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.
Lazy Lightning
Grateful Dead Lyrics
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It's like desire in disguise
I keep on trying but I i can't get through
Lazy lighting
I'd like to find the proper potion
That's gonna capture your emotion
You're right beside me but I
I can't get through
You're a loop of lazy lighting
Just a loop of lazy lightning
Must admit you're kinda frightening
But you really get me high
So exciting when I hear your velvet thunder
You seem so near I start to wonder
Would you come closer if I
If I asked you to? So inviting
The way you're messing with my reason
It's an exception but it's pleasing
Tell me a lie and I will swear
I'll swear it's true
You're a loop of lazy lighting
Just a loop of lazy lightninм
Must admit you're kinda frightening
Just a loop of lazy lightning
Rope of fire round my heart (lighting)
Rope of fire ever tightning (lightning)
Rope of fire round my heart (lightning)
Well come on lazy lightning
Just a loop of lazy lightning
Misty lightning
Well, you always electrify me
Someday I know you'll satisfy me
And all that lightning will
Be my lightning too
My lightning too (my lightning too)
Just a loop of lazy lightning
(my lightning too)
My lightning too (my lightning too)
Just a loop of lazy lightning
(y lightning too)
My lightning too (my lightning too)
Oh come on lazy lightnin' (my lightning too)
The lyrics to "Lazy Lightning" by the Grateful Dead depict a narrator who is captivated by someone's allure and charm. The repeated phrase "lazy lightning" metaphorically symbolizes the person's irresistible and mysterious nature. The words "lazy lighting, sleepy fire in your eyes" suggest that the person's inner desires are concealed but still visible to the singer. The singer acknowledges their attempts to connect with this person but admits that they are struggling to break through their emotional barrier.
The singer longs to find the "proper potion" that will capture this person's emotions and allow them to establish a deeper connection. Despite the person being physically alongside the singer, they still feel a sense of distance and inability to reach them emotionally. This signifies the challenge of understanding and connecting with someone guarded and enigmatic.
The lyrics highlight the enthralling power of the person's presence. They are described as "loop of lazy lightning" which emphasizes their ability to create excitement and intensity. The singer finds them both frightening and exhilarating, as they ultimately heighten their emotions. The phrase "lazy lightning" serves as a reminder of the person's irresistible and electrifying impact on the singer's life.
The singer acknowledges that the person's influence is both alluring and disruptive. The phrases "messing with my reason" and "tell me a lie and I will swear I'll swear it's true" depict the singer's willingness to be swayed by the person's actions, even if they may not be entirely genuine. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the person, the singer is still drawn to them and desires a genuine connection.
In the final section of the song, the singer expresses hope and anticipation for a future where the "lazy lightning" will not only captivate them but also reciprocate their feelings. The line "someday I know you'll satisfy me, and all that lightning will be my lightning too" suggests that the singer believes that eventually, their connection will be reciprocated and they will experience the same level of intensity and fulfillment as the person who initially fascinated them.
Overall, "Lazy Lightning" explores the magnetic pull of a quiet and enigmatic individual. The lyrics delve into the singer's struggle to connect emotionally and the simultaneous allure and fear they feel towards this person. It is a song that captures the complexities of attraction, longing, and the hope for a mutual understanding and connection.
Line by Line Meaning
Lazy lighting, sleepy fire in your eyes
Your presence is calm and soothing, like a gentle fire burning in your eyes.
It's like desire in disguise
The subtle allure and attraction you possess is concealing a strong desire.
I keep on trying but I can't get through
Despite my efforts, I am unable to connect with you on a deeper level.
I'd like to find the proper potion
I wish to discover the perfect solution or approach to win your affection.
That's gonna capture your emotion
Something that can truly resonate with you and evoke genuine emotions.
You're right beside me but I can't get through
Even though you are physically present, there is still a barrier preventing me from reaching you emotionally.
You're a loop of lazy lighting
You are like a continuous cycle of relaxed and effortless energy.
Must admit you're kinda frightening
I must acknowledge that your enigmatic nature can be intimidating.
But you really get me high
Nevertheless, you bring me immense joy and elevate my spirits.
So exciting when I hear your velvet thunder
The anticipation builds and excitement ignites when I experience your powerful presence.
You seem so near I start to wonder
Your proximity makes me curious and prompts me to question our connection.
Would you come closer if I asked you to? So inviting
I wonder if you would willingly draw nearer to me if I expressed my desire, as your allure is incredibly enticing.
The way you're messing with my reason
Your actions and influence are disrupting my logical thinking and challenging my rationality.
It's an exception but it's pleasing
Although it deviates from the norm, the impact you have on me is gratifying.
Tell me a lie and I will swear I'll swear it's true
If you were to deceive me, I would willingly believe your falsehood as if it were the absolute truth.
Rope of fire round my heart (lightning)
Intense and passionate emotions have ensnared my heart tightly.
Rope of fire ever tightning (lightning)
The grip of these fiery emotions around my heart only continues to strengthen.
Well come on lazy lightning
I welcome and encourage the relaxed, effortless yet electrifying energy you possess.
Misty lightning
Elusive and hazy bursts of energy.
Well, you always electrify me
You consistently ignite and excite me with your presence.
Someday I know you'll satisfy me
I believe that one day you will fulfill and bring me true satisfaction.
And all that lightning will be my lightning too
I want to be enveloped in the same energetic aura that surrounds you.
Just a loop of lazy lightning
You remain as a continuous cycle of effortless and relaxed energy.
My lightning too (my lightning too)
I desire to share and experience the same electrifying energy as you.
Oh come on lazy lightnin'
I invite and encourage the presence of your relaxed and electrifying energy.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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