Grateful Dead was one of the most popular and longest-lasting American bands in rock music history. The band’s music combined elements of country, blues, folk, rhythm and blues, and rock, with extended instrumental improvisations that are more common to jazz.
The Grateful Dead was known primarily for its musically spontaneous concerts, rather than for its recordings. Its live performances created a large number of devoted fans known as Deadheads. Fans followed the group from concert to concert, helping to make the Dead one of the most popular touring acts in rock. The Dead’s only hit single, “Touch of Grey,” came in 1987. The band’s other notable songs include the single “Dark Star” (1968); “Uncle John’s Band” and “Casey Jones” from the group’s fourth album Workingman’s Dead (1970); and “Sugar Magnolia,” “Friend of the Devil,” and “Truckin’,” from the group’s fifth album American Beauty (1970).
The group formed in San Francisco in 1965 as the Warlocks, but changed its name within a year to the Grateful Dead. Members included guitarists and vocalists Jerry Garcia (1942-1995) and Bob Weir (1947-…), bassist and vocalist Phil Lesh (1940-…), and drummers Bill Kreutzmann (1946-…) and Mickey Hart (1950?-…). Garcia, Weir, Lesh, and Kreutzmann were original members, along with keyboardist and vocalist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (1945-1973). The group gained popularity when it performed at the Woodstock outdoor rock music concert in 1969.
The Grateful Dead was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In 1995, after Garcia’s death, the group disbanded. In 1998, the surviving members re-formed the band, first calling themselves The Other Ones and, later, The Dead. Lesh wrote a memoir of his life with the original group, Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead (2005).
In 2015, Hart, Kreutzmann, and Weir joined with the American musicians guitarist John Mayer, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, and bassist Oteil Burbridge. They began touring and performing the music of the Grateful Dead in a band called Dead & Company.
See also Garcia, Jerry; Hippies; Rock music (The San Francisco scene).
