The Grateful Dead were an American rock band, which was formed in the mid 1960s in San Francisco from the remnants of another band, Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions.
Biography
In 1965 the band made the stylistic switch from folk music to rock music,
with Jerry Garcia, Ron Pigpen McKernan and Bob Weir from the Jug Champions
joined by Bill Kreutzmann and Phil Lesh, and in 1967 - the band's
breakthrough year - another percussionist, Mickey Hart.
Playing originally as The Warlocks, and later "The Grateful Dead" (a name
inspired by the Egyptian Book of the Dead), they became the de facto
resident band of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, with the early sound heavily
influenced by Kesey's LSD-soaked Trips Festivals. This early period is
covered in Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." Their musical
influences varied widely with input from the psychedelic music of the era,
combined with rhythm and blues, jazz, and country. These various influences
were distilled into a unique new music that was a synthesis of all American
folk music forms to-date; it paid homage to previous forms, and also
reflected a sense of adventure and a continuous quest for the "musical
unknown"; more often than not, exploration and a search for continual
newness were the hallmarks of their live performances.
The early records reflected their live repertoire -- lengthy instrumental
jams with guitar solos by Garcia, best exemplified by "Dark Star" -- but
lacked the energy of the shows and did not sell terribly well. The 1970s
live album Live Dead did capture more of their essence, but commercial
success did not come until the country influence came through, on American
Beauty and Workingman's Dead, both released in 1970. These records featured
the band's laid-back acoustic musicianship and more traditional song
structures.
Jerry Garcia played lead guitar and Phil played bass guitar. Bob (usually referred
to as "Bobby"), the youngest member of the group, played rhythm guitar.
Pigpen played keyboards, harmonica and was an inspirational vocalist until
his death in 1973. Both Bill and Mickey played drums, and a wide variety of
other percussion instruments. Mickey took an extended leave of absence from
1970 to 1975. Tom "TC" Constanten also played keyboards in 1968-1970. In
1971, Keith Godchaux followed TC on the keyboards - appearing alongside
Pigpen on tour. Keith brought his wife Donna Godchaux as a vocalist. Keith
and Donna left the band in 1979, and Brent Mydland joined as keyboardist.
Brent was the keyboardist until his death in 1990. Without missing a show,
Vince Welnick and Bruce Hornsby joined as keyboardists. Vince stayed with
the band until 1995. Bruce left in 1992.
Touring was the hallmark of the Grateful Dead. With the exception of 1975,
the Grateful Dead toured regularly around the USA from the winter of 1965
until July 9, 1995 - with a few detours to Canada and Europe (see Dick's
Picks 7, Hundred Year Hall, Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead, and Europe
'72) and 3 nights at the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt in 1978. Their
numerous studio albums were generally collections of new songs that had been
initially played in concert. The band was famous for their extended jams,
which showcased both individual improvisation as well as a singularly unique
"group-mind" improvisation where each of the band members improvised
individually, while still blending together as a cohesive musical unit,
often engaging in extended improvisational flights of fancy. A hallmark of
their concert sets were continuous sets of music where each song would blend
into the next (a segue).
Many of their fans, commonly referred to as Dead Heads, would follow the
band on tour. In contrast to many other bands, the Grateful Dead encouraged
their fans to tape their shows. For many years, almost all of their shows
would have dedicated taping sections. The band allowed sharing of tapes of
their shows, as long as no profits were made on the sale of their show
tapes.
Starting in 1991 the they has released numerous live concerts from
their archives in two concurrent series: the From the Vault releases are
multi-track remixes, whereas the Dick's Picks series are based on two-track
mixes made at the time of the recording. There have been at least 28 DP
releases as of April 2003. Then a series of videos began to trickle out of
"The Vault" starting with View From the Vault (recorded in Pittsburgh on
July 8, 1990 at Three Rivers Stadium) and Another View from the Vault
(recorded in Washington, DC on June 14, 1991 at RFK Stadium.) All three
series of releases continue to this day.
Following Garcia's passing in 1995, the remaining members formally decided
to disband and pursue various solo projects: most notably Bob Weir's Ratdog,
Phil Lesh and Friends and Mickey Hart's music for the 1996 Olympics. Bob,
Bill, Phil and Mickey reunited in mid-2002 as The Other Ones, and embarked
on a fall tour throughout the eastern half of the U.S. On February 14, 2003,
reflecting the reality what was, they renamed themselves The Dead, keeping
'Grateful' retired out of respect for Jerry. The adventure continues...