American Beauty - Album
American Beauty (Album) by Grateful Dead
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Artist Biography For Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead Was An American Rock Band Formed In 1965 In Palo Alto California. The Band Is Known For Its Eclectic Style Which Fused Elements Of Rock Folk Country Jazz Bluegrass Blues Gospel And Psychedelic Rock For Live Performances Of Lengthy Instrumental Jams And For Its Devoted Fan Base Known As "Deadheads." "Their Music " Writes Lenny Kaye "touches On Ground That Most Other Groups Don't Even Know Exists." These Various Influences Were Distilled Into A Diverse And Psychedelic Whole That Made The Grateful Dead "the Pioneering Godfathers Of The Jam Band World". The Band Was Ranked 57th By Rolling Stone Magazine In Its The Greatest Artists Of All Time Issue. The Band Was Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame In 1994 And A Recording Of Their May 8 1977 Performance At Cornell University's Barton Hall Was Added To The National Recording Registry Of The Library Of Congress In 2012. The Grateful Dead Have Sold More Than 35 Million Albums Worldwide. The Grateful Dead Was Founded In The San Francisco Bay Area Amid The Rise Of The Counterculture Of The 1960s. The Founding Members Were Jerry Garcia Lead Guitar Vocals Bob Weir Rhythm Guitar Vocals Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Keyboards Harmonica Vocals Phil Lesh Bass Vocals And Bill Kreutzmann Drums . Members Of The Grateful Dead Had Played Together In Various San Francisco Bands Including Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions And The Warlocks. Lesh Was The Last Member To Join The Warlocks Before They Became The Grateful Dead He Replaced Dana Morgan Jr. Who Had Played Bass For A Few Gigs. Drummer Mickey Hart And Non-Performing Lyricist Robert Hunter Joined In 1967. With The Exception Of McKernan Who Died In 1973 And Hart Who Took Time Off From 1971 To 1974 The Core Of The Band Stayed Together For Its Entire 30-Year History. The Other Official Members Of The Band Are Tom Constanten Keyboards 1968–1970 John Perry Barlow Nonperforming Lyricist 1971–1995 Keith Godchaux Keyboards 1971–1979 Donna Godchaux Vocals 1972–1979 Brent Mydland Keyboards Vocals 1979–1990 And Vince Welnick Keyboards Vocals 1990–1995 . Bruce Hornsby Accordion Piano Vocals Was A Touring Member From 1990 To 1992 As Well As A Guest With The Band On Occasion Before And After The Tours. The Name "Grateful Dead" Was Chosen From A Dictionary. According To Phil Lesh " Jerry Garcia Picked Up An Old Britannica World Language Dictionary ... And ... In That Silvery Elf-Voice He Said To Me 'Hey Man How About The Grateful Dead?'" The Definition There Was "the Soul Of A Dead Person Or His Angel Showing Gratitude To Someone Who As An Act Of Charity Arranged Their Burial". According To Alan Trist Director Of The Grateful Dead's Music Publisher Company Ice Nine Garcia Found The Name In The Funk & Wagnalls Folklore Dictionary When His Finger Landed On That Phrase While Playing A Game Of Fictionary. In The Garcia Biography Captain Trips Author Sandy Troy States That The Band Was Smoking The Psychedelic DMT At The Time. The Term "grateful Dead" Appears In Folktales Of A Variety Of Cultures. Live Performances
The Grateful Dead Toured Constantly Throughout Their Career Playing More Than 2 300 Concerts. They Promoted A Sense Of Community Among Their Fans Who Became Known As "Deadheads" Many Of Whom Followed Their Tours For Months Or Years On End. Around Concert Venues An Impromptu Communal Marketplace Known As 'Shakedown Street' Was Created By Deadheads To Serve As Centers Of Activity Where Fans Could Buy And Sell Anything From Grilled Cheese Sandwiches To Home-Made T-Shirts And Recordings Of Grateful Dead Concerts. In Their Early Career The Band Also Dedicated Their Time And Talents To Their Community The Haight-Ashbury Area Of San Francisco Making Available Free Food Lodging