Grateful Dead
The enigmatic and mercurial Grateful Dead evolved from Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions to become the Warlocks in 1965. The legendary name was chosen from a randomly opened copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, the juxtaposition of words evidently appealed to members of the band. The original line-up comprised: Jerry Garcia (b. Jerome John Garcia, 1 August 1942, San Francisco, California, USA. d. 9 August 1995, Forest Knolls, California, USA; lead guitar), Bob Weir (b. Robert Hall, 16 October 1947, San Francisco, California, USA; rhythm guitar), Phil Lesh (b. Philip Chapman, 15 March 1940, Berkeley, California, USA; bass), Ron Pigpen McKernan (b. 8 September 1945, San Bruno, California, USA. d. 8 March 1973; keyboards) and Bill Kreutzmann (b. 7 April 1946, Palo Alto, California, USA; drums). The Grateful Dead have been synonymous with the San Francisco/Acid Rock scene since its inception in 1965 when they took part in Ken Kesey's Acid Tests. Stanley Owsley manufactured the then legal LSD and plied the band with copious amounts. This hallucinogenic opus was duly recorded onto tape over a six-month period, and documented in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Wolfe stated that 'They were not to be psychedelic dabblers, painting pretty pictures, but true explorers'. 
Their music, which started out as straightforward rock and R&B, germinated into a hybrid of styles, but has the distinction of being long, wandering and improvisational. By the time their first album was released in 1967 they were already a huge cult band. GRATEFUL DEAD sounds raw in the light of '90s record production, but it was a brave, early attempt to capture a live concert sound on a studio album. The follow-up ANTHEM OF THE SUN was much more satisfying. On this 'live' record, 17 different concerts and four different live studios were used. The non-stop suite of ambitious segments with tantalizing titles such as The Faster We Go The Rounder We Get and Quadlibet For Tenderfeet was an artistic success. Their innovative and colourful album covers were amongst the finest examples of San Franciscan art, utilizing the talents of Kelley Mouse Studios (Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse). The third album contained structured songs and was not as inaccessible as the palindrome title AOXOMOXOA suggested. Hints of a mellowing Grateful Dead surfaced on China Cat Sunflower and the sublime Mountains Of The Moon, complete with medieval-sounding harpsichord. In concert, the band were playing longer and longer sets, sometimes lasting six hours with only as many songs. 
Their legion of fans, now known as Deadheads relished the possibility of a marathon concert. It was never ascertained who imbibed more psychedelic chemicals, the audience or the band. Nevertheless the sounds produced sometimes took them to breathtaking heights of musical achievement. The interplay between Garcia's shrill, flowing solos and Lesh's meandering bass lines complemented the adventurous chords of Weir's rhythm guitar. The band had now added a second drummer, Micky Hartand a second keyboard player Tom Constanten to accompany the unstable McKernan. It was this line-up that produced the seminal LIVE DEAD in 1970. Their peak of improvisation is best demonstrated on the track Dark Star. During its 23 minutes of recorded life, the music simmers, builds and explodes four times, each with a crescendo of superb playing from Garcia and his colleagues. On the two following records WORKINGMAN'S DEAD and AMERICAN BEAUTY, a strong Crosby, Stills & Nash harmony influence prevailed. The short, country-feel songs brought Garcia's pedal steel guitar to the fore (he had recently guested on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's DÉJÀ VU). Paradoxically the Dead reverted to releasing live sets by issuing a second double album closely followed by the triple, EUROPE '72. After years of ill-health through alcohol abuse, McKernan died in 1973. He was replaced by Keith Godcheaux from Dave Mason's band, who together with his wife Donna on vocals compensated for the tragic loss. WAKE OF THE FLOOD in 1973 showed a jazz influence and proved to be their most commercially successful album to date. With this and subsequent studio albums the band produced a mellower sound. It was not until TERRAPIN STATION in 1977 that their gradual move towards lethargy was averted. Producer Keith Olsen expertly introduced a fuller, more orchestrated sound. 
