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Grateful Dead Biography
Assembled in 1965 in San Francisco with bluegrass-country enthusiast Jerome "Jerry" Garcia on guitar, "Pigpen" McKernan on keys, Bob Weir also on guitar, Phil Lesh on bass, and Bill Kreutzmann on drums, The Grateful Dead began as a folk and bluegrass outfit. Weir, Garcia, and McKernan originally played together as early as 1964 in an ensemble called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. From the beginning, the collective's sound reflected the varying influences of its members, including Garcia's bluegrass background and McKernan's penchant for blues. In 1965, after joining with Lesh, the band adopted electric instruments, became known as The Warlocks, and started serving as the house band at Ken Kesey's notorious "acid test" parties before L.S.D. was outlawed. The acid rock and psychedelia popular at the time — especially in San Francisco — helped the band merge a more modern sound with its affinity for rootsier music. And, of course, the drugs helped make its music that much more intoxicating.
In December of 1965, Garcia took a new name, The Grateful Dead, from a song about a pauper's funeral, and signed with Warner Bros. Mickey Hart joined the group two years later (he left in 1971 and rejoined in 1974). But it wasn't until the group hired lyricist Robert Hunter (who made his debut with the band on 1969's Aoxomoxoa) that The Dead began to develop a consistency in imagery and tone, with his lyrics matching the intricacies of the band's fast-developing interplay. Though the subsequent Live/Dead featured the band's most requested song in "Dark Star," the next two albums—Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, both released in 1970 — were perhaps the band's most potent (and commercially accessible) one-two punch, yielding tracks like "Uncle John's Band," "Casey Jones," "Sugar Magnolia," and, of course, "Truckin'."
With no Top 40 singles and virtually no help from commercial radio, The Dead contented themselves almost entirely on the concert circuit for much of their career and became rock's premier improvisational group. Which, of course, pleased legions of Deadheads. Like the band, followers of The Dead considered the concert, not the album, as essentially important. Such a belief was fortunate, as the band's sporadic studio efforts in the mid- to late '70s were nothing special. Even the introduction of big-name producers Lowell George and Keith Gordon for Terrapin Station and Shakedown Street, respectively, failed to create any significant gain in sales.
On the road, however, sales were no problem at all. The Dead's unprecedented ethic of touring six months of every year took hold throughout the '70s and '80s, when they annually finished among the top-grossing live acts. And while the money rolled in from tickets, the band had a well-deserved reputation for playing benefit concerts, the best known being the time in 1978 when they spent $500,000 to ship equipment to Egypt to play a concert benefiting the Egyptian Department of Antiquities.
Beginning in 1981, The Dead took a six-year hiatus from recording, choosing to spend their time on the road. All was well until 1985, when Garcia's unseemly underside was exposed after he was arrested for free-basing cocaine in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The following July, Garcia collapsed into a near-fatal, five-day diabetic coma brought on by excessive drug use. It seemed he had hit rock bottom, but just five months later, he was back onstage with the band and seemingly was on the road to recovery.
The positive vibrations continued with the 1987 release of In the Dark, a victorious return to the studio that yielded the band's biggest hit ever, "Touch of Grey," as well as attracting legions of new fans. The Dead were back, but there remained trouble in paradise. Garcia continued his drug use, and the customarily mellow legion of Deadheads following the band began encountering the long arm of the law. During the 1989 tour, hundreds of fans were arrested in violent clashes with the police, and two fans died, one from an overdose while in police custody, the other from a broken neck of questionable cause.
In fact, throughout its lengthy career, the band was plagued by untimely tragedy. Founding member McKernan died of a stomach hemorrhage in 1973 and was replaced by keyboardist Keith Godchaux (who brought along his wife, Donna, as a backing vocalist). Godchaux himself died in a car accident in 1980. His keyboard replacement, Brent Mydland, died of an overdose a decade later in 1990 (he was replaced by former Tubes keyboardist Vince Welnick). The granddaddy of all Deadheads, Jerry Garcia, died in 1995 of heart failure while in drug rehab, ending an impressive reign of gigs, drugs, and rock and roll. Garcia played his final show with the band July 9, 1995, at Chicago's Soldier's Field. On Dec. 8 of that year, The Grateful Dead officially called it quits.
