of the Grateful Dead.^[47][48]

An online petition to allow deadheads to camp overnight at the venue was initiated in January 2015, which had received over 11,000 signatures by early March 2015, but Soldier Field officials later stated that camping would not be allowed.^[49][50][51]

Musical style

The Grateful Dead formed during the era when bands such as the Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones were dominating the airwaves. "The Beatles were why we turned from a jug band into a rock 'n' roll band," said Bob Weir. "What we saw them doing was impossibly attractive." Former folk-scene star Bob Dylan had recently put out a couple of records featuring electric instrumentation. "I couldn't think of anything else more worth doing," Garcia said.^[52] Grateful Dead members have said that it was after attending a concert by the touring New York City band the Lovin' Spoonful that they decided to "go electric" and look for a dirtier sound. Gradually, many of the East-Coast American folk musicians, formerly luminaries of the coffee-house scene, were moving in the electric direction. It was natural for Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, each of whom had been immersed in the American folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s, to be open-minded toward electric guitars. Their first LP (The Grateful Dead, Warner Brothers, 1967), was released in the same year that Pink Floyd released The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The Grateful Dead's early music (in the mid-1960s) was part of the process of establishing what "psychedelic music" was, but theirs was essentially a "street party" form of it. They developed their "psychedelic" playing as a result of meeting Ken Kesey in Palo Alto, California, and subsequently becoming the house band for the Acid Tests he staged.^[53] The Dead were not inclined to fit their music to an established category such as pop rock, blues, folk rock, or country & western. 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. It was doubtless with this in mind that Bill Graham said of the Grateful Dead, "They're not the best at what they do, they're the only ones that do what they do."^[54] Often (both in performance and on recording) the Dead left room for exploratory, spacey soundscapes.

Their live shows, fed by their improvisational approach to music, made the Grateful Dead different from most other touring bands. While most rock and roll bands rehearse a standard show for their tours that is replayed night after night, city after city, the Grateful Dead never did. As Garcia stated in a 1966 interview, "We don't make up our sets beforehand. We'd rather work off the tops of our heads than off a piece of paper."^[55] They maintained this operating ethic throughout their existence. For each performance, the band drew material from an active list of a hundred or so songs.^[55]

The 1969 live album Live/Dead did capture more of their essence, but commercial success did not come until Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, both released in 1970. These records largely featured the band's laid-back acoustic musicianship and more traditional song structures.

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. Lesh, who was originally a classically trained trumpet player with an extensive background in music theory, did not tend to play traditional blues-based bass forms, but opted for more melodic, symphonic and complex lines, often sounding like a second lead guitar. Weir, too, was not a traditional rhythm guitarist, but tended to play jazz-influenced, unique inversions at the upper end of the Dead's sound. The two drummers, Mickey Hart and Kreutzmann, developed a unique, complex interplay, balancing Kreutzmann's steady beat with Hart's interest in percussion styles outside the rock tradition. Hart incorporated an 11-count measure to his drumming, bringing a new dimension to the band's sound that became an important part of its emerging style.^[56] Garcia's lead lines were fluid, supple and spare, owing a great deal of their character to his training in fingerpicking and banjo.

The band's primary lyricists, Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow, commonly used themes involving love and loss, life and death, gambling and murder, beauty and horror, chaos and order, God and other religious themes, travelling and touring, etc.

Merchandising and representation

Hal Kant was an entertainment industry attorney who specialized in representing musical groups. He spent 35 years as principal lawyer and general counsel for the Grateful Dead, a position in the group that was so strong that his business cards with the band identified his role as "Czar".^[57]

Kant brought the band millions of dollars in revenue through his management of the band's intellectual property and merchandising rights. At Kant's recommendation, the group was one of the few rock 'n roll pioneers to retain ownership of their music masters and publishing rights.