Music And Health Care To All. It Has Been Said That The Band Performed "more Free Concerts Than Any Band In The History Of Music". With The Exception Of 1975 When The Band Was On Hiatus And Played Only Four Concerts Together The Grateful Dead Performed Many Concerts Every Year From Their Formation In April 1965 Until July 9 1995. Initially All Their Shows Were In California Principally In The San Francisco Bay Area And In Or Near Los Angeles. They Also Performed In 1965 And 1966 With Ken Kesey And The Merry Pranksters As The House Band For The Acid Tests. They Toured Nationally Starting In June 1967 Their First Foray To New York With A Few Detours To Canada Europe And Three Nights At The Great Pyramid Of Giza In Egypt In 1978. They Appeared At The Monterey Pop Festival In 1967 The Woodstock Festival In 1969 And The Festival Express Train Tour Across Canada In 1970. They Were Scheduled To Appear As The Final Act At The Infamous Altamont Free Concert On December 6 1969 After The Rolling Stones But Withdrew After Security Concerns. "That's The Way Things Went At Altamont—so Badly That The Grateful Dead Prime Organizers And Movers Of The Festival Didn't Even Get To Play" Staff At Rolling Stone Magazine Wrote In A Detailed Narrative On The Event. Their First UK Performance Was At The Hollywood Music Festival In 1970. Their Largest Concert Audience Came In 1973 When They Played Along With The Allman Brothers Band And The Band Before An Estimated 600 000 People At The Summer Jam At Watkins Glen. They Played To An Estimated Total Of 25 Million People More Than Any Other Band With Audiences Of Up To 80 000 Attending A Single Show. Many Of These Concerts Were Preserved In The Band's Tape Vault And Several Dozen Have Since Been Released On CD And As Downloads. The Dead Were Known For The Tremendous Variation In Their Setlists From Night To Night—the List Of Songs Documented To Have Been Played By The Band Exceeds 500. The Band Has Released Four Concert Videos Under The Name View From The Vault. In The 1990s The Grateful Dead Earned A Total Of $285 Million In Revenue From Their Concert Tours The Second-Highest During The 1990s With The Rolling Stones Earning The Most. This Figure Is Representative Of Tour Revenue Through 1995 As Touring Stopped After The Death Of Jerry Garcia. In A 1991 PBS Documentary Segment Host Buck Henry Attended An August 1991 Concert At Shoreline Amphitheatre And Gleaned Some Information From Some Band Members About The Grateful Dead Phenomenon And Its Success. At The Time Jerry Garcia Stated "We Didn't Really Invent The Grateful Dead The Crowd Invented The Grateful Dead You Know What I Mean? We Were Sort Of Standing In Line And Uh It's Gone Way Past Our Expectations Way Past So It's We've Been Going Along With It To See What It's Gonna Do Next." Furthermore Mickey Hart Stated "This Is One Of The Last Places In America That You Can Really Have This Kind Of Fun You Know Considering The Political Climate And So Forth." Hart Also Stated That "the Transformative Power Of The Grateful Dead Is Really The Essence Of It It's What It Can Do To Your Consciousness. We're More Into Transportation Than We Are Into Music Per Se I Mean The Business Of The Grateful Dead Is Transportation." One Of The Band's Largest Concerts Took Place Just Months Before Garcia's Death — At Their Outdoor Show With Bob Dylan In Highgate Vermont On June 15 1995. The Crowd Was Estimated To Be Over 90 000 Overnight Camping Was Allowed And About A Third Of The Audience Got In Without Having Purchased A Ticket. Their Numerous Studio Albums Were Generally Collections Of New Songs That They Had First Played In Concert. The Band Was Also Famous For Its Extended Musical Improvisations Having Been Described As Having Never Played The Same Song The Same Way Twice. Their Concert Sets Often Blended Songs One Into The Next Often For More Than Three Songs At A Time. Tapes
