Deadheads- What got you into the Dead!

If you think that then you haven't gotten into Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Bod Dylan, Cream, or The Doors because THEY were the bands that did more than any other group in existence for music. The Dead were purely a different kind of sound, a kind of rednecky psychedelicy kind of sound but nobody really followed it or used it much after them. You feel what I'm saying?

 

beautiful beautiful music. cold jordan may be some rednecky sounding jesus song on the surface, but really if you get hung up on that then you're focusing on the wrong thing see? to me it was always about the music. they made very good sound... they really did. ive yet to see a band that can musically create as they did.

 

The first dead song I heard was China Cat Sunflower and I fell in love with it.

 

My dad introduced me to the Grateful Dead, and I listen to them sober and high.

 

i didn't really GET the dead until i started smokin herb, but since then theyve been my favorite band, i just really wish I had been around when they were still touring and I couldve seen them live. but yeah i listen to them sober or high, but my favorite is when im shpongled haha

 

I wish all cab drivers looked like that.

 

Another deadhead.
Well, actually I think Jerry got me into them.
A friend took me to a show once, the Dead did the rest themselves.

 

no i dont feel it. but o well not everybody can be deadheads i suppose, to each there own. my suggestion is just open your ears, just cause southerners play an instrument doesnt make it bad. also i'd imagine just about every jam band on earth today was at least a little inspired by the grateful dead

 

The Dead were the birth of the Jam Genre!

 

I was getting really fed up with the macho and violent attitude that my metalhead and punk friends had at the time, this was my junior year of high school '90-'91. I was friends with all the different cliques, I guess you could say, and I was talking to a dead head friend of mine about it and he suggested I should give them a listen. That night we smoked a joint and listend to the album, what a long strange trip it's been and I've been a deadhead ever since.

 

Same here.
They make me happy.

 

it was def. my dad and his best friend jim... when I was really young theyd be in the kitchen lighting up and listening to music... its just what I grew up with I guess.. I'd never tried pot (or anything else) up until last year.. so sober then non sober more recently

 

My love for the dead came in a indirect way. When I got into highschool and started smoking the ganj I really got into Led Zeppelin, Jimi hendrix & pink floyd. I heard some GD songs and liked some of the more popular tunes but didnt think all that much of them.

Then in 1997 i became obsessed with phish. Everywhere you turn in the music community everyone shws a profound respect & love for the dead. I bought Europe 72 & liked most of the songs but they still werent one of my favorites. After a couple of listens it ended up on the shelf with the rest of the music.

Around 1999 while on a snowboarding trip my friend put on "working mans dead". I absolutley loved it & we ended up listening to it 4 times through in a row. I think thats when I finally got it. Jerry is one of my favorite vocalist of all time now & I couldn't imagine life without the Grateful Dead.

Oh ya the otha question. I prefer all music stoned but on the other hand I still like the same music sober as i do stoned. Either way I listen to the same music no matter what frame of mind I am in.

 

A long time ago I watched a thing on the History Channel about the birth of the hippie counterculture in San Fran, and they talked a lot about how the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane were pioneers of acid concerts and stuff. After that I started listening to both bands.

 

Growing up in NY(60s-70s) the Dead weren't as popular as they were in the Bay Area. I was a Dylan guy, and the local joints were full of a lot of Lou Reed / Velvet underground & folk rock bands. The best were doing the Greenwich Village set*
but- I think after Anthem for the Sun was released - I said "these guys are the real deal."
For whatever reasons at that time I didn't do the Haight thing- Didn't do Woodstock- so - -
The 1st time I saw the Dead live was at Watkins Glen in the summer of 73. I was back from S.E Asia for less then a year. *
* Still trying to get comfortable *
The scene of about 1/2 a million people ,most stoned, all dancing, & all full of good vibes probably changed my life course.
The Allman Bros, & the Band also jammed that long hot day- but it was Jerry & the boys that blew me away.
From that day till 95 there were countless shows- none better than the 1st because I knew I just got on a special bus.

thanksforthememories,
jjACK

 

I had never heard the dead until high school. I had a girlfriend who's father was a big deadhead. My girlfriend moved to another state, so me and her dad would road trip down to see her every other week. In the car he would put on American Beauty often. It was a worn out recording being played on blown out speakers, but I still enjoyed what I was hearing. Later a friend of mine picked up Blues for Allah and didn't like it, so he gave it to me. It blew my mind. I never knew that there was music like that in the world. I went from metal and grunge music to the Grateful Dead and other jam bands within the year. Now I have hours upon hours of shows.

(In fact I just picked up 7/4/89 in Buffalo, NY and it rocks!)

I listen to the dead sober or not, it doesn't matter. Although the best acid trip I ever had was fueled by the Grateful Dead.

 

I watched the movie Festival Express and i couldnt get New Speedway Boogie out of my head. After that i just started buying albums.

 

In 1984 a friend of my Mom's let me borrow a few of her tapes and one I chose was Steal your Face because I liked the cover, when I put it in my player it took over my soul and seemed to never have left till 1987, I had to buy Mom's friend another copy. In the meantime I branched out and got American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, after awhile everything I could get me ears on and years later a new friend gave me a tape of a Shoreline show saying, "I think you need this in your life." I still do!!

My alltime favorite: Fillmore West February 28, 1969 Wish I could've been there but I was a tiny baby 42 miles away..

My first time seeing the Grateful Dead in Oakland I was sober; since then, not always!! :hat:

 

my parents listened to them. i listen sober (not by choice...) but those songs get me into a funky ass high! we had those dancing bear plush dolls and i didnt really know what they were but they were so cute. and we always went to this store at the beach with grateful dead memorabilia. it was cool but i didnt appreciate it until just recently.