The 500 - #247 - Live Dead - Grateful Dead

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #247
Album Title: Live Dead
Artist: Grateful Dead
Genre: Acid Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Jam Rock
Recorded: Two venues, the Fillmore West and The Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, California 
Released: November, 1969
My age at release: 4
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all

Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Death Don't Have No Mercy 

Live Dead is the fourth of four records from American rock legends Grateful Dead appearing on the 2012 edition of The 500. Previously, I have written about Anthem Of The Sun (#288) and American Beauty (#261). My pal Joram guest blogged for me in May, 2023, for Workingman's Dead (#264). In his terrific post, he shares his introduction to the music of "The Dead" and his trip to see them perform in Buffalo, New York, in 1993.

Joram at Grateful Dead - Orchard Park (Buffalo), New York (1993).

This week, I recruited another chum to help me with this post. Jason Marshall is a friend I met in the late '90s at the same London, Ontario, tavern where I met Joram -- The Brunswick Hotel. The three of us, and many mutual friends, often gathered at this historic London watering hole on weekends to hear live music.

Ice being delivered to the Brunswick Hotel in 1922.

Jason, like Joram, is a "Deadhead" -- the moniker of devoted fans of the Grateful Dead. He currently resides in Quebec, but returned to London this summer and we met over coffee to catch-up about the influential psychedelic jam band from San Francisco. He agreed to our conversation, and subsequent online discussions, being the basis for this blog. I mean, how could I not talk to the guy who has the title of this album on his knuckles?

Me: Okay, what's the origin story? How did you become a fan of "The Dead"?

Jason: "How did I "get on the bus"?  Well, I was doing a lot of acid (lysergic acid diethylamide - aka LSD) in high school and was trippin' all the time. During that time, I met some cool friends who were at  Cawthra Park Secondary, an arts school in Mississauga, Ontario. One of them was already a Deadhead and he played me a recording of a Grateful Dead concert on a car stereo system. It was like nothing else I had ever heard and the acid just elevated it to a new level. It was like a musical orgasm".

Cawartha Park Secondary School - Mississuga (2021).

The first song that really locked me in was St. Stephen. It was apocalyptic. It's the same version that's on the Live Dead album you're writing about. Actually, it was St. Stephen and the way it flows into the next track, The Eleven. They were recorded at two locations in San Francisco, the Fillmore West and the Avalon Ballroom, but they came together so well, and that experience instantly made me a Deadhead.

Jason and his brother Dana at a Dead show in
Hamilton. (March, 1990)

Me: So, that made you a Deadhead? I know that "following the Dead" to multiple concerts on the same tour is pretty common for Deadheads like you. How many times have you seen them?

Jason: I've seen 70 Grateful Dead shows and three with the Jerry Garcia Band. (Garcia is one of the group's founding members, guitarist, songwriter and singer). I've actually been at well over 100 Dead shows but sometimes you don’t have a ticket to get in. That doesn’t matter, though. That is just the way a Dead tour rolls. The party in the parking lot or campground is sometimes so awesome that some fans skip the show and stay to party there.

Deadheads camping at Oxford Speedway in Maine, July, 1988.

Me: So, I know Dead shows are an experience. The band allows audience members to record them because every show features a different set of songs often determined on stage, in the moment. The arrangement of each song is also unique to that show. The group plays in a "jam style", with musicians improvising and taking solos extemporaneously, as the mood strikes them. Live Dead captures one of those performances, can you share some thoughts on it?

Jason: Live Dead is considered Acid or Psychedelic Rock. It was made by musicians who enjoyed LSD and other psychedelics and it was the first Acid Rock record I heard while on acid. The first, and longest track, Dark Star, comes in at 23 minutes. It is a mind-bending, psychedelic trip. I love the lyrics, penned by the late poet and musician Robert Hunter who wrote many verses for The Dead.

"Dark Star crashes, pouring its light into ashes. Reason tatters. Forces pull loose from their axis. Shall we go, you and I, while we can through the transitive nightfall of diamonds?"

Now, that's what I call lyrics!!

Robert Hunter (2013)

I already mentioned St. Stephen and Eleven, the first songs that hooked me. The Eleven has become iconic and I think you'll find that many Deadheads will also list it as their "first fling", if you will. The song gets its name because the time signature is a bit of a rhythmic oddity. It is written in 11/8 (11 beats to the bar with an eighth note getting one beat). The beats are subdivided in each bar as three triplets and one group of two. So it goes 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2, with those last two eighth notes emphasized, creating sort of a wonky shuffle. My favourite part is the transition between St. Stephen and Eleven and, if you listen closely, you can hear the moment where the beat switches. It is magical.

The next song is also an fan favourite. It is Turn On Your Love Light and it is sung by Pigpen (aka: Ron McKernan who is the organ player and occasional singer for The Dead). He's completely in charge of the 15-minute epic. You can hear the electricity of the crowd on this one.

Me: I looked into that one. It was originally recorded in Nashville by an American blues singer named Bobby Bland. It was a minor hit for him and has been re-recorded by other artists including Van Morrison, Grand Funk Railroad, Conway Twitty and The Blues Brothers. 

Label on the 45 RPM record for Turn On Your Love Light.

Jason: Side Four on this amazing record opens with Death Don't Have No Mercy which is an old gospel-blues tune. I love it. It is so stripped down and raw and features Garcia's guitar and vocals at their best. Garcia was a huge fan of the blues and he incorporated this song into many of the Dead's setlists over the years.

Me: Yea, this became my favourite track on the record and I am putting it on The 500 playlist I am compiling on Spotify. I did some research and discovered it was written and originally recorded by American singer and guitarist Blind Gary Davis.  Born in 1896, he was still alive when The Dead released their version on this record in 1969.

Blind Gary Davis (1960)

Jason: The final long track is called Feedback. That track is a precursor of things to come for The Dead. Later in their career they began to incorporate instrumental breaks during their concerts which they called Space. Space always occurs in the middle of the group's second set, often after a drum solo, and it can last five minutes or longer. Feedback captures the spirit of this improvisational, instrumental jam session.

The album closes with And We Bid You Goodnight, a traditional gospel tune that the Dead do acapella. It's only about 30 seconds long and the band often used it to close out shows. 

Me: Thanks so much. I appreciate all of your insights. Anything else you'd like to share?

Jason: Although they became more popular in the '70s, this was a double album and few artists had released double records. This record was among the first. It was recorded using 16-track recording technology, which was also new. Only Blood, Sweat & Tears used in, on their second record in December, 1968. The Dead used it when recording this record a month later. 

It is an amazing record and I encourage you to "take a trip", listen to the album and when you get it, you're "on the bus"!

Jason in San Francisco while following a Dead tour. 

He is shown outside the door of 710 Ashbury

where the Grateful Dead lived in the ‘60s.

710 Ashbury (2020)