As a touring band the Grateful Dead continued to prosper, but their studio albums began to lose direction. For their funky SHAKEDOWN STREET they enlisted Lowell George. Although they had been with the band for some years, Keith and Donna Godcheaux had never truly fitted in. Donna had trouble with her vocal pitch, resulting in some excruciating performances, while Keith began to use hard drugs. They were asked to leave at the end of 1979 and on 21 July 1980, Keith was killed in a car crash. GO TO HEAVEN (1980) with new keyboard player Brent Mydland betrayed a hint of disco-pop. The album sleeve showed the band posing in white suits which prompted Deadheads to demand: 'Have they gone soft?' Ironically, it was this disappointing record that spawned their first, albeit minor, success in the US singles chart with Alabama Getaway. All of the band had experimented with drugs for many years and, unlike many of their contemporaries, had survived. Garcia, however, succumbed to heroin addiction in 1982. This retrospectively explained his somnolent playing and gradual decline as a guitarist, together with his often weak and shaky vocals. By the mid-'80s, the band had become amorphous but still commanded a massive following. Garcia eventually collapsed and came close to death when he went into a diabetic coma in 1986. 
The joy and relief of his survival showed in their first studio album in seven years, IN THE DARK. It was a stunning return to form, resulting in a worldwide hit single Touch Of Grey, with Garcia singing his long time co-songwriter Robert Hunter's simplistic yet honest lyric: 'Oh well a touch of grey, kinda suits you anyway, that's all I've got to say, it's alright'. The band joined in for a joyous repeated chorus of 'I will survive' followed by 'We will survive'. They were even persuaded to make a video and the resulting exposure on MTV introduced them to a whole new generation of fans. The laconic Garcia humorously stated that he was 'appalled' to find they had a smash hit on their hands. While BUILT TO LAST (1989) was a dull affair, they continued to play to vast audiences. They have since received acclaim as the largest grossing band in musical history. In August 1990 Mydland died from a lethal combination of cocaine and morphine. Remarkably this was the third keyboard player to die in the band. Mydland's temporary replacement was Bruce Hornsby until Vince Welnick was recruited full-time. In 1990, the band's live album catalogue was increased with the release of the erratic WITHOUT A NET. Their progress was again halted when Garcia became seriously ill again with a lung infection. After a long spell in hospital Garcia returned, this time promising to listen to doctors advice. In 1992 they remained as one of the biggest grossing artists in the music business, their takings for 91/92 were approximately $31million; they would continue to top box-office listings through mid-1995, with annual estimated revenues rising to $50 million. 
As for the Deadheads, their composition increasingly reflected younger, incoming fans, including second generation admirers introduced to the music by their parents. The grass roots orientation of the band's own organization, which spread beyond newsletters and mailing lists to computer bulletin boards, underlined this reach. Punctuating this commanding position was the renewed imprint of their brand of freewheeling, improvisational rock in the music of successful new bands like Phish, the Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler, who shared the same emphasis on relentless touring and alternately earthy and ethereal jams. During the spring of 1995, the Dead was reportedly readying songs for projected studio sessions the following year, but the juggernaut was brought to a halt with the August 10 passing of Jerry Garcia in a Forrest Knolls, California, drug treatment center, where he died of a heart attack. Ironically, Garcia, who had maintained an active solo career yet eschewed more conventional pop egotism in its deference to the band's focal place in his work, generated front page headlines and top-of-broadcast TV and radio coverage, with US radio stations—including all-talk outlets—flooding the ether with the Grateful Dead's music. Media eulogies quoted prominent US politicians, once the target of the band's countercultural anthems, as eloquent mourners. The night of his death, Bob Weir played a sold-out solo date in New Hampshire, noting the band's unifying belief in music's healing powers against sorrow. Whether and how the Dead would survive was difficult to gauge in the immediate wake of Garcia's death, and much of the immediate coverage, however speculative or anecdotal, found the notion of the Grateful Dead without him difficult to envision. Given its maverick history of defying conventional wisdom, however, and the rekindled interest in the Grateful Dead's direct line to its audience, presumptions of the band's demise are no sure bet.