[Publib] Archiving the Grateful Dead

[Robert Balliot]

When my father was the Sciences Librarian at Wesleyan in Middletown CT,
the Grateful Dead had a show at the Field
House<http://www.archive.org/details/gd70-05-03.aud.goldman-sirmick.20852.sbeok.shnf>
in
1970.  They had some warm-up
bands that played before them and I recall walking across the campus with
my friends and seeing open use of drugs and alcohol in the crowds that had
gathered.  It was quite shocking to me as a child.

I thought a few of their songs were fairly good.  But, the cult of following
really
does seem to be based on a common theme of drug use.  That was reinforced
by the recollections in Tom Wolfe's  Electric Kool Aid Acid
Test<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Kool-Aid_Acid_Test>.
To me, there
was nothing particularly outstanding in the music itself.

I have always felt that music and the memory of it can be greatly affected
by
context.  Riding down the road on a beautiful fall day with peak foliage,
almost
any song that comes on the radio can benefit.  The song becomes part of that
memory.  The phenomenal following of the Dead had its own context,
reinforced
by indole hallucinogens.  The later Rave phenomena, with its repetitive
techo-pop
was in turn, reinforced by the use of methamphetamines/ ecstasy.

R. Balliot
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com




On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 11:44 PM, Judy Anderson <libraryanna at msn.com> wrote:

> I guess officially you don't have to be a deadhead to do the job, but the
> heads would like it.
>
> I liked the music, but wasn't fanatical about it. I went to a concert once
> (GD and Bob Dylan. Turns out it was Dylan singing GD music.) I think I was
> the only one there who wasn't under the influence. There was a pregnant
> woman next to me who was hoping her baby would drop in time for the China
> tour.
>
>
>
> Judy Anderson
> Washington
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