Keith: "Jerry gives good Dead"

To fully express my feelings towards the Grateful Dead and the culture is difficult due to a personal connection I have developed over the years.

Originally, I attended numerous concerts as a teenager, never really feeling a connection with the music or lyrics. In 1980 at age 19, I was introduced to a "Dead show" by a close friend and continued to attend over 400 hundred shows in the next eighteen years. The reason for my "unlimited devotion" can be attributed to the powerful levels of positive energy evoked by the Dead community as a whole. This "energy" is not alive in any other aspect of society that I have encountered over the years. For these reasons and many more articulated throughout the paper, I have adopted a way of living centered on the Grateful Dead music culture.

Greg: "All I leave behind me, is only what I found"

I, like millions of others, throughout three decades, have had the privilege to experience this phenomenon of a music culture personally, in my own ways. I love this band more than words can tell. It’s funny, for first couple of years it was hard to admit that the Dead had changed my life. I thought it was totally absurd because I did not realize music could ever change someone’s life. I remember my friend telling me once, "Greg, I just finally accepted that the Dead is a part of my life." After that conversation, I started to realize it was part of mine too. It took me two years to accept that!

The sense of belonging to a community that accepted you, for who you are and loved you for it, was special to me. The many spaces I occupied with thousands of my closest brothers and sisters, while the boys (The Dead) played, taking us into unknown places that were unique, only to us. It was beautiful- it was magic- it was the call of the wild! Put it this way, there is no particular place I would rather be than at a Grateful Dead show at any particular point in time!

Introduction: "Fire on the mountain"

In a country with as much cultural diversity as the United States has, there thrives a wide variety of subcultures. Music cultures are one important aspect of these subcultures, although never fully recognized. Music is often viewed as an "elite art". The word culture means the sum of people’s lives:

The study of music as a culture is referred to as ethnomusicology, which briefly defined is:

"The study of music in the context of human life (Titon xv)."

Ethnomusicology extends beyond just music. It pries deeper into group dynamics, environment, and documented trues that lie between the outside world and the inner cultural world. Music, like food, is in every culture. The world is comprised of billions of people whose views are all different from each other. Music is all-inclusive, but this does not mean everyone views it in the same manner.

Cultural significance is defined both by the people within the culture and by outsiders views of the culture.

The Grateful Dead has been a by-product of our culturally diverse country. Outsiders mostly regard it as a hippie subculture comprised mainly of drugs, free love, long hair, and throwbacks. Others view it as a completely significant and beautiful aspect of American culture. These two different views make up the Deadhead culture. So, what makes the Grateful Dead a music culture?

Drugs: "If I knew the way I would take you home"

Drugs are often the first thought that comes to many people’s mind when the Grateful Dead is mentioned. It is not so much the Grateful Dead itself that is to blame, but the generation they emerged from. One of the components of the music comes from the bands experiments with acid at the acid tests in the 60’s. Drugs then became an integral part of the culture, although they are used on an individual basis. Some people choose not too consume drugs while others do. Yet, drugs are a symbol of this culture. Drugs are used more for spiritual purposes than anything else.

Drugs are illegal and in some cases, harmful to ones health. Many of these drugs alter people’s minds through experiences, especially Lysergic Acid Diethylamide- LSD. LSD was first produced on April 19, 1943 by a research chemist working overseas in Switzerland, Albert Hoffman. He believed that LSD was an expansion of magical moments he experienced in his youth (Siberman 183).

"It was these experiences that shaped the main outline of my worldview, and convinced me of the existence of miraculous, powerful, unfathomable reality that was hidden from everyday sight…. Unexpectedly- though scarcely by chance- much later, in middle age, a link was established between my profession and visionary experiences from childhood (Silberman 183)."

The question that naturally arises is why would millions of logical, accountable people consume these types of "harmful" substances. Much of the American public view drugs as a moral issue, believing that the consumption of drugs is immoral. So why does such a large body of people choose to go against the law, and be labeled immoral?

Drugs are viewed as tools to explore the human experience of being different. The Dead’s music along with the drugs and people would send each individual on their own trip, similar to the acid tests. For some, drugs are a search engine for personal growth.

This is to say that Deadheads do not look to drugs as the almighty.

As in mainstream culture, some people consume, while others do not. Many people choose never to consume drugs; others choose to cease their consumption because of abuse. There rose from the Dead culture a 12-step program for individuals who abused drugs called the Wharf Rats.

"A group of sober Heads founded by Don B., who, in a 1984 ad in The Golden Road, called for other Heads to "take your 12-step meeting on tour (Silberman 316)."

