Deadhead

A Deadhead or Dead head is a fan of the American rock band the Grateful Dead.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] The Deadhead subculture originated in the 1970s, when a number of fans began traveling to see the Grateful Dead in as many shows or festival venues as they could. As more people began attending live performances and festivals, a community developed. The Deadhead community has since gone on to create slang and idioms unique to them.^[6]

For other uses, see Deadhead (disambiguation).

Unlike other popular acts in music, the Grateful Dead are well known for the use of improvisation in their performances making each show unique.^[7] This, coupled with the band's permissive attitude on taping performances, has created a plethora of historical material.^[7] Such recordings of previous performances are shared widely among the Deadhead community.^[8]

Much Deadhead-related historical material received or collected by the band over the years is housed in the Grateful Dead Archive of University of California, Santa Cruz. Archive founding curator Nicholas Meriwether, who has also written extensively about the culture and its impact on society, predicted, "The Grateful Dead archive is going to end up being a critical way for us to approach and understand the 1960s and the counterculture of the era... It's also going to tell us a lot about the growth and development of modern rock theater, and it's helping us understand fan culture."^[9] Over the course of their thirty-year career, the Grateful Dead performed over 2,200 live shows.^[10]

Overview[edit]

The eclectic musical styling of the Grateful Dead was heavily inspired by the Beatnik movement of the 1950s and later the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960's. One group at the forefront of the psychedelic sound was the Merry Pranksters. On the first historic bus trip, on the bus Furthur, a pattern was set for the Deadhead touring lifestyle to come. By the late 1970s, some Deadheads began to sell tie-dye T-shirts, veggie burritos, or other items at Grateful Dead concerts. In the 1980s, the area where Grateful Dead merchandise was sold became popularly referred to as "Shakedown Street", named after the 1978 song. Income from these shops allowed Deadheads a way to follow the band on its tours. During the early 1980s, the number of Deadheads taping shows increased, and the band created a special section for fans who wished to record the show. These tapes are still shared and circulated today via websites such as the Live Music Archive and bt.etree.org. In the earlier days of the Grateful Dead, there were questions as to whether or not it was in the best interest of the band for fans to tape concerts. In 1982, Garcia himself was asked what he thought about it, and he replied, "When we are done with it [the concerts], they can have it."^[11] The practice of taping has evolved and expanded in the digital age. The rise of the Internet and peer to peer file sharing networks has made it extremely easy for Deadheads to share concerts through unofficial and official channels.^[12] Bob Dylan, who toured with the Grateful Dead during their 1987 summer tour, observed "With most bands the audience participates like in a spectator sport. They just stand there and watch. They keep a distance. With the Dead, the audience is part of the band-they might as well be on stage."^[13]

From the early 1970s on, the Grateful Dead performed few shows with a predetermined setlist.

[17]

At the behest of the band, a section of the audience was walled off to be used exclusively by fans recording the concert.

[18]

From the 1980s on, the second set usually contained a prolonged percussion interlude, called "Drumz" (and eventually incorporating electronic elements), by and Bill Kreutzmann (also known as the "Rhythm Devils") followed by an extended improvisational "space" jam played by the rest of the band (as featured on the album Infrared Roses).^[19]

Mickey Hart

The Grateful Dead's appeal to fans was supported by the way the band structured their concerts and the use of the jam band format.^[16]

The band's extensive song catalog enabled them to create a varied "rotation" of setlists, which were never exactly the same for each performance ("show") throughout a tour.^[20] The use of these unique set rotations created two phenomena: The first had to do with Deadheads wanting to go to more shows in order to get a chance to hear their favorite song(s) – the same song was rarely played the same way twice during any given tour.^[1] Also, a great show often inspired many fans to begin following the band for the rest of the tour, as well subsequent tours. The second was that having a large number of traveling fans had empowered the band to perform multiple shows at each venue, since they were assured that their performances would mostly sell out (almost all shows sold out from the mid-1980s and on). At this point, it became apparent that Deadheads were a major driving force that encouraged the band to keep going. Along with the large number of people attending several shows, a traveling community developed amongst fans in response to the familiarity of seeing the same people from previous strings of shows. As generations turned from the Acid Tests to the 1970s (and onward), tours became a time to revel with friends at concerts, old and new, who never knew the psychedelic age that spawned the band they loved.^[21] As with any large community, Deadheads developed their own idioms and slang which is amply illustrated in books about the Grateful Dead such as the Skeleton Key.^[22]

