Gen X Deadhead

[L'Emmerdeur]

This guy says that he's a Deadhead, and who am I to disagree? I've never called myself that, even when I regularly attended Dead shows in the late 70s through the 80s till Garcia bit it in the 90s. Bill Graham: 'They aren’t the best at what they do, they are the only ones that do what they do.'

I think what the writer of the article discovered is genuine, but then I'm clearly biased. I'll even admit that some Deadheads are OK.

'How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Grateful Dead'

If you’re like most people, I was once like you: I hated the Grateful Dead.

Even as a classic rock-loving teen in the 1990s, I could not fathom the appeal. The studio albums (with a couple of exceptions) were goofy and uninspired. The badly recorded tapes of thousands of live shows did nothing for me. The music struck me as aimless and dreary; the lyrics sounded like they were written by guys who were born old.

...

[D]espite being a (metaphorical) hippie-puncher for much of my life, the aura of the Dead now makes me feel young, free, and… healthy. (The last of those is a particularly perverse association for a band so synonymous with drugs and debauchery that its de facto leader, Jerry Garcia, essentially died of old age at 53.)

I guess you could call me a mid-life Deadhead. How could this have happened?

...

It started slow, but it’s gotten to the point that I play the Dead often enough that my kids have their own shorthand to mock me for it (as they should). And my wife has patiently indulged my need to travel to see some of these shows, typically with friends going through relatable midlife crises—and becoming latecomer Deadheads.

I still feel somewhat self-conscious when talking about it to non-Heads, but the Dead—and all its ancillary experiences over the past decade—have brought me comfort, new friendships, even emotional steadiness. I’m less judgmental, more empathic, and open to discovery (though my capacity for forgiveness could still use a little more seasoning).

And though I still find the experience of dancing to shitty pop music at weddings physically painful, I can dance to the Dead like no one’s watching—proving that old dogs can learn new tricks when the right treat is available.

You’ll still never see me in tie-dye, or stinking of patchouli, or tolerating anything associated with Dave Matthews Band. But after a few decades of generally loathing the Grateful Dead, Deadheads, and ostentatious, boomer-created, hippie culture—what can I say but to call me what I am?

[Brian Peacock]

...The music struck me as aimless and dreary; the lyrics sounded like they were written by guys who were born old.

Exactly! In my golden hippy period, when I was having a spliff for breakfast, dressing in gaudy faux Buddhist prints, reading H.S. Thompson, Keasy, and Castañeda, and lauding the likes of Floyd, Gong, Hawkwind, the Velvets, and Hendrix (of course), the Dead always sounded like badly recorded incompetent amateurs.

I know better now of course: they were badly recorded incompetent amateurs - they just made a profession out of it. Perhaps that was part of their charm? For those guys who obsessed about and/or followed them around... you know, the type of guys whose jeans would stand up on their own... and it was mostly guys of course... for them, the Dead represented a validation of the inconsequential, an acknowledgement and acceptance of the deadbeat, and, in some way, the triumph of the ordinary over the exceptional, and through that a celebration of everyday incompetence. "The Dead are just like us. Shitty, stinky, and useless! You want a huff on the bong man?"

[L'Emmerdeur]

There are highly competent musicians who would disagree with your assessment, but I'm not interested in attempting to defend their music. It was the primary component but only one aspect of a Dead show. Initially I considered the music only mildly interesting--going to a live show is what changed my mind. What I found intriguing is the writer's change of heart, coming to their music long after the original band was no more.

[Brian Peacock]

Aye, that was an interesting take, but I read it as romanticism - a yearning for a past that didn't really exist.

[JimC]

Was never into them. In the 70-s, it was Pink Floyd, Cream, Blind Faith, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Jethro Tull and many others, but not the Dead...

[L'Emmerdeur]

Aye, that was an interesting take, but I read it as romanticism - a yearning for a past that didn't really exist.

To me it seemed more that he genuinely came to appreciate the spirit and artistry of the band. They were already time-worn when he was born, so that past was never his. He's not casting back to their heyday, but appreciating what they have to offer, either in recordings or the various descendant/cover bands' performances. It's his own youth he feels revived, but not because of some fantasy of Deadhead life in the 60s but because the music in some way evokes youthfulness in him.

Again, I admit my perception of the article is colored by my own appreciation of their music.

I can also sympathize with the concept: I have a parallel reaction to pipe bands (live, not so much recordings) and big band music. It's isn't about the past, but about the music itself.

[Brian Peacock]

Aye, that was an interesting take, but I read it as romanticism - a yearning for a past that didn't really exist.