The Wharf Rats derived their name from a Garcia/Hunter song titled Wharf Rat. This song is about a drunkard down on his luck, hoping to one day better his life for himself (Silberman 316). This support group would meet at different times throughout a show to lend support to each other and enjoy the musical experience. Drugs are a controversial topic in mainstream American society, but the Dead culture’s views on drugs are to each his own.

On The Road: "Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings"

The frontier life of being on the road has taken loyal fans down so many roads throughout the world, but primarily the United States. Geography in the Dead culture consists of what venues (concert sites) lie where. Deadheads consider the different venues to be "home."

From show to show the Dead would move and so would the Deadheads, migrating like tribes of Indians from place to place depending on the season. The hours spent driving were used by Deadheads to organize their own thoughts and lives for that particular point in time. Deadhead "mobiles" could often be distinguished by witty bumper stickers that spoke of life. The material goods that Deadheads took on the road, were primarily the basic necessities.

The attire taken on the road was basic. It consisted of exactly what you needed for that particular season. Tie-died material is often associated with the Dead culture, but is not the only clothing of Deadheads. The clothing in general is usually colorful and every Deadhead dresses to his or her own liking.

Food is a part of every culture and since the Dead culture is very diverse, so was the food. The food was usually simple to prepare.

The "chefs" who prepared these foods, ranged from the strictest vegans to hamburger, hotdog-eating people with numerous variances of gourmets in between.

The parking lot at each of the venues was the destination that Deadheads on the road longed for. The parking lot was an experience in itself. It was a cultural festival that moved from place to place (Silberman 215). Each individual would obtain their own plot (parking space) for that day and/or night, and they would share it with everyone. The activities that took place in the parking lots were unique to the Dead culture. People would vend different items to make a profit in order to have basic necessities.

Different types of recreation were also unique and limited to the parking lot. Everyone and anyone were welcomed in participating in hacky sacking, frisbee, devil sticking, roller blading, and skateboarding. These types of sports were simple to understand and did not consist of any organization. They formed wherever was appropriate. Many Deadheads would play instruments such as guitars and many varieties of percussion instruments. Music flowed in from every direction, coming from buses to cars, cars to trucks, and so on. Reunions with old friends and the meeting of new were a common sight. People catching up with each other from the last time they had come together. Partying was the most common event in the parking lot and it was pretty much a party all the time. The show provided the spiritual journey, while the parking lot provided Deadheads with stories and memories to share with each other.

The Show: "Saint Stephen with a rose, in and out of the garden he goes"

This is where the magic begins for Deadheads. Once they enter the doors of a venue their journey begins. The reality of the outside world is put aside as they enter into "their" world. Butterflies run wild throughout people. There is keen silence amongst the hum of the crowd like something big is going to happen. The anticipation is so thick; hairs on people’s necks stand up. Friends find friends and set out to find their temporary home for that night. Others scurry around looking for the prime spot to be stationed.

Some Deadheads prefer to see the show with the accompaniment of others, while some prefer to experience it solo. Remember that this is not an average Rock n’ Roll concert, it is an exchange between the band and the audience that exceeds into places not known to the real world. The Dead themselves do not use set lists when they play, they play with the flow, unregulated and improvised. Sometimes they play extraordinarily well, and other times they are a mess. That is the beauty! Nothing in this world is perfect and the Dead and Deadheads accept that. The lighting at the show is interactive with the crowd; it does not focus entirely on the band. Instead, it flows with the music and into the crowd. Plus, the Grateful Dead also have the best sound system in the world! The music would sound equal everywhere, not to loud and not to soft. No one would leave with his or her ears ringing. This commitment towards perfecting a system to deliver high quality sound and music to the masses created an ability for thousands to interact as one.

During the core of a Dead show many may protest that the interaction of Deadheads with the music and mind set in place is comparable to a cult following. On the contrary the innermost ideas projected in a Dead show is "think for yourself." The idea of a "show" is promoted instead of a "concert" because the interaction and self-expansion of song and dance holds the highest priority for the adventure to be complete. These actions allow individuals to interact either with others or alone when fully responding to the music and lyrics for an evening of possible enlightenment and total anarchy.

Dance: "The kids dance and shake their bones"

It could be said that the Deadhead culture reinvented that definition of dance. Instead of dancing with the accompaniment of music, Deadheads let the music take control of them.

In this culture there was no pattern or sequence in the dance, everyone danced their own separate way. Some individuals just spinned.

