Deadhead Cyclist Archives
Deadhead Cyclist Archives
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 44 – October 31, 1971
Searchlight casting for faults
Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a holiday that commemorates the lives of beloved friends and family members who have passed on. Originating in ancient Mesoamerica (Mexico and northern Central America prior to the Spanish invasion and conquest in the 16th century), the two-day celebration takes place on November 1 and 2, and is said to reunite the living and dead.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 45 – November 7, 1987
Maybe you’ll find direction
Flying surprisingly under the radar, the Grateful Dead released a wonderful video in ’87, called So Far. In addition to the exceptional sound quality, what is so unique about this film is the way in which realtime onstage recordings, sans audience, are interwoven with actual concert footage, in seamless transitions that are goosebump inducing at the pivotal moments. Given that the Dead’s identity was far more connected to the live concert experience than the traditional studio recording model, it is fitting that the band employed this technique of simulating a live experience, while maintaining the kind of quality control that is possible only in a studio setting.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 46 – November 11, 1973
How does the song go?
One of the most unique aspects of the Grateful Dead experience is the existence and ready availability of thousands upon thousands of recordings of concerts, studio sessions and other archival material. The band’s willingness – whether intentional or accidental – to allow their fans to freely record and share what virtually any other band would protect as copyrighted music, was either the luckiest or the most brilliant marketing strategy in the history of modern music. What the Dead may have lost in revenue from the sale of live concert material was easily eclipsed by the increase in ticket sales resulting from turning their devotees into promotional agents, replete with product samples that were self-produced and widely disseminated.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 47 – November 22, 1985
Going to leave this brokedown palace
The motifs of life and death are omnipresent in the poetry, the experience, and even the name of the Grateful Dead. It could easily be argued that the singularly honest way these themes are addressed across the Dead’s repertoire is the straw that stirs the multifaceted cocktail of Deadheads’ often enigmatic passion for their favorite band. Invariably presented in perfect yin/yang-like balance, the comedic and tragic duality of the human experience is at the forefront of tunes like Black Peter, Sugaree, To Lay Me Down, Brown Eyed Women, China Doll, and so many others. But perhaps the best example – and one that illustrates so well the troubled times we live in at the historic moment these words are being written – is the mixed metaphor of Brokedown Palace. T.W.I.G.D.H. features the 11/22/85 show from Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, which opens with the equally life-death balanced Hell in a Bucket, and closes with Brokedown Palace, in its traditional spot at the end of the lineup.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 48 – November 24, 1979
The Wonders of Nature
There is one school of thought about the COVID-19 pandemic which suggests that we are all going to become infected with this virus at one point or another, and it seemed that my time had come. Ironically, it appeared that my buddy, Bill, and I had successfully dodged the Corona Bullet, as we were halfway through the final 800-mile drive back to Colorado, having played 34 games in six baseball tournaments in Arizona and Florida, spanning six weeks. Yes, we were about to slide into home plate, head first, with the winning run, our trusty mountain bikes safely secured behind my 4Runner, when my pick for T.W.I.G.D.H. (This Week in Grateful Dead History), the 11/24/79 Grateful Dead show from the Golden Hall Community Concourse in San Diego, was preempted with breaking news.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 49 – December 5, 1981
I know this song, it ain’t never gonna end.
The Grateful Dead took perhaps their biggest step towards immortality when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in 1994. But if there was a distinction for Most Unlikely Success Stories among the now-338 groups and performers that have been similarly recognized as of 2020, our beloved band of misfits would easily win, place or show. From their humble origins as a jug band (Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions), to their pivot to a rock band, called The Warlocks, to their first show as the Grateful Dead on 12/4/65 in San Jose, CA at one of Ken Kesey’s “Acid Tests,” this was a band whose initial aspirations were more oriented towards survival than fame and fortune.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 50 – December 7, 1971
We used to play for silver
The term, “Golden Age,” has been used liberally throughout history to describe certain idyllic periods of outstanding human achievement. Originating in Greek Mythology, particularly in the writings of Hesiod and Homer in the 7th and 8th centuries, B.C.E., this label has resurfaced numerous times when a specific art, skill or activity was considered to be at its peak.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 51 – December 15, 1986
We will survive
The irony is inescapable. The very song that became nothing less than an anthem for the entire Grateful Dead community also represented the beginning of the end for the band. Touch of Grey reached #9 on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart in September, 1987, the only time the Dead cracked the top 10 in the entire history of the band. A distant second, Truckin’ reached #64 in December, 1971, and only 4 other songs ever ranked in the top 100.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 52 – December 27, 1987
The kids they dance and shake their bones
The enduring and ever-increasing popularity of the Grateful Dead – even more than a quarter century after their last concert on July 9, 1995 – has often been attributed to the prominent role the band played in the anti-establishment movement of the ’60s. As the icon of a new generation that represented an alternative to the greed and corruption of the mainstream culture, the Dead truly were “a band beyond description.”
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 2 – January 10, 1978
I’ll get a new start
As we established last week, our essential human nature as storytellers is one coin with two sides to select from. On the “tails” side are the stories we must beware of for their harmful potential: those that are tainted with negative judgments and deceptions that infect our beliefs in ways that lead us to act wrongfully. Fortunately, on the “heads” side is a clean slate upon which we can write stories of inspiration that can shepherd us in the direction of our highest selves. Choosing wisely on which side to pitch your tent is as much a key to success in this life as any I have found.