Guest Blogger: Daniel 1

The Grateful Dead is a band that grew to fame in the 1960s and was one of the most prolific bands of the “hippy era”. They were started in a neighborhood in San Francisco known for being the birthing grounds of psychedelic rock and the hippy movement. This neighborhood is known as Ashbury and Haight, many bands that played a key role in the hippy movement started here including Jimmy Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane. While Jimmy Hendrix is known for his intense guitar riffs and his rebellious lyrics, the Grateful Dead were more focused on peace and love and had more of a folk-rock type of sound. One thing that separated the Grateful Dead from many other musicians of the time was their fans. Grateful Dead fans, otherwise known as Dead-Heads, would follow the band all over the country going to every single show they put on. Dead-Heads continued to worship the band all the way up until the lead, Jerry Garcia, died in the early 90s and the band stopped touring. One of the Grateful Dead’s most well-known albums is American Beauty. This album features many of the Dead’s greatest hits such as: Sugar Magnolia, Truckin’ and Ripple. This album is very folksy and has a very up-beat “peace and love” feel to it, it’s the type of album that you listen to and just feel happy, even if the lyrics or the content of the song isn’t very happy. Even at the time the album was released it was highly regarded and one critic even said that it “was one for now and one for the kids in 20 years” (Zwerling). That quote was a perfect prediction, the album American Beauty is an album that has passed the test of time and will likely continue to be known as one of the greatest albums of the hippy era.