In 2006, the Grateful Dead signed a ten-year licensing agreement with Rhino Entertainment. Rhino is managing the Dead's business interests, including the release of musical recordings, merchandising, and marketing. In 2011 Rhino and Grateful Dead Productions began working with Curious Sense to develop an online and mobile social game built on the band's legacy.^[58] The band retains creative control and keeps ownership of the music catalog.^[59][60]

Live performances

The Grateful Dead toured constantly throughout their career, playing more than 2,300 concerts.^[61] They promoted a sense of community among their fans, who became known as Deadheads, many of whom followed their tours for months or years on end. In their early career, the band also dedicated their time and talents to their community, the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco, making available free food, lodging, music and health care to all comers; they were the "first among equals in giving unselfishly of themselves to hippie culture, performing 'more free concerts than any band in the history of music'.^[62]

With the exception of 1975, when the band was on hiatus and played only four concerts together, the Grateful Dead performed many concerts every year, from their formation in April, 1965, until July 9, 1995.^[63] Initially all their shows were in California, principally in the San Francisco Bay Area and in or near Los Angeles. They also performed, in 1965 and 1966, with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, as the house band for the Acid Tests. They toured nationally starting in June 1967 (their first foray to New York), with a few detours to Canada, Europe and three nights at the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt in 1978. They appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. Their first UK performance was at the Hollywood Music Festival in 1970. 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.^[64] The 1998 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records recognized them with a listing under the heading, "most rock concerts performed" (2,318 concerts).^[65] They played to an estimated total of 25 million people, more than any other band, with audiences of up to 80,000 attending a single show.^[65] Many of these concerts were preserved in the band's tape vault, and several dozen have since been released on CD and as downloads. The Dead were known for the tremendous variation in their setlists from night to night—the list of songs documented to have been played by the band exceeds 500.^[66] The Band has released 4 concert videos under the name View from the Vault and may give the uninitiated a good idea of what a live Dead show is like.

In the 1990s, the Grateful Dead earned a total of $285 million in revenue from their concert tours, the second-highest during the 1990s, with the Rolling Stones earning the most.^[67] This figure is representative of tour revenue through 1995, as touring stopped after the death of Jerry Garcia.^[67]

Their numerous studio albums were generally collections of new songs that they had first played in concert. The band was also famous for its extended musical jams, which featured both individual improvisations as well as distinctive "group-mind" improvisations during which each of the band members improvised individually while simultaneously blending together as a cohesive musical unit. Musically, this may be illustrated in that the band not only improvised within the form of songs, but also with the form. The Grateful Dead have often been described as having never played the same song the same way twice. The cohesive listening abilities of each band member made for a transcendence of what might be called "free form" and improvisation. Their concert sets often blended songs, one into the next (a segue).

Concert sound systems

The Wall of Sound was an very, very large sound system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead.^[68][69] The band was never satisfied with the house system anywhere they played. After the Monterey Pop Festival, the band's crew 'borrowed' some of the other performers' sound equipment and used it to host some free shows in San Francisco.^[70] In their early days, soundman Owsley "Bear" Stanley designed a public address (PA) and monitor system for them. Bear was the Grateful Dead's soundman for many years; he was also one of the largest suppliers of LSD.^[71] Stanley's sound systems were delicate and finicky, and frequently brought shows to a halt with technical breakdowns. After Stanley went to jail for manufacturing LSD in 1970, the group briefly used house PAs, but found them to be even less reliable than those built by their former soundman. In 1971, the band purchased their first solid-state sound system from Alembic Inc Studios. Because of this, Alembic would play an integral role in the research, development, and production of the Wall of Sound. The band also welcomed Dan Healy into the fold on a permanent basis that year. Healy would mix the Grateful Dead's live sound until 1993.

