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.
Dupree's Diamond Blues
Grateful Dead Lyrics
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Papa said "Son, you'll never get far,
I'll tell you the reason if you want to know,
'Cause child of mine, there isn't really very far to go"
Well baby, baby wants a gold diamond ring
Wants it more than most any old thing
Well when I get those jelly roll blues
Down to the jewelry store packing a gun,
Says "Wrap it up. I think I'll take this one"
"A thousand dollars please," the jewelry man said
Dupree he said, "I'll pay this one off to you in lead"
Well you know son you just can't figure,
First thing you know you're gonna pull that trigger
And it's no wonder your reason goes bad -
Jelly roll will drive you stone mad
Judge said "Son, this gonna cost you some time"
Dupree said "Judge, you know that crossed my mind"
Judge said "Fact it's gonna cost you your life"
Dupree said "Judge, you know that seems to me to be about right"
Well baby, baby's gonna lose her sweet man
Dupree come out with a losing hand
Baby's gonna weep it up for awhile
Then go on out and find another sweet man's
Gonna treat her with style
Judge said "Son, I know your baby well
But that's a secret I can't never tell"
Dupree said "Judge, well it's well understood,
And you got to admit that that sweet, sweet jelly's so good"
Well you know son you just can't figure,
First thing you know you're gonna pull that trigger
And it's no wonder your reason goes bad,
Jelly roll will drive you stone mad
Same old story and I know it's been told,
Some like jelly jelly - some like gold
Many a man's done a terrible thing
Just to get baby that shiny diamond ring
The song "Dupree's Diamond Blues" by the Grateful Dead tells the story of a young man named Dupree who wants to buy a gold diamond ring for his love interest. However, Dupree doesn't have the money to make the purchase, so he goes to the jewelry store with a gun and tries to rob the store. The jewelry store owner tells him that the ring is worth a thousand dollars, but Dupree offers to pay with lead bullets instead of money. The police catch Dupree, and he is sentenced to time in prison.
The lyrics of the song also discuss the dangers of desire and how it can drive someone to do something terrible. Dupree's desire for the ring ultimately leads him to a life of crime and imprisonment. The chorus of the song repeats the cautionary message that "jelly roll," a reference to the drug opium, can drive a person "stone mad" and lead them to do things they wouldn't otherwise do.
Overall, the song is a cautionary tale about the dangers of desire and how it can lead people to make poor decisions. The lyrics are delivered with a bluesy, lighthearted tone that belies the dark subject matter.
Line by Line Meaning
When I was just a little young boy,
When I was a young boy.
Papa said "Son, you'll never get far,
Papa said that I wouldn't go far in life.
I'll tell you the reason if you want to know,
I'm willing to tell you why I won't succeed.
'Cause child of mine, there isn't really very far to go"
Because, my son, there isn't much to achieve.
Well baby, baby wants a gold diamond ring
My significant other desires a diamond ring.
Wants it more than most any old thing
She desires it more than anything else.
Well when I get those jelly roll blues
Whenever I feel down and upset.
Why I'd go and get anything in this world for you.
I'd do anything to make her happy.
Down to the jewelry store packing a gun,
I went to the store with a gun.
Says "Wrap it up. I think I'll take this one"
I said to wrap up the ring because I want it.
"A thousand dollars please," the jewelry man said
The jeweler asked for $1,000.
Dupree he said, "I'll pay this one off to you in lead"
I said I'd pay with bullets instead of money.
Well you know son you just can't figure,
Sometimes you just can't understand.
First thing you know you're gonna pull that trigger
Before you know it, you'll be using the gun.
And it's no wonder your reason goes bad -
It's understandable that your judgement is impaired.
Jelly roll will drive you stone mad
Emotional turmoil can make you crazy.
Judge said "Son, this gonna cost you some time"
The judge said that I'd have to serve time.
Dupree said "Judge, you know that crossed my mind"
I mentioned that I already had considered that outcome.
Judge said "Fact it's gonna cost you your life"
The judge told me that it would cost me my life.
Dupree said "Judge, you know that seems to me to be about right"
I just accepted the punishment as reasonable.
Well baby, baby's gonna lose her sweet man
My significant other will lose me.
Dupree come out with a losing hand
I lost the game.
Baby's gonna weep it up for awhile
She'll feel sad for some time.
Then go on out and find another sweet man's
She will find another man.
Gonna treat her with style
He will treat her well.
Judge said "Son, I know your baby well
The judge knew my significant other.
But that's a secret I can't never tell"
The judge had a secret to keep.
Dupree said "Judge, well it's well understood,
I acknowledged that the judge has to keep secrets.
And you got to admit that that sweet, sweet jelly's so good"
I said and agreed that the sweetness made it hard.
Same old story and I know it's been told,
It's the same situation as always.
Some like jelly jelly - some like gold
Some people want love, others want riches.
Many a man's done a terrible thing
People can take drastic actions.
Just to get baby that shiny diamond ring
Just to make their lovers happy, impacts can be made.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JEROME J. GARCIA, ROBERT C. HUNTER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind