I never understood the draw of The Grateful Dead ?

Question

What is it ? People followed them everywhere ......

Answer 1

the reason deadheads exists are vast man.
first off. they never were a studio band. they made albums, but most deadheads never bought them. their main thing was the stage. and the dead let fans record the shows at every concert. most other bands won't let you do that. the dead did. so now, their live bootlegs have more popularity than their studio albums. the dead never played the same show twice or let alone the same song twice the same way. most bands go on tour and play the same 20 songs every night the same way. if you see one of these shows, you've pretty much saw the whole tour. not the dead..................they were constantly mixing it up. doing songs they haven't played in 5 years or kicking out a new cover song. fans were always treated. especially if you were at a show where the played "dark star" for the first time in 7 years. it's like you won the lotto. people always mention drugs with the dead, but for many fans that is not the case. it's not just a big drug party. outside of jerry himself and whatever keyboard they had, the rest of th band didn't do alot of drugs outside of some weed here and there. bob wier, their guitarist/singer actually allows a group called "wharfrats" into the stadium for each show. wharfrats are a group of sober deadhead that still enjoy the music, and you can go to their booth for support or questions regarding staying sober. how many acts, actually have an AA table set up at a concert? the dead truely care about their fans.
second, the tailgate parties were like no other. you could find anything out there, clothes, food, and music for sale in the parking lots. at it was always peaceful. no one stole, no one fought. the tailgate parties were commonly called shakedown street. a great place for deadheads to meet before shows, discuss past shows on the tour and meet many new friendly people.
like i said before, the dead never played the same show twice. and every night they would play two, one and a half hour sets and an encore. how many bands play 3 hours of music every night. time the next show you go to. the band will play 1 or 1 and half hours. the dead gave you more bang for you buck.
the dead were just truly a great band. forget the 3 songs that are played on classic rock radio. those songs aren't even a good introduction to the dead. you need to check out their live stuff. that's all that matters.
and another thing with the dead, they were constantly mixing their sound up. trying new equipment, and each keyboard player they had every 10 years or so would give the band a different feel.
65 -71 were the pigpen years. bluesier than anything else. 3 singers and sometimes added piano by tom constanen.
71- 80- keith godchaux years, he played beautiful rock piano. no organ here, but smooth solid jams. sometimes they had keith's wife donna singing backup and for some of these years, they were with only one drummer. bill kreutzman.
80-90 - brent mydland - great raspy voice. played great hammond B3 organ as well as keys. bob, jerry and brent all were singing.
90-95 vince welnick. my lest favorite key player. his keys were over produced and kinda cheezy sounding. sometimes during these years, bruce would play a second piano. those were the most solid shows from this era.
enjoy and please check out the dead.

Answer 2

The 60's... alcohol, drugs & rock n roll. I don't get it either. Kind of cult like in a sense that people followed them like they did. I love U2 & Linkin Park, but I don't follow them with an obsession. And I don't think that it was just women that followed the Grateful Dead. It was both women & men. I think it was an escape from reality for them. Just one big continuous party and that's why they followed because that's where the party always was... and there would be plenty of drugs available.

Answer 3

I love most of the music from the late 60's and early 70's which were the Grateful Dead's prime recording years. . In my opinion, the music of the GD sounds very dated especially when put up against the soul music and hard rock of that era.

Answer 4

when it comes to the Grateful Dead and the fans (a.k.a. Deadheads) it was just one big experiment. Drugs were everywhere. People just wanted to get high and listen to some really mellow, trippy music.

Answer 5

I have seen them only twice , Im not afan of the music , but the atmospher was great , and I don't just mean all the weed going around. It was just really relaxed and fun with no attitude.

Answer 6

i never understood that either!!! my friend tried to get me to go to one of their shows years ago, but to be honest i`d rather cut off my own arm than go to one of those "hippy" concerts.. i really loathe that type of music!!!.no offense, but that sort of stuff just isn`t my thing...but i have followed bands many times before, it`s cool, going from one city to the next,, hanging out with other people who enjoy the same type of music, making new friends...it`s an adventure & i luv that kind of thing!!!

Answer 7

The guitar artistry of Jerry Garcia, probably.