1973 A Letter From Grateful Dead Records example essay topic

One afternoon after Weir and Pigpen had left a recording session, Jerry ordered the band manager, Rock aside and ordered him to fire them both. That idea was ridiculous, and Rock knew it. You dont fire your lifetime friends and your partner, and if you do you do it yourself, and Garcia refused. Pigpen, whose legend grew as he himself began to dwindle away with liver disease, was a tougher case. He rarely came to band meetings, but he still did know how to work the crowd. As late as 1970-1971, when the Grateful Dead took the college circuit by storm, he was often the star, rapping the blues in a way that drew his student audiences into a magic circle of warmth that left them hungry for more.

We can calling ourselves the Grateful Dead but after Pigpens death, Garcia said at Ron McKernans funeral in 1973, we all knew this was the end of the original Grateful Dead. Mickey Hart once stated If you only know a band by its records, you wouldnt like the Grateful Dead very much. The Dead made many records throughout the years but the prize possessions are the bootleg albums and tapes from many shows, personally the only albums I really enjoy from them are their live ones or bootlegs of course. The Grateful Dead was and band who played for you and not to you like most bands do. The only reason they were out there was for the audiences. It was a short step for the Grateful Dead to envision recruiting a lager community of heads and freaks, a De adland of airwaves and albums and concerts, which would help the band steer clear of obstacles in its path.

These included internal problems of uneven talent and colliding music styles, and more importantly, record prices that the Dead wanted to lower the level that Water had set. The step that soon sent the Dead off the track from all other bands of their time was taken in 1971, when a brief notice was slipped in the jacket of the live album Skull and Roses. Signed by Garcia, it read: DEAD FREAKS UNITE: Who are you? Where are you? How are you?

Send us your name and address and well keep you informed. It was simply an invitation to write the Dead and let them know who there fans were. With this small gesture it showed a big turn out. By 1972, 25,000 letters had rolled in, many drawn up with dense calligraphy that became an icon of the Deadhead correspondence. This action provoked an on going movement with recruiting.

We went out and recruited these guys head for head, their fathers and their sisters, and their mothers. We went on a head- hunting mission for twenty-five years, Hart says; we went out and got the army in tow. And said, Okay, you guys are something you are a thing. And they themselves recognized their own identity and grew bigger than we could ever even imagine. The Grateful Dead was tired of having to live up to the expectations of record labels. The labels were just in it for the money, the Dead enjoyed playing for people who couldnt afford to see the constantly raising price to see them, they were not allowed to put on any free shows which they liked to do in such places as the Golden Gate park in San-Francisco.

So in 1973 a letter from Grateful Dead records read This adventure is a jumping off point to get us in a position of greater contact with our people, to put us in command of our own ship, and for unspoken potentials for the far out. It was the first time any rock group attempted to control all aspects of its record business, recording, cutting, and pressing, distribution and promotion. But by 1976, financial problems had set in and poor record sales resulted in failure. Needing help United Artists decided to take on the task. The band had its largest publicity in the later 1980's. In 1987, the album In the Dark was released which included the hit song Touch of Grey.

This song soon made it to the top ten it made the radio, and yes the Grateful Dead made a MTV video. The popularity of this song brought in tremendous revenues like the band had never experienced before from any of their other albums and never saw again. Not to say the Grateful Dead was in any kind of financial trouble but drew in a lot of money from it. In fact the Grateful Dead made more money from concerts than any other band ever has, partly because the Grateful Dead played tremendous amounts of shows all over the country and even toured in Europe.

The Grateful Dead in 1970 played one-hundred and forty-five shows more than anyone else ever has and probably ever will. In my opinion the Grateful Dead had a lot of talent and a great ear for truly good music. In writing this research paper I have learned many things about the Grateful Dead. Within Garcias Rock & Roll, Folk-Rock, and Country Rock history, his music could be described as reflective, gentle, trippe, organic, or intimate; the same was basically true for his artwork as well (Jerry Garcia).

