The Grateful Dead was founded 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). Members of the Grateful Dead had played together in various San Francisco bands, including Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions and the Warlocks. Lesh was the last member to join the Warlocks before they became the Grateful Dead; he replaced Dana Morgan Jr., who had played bass for a few gigs. Drummer Mickey Hart and non-performing lyricist Robert Hunter joined in 1967. With the exception of McKernan, who died in 1973, and Hart, who took time off from 1971 to 1974, the core of the band stayed together for its entire 30-year history. The other official members of the band are Tom Constanten (keyboards; 1968–1970), John Perry Barlow (nonperforming lyricist; 1971–1995), Keith Godchaux (keyboards; 1971–1979), Donna Godchaux (vocals; 1972–1979), Brent Mydland (keyboards, vocals; 1979–1990), and Vince Welnick (keyboards, vocals; 1990–1995). Bruce Hornsby (accordion, piano, vocals) was a touring member from 1990 to 1992, as well as a guest with the band on occasion before and after the tours.
The name "Grateful Dead" was chosen from a dictionary. According to Phil Lesh, "[Jerry Garcia] picked up an old Britannica World Language Dictionary ... [and] ... In that silvery elf-voice he said to me, 'Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?'" The definition there was "the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial". According to Alan Trist, director of the Grateful Dead's music publisher company Ice Nine, Garcia found the name in the Funk & Wagnalls Folklore Dictionary, when his finger landed on that phrase while playing a game of Fictionary. In the Garcia biography, Captain Trips, author Sandy Troy states that the band was smoking the psychedelic DMT at the time. The term "grateful dead" appears in folktales of a variety of cultures.
Live performances
The Grateful Dead toured constantly throughout their career, playing more than 2,300 concerts. They promoted a sense of community among their fans, who became known as "Deadheads", many of whom followed their tours for months or years on end. Around concert venues, an impromptu communal marketplace known as 'Shakedown Street' was created by Deadheads to serve as centers of activity where fans could buy and sell anything from grilled cheese sandwiches to home-made t-shirts and recordings of Grateful Dead concerts.
In their early career, the band also dedicated their time and talents to their community, the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco, making available free food, lodging, music, and health care to all. It has been said that the band performed "more free concerts than any band in the history of music".
With the exception of 1975, when the band was on hiatus and played only four concerts together, the Grateful Dead performed many concerts every year, from their formation in April 1965, until July 9, 1995. Initially all their shows were in California, principally in the San Francisco Bay Area and in or near Los Angeles. They also performed, in 1965 and 1966, with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, as the house band for the Acid Tests. They toured nationally starting in June 1967 (their first foray to New York), with a few detours to Canada, Europe and three nights at the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt in 1978. They appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Festival Express train tour across Canada in 1970. They were scheduled to appear as the final act at the infamous Altamont Free Concert on December 6, 1969 after the Rolling Stones but withdrew after security concerns. "That's the way things went at Altamont—so badly that the Grateful Dead, prime organizers and movers of the festival, didn't even get to play", staff at Rolling Stone magazine wrote in a detailed narrative on the event.
Their first UK performance was at the Hollywood Music Festival in 1970. Their largest concert audience came in 1973 when they played, along with the Allman Brothers Band and the Band, before an estimated 600,000 people at the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen. They played to an estimated total of 25 million people, more than any other band, with audiences of up to 80,000 attending a single show. Many of these concerts were preserved in the band's tape vault, and several dozen have since been released on CD and as downloads. The Dead were known for the tremendous variation in their setlists from night to night—the list of songs documented to have been played by the band exceeds 500. The band has released four concert videos under the name View from the Vault.
In the 1990s, the Grateful Dead earned a total of $285 million in revenue from their concert tours, the second-highest during the 1990s, with the Rolling Stones earning the most. This figure is representative of tour revenue through 1995, as touring stopped after the death of Jerry Garcia. In a 1991 PBS documentary, segment host Buck Henry attended an August 1991 concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre and gleaned some information from some band members about the Grateful Dead phenomenon and its success. At the time, Jerry Garcia stated, "We didn't really invent the Grateful Dead, the crowd invented the Grateful Dead, you know what I mean? We were sort of standing in line, and uh, it's gone way past our expectations, way past, so it's, we've been going along with it to see what it's gonna do next." Furthermore, Mickey Hart stated, "This is one of the last places in America that you can really have this kind of fun, you know, considering the political climate and so forth." Hart also stated that "the transformative power of the Grateful Dead is really the essence of it; it's what it can do to your consciousness. We're more into transportation than we are into music, per se, I mean, the business of the Grateful Dead is transportation." One of the band's largest concerts took place just months before Garcia's death — at their outdoor show with Bob Dylan in Highgate, Vermont on June 15, 1995. The crowd was estimated to be over 90,000; overnight camping was allowed and about a third of the audience got in without having purchased a ticket.
Their numerous studio albums were generally collections of new songs that they had first played in concert. The band was also famous for its extended musical improvisations, having been described as having never played the same song the same way twice. Their concert sets often blended songs, one into the next, often for more than three songs at a time.