But The Dead legacy of touring, jamming, and fanatical followings hasn't stopped. It still lives on in bands like Vermont's Phish, Virginia's Dave Matthews Band, and New York's Blues Traveler, all of which are poised to capture the formidable throne left vacant by the king of all jam bands.
Grateful Dead All Music Guide Biography
The roots of the Grateful Dead lie with singer/songwriter Jerry Garcia, a longtime bluegrass enthusiast who began playing the guitar at age 15. Upon relocating to Palo Alto, CA, in 1960, he soon befriended Robert Hunter, whose lyrics later graced many of Garcia's most famous melodies; in time, he also came into contact with aspiring electronic music composer Phil Lesh. By 1962, Garcia was playing banjo in a variety of local folk and bluegrass outfits, two years later forming Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions with guitarist Bob Weir and keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan; in 1965, the group was renamed the Warlocks, their lineup now additionally including Lesh on bass as well as Bill Kreutzmann on drums.
The Warlocks made their electric debut that July; Ken Kesey soon tapped them to become the house band at his notorious Acid Tests, a series of now-legendary public LSD parties and multimedia "happenings" mounted prior to the drug's criminalization. As 1965 drew to its close, the Warlocks rechristened themselves the Grateful Dead, the name taken from a folk tale discovered in a dictionary by Garcia; bankrolled by chemist/LSD manufacturer Owsley Stanley, the band members soon moved into a communal house situated at 710 Ashbury Street in San Francisco, becoming a fixture on the local music scene and building a large fan base on the strength of their many free concerts. Signing to MGM, in 1966 the Dead also recorded their first demos; the sessions proved disastrous, and the label dropped the group a short time later.
As 1967 mutated into the Summer of Love, the Dead emerged as one of the top draws on the Bay Area music scene, honing an eclectic repertoire influenced by folk, country, and the blues while regularly appearing at top local venues including the Fillmore Auditorium, the Avalon Ballroom, and the Carousel. In March of 1967 the Dead issued their self-titled Warner Bros. debut LP, a disappointing effort which failed to recapture the cosmic sprawl of their live appearances; after performing at the Monterey Pop Festival, the group expanded to a six-piece with the addition of second drummer Mickey Hart. Their follow-up, 1968's Anthem of the Sun, fared better in documenting the free-form jam aesthetic of their concerts, but after completing 1969's Aoxomoxoa, their penchant for time-consuming studio experimentation left them over 100,000 dollars in debt to the label.
The Dead's response to the situation was to bow to the demands of fans and record their first live album, 1969's Live/Dead; highlighted by a rendition of Garcia's "Dark Star" clocking in at over 23 minutes, the LP succeeded where its studio predecessors failed in capturing the true essence of the group in all of their improvisational, psychedelicized glory. It was followed by a pair of classic 1970 studio efforts, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty; recorded in homage to the group's country and folk roots, the two albums remained the cornerstone of the Dead's live repertoire for years to follow, with its most popular songs -- "Uncle John's Band," "Casey Jones," "Sugar Magnolia," and "Truckin'" among them -- becoming major favorites on FM radio.
Despite increasing radio airplay and respectable album sales, the Dead remained first and foremost a live act, and as their popularity grew across the world they expanded their touring schedule, taking to the road for much of each year. As more and more of their psychedelic-era contemporaries ceased to exist, the group continued attracting greater numbers of fans to their shows, many of them following the Dead across the country; dubbed "Deadheads," these fans became notorious for their adherence to tie-dyed fashions and excessive drug use, their traveling circus ultimately becoming as much the focal point of concert dates as the music itself. Shows were also extensively bootlegged, and not surprisingly the Dead closed out their Warners contract with back-to-back concert LPs -- a 1971 eponymous effort and 1972's Europe '72.
