Vegas and The Grateful Dead

When Dead & Company exited the stage after their iconic 30^th performance, I contemplated the path they and Las Vegas have taken and how their stories have intersected over the past sixty years. The Dead were ahead of their time in almost every facet of their business. 

They played the Ice Palace in 1969 and spent five years at the Aladdin Theater.  At the height of their popularity, they began a five-year run at Sam Boyd Stadium, which played a significant role in Las Vegas’ live music ascension.

After Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, the band disbanded, but offshoots — Furthur, Dead & Company, and individual band projects — continued to fill theaters and arenas over the next thirty years. I’ll also cover their relationship with Bill Walton and the lessons we can learn from the “Marketing of the Dead.”

I don’t think anyone was prepared for the Grateful Dead performances at the Sphere. The music they created sixty years ago might prove to be the greatest testament to the Sphere experience. 

I count myself as a top-ten Sphere fan, and  (because I have a blog) – an expert!😄 The combination of graphics and sound will not be duplicated. And therein lies the undeniable proof of the Grateful Dead’s allure: There is nothing like them!

“They’re not the best at what they do.  They’re the only ones at what they do.” -Bill Graham

For the next six weeks I will cover stories that connect the Grateful Dead and Las Vegas:

The Deadheads were a liberal and liberated mix of America, made up of hippies and freaks, doctors and lawyers, hardcore bikers, university professors, tie-dye and candle makers, even suburban preppies— everyone looking to follow the scene. 

“I can get behind falling to pieces before an audience sometimes. We are not performers: we are who we are for those few moments we are in front of the public and that’s not always at the peak.”   -Jerry Garcia

The band did not want hit records, but to let their music speak through live performances. 

The Grateful Dead were originally called the Warlocks. However, that name was already taken, so the group met to consider the options. 

Bill Kreutzmann, one of the Dead’s two drummers who played with the band from beginning to end, spoke about that afternoon: 

“Garcia sat on the couch with a giant dictionary, and he came across the words ‘grateful dead.’ The words jumped off the page. Everybody said ‘What?’ We’d just been smoking DMT and those words stuck out. They were so incongruous. How could you be grateful and dead?” 

They soon learned the beautiful story behind those two words. It came from a folk tale in which a traveler happens upon a burial scene. The villagers are refusing to bury the body of a man who hadn’t paid off his debts. In a tremendous act of goodwill, the traveler pays the debt for the deceased (some versions say with his last dollar) and continues on his way. Then along comes a spirit who says, “I am the Grateful Dead, and I would like to reward you for your good deed.”

New bands in the ’60s had abundant influences. The Rolling Stones were heavily influenced by Delta blues, Bob Dylan by beatniks like Woody Guthrie, the Beatles by “Big Tiny Little” (a name John Lennon made up to answer the inevitable press-conference questions about the band’s influences). The Dead, however, carved out their own niche— uncompromised improvisation. It didn’t matter if they were jamming in Jerry Garcia’s living room, rehearsing in their studio, or playing to a crowd of 10,000; they were never anything but themselves, just playing in the band. 

Mikal Gilmore wrote in Rolling Stone, “The Grateful Dead enjoyed a union with its audience that was unrivaled and unshakable. Indeed, the Dead and their followers formed the only self-sustained, ongoing fellowship that pop music has ever produced.”

For sixty years, fans braved the elements, camped outside, listened to inconsistent sound and mediocre venue experiences; all to gather as Deadheads.  The band established a standard for fan attention that created the longest-running and most loyal fanbase in music history.

Join me as I reflect on “Vegas and the Dead: What a long, strange trip it’s been.”