Spinning is a type of dance most often seen at Dead shows:

Spinning dates back to the thirteenth-century. Religious groups danced to writings by the name of poet called Rumi.

"’After hearing praise Allah in the sound of hammers in a goldbeater’s shop, Rumi "unfolded his arms like a fleeting bird, tilted his head back, and whirled, whirled, whirled to the sound of "Allah" that came forth from the very wind he created by his movement (Silberman 269)."

There was no rhyme or reason in the dancing; it was formless. This form of dancing was referred to as "Spacedancing".

These forms of dancing have medicinal powers, a form of house cleaning one’s own body. While dancing in unknown spaces, while the Dead played, sometimes would let Deadheads dive deep into their emotional closets, lose their egos, and incur physical benefits.

By diving into their emotional closets, Deadheads are able to seek the truth about themselves, good or bad. This is not solely attributed to dance, but dance is a form of entering one’s emotional make up and "…a surrender of individual ego identities in a space of trust, devotion and love (Prakash 48)." It was dance therapy, which is simply defined by the American Dance Therapy Association as:

Taping: "Wheel is turning"

The Grateful Dead themselves inspired tape trading. Garcia himself used to tape concerts he attended, so he could study the music that was performed.

In 1984 the Grateful Dead set aside a section of about 250 seats where tapers could record the show. This policy was the first of its kind and has continued with others bands (Silberman 277-78). Tapers themselves can be looked at as "true historians" of this culture. Tapes are then recorded from one person to another becoming a spider web of live shows circulating throughout, spreading the wealth of music.

The beauty of tapes is their ability to link the individuals regardless of their age. Age in this culture is not an issue. Since tapes are document history of this culture, Deadheads are able to live the live experiences they were unable to attend. For instance a person in their 40’s can link with someone in their 20’s. This way a bond is formed between the ages, making age obsolete.

When There Are No Shows: "The days that lie between"

Outside of the parking lots and shows the Deadhead community lives on. Common elements that usually distinguish Deadheads from outsiders include items like tapes, tie-dyes, VW buses, magazines, Internet, stickers, concerts (Non-Grateful Dead), hobbies, and kindred love. "We are everywhere," is a slogan adopted by Deadheads from a 60’s radical, Jerry Rubin (Silberman 308). Deadheads would go back to reality with sense of community coming from other Deadheads they would meet along the way. They migrate into society taking with them their values and beliefs, and passing them on. As Robert Hunter wrote and Jerry would sing, "Strangers stopping strangers just to shake their hands."

The music acts as a spiritual tool, just like at the show, but more on a personal level coinciding with their "outside life". Essentially the music of the Grateful Dead keeps self-exploration going and going.

Grateful Dead: "A band beyond description"

The Grateful Dead originally consisted of six musical members: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Bill Krutzeman, and Mickey Hart, and two lyricists: Robert Hunter and John Barlow. The Grateful Dead has earned a reputation of a band that is built to last, because of its thirty year career and loyal fans. Throughout the Grateful Dead’s thirty years of playing music the band went through many changes and phases with new members and the times. To dispel the myth that Jerry Garcia was the Grateful Dead must first be addressed. Each of the individual band members, whether musical or lyrical, has added different elements to the music and culture.

The Grateful Dead as a music culture can be separated and viewed as a conglomeration of many music cultures, when looking at and analyzing the attributes of its individual band members and supporting family, friends and influences.

Jerry Garcia: "A broken angel sings from a guitar"

Jerry Garcia has always been considered the "leader of the band" since the death of Ron "Pigpen" McKernon, (to be discussed later), a title he never admitted to holding. Jerry was born in 1942 to a family whose father was a jazz clarinetist and Dixieland bandleader. After his father’s accidental drowning, Jerry at age 5 was sent to live with his grandparents where he was exposed to the Grand Ole Opry and Bluegrass music on Saturday evening radio programming. At age 15, his brother introduced him to Chuck Berry and T-Bone Walker, who were known to play rock and roll mixed with rhythm and blues music. The bluesy, mellically sound appealed to Jerry, for his birthday he asked his mother for an electric guitar. His aim was to reproduce the sounds he heard as a child. Jerry later went on to pursue interests revolving around jazz, bluegrass and rock and roll. Jerry would study music by playing records slowly to listen to the individual notes. That process laid the basis for his playing considering every note to have personality and spirit. Many cultures of music influenced Garcia, playing from Blues, Ozark mountain fiddling, Chuck Berry, John Coltrane (jazzy, saxophone and improvisational playing), Duke Ellington, Reggae and Bluegrass. Jerry was quoted as saying:

"My way is music, music is me being me and trying to get higher. I’ve been into music so long that I’m dripping with it; it’s all I ever expected to do (Garcia 8)."

