The music that never stopped

This summer, Dead & Company concluded their eight-year run as the latest incarnation of the Grateful Dead, continuing the rich music tradition the legendary American band began in 1965.

Led by founding member Bob Weir and rock star John Mayer, Dead & Company performed in front of 840,000 fans across the US in what they said was the group's last tour.

It’s an unlikely surge in popularity for the Grateful Dead since the troupe disbanded after frontman Jerry Garcia’s death almost three decades ago.

Grateful Dead fans gather for a candlelight vigil to mark the death of the band's lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia in 1995. AP

Grateful Dead fans gather for a candlelight vigil to mark the death of the band's lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia in 1995. AP

A group that once played to the fringes of America is now deeply embedded in the country’s mainstream.

“The Grateful Dead no longer exists, and they are bigger than ever. And to me, that is just – that's mind-blowing,” said Eric Mlyn, a professor at Duke University and Grateful Dead scholar.

Mr Mlyn's first foray began in 1976 when he saw the Jerry Garcia Band. He's been hooked ever since.

Garcia performs in New York in 1993. The band disbanded after his death. Photo: Joe Traver

Garcia performs in New York in 1993. The band disbanded after his death. Photo: Joe Traver

“And if you told me in 1995, when I had a wake in my house after Jerry Garcia died, that they would be bigger than ever, that there'd be more Grateful Dead music than ever, I would have thought you were crazy.”

Varying factors play into this resurgence. Mayer's inclusion in the band brought in a new generation of fans.

There is also a deep nostalgia for the US counter-culture movement, and hallucinogens that the band has been associated with are now becoming increasingly mainstream as several US cities and states have moved to decriminalise them.

A Grateful Dead fan attends a concert in 2015. The band's legacy lives on through various musical incarnations. Reuters

A Grateful Dead fan attends a concert in 2015. The band's legacy lives on through various musical incarnations. Reuters

But above all it's the music. Relentless touring by the band's surviving members, myriad cover bands and undying admiration from legions of fans, known as Deadheads, has kept the group's legacy alive.

“You can be anywhere at any time and see Grateful Dead music. It's ubiquitous,” Mr Mlyn said.

'Playing in the band'

Few bands have had a generational impact like the Grateful Dead, said Teresa Mora, head of special collections at the University of California-Santa Cruz.

The US was at a reckoning by the time the band formed in San Francisco, with part of the counter-culture movement reeling from America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and moving towards a sense of discovery and freedom.

The Grateful Dead formed in 1965. Getty Images

The Grateful Dead formed in 1965. Getty Images

“The counter-culture was such a massive social movement that affected so much change in terms of the way we see ourselves in the country, the way our culture is conceived, and it really was a turning point in many ways,” said Ms Mora.

For better or worse, the Grateful Dead have long been the poster children of American counter-culture.

But Nicholas G. Meriwether, a Grateful Dead scholar, said the band has been misunderstood.

The Grateful Dead perform at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, in 1975. Photo: San Francisco Chronicle

The Grateful Dead perform at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, in 1975. Photo: San Francisco Chronicle

“They were always very, very serious musicians, he said.

"I think they were, in particular, very serious about the improvisatory potential of linking various American vernacular roots music together in a popular format, and I think that commitment did not always translate.

“They were more serious than an awful lot of their commentators realised.”

Mr Meriwether considers US counter-culture to be one where there is not a repudiation of US history, but a reconnection to it, and a sense of renewal.

Many songs by the Grateful Dead incorporated these themes while also being rooted to bluegrass, folk, jazz and non-western music influences.

Such is true of Eyes of the World, a psychedelic rock/jazz staple of the Dead whose music was inspired by their roots but whose lyrics resonate themes of being and consciousness.

Sometimes this would lead into soft ballads of China Doll or Stella Blue, other times they would play it into the country-rock Sugar Magnolia or the rhythmic exploration of Drums.

The band's music was rooted in bluegrass, folk, jazz and non-western music influences. Getty Images

The band's music was rooted in bluegrass, folk, jazz and non-western music influences. Getty Images

“They were all about synthesis, all about finding the commonality in various … musical forms,” Mr Meriwether said.

While the band did explore these influences in the studio, it was on the road where they made their name.

The Grateful Dead performed more than 2,300 shows over 30 years. And they performed without planned set lists, instead choosing to let the music guide them into deciding what they would play.

“They walked on stage … with a commitment of making every performance sound as new and innovative as possible,” Mr Meriwether said.

The Grateful Dead also gave away their music for free by permitting fans to tape their concerts, which in turn built the band's following and helped cement their legacy and community.

"Nor was this a strategic move by the band", said Mr Mlyn, “but it's how it happened”.

“And it's how they grew and grew and grew into the cultural phenomenon they are now."

'Dancing in the street'

Outside Citi Field in New York, thousands of people in tie-dye clothing are moving around a car park where hundreds of sellers and artists are lined up with apparel, food and drink, jewellery and other designs.