Like Several Other Bands During This Time The Grateful Dead Allowed Their Fans To Record Their Shows. For Many Years The Tapers Set Up Their Microphones Wherever They Could And The Eventual Forest Of Microphones Became A Problem For The Sound Crew. Eventually This Was Solved By Having A Dedicated Taping Section Located Behind The Soundboard Which Required A Special "tapers" Ticket. The Band Allowed Sharing Of Their Shows As Long As No Profits Were Made On The Sale Of The Tapes. Of The Approximately 2 350 Shows The Grateful Dead Played Almost 2 200 Were Taped And Most Of These Are Available Online. The Band Began Collecting And Cataloging Tapes Early On And Dick Latvala Was Their Keeper. "Dick's Picks" Is Named After Latvala. After His Death In 1999 David Lemieux Gradually Took The Post. Concert Set Lists From A Subset Of 1 590 Grateful Dead Shows Were Used To Perform A Comparative Analysis Between How Songs Were Played In Concert And How They Are Listened Online By Last.Fm Members. In Their Book Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead What Every Business Can Learn From The Most Iconic Band In History David Meerman Scott And Brian Halligan Identify The Taper Section As A Crucial Contributor To Increasing The Grateful Dead's Fan Base. After The Death Of Garcia In 1995 Former Members Of The Band Along With Other Musicians Toured As The Other Ones In 1998 2000 And 2002 And The Dead In 2003 2004 And 2009. In 2015 The Four Surviving Core Members Marked The Band's 50th Anniversary In A Series Of Concerts That Were Billed As Their Last Performances Together. There Have Also Been Several Spin-Offs Featuring One Or More Core Members Such As Dead & Company Furthur The Rhythm Devils Phil Lesh And Friends RatDog And Billy & The Kids.
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Biography - Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead Was An American Rock Band Formed In 1965 In Palo Alto California. The Band Is Known For Its Eclectic Style Which Fused Elements Of Rock Folk Country Jazz Bluegrass Blues Gospel And Psychedelic Rock For Live Performances Of Lengthy Instrumental Jams And For Its Devoted Fan Base Known As "Deadheads." "Their Music " Writes Lenny Kaye "touches On Ground That Most Other Groups Don't Even Know Exists." These Various Influences Were Distilled Into A Diverse And Psychedelic Whole That Made The Grateful Dead "the Pioneering Godfathers Of The Jam Band World". The Band Was Ranked 57th By Rolling Stone Magazine In Its The Greatest Artists Of All Time Issue. The Band Was Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame In 1994 And A Recording Of Their May 8 1977 Performance At Cornell University's Barton Hall Was Added To The National Recording Registry Of The Library Of Congress In 2012. The Grateful Dead Have Sold More Than 35 Million Albums Worldwide. The Grateful Dead Was Founded In The San Francisco Bay Area Amid The Rise Of The Counterculture Of The 1960s. The Founding Members Were Jerry Garcia Lead Guitar Vocals Bob Weir Rhythm Guitar Vocals Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Keyboards Harmonica Vocals Phil Lesh Bass Vocals And Bill Kreutzmann Drums . Members Of The Grateful Dead Had Played Together In Various San Francisco Bands Including Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions And The Warlocks. Lesh Was The Last Member To Join The Warlocks Before They Became The Grateful Dead He Replaced Dana Morgan Jr. Who Had Played Bass For A Few Gigs. Drummer Mickey Hart And Non-Performing Lyricist Robert Hunter Joined In 1967. With The Exception Of McKernan Who Died In 1973 And Hart Who Took Time Off From 1971 To 1974 The Core Of The Band Stayed Together For Its Entire 30-Year History. The Other Official Members Of The Band Are Tom Constanten Keyboards 1968–1970 John Perry Barlow Nonperforming Lyricist 1971–1995 Keith Godchaux Keyboards 1971–1979 Donna Godchaux Vocals 1972–1979 Brent Mydland Keyboards Vocals 1979–1990 And Vince Welnick Keyboards Vocals 1990–1995 . Bruce Hornsby