Tapes

Like several other bands during this time, the Grateful Dead allowed their fans to record their shows. For many years the tapers set up their microphones wherever they could. The eventual forest of microphones became a problem for the official sound crew. Eventually this was solved by having a dedicated taping section located behind the soundboard, which required a special "tapers" ticket. The band allowed sharing of tapes of their shows, as long as no profits were made on the sale of their show tapes.^[72] Sometimes the sound crew would allow the tapers to connect directly to the soundboard, which created exceptional concert recordings. Recently, there have been some disputes over which recordings archive.org could host on their site. Currently, all recordings are hosted, though soundboard recordings are not available for download, but rather in a streaming format.^[73]

Of the approximately 2,350 shows the Grateful Dead played, almost 2,200 were taped, and most of these are available online.^[74] The Band began collecting and cataloging tapes early on and Dick Latvala was their keeper. Latvala is whom Dick's Pick is named. After his death in 1999, David Lemieux gradually took the post. Concert set lists from a subset of 1,590 Grateful Dead shows were used to perform a comparative analysis between how songs were played in concert and how they are listened online by Last.fm members.^[75] In their book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn From the Most Iconic Band in History,^[76] David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan identify the taper section as a crucial idea in increasing the Grateful Dead's fan base.

July 3–5, 2015 the Grateful Dead will perform a series of three reunion concerts at Soldier Field in celebration of the band's 50th anniversary. Their last concert also took place at Soldier Field in July 1995.^[77]

Artwork

Over the years, a number of iconic images have come to be associated with the Grateful Dead. Many of these images originated as artwork for concert posters or album covers.

Steal Your Face skull

Perhaps the best-known Grateful Dead art icon is a red, white, and blue skull with a lightning bolt through it. The lightning bolt skull can be found on the cover of the album Steal Your Face, and the image is sometimes known by that name. It was designed by Owsley Stanley and artist Bob Thomas, and was originally used as a logo to mark the band's equipment.^[79]

Marching bears

Also commonly referred to as dancing bears, a series of stylized marching bears was drawn by Bob Thomas as part of the back cover for the album History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice). Thomas reported that he based the bears on a lead sort from an unknown font.^[80] The bear is a reference to Owsley "Bear" Stanley, who recorded and produced the album. Bear himself wrote, "the bears on the album cover are not really 'dancing'. I don't know why people think they are; their positions are quite obviously those of a high-stepping march."^[78]

Skull and roses

The skull and roses design was composed by Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse, who added lettering and color, respectively, to a black and white drawing by Edmund Joseph Sullivan. Sullivan's drawing was an illustration for a 1913 edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Earlier antecedents include the custom of exhibiting the relic skulls of Christian martyrs decorated with roses on their feast days. The rose is an attribute of Saint Valentine who according to one legend was martyred by decapitation. Accordingly, in Rome, at the church dedicated to him, the observance of his feast day included the display of his skull surrounded by roses.^[81] This was discontinued in the late 1960s when Valentine was removed from the Roman Catholic canon along with other legendary saints whose lives and deeds could not be confirmed. Kelley and Mouse's design originally appeared on a poster for the September 16 and 17, 1966 Dead shows at the Avalon Ballroom.^[82] Later it was used as the cover for the album Grateful Dead. The album is sometimes referred to as Skull and Roses (or Bertha).^[83]

Dancing terrapins

The two dancing terrapins first appeared on the cover of the 1977 album Terrapin Station, which was drawn by Kelley and Mouse, but based on a drawing by Heinrich Kley. Since then these turtles have become one of the Grateful Dead's most recognizable logos.

Uncle Sam skeleton

The Uncle Sam skeleton was devised by Gary Gutierrez as part of the animation for The Grateful Dead Movie.^[84] The image combines the Grateful Dead skeleton motif with the character of Uncle Sam, a reference to the then-recently written song "U.S. Blues", which the Dead are seen performing near the beginning of the film.

