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The Dead Tickets
Formed in 1965, The Dead was an American rock band found in the San Francisco Bay. The band had a very unique and electric style which blended elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, jazz, psychedelia, space rock and gospel. The Dead fashioned a psychedelic revolution upon the cultural landscape of the Sixties. They also kept the spirit of the Sixties alive in the decades that followed, building a massive, supportive network of fans known by a specific term, called the 'Deadheads'. Their musical influences varied widely like psychedelic rock, blues, rock and roll, country-western, bluegrass, country-rock, and improvisational jazz. These various influences made the Dead the pioneering Godfathers of the jam band world. Many fans referred to the band simply as 'the Dead'.
The great rock band comprised of the following members: Tom Contanten, who played the keyboards, Jerry Garcia, the lead guitarist and was often seen both by the public and the media as the leader or primary spokesperson for the Dead, but was reluctant to be perceived that way, then there was a classically trained trumpeter Phil Lesh who played bass guitar, Bob Weir was the youngest original member of the group who played rhythm guitar, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan who played the keyboards and harmonica, and did the vocals.
All of The Greatful Dead members mentioned so far have shared in vocal performance of songs. Bill Kreutzmann played drums joined by Mickey Hart who also played a wide variety of other percussion instruments. Tom "TC" Constanten was added as a second keyboardist from 1968 to 1970, and after his departure, Pigpen was joined by another keyboardist, Keith Godchaux, who played grand piano alongside Pigpen's Hammond B-3 organ. Then in early 1972, Keith's wife, Donna Jean Godchaux, also joined the Dead as a backing vocalist. Vince Welnick joined on keyboards and vocals after Brent Mydland had passed away. Bruce Hornsby was on piano. Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow were the band's primary lyricists. However, many of the band members have passed away with the passage of time among which were the eleven members who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and Bruce Hornsby was their presenter.
By playing live shows at Kepler's Books, the Greatful Dead began their career in Menlo Park, California. The founding members of the Dead were: banjo and guitar player Jerry Garcia, guitarist Bob Weir, bluesman organist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, the classically trained Phil Lesh and jazzist drummer Bill Kreutzmann. The name of the band, according to Alan Trist, director of the Dead's music publisher company Ice Nine, The Dead, was chosen from a Folklore dictionary as the term Dead appears in folktales of a variety of cultures, having the definition of, the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial. After settling on the name Dead, they began honing their concert alchemy at San Francisco's psychedelic ballrooms. The Dead fused rock and roll energy with the psychedelic experience to fashion an endlessly elaborate interplay of sound. Highlights of the group's recorded legacy include Anthem of the Sun (1968), their ultra-psychedelic, quasi-symphonic magnum opus; Live/Dead (1969), a concert compendium that bore out fans' claims that the Dead were best experienced live; Workingman's Dead and American Beauty (both from 1970), country- and folk-influenced classics that highlighted their songwriting ability and sage-like overview of the counterculture's past, present and future; and Dead, the second and arguably the best of many multi-album live sets.
During the latter half of their career, Garcia, was periodically beset with drug problems, a state of affairs that came to a head with his arrest on drug possession charges in 1985 and his collapse into a near-fatal diabetic coma in 1986. His health improved in the wake of those crises, revitalizing the Dead through a period of heightened activity that included the 1987 hit album In the Dark and Top Forty single ("Touch of Grey"). However, drugs continued to haunt the Dead, who lost keyboardist Brent Mydland to a fatal overdose in 1990. Garcia himself died on August 9, 1995, at a treatment facility in Forest Knolls, California, where he'd gone to seek help for his heroin addiction. The loss of Garcia was immense, however, the band managed to release 25 concerts on CD from the Dead's archives, as part of the ongoing "Dick's Picks" series. It was named for Dick Latvala, who was the group's tape archivist. However, the group decided to disband after Garcia's death and the main focus of the members was to pursue various solo projects, most notably Bob Weir's RatDog, Phil Lesh and Friends, and various projects by Mickey Hart, including music for the 1996 Olympics.
On January 4, 2007 Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart reunited along with Bruce Hornsby, Mike Gordon and Warren Haynes to play two sets at a post-inauguration fundraising party for speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi. They were billed as Your House Band and performed some Dead classics such as Truckin' and Touch of Grey. Then in the year, 2007, the band received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, which was accepted on behalf of the band by Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann.
Members of the Dead still actively tour with their own bands, however, recently, the globe trotting band, the Dead, announced a 2009 spring tour schedule. The lineup of the band will be: Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Warren Haynes, and Jeff Chimenti. So all the Deadheads, get ready to rock yourselves up once again in the Dead's upcoming event!
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About the Author
Macie is a staff writer for Ticket Nest ( www.ticketnest.com ) and enjoys writing about her travel, theater and concert experiences. She can be reached at macie@ticketnest.com