Accordion Piano Vocals Was A Touring Member From 1990 To 1992 As Well As A Guest With The Band On Occasion Before And After The Tours. The Name "Grateful Dead" Was Chosen From A Dictionary. According To Phil Lesh " Jerry Garcia Picked Up An Old Britannica World Language Dictionary ... And ... In That Silvery Elf-Voice He Said To Me 'Hey Man How About The Grateful Dead?'" The Definition There Was "the Soul Of A Dead Person Or His Angel Showing Gratitude To Someone Who As An Act Of Charity Arranged Their Burial". According To Alan Trist Director Of The Grateful Dead's Music Publisher Company Ice Nine Garcia Found The Name In The Funk & Wagnalls Folklore Dictionary When His Finger Landed On That Phrase While Playing A Game Of Fictionary. In The Garcia Biography Captain Trips Author Sandy Troy States That The Band Was Smoking The Psychedelic DMT At The Time. The Term "grateful Dead" Appears In Folktales Of A Variety Of Cultures. Live Performances
The Grateful Dead Toured Constantly Throughout Their Career Playing More Than 2 300 Concerts. They Promoted A Sense Of Community Among Their Fans Who Became Known As "Deadheads" Many Of Whom Followed Their Tours For Months Or Years On End. Around Concert Venues An Impromptu Communal Marketplace Known As 'Shakedown Street' Was Created By Deadheads To Serve As Centers Of Activity Where Fans Could Buy And Sell Anything From Grilled Cheese Sandwiches To Home-Made T-Shirts And Recordings Of Grateful Dead Concerts. In Their Early Career The Band Also Dedicated Their Time And Talents To Their Community The Haight-Ashbury Area Of San Francisco Making Available Free Food Lodging Music And Health Care To All. It Has Been Said That The Band Performed "more Free Concerts Than Any Band In The History Of Music". With The Exception Of 1975 When The Band Was On Hiatus And Played Only Four Concerts Together The Grateful Dead Performed Many Concerts Every Year From Their Formation In April 1965 Until July 9 1995. Initially All Their Shows Were In California Principally In The San Francisco Bay Area And In Or Near Los Angeles. They Also Performed In 1965 And 1966 With Ken Kesey And The Merry Pranksters As The House Band For The Acid Tests. They Toured Nationally Starting In June 1967 Their First Foray To New York With A Few Detours To Canada Europe And Three Nights At The Great Pyramid Of Giza In Egypt In 1978. They Appeared At The Monterey Pop Festival In 1967 The Woodstock Festival In 1969 And The Festival Express Train Tour Across Canada In 1970. They Were Scheduled To Appear As The Final Act At The Infamous Altamont Free Concert On December 6 1969 After The Rolling Stones But Withdrew After Security Concerns. "That's The Way Things Went At Altamont—so Badly That The Grateful Dead Prime Organizers And Movers Of The Festival Didn't Even Get To Play" Staff At Rolling Stone Magazine Wrote In A Detailed Narrative On The Event. Their First UK Performance Was At The Hollywood Music Festival In 1970. Their Largest Concert Audience Came In 1973 When They Played Along With The Allman Brothers Band And The Band Before An Estimated 600 000 People At The Summer Jam At Watkins Glen. They Played To An Estimated Total Of 25 Million People More Than Any Other Band With Audiences Of Up To 80 000 Attending A Single Show. Many Of These Concerts Were Preserved In The Band's Tape Vault And Several Dozen Have Since Been Released On CD And As Downloads. The Dead Were Known For The Tremendous Variation In Their Setlists From Night To Night—the List Of Songs Documented To Have Been Played By The Band Exceeds 500. The Band Has Released Four Concert Videos Under The Name View From The Vault. In The 1990s The Grateful Dead Earned A Total Of $285 Million In Revenue From Their Concert Tours The Second-Highest During The 1990s With The Rolling Stones Earning The Most. This Figure Is Representative Of Tour Revenue Through 1995 As Touring Stopped After The Death Of Jerry Garcia. In A 1991 PBS Documentary