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.
Ramble on Rose
Grateful Dead Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Just like Mojo Hand just like Billy Sunday
In a shotgun ragtime band
Just like New York City, just like Jericho
Pace the halls and climb the walls
And get out when they blow
Did you say your name was Ramblin' Rose?
Ramble on Rose
Just like Jack and Jill, Mama told the sailor
One heat up, and one cool down
Leave nothing for the tailor
Just like Jack and Jill, Papa told the jailer
One go up, and one go down
Do yourself a favor
Did you say your name was Ramblin' Rose?
Ramble on baby, settle down easy
Ramble on Rose
I'm going to sing you a
Hundred verses in ragtime
I know this song it ain't never going to end
I'm going to march you up and
Down along the county line
Take you to the leader of a band
Just like Crazy Otto, just like Wolfman Jack
Sittin' plush with a royal flush
Aces back to back
Just like Mary Shelly, just like Frankenstein
Clank your chains and count your change
And try to walk the line
Did you say your name was Ramblin' Rose?
Ramble on baby, settle down easy
Ramble on Rose
I'm going to sing you a
Hundred verses in ragtime
I know this song it ain't never going to end
I'm going to march you up and
Down along the county line
Take you to the leader of a band
Goodbye Mama and Papa, goodbye Jack and Jill
The grass ain't greener
The wine ain't sweeter
Either side of the hill
Did you say your name was Ramblin' Rose?
Ramble on baby, settle down easy
Ramble on Rose ramble on Rose
The Grateful Dead's Ramble on Rose is a song that is jam-packed with imagery and metaphors that make the song an interesting listen. The song appears to be a tribute to a woman named Ramblin' Rose who is a drifter, and the song is filled with references to other well-known drifters, such as Jack the Ripper and Mojo Hand. The lyrics use these references to create a portrait of a woman who is always on the move, never settling down, and always looking for adventure. The song's chorus is the repeated phrase "Ramble on, baby, settle down easy, ramble on Rose," suggesting that the singer has a fondness for the woman despite her restless nature.
The song's verses are filled with allusions to other songs and cultural references. The line "Just like Billy Sunday in a shotgun ragtime band" is likely a reference to the prohibition-era evangelist who was known to speak out against alcohol consumption. The line "Just like crazy Otto, just like Wolfman Jack" refers to two famous DJs from the 1960s and 1970s. The song is rounded out by the lines "Goodbye Mama and Papa, Goodbye Jack and Jill, the grass ain't greener, the wine ain't sweeter on either side of the hill," reinforcing the idea that the world is full of wanderers, but ultimately everyone must settle down somewhere.
Line by Line Meaning
Just like jack the ripper, just like mojo hand,
The subject is comparing themselves to notorious figures who have a powerful and dangerous reputation.
Just like billy Sunday, in a shotgun ragtime band,
The subject is likening themselves to a boisterous and rag-tag group of musicians, with all the energy and excitement that entails.
Just like New York city, just like Jericho,
The subject is drawing parallels between themselves and bustling, intense places that are both chaotic and compelling.
Pace the halls and climb the walls and get out when they blow.
The subject is feeling restless and possibly trapped, constantly looking for a way out before the situation becomes overwhelming.
Did you say your name was ramblin' rose?
The subject is addressing someone else, possibly asking for clarification of their name, using the reference to the title character as a way to connect and show familiarity.
Ramble on baby, settle down easy
The subject is encouraging someone else to relax and take things slowly, despite their tendency to keep moving forward constantly.
Ramble on rose.
The subject repeats the title phrase, possibly as a way to express admiration or acknowledgement of the title character and their wandering nature.
I'm gonna to sing you a hundred verses in ragtime,
The subject plans to entertain someone else for a very long time, possibly demonstrating their own passion and talent for music and performance.
I know this song it ain't never gonna end.
The subject acknowledges their own tendency to keep going indefinitely, unable to stop even when others may have grown tired.
I'm gonna march you up and down along the county line,
The subject wants to show someone else the area and all it has to offer, taking them on a journey through different places and experiences.
Take you to the leader of a band.
The subject seems to hold great respect for someone who leads a group of musicians or artists, possibly suggesting a shared interest in such things.
Just like crazy Otto, just like wolfman jack,
The subject enjoys music and culture that may not be considered mainstream or conventional, referencing some unconventional artists for comparison.
Sittin' plush with a royal flush, aces back to back.
The subject is highlighting a sense of wealth and abundance, possibly expressing their satisfaction and pride in their own success.
Just like Mary Shelly, just like Frankenstein,
The subject enjoys stories and myths that are fantastical and otherworldly, using literature as a way to compare themselves to legendary characters.
Clank your chains and count your change and try to walk the line.
The subject is providing instructions or advice about how to conduct oneself, suggesting that it is necessary to be careful and mindful at all times.
Good-bye mama and papa
The subject is saying farewell to their family, potentially indicating a need for independence from them.
Good-bye Jack and Jill
The subject is also saying farewell to Jack and Jill, likely referencing a separation from close friends or loved ones.
The grass ain't greener
The subject recognizes that other options or paths in life may not necessarily be better than what they already have.
The wine ain't sweeter
The subject is acknowledging that while some things may appear tempting or attractive, they are not necessarily more enjoyable or desirable than what they already have.
Either side of the hill.
The subject seems to recognize that all paths in life have their own challenges and benefits, and that there is no single path that is inherently better or worse than another.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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Puchun D
My hubby of 24 years was in a coma he loved Jerry I played this song and his heartbeat got faster every time I played the song-Love my wonderful husband he passed on May 4, 2022. We will meet again! Love you Sean💙❤️💗
Paul Warren
I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm sure he was a great man.
David Marsigliano
Sorry for your lost.he is in heaven with Jerry
David Marsigliano
Sorry loss
Bunny Beckman
U will meet him open up ur heart & ears then u mite feel him doing whatever he can to get ur attention like shaking ur bed or touching ur face plus other things that the ghost can do after years of being gone ! They get stronger as the years go by ! Trust me I’ve experienced it all since I was 3 years old !
Karen L
I'm sorry for your loss. May his memory be a blessing. And he had good taste. I love this song too :)
Kathy Hamilton
Playing this on my mom's phone for her while she's here on hospice care. She told me she wished she go to one more show. I love you Mom
A J
I'm so sorry for your loss! You made me cry!
Sally Oldani
I'm playing this on MY moms phone making sure my heart ain't broke. Peace.
Nate Orsini
Your mom's a cool cat, Kathy.