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.
Beat It on Down the Line
Grateful Dead Lyrics
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Just a little too hard
I'm running out of money, Lord
I need more pay
I'm gonna wake up in the morning, Lord
I'm gonna pack my bags
I'm gonna beat it on down the line
Going down the line (Going down the line)
Going down the line (Going down the line)
Going down the line (Going down the line)
I'm going down the line (Going down the line)
Going down the line (Going down the line)
I'm gonna beat it on down the line
I'll be waiting at the station, Lord
When that train pulls on by
And I'm going back where I belong
And now I'm going north to
My same old used-to-be
Well, now, down in Joe Brown's coal mine
I said coal mine (Coal mine)
Whoa, coal mine (Coal mine)
Old coal mine (Coal mine)
Whoa, coal mine (Coal mine)
Coal mine (Coal mine)
Whoa, coal mine (Coal mine)
Now, down in Joe Brown's coal mine
Yeah, I'm going back to that shack
Way across the railroad track
Uh huh, that's where I think I belong
Yes, and I, got a sweet woman, Lord, yeah
Who's waiting there for me
Well, that's where I'm gonna
Make my happy home
Whoa, happy home (Happy home)
Ah, happy home (Happy home)
Oh, happy home (Happy home)
Whoa, happy, a happy, happy (Happy home)
Happy home (Happy home)
Whoa, happy home (Happy home) whoa, now
That's where I'm gonna make my happy home
The lyrics to "Beat It on Down the Line" by the Grateful Dead speak to the struggles of a working-class man who is tired of his job and the money he is making. He feels like he's working too hard for too little and it's time for a change. The chorus of the song repeats the line "going down the line," which can be taken as a metaphor for him leaving his current life and heading toward something new.
He plans to leave in the morning and pack his bags, and it's clear that he intends to move far away. He wants to escape the confines of his current situation and find something that makes him happier. He imagines waiting for a train at the station, and returning to the place where he used to live. He mentions going back to the coal mine that he used to work at, which could symbolize going back to his roots or returning to something familiar.
The final verse shows that the main character has someone waiting for him at the end of his journey - a sweet woman who he plans to create a happy home with. This suggests that his journey isn't just about running away from something, but also running towards something else. The overall message of the song is one of hope and renewal, even in the face of difficult circumstances.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, this job I've got is
The singer's job is becoming too difficult for them to handle.
Just a little too hard
The job's difficulty level is becoming increasingly challenging.
I'm running out of money, Lord
The singer is becoming financially drained and is running short on funds.
I need more pay
The artist feels that they are not receiving the appropriate monetary compensation for their job.
I'm gonna wake up in the morning, Lord
The artist plans to wake up early in the morning.
I'm gonna pack my bags
The singer plans to gather their belongings.
I'm gonna beat it on down the line
To leave or depart from the current location and move on to a new destination.
I'll be waiting at the station, Lord
The artist is planning to wait and board a train at the station.
When that train pulls on by
The artist is anticipating the arrival of the train that they will board.
And I'm going back where I belong
The artist feels that their true home and belonging is at a different location.
And now I'm going north to
The singer is heading in a northerly direction to their desired location.
My same old used-to-be
The destination that the artist is heading to is a place they are familiar with from their past.
Well, now, down in Joe Brown's coal mine
The singer is referencing a specific location that they are likely leaving behind.
Yeah, I'm going back to that shack
The singer plans to return to a small and humble dwelling.
Way across the railroad track
The singer's desired location is on the other side of the railroad tracks.
Uh huh, that's where I think I belong
The artist feels that their true place of belonging is away from their current location.
Yes, and I, got a sweet woman, Lord, yeah
The artist has a female companion waiting for them at their desired location.
Who's waiting there for me
The female companion is anticipating the arrival of the singer.
Well, that's where I'm gonna
The desired location mentioned previously is where the singer plans to relocate.
Make my happy home
The artist plans to make a joyful and contented home at their desired location.
Whoa, happy home (Happy home)
The artist is expressing their excitement and anticipation for the new home they plan to make at their desired location.
Ah, happy home (Happy home)
The artist continues to express their enthusiasm for the new home they plan to make at their desired location.
Oh, happy home (Happy home)
The singer is emphasizing the importance of their desired location as a source of happiness and contentment.
Whoa, happy, a happy, happy (Happy home)
The artist is continuing to emphasize their excitement for the new home they plan to make at their desired location.
Whoa, happy home (Happy home) whoa, now
The singer continues to express their enthusiasm for their desired location and the happiness they plan to create there.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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