This is what is colloquially known as “Shakedown Street”, where Dead's gather hours before the band takes the stage.

Tie-dye shirts are displayed at a stall before a Dead & Company concert this year. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald / The National

Tie-dye shirts are displayed at a stall before a Dead & Company concert this year. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald / The National

The lot first formed in the 1980s and developed into a mini-economy for Deadheads to sell their wares so they could afford to attend shows for days or months at a time.

At one of the stalls outside Citi Field is Elena, who first saw the Grateful Dead at Philadelphia's Tower Theatre in 1976.

“I was not at Woodstock, nor Watkins Glenn, but I was at Englishtown,” she said, referring to the 1977 concert where the Dead performed in front of an estimated 150,000 people.

Grateful Dead fans at the Dead & Company concert in New York. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald / The National

Grateful Dead fans at the Dead & Company concert in New York. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald / The National

This year she and her husband attended Dead & Company's back-to-back shows in New York City.

“I got my favourite song last night – Uncle John's Band,” she told The National before the June concert.

That song first appeared on Workingman's Dead, the 1970 folksy album that her friend brought over to her to listen to in high school.

“And we would pose and take and pictures. We didn't have social media but we liked to print our pictures posing with the album. And I think it was him that got me into it,” she said of her friend.

Elena was like many Deadheads congregating at Shakedown Street.

They are, in essence, “people who love the band more than any other band and will travel to see them and have some kind of special affinity” for their music, Mr Mlyn said.

The Grateful Dead and their fans are linked to US counter-culture. Kyle Fitzgerald / The National

The Grateful Dead and their fans are linked to US counter-culture. Kyle Fitzgerald / The National

Deadheads are typically associated with a certain look – long hair and tie-dyed clothes.

Not that it was fashionable to be one. The music and the group's fans were the antithesis of the clean-cut look of Ronald Reagan's administration and his crackdown on hippie culture and hallucinogens.

“There was always a stigma with being a Deadhead in that the Grateful Dead was associated with drug use, with tripping and LSD,” said Mr Mlyn.

It wasn't until Garcia's death that the stigma began to wane.

“So all these things that were part of the counter-culture are now part are either part of the mainstream or becoming part of the mainstream,” Mr Mlyn said.

He recalled one particular show at the University of Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1992.

Grateful Dead fans in tie-dye shirts arrive for a show in Chicago in 2015. AFP

Grateful Dead fans in tie-dye shirts arrive for a show in Chicago in 2015. AFP

Then a professor of political science, Mr Mlyn waited until class was done for the day before returning to his car to swap his professional clothes for his tie-dye and Birkenstocks.

“And the next morning, my students said, 'Did you see that freak show out there last night?' And I didn't have the heart to tell them that I was part of that freak show,” he said.

'Not fade away'

Dead & Company concluded their eight-year run with three sold-out shows at Oracle Park in July, ending the weekend with Not Fade Away.

Dead & Company perform at Saratoga Springs, New York, in 2021. Kyle Fitzgerald / The National

Dead & Company perform at Saratoga Springs, New York, in 2021. Kyle Fitzgerald / The National

It was a fitting end to their “farewell tour” with a return to one of their signature songs – a Buddy Holly hit they had first covered in 1968.

But this time it seemed to carry added weight as the band members and fans sang the refrain back to each other. It was a recognition of the their connection to one another.

Asked about what makes Dead concerts so special, Elena said: “Look at it – the scene, the vibe, the people, the love, the kindness.”

That is part of the ethos, Mr Meriwether said, which is to treat their fellow concertgoers with courtesy and kindness.

The band's fans are known as Deadheads. Reuters

The band's fans are known as Deadheads. Reuters

“There is a deeper sense in which perhaps the best way to look at what the Dead did was as something fundamentally more or other than just a rock concert," he said.

“I was amazed at how many twenty-somethings were there [at Oracle Park]. They really got it. And they weren't even born when Jerry Garcia had not long passed. And they fundamentally get it."

Where Dead & Co goes next is uncertain, but what is clear is that the music will continue as it has in the decades since Garcia's death.

“Who knows what the next page is, we’re just turning the page,” drummer Mickey Hart told ABC Audio.

John Mayer performs with Dead & Company this summer. Kyle Fitzgerald / The National

John Mayer performs with Dead & Company this summer. Kyle Fitzgerald / The National

Their farewell tour appeared to have even disarmed guitarist John Mayer, whose inclusion in Dead & Company was first met with scepticism but now is well placed in the Dead’s tradition.

“If I’ve done my job right, I’ll disappear into that beautiful tapestry, the one that began almost 60 years ago and will continue to expand for lifetimes to come,” Mayer wrote on Instagram.

“I speak for us all when I say that I look forward to being shown the next shaft of light … I know we will all move towards it together.”'