"what a long, strange trip it's been"
It would not be humanly possible for me to cram the long, storied history of the Grateful Dead into a mere couple of paragraphs and it simply would not do the band justice. For that reason, this section will be short and concise, but I will leave links at the bottom of the page to other reliable, more detailed accounts of the band's history.
In the days when the San Francisco scene was on the verge of a psychedelic revolution, one talented musician named Jerry Garcia and his band of psychedelic cohorts would completely change the face of American music. What started out as a simple jug band named Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, the Grateful Dead was officially formed in July of 1965.
The band's founding members would include Jerry Garcia on lead guitar and vocals, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan on the harmonica/organ, Bob Weir on rhythm guitar, Phil Lesh on the electric bass, and Bill Kreutzmann on drums. Initially, the band could have been considered nothing more than a very loud bar band, sometimes they would drive people away with their intensely loud and strange style of music. However, their luck, as well as their lives, would change when they were introduced to Ken Kesey and his merry band of pranksters in December of 1965. Kesey had already begun orchestrating LSD-fueled "parties" when he met the Dead and asked them to be the house band for what the media would later refer to as "The Acid Tests." The tests were where things really started to take off for the band musically, not commercially. It was here where the band developed what they called "a group mind," where each musician plays off the other, morphing the band into one single entity as opposed to five different beings.
By the year 1966, Dead shows were being held regularly at the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium, the brainchild of rock concert promoter, Bill Graham. Headlining with a number of other San Francisco bands, including the psychedelic Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Grateful Dead were moving up the ladder in the world of music. After the Acid Tests, San Francisco became a haven for run aways and those looking for a free ride eventually leading to the media frenzy known as the 1967 Summer of Love. During this time, members of the Grateful Dead were living in a house in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of Palo Alto, California and they developed a following, in part due to their loving and free-flowing attitude. Garcia pretty much summed up the mission of the band as such, "we're trying to make music in such a way that it doesn't have a message for anybody. We don't have anything to tell anybody. We don't want to change anybody. We want people to have the chance to feel a little better. That's the absolute most we want to do with our music. The music that we make is an act of love and act of joy... we're not telling [anybody] to go get stoned, or drop out... We are trying to make things groovier for everybody so more people can feel better more often, to advance the trip, to get higher- however you want to say it."
In January of 1967, the band's first album titled, The Grateful Dead appeared on Warner Bros. Label, it was not received well by critics and, as a result, the band ending up losing a lot of money. Debt was a problem that would plague the Dead throughout many years of their thirty year tenure. Over the course of the next four years, the Dead would release five more albums: the studio experimentations Anthem of the Sun and Aoxomoxoa, the live concert release entitled Live/Dead, and two acoustic albums, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. Each album featured drummer Mickey Hart playing alongside Bill Kreutzmann, as the two had met in September of 1967 and struck an intrinsic, cohesive bond. Around the fall of 1971, Pigpen, Grateful Dead organ player and blues frontman, began falling victim to his slowly degenerating health, and the Dead subsequently hired Keith Godchaux as their lead keyboardist. A few months later, in March of 1972, Keith's wife, Donna Jean, was invited to join the band as an additional vocalist.
Rest of History in timeline format:
March 8, 1973~ Pigpen passes away in Corte Madera, California, at age 27
March 23, 1974~ Owsley "Bear" Stanley's Wall of Sound full system debuts
Late '74- Early '76~ Tour hiatus begins following 5 night Grateful Dead farewell run at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California
Spring '76~ Grateful Dead touring resumes, Blues for Allah is released, followed by Terrapin Station the next year
February 17, 1979~ Keith and Donna's last show with the Grateful Dead
April 22, 1979~ Brent Mydland hired as new keyboardist
July 1986~ Jerry Garcia slips into a life-threatening diabetic coma. Although he eventually regained consciousness, relearning how to play the guitar, among other problems, kept the band from touring until the following spring.
1987~ Billboard top ten- first ever Grateful Dead listing- "Touch of Grey"
July 26, 1990~ Keyboardist Brent Mydland dies of a drug overdose at his home in Lafayette, California. Enter Vince Welnick as new Dead keyboardist
1991~ the Grateful Dead become the top-grossing band in the US, with 79 concerts
November 1, 1993~ Dick's Pick's Vol. 1 is released
August 1992~ Garcia collapses from exhaustion and a congested heart, cancels tour
July 9, 1995~ the Grateful Dead play what would be their last show ever at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois
A month later- August 9, 1995~ Jerry Garcia is found unconscious and without a pulse while attempting treatment for his heroin addiction at Serenity Knolls treatment facility in Marin County. His life was claimed by a heart attack, he was 53 years old.
December 1995~ the Grateful Dead was put to rest, the loss of Garcia was too much and the band broke up
In the days when the San Francisco scene was on the verge of a psychedelic revolution, one talented musician named Jerry Garcia and his band of psychedelic cohorts would completely change the face of American music. What started out as a simple jug band named Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, the Grateful Dead was officially formed in July of 1965.
