Why the Grateful Dead Matter

In Why the Grateful Dead Matter, veteran writer and lifelong Deadhead Michael Benson argues that the Grateful Dead are not simply a successful rock-and-roll band but a phenomenon central to American culture. He defends the proposition that the Grateful Dead are, in fact, a musical movement as transformative as any -ism in the artistic history of this century and the last. And a lot more fun than most.

From the street festivals of Haight-Ashbury to the cross-country acid tests with the Merry Pranksters, and from the sound-and-light show at the Great Pyramid at Giza to the ecstatic outpouring of joy at Soldier Field in the summer of ?15, the Grateful Dead have been at the center of American life, music, and karmic flow for fifty years. In Why the Grateful Dead Matter, Michael Benson brings it all back to life and makes a compelling case for the band?s lasting cultural importance.


CONTENIDO:

Introduction: Light the Song

They?re an American Band
Of Jerry Garcia, Savior
Dead Shows Are Like Snowflakes
The Dead Are Epicurean
"Ripple" Is So Zen
They Invented a New Form of Music
Concert Sound at a Whole New Level
They Played the Pyramids
Their Instruments Were Custom-Made
Pigpen Sang the Blues
Bobby Brought the Muscle and the Sunshine
Rock Scully Was Their Manager
They Didn?t Buy into the Jinx
The Birth of the Dead Was a Familial Process
Of the Acid Tests
The Lyrics of Robert Hunter Are Great Poetry
The Band Has a Philosophy
Of Academics and Business
Of Mountain Girl
Deadheads Roam the Earth
Crickets Played on Blues for Allah
Dead World Is a Kinder, Gentler Place
Their Most Spontaneous Moment Became Their Finest Hour
They Overcame So Much and Forged On
There Is Sugaree
The Commitment to a Concise Aesthetic and Traditional Song Structures
When Youth Was God, Jerry Played Old
Of the Art
The Concert Films
Their Music Is So Flexible
Of the Forty-Five-Minute "Sugaree"
Of Englishtown, and the Myriad Glories of ?77
When Jerry Died the Vibe Lived On
The Music Never Stops

Acknowledgments
Further Reading
Index