Certification: This is to certify that the following essay is my own work and that I have not received any unauthorized assistance with it. Signed: Michael Raymond, November 30, 2013.
“Write an essay interpreting how one rock group or singer's music reflected and/or influenced the 1960s.”
Living Dead: The Cultural Impact of the Grateful Dead
The decade of the 1960’s saw plenty of musicians become involved in the protest movement. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, among others, wrote of the injustices of American society. While the Beatles were singing “All You Need Is Love”, the Rolling Stones wrote about the “Street Fighting Man”. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sang about the Kent State shootings in “Ohio”. Country Joe McDonald encouraged the burning of draft cards while leading the “Fish Cheer”. However, the degree of influence each had on not just the 1960’s, but ensuing decades waned as burnout, family life, and lifestyle choices took their toll. The act whose music reflected and influenced not just the 60’s, but decades to come, was the Grateful Dead. The music of the Dead reflected the counterculture of the 1960’s, fostered a self-sustaining, traveling multicultural community, and delivered a message of peace and love for thirty years.
San Francisco was the center of the counterculture movement of the 1960’s. The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood attracted thousands of youths from across the country, looking to drop out of traditional society and build a new society. In the middle of this scene, living at 710 Ashbury, were the members of the Grateful Dead. The house band for Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests, the Dead provided the psychedelic soundtrack to the LSD fueled explorations of the Merry Pranksters. They “pioneered ‘acid rock’, with long pieces aimed at echoing drug induced states of mind” (Davidson, p. 831), gave the concertgoers the backdrop as attendees attempted to gain a higher level of consciousness.
As the Grateful Dead became more popular, their shows became more than a concert. Following the Dead from city to city became a way of life. “They enjoyed a cult–like following from a fan base that numbered in the millions” (McNally, p.87). Known for never performing the same show or the same song the same way, each concert became a dynamic event. Thousands of fans would travel across the country to see the Dead, selling handmade clothes, jewelry and food to pay their way. A new community was developed, where there were no outsiders. The parking lots of stadiums were filled with bikers, hippies, frat boys, professionals. They came together in traveling cities, setting up for a day and moving on to the next town in which the Dead would play. What always attracted and amazed me with the scene was the connection between the band and the Deadheads, and the Deadheads with one another. The musical message of the band was heard and upheld by the fans.
Theirs was a message of hope, peace, love, teamwork, creativity, imagination and celebration. “Their message goes beyond mere tolerance to a subtle appreciation of differences, as necessary components to the irreverent compatibility that forms harmony“(Barber, “The Touchhead’s Guide To The Grateful Dead”, online). There always remained optimism in their music, after the ideals of Flower Power had long vanished from mainstream society. When they had their only top ten hit, “Touch of Grey” in 1987, the chorus was a salute to the longevity of the band and their fans: “We will get by, We will survive”.
The Grateful Dead did not set out to change the world in 1965. They never wrote music that was overtly political. Their aim was to color the world of each guest at their show for three and a half hours every night, and let each guest take that home to share. That legacy is exemplified at any show involving the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, where three generations of fans demonstrate the lasting impact of the band.
Works Cited
Barber, Richard. "The Touchhead's Guide To The Grateful Dead." . N.p., 17 May 2009. Web. 30 Nov 2013. <http://pubpages.unh.edu/~raf34/project/deadheads.html>.
McNally, Dennis. A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead. New York: Broadway Books, 2002. Print.
West Davidson, James, and Brian DeLay. "Experience History: Interpreting America's Past ." 2. Boston: 2011.