Deadhead

For other uses, see Deadhead (disambiguation).
A Deadhead school bus conversion

A Deadhead or Dead head is a fan of the American rock band the Grateful Dead.[1][2][3][4][5] The Deadhead subculture originated in the 1970s, when a number of fans began traveling to see the Grateful Dead in as many shows or festival venues as they could. As more people began attending live performances and festivals, a community developed. The Deadhead community has since gone on to create slang and idioms unique to them.[6]

Unlike other popular acts in music, the Grateful Dead are well known for the use of improvisation in their performances making each show unique.[7] This, coupled with the band's permissive attitude on taping performances, has created a plethora of historical material.[7] Such recordings of previous performances are shared widely among the Deadhead community.[8]

Much Deadhead-related historical material received or collected by the band over the years is housed in the Grateful Dead Archive of University of California, Santa Cruz. Archive founding curator Nicholas Meriwether, who has also written extensively about the culture and its impact on society, predicted, "The Grateful Dead archive is going to end up being a critical way for us to approach and understand the 1960s and the counterculture of the era... It's also going to tell us a lot about the growth and development of modern rock theater, and it's helping us understand fan culture."[9] Over the course of their thirty-year career, the Grateful Dead performed over 2,200 live shows.[10]

  1. ^ "I Saw a Deadhead Sticker on a Bentley". The New York Times. 9 June 2006. Retrieved July 1, 2006.
  2. ^ "Life of the party". Boston Globe. Globe Newspaper Company. 7 June 2006. Retrieved July 1, 2006 – via boston.com.
  3. ^ "Puppet master". Missoula Independent. Vol. 17, no. 26. Missoula, Montana. 2006. Retrieved July 1, 2006 – via missoulanews.com.[permanent dead link‍]
  4. ^ "Local Artists Complete SMC's Art Mentor Program". Santa Monica Mirror. Vol. 8, no. 3. Santa Monica, California. 2005. Archived from the original on 2009-02-15. Retrieved July 1, 2006 – via smmirror.com.
  5. ^ AScribe Newswire (2006). Article from non-profit news distribution organization: Central Valley scientist looks at music's ‘heady’ experience[permanent dead link‍], using the term Deadhead, Retrieved July 1, 2006.
  6. ^ "Deadheads – Subcultures and Sociology". Retrieved 2023-07-17.
  7. ^ a b Malvinni, David (2013). Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0810882553.
  8. ^ Wilson, Jamie (2005-12-02). "Grateful fans bring live recordings back from the dead". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
  9. ^ "Understanding Counterculture..." austin.culturemap.com.
  10. ^ McNally, Dennis (2003). A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead. Crown. ISBN 978-0767911863.