The result was The Grateful Dead, a nine-track offering that attempted to capture the band’s dynamic live performances. Records and contracted to record their first album. Related: Grateful Dead Studio Albums Ranked Worst To BestĪs the Dead continued to gain popularity from the Acid Tests, they were picked up by Warner Bros. Fifty-six years later, a number of these songs still remain in rotation at various Grateful performances, be it Phil & Friends, Dead & Company, Bob Weir & Wolf Bros, and beyond. Though they wrote a handful of songs, the majority of tunes selected were covers, and most of these covers made it onto the debut album. With many directions to explore, the band’s earliest live shows were an amalgam of these styles. Lest we not forget the jazz-trained Bill the Drummer, who seemed fairly content to go along for the ride with his musician friends. Jerry Garcia was raised on bluegrass and country, Bob Weir was into the folk/Americana traditions, Phil Lesh was studied in classical composition, and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan was fueled by blues and booze. Interestingly enough, the Dead were the result of a wide array of musical styles. LSD was still legal at the time, and what a time it must have been! Band and participant alike would take acid, embarking on a musical journey through the realms of psychedelia. These events are notably similar to the modern-day rave, only the music wasn’t electronic it was the Grateful Dead. San Francisco was at the heart of it all, as leaders like Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest) were organizing events called “ Acid Tests” to encourage mental exploration among the counterculture participants. ![]() The second half of the 1960s was the height of the so-called “counterculture,” which can be drastically over-simplified as a movement fueled by an anti-Vietnam War sentiment and an affinity for the newly synthesized psychedelic, LSD. Today marks the 56th anniversary of the band’s eponymous debut album, the physical culmination of a very powerful movement that emerged from the San Francisco area. Whenever it is that you hopped on the bus-50 years ago or 50 days ago-few can deny that the Grateful Dead is a life-changing band.
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