The Grateful Dead were the leading band of the San Francisco psychedelic era, but continued as a highly successful cult band for three decades with a vast following of dedicated fans known as Deadheads. The band was renowned for its unique and eclectic style, fusing elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, country, jazz and psychedelia, and for long live performances featuring extended improvisation around a core of established and well-loved songs.
The roots of the Grateful Dead lie with singer/songwriter Jerry Garcia, a longtime bluegrass enthusiast who moved to Palo Alto, CA, in 1960 and soon befriended Robert Hunter, whose lyrics later graced many of Garcia's most famous melodies. 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 Bob Weir on guitar and Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan on keyboards.
In 1965, a new group called the Warlocks was formed from the remants of the jug band, with a lineup which now included Lesh on bass as well as Bill Kreutzmann on drums. The Warlocks made their electric debut that July and became the house band at Ken Kesey's Acid Tests, a series of now-legendary public LSD parties and multimedia 'happenings'. But another band was already recording under the Warlocks name and so the band had to change its name in order to get a recording contract. Towards the end of 1965, the Warlocks rechristened themselves the Grateful Dead.
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. Many other bands, such as Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Big Brother & the Holding Company, were also located in the Haight-Ashbury area, giving San Francisco an image as a centre for the hippie counterculture of the era.
At this time, the Deads's original manager, Hank Harrison, was replaced by Rock Scully. Signing to MGM, in 1966 the Dead also recorded their first demos, but the sessions proved disastrous and the label dropped the band a short time later.
The Grateful Dead’s early music in the mid 1960s was essentially a 'street party' style of psychedelic music, with numerous open-air park events and closed-street Haight-Ashbury block parties. The Dead were not inclined to fit their music to an established category such as pop rock, blues, folk rock or country, but their music often fused all of these genres and often (at least in live performance) included exploratory improvisation and spacey soundscapes. Most fans believe that the Grateful Dead's true spirit was rarely well captured in studio performance.
As 1967 became the Summer of Love, the Dead emerged as one of the top bands in the Bay Area music scene, regularly appearing at top local venues including the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom.
In March 1967, the Dead issued their self-titled Warner debut album, 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 6-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, extended studio experimentation had left them over $100,000 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, which succeeded in capturing the true essence of the band in all of its improvisational, psychedelic glory. It was followed by a pair of classic 1970 studio albums, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, which reflected the band's country and folk roots and which remained the cornerstone of the Dead's live repertoire for years to come.
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 travelling 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 Warner contract with back-to-back concert albums - a 1971 eponymous effort and 1972's Europe '72.
The latter release was the final Dead album to feature Pigpen, a heavy drinker who died of liver failure in March 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 From the Mars Hotel, the group took a break 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 band's catalogue - with the result that they did not re-enter the studio for another 7 years.
The Godchauxs were dismissed from the lineup in 1979, with Keith replaced by keyboardist Brent Mydland. After a pair of 1981 live albums, Reckoning and Dead Set, the band released no new recordings until 1987, focussing 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.
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 album since Go to Heaven, which became a surprising 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. However, the audience dynamic also changed as a result, with several concerts plagued by violence.
In July 1986, Garcia - a year removed from a drug treatment programme - lapsed into near-fatal diabetic coma brought on by his continued substance abuse problems, regaining consciousness 5 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 Dylan yielding the live album Dylan & the Dead. Their final studio effort, Built to Last, followed in 1989.
In July 1990, Mydland suffered a fatal drug overdose, the third keyboardist in the band's history to die. 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 hospitalised 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, but few were surprised when it was announced on 9th August 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. In 1996, Weir and Hart mounted the first Furthur Festival, a summer tour headlined by their respective bands Ratdog and Mystery Box, and 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 continues on.