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.
Liberty
Grateful Dead Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Walking to New Orleans, my, my, my
Hey, now, Bird, wouldn't you rather die
than walk this world when you're born to fly?
If I was the sun, I'd look for shade
If I was a bed, I would stay unmade
If I was a river I'd run uphill
If you call me you know I will
[Chorus]
Oh, Freedom
Oh, Liberty
Oh, Leave me alone
to find my own way home
to find my own way home
Say what I mean and I don't give a damn
I do believe and I am who I am
Hey now Mama come take my hand
Whole lotta shakin' all over this land
If I was an eagle I'd dress like a duck
Crawl like a lizard and honk like a truck
If I get a notion I'll climb this tree
or chop it down and you can't stop me
Chop it down and you can't stop me
[Chorus]
Went to the well but the water was dry
Dipped my bucket in the clear blue sky
Looked in the bottom and what did I see?
The whole damned world looking back at me
If I was a bottle I'd spill for love
Sake of mercy I'd kill for love
If I was a liar I'd lie for love
Sake of my baby I'd die for love
Sake of my baby I'd die for love
[Chorus]
I'm gonna find my own way home
The Grateful Dead’s “Liberty” is a song that is all about freedom, both physical and emotional. The lyrics create a sense of restlessness, an urge to get out and live life to the fullest. The opening line, “Saw a bird with a tear in his eye,” sets the tone for the rest of the song. The bird is a symbol of freedom, but even it has limitations.
The lyrics suggest that the world is full of restrictions and obstacles that prevent people from realizing their full potential. The bird, although born to fly, is forced to walk to New Orleans with a tear in its eye, unable to fully realize its potential. Similarly, the singer of the song is seeking a way to break free from his limitations and discover his true self. He is unapologetically himself and does not care about what others think of him. He wants to find his own way home and live a life without the constraints of society.
Overall, “Liberty” is a song about the desire for freedom, both physical and emotional. It is about breaking free from societal constraints and limitations to live a life that is true to oneself.
Line by Line Meaning
Saw a bird with a tear in his eye
I saw a bird that seemed unhappy and crying.
Walking to New Orleans, my, my, my
The bird was walking to New Orleans city.
Hey, now, Bird, wouldn't you rather die
I asked the bird if he would rather die than walk like that.
than walk this world when you're born to fly?
I meant that the bird was born to fly, why walk the world like that?
If I was the sun, I'd look for shade
If I were the sun, I would like to look for shade to rest sometimes.
If I was a bed, I would stay unmade
If I were a bed, I would like to stay unmade for people to rest on me always.
If I was a river I'd run uphill
If I were a river, I would like to run uphill, against the natural course.
If you call me you know I will
I'm always ready to help you out when you need me.
Oh, Freedom
Freedom is essential to human life and prosperity.
Oh, Liberty
Liberty provides people with their fundamental and inalienable rights.
Oh, Leave me alone
Sometimes, one wants to be left alone to find their own ways in life.
to find my own way home
I'm going to find my way home without anyone's help.
Say what I mean and I don't give a damn
I speak the truth and don't care about what others think.
I do believe and I am who I am
I have faith in my abilities and personality.
Hey now Mama come take my hand
I'm asking my mother for help or support.
Whole lotta shakin' all over this land
There is a lot of chaos happening in this world.
If I was an eagle I'd dress like a duck
If I were an eagle, I'd like to act differently and try something new.
Crawl like a lizard and honk like a truck
I'd like to do things people won't expect me to do.
If I get a notion I'll climb this tree
If I feel like doing something, I'll do it, no matter what.
or chop it down and you can't stop me
Even if you try to stop me, I'll do what I want to do.
Went to the well but the water was dry
I went to the well to drink water, but there was no water to drink.
Dipped my bucket in the clear blue sky
Since there was no water in the well, I tried to get water from the clear blue sky.
Looked in the bottom and what did I see?
Upon looking at the bottom of the bucket, I saw something unexpected.
The whole damned world looking back at me
The world was staring back at me, making me realise what I am and what I want to achieve.
If I was a bottle I'd spill for love
If I were a bottle, I'd spill my contents for love.
Sake of mercy I'd kill for love
I'd do anything for love's sake, even if it means killing someone.
If I was a liar I'd lie for love
I'd lie to protect the person I love.
Sake of my baby I'd die for love
I'd do anything, including sacrificing my life, to protect my loved one.
I'm gonna find my own way home
I will find my own way in life without anyone's assistance.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: STERLING CAMPBELL, WARREN CUCCURULO, SIMON LEBON, NICK RHODES, JOHN NIGEL TAYLOR
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Ray Ursillo
Saw a bird with a tear in his eye
Walking to New Orleans my oh my
Hey, now, Bird, wouldn't you rather die
Than walk this world when you're born to fly?
If I was the sun, I'd look for shade
If I was a bed, I would stay unmade
If I was a river I'd run uphill
If you call me you know I will
If you call me you know I will
Ooo, freedom
Ooo, liberty
Ooo, leave me alone
To find my own way home
To find my own way home
Say what I mean and I don't give a damn
I do believe and I am who I am
Hey now Mama come and take my hand
Whole lotta shakin' all over this land
If I was an eagle I'd dress like a duck
Crawl like a lizard and honk like a truck
If I get a notion I'll climb this tree
or chop it down and you can't stop me
Chop it down and you can't stop me
Ooo, freedom
Ooo, liberty
Ooo, leave me alone
To find my own way home
To find my own way home
Went to the well but the water was dry
Dipped my bucket in the clear blue sky
Looked in the bottom and what did I see?
The whole damned world looking back at me
If I was a bottle I'd spill for love
Sake of mercy I'd kill for love
If I was a liar I'd lie for love
Sake of my baby I'd die for love
Sake of my baby I'd die for love
Ooo, freedom
Ooo, liberty
Ooo, leave me alone
To find my own way home
To find my own way home
I'm gonna find my own way home
Diogenes of Seattle
@GimmeDem Digits except I'm not using fascism as pejorative term but as the specific ideological and rhetorical praxis of Hitler and Mussolini.
By those standards Donald Trump is definitely and absolutely 100% a fascist.
I understand that you believe fascism is authoritarianism that you simply disagree with and by those standards your agreement with Donald Trump means he's not a fascist.
Unfortunately for you I don't live in your delusions.
And neither does the rest of America.
FortWarren
The most American band ever, the frontier of rock and roll
Sam
@Picasso Moon go back to bed America your government is in total control
caroline felix
Quite the "Liberal Band" wouldn't you say.....
Damwong
@Picasso Moon I Love the band
But lets get this perfectly clear these are from TAVISTALK INSTITUTE
lukefish
👍🏽🤘🏽🇺🇸🎸
Picasso Moon
Yes, yes, and Yes! Americana baby!
MERICA
Jim Morrison
Happy 4th of July! First time hearing this tune. Been on the bus for a year now and I keep discovering new songs and the little things that bring a tear to your eye or a smile on my face every day!!! Roll away the dew baby
Sam
Yeah happy freedom Day celebrate being free to do what they tell you
Cody Agans
When Jerry looks over at the band and smiles ❤❤❤
Alexa Mrdic
He's so happy that he is who he is and is up there singing that awesome new song, perfectly, without missing a note or fumbling a single word. I bet he is sober. So sad that he died a couple of years later.