Life lessons on two wheels to the tunes of the
Grateful Dead
This Week in Grateful Dead History
Week 1
I wish I was a headlight on a northbound train.
Even the most cursory examination of the lyrics of Grateful Dead songs quickly uncovers one of the most fundamental aspects of the band’s identity: This is an American band, rooted in American culture, and built around easily recognizable locales and deeply American principles and history.
Other Posts
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 27 - July 4, 1989
Give me five
Despite Grand Funk Railroad laying claim to the title in their 1973 album, “We’re an American Band,” there is no more American band than the Grateful Dead. Songs like Cumberland Blues (Lotta poor man got to walk the line/Just to pay his union dues), Truckin’ (Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street/Chicago, New York, Detroit and it’s all on the same street), Me and My Uncle (Me and my uncle went riding down/South Colorado, West Texas bound/We stopped over in Santa Fe/That being the point just about half way), and The Music Never Stopped (There’s a band out on the highway/They’re high steppin’ into town/It’s a rainbow full of sound/It’s fireworks, calliopes and clowns) evoke an indisputable sense of Americana.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 14 - March 28, 1981
Left-hand monkey wrench
For musicologist Michael Steven Hartman, music is a direct reflection of the rhythms of the universe and the lifeforms that inhabit it. While his interests in polyrhythmic and exotic percussion are plainly evident during the Drums and Space portion of any Dead concert, many Deadheads are unaware of the lifelong dedication Hartman, A.K.A. Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, has shown in exploring the cosmic common thread that music, and particularly drumming, represents in human consciousness.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 21 - May 22, 1977
My time coming
During the ’70s, a member of the Grateful Dead family, Dick Latvala, heard “them voices,” and began collecting recordings of Grateful Dead shows. But unlike the rest of us Deadheads who built private stashes of concert tapes as a hobby, Latvala felt compelled to make a career of it. He maintained a catalogue of his ever-growing collection that went far beyond the set list, including such details as the date and venue, who made the recording, what equipment was used, and extensive personal critiques of the performances.
All Material Copyright 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 by Stewart Sallo