1960s – Before the term was invented, became one of the first cult acts in music. Although not as mainstream as other psychedelic bands, they were the leaders of the Haight-Ashbury music scene and had an intense following that started in San Francisco and eventually spread. Fans gathered at their jam concerts throughout the sixties.

The Grateful Dead

1970s – essentially known as the "second generation of Deadheads", the new Deadheads of this time can either be traced to "an older sibling who had turned them on by spinning or Europe '72" or through college and university dorm rooms.^[21]

Workingman's Dead

[28]

1990s – The Deadheads of this time "tended to be young, white, male, and from middle-class backgrounds – in short, they were drawn from much the same demographic base as most rock fans." The band also tended to attract a large percentage of fans from high-income families. The main draw for these Deadheads to travel to shows seemed to be the sense of community and adventure. During the mid-1990s there were a series of small "Deadhead Riots" peaking with a large scale riot at the near Indianapolis in July 1995. The riot was triggered by several gate crashing incidents, and resulted in the fence at the venue being torn down by rioting Deadheads and the subsequent cancellation of the next day's show. The riot received national attention and is immortalized by Keller Williams in his song "Gatecrashers Suck", in which he calls the rioters "cock-sucking motherfuckers".^[30] Concert promoter Peter Shapiro filmed the iconic and influential [1] Deadhead documentary, "Tie-Died, Rock and Roll's Most Deadicated Fans" about life on Grateful Dead Tour 1994. The film was released through Sony Tri Star in September 1995 in major motion picture theaters across America, shortly after Jerry Garcia's death. At the premiere party of the film's release, Deadheads at the after-party at the Fillmore West met with Jerry Garcia's close friend and musician, David Nelson, to formulate a strategy for continuing Deadhead culture. Thus, the David Nelson Band was formed. Other Dead related jam bands also did their part to continue the culture.

Deer Creek Music Center

21st century – Many Deadheads of all ages, including fans who were generally too young to have seen the Grateful Dead, continue to passionately follow the many current Grateful Dead cover bands and spin-off bands such as , The David Nelson Band, the Donna Jean Godchaux Band, RatDog, Phil Lesh and Friends, 7 Walkers, The Rhythm Devils, The Dead, Furthur, Dark Star Orchestra, and Joe Russo's Almost Dead.

Dead & Company

The Spinners – also known as "The Family" or Church of Unlimited Devotion. These people "used the band's music in worship services and were a constant presence at shows". They were called "spinners" because of their twirling dance style. stated at the 'So Many Roads Conference' that the Dead family hadn't realized at the time that the Spinners were a cult. Observers have reported seeing them spinning only to Jerry songs and sitting down at the songs Bobby performed. Allegations of abuse have circulated widely in Deadhead groups.^[30]

John Perry Barlow

– Deadheads who helped each other remain drug and alcohol free while staying in the Dead scene.^[31] The Wharf Rats were named from the song of same title. They were allowed to set up a table at every concert to support Deadheads who believed in enjoying the Grateful Dead sober or needed more efforts to remain straight.

Wharf Rats

Archives[edit]

Much Deadhead-related historical material received or collected by the band over the years is housed in the Grateful Dead Archive of UC-Santa Cruz. Archive curator Nicholas Meriwether, who has also written extensively about the culture and its impact on society, states "The Grateful Dead archive is going to end up being a critical way for us to approach and understand the 1960s and the counterculture of the era... It's also going to tell us a lot about the growth and development of modern rock theater, and it's helping us understand fan culture."^[9]

In addition to the band's collection, many longtime fans have also accrued a large collection of Grateful Dead memorabilia and recorded live performances.^[37]

Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies

List of jam band music festivals

Ecstatic dance

Jurgensen, John (July 10, 2015). . The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 10, 2015.