The Warlocks

SAN FRANSISCO, CA -- 1965.

The Warlocks were an up and coming Haight Asbury group spawned in conjunction with the birth of counter-culture in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge. The band started playing local gigs in SF, with early tracks borrowed from the Rolling Stones such as 'King Bee' and 'Little Red Rooster, as well as Chuck Berry's 'Promised Land' and Johnny B. Goode.' With Garcia on the lead, Weir with guitar and vocals, Kruetzmann on the drums, Pigpen with vocals and keys, and Lesh on bass, The Warlocks were an early favorite in the area which eventually led to an official record deal with Warner Brothers.

However after discovering another band with the same name, an acid-fueled search for another name would ensue. An account of the band naming is now famous: when Garcia opened a dictionary in 1965, all words melted off of the page with the exception of two: Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead went on to become an incredible touring act for the next 30 years until Jerry Garcia's death in 1995.

The Grateful Dead are and will always be my favorite musical group. In honor of their first tour in five years as The Dead, we will be creating a series of posts entitled 'Grateful Dead: Band Beyond Description.' It would be impossible to create a single post regarding the myriad of topics the Grateful Dead bring to the table. As part of this series, we will also encourage show reviews from anyone who attends any stops on the tour. Reports will certainly be coming from three of the most high-profile stops: opening night in Greensboro, a Saturday night in April in Madison Square Garden, and a stop at the Dead's home base in San Fransisco. The tour will extend throughout the next month, so you will have a chance to read as the tour progresses about a variety of Dead matter.

My personal library on Simplify Media contains several different shows from a variety of different areas which you are more than welcome to explore. In addition, other members of Simplify Media such as wiscostew and drew.mclean have extensive libraries. Many of these libraries were built from archive.org before the soundboard restriction was put in place. Our libraries may offer more in terms of quality because they are comprised of mostly soundboard recordings, which you can no longer post on archive.org for Dead shows.

From The Warlocks to the Grateful Dead and now on to The Dead, A Long Strange Trip it certainly has been and will continue to be. In order to start the festivities, please take a listen to a few favorites of mine.

Bird Song - Radio City Music Hall, NYC - 1980
A Jerry original that remains in the rotation from early on into the current Dead material



China Cat Jam -> I Know You Rider - Copenhagen, Denmark - 1972
The instrumental transition from one song to the next presents the peak of energy in many shows throughout Dead history



So Many Roads - June 1994
The emotions in 'Jerry Ballads' like 'So Many Roads' and others such as 'Stella Blue' and 'China Doll' touch me more deeply than any other music that I have encountered