The Grateful Dead’s relationship with “Dancing in the Street” spans two decades and encapsulates something fundamental about how they approached music itself. It’s not just the story of a cover song; it’s the story of how a rock and roll band learned to think like jazz musicians by studying the language of Motown and R&B….
The Grateful Dead existed at the center of San Francisco’s psychedelic revolution, but their deepest friendships were often rooted in something older and earthier than LSD—the blues. Nowhere is this more evident than in the relationship between the Dead and Janis Joplin, the white girl from Port Arthur, Texas, who became the defining voice of…
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.
In 1970, Owsley Stanley threatened to walk away from the Grateful Dead unless they got their act together. The confrontation nearly destroyed the band.
In 1968, the Grateful Dead voted to fire Bob Weir and Pigpen. The decision lasted weeks — and nearly destroyed the band.