Deadhead (fan base)
Deadhead is the name of the fan base of the band Grateful Dead .
origin
The first time the term Deadhead was used in the inlay of the Dead album Grateful Dead in 1971.
Hank Harrison, the father of Courtney Love , which on the album cover of Aoxomoxoa was seen, suggested the following text before:
"DEAD FREAKS UNITE: Who are you? Where are you? How are you?
Send us your name and address and we'll keep you informed.
Dead Heads, PO Box 1065, San Rafael , CA 94901. "
The American music critic Robert Christgau picked up this designation at a show in Madison Square Garden and wrote in the New York weekly magazine The Village Voice : “… how many 'regulars' seemed to be in attendance, and how, from the way they compared notes, they'd obviously made a determined effort to see as many shows as possible. "
Shortly afterwards, Eileen Law, a friend of the band, created the Dead Heads newsletter from the feedback from the inlay text. By the end of 1971 this inlay letter had a response rate of approx. 350 replies, over the next few years Dead Heads newsletter reached a registered number of 40,000 deadheads. Between October 1971 and February 1980, proved 25 news of the Deadheads newsletter sent, the fans were also on the '73 album Wake of the Flood informed in this way, which was the first album on their own label Grateful Dead Records sold has been. Occasionally small gifts were sent with the newsletter. In May 1974 an EP of Robert Hunter's upcoming album Tales of the Great Rum Runners was mailed. Selected songs from Jerry García 's second album Compliments of Garcia were also sent out. This sampler was called Anton Round , which was a pseudonym of the dead photographer Ron Rakow. After this time, the newsletter was first replaced by the Grateful Dead Almanac and finally by the band's official homepage.
The connection between the Grateful Dead and Deadheads
The connection between the band and their fan base, and above all the incentive, was further supported by the usual structure of their concerts.
Since the early 1970s the band has had a certain base of songs for their live performances, but the setlist, the stage show and the variety of the songs have been jammed from performance to performance. In addition, the band often divided their performances into different parts; mostly a part with acoustic and one with electric songs, which led to the two albums Reckoning and Dead Set . This second part very often contains different solos, especially by the two drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart , and free improvisation phases by the other musicians. This also resulted in the album Infrared Roses . Due to this improvisation, hardly a song was played twice and the live songs reflected the development and current preferences of the band.
The basis of the live songs was chosen so that all three or four shows were rotated. As a result, many Deadheads joined the band in the hope that their favorite songs would be played that evening and that they would see a particularly good show. The band was often able to offer more than one show in the same venue, which was still sold out. This was especially true during their peak live in the 1980s.
Many Deadheads followed the band from town to town (much like groupies ) and got to know each other. With the transition of The Merry Pranksters and their acid tests into the 70s, the concerts and shows of the Grateful Dead were often the opportunity for fans of the first hour to meet again, to celebrate together and to introduce new deadheads into the psychedelic way of life of the band instruct. As with most large communities, the deadheads developed their own jargon and entrance exams. Such behavior was not welcomed at the time, but the slang of the deadheads spread in normal usage, e.g. B. with the American proverb “What a long strange trip it's been”, which is originally a line from the dead song Truckin .
The Deadheads refer to their presence at concerts as "Factor X", which means that their presence (or the presence of an audience) spurs the band to perform better. Jerry García biography writer Blair Jackson noted that the show was sacred to deadheads. Phil Lesh wrote about it in his autobiography: “The unique organicity of our music reflects the fact that each of us consciously personalized his playing: to fit with what others were playing and to fit with who each man was as an individual, allowing us to meld our consciousnesses together in the unity of a group mind. "
When the Musiktheater Winterland closed in 1978 with a farewell show for various bands, the music promoter Bill Graham presented the band with a plaque that summarized the Deadheads' fascination with the Grateful Dead: “They're not the best at what they do, They're the only ones that do what they do. Cheers! Bill & the Winterland Gang ”
History of the Deadheads
Even before the name Deadheads was known, the live performances of the band Grateful Dead were considered particularly good, which had also helped them to appear at the Woodstock Festival and Monterey Pop Festival . They had a decisive influence on the music scene in Haight-Ashbury and were known all over San Francisco . The first fans accompanied the band from concert to concert.
The 1970s are the time of the second generation of deadheads. It is mostly younger siblings or friends of the first generation or fans who joined them through the successful albums Workingman's Dead and Europe '72 . Then there are the music fans who found their way to music through universities and coffee houses.
In the 1980s, the Deadheads realized that they could use the concerts to sell fan products. The fan products also included bootlegs , which meant that the Grateful Dead separated off extra sections at concerts (so-called taping areas ) in which the fans could record concerts. With the success of the album In the Dark and the single Touch of Gray a high point of the Deadheads was reached, but it also led to the formation of various subgroups within the fan base called Darkers and Minglewood Town Council .
In the 1990s, fans were largely young, white, male, and middle-class, with some upper-class fans among them. Much of the fans followed the band to have community and adventure. In the mid-1990s, the Deadheads hit the headlines negatively when there were riots at some concerts, which also resulted in shows being canceled. The subgroups that formed in the 1990s included The Spinners and Wharf Rats . The latter group leads a life free of alcohol and other drugs and tries to teach the same to other Dead followers.
After the death of Jerry Garcia, fans split up with other jam bands, e.g. B. Phish , on; But they also remained loyal to the follow- up band The Other Ones and The Dead or dedicated themselves to tribute bands such as the Dark Star Orchestra .
Known deadheads
Over the course of the band's thirty year history, the Grateful Dead had a large number of fans who are now widely known. The most famous deadheads include:
- Tony Blair
- Joseph Campbell
- Bill Clinton
- Ann Coulter
- Owen Chamberlain
- Al and Tipper Gore
- Keith Haring
- Phil Jackson
- Larry Page
- Bill Walton
- Al Franks
- Nancy Pelosi
- President Barack Obama inspired The Dead's tour in early 2009 and also had it play on his inauguration.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Robert Hunter et al .: Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. DK ADULT 2003, p. 138.
- ↑ Courtney Love In: St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Kembrew McLeod ( Memento from July 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
- ^ Dennis McNally, A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead. 2002.
- ^ A b Robert Hunter and others: Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. DK ADULT 2003, p. 174.
- ↑ David Shenk, Steve Silberman: Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads. New York 1994.
- ↑ David Dodd: The Annotated 'Truckin'.
- ↑ Robert Hunter et al .: Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. DK ADULT 2003, p. 113.
- ↑ Blair Jackson: Garcia: An American Life. Penguin Books 1999, p. 219.
- ^ Phil Lesh: Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead. Little, Brown and Company 2005.
- ↑ Robert Hunter et al .: Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. DK ADULT 2003, p. 227.
- ↑ Robert Hunter et al .: Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. DK ADULT 2003, p. 263.
- ↑ Robert Hunter et al .: Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. DK ADULT 2003, p. 315.
- ↑ Robert Hunter et al .: Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. DK ADULT 2003, p. 415.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Robert Hunter et al .: Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. DK ADULT 2003, p. 375.
- ↑ Robert Hunter et al .: Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. DK ADULT 2003, p. 330.
- ↑ Blair Jackson: Garcia: An American Life. Penguin Books 1999, p. 456
- ↑ Interview at Jambands.com ( Memento of the original from August 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Blair Jackson: Garcia: An American Life. Penguin Books 1999, p. 426
- ↑ a b c d Blair Jackson: Garcia: An American Life. Penguin Books 1999, p. 415.
- ↑ Interview at CBS News