Tapes
Like several other bands during this time, the Grateful Dead allowed their fans to record their shows. For many years the tapers set up their microphones wherever they could, and the eventual forest of microphones became a problem for the sound crew. Eventually, this was solved by having a dedicated taping section located behind the soundboard, which required a special "tapers" ticket. The band allowed sharing of their shows, as long as no profits were made on the sale of the tapes.
Of the approximately 2,350 shows the Grateful Dead played, almost 2,200 were taped, and most of these are available online. The band began collecting and cataloging tapes early on and Dick Latvala was their keeper. "Dick's Picks" is named after Latvala. After his death in 1999, David Lemieux gradually took the post. Concert set lists from a subset of 1,590 Grateful Dead shows were used to perform a comparative analysis between how songs were played in concert and how they are listened online by Last.fm members. In their book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn From the Most Iconic Band in History, David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan identify the taper section as a crucial contributor to increasing the Grateful Dead's fan base.
After the death of 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.
All along The Watchtower
Grateful Dead Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Cried the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion here
I can't get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine
Ploughmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know
What any of it is worth
"No reason to get excited"
The thief he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that
And it is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now
The hour is getting late
All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
Barefoot servants came and went
Little children too
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
The wind began to howl
The Grateful Dead's version of Bob Dylan's iconic song "All Along the Watchtower" features a conversation between the Joker and the Thief, two characters who represent societal outcasts. The Joker is frustrated with the state of the world, as he suggests that "there's too much confusion here" and that "none of them know along the line what any of this is worth." In contrast, the Thief tries to calm the Joker, acknowledging that there are people who think that "life is but a joke," but emphasizes that he and the Joker have been through that mindset and have found meaning beyond it. The song emphasizes the importance of finding one's own truth, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, as evidenced by the line "all I got is a red guitar, three chords and the truth."
The chorus, "All along the watchtower, princes kept the view while all the women came and went, barefoot servants too," further emphasizes the societal hierarchy that the Joker and the Thief feel trapped in. The watchtower represents the ruling class, while the barefoot servants and women represent the marginalized of society. The song seems to suggest that even those at the top are not immune to the chaos and confusion of the world, as evidenced by the repeated line "there must be some way outta here."
Line by Line Meaning
There must be some way outta here
The situation is unpleasant, and the people involved are trying to find an escape from it.
Said the joker to the thief
This line is a metaphor for the idea that the people involved in this situation are playing roles in a larger game, and that they don't have full control over the outcome.
There's too much confusion here
The situation is difficult to understand because there are so many factors at play.
I can't get no relief
The person speaking is feeling frustrated and helpless in the situation.
Businessmen, they drink my wine
The person speaking is describing how other people are benefiting from their situation, while they are left to suffer.
Plowmen dig my earth
The person speaking is describing how other people are benefiting from the land, resources, or labor that they are providing.
None of them know along the line
The people benefiting from the situation don't understand the deeper implications of what they are doing.
What any of this is worth, yeah
The person speaking is questioning the ultimate value of their labor or contributions.
No reason to get excited
The artist is urging calm and patience in the face of the difficult situation.
The thief, he kindly spoke
The artist is using the thief as a symbol for someone who has unconventional but valuable perspectives to offer.
There are many among us
There are other people who share similar attitudes or experiences to the singer.
Who think that life is but a joke
These people have a more light-hearted or cynical approach to life, which may not be helpful in the current situation.
But you and I, we've been through that
The singer and the listener have had similar experiences to those of the people who view life as a joke.
And that is not our fate
The singer and listener are committed to taking a more serious approach to their current situation.
So let us not talk falsely now
The singer is urging the listener to be honest and authentic in their speech and actions.
Because the hour is getting late, hey, hey, hey
Time is running out, and it is important to take action quickly.
All along the watchtower
The artist is using the metaphor of a watchtower to refer to the larger world or system that is exerting influence on their situation.
Princes kept the view
The people in power are able to observe the situation from a distance, without being directly affected by it.
While horsemen came and went
People with less power or mobility are coming and going, but the situation remains the same.
Barefoot servants, too
Even people with little power or status are sucked into the larger system, and are affected by it in some way.
All I got is a red guitar
The artist is describing their personal possessions, which may not be worth much but are important to them.
Three chords and the truth
The artist is describing the simplicity and authenticity of their music, which is meaningful to them.
The rest is up to you
The singer is delegating responsibility for interpreting their music to the listener.
There are some among us here
The artist is again referring to other people who have different attitudes or approaches to life.
Say that life is just a joke
These people have a more light-hearted or cynical view of life than the singer does.
You and I, we've been through that
The singer and listener have had similar experiences to those of the people who view life as a joke.
And that is not our fate, at least today
The singer and listener are committed to taking a more serious approach to their situation, but acknowledge that this could change in the future.
So let us not talk falsely now
The artist is urging the listener to be honest and authentic in their speech and actions.
Because the hour is getting late, late
Time is running out, and it is important to take action quickly.
Yeah
This is just an exclamation that emphasizes the urgency of the situation.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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