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.
New New Minglewood Blues
Grateful Dead Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Raised in a lion's den
I was born in a desert
Raised in a lion's den
Well, well, my number one occupation
Is stealing women from their men
Well, I'm a wanted man in Texas
Yes, I'm a wanted man in Texas
Busted jail and I'm gone for good
Well, well, the sheriff couldn't catch me
But his little girl sure wish he would
Now the doctor called me crazy
Some says I am, some says I ain't
Yes and the doctor called me crazy
Some says I am, some says I ain't
Yes and the preacher man called me a sinner
But his little girl called me a saint
Well a couple of shots of whiskey
Women 'round here start lookin' good
Yes and a couple of shots of whiskey
Women 'round here start lookin' good
Couple more shots of whiskey
I'm goin' down to Minglewood
Yes, I was born in a desert
Raised in a lion's den
I was born in a desert
Raised in a lion's den
Yes, and my number one occupation
Is stealing women from their men
And I'll do it, do it again
Yes, and my number one occupation
Is stealing women from their men
I was born in a desert
Raised in a lion's den
I was born in a desert
Raised in a lion's den
The Grateful Dead's "New Minglewood Blues" is a blues rock song with a catchy melody and spirited lyrics. The opening line, "I was born in a desert, raised in a lion's den" sets the tone for the song's recurring theme of embracing an unconventional, wild lifestyle. The singer characterizes himself as a "wanted man in Texas" who is "stealing women from their men." The lyrics suggest that he is a thrill-seeker who is always on the run, trying to evade the law and stay ahead of danger.
However, the song also has a playful spirit, with lines like "couple of shots of whiskey, women 'round here start lookin' good." The song's chorus is an assertion of the singer's unconventional way of life, saying that "stealing women" is his "number one occupation." The final lines of the song embody this attitude, "Yes, and my number one occupation is stealing women from their men/And I'll do it, do it again."
Overall, "New Minglewood Blues" is a fun, uptempo song that celebrates a life of adventure and risk-taking. Its lyrics portray a character who is unafraid to live outside the boundaries of society, and who takes pleasure in defying authority and pursuing his own pleasures.
Line by Line Meaning
I was born in a desert
I come from a place with harsh conditions and few resources
Raised in a lion's den
I grew up in a dangerous and unpredictable environment
Well, well, my number one occupation
My primary activity and interest in life
Is stealing women from their men
Is wooing and seducing women who are already in relationships
Well, I'm a wanted man in Texas
I have a criminal record in Texas and am on the run from the law
Busted jail and I'm gone for good
I escaped from prison and won't be caught again
Well, well, the sheriff couldn't catch me
I have outrun and outsmarted the local law enforcement
But his little girl sure wish he would
However, the sheriff's daughter is attracted to me and secretly hopes I won't be caught
Now the doctor called me crazy
Some people consider me mentally unstable
Some says I am, some says I ain't
There are differing opinions about my mental health status
Yes and the preacher man called me a sinner
I have been labeled as immoral or wicked by some religious leaders
But his little girl called me a saint
Despite this negative judgement, some people see me as virtuous or heroic
Well a couple of shots of whiskey
After drinking some alcohol
Women 'round here start lookin' good
I find the local women attractive
Couple more shots of whiskey
As I continue to drink more alcohol
I'm goin' down to Minglewood
I am heading to a dance hall or social gathering place
And I'll do it, do it again
I will continue my womanizing behavior without remorse
Yes, and my number one occupation
My primary activity and interest in life, confirmed
Is stealing women from their men
Is wooing and seducing women who are already in relationships
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Bob Weir
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Andrew sd
4:46 - Killer look on Jerry's face as he is about to tear into a distortion-drenched Minglewood solo. He and the boys are on top of their game (gotta love '89), and he knows it. Love you Jer.
August West
Every song they played on this tour ranks in the top 5 or 10 renditions. A couple of the shows from this tour are top 50. 7/4 and 7/7 come to mind. So blessed to have caught them when I did. Love you all. NFA
Max K
Love this song! This was such a good version of it!!! 💚💚💚
5K Tennis
I can't stop listening to this version over and over. It's growing in the rushes in my riverside. OH HOW I MISS THEM.
Tom B
me tooo
Lala Rose
One of the best series of shows at Alpine Valley. '89 was a very good year.
Wax
One of my favorite Dead songs <3
Rob C
When Jerry was smiling everything was right in the world! God I miss that man.
Brendan Brady
I join in the thought that it's just great to see Jerry smiling! Also, his interaction with Brent before his minute with Billie was cool. Thanks for putting this up. I hope to make the show!
Red Toberts
The Dead picked some great songs. The lyrics alongside the music.