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.
Stagger Lee
Grateful Dead Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Stagger Lee shot Billy DeLions
And he blew that poor boy down.
Do you know what he shot him for?
What do you make of that?
Cause Billy DeLions threw the lucky dice
Won Stagger Lee's Stetson hat.
You arrest the girls for turning tricks
But you're scared of Stagger Lee.
Stagger Lee is a madman and he shot my Billy D.
Bayo go get him or give the job to me.
Delia DeLions, dear sweet Delia-D
How the hell can I arrest him? He's twice as big as me.
Well don't ask me to go downtown, I won't come back alive (no more)
Not only is that mother big but he packs a .45 (four)
Bayo, Delia said, just give me a gun
He shot my Billy dead now I'm gonna see him hung.
She went into the DeLion's club through Billy DeLions blood
Stepped up to Stagger Lee at the bar,
Said, "Buy me a gin fizz, love."
As Stagger Lee lit a cigarette she shot him in the balls
Blew the smoke off her revolver, had him dragged to city hall
Bayo, Bayo, see you hang him high
He shot my Billy dead and now he's got to die.
Delia went a walking down on Singapore Street
A three-piece band on the corner played "Near My God to Thee"
But Delia whistled a different tune, what tune could it be?
The song that woman sung was "Look Out Stagger Lee".
The song that Delia sung was "Look Out Stagger Lee".
The lyrics to Grateful Dead's "Stagger Lee" tell a story of a man named Stagger Lee who shoots and kills Billy DeLions on Christmas Eve. Stagger Lee is motivated by anger and jealousy after Billy wins Stagger Lee's Stetson hat while gambling. The lyrics also suggest that Stagger Lee is a dangerous man who is feared by even the police, as they are portrayed as being afraid to arrest him. Delia DeLions, Billy's sister, seeks revenge for her brother's death and shoots Stagger Lee in the groin. She then has him taken to city hall to be hanged. The song concludes with Delia walking down Singapore Street, whistling a tune warning others about Stagger Lee.
The lyrics of "Stagger Lee" are based on a traditional folk song that dates back to the late 19th century. The Grateful Dead's version was released on their 1978 album, "Shakedown Street". The song has been covered by numerous artists, including Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Clash, and Dr. John. It has also been referenced in other songs and media, such as "The Ballad of Easy Rider" by Roger McGuinn and the film "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".
Line by Line Meaning
1948, Xmas eve, with a full moon over town
The incident took place on Christmas Eve in 1948, under the full moon.
Stagger Lee shot Billy DeLions
Stagger Lee shot and killed Billy DeLions.
And he blew that poor boy down.
He shot him and killed him.
Do you know what he shot him for?
Would you know the reason for his action?
What do you make of that?
What do you think about it?
Cause Billy DeLions threw the lucky dice
Billy DeLions was lucky in his roll of the dice.
Won Stagger Lee's Stetson hat.
He won Stagger Lee's hat in the game.
Bayo, Bayo, tell me how can this be?
Asking Bayo how it can be the case.
You arrest the girls for turning tricks
You arrest the girls for prostitution.
But you're scared of Stagger Lee.
But you're afraid of Stagger Lee.
Stagger Lee is a madman and he shot my Billy D.
Stagger Lee is insane and he shot my Billy D.
Bayo go get him or give the job to me.
Bayo must catch him or let Delia do it herself.
Delia DeLions, dear sweet Delia-D
Referring to the wife of the deceased, Delia DeLions.
How the hell can I arrest him? He's twice as big as me.
Bayo thinks it's challenging as Stagger Lee is twice his size.
Well don't ask me to go downtown, I won't come back alive (no more)
She refuses to go to town as she fears for her life.
Not only is that mother big but he packs a .45 (four)
Stagger Lee not only has a big body but also carries a .45 caliber gun.
Bayo, Delia said, just give me a gun
Delia requests Bayo for a gun.
He shot my Billy dead now I'm gonna see him hung.
Delia wants revenge for Billy's death.
She went into the DeLion's club through Billy DeLions blood
Delia walked into the club through the blood of Billy.
Stepped up to Stagger Lee at the bar,
Delia approached Stagger Lee who was at the bar.
Said, "Buy me a gin fizz, love."
Delia asked Stagger Lee to buy her a gin fizz.
As Stagger Lee lit a cigarette she shot him in the balls
When Stagger Lee was lighting his cigarette, Delia shot him in his genitals.
Blew the smoke off her revolver, had him dragged to city hall
After shooting him, Delia expelled the smoke out of her gun and got him arrested by dragging him to city hall.
Bayo, Bayo, see you hang him high
Addressing Bayo to make sure Stagger Lee is executed.
He shot my Billy dead and now he's got to die.
Stagger Lee killed Billy, and now he has to be punished.
Delia went a walking down on Singapore Street
Delia took a walk on Singapore Street.
A three-piece band on the corner played "Near My God to Thee"
There was a band playing 'Near My God to Thee' on the street corner at that time.
But Delia whistled a different tune, what tune could it be?
Delia was humming or whistling another tune that we don’t know about.
The song that woman sung was "Look Out Stagger Lee".
Delia sang a song warning everyone to beware of Stagger Lee.
The song that Delia sung was "Look Out Stagger Lee".
Repeating the previous line with different wording.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Jerome J. Garcia, Robert C. Hunter
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Ryan Zoerner
When I'm 64
by the Beatles.
You know. Americans aren't the only ones who read the Bible man...
French read the Bible too.
I had this thing going. The sound of a woman singing about the water
from the sink on the high floor of the hotel, traveling in pipes all the way down
to the street.
It's like Rocky Racoon. The British Invasion. Your mom's wedding rings were the Bible.
The British are invading the Bible. Musically. Just think about the French flag.
Grateful Dead
"The show that was very nearly View From The Vault Vol. 1, July 4, 1989 is one of the best shows of an outstanding tour, including a few surprises, and remarkably tight playing throughout, from the opening Bertha to the encore of U.S. Blues. This Stagger Lee is one of the many highlights of the first set. It's a song that was played less than a dozen times per year 1986-1995, so it was always a treat." - David Lemieux
Jo Blo
@Ryan Moore 😂✌🏼
brian papale
@Ryan Moore Grateful much?enjoy whatever he gives us..thnx Dave,keep up the great work✌
Roger Wilco
Missing you now Jerry. Thanks for the beam.
Ryan Moore
Grateful Dead yo Dave or whomever. You listen to fans or what? No more 80-95’ dead videos. 65-79 please!
For Fucks sake, God love ya
T
I remember being in my teens with a preconceived notion of this hippy band and their music, after I heard the line " she shot him in the balls" I realized there was more to this band than sugar mags and dancing bears, what a beautiful American band that can capture such a range of emotions
Dom Rapjak
Authentic Grateful Dead. Often imitated, never duplicated.
Moses Garner
Yeaaaaaah. I dig this version a lot. Love Jerry's vocals here. Strong.
Lloydstrom
Jerry was the best. It's a crying shame that he's gone.
James H
I was only 11 years old when this show took place, but I remember being at my cousins house who lived in Orchard Park and playing basketball in his driveway and could hear the concert in the distance. I didn't know at the time the band would be so influential in my life. Wish I knew now what I didn't know then. Thank you!