Garcia was able to play two entirely different types of music without overlap of style (rock and roll/blues and country bluegrass). In addition he felt very much at home playing electric guitar, banjo or electric pedal steel guitar. Later on in the band’s life a device known as the "midi" was installed into his guitar, allowing Jerry to play virtually any instrument from his guitar. The presence of his notes is unmistakably his own style, always trying to discover new avenues in which to venture musically not knowing where the style may bring him (Garcia 8).

With all this musical talent and desire, Jerry settled into the ever changing music scene prevalent in the San Francisco bay area during the 1960’s and lived in the Haight Ashbury region of the city. In this domain, Garcia worked in music stores and eventually met the other band members; thereby forming musical groups based on bluegrass and basement jug band music. Inspired by rhythm and blues, the Beatles and Pigpen, the band graduated to electric blues-rock and formed the Grateful Dead during the 60’s. With its anarchist theme, Garcia was known and lived as "Captain Trips" (and didn’t like that title either) the true hippie who never "sold out" (Garcia 10).

Ron "Pigpen" McKernon: "He’s Gone"

Ron "Pigpen" McKernon was truly a backbone structure of the Grateful Dead, bringing influences of blues roots and soulfulness mixed with raunchy and riveting showmanship.

Pigpen was influenced by his father (blues, rhythm and blues bluegrass), and their move to a predominantly black working class neighborhood that overflowed with black culture. The black people of his neighborhood called him "Blue Ron" and respected his genuine regard for the blues and his ability to improvise lyrics like the greatest blues singers (Silberman 309). He later met Jerry Garcia and their partnership evolved into playing with bands formed around the interests of anyone involved (bluegrass, rhythm and blues and blues). The Grateful Dead emerged with Pigpen as vocals, harp and blues organ. He developed a personal rapport with the audience by spilling his guts with songs like "Good Lovin’ "; from there he would proceed into the audience trying to make everyone aware of the beautiful people around them.

Before his death in 1973 due to cirrhosis of the liver caused by his heavy drinking habits, Pigpen wrote lyrics with pleasures like:

This labeled Pigpen as a "True Blues Man" because he not only played the blues but also lived them to the end. Earning the inscription on his gravestone "Pigpen was and is now forever one of the Grateful Dead."

Bob Weir: "Lord, a man is just a man"

Bob Weir, born October 1947, was adopted by a successful engineer and owner of an import export business. Because of dyslexia, Weir felt like an outsider at school and home, and decided to quit both, and hit the road. At age seventeen, he met Jerry Garcia in a music store in San Francisco, California. From there he joined Jerry and played in several bands before the emergence of the Grateful Dead.

Bob Weir’s position with the Grateful Dead consisted of composition, vocals and rhythm guitar. Bob’s abilities on rhythm guitar can be attributed to the fact that he has unusually large hands. This advantage allows him to play elements of American folk music and rhythm chords in an unconventional way. Weir’s musical and theatrical influences are derived from country musicians such as Merle Haggard, combined with the rhythm and blues artistry of Bo Didley (Brooks 10). Weir is known to push the improvisational "envelope" creating a force for Deadheads dancing aimlessly at a show (Silberman 175).

Bob Weir continues to involve himself on a worldwide scale by supporting groups such as SEVA, Rainforest Action and Greenpeace. His contributions to the Dead culture are through his outspoken moral judgements of society’s inability to recognize the atrocities committed against humans and nature. In front of Senate committees, he speaks from his heart with quotes such as:

"I’ve come to the realization that part of working for a living today is working for a world in which we can live." "If we don’t stop our ruinous ways, we will end life on this planet in short order (Silberman 170).

Phil Lesh: "Looking for the secret, searching for the sound"

Phil was born in Berkeley, California March 1940. Phil’s parents supported his musical interests at a young age. His musical influences range from John Coltrane

to Bach and other sixteenth century composers. He is referred to as the educated one in the group because of extensive education in musicology and composition of classical arrangements. This knowledge helped create a sound unique to the Grateful Dead "and their ability to create a source of power with unconventional arrangements combining rock and roll with orchestral techniques to create highs and lows written within the music.