Segment Host Buck Henry Attended An August 1991 Concert At Shoreline Amphitheatre And Gleaned Some Information From Some Band Members About The Grateful Dead Phenomenon And Its Success. At The Time Jerry Garcia Stated "We Didn't Really Invent The Grateful Dead The Crowd Invented The Grateful Dead You Know What I Mean? We Were Sort Of Standing In Line And Uh It's Gone Way Past Our Expectations Way Past So It's We've Been Going Along With It To See What It's Gonna Do Next." Furthermore Mickey Hart Stated "This Is One Of The Last Places In America That You Can Really Have This Kind Of Fun You Know Considering The Political Climate And So Forth." Hart Also Stated That "the Transformative Power Of The Grateful Dead Is Really The Essence Of It It's What It Can Do To Your Consciousness. We're More Into Transportation Than We Are Into Music Per Se I Mean The Business Of The Grateful Dead Is Transportation." One Of The Band's Largest Concerts Took Place Just Months Before Garcia's Death — At Their Outdoor Show With Bob Dylan In Highgate Vermont On June 15 1995. The Crowd Was Estimated To Be Over 90 000 Overnight Camping Was Allowed And About A Third Of The Audience Got In Without Having Purchased A Ticket. Their Numerous Studio Albums Were Generally Collections Of New Songs That They Had First Played In Concert. The Band Was Also Famous For Its Extended Musical Improvisations Having Been Described As Having Never Played The Same Song The Same Way Twice. Their Concert Sets Often Blended Songs One Into The Next Often For More Than Three Songs At A Time. Tapes
Like Several Other Bands During This Time The Grateful Dead Allowed Their Fans To Record Their Shows. For Many Years The Tapers Set Up Their Microphones Wherever They Could And The Eventual Forest Of Microphones Became A Problem For The Sound Crew. Eventually This Was Solved By Having A Dedicated Taping Section Located Behind The Soundboard Which Required A Special "tapers" Ticket. The Band Allowed Sharing Of Their Shows As Long As No Profits Were Made On The Sale Of The Tapes. Of The Approximately 2 350 Shows The Grateful Dead Played Almost 2 200 Were Taped And Most Of These Are Available Online. The Band Began Collecting And Cataloging Tapes Early On And Dick Latvala Was Their Keeper. "Dick's Picks" Is Named After Latvala. After His Death In 1999 David Lemieux Gradually Took The Post. Concert Set Lists From A Subset Of 1 590 Grateful Dead Shows Were Used To Perform A Comparative Analysis Between How Songs Were Played In Concert And How They Are Listened Online By Last.Fm Members. In Their Book Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead What Every Business Can Learn From The Most Iconic Band In History David Meerman Scott And Brian Halligan Identify The Taper Section As A Crucial Contributor To Increasing The Grateful Dead's Fan Base. After The Death Of Garcia In 1995 Former Members Of The Band Along With Other Musicians Toured As The Other Ones In 1998 2000 And 2002 And The Dead In 2003 2004 And 2009. In 2015 The Four Surviving Core Members Marked The Band's 50th Anniversary In A Series Of Concerts That Were Billed As Their Last Performances Together. There Have Also Been Several Spin-Offs Featuring One Or More Core Members Such As Dead & Company Furthur The Rhythm Devils Phil Lesh And Friends RatDog And Billy & The Kids. read less
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The Grateful Dead Toured Constantly Throughout Their Career Playing More Than 2 300 Concerts. They Promoted A Sense Of Community Among Their Fans Who Became Known As "Deadheads" Many Of Whom Followed Their Tours For Months Or Years On End. Around Concert Venues An Impromptu Communal Marketplace Known As 'Shakedown Street' Was Created By Deadheads To Serve As Centers Of Activity Where Fans Could Buy And Sell Anything From Grilled Cheese Sandwiches To Home-Made T-Shirts And Recordings Of Grateful Dead Concerts. In Their Early Career The Band Also Dedicated Their