15 May 2024
The Grateful Dead is the Heart of Psychedelic Music
by Lindsay Robinson
MAPS Bulletin: Volume XXXIV Number 1 • 2024
In the popular imagination, the Grateful Dead is synonymous with psychedelic culture. The Dead provided a soundtrack to the 60s and 70s counterculture, a sound and a vibe that snaked into the mainstream. Can the band even be separated from the psychedelia they invented? As the chords intertwine with the lyrics, a portal is opened in the ears and the mind of the listener.
For generations, many people’s first trip included the Grateful Dead. I am lucky enough to be part of the last generation to see the Dead (with Jerry Garcia) play live. I was 16 years old in the summer of 1994. It was a warm, sunny day in Highgate, Vermont, and it was my fourth time seeing the band. My friends and I took a dose of acid while entering the venue. Turns out, like thousands around me, I was entering another world.
Looking back on it now, I was probably too young to be experimenting with psychedelics. But being part of the collective experience was and is an extraordinary thing. A unique joy, a shared journey. Something sacred, even. One of the best things in life in my humble opinion.
In one of the greatest ironies of all time, we now know that the CIA was conducting tests using LSD. Among their unconnected subjects? Robert Hunter would go on to become a lyricist for the Dead and would write the sacred lyrics to the iconic “Dark Star.” Poet Allen Ginsberg would go on to serve as a sort of bridge between the counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s. And Ken Kesey would go on to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and form the Merry Pranksters, the host of the legendary Acid Tests.
Kesey was fascinated by LSD and was interested in spreading its gospel to the masses. This was the catalyst for the Acid Tests, which were legendary parties known for psychedelic light shows, LSD, music, and elaborate costumes. The soundtrack for these iconic parties was the Grateful Dead, arguably changing the trajectory of their music–and culture–forever.
While playing, the Grateful Dead often did not think of themselves as separate from the music, the audience, or the drugs. They often performed on LSD. The energy exchange with the band was palpable. Having performed over 2300 live shows throughout their history 1965-1995 (with Jerry Garcia) and hundreds of shows since his untimely passing under a multitude of other names (Further, Other Ones, The Dead, Dead & Co), the band knew how to create an experience unlike any other. Each show was unique, with thousands of variations and thousands of opportunities. The show itself is not unlike an acid trip: unpredictable, intriguing, sometimes challenging, and yet, you often come out the other side a changed being.
As the band experimented more with LSD, their music became more untamed. It got louder, looser, wilder, and infused with long wandering riffs where the band led the listeners on an unknown journey. The lyrics of many of the songs are also infused with psychedelic, other-worldly imagery.
Take these stunning lyrics from the aforementioned “Dark Star”:
Dark star crashes, pouring its light into ashes
Reason tatters, the forces tear loose from the axis
Searchlight casting for faults in the clouds of delusion
Shall we go, you and I while we can
Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds?
Or “The Eleven”:
Seven faced marble eyed transitory dream doll
Six proud walkers on the jingle bell rainbow
Five men writing with fingers of gold
Four men tracking down the great white sperm whale
Three girls waiting in a foreign dominion
Riding in the whalebelly, fade away in moonlight
Sink beneath the waters to the coral sands below
Or “China Cat Sunflower”:
Look for a while at the china cat sunflower
Proud walking jingle in the midnight sun
Copperdome bodhi drip a silver kimono
Like a crazy quilt star gown through a dream night wind
For an utterly stunning thirty-minute version of “Dark Star,” look no further than Dick’s Pick Volume 4, Fillmore East, February 13-14, 1970. This is arguably one of the most psychedelic renditions of this incredible song. The entire two days of shows should definitely be explored.
Painting pictures with words of revelation and mystic wonder, the Grateful Dead took listeners on a stunning journey, sometimes through space and time, and sometimes just peering at the faces of the happy beings all around you. Many fans at the shows would drop acid and spin in the meadow, in the coliseum, or on the pavement for hours. Wearing tie dye and long dresses, the music took hold of the listener and launched them into another dimension. And with so many people taking psychedelics at the same time, it was a truly unique experience, except it happened at almost every live show. They created a reliable “scene” where people could tune in and drop out.
