Essay on Grateful Dead

In 1967, The Beatles released and the album that would change the way people looked at them as a band and as music as a whole. ‘ 'Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band ' ' was The Beatles eighth studio album and took them 5 months to complete. At the time of the release, hippie culture was prevailing and this year is widely remembered as the summer of love. Long hair, recreational drug use, and psychedelic rock music come to mind when quizzed on stereotypes of the decade, but was it all flowers and peace – or did the ‘Summer of Love ' have a dark side? The group battled with inquisitions about their usage of the drug LSD, which seemed

In the sixties, the psychedelic music scene was at its prime and the world was full of hippie musicians that loved to drop acid and create some of the most interesting and innovative music known to man. During this time, drugs were a very popular part of the hippie culture and the prevalence of LSD helped to create the distinct genre of psychedelic music known as psychedelic or acid rock. Many bands and artists such as Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Beatles, and The Byrds were heavily influenced by LSD, which led to the creation of some very popular music. This decade was full of adventure, music, sex, and drugs, and it was all made possible due to this powerfully trippy drug.

Jimi Hendrix is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer who is widely considered to be the most important electric guitarist in the history of music. Although Hendrix is known for his outstanding ability to play the guitar, he is also a very famous name in Blues music. He played the acoustic guitar but is known for his outstanding ability to play the electric guitar. With songs such as Red House, Here My Train A Comin', and Born Under a Bad Sign, Hendrix is considered to be in the Chicago category and quickly made his way into the history of Blues music.

The vocalist and guitarist of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia was one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century, impacting both the musical and cultural realms. Jerry Garcia was fated to become one of America’s most influential people ever since he was born into Jose Garcia’s household. During his childhood, Jerry Garcia lived in an environment that fueled his musical development and experienced many events that pushed him closer changing the path of American music and culture. Jerry Garcia was a member of the American 1960’s counterculture and really embodied the ideals and goals of the group as a whole. Thanks to the influence of his adolescent development and his

In 1964, The Rolling Stones catapulted to fame amid outrage and controversy about the surliness of their demeanor and the length of their hair. The Stones were considered "dangerous" and riots and scenes of hysteria erupted wherever they played. "Today, they're in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, winners of the prestigious Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and on the cover of TIME magazine" (RIAA; History 2 of 4). "There's nothing new about pop and rock music finding its roots in the anger and rebellion of young people, and there's nothing new in older people expressing unrealistic fears about that music" (RIAA; History 3 of 4). History has shown us that what may be initially perceived as objectionable is actually only the reaction of a new or different experience.

One of the most influential rock bands, Led Zeppelin, not only influenced American musicians, but also influenced the American culture with their combined rock, heavy-metal, blues, and folk to create an outstanding and timeless sound which can be followed from the origins of the band, through the height of the band's career, to the legacy they left behind.

A third thing they have in common is their fans (Deadheads and Phans). The Grateful Dead and Phish have both established quite a following. These fans follow their favorite band around the country to see their shows(this phan has been to over 25 Phish shows). They also collect their favorite shows on cd-r or tape, since both bands have an open taping policy at their concerts. By doing this, Phish and the Dead opened up a new hobby; and other bands have gone along with open taping (e.g. Dave Matthews Band, Moe., Bela Fleck).

on a fishing trip, Garcia saw his father swept to his death by a California

Psychedelics, and drugs in general became such an important part of life during the 60’s that it’s influence was inescapable. Nowhere can this fact be seen more clearly than in the music of the time. The most obvious influence drugs had on music can bee seen in the lyrics. Drug references abound, be it Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” of marijuana smoke, or the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, obviously referring to LSD. Even the names of the bands were drug inspired, as Garofalo points out in reference to the Doors: “The group took it’s name from Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, a book about the liberating aspects of drug use.” Even the music itself was influenced by drugs. Take for example much of the music by the Doors. Their song “the End” is a psychedelic journey in to the world of LSD. The slow beat and “trippy” music in the song was probably created with the use of drugs and hence is better appreciated when heard while on drugs. This is also true of the music of the Grateful Dead, although this can be much more clearly seen in their live performances as opposed to their studio work. Much of their music is geared specifically toward those in the audience who are on drugs. Hearing one of their 30 minute jams is a much different experience on drugs, and that is the experience that they intended the audience to have. While drugs were very much connected to the music of the sixties,

The Woodstock Music Festival is the most famous 1960s rock concerts, made by four promoters who did not know what exactly they were doing. Even with no experience they still managed to create an impressive masterpiece of a concert that truly captured the feel of the 1960s, with acts by Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix.

The emergence of Rock and Roll was one of the most pivotal moments of our nation’s history. The impact that this genre of music made is still evident in our culture. However, before this genre was able to gain momentum, it faced many cultural conflicts. The book, All Shook Up: How Rock ‘N’ Roll Changed America by Glenn C. Altschuler analyzes the impact that rock and roll music has made on American culture. It explores how the Rock and Roll culture was able to roughly integrate and later conflict with preceding cultural values. This is especially apparent in chapters regarding race and sexuality. Overall, Rock and Roll was extremely controversial amongst parents and educators. This new music genre was condemned by the previous generation as

The group was formed in 1965 by bluegrass - enthusiast Jerry Garcia on guitar and vocals, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan on vocals and organ, Bob Weir on guitar and vocals, classical music student Phil Lesh on bass and vocals, and Bill Kreutzmann on drums. From the beginning, they brought together a variety of influences, from Garcia's country background to Pigpen's feeling for blues (his father was an R&B radio DJ) and Lesh's education in contemporary serious" music. Add to that, the experimentation encouraged at some of the group's first performances at novelist Ken Kesey's

"The zeitgeist of the time was the final collapse of a certain kind of thinking. The seeds were sown for feminism, for the whole notion of cyberspace, ecology, and the whole philosophy of Gaia." Suzy Hopkins, formerly Suzy Creamcheese, a dancer and inspirational figure on the underground scene in Los Angeles and London, remembers the visceral way psychedelic culture affected the senses. "There's a difference between a drug and a psychedelic. Drugs make you drugged and psychedelics enhance your ability to see the truth or reality," she says. For her, LSD and music created a kind of alchemy. "When I start to dance, at a certain point, the dance takes over and the music is dancing me. Dancing is this electric enhancement of your spine by sound." Many psychedelic bands explored this sense of abandonment in their music, moving away from standard rock rhythms and instrumentation. The Grateful Dead of San Francisco, for instance, created an improvisatory mix of country rock, blues, and acid R&B on albums like The Grateful Dead (1967) and Anthem of the Sun (1968), while another 'Frisco band, Jefferson Airplane (fronted by the striking vocalist Grace Slick), sang of the childlike hallucinatory delights of an acid trip in the 1967 Top Ten hit "White Rabbit." In Los Angeles the multiracial band Love played whimsical,

“Another popular grunge band from the 90’s, Soundgarden, is infamous for their album, “Supermassive Black Hole”, which included the hit “Black Hole Sun”. This band included members singer Chris Cornell, drummer Matt Cameron (before going to Pearl Jam), lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto.”

Known for being pioneers for rock 'n roll music in the 1960s the Beatles weren 't always musical celebrities. Coming from humble beginnings in