The band's founding members would include Jerry Garcia on lead guitar and vocals, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan on the harmonica/organ, Bob Weir on rhythm guitar, Phil Lesh on the electric bass, and Bill Kreutzmann on drums. Initially, the band could have been considered nothing more than a very loud bar band, sometimes they would drive people away with their intensely loud and strange style of music. However, their luck, as well as their lives, would change when they were introduced to Ken Kesey and his merry band of pranksters in December of 1965. Kesey had already begun orchestrating LSD-fueled "parties" when he met the Dead and asked them to be the house band for what the media would later refer to as "The Acid Tests." The tests were where things really started to take off for the band musically, not commercially. It was here where the band developed what they called "a group mind," where each musician plays off the other, morphing the band into one single entity as opposed to five different beings.
By the year 1966, Dead shows were being held regularly at the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium, the brainchild of rock concert promoter, Bill Graham. Headlining with a number of other San Francisco bands, including the psychedelic Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Grateful Dead were moving up the ladder in the world of music. After the Acid Tests, San Francisco became a haven for run aways and those looking for a free ride eventually leading to the media frenzy known as the 1967 Summer of Love. During this time, members of the Grateful Dead were living in a house in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of Palo Alto, California and they developed a following, in part due to their loving and free-flowing attitude. Garcia pretty much summed up the mission of the band as such, "we're trying to make music in such a way that it doesn't have a message for anybody. We don't have anything to tell anybody. We don't want to change anybody. We want people to have the chance to feel a little better. That's the absolute most we want to do with our music. The music that we make is an act of love and act of joy... we're not telling [anybody] to go get stoned, or drop out... We are trying to make things groovier for everybody so more people can feel better more often, to advance the trip, to get higher- however you want to say it."
In January of 1967, the band's first album titled, The Grateful Dead appeared on Warner Bros. Label, it was not received well by critics and, as a result, the band ending up losing a lot of money. Debt was a problem that would plague the Dead throughout many years of their thirty year tenure. Over the course of the next four years, the Dead would release five more albums: the studio experimentations Anthem of the Sun and Aoxomoxoa, the live concert release entitled Live/Dead, and two acoustic albums, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. Each album featured drummer Mickey Hart playing alongside Bill Kreutzmann, as the two had met in September of 1967 and struck an intrinsic, cohesive bond. Around the fall of 1971, Pigpen, Grateful Dead organ player and blues frontman, began falling victim to his slowly degenerating health, and the Dead subsequently hired Keith Godchaux as their lead keyboardist. A few months later, in March of 1972, Keith's wife, Donna Jean, was invited to join the band as an additional vocalist.
Rest of History in timeline format:
March 8, 1973~ Pigpen passes away in Corte Madera, California, at age 27
March 23, 1974~ Owsley "Bear" Stanley's Wall of Sound full system debuts
Late '74- Early '76~ Tour hiatus begins following 5 night Grateful Dead farewell run at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California
Spring '76~ Grateful Dead touring resumes, Blues for Allah is released, followed by Terrapin Station the next year
February 17, 1979~ Keith and Donna's last show with the Grateful Dead
April 22, 1979~ Brent Mydland hired as new keyboardist
July 1986~ Jerry Garcia slips into a life-threatening diabetic coma. Although he eventually regained consciousness, relearning how to play the guitar, among other problems, kept the band from touring until the following spring.
1987~ Billboard top ten- first ever Grateful Dead listing- "Touch of Grey"
July 26, 1990~ Keyboardist Brent Mydland dies of a drug overdose at his home in Lafayette, California. Enter Vince Welnick as new Dead keyboardist
1991~ the Grateful Dead become the top-grossing band in the US, with 79 concerts
November 1, 1993~ Dick's Pick's Vol. 1 is released
August 1992~ Garcia collapses from exhaustion and a congested heart, cancels tour
July 9, 1995~ the Grateful Dead play what would be their last show ever at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois
A month later- August 9, 1995~ Jerry Garcia is found unconscious and without a pulse while attempting treatment for his heroin addiction at Serenity Knolls treatment facility in Marin County. His life was claimed by a heart attack, he was 53 years old.
December 1995~ the Grateful Dead was put to rest, the loss of Garcia was too much and the band broke up
Links to more in-depth history of GD:
1) Dennis McNally's national bestseller, A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead
2) Phil Lesh's in-depth autobiography, Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead
3) Hank Harrison's account of Grateful Dead music history, The Dead Book: A Social History of the Grateful Dead
4) From the website, Gratefullyyours.com, a closer, but free! look at the inside history of the Dead
5) The Grateful Dead Time Capsule, it may lack complete sentences and a "story," but it is a comprehensive account of the Grateful Dead's history
1) Dennis McNally's national bestseller, A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead
- Available for purchase through Amazon.com
2) Phil Lesh's in-depth autobiography, Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead
- Available for purchase through Amazon.com
3) Hank Harrison's account of Grateful Dead music history, The Dead Book: A Social History of the Grateful Dead
- Available for purchase through Amazon.com
4) From the website, Gratefullyyours.com, a closer, but free! look at the inside history of the Dead
- Available for free through the wonders of the world wide web
5) The Grateful Dead Time Capsule, it may lack complete sentences and a "story," but it is a comprehensive account of the Grateful Dead's history
- Also available for free thanks to the convenience of technology