Jester

Another icon of the Dead is a skeleton dressed as a jester and holding a lute. This image was an airbrush painting done by Stanley Mouse in 1972. It was originally used for the cover of The Grateful Dead Songbook.^[85][86]

Deadheads

Fans and enthusiasts of the band are commonly referred to as Dead Heads. While the origin of the term may be unclear, Dead Heads were made canon by the notice placed inside the Skull and Roses album by manager Jon McIntire:

Many of the Dead Heads would go on tour with the band. As a group, the Dead Heads were considered very mellow. "I'd rather work nine Grateful Dead concerts than one Oregon football game," Police Det. Rick Raynor said. "They don't get belligerent like they do at the games."^[87]

Donation of archives

On April 24, 2008, members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, along with Nion McEvoy, CEO of Chronicle Books, UC Santa Cruz chancellor George Blumenthal, and UC Santa Cruz librarian Virginia Steel, held a press conference announcing that UCSC's McHenry Library would be the permanent home of the Grateful Dead's complete archival history from 1965 up to the present. The archive includes correspondence, photographs, fliers, posters, and several other forms of memorabilia and records of the band. Also included are unreleased videos of interviews and TV appearances that will be installed for visitors to view, as well as stage backdrops and other props from the band's concerts.

Blumenthal stated at the event, "The Grateful Dead Archive^[88] represents one of the most significant popular cultural collections of the 20th century; UC Santa Cruz is honored to receive this invaluable gift. The Grateful Dead and UC Santa Cruz are both highly innovative institutions—born the same year—that continue to make a major, positive impact on the world." Guitarist Bob Weir stated, "We looked around, and UC Santa Cruz seems the best possible home. If you ever wrote the Grateful Dead a letter, you'll probably find it there!"

Professor of music Fredric Lieberman was the key contact between the band and the university, who let the university know about the search for a home for the archive, and who had collaborated with Mickey Hart on three books in the past, Planet Drum (1990), Drumming at the Edge of Magic (1991), and Spirit into Sound (2006).^[89][90][91]

The first large-scale exhibition of materials from the Grateful Dead Archive was mounted at the New-York Historical Society in 2010.^[92]

Membership

Lead guitarist Jerry Garcia was often viewed 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.^[93][94] Garcia, a native of San Francisco, grew up in the Excelsior District. One of his main influences was bluegrass music, and he also performed—on banjo, one of his other great instrumental loves, along with the pedal steel guitar—in bluegrass bands, notably Old and in the Way with mandolinist David Grisman.

Bruce Hornsby never officially joined the band, because of his other commitments, but he did play keyboards at most Dead shows between September 1990 and March 1992, and sat in with the band over one hundred times in all between 1988 and 1995.^[95][96]

Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow were the band's primary lyricists. Twelve members of the Grateful Dead (the eleven official performing members plus Robert Hunter) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and Bruce Hornsby was their presenter.^[7]

Band lineups

Grateful Dead lineups^[97]

(June 1965 – September 1967)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Ron "Pigpen" McKernan – keyboards, harmonica, percussion, vocals Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums
(September 1967 – November 1968)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Ron "Pigpen" McKernan – keyboards, harmonica, percussion, vocals Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums Mickey Hart – drums
(November 1968 – January 1970)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Ron "Pigpen" McKernan – keyboards, harmonica, percussion, vocals Tom Constanten – keyboards Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums Mickey Hart – drums
(January 1970 – February 1971)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Ron "Pigpen" McKernan – keyboards, harmonica, percussion, vocals Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums Mickey Hart – drums
(February 1971 – October 1971)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Ron "Pigpen" McKernan – keyboards, harmonica, percussion, vocals Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums
(October 1971 – March 1972)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Ron "Pigpen" McKernan – keyboards, harmonica, percussion, vocals Keith Godchaux – keyboards Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums
(March 1972 – June 1972)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Ron "Pigpen" McKernan – keyboards, harmonica, percussion, vocals Keith Godchaux – keyboards Donna Godchaux – vocals Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums
(June 1972 – October 1974)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Keith Godchaux – keyboards Donna Godchaux – vocals Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums
(October 1974 – February 1979)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Keith Godchaux – keyboards Donna Godchaux – vocals Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums Mickey Hart – drums
(April 1979 – July 1990)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Brent Mydland – keyboards, vocals Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums Mickey Hart – drums
(September 1990 – March 1992)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Vince Welnick – keyboards, vocals Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums Mickey Hart – drums with Bruce Hornsby – keyboards, vocals
(May 1992 – August 1995)	Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals Vince Welnick – keyboards, vocals Phil Lesh – bass, vocals Bill Kreutzmann – drums Mickey Hart – drums

