The Most Successful, Famous Band You Have Never Heard Of

You have probably heard the name "The Grateful Dead" and you may have even seen posters or T-Shirts but that may be as far as you go.

Their genesis was in the San Francisco Bay Area amid the rise of the counterculture of the 1960s.] The founding members were Jerry Garcia (lead guitar, vocals), Bob Weir (rhythm guitar, vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (keyboards, harmonica, vocals), Phil Lesh (bass, vocals), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums)

They formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California, and are known for their eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, gospel, and psychedelic rock for live performances of lengthy instrumental jams;

I knew of them in my teens as an American band and when I picked up a copy of the triple vinyl recording from the first Glastonbury concert with its fold out pyramid cover one side was taken up with an extended partially improvised version of the song "Dark Star" so that , to me put them closer to krautrock bands like Can and Amon Duul and space rock such as Hawkwind and to some extent the Pink Fairies (who took up another. Side of the Glastonbury album with "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout" )

Then in the late seventies Sheridan Morley played "Estimated Prophet" the opening song from "Terrapin Station" (review here) which is a wonderful song in 7/4 time that I have used in a few Vocal posts, but I immediately bought the album and it has remained a favourite of mine which I play often.

I didn't really explore their earlier music but enjoyed much of their Arista later output which even resulted in some hit singles such as "Touch of Grey" , and I have a lovely compilation from that period that I play a lot, so I was a late period Dead Head I assume.

More recently I have revisited their early music and am impressed by what I hear. They, I believe, are very accessible to anyone who listens to music. I was asked to review “Working Men’s Dead” by Alan Gold and it is a wonderful slice of Americana , 35 minutes of beautiful music.

The Grateful Dead were very open with their music, people were encouraged to record and bootleg their shows as they said once they had played a show they were finished with that music.

Although most of their music were original compositions they weren’t averse to covering absolutely anything, especially in their live concerts.On “Terrapin Station” they covered Martha and The Vandellas “Dancing In The Street” Bob Dylan was a favourite but there is a Wiki list here detailing many of them. They were not bound by genre at all.

The music was excellent and shows could go on for a very long time. The attendances were huge and this continued until their final farewell gigs(they had played previous farewell gigs as early as 1974) at Chicagos’ Soldier Field in 2015 which was broadcast live in Cinemas and I attended at the Tyneside Cinema in 2015 with my friend Claire McRae.

The actual gig had an attendance of 212,000 with average ticket price of $120 , so not too bad for a band you have never heard of.

After the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, former members of the band, along with other musicians, toured as the Other Ones in 1998, 2000, and 2002, and the Dead in 2003, 2004, and 2009.

In 2015, the four surviving core members marked the band's 50th anniversary in a series of concerts that were billed as their last performances together.

There have also been several spin-offs featuring one or more core members, such as Dead & Company, Furthur, the Rhythm Devils, Phil Lesh and Friends, RatDog, and Billy & the Kids.

The Amazon Prime documentary “Long Strange Trip” is a wonderful history of the band from the beginnings in the sixties right up to the present day . Even though they supposedly say farewell they still come back.