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.
High Time
Grateful Dead Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You didn't mean goodbye, you meant please don't let me go
I was having a high time, living the good life, well I know
The wheels are muddy, got a ton of hay
Now listen here, baby, 'cause I mean what I say
I'm having a hard time, living the good life, well I know
I was losing time, I had nothing to do
Wheels broke down, leader won't draw
The line is busted, the last one I saw
Tomorrow come trouble, tomorrow come pain
Now don't think too hard baby, 'cause you know what I'm saying
I could show you a high time, living the good life, don't be that way
Nothing's for certain, it could always go wrong
Come in when it's raining, go on out when it's gone
We could have us a high time, living the good life, well I know
The Grateful Dead's song "High Time" features the theme of a failed relationship and the singer's attempt to convince his lover to give him another chance. In the first verse, the singer is confused by his lover's goodbye, believing that she meant something else entirely. He had been living the good life, with lots of fun times, but now he was having a hard time adjusting to life without her. He had been losing time with nothing to do and no one to fight, but now he came to her, hoping for reconciliation.
The second verse finds the singer's life falling apart, with broken wheels, faulty leaders, and busted lines. He warns his lover that tomorrow will bring trouble and pain, but he doesn't want her to think too hard about what he's saying. He promises that he can show her a good time and that nothing is for certain, but things could always go wrong. He tells her to come in when it's raining and leave when it's gone, and together they could have a high time living the good life.
Line by Line Meaning
You told me goodbye, how was I to know
You left me suddenly without giving me a reason to understand.
You didn't mean goodbye, you meant please don't let me go
You never intended to leave me but actually wanted me to beg you to stay.
I was having a high time, living the good life, well I know
I was enjoying life to its fullest and I was aware that things could take a turn for the worse.
The wheels are muddy, got a ton of hay
The situation is difficult as evidenced by the dirty wheels and the heavy load of work I have to do.
Now listen here, baby, 'cause I mean what I say
Pay attention because I am speaking truthfully and sincerely.
I'm having a hard time, living the good life, well I know
I am struggling to maintain a good and contented life despite setbacks.
I was losing time, I had nothing to do
I was wasting my time and felt unproductive and aimless.
No one to fight, I came to you
I had no one to challenge or confront, but I found solace in your company.
Wheels broke down, leader won't draw
Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong and no one is willing to take control.
The line is busted, the last one I saw
The situation is hopeless and there is no clear path forward.
Tomorrow come trouble, tomorrow come pain
Difficulties and hardships are inevitable and will come soon enough.
Now don't think too hard baby, 'cause you know what I'm saying
Don't over-analyze, I am communicating clearly and straightforwardly.
I could show you a high time, living the good life, don't be that way
I could introduce you to a happy life, but you should not resist or be obstinate.
Nothing's for certain, it could always go wrong
Uncertainty is always present and things can easily take a turn for the worse.
Come in when it's raining, go on out when it's gone
Take advantage of opportunities when they arise, regardless of the circumstances.
We could have us a high time, living the good life, well I know
Together, we could enjoy life to its fullest and be content, despite potential setbacks.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JEROME J. GARCIA, ROBERT C. HUNTER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Desdinova69
You told me goodbye
How was I to know
You didn't mean goodbye
You meant please don't let me go
I was having a high time
Living the good life, ahh ahh
Well I know
The wheels are muddy
Got a ton of hay
Now listen here baby
'Cause I mean what I say
I'm having a hard time
Living the good life, ahh ahh
Well I know
I was losing time, I had nothing to do
No-one to fight, I came to you
Wheels broke down, the leader won't draw
The line is busted, the last one I saw
Tomorrow come trouble
Tomorrow come pain
Now don't think too hard, baby
'Cause you know what I'm saying
I could show you a high time
Living the good life, ahh ahh
Don't be that way
Nothing's for certain
It could always go wrong
Come in when it's raining
Go on out when it's gone
We could have us a high time
Living the good life, ahh ahh
Well I know
@sh230968
Smooth like honey and silk. Jerry Garcia voice is so good on this track and on Black Peter. He was a very dear person to me. Will always be.
@jonathanmosher72
Jerry said "I failed the song (High Time)" in an interview. He thought it deserved a better singer. I think it sounds great.
@sh230968
@@jonathanmosher72 rock stars say such things, I think they just say such stuff to eulogize their work
@Sunshine-do3yv
This song will always belong to Pancho,.......a.k.a. Michael......first tape homemade, daid listen to this.....i was 14 yrs old....now 65.......miss you both✌️✌️✌️✌️🌻🌻🌻🌻💐💐❤from Sunshine, boulder, CO 2024.....Jan.
@sirezekiel6156
Jerry's voice is so smooth and serene in this song.
@scottylynn7103
This entire album is an absolute masterpiece. One of my favorites of all time. Thank you for a real good time! (A lot of them)
@CatonaWall175
I agree with you mate.I absolutely love this music.
@butterman225
Challenged to be my fave
@jukejointjack
It truly is the best, I was on the road in Oklahoma trying to get to the next show when Jerry passed and the local radio station asked for requests they played the 7 most requested dead albums and this was mine. Rip Jerry Pigpen Brent
@hippytrippyjonboy828
It's a great album. This song specifically speaks to me in ways that hardly any other song can. It easily brings some tears to my eyes.