Psychedelic Rock and the Grateful Dead.
The rise of Psychedelic rock began in the late 1960s and was influenced by the political turmoil and the Vietnam war. This stance against the war of the time brought rise to the hippie movement and psychedelic rock bands such as Pink Floyd and the grateful dead. Their platform was based on drug-induced viewing with marijuana, shrooms, and most prominently LSD or Acid. Psychedelic rock originated on the west coast namely San Fransisco. It quickly spread across the U.S and then into Europe making it the major genre of the time.
Delving further into the Grateful Deads musical style, we see a cross between rock and roll, folk, and jazz. They also incorporated things like visuals and electronic sounds that had never been heard before in order to enhance the psychedelic experience. The whole idea behind this multi-layer complex sound was to coincide with the psychedelic journey. During their performance at golden gate park, Timothy Leary said “ Turn on, Tune in, Drop out.” This sentence summarizes the journey that one is meant to go on when listening to their music. Turn-on symbolized going within oneself and their multi-layered consciousness, usually aided by the use of LSD or psychedelics. As said before this drug-induced experienced paired with their complex and layered style of music lead many to have reported profound experiences or realizations at grateful dead concerts.
During this time bands of the Era were either heavily focused on live performances or recording at a studio. The Grateful dead dedicated themselves to their live performances. They would record in a quick and efficient fashion but would put emphasis on high-quality sound equipment and visuals when it came to their live performances. They also never played the same set more than once, each one was performed differently even if some of the same songs were in it. They were also constantly working on incorporating new songs they had written into their sets. This free and more improvised sound leads to a dedicated group of fans called deadheads that would travel to the band's different live performances and trade recordings of their shows usually bootlegged.
Not only was their sound different but their lyrics were also very abstract and hard to understand. But Dedicated fans were able to pull messages and have a deeper understanding of the meaning behind their lyricks. An example of one that can apply to everyone's life “the grass ain't greener, the wine ain't sweeter, Either side of the hill” basically saying that no one lives a life that is free of pain and that all humans experience it to a certain degree, and that we are together in this world why spend it fighting and hating each other when there are so many things we can relate upon.
The band ended up having their own “awakening” when they decided to drop out of the music industry who at the time’s goal was to make star performers and lots of money, which went against the philosophy of the grateful dead. This lack of material craving and the great focus on their music, performances, and fans lead them to stay together until 1995 when Jerry Garcia Died. The Grateful dead multilayered and complex or some would say confusing and delusional lyrics are what separated them from many other rock bands, even the ones that also were in the psychedelic rock genre. The grateful dead was a band whose lyrics and style will be recognized throughout time, they left a huge cultural impact and allowed psychedelic rock to be spread outside of the U.S.
