The Grateful Dead — Very Grateful, But Not Dead Yet
The Legend Lives On…
Could seem very simple, but as Peter Richardson, one of the many academics that have tried to sum up the legend and the legacy of The Grateful Dead has titled his best-selling book on the band and its significance, it is No Simple Highway. Actually, the current number of operating sites and the number of fans in general who refer to that line from “Ripple” (possibly one of the greatest Dead songs ever) is quite staggering in itself.
Then, let us not mention the number of books written on the band — try going through the list of book titles in English on Amazon and you’ll get over 3,000 hits. The only other artists beating The Dead in that department are The Beatles and Bob Dylan.
One thing where probably nobody can beat The Grateful Dead is in their recorded output, where The Dead beat even the king of self-recorded lo-fi R. Stevie Moore — and that number keeps on growing by a few every month, excluding the recordings of the remaining members and their revolving list of guests under the name The Dead and Company.
The hardcore fans would argue about the order of importance among the aforementioned three, or any other rock legends, but there are certainly elements in The Grateful Dead legacy that definitely puts them on the list of the top five…