Because of his knowledge and ability he requested the position of bass guitarist for the Grateful Dead in 1965. He became a mirrored image of Jerry Garcia; not just keeping time with the music, but reflecting chords back that Jerry played from his lead guitar creating an unusual flow in the music.

Phil’s popularity amongst Deadheads further created a section within stadiums and other venues that was referred to as the "Phil Zone."

"Many longtime Heads are Phil Zone habiters and treasures it as a place for furiously funky dancing (Silberman 175)."

Currently Phil Lesh continues to open the possibilities with music by composing symphonies based on Grateful Dead music and structure.

Bill Kreutzman: "Long distance drummer"

Bill Kreutzman was born May 1946 in Palo Alto, California. Bill’s major influence for drumming was his mother who was a dance teacher and choreographer at Stanford University. He is referred to as the original rock and roll drummer of the Dead. Because of his influence, he is able to find a distinct beat in the music and stick hard to it while the other members go off in different directions. His involvement with the Grateful Dead started in the beginning while working at the "music store" where he met Jerry Garcia, and teamed up to play in bands before emerging as the Grateful Dead. His attention to rock and roll drumming mixed with dancing was revealed by the following quote:

Mickey Hart: "Drummer at the edge of magic"

Mickey Hart born September 1943 in Brooklyn, New York is the son of a world champion rudimental drummer, Lenny Hart. His mother, a teacher of drumming, instructed him privately all throughout his childhood. This was a large foundation for his love and interest in world drumming. Influences ranging from big band drummers to judo instructors enabled Mickey to concentrate on highly complex rhythms and beats. Contributions to the Grateful Dead’s music range from rhythms of high complexity to worldwide instruments of percussion creating a distinct original sound.

Mickey also contributes and educates on spirituality of rhythm and beats. Taught to him by a Shoshone medicine man and taught to Deadheads through his many books, articles and speeches on the miraculous power of music to heal us spiritually and physically. Mickey Hart believes God lives in a drum, spiritually; one quote that reflects this idea is Rhythm for Life in which Hart says:

"In the beginning was noise. And noise begot rhythm. And rhythm begot everything else. This is a kind of cosmology a drummer can live with (Hart 1)."

Mickey continues to involve himself with world drumming, collaborating on projects with a wide range of drummers from many different cultures. His feelings of drums as a spiritual and universal language are described in his writings on "the spiritual side of drumming." Here he identifies two voices of drumming, one with a technical voice, the other a spiritual voice. The technical contains the shape, material and culture in which it is played. The spiritual side is revealed when the audience of the drummers voice is stimulated by the rhythmic/spiritual essence of the sound imposed on our inner spirit.

Robert Hunter: "Believe it if you need it"

Robert Hunter was born in June 1941 in Arroyo Grande, California. Hunter met Jerry Garcia in 1960, played music with him on several occasions and then moved to New Mexico. Jerry later contacted Robert Hunter by letter and asked him to write lyrics for the Grateful Dead. He accepted and has continued the relationship to this day writing for band members devoted to individual projects. Hunter studies poetry and music and is a lover of Irish, Gaelic, Scottish and Welsh writings. Hunter’s great ability to put human action and feeling on paper is said to be attributed to a process equal to channeling of spiritual influence and creation of art as a natural process gifted by God (Silberman 150).

"Art is what happens when God speaks through a human being, real art is revelation (Silberman 151)."

Hunter has been described as having an ability to totally focus on an idea, therefore allowing the words to flow naturally to convey his thoughts, feelings and perceptions of our world and its many ups and downs associated with it. As Robert would say:

"If you get confused, listen to the music play."

John Barlow: "I say what I mean and I don’t give a damn"

John Barlow was born October 1947 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. John collaborates with Bob Weir to write lyrics and music featuring Weir as the vocalist.

John’s family included a father involved in politics and running for re-election as State Senator when John was 15. Due to John’s unmanageable behavior, he was sent to a boarding school where he met Bob Weir, also a student.

Bob was later thrown out and John later was accepted into Wesleyan, a liberal arts university in Connecticut. There after some setbacks he majored in literature and theology. "Burnt out" from education he settled into the Leary "acid tests" occurring on the East Coast. At a New York City show in 1967, Barlow met Weir again after five years. Later on, Weir requested the help of Barlow on some unfinished music. From this experience, Barlow proved to possess a unique ability to write about some deep American feelings of "celebrations of companionship; lamentations of lost love; explorations of alienation; freedom and the frontier." With songs like "Lost Sailor," "Saint of Circumstance," "Estimated Prophet," "Feel Like a Stranger," "Throwing Stones," the images of coming, more so surviving in America, are revealed through their lyrics of struggle by the foreigners and immigrants and natives of the 19^th and 20^th Century America. This ability tied him into participating in the anti-war politics and created an avenue in which he could voice his and the Dead’s opinions on "politics of consciousness" through their music (Silberman 16).