Time And Talents To Their Community The Haight-Ashbury Area Of San Francisco Making Available Free Food Lodging Music And Health Care To All. It Has Been Said That The Band Performed "more Free Concerts Than Any Band In The History Of Music". With The Exception Of 1975 When The Band Was On Hiatus And Played Only Four Concerts Together The Grateful Dead Performed Many Concerts Every Year From Their Formation In April 1965 Until July 9 1995. Initially All Their Shows Were In California Principally In The San Francisco Bay Area And In Or Near Los Angeles. They Also Performed In 1965 And 1966 With Ken Kesey And The Merry Pranksters As The House Band For The Acid Tests. They Toured Nationally Starting In June 1967 Their First Foray To New York With A Few Detours To Canada Europe And Three Nights At The Great Pyramid Of Giza In Egypt In 1978. They Appeared At The Monterey Pop Festival In 1967 The Woodstock Festival In 1969 And The Festival Express Train Tour Across Canada In 1970. They Were Scheduled To Appear As The Final Act At The Infamous Altamont Free Concert On December 6 1969 After The Rolling Stones But Withdrew After Security Concerns. "That's The Way Things Went At Altamont—so Badly That The Grateful Dead Prime Organizers And Movers Of The Festival Didn't Even Get To Play" Staff At Rolling Stone Magazine Wrote In A Detailed Narrative On The Event. Their First UK Performance Was At The Hollywood Music Festival In 1970. Their Largest Concert Audience Came In 1973 When They Played Along With The Allman Brothers Band And The Band Before An Estimated 600 000 People At The Summer Jam At Watkins Glen. They Played To An Estimated Total Of 25 Million People More Than Any Other Band With Audiences Of Up To 80 000 Attending A Single Show. Many Of These Concerts Were Preserved In The Band's Tape Vault And Several Dozen Have Since Been Released On CD And As Downloads. The Dead Were Known For The Tremendous Variation In Their Setlists From Night To Night—the List Of Songs Documented To Have Been Played By The Band Exceeds 500. The Band Has Released Four Concert Videos Under The Name View From The Vault. In The 1990s The Grateful Dead Earned A Total Of $285 Million In Revenue From Their Concert Tours The Second-Highest During The 1990s With The Rolling Stones Earning The Most. This Figure Is Representative Of Tour Revenue Through 1995 As Touring Stopped After The Death Of Jerry Garcia. In A 1991 PBS Documentary Segment Host Buck Henry Attended An August 1991 Concert At Shoreline Amphitheatre And Gleaned Some Information From Some Band Members About The Grateful Dead Phenomenon And Its Success. At The Time Jerry Garcia Stated "We Didn't Really Invent The Grateful Dead The Crowd Invented The Grateful Dead You Know What I Mean? We Were Sort Of Standing In Line And Uh It's Gone Way Past Our Expectations Way Past So It's We've Been Going Along With It To See What It's Gonna Do Next." Furthermore Mickey Hart Stated "This Is One Of The Last Places In America That You Can Really Have This Kind Of Fun You Know Considering The Political Climate And So Forth." Hart Also Stated That "the Transformative Power Of The Grateful Dead Is Really The Essence Of It It's What It Can Do To Your Consciousness. We're More Into Transportation Than We Are Into Music Per Se I Mean The Business Of The Grateful Dead Is Transportation." One Of The Band's Largest Concerts Took Place Just Months Before Garcia's Death — At Their Outdoor Show With Bob Dylan In Highgate Vermont On June 15 1995. The Crowd Was Estimated To Be Over 90 000 Overnight Camping Was Allowed And About A Third Of The Audience Got In Without Having Purchased A Ticket. Their Numerous Studio Albums Were Generally Collections Of New Songs That They Had First Played In Concert. The Band Was Also Famous For Its Extended Musical Improvisations Having Been Described As Having Never Played The Same Song The Same Way Twice. Their Concert Sets Often Blended Songs One Into The Next Often For More Than Three Songs At A Time. Tapes