The latter release was the final Dead album to feature Pigpen McKernan, a heavy drinker who died of liver failure on March 8, 1973; his replacement was keyboardist Keith Godchaux, who brought with him wife Donna Jean to sing backing vocals. 1973's Wake of the Flood was the first release on the new Grateful Dead Records imprint; around the time of its follow-up, 1974's Grateful Dead From the Mars Hotel, the group took a hiatus from the road to allow its members the opportunity to pursue solo projects. After returning to the live arena with a 1976 tour, the Dead signed to Arista to release Terrapin Station, the first in a series of misguided studio efforts that culminated in 1980's Go to Heaven, widely considered the weakest record in the group's catalog -- so weak, in fact, that they did not re-enter the studio for another seven years.
The early '80s was a time of considerable upheaval for the Dead -- the Godchauxs had been dismissed from the lineup in 1979, with Keith dying in a car crash on July 23, 1980. (His replacement was keyboardist Brent Mydland.) After a pair of 1981 live LPs, Reckoning and Dead Set, the group released no new recordings until 1987, focusing instead on their touring schedule -- despite the dearth of new releases, the Dead continued selling out live dates, now playing to audiences which spanned generations. As much a cottage industry as a band, they traveled not only with an enormous road crew but also dozens of friends and family members, many of them Dead staffers complete with health insurance and other benefits.
Still, the Dead were widely regarded as little more than an enduring cult phenomenon prior to the release of 1987's In the Dark; their first studio LP since Go to Heaven, it became the year's most unlikely hit when the single "Touch of Grey" became the first-ever Dead track to reach the Top Ten on the pop charts. Suddenly their videos were in regular rotation on MTV, and virtually overnight the ranks of the Deadheads grew exponentially, with countless new fans flocking to the group's shows. Not only did concert tickets become increasingly tough to come by for longtime followers, but there were also more serious repercussions -- the influx of new fans shifted the crowd dynamic considerably, and once-mellow audiences became infamous not only for their excessive drug habits but also for their violent encounters with police.
Other troubles plagued the Dead as well: in July 1986, Garcia -- a year removed from a drug treatment program -- lapsed into near-fatal diabetic coma brought on by his continued substance abuse problems, regaining consciousness five days later. His health remained an issue in the years which followed, but the Dead spent more time on tour than ever, with a series of dates with Bob Dylan yielding the live album Dylan & the Dead. Their final studio effort, Built to Last, followed in 1989. Tragedy struck in October of that year when a fan died after breaking his neck outside of a show at the New Jersey Meadowlands; two months later, a 19-year-old fan on LSD also died while in police custody at the Los Angeles Forum.
As ever, the Dead themselves were also not immune to tragedy -- on July 26, 1990, Mydland suffered a fatal drug overdose, the third keyboardist in group history to perish; he was replaced not only by ex-Tubes keyboardist Vince Welnick but also by satellite member Bruce Hornsby, a longtime fan who frequently toured with the group. In the autumn of 1992 Garcia was again hospitalized with diabetes and an enlarged heart, forcing the Dead to postpone their upcoming tour until the year's end; he eventually returned to action looking more fit than he had in years. Still, few were surprised when it was announced on August 9, 1995, that Garcia had been found dead in his room at a substance abuse treatment facility in Forest Knolls, CA; the 53 year old's death was attributed to a heart attack.
While Garcia's death spelled the end of the Dead as a continuing creative entity, the story was far from over. As the surviving members disbanded to plot their next move, the band's merchandising arm went into overdrive -- in addition to Dick's Picks, a series of archival releases of classic live material, licensed products ranging from Dead T-shirts to sporting goods to toys flooded the market. Plans were also announced to build Terrapin Station, an interactive museum site. In 1996, Weir and Hart mounted the first Furthur Festival, a summer tour headlined by their respective bands RatDog and Mystery Box; in 1998, they also reunited with Lesh and Hornsby to tour as the Other Ones. In spirit if not in name, the Grateful Dead's trip continued on. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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