“Beat It on Down the Line”-formerly composed and performed by one-man musician Jesse Fuller-was reworked with sped-up tempo, the addition of Little Richard-esque electric guitar section, and flat-out organ, courtesy of Ron “Pigpen” Mckernan. The following songs, “Beat It on Down the Line” and “Good Morning, Little School Girl,” are the first two renditions, drawing from the Jug and Blues traditions. “The Golden Road” is close to what would have become the Grateful Dead’s blueprint sound, with full-on recording stunts, three screeching electric guitars, two flat top guitars, and in-your-face vocals. I mean it's like really fun to sing and fun to play and everything like that, and it seems like a good single, whatever that is, we thought it could be a single.” As Garcia recalled in an interview with DJ Larry Miller in 1967, “We were thinking specifically of a single, so we just played around, and came up with some nice changes and cooperated on the entire thing, and came up with ‘The Golden Road,’ which is a good song. The record opens with the original track “The Golden Road,” which interestingly was the last song recorded. The project perfectly captured the band’s powerful energy and sound. Eventually, they managed to carry out their debut record, offering seven tidy renditions of old blues tunes and two original songs. The young and inexperienced artists were given only four days to record and cut the project.ĭuring the recording process, the band encountered a few issues, with their label forcing them to shorten the length of some tracks-most songs were meant for radio airplay rather than psychedelic exploration. However, as fellow San Franciscans Jefferson Airplane landed a record deal, the Grateful Dead decided to do the same, and in 1966 they signed with Warner Bros. The bandmates traveled to Los Angeles’ RCA Studio in January 1967 to record their eponymous debut album The Grateful Dead. And in the studio, it was too sterile of an environment for us because there was nobody there to swing with us-just a bunch of microphones.” It was no mystery that the Dead was prevalently a live act, focused on improvising and jamming extensive pieces on stage, as rhythm guitarist Bob Weir recounted during an interview with Jas Obrecht in 1996: “We were primarily a dance band. The band's nonchalance about fans recording their live sets was, indeed, notorious, and they even actively encouraged their audience to share the music. From their looks-quite dissimilar from the Hollywood deco/nouveau hippie style-to their live shows based on long jam improvisation sessions and loud amplification and their lenient approach to the copyrighting of their music, the Grateful Dead made sure to always live by their own rules. Jerry Garcia-the group’s de-facto leader, lead guitarist, and vocalist-was into country music, bassist Phil Lesh was a trained classical composer, rhythm guitarist Bob Weir’s influences were rooted in folk/Americana, harmonica player and keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan’s main interest was blues music, and drummer Bill Kreutzmann was jazz-studied.Īs popular music moved in one direction, the Dead, au contraire, followed the counterculture, its ground rules, and values, shying away from trends. The Dead stood out for their alluring blend of musical genres, across jazz, rock, reggae, blues, folk, and country. Originally formed in Palo Alto, California, the rock band Grateful Dead seemingly captured the whole counter-cultural scene and aesthetics. The genre served as an experiential setting where different groups found a sense of locality, community, and collective identity. Rock music has been essential in the American culture and counterculture, providing a socio-cultural-political background for distinctive musical practices and revolutions. When we talk about the American counterculture of the 1960s, the role of music, particularly rock music, must not be overlooked.
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