Timeline

Awards

In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Grateful Dead No. 57 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[98]

On February 10, 2007, the Grateful Dead received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was accepted on behalf of the band by Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann.^[99]

It was announced on May 23, 2011, that the Dead's Barton Hall Concert at Cornell University (May 8, 1977) would be preserved in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

Discography

Video game

A Grateful Dead video game titled Grateful Dead Game – The Epic Tour,^[100] was released in April 2012 and was created by Curious Sense.^[101]

See also

• List of Grateful Dead cover versions
• Internet Archive (section on Grateful Dead)

References

Further reading

External links

• Official website
• Grateful Dead at AllMusic
• Live recordings by Grateful Dead at the Internet Archive

Grateful Dead Tom Constanten Jerry Garcia Donna Jean Godchaux Keith Godchaux Mickey Hart Robert Hunter Bill Kreutzmann Phil Lesh Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Brent Mydland Bob Weir Vince Welnick Studio albums The Grateful Dead Anthem of the Sun Aoxomoxoa Workingman's Dead American Beauty Wake of the Flood From the Mars Hotel Blues for Allah Terrapin Station Shakedown Street Go to Heaven In the Dark Built to Last Live albums Live/Dead Vintage Dead Historic Dead Grateful Dead Europe '72 History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice) Steal Your Face Reckoning Dead Set Dylan & the Dead Without a Net One from the Vault Infrared Roses Two from the Vault Grayfolded Hundred Year Hall Dozin' at the Knick Fallout from the Phil Zone Terrapin Station (Limited Edition) Live at the Fillmore East 2-11-69 Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead Nightfall of Diamonds Postcards of the Hanging Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72 Go to Nassau Birth of the Dead The Closing of Winterland Rockin' the Rhein with the Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966 Truckin' Up to Buffalo Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings Fillmore West 1969 Live at the Cow Palace Three from the Vault Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 To Terrapin: Hartford '77 Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings Crimson White & Indigo Formerly the Warlocks Europe '72: The Complete Recordings Europe '72 Volume 2 Dark Star Spring 1990 Spring 1990: So Glad You Made It Winterland: May 30th 1971 May 1977 Sunshine Daydream Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA 4/18/70 Live at Hampton Coliseum Spring 1990 (The Other One) Wake Up to Find Out Houston, Texas 11-18-1972 View from the Vault 1 2 3 4 Dick's Picks Volume 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Road Trips Vol 1 No 1 Vol 1 No 2 Vol 1 No 3 Vol 1 No 4 Vol 2 No 1 Vol 2 No 2 Vol 2 No 3 Vol 2 No 4 Vol 3 No 1 Vol 3 No 2 Vol 3 No 3 Vol 3 No 4 Vol 4 No 1 Vol 4 No 2 Vol 4 No 3 Vol 4 No 4 Vol 4 No 5 Dave's Picks Volume 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Digital Download Series Volume 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Family Dog at the Great Highway 9 10 11 12 Spectrum 11/5/79 Spectrum 11/6/79 Compilations Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead What a Long Strange Trip It's Been The Arista Years Selections from the Arista Years The Very Best of Grateful Dead Flashback with the Grateful Dead The Best of the Grateful Dead Box sets Dead Zone: The Grateful Dead CD Collection (1977–1987) So Many Roads (1965–1995) The Golden Road (1965–1973) Beyond Description (1973–1989) The Warner Bros. Studio Albums All the Years Combine: The DVD Collection Videography The Grateful Dead Movie Dead Ahead So Far Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey Backstage Pass Infrared Sightings Ticket to New Year's Downhill from Here Anthem to Beauty Sunshine Daydream Side projects and spin-off bands The Other Ones The Dead Jerry Garcia Band RatDog Phil Lesh and Friends Rhythm Devils Furthur Donna Jean Godchaux Band Heart of Gold Band Missing Man Formation New Riders of the Purple Sage Old and in the Way Legion of Mary Reconstruction Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band JGB Kingfish Bobby and the Midnites SerialPod BK3 7 Walkers Billy & the Kids Related articles Discography Band members Acid Tests Eric Andersen John Perry Barlow Dark Star Orchestra Deadhead Deadheads for Obama Deadicated: A Tribute to the Grateful Dead Bob Dylan Festival Express Bill Graham Gerrit Graham Grateful dead (folklore) Grateful Dead Records Rick Griffin David Grisman Lenny Hart Dan Healy Bob Heil Bruce Hornsby Jazz Is Dead Alton Kelley Steve Kimock Ned Lagin Dick Latvala David Lemieux Branford Marsalis Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions Stanley Mouse The Music Never Stopped The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead Pickin' on the Grateful Dead: A Tribute Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra Relix Reunions of the Grateful Dead Rex Foundation Merl Saunders Rock Scully Bob Seidemann Laurence Shurtliff Owsley Stanley Summer Jam at Watkins Glen Howard Wales Wall of Sound Wharf Rats Grateful Dead Archive Categories Grateful Dead Albums Members Songs Book Category Portal

