The Grateful Dead: Rock Legends
San Francisco's Favourite Psychedelic Jam Band
The Grateful Dead's reputation as a leading psychedelic rock band remains unchallenged. San Francisco's best-loved people's band gave us a huge legacy of great rock music
The Grateful Dead are the archetypal ‘Jam Band’, and were an integral part of the San Franciscan psychedelic scene from 1966, through the Summer of Love and onwards. Originally formed as The Warlocks, the band later adopted the name by which it was to become famous, moved to the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Original Jam Band
Two of the band’s members, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, had been heavily influenced by the folk-revival of the early 1960s, out of which Bob Dylan and The Byrds had emerged, and those influences remained in the Dead’s music, most notably in the song ‘St Stephen’. The band was also capable of playing excellent blues and rock music and early performances at venues such as the Fillmore saw innovative versions of ‘Smokestack Lightning’ and ‘Midnight Hour’. One of the innovations most associated with them, was the introduction of the 'extended song'. At a time when the average track lasted 3-4 minutes, they were playing 10, 15 or even 20 minute versions of songs such as ‘Midnight Hour’. These extended versions involved improvisations by the different instruments laid over a basic rhythm to provide a structured ‘jam’, a concept already well-established in jazz – hence their designation as a ‘jam band’.
The People's Band
In addition to playing ‘paying gigs', the Grateful Dead were well-known for playing free concerts and benefits for ‘alternative’ causes (they played more free concerts than any other band in history). These were often in the open air and they frequently played the San Franciscan parks. Unlike many other bands, which would play for an hour or two in two different sets, the Dead became famous for playing long concerts, sometimes lasting eight or more hours, a product of their ability to improvisation.
Recording the Grateful Dead
The band also encouraged their fans to record the concerts and, as a result, a large number of ‘bootleg’ recordings circulate amongst ‘Deadheads’ (as the band’s fans call themselves). The band, playing through an enormous, specially-designed, ‘wall-of-sound’ sound system, also recorded their own concerts and many of these have been released commercially. The band was one of those that never sought success in the singles charts. The band’s early albums have stood the test of time and include Anthem of the Sun (1968), Live/Dead (1969), Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty (both 1970).
The Grateful Dead End
The Dead became one of a group of bands from the city of San Francisco to become world-famous through their identification with the Summer of Love and the counterculture. Others included Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. They also survived as a band longer than any of these others, finally abandoning the name Grateful Dead after Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995. (Garcia was the band’s acknowledged leader, although he disliked being identified in this way.) Other members of the band have, however, continued to play music from the Dead’s repertoire under a variety of names (for example, Bob Weir’s ‘Ratdog’, Micky Hart’s ‘Mystery Box’, and ‘The Other Ones’ involving Weir, Hart, Bruce Hornsby and Phil Lesh). In 2002, these former members renamed themselves ‘The Dead’ (leaving the ‘Grateful’ part of the name to identify the period when Garcia had been alive) and continued to do what they do best, play exceptionally good music for millions of enthusiastic fans.