Like Several Other Bands During This Time The Grateful Dead Allowed Their Fans To Record Their Shows. For Many Years The Tapers Set Up Their Microphones Wherever They Could And The Eventual Forest Of Microphones Became A Problem For The Sound Crew. Eventually This Was Solved By Having A Dedicated Taping Section Located Behind The Soundboard Which Required A Special "tapers" Ticket. The Band Allowed Sharing Of Their Shows As Long As No Profits Were Made On The Sale Of The Tapes. Of The Approximately 2 350 Shows The Grateful Dead Played Almost 2 200 Were Taped And Most Of These Are Available Online. The Band Began Collecting And Cataloging Tapes Early On And Dick Latvala Was Their Keeper. "Dick's Picks" Is Named After Latvala. After His Death In 1999 David Lemieux Gradually Took The Post. Concert Set Lists From A Subset Of 1 590 Grateful Dead Shows Were Used To Perform A Comparative Analysis Between How Songs Were Played In Concert And How They Are Listened Online By Last.Fm Members. In Their Book Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead What Every Business Can Learn From The Most Iconic Band In History David Meerman Scott And Brian Halligan Identify The Taper Section As A Crucial Contributor To Increasing The Grateful Dead's Fan Base. After The Death Of Garcia In 1995 Former Members Of The Band Along With Other Musicians Toured As The Other Ones In 1998 2000 And 2002 And The Dead In 2003 2004 And 2009. In 2015 The Four Surviving Core Members Marked The Band's 50th Anniversary In A Series Of Concerts That Were Billed As Their Last Performances Together. There Have Also Been Several Spin-Offs Featuring One Or More Core Members Such As Dead & Company Furthur The Rhythm Devils Phil Lesh And Friends RatDog And Billy & The Kids. read less
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Published: 07 Jul 2022, 04:04
American Beauty Is The Fifth Studio Album By Rock Band The Grateful Dead. Released November 1 1970 By Warner Bros. Records The Album Continued The Folk Rock And Country Music Style Of Their Previous Album Workingman's Dead Issued Earlier In The Year. Upon Release American Beauty Entered The Billboard 200 Chart Ultimately Peaking At Number 30 During A Nineteen-Week Stay In January 1971. On July 11 1974 The Album Was Certified Gold By The Recording Industry Association Of America And It Later Reached Platinum And Double Platinum Certification In 1986 And 2001 Respectively. In 2003 The Album Was Ranked Number 258 On Rolling Stone Magazine's List Of The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time 261 In A 2012 Revised List And 215 In A 2020 Revised List. American Beauty Was The Result Of A Prolific Period Of The Songwriting Partnership Of Jerry Garcia And Robert Hunter – One That Yielded Two Studio Albums In One Year For The Grateful Dead. This Was The Only Time The Band Would Return To The Studio So Quickly. However Unlike The Previous Effort Where Almost All The Songs Were Written Solely By The Pair The Album Saw More Input From The Rest Of The Band. Included Are Phil Lesh's "Box Of Rain" And Bob Weir's "Sugar Magnolia" Both Written With Hunter And "Operator" Ron "Pigpen" McKernan's Only Singing-Songwriting Effort On A Grateful Dead Studio Album. The Album Was Produced After The Discovery That The Band's Manager Lenny Hart Father Of Drummer Mickey Hart Had Renewed Their Contract With Warner Brothers Records Without Their Knowledge And Then Skipped Town With A Sizable Chunk Of The Band's Wealth. In Between Near-Constant Touring And Gigging Recording Began Only A Few Months After The Release Of Workingman's Dead – Without Their Regular Sound Crew Who Were Out On The Road As Part Of The Medicine Ball Caravan Tour Which The Dead Were Originally Scheduled To Join . Instead Studio Staff Engineer Stephen Barncard Replaced Bob Matthews As Producer – "a Move That Irks Matthews To This Day" Matthews Had Co-Produced The