Jerry Garcia Studio Albums New Riders of the Purple Sage New Riders of the Purple Sage Jerry Garcia & Howard Wales Hooteroll? Jerry Garcia Garcia Compliments Reflections Run for the Roses Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders Heavy Turbulence Fire Up Fire Up Plus Jerry Garcia Band Cats Under the Stars Jerry Garcia & David Grisman Garcia/Grisman Not for Kids Only Shady Grove So What The Pizza Tapes Grateful Dawg Been All Around This World Live Albums Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders Live at Keystone Keystone Encores Pure Jerry: Keystone Berkeley, September 1, 1974 Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings Old and in the Way Old and in the Way That High Lonesome Sound Breakdown Live at the Boarding House Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band Almost Acoustic Ragged but Right New Riders of the Purple Sage Vintage NRPS Glendale Train Jerry Garcia Band Jerry Garcia Band How Sweet It Is Don't Let Go Shining Star After Midnight: Kean College, 2/28/80 Pure Jerry: Theatre 1839, San Francisco, July 29 & 30, 1977 Pure Jerry: Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, October 31, 1987 Pure Jerry: Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, The Best of the Rest, October 15–30, 1987 Pure Jerry: Merriweather Post Pavilion, September 1 & 2, 1989 Pure Jerry: Warner Theatre, March 18, 1978 Pure Jerry: Coliseum, Hampton, VA, November 9, 1991 Pure Jerry: Bay Area 1978 Let It Rock: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 2 Garcia Live Volume One June 26, 1981, Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA Garcia Live Volume Two Fall 1989: The Long Island Sound Garcia Live Volume Four Garcia Live Volume Five Jerry Garcia & Howard Wales Side Trips, Volume One Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions Jerry Garcia & David Grisman Grateful Dawg Legion Of Mary Legion of Mary: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 1 Garcia Live Volume Three Jerry Garcia & John Kahn Pure Jerry: Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, San Rafael, California, February 28, 1986 Compilations All Good Things: Jerry Garcia Studio Sessions Garcia Plays Dylan The Very Best of Jerry Garcia Well-Matched: The Best of Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia Bands Wildwood Boys Black Mountain Boys Grateful Dead New Riders of the Purple Sage Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders Old and in the Way Legion of Mary Jerry Garcia Band Reconstruction Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band Jerry Garcia & David Grisman Related articles Carolyn Garcia John Kahn Tiger

