#music, Great American Bands, page #1: The Grateful Dead, «Come hear Uncle John’s Band»

It’s pretty easy to talk about great American bands as there are and there have always been so many of them. From the old Dixieland jazz bands to the gospel ensembles to the big bands of the 1940’s to the rock and roll and blues bands of the 50’s, rock bands in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90/s to whatever they have now. Marching bands, brass bands, acapella groups, jazz trios, symphony orchestras, quintets, string quartets, boy bands, girl bands, you name it, America has it and good. No doubt. But my thing here is rock, so I will concentrate on my first choice, The Grateful Dead.

The Grateful Dead are and have always been my favourite American band. Not to say that I haven’t others that I am crazy about, like Chicago, The Eagles, The Dooby Brothers, The Doors and others, but they will get their edition in this series. But there is something different about the Grateful Dead. For one, they were one of the biggest grossing bands and throughout their long history they only had one top 40 hit, «A Touch of Grey» (1987). This was also their only single and, if you remember, their only video on MTV. You do know about MTV? No? The channel that played music videos? If you don’t you really need to go back and research a bit of popular history.

The band was formed in San Francisco in 1965. The original members were: Jerry Garcia (lead guitar and vocals), Bob Weir (rhythm guitar and vocals), Ron «Pigpen» McKernan (keyboards, harmonica, and vocals), Phil Lesh (bass guitar and vocals), and Bill Kreutzmann. They had previously been known as the Warlocks.

What I totally loved about The Grateful Dead was that they were a band that you had to experience in concert. They played every type of music. Definitely not your typical early 60’s rock band. The guys knew how to play music and they did it all, from gospel, bluegrass, folk, country, world, reggae, and psychedelia. Wow! Impressive? Yes, but that is what I would expect musicians to be able to do. And my favourite thing about their shows is that they improvised continually. They were not interested in fitting in to radio-play formats, or the top of the pops.

Then how the hell did they make any money? How did they get so famous? Well, if you don’t know, I will tell you. They played their arses off across the country and in Europe as well. That and the fact that they encouraged recordings (free) of their concerts. Then when their existence was passed along by enough mouths to ears, they sold millions of albums. You know, the lp’s, remember? Yeah, that was during the days when you had to dial numbers on a phone…

The band also has a dark side, so they say. By 1990 they had lost three keyboardists… And in 1995 their main dude, Jerry Garcia, died… There is a lot to this band, a lot of history, a lot of members, a lot of great songs, but you can look up all that stuff, I mean Wikipedia es readily available. My part is to be a catalyst for your searches, for your knowledge-gaining activities, dig? So I leave you with one of my fave Grateful Dead tunes, from a live performance, of course…

CHEERS