Band's Two Previous Albums . Barncard Also Mused "I Had Heard Bad Stories About Engineers' Interactions With The Dead But What I Found Were A Bunch Of Hardworking Guys". Both Workingman's Dead And American Beauty Were Innovative At The Time For Their Fusion Of Bluegrass Rock And Roll Folk And Especially Country Music. Lyricist Hunter Commented "We Went Back Into American Folk Tradition But Being Experimenters Nothing Would Do But That We Try To Reinvent That." Compared To Workingman's Dead American Beauty Had Even Less Lead Guitar Work From Jerry Garcia Who Increasingly Filled The Void With Pedal Steel Guitar. It Was Also During The Recording Of This Album That Garcia First Collaborated With Mandolinist David Grisman A Friend Who Had Recently Relocated To California Following The Dissolution Of Earth Opera. "I Just Bumped Into Jerry At A Baseball Game In Fairfax And He Said 'Hey You Wanna Play On This Record We're Doing?'" Commented Grisman Whose Playing Is Heard On "Friend Of The Devil" And Especially "Ripple". Howard Wales Another Musician From Outside Of The Band Added Keyboards To Three Songs. Drummer Bill Kreutzmann Commented "Wales Came To Us Through Jerry Who Played With Him In Side Projects. He Had Done Session Work With James Brown And The Four Tops Before We Brought Him In For American Beauty." MIT Student Ned Lagin A Jazz Pianist Who Had Corresponded With The Band After Attending Their 1969 New Year's Eve Concert At The Boston Tea Party Also Contributed Piano To "Candyman". Lagin Subsequently Sat In With The Band On Occasion From 1970 To 1975. Phil Lesh In His Autobiography Searching For The Sound Commented "the Magnetism Of The Scene At Wally Heider's Recording Studio Made It A Lot Easier For Me To Deal With The Loss Of My Father And My New Responsibilities. Some Of The Best Musicians Around Were Hanging There During That Period With Paul Kantner And Grace Slick From Jefferson Airplane The Dead Santana Crosby Nash And Neil Young Working There The Studio Became Jammer Heaven. Thank The Lord For Music It's A Healing Force Beyond Words To Describe." Though Both Albums Focused On Americana Songcraft Workingman's Dead Mixed The Grittier Bakersfield Sound With The Band's Psychedelic Roots Whereas The Mostly-Acoustic American Beauty Focused More On Major-Key Melodies And Folk Harmonies Evincing The Influence Of Dylan And Studio Neighbors/friends Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Kreutzmann Later Explained "The Singers In Our Band Really Learned A Lot About Harmonizing From Crosby Stills Nash & Young Who Had Just Released Their Seminal Album Déjà Vu. Jerry Played Pedal Steel... On That Record. Stephen Stills Lived At Mickey's Ranch... And David Crosby Enjoyed Partying As Much As We Did. So Our Circles Overlapped." Crosby Has Demurred On This Point "Sometimes They Have Given Us Credit For Teaching Them How To Sing And That's Not True. They Knew How To Sing They Had Their Own Style And They Had The Most Important Quality Of It Down Already Which Is Tale-Telling". However He Has Also Stated "The Idea Is – When You Hang Out With Other Musicians – To Sort Of Cross-Pollinate Your Idea Streams And That Naturally Happened Between Us On A Level That Was Very Rare. We Would Listen To What They Were Doing With Time Signatures And With Breaking The Rules And It Appealed To Us A Lot." American Beauty Was Released Just Over Four Months After Workingman's Dead. The Title Of The Album Has A Double Meaning Referring Both To The Musical Focus On Americana And To The Rose That Is Depicted On The Front Cover. Around The Rose The Album Title Is Scripted As A Text Ambigram That Can Also Be Read "American Reality". The Back Cover Is A George Conger Photograph Of A Diorama Containing Ferns Roses A Bust Shadowboxes And Other Curios. To Each Side Of The Photo Are Illustrated Panels With A Vaguely-Shaped Guitar Whose Strings Are Also Rose Stems. The Cover Artwork Was Produced By Kelley–Mouse Studios.