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.
China Doll
Grateful Dead Lyrics
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The bells of heaven ring
Tell me what you done it for
No, I won't tell you a thing
Yesterday I begged you
Before I hit the ground
All I leave behind me is only what I found
If you can abide it let the hurdy-gurdy play
Stranger ones have come by here
Before they flew away
I will not condemn you nor yet would I deny
I would ask the same of you
But failing will not die
Take up your china doll it's only fractured
And just a little nervous from the fall
The lyrics of Grateful Dead's "China Doll" tell a story full of mystery and ambiguity. It begins with a pistol shot that suggests a moment of violence or danger. The bells of heaven ringing could represent the end of a life, and the singer asks why it was done. However, they refuse to say anything further on the matter, adding to the intrigue of the story.
The second verse seems to be a continuation of the story. The singer begs whoever the shooter is before they "hit the ground." This implies that the person was perhaps fatally wounded, but the singer doesn't focus on that. Instead, all they leave behind is what they've found, which could mean knowledge or material possessions.
In the next section, the singer seems to be asking for forgiveness or understanding. They mention a "hurdy-gurdy," a type of hand-cranked musical instrument, which could symbolize the unpredictability of life. They also mention strangers who have come before and gone, implying a sense of transience.
The final verse is perhaps the most poignant. The singer declares that they will not condemn the shooter, nor will they deny them forgiveness. However, they ask the same of the shooter, knowing that it may not be possible. They then instruct the listener to "take up your china doll," which is "only fractured" and "a little nervous from the fall." This could represent the idea of taking on something that's been damaged but still has value, or of holding onto something fragile.
Overall, the lyrics of "China Doll" are full of symbolism and ambiguity. It's unclear exactly what happened, who was involved, or what the outcome was. The singer seems more concerned with finding meaning in the situation and perhaps finding forgiveness for themselves and others.
Line by Line Meaning
A pistol shot at five o'clock
A gunshot at a specific time of day serves as a reminder of an event that may have taken place.
The bells of heaven ring
The sound of bells ringing in the distance represents a call to take heed and pay attention.
Tell me what you done it for
The singer is demanding an explanation for an action someone has taken.
No I won't tell you a thing
The artist has chosen to withhold information, and will not be persuaded to share regardless of pleading.
Yesterday I begged you
It is revealed that the artist made a plea of some sort to the person addressed previously.
Before I hit the ground
Whatever action or conversation the singer had with the addressed person was urgent and occurred very quickly.
All I leave behind me
The singer is aware of the impact they may have on those they leave behind when they eventually pass on.
Is only what I found
Despite the artist's efforts and experiences in life, all they will be leaving behind is what they have managed to gather.
If you can abide it
The artist is about to suggest something that may be difficult to accept, and is offering a warning in advance of the upcoming statement.
Let the hurdy gurdy play
The artist is encouraging the music to play and flow in a natural way, using the hurdy gurdy as a metaphor for life.
Stranger ones have come by here
The singer is acknowledging the fact that they have met many different people in life, some of whom were more unusual or unexpected than the person currently being addressed.
Before they flew away
Regardless of who the artist has met in the past, they inevitably leave the artist's life at some point by moving on to different things.
I will not condemn you
The singer is reassuring the addressed person that they hold no ill will or negativity towards them.
Nor yet would I deny
The singer is acknowledging that they may not have all the answers and is open to considering different perspectives or viewpoints.
I would ask the same of you
The singer is issuing a challenge or request for reciprocity from the addressed person.
But failing, will not die
The artist is acknowledging the possibility of their challenge or request not being met, but still intends to live on and move forward regardless.
Take up your china doll
The artist is encouraging the addressed person to pick up the figurative pieces of their life and continue moving forward, despite any damage that may have been caused or scars that may have formed.
It's only fractured
The singer is reassuring the addressed person that whatever damage they have sustained is only temporary or limited in scope.
And a little nervous from the fall
The addressed person is experiencing some apprehension or anxiety as a result of whatever event or circumstance led to their fall.
La la la la la la la
The artist ends with a non-verbal expression, which could be interpreted as a way to convey additional meaning or emotion through sound rather than words.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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