Bob Weir Studio Albums Bob Weir Ace Heaven Help the Fool Kingfish Kingfish Bobby and the Midnites Bobby and the Midnites Where the Beat Meets the Street RatDog Evening Moods Live Albums Kingfish Live 'n' Kickin' Kingfish in Concert: King Biscuit Flower Hour Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman Live Fall 1989: The Long Island Sound RatDog Live at Roseland The Other Ones The Strange Remain Compilations Weir Here – The Best of Bob Weir Bands Grateful Dead Kingfish Bob Weir Band Bobby and the Midnites Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman RatDog The Other Ones The Dead Furthur Related articles Tamalpais Research Institute

Phil Lesh Studio albums There and Back Again Live Albums Phil Lesh and Friends Love Will See You Through There and Back Again Live at the Warfield The Other Ones The Strange Remain Bands Grateful Dead Too Loose Ta Truck Phil Lesh & Friends The Other Ones The Dead Furthur Related articles Terrapin Crossroads

Bill Kreutzmann Studio Albums Rhythm Devils The Apocalypse Now Sessions Backbone Backbone Trichromes Trichromes Dice with the Universe (EP) 7 Walkers 7 Walkers Live Videos Rhythm Devils The Rhythm Devils Concert Experience Bands Grateful Dead Backbone The Other Ones Trichromes The Dead SerialPod BK3 Rhythm Devils 7 Walkers Billy & the Kids

Mickey Hart Studio albums Solo Rolling Thunder Diga Däfos Yamantaka Music to be Born By At the Edge Planet Drum Mickey Hart's Mystery Box Supralingua Spirit into Sound Global Drum Project Mysterium Tremendum Superorganism Rhythm Devils The Apocalypse Now Sessions Live albums The Other Ones The Strange Remain Live videos Rhythm Devils The Rhythm Devils Concert Experience Compilation albums The Best of Mickey Hart: Over the Edge and Back Bands Grateful Dead The Other Ones The Dead Rhythm Devils Related articles Lenny Hart

Woodstock Festival Founders Michael Lang John P. Roberts Joel Rosenman Artie Kornfeld August 15, 1969 Richie Havens Swami Satchidananda Sweetwater Bert Sommer Tim Hardin Ravi Shankar Melanie Arlo Guthrie Joan Baez August 16, 1969 Quill Country Joe McDonald John Sebastian Santana Keef Hartley The Incredible String Band Canned Heat Mountain Grateful Dead Creedence Clearwater Revival August 17, 1969 August 18, 1969 Janis Joplin Sly and the Family Stone The Who Jefferson Airplane Joe Cocker and The Grease Band Country Joe and the Fish Ten Years After The Band Blood, Sweat & Tears Johnny and Edgar Winter Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Paul Butterfield Blues Band Sha Na Na Jimi Hendrix Related Bethel Woods Center for the Arts Hog Farm Collective List of performances and events My Generation The Road to Woodstock Taking Woodstock Wavy Gravy Woodstock (film) Woodstock '79 Woodstock Reunion 1979 Woodstock '89 Woodstock '94 Woodstock '99 Woodstock '09 Woodstock Nation Woodstock Nation (book by Abbie Hoffman) Woodstock Revisited Max Yasgur Recordings At the Woodstock Festival (1970) Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More (1970) Woodstock 2 (1971) The Best of Woodstock (1994) Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music (1994) Woodstock Diary (1994) Live at Woodstock (1999) The Woodstock Experience (2009) Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm (2009) Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) (Melanie song) Woodstock (Joni Mitchell song)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 1994 Performers The Animals The Band Duane Eddy Grateful Dead Elton John John Lennon Bob Marley Rod Stewart Early influences Willie Dixon Non-performers (Ahmet Ertegun Award) Johnny Otis