Grateful Dead, Acid and Other

DinoMikeSr

DinoMikeSr

I have the box
So I’ve developed this geeky interest in the Grateful Dead. Not a deadhead but, definitely checking out everything dead and listening to a lot of tunes, versions of their tunes and playing them. .

Good while back I watched “the other one” then Long Strange Series. Probably seen both 8 or 9 times. Then the making of American Beauty…

Prior to that I would listen to their greatest hits double album. After watching the above I’ve been checking out each album and on later versions the deeper cuts included.

Now , I find like over 150 live albums on Apple music…

I started using Weir’s logic behind playing rhythm guitar where Instead of using the same chords switch them with other versions. Not only on Dead tunes but other stuff I’ve been playing..

Today this movie comes up on Netflix “
The Sunshine Makers”. It’s about these 2 guys who committed to making LSD in the 1960’s to turn on the world. At the end of that they showed the guy who, I believe it was said, financed the Dead's wall of sound using his LSD money.

I’m not going to do any acid but it was quite interesting quite the long strange trip.
 
I am a late-comer to the Grateful Dead world. For me, it started with the Garcia/Grisman Shady Grove album. Then I discovered the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. That led to the acoustic Reckoning album and by then I was hooked. I even got Carol to some concert movies at the Meetups and she enjoyed them.

I get that their music doesn't appeal to everyone, but I am a proud Deadhead. I am not about to drop acid, though.
 
If someone funded the Wall of Sound with LSD sales he must have been cooking that shit in 50 gallon drums. Unless acid was more expensive than I’ve been told.
 
jp_nyc said:
If someone funded the Wall of Sound with LSD sales he must have been cooking that shit in 50 gallon drums. Unless acid was more expensive than I’ve been told.
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Sounds about right, lol.

I was done with the psychedelics for the most part before I really got into them heavily. My trippin jam was more Brit Prog, Yes, Floyd, ELP, etc.
For the most part like Gary I got into the Dead thru the acoustic/americana stuff like American Beauty, Workingmans, and Old & In the Way. But I did have the Mars Hotel album and Skull & Roses on 8 track in high school. Heard the rest thru college roommates collections etc. I was always more a fan of the songs and songwriting than the extended Dark Stars and the Deadhead parking lot lizard "scene".
I saw maybe 5-6 shows. Once in the Donna/Keith era and the rest in the 90s. I would have done more but they rarely came to the deep south and I never felt the need or urge to get on the bus. But I would always happily play you a rendition of Ripple or Friend of the Devil if you asked.
 
I saw The Grateful Dead live twice (1990 & 1991). The 1990 show was on a hot day, early December, at Compton Terrace, near Phoenix, AZ. It was mediocre. I think the heat was getting to Jerry in particular. I did drop acid at that AZ show, but it did not improve the performance. I still enjoyed the crowd, and the whole scene. I had fun.

The 1991 show happened during a cool June night in Denver at Mile High Stadium. Santana opened. Both bands knocked it out of the park. It was a fantastic performance.

After Jerry died, I saw live shows by The Other Ones, Rat Dog, Mickey Hart's Mystery Box, and Dead & Co.
 
jp_nyc said:
If someone funded the Wall of Sound with LSD sales he must have been cooking that shit in 50 gallon drums. Unless acid was more expensive than I’ve been told.
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Yes. They were running labs. Had an extremely wealthy backer. Making millions of hits. This beginning in the early 60’s. It was weird because it started as enlightening the world as a hippie thing resulting in world peace. It’s quite a film. Have to get past the fat old naked guy doing yoga in the beginning though.
 
Gary Blanchard said:
I am a late-comer to the Grateful Dead world. For me, it started with the Garcia/Grisman Shady Grove album. Then I discovered the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. That led to the acoustic Reckoning album and by then I was hooked. I even got Carol to some concert movies at the Meetups and she enjoyed them.

I get that their music doesn't appeal to everyone, but I am a proud Deadhead. I am not about to drop acid, though.
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I started listening to them late too. Funny thing I was taken to a Bobby and the Midnights show in DC in 82 by a friend. He was a diehard Deadhead then. I just didn’t feel anything from it then to make me go I need to dive in. Lol, soon after I stopped smoking weed and went in the military and got married.

Found that show youtube.

 
I saw the Grateful Dead for the first time way back in 1969 while I was still in HS. So I've been there and I've done that.

Owsley Stanley was the "chemist" and sound engineer for the Grateful Dead and was instrumental building the famous wall of sound. He did come from a fairly wealthy family so it wasn't just acid money he had.

Here's an interesting story. I went to see the band in the early 90's in NYC at the Garden and during the set break I'm walking around looking for the Wharf Rat meeting and a guy comes up to me offering to sell me a Steal Your Face inlaid pendant for some really big $$. I of course said no as I don't do jewelry are any band paraphernalia. After the guy leaves me, my friend says do you know who that was? No. He said that was Owsley. Kinda cool but I'm thinking he went from selling some of the best acid to now be selling jewelry.
 
DinoMikeSr said:
Yes. They were running labs. Had an extremely wealthy backer. Making millions of hits. This beginning in the early 60’s. It was weird because it started as enlightening the world as a hippie thing resulting in world peace. It’s quite a film. Have to get past the fat old naked guy doing yoga in the beginning though.
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Are you saying that everything is gobbled up and exploited by capitalism even peace and love? I’m shocked.
 
rhino said:
Are you saying that everything is gobbled up and exploited by capitalism even peace and love? I’m shocked.
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Well, they ended up in prison and their backer narc’d them out to avoid federal tax charges.

Bear, sounds like a trust fund kid with above average intelligence.

In the beginning I don’t think acid was illegal. It didn’t sound like capitalism at all but, is sure as hell wasn’t socialism. The whole trip was having fun and funding it off someone’s wealthy parents.
 
Last time I took acid was 1987 in the mountains near Pocatello Idaho after sitting for the three-day CPA exam on my last day of college before moving with the wife and kid to California to start my so-called career. And yes, the Grateful Dead were involved. The guilty party was a friend who was part of a bunch in Southeast Idaho that called themselves the Permagrins. It was very interesting; there was a lot of interaction between the punk and deadhead communities back there and then because they were both tiny and perceived as a threat.

Now, what were we talking about then? My fine is brain!
 
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