Deadhead

:For other meanings of the word "Deadhead", see Deadhead (disambiguation)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Deadheads are fans of the band The Grateful Dead. They follow the band's tours, record their live shows, trade tapes of concerts and hold the Grateful Dead's music in a place above all other bands.

Related Topics:
Band - The Grateful Dead

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many are devoted fans and have gone out of their way to see many of the several hour long shows the band produced. The appeal was, in part, created by the way the band structured their concerts. While from the 1980's on, it could be expected that the band would play two sets in a show, with the second set containing a drum solo and improvisational "space" jams, the night to night song selection would change entirely. Thus each show became unique and a Deadhead could attend several consecutive shows, seeing few or no duplicate songs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Additionally, because the band was improvisational by nature, each time a song was performed it was slightly different from the prior time it was played. Over time this forced songs to undergo an evolutionary process where the current incarnation could sound radically different from the first time it was performed. The improvisational nature of the band, the choice of songs, as well as other factors such as location, crowd enthusiasm and the band members' energy would create the difference between a good show and a great show (also called "on nights".)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the view of many Deadheads, "on nights" were what set the Grateful Dead apart from many, if not all, other bands. During an "on night," the minds in the room, synchronized by the music, would merge and the combined mind would wake up, allowing participating Deadheads to experience the "thoughts" of this much larger entity. Deadheads refer to this phenomenon with a number of terms including cosmic and cosmosity. On nights like this, the music was no longer the main point and functioned instead as something like EEG waves for the "brain" of the combined mind. The Dead's extended jams could sound like random noise at these times to those who were not "connected." Rock producer Bill Graham once said that the Dead were "... not the best at what they do, they're the only ones that do what they do."

Related Topics:
Combined mind - EEG - Bill Graham

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With large numbers of people attending strings of shows, a community naturally developed out of the familiarity. It also led to a need to create a "financing" feature to enable traveling Deadheads to support themselves when on tour. For Deadheads, "living in the Lot" on tour developed a community culture, and infrastructure of sorts. Thus many Deadheads became vendors of unofficial Grateful merchandise such as T-Shirts, bumperstickers, pictures, posters and also necessities such as food. Much of this could be found in a vending area sometimes termed "Babylon", "Jerryville" or "Shakedown Street" referring to one of their songs (often called simply 'the Lot') in parking areas surrounding the venue where the Grateful Dead was playing.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It has sometimes been said "you can find anything you need in the Lot": Deadheads would fund their tour by selling car parts and mechanical services, massages, books, artwork, toys, clothing, by recycling, or by 'passing the hat' during artistic or theatrical performances of their own devising -- often these products and services were quite unrelated to the music of the Grateful Dead. Illegal drugs were also common; the "Lot" sold anything you wanted for a show, mainly mushrooms, LSD and marijuana, although other drugs were possible to acquire. There were many foods to choose from as well, veggie burritos and pot brownies to name a few.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another common sight in the Lot were "Miracle seekers" (named after the Dead song "I Need A Miracle"): ticket-less fans who had come to the show anyway, wandering around holding up signs or the fingers on their hand to indicate how many tickets they needed. This occasionally led to comical sights, such as at Madison Square Garden in New York, where hurrying commuters in business suits trying to get into the below-Garden Penn Station would physically collide with the circling, tie-dyed, somewhat unkempt and unminding miracle seekers.

Related Topics:
Madison Square Garden - New York - Penn Station - Tie-dye

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Deadheads spawned some further subcultures, from the frivolous (Diamondbacks – Deadheads who expressed similarly mannered worship for Neil Diamond) to the serious (Wharf Rats – Deadheads who helped each other remain drug and alcohol free while staying in the Dead scene) to the kinetic (Spinners – Deadheads who would spin at concerts in the manner of Sufi Mystics). Other subgroups would focus on a particular member of the band: those in "The Phil Zone", for example, would stand in front of Phil Lesh's speaker stack and try to find an exact spot where their skeletal system would resonate to the lowest frequencies of his bass guitar.

Related Topics:
Neil Diamond - Wharf Rats - Sufi Mystics - Phil Lesh

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In Grateful Dead lore, the Deadheads are actually a part of the band itself. This relationship known as the 'X factor' has even been recognized by the band members themselves.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

New fans are always being born, and some of these fans will surely become fanatic enough appreciants of Grateful Dead's music to become Deadheads themselves. Because of this, and the fact that the Dead's music is being continually re-archived, it is taken as an article of faith by some that the band will "live forever".

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~