Barlow states:

"I was more inclined to believe that if you could change consciousness, the politics would take care of itself (Silberman 19)."

He believes that reality is not fixed, as most people do believe. By heightening awareness of the endless possibilities in which to benefit the positive evolution of mankind, reality is altered, opinions posing questions for a more meaningful direction in life. These moral and spiritual questions come through the music in lyrics and form (Silberman 19).

John Barlow continues to write is a rancher and an online activist trying to develop an "ecology of information", surrounding the information superhighway.

Extended Family: "And a friend or two…"

Contributions to the success of the Grateful Dead as a music culture go out to many other artists and extended family, too many for the purpose and extent of this paper. But for brief oversight, they include:

• Donna Godcheaux - vocals, and her husband, Keith Godcheaux - grand piano after Pig Pen’s declining health forced him to quit the band. Shortly after they left the band due to artistic differences, Keith was killed in a motorcycle accident.
• Brent Mydland-Keyboards, vocals and composer after Donna and Keith left the band in 1979 and played until his death of a drug overdose in 1990. His style and contributions are compared to Pig Pen in many ways.
• Vince Welnick-Keyboards, vocals and composer from 1991 until Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995. Originally from the new wave band called "The Tubes," Vince worked with the Dead onstage along with Bruce Hornsby on keyboards to fill the gap left after Brent’s death.

(To cover these individuals would be beyond the scope of this paper. But, please be aware that each of these individual members contributed to the Dead’s music as well as the culture in their own ways. Each time a new member came aboard, the music shifted into new places, therefore blazing a trail for further spiritual and artistic exploration.)

Many other influences and supporters made way for the Grateful Dead to materialize as a High Music Culture not willing to succumb to main stream ideas of music production and delivery to the masses. From liberal recording studios (educating the Dead so much, making it possible for them to open their own), to long standing technical members who were responsible for sound, lighting and numerous other necessary activities to deliver a high quality "show" and "avenue" for self expression in a most positive way.

Summary: "Let the words be yours, I am done with mine"

The essence of the Deadhead culture melts into a spiritual whirlwind that continues through people who in turn learn, love, and grow together as one. The Grateful Dead music culture can almost be termed as a form of chaos; it has no rules. When chaos disappears other things start to happen. This culture is timeless in its beliefs and values; exploration is the key. The Grateful Dead themselves were born out of exploration.

The Acid Test let the diverse collaboration of different musical backgrounds to form as one with the intent of exploration. The Dead did not invent Deadheads. Instead Deadheads invented themselves, the road to unlimited devotion.

The beginning of this mystic feeling of oneness can date back to the time of Reformation in Germany in the 17^th Century. Ideas that set the stage for a time yet to come. The "Diggers" as they were called, wanted to create a society of religious order with everyone equal under God and no political order that would disturb a balance of "common preservation represented by sharing and loving (Forman 1-4)."

The "Diggers’ " re-emergence in the 1960’s paralleled the reasons for its emergence in 17^th Century Europe; a want and desire by the people to set up systems of government or social responsibilities, not strung to political motives or agendas, for the benefit of all mankind.

These ideas of freedom met with a changing society during the 1960’s for a birth of a new culture centered on spiritual fulfillment through music and living instead of capital investment for perpetual profit. Out of this came the Grateful Dead and a group of people holding the same ideas of existence in a free society.

The Grateful Dead with all its members and multi-dimensional background of education and experience has held to its early belief of better living for a better life, holding also a large following that believes there is a better way of life by actively living it. We think the strength of our culture comes from borrowing positive aspects from other cultures creating a synchronism all its own.

As with any society, the larger it becomes the greater its chance for destruction from its own weight. This was occurring before the death of Jerry Garcia as venues became an area for many sides of society to congregate and "party." This created stress on a system already fragile from society’s inhibition of the "hippie" culture, as outsiders would term it. The stress of riots for entry into shows or destruction of property due largely to members of crowds attending without tickets, ended quickly when Jerry Garcia died in 1995 and the "Dead" decided to disband.

The bad actions of yesterday are not seen today as individual members collectively and separately tour the United States to continue the adventure "Furthur." Along with them are followers, young and old alike, still willing and wanting to discover what possibilities may still lie inside mankind.