timelinesign in to comment

Grateful Dead

A Palo Alto band that played Ken Kesey's Acid Tests, made its name with long live improvisation, and in 1970 turned to acoustic songs on Workingman's Dead and American Beauty.

Origin
Palo Alto, California, United States
Years active
1965-1995
Genres
rock, psychedelic rock, folk rock, country rock, jam band
Labels
Warner Bros., Grateful Dead Records, Arista
Also known as
The Warlocks

Palo Alto to the Acid Tests

The Grateful Dead began in Palo Alto in 1965 as the Warlocks, formed from the remnants of a jug band and members of the Wildwood Boys. Their first show under that name was at Magoo's Pizza Parlor in Menlo Park on 5 May 1965. The new name came out of a dictionary, and the first show under it was at one of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests in San Jose on 4 December 1965.

The founding line-up was Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. Mickey Hart joined as a second drummer in September 1967, and the lyricist Robert Hunter began writing their words, starting with Dark Star. Warner Bros. put out their first LP in 1967.

Collage and live record

Their second album, Anthem of the Sun (1968), was built by Garcia, Lesh and the soundman Dan Healy, who spliced studio and concert tapes into hybrid recordings. A Warner Bros. executive, Joe Smith, called it the most unreasonable project the label had ever involved itself in.

To clear debt run up on Aoxomoxoa and meet their contract, the band then recorded a concert album. Live/Dead (1969) was taken from shows at the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore West in early 1969 and was the first live rock album to use 16-track recording. Its side-long Dark Star runs just over 23 minutes. Robert Christgau wrote that it contains the finest rock improvisation ever recorded.

Two albums in 1970

On 31 January 1970 police raided the band's hotel on Bourbon Street in New Orleans and arrested and charged 19 people with drug possession, a raid the lyrics of Truckin' refer to. Under that strain they spent nine days recording Workingman's Dead, released in June 1970. Hunter had joined the band on the road for the first time, and the new songs, among them Uncle John's Band, revived their folk roots with close harmony singing.

American Beauty followed in November 1970. It was made at Wally Heider's studio in San Francisco. The album brought in more writing from the rest of the band, including Lesh's Box of Rain, and guests such as the mandolinist David Grisman, who plays on Friend of the Devil and Ripple. Pitchfork called it the band's fifth and greatest studio album.

On the road

Keith Godchaux joined on keyboards in late 1971 and his wife Donna Jean in early 1972. That spring the band toured Europe with a 16-track recorder, and the best of it became the triple album Europe '72. Pigpen played his last concert on 17 June 1972 and died on 8 March 1973. The band then formed its own label, Grateful Dead Records.

They played more than 2,300 concerts. Of about 2,350 shows, almost 2,200 were taped, and the band let fans record them from a taper section behind the soundboard. The Godchauxs left in 1979 and Brent Mydland took over on keyboards until his death in 1990, when Vince Welnick succeeded him. In the Dark (1987) was their best-selling studio album and gave them their only Top-40 single, Touch of Grey.

After 1995

The Grateful Dead played their last concert at Soldier Field in Chicago on 9 July 1995. Jerry Garcia died on 9 August 1995, and the surviving members decided to disband. Later groups drawn from the band included the Other Ones, the Dead, Furthur and Dead & Company. In 2015 Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann and Hart played five Fare Thee Well concerts, billed as the last time the four would play together. Lesh died in 2024 and Weir in January 2026.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2024. Bands such as Phish and Widespread Panic took up their nightly changing setlists, improvisation and open taping.

Members

Records

Songs

Phish, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jefferson Airplane, Dead & Company

Where to go next

Official

Reference

  • Grateful Dead A history of the band, its members and its live practice.
  • Live/Dead Recording dates and reception.
  • American Beauty How the album was made, with track listing and credits.
  • Europe '72 The tour and the triple album it produced.

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Live performance archives

Sources

  1. Grateful Dead, Wikipedia
  2. Anthem of the Sun, Wikipedia
  3. The Grateful Dead: A Guide to Their Essential Live Songs, Pitchfork (2017-05-23)
  4. American Beauty / American Beauty: The Angel's Share, Pitchfork (2020-10)
  5. Official Grateful Dead site, Grateful Dead
  6. Grateful Dead collection, Internet Archive