The Myth of Pigpen: Ron McKernan Held the Grateful Dead Together
Pigpen wasn’t the Dead’s drunk blues singer who got left behind. He was the band’s original leader — and his role was far more important than the myth suggests.
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Frankie Weir, Sugar Magnolia, and the Women Who Actually Ran the Grateful Dead
The woman behind “Sugar Magnolia” was a go-go dancer, George Harrison’s secretary, and the person who built the Dead’s touring infrastructure.
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How Owsley “Bear” Stanley’s LSD Built the Grateful Dead’s Sound
Owsley Stanley didn’t just make the acid — he funded the Dead’s equipment, designed their PA, and shaped the band’s entire sonic identity.
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Shakedown Street: The Album That Failed at Being Mainstream and Created a Movement
The Grateful Dead hired a disco producer, made an album the critics hated, and accidentally named the parking lot economy that became their legacy.
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The Truth Behind the Grateful Dead’s Dancing Bears
The Dancing Bears weren’t dancing — they were marching. And the man who drew them wasn’t a hippie artist. He was Owsley Stanley’s hand-picked designer.
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The Night the Grateful Dead Played with the Sufi Choir — A Lost 1971 Performance
In March 1971, the Grateful Dead played a benefit at Winterland with robed Sufi chanters circling a bonfire inside a wooden building. The tape was lost for fifty years.
