The Grateful Dead Music Analysis

The Grateful Dead were the movement existentialists were waiting for. The Grateful Dead, starting in San Francisco, we’re a band surrounded with free love and a large quantity of psychedelics. Their band is largest cult band around. Their fans and followings are known as Dead Heads. The Dead used their music to have people come from all over and be themselves. In choosing three different Grateful Dead performances, there is a clear diversity between the three. One performance is in response to police brutality in 1968, the second is a dead show that was happening in San Francisco where they started, and the third is the Grateful Dead in 1985 performing one of their more political songs. Starting with their home performance in 1968, the reason that the Grateful dead IS the Grateful Dead becomes abundantly clear. The crowd is dancing, painting faces, bubbles, the idea of free love and how it was shown through music is plentiful. Of the three performances, this is the most distorted of videos. Through the video, it has …show more content…
This performance was in response to NYPD brutality where over 100 students were injured. Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, the lead singer and guitarist for the Grateful Dead, both stated that they were not going to NY for a political statement but more to stir things up (PAPER CITE). The Dead set up near the college and started to perform. Within this recording of their performance, it is much different than their home performance in San Francisco. The crowd is quite calm and just sitting around, while some are bobbing their heads. The footage is quite clear and more focused on the Grateful Dead themselves. The Dead seem more tactical in their performance. Although they were not there to make a political statement, they came and played to spread some of their Grateful Dead free love statements and support. As for the three performance, this was the clearest quality