Through the Grateful Dead sound the psychedelic revolution and the spirit of the Sixties have been kept for decades. Deadheads and critics alike contended that the best way to experience the group was in concert, where the band-fan bonding ritual drove the music to its zenith, causing the best styles of the Dead to rise higher, and higher. Anthem of the Sun, Workingman's Dead, American Beauty and Grateful Dead (a. k. a. Skull & Roses) served as record highlights. Dark Star was their signature song (Jerry Garcia). Some of Garcias pieces of art were: Blue Iceberg, Butterfly Study, Cherry 57 Nash, Down at the Ritz, Dracula's Heart, Feeding in the Fight, Flaming Meadow, and Garcia / Gris man.

Between Garcias music, artwork and trippe personality he had many styles to work with (Fine Art). Jerome John Garcia lived an extraordinary life full of great achievements in his 53 years. As he himself said, he had no idea what a life he would live or how long of one. His outgoing hippy style let him do whatever he wanted to which probably started his career and eventually ended it. Garcias life wasnt anything to complain about. He had great abilities and knew how to use them correctly.

Life in his hands was like trying to make a wild African Ass do whatever you tell it to do, it is always going to do whatever it wants to no matter what. Garcia lived on the wild side and that let him be free to roam around through all sorts of things, which helped him discover many of his gifts in life, that many others might not have been able to do or find. One being, the idea of how drug related and based the band actually was. I cant go around promoting the use of drugs but, they really can open your mind up to many different lifestyles and open your ears, eyes and soul to become one with the music. After all the drugs and alcohol had created this band and ultimately destroyed it. Alcohol having killed Ron Pigpen Mc Kernan with liver disease and the one whom brought the band together and forced them to stay together through all the bad times the infamous Jerry Garcia.

Jerry died in early August of 1995 of a heart attack, which was a direct result of his terrible cocaine problem. Jerry enlightened this world with his music and will never be forgotten among the family he has left behind. The Grateful Dead officially was ended when Jerry passed away, however the remaining members still tour and play under the name The Other Ones and the family of the Grateful Dead the deadheads still follow them around the country. In my mind the Grateful Dead has never died and never will, they will never be gone if you wont let them. This message encouraged many Deadheads to undertake the task of improving their mini-society. The old encouraged the new not to gatecrash, advised them on concert etiquette, and aided in the calming down of the occasional bad acid trip.

Groups such as Greenpeace and others that supported various political ideas began distributing information at shows, and it wasnt before long that the Grateful Dead experience regained its true form. Another contributing factor to the experiences salvation was the tapers, who helped out through their desire to spread the music to as many people as possible. The tapers are perhaps the most unique of all Deadheads; they are a sub cult within a sub cult. From the early beginnings the Grateful Dead not only permitted their shows to be audience recorded, but encouraged it. As a result, the Dead are probably the most recorded act of all time (Trager 86). Tapes exist from nearly every performance since 1967.

They are subjects of a trade and bartering network among Deadheads. Folktales exists of legendary and rare performances that a taper had way back when. Many a Deadhead has a particular sought after recording of a show they were at that was of special importance. The Dead realized that audience recording and the circulation of good-quality live tapes would only help to enhance their reputation and spur record sales. Today Deadheads hold responsible positions in law, medicine, computer science, education, business, writing, art, and any in other profession out there. Most of them were able to pursue their professional goals and careers while looking forward to their next Dead show for rejuvenation and inspiration in a fan-friendly, low testosterone rock & roll environment (Trager 86).

Jerry Garcia died in 1995, and with his death came the end of the Grateful Dead as a touring and recording band. Deadheads have however remained, and in them so has the immortal spirit of the Dead. Deadheads have dauntlessly kept the faith alive. Being a Deadhead was truly an American adventure. Its hard to determine what will become of Deadheads in the future, certainly a large number of them joined the tours of other bands, such as Phish and Dead offspring like Rat dog, The Other Ones, Phil and Friends, and the Further tour, for that spiritual fulfillment that had manifested itself in the Grateful Dead for so many years.

Also hard to determine is the impact that the more assimilated Deadheads will have on society. One certainty is that Deadheads are everywhere, and through their everlasting devotion, the spirit and music of the Grateful dead will not fade away.