Years before the Summer of Love drew thousands of hippies to the Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, Augustus Owsley Stanley was already an underground folk hero. He was revered throughout the counterculture for making some of the purest LSD known to the scene. During this time, he became fascinated with the Grateful Dead.
In the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “Owsley” is listed as a noun describing a particularly pure form of LSD.* But manufacturing acid was not the only accomplishment on Owsley’s résumé. While he supplied the band and many of their fans with LSD, he was also the Grateful Dead’s original soundman. The Dead and Owsley were intrinsically linked as he helped shape their sound with his technological innovations. Owsley created what would become known as the ‘Wall of Sound,’ a massive speaker system specifically designed to reduce distortion in live music and custom-built for The Dead. The Wall of Sound led to an even bigger and bolder sound.
As the band continued to tour, it gained massive popularity across the country and the world. Thousands would follow the Dead on tour and create a caravan culture that endured for decades. When I was first able to see the band live, I met people who had been on tour on and off for 30 years. Old and young bonded together over their love of the band and their love of psychedelics.
Having touched hundreds of thousands of fans over the decades, one could argue that the Grateful Dead is the most influential rock band in American history. At the center of the band and the fan culture was an unparalleled desire to experience altered states of consciousness and self-exploration. This was not a movement that would inspire people to follow the normal or mundane. In fact, it was the exact opposite. The band certainly marched to the beat of its own drum and led its followers to do the same. The mantra (and lyrics) “sometimes we live in no particular way but our own” rang true for so many of us.
I can say without a doubt psychedelics opened my mind and my soul to a new way of perceiving the world. These journeys have accelerated my critical thinking and made me a more compassionate and kind person. They have shaped my life in so many profound ways and ultimately brought me to my current position with MAPS. I have spent most of the last 25 years working to end the drug war, from helping to legalize both medical and adult-use cannabis in over a dozen states to fundraising for the advancement of psychedelic healing. This is my calling. I humbly thank the Grateful Dead and psychedelics for helping me find my path so I can be in service to others.
So much more can be said about this amazing band and their connection to psychedelics. If you want to read more, check out Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America by Jesse Jarnow and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. Or, perhaps you’ll choose some sunny afternoon to go out to a meadow with a couple of good friends, a few downloaded live shows, and explore for yourself. Nothing beats the late 60s or early 70s for a psychedelic adventure. Start low, go slow, and enjoy the ride!
References
*Greenfield, R. (2011). Owsley Stanley: The king of LSD. Rolling Stone.
Grateful Dead. (1969). China Cat Sunflower [Song]. On Aoxomoxoa. Warner Bros. Records.
Grateful Dead. (1969). Dark Star [Song]. On Live/Dead. Warner Bros. Records.
Grateful Dead. (1969). The Eleven [Song]. On Live/Dead. Warner Bros. Records.
Lindsay Robinson
Lindsay has dedicated the last 20 years to fighting against the failed war on drugs and working to transform the world through thoughtful policy change. As the Director of Development for MAPS, she combines her love of building community and passion for social justice with groundbreaking policy reform to help bring healing through psychedelics.
Before joining MAPS, Lindsay served as the Executive Director of the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA), the largest and most influential statewide trade association representing the cannabis industry. While working closely with cannabis businesses, state regulators, legislative allies, Attorney General Bonta, and the Newsom Administration, Lindsay achieved historic wins for the cannabis industry and helped transform CCIA during her six-year tenure.
Prior to CCIA, Lindsay was Director of Development for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). Overseeing MPP’s national fundraising and membership strategies, along with stewarding policy reform efforts in multiple states. MPP was responsible for passing several adult-use ballot initiatives in 2016 including: Nevada, Maine, and Massachusetts, and played a supportive role in California with Prop 64, raising over $18 million for campaigns in the election cycle.
Lindsay serves on the National Advisory Council for the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) at UC San Diego. She earned her undergraduate degree in environmental studies at the University of Vermont and has her master’s in nonprofit administration from the University of San Francisco.