To me it seemed more that he genuinely came to appreciate the spirit and artistry of the band. They were already time-worn when he was born, so that past was never his. He's not casting back to their heyday, but appreciating what they have to offer, either in recordings or the various descendant/cover bands' performances. It's his own youth he feels revived, but not because of some fantasy of Deadhead life in the 60s but because the music in some way evokes youthfulness in him.

Again, I admit my perception of the article is colored by my own appreciation of their music.

I can also sympathize with the concept: I have a parallel reaction to pipe bands (live, not so much recordings) and big band music. It's isn't about the past, but about the music itself.

Well, this is all subjective, of course. Our tastes change over time - our appreciations for some things deepen while other things are caste away. The author describes how, when he was younger, the band sounded old before its time, but now that he's actually old (in his time) the band encapsulates or reflects the kind of interesting, dynamic, relevant, or youthful artistic vigour he once thought they never possessed. Although his appreciation of the Dead may have deepened, to some extent it's still the music of (or at least from) his youth. A known, safe, idealised, essentially romantic territory.

The Dead were a high stakes band, in as much they were improvising rock musicians who jammed a lot - and collective improv is always a bit of a tenuous tightrope walk over a pit of hungry alligators, and it's so easy to falls off (the 'Puppet Show' scene from Spinal Tap!)! The other pitfall is for musicians to be seduced into self-indulgence by the process of improvising - it's interesting to them because they're doing it, but is it really working as a musical experience for the audience? I guess that's found in the ear of the listener, or, in the Dead's case, in the quality of the ethereal spirally vortices that the spliff and the music are inducing in the listen. To paraphrase Zappa when talking about jazz: I know the difference between good noodles and bad noodles, but at the end of the day it's all still just a lot of noodles.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Well, this is all subjective, of course. Our tastes change over time - our appreciations for some things deepen while other things are caste away. The author describes how, when he was younger, the band sounded old before its time, but now that he's actually old (in his time) the band encapsulates or reflects the kind of interesting, dynamic, relevant, or youthful artistic vigour he once thought they never possessed. Although his appreciation of the Dead may have deepened, to some extent it's still the music of (or at least from) his youth. A known, safe, idealised, essentially romantic territory.

The Dead were a high stakes band, in as much they were improvising rock musicians who jammed a lot - and collective improv is always a bit of a tenuous tightrope walk over a pit of hungry alligators, and it's so easy to falls off (the 'Puppet Show' scene from Spinal Tap!)! The other pitfall is for musicians to be seduced into self-indulgence by the process of improvising - it's interesting to them because they're doing it, but is it really working as a musical experience for the audience? I guess that's found in the ear of the listener, or, in the Dead's case, in the quality of the ethereal spirally vortices that the spliff and the music are inducing in the listen. To paraphrase Zappa when talking about jazz: I know the difference between good noodles and bad noodles, but at the end of the day it's all still just a lot of noodles.

Focusing here: 'Although his appreciation of the Dead may have deepened, to some extent it's still the music of (or at least from) his youth. A known, safe, idealised, essentially romantic territory.'

If we go by what he wrote, he hated the Grateful Dead in his youth, and so he would not have been listening to them much if at all back then. He had no appreciation of their music at that point, rather the opposite, so the idea of deepening appreciation isn't apposite.

The 'known, safe, idealised' music of his youth isn't the Dead. The 'romantic territory' is his current perception of the music itself, not recollections or a hearkening back to his youth. In the same way, the era of the big swing bands was decades before I was born. The response that music engenders in me comes from the music itself, not from an association with my younger years.

The Grateful Dead definitely lapsed on occasion into self-indulgence in regards to improvisation, particularly in the 'Space' interludes, but it generally worked for their audiences.

[L'Emmerdeur]

As far as the 'less judgmental, more empathic, and open to discovery' part, it seems like he's trying to ascribe that at least somewhat to the influence of the music. Having encountered a fair number of rather judgmental Deadheads, I'd go with correlation rather than causation. The essential spirit of the endeavor aspired to the qualities he mentions, so not entirely discounting what he says. However, given the significant level of entheogen consumption by the audience, paranoia is swirling in the mix along with more generous attitudes.

That said, I haven't managed to get to any performances by successor bands, so I can only extrapolate from my recollection. These are merely the eructations of a psychonaut of many moons. I can't rightfully speak to the scene he's experiencing, though I surmise it aligns with that of my own experience.

[Sean Hayden]

I’ve always got along with the music.