Grateful Dead Tee Shirts, Art Posters

Lately, there was some quarrel over what recordings archive.org could host on their web site. Presently, all recordings are hosted, although soundboard recordings are not accessible for download, instead in a streaming format.

Lead guitarist Jerry Garcia was frequently considered both by the public and the media as the leader or chief spokesperson for the Grateful Dead, but was disinclined to be thought of as such, particularly since he and the other group members envisioned themselves as equivalent participants and contributors to their joint musical and creative yield. Garcia, originally from San Francisco, grew up in the Excelsior District. One of his principal influences was bluegrass music, and Garcia in addition to performed on banjo, one of his other distinguished instrumental loves, along with the pedal steel guitar in the bluegrass band Old and in the Way with mandolinist David Grisman. Classically directed trumpeter Phil Lesh played bass guitar. Bob Weir, the youngest original member of the group, played rhythm guitar. Ron "Pigpen" McKernan played keyboards and harmonica and was also a group vocalist until not long prior to his death in 1973 at the age of 27.

All of the former named Grateful Dead members divided in vocal performance of songs. Bill Kreutzmann played drums, and in 1967 was coupled by a second drummer, New York native Mickey Hart, who also played a extensive variety of additional percussion instruments. Hart left the Grateful Dead in 1971, humiliated by the fiscal misdealing of his father, Dead profit manager Lenny Hart, and entrusting Kreutzmann once more as the only percussionist. Mickey Hart returned the Dead in 1975. Tom "TC" Constanten was brought as a second keyboardist from 1968 to 1970, while Pigpen likewise played various percussion instruments and sang. After Constanten's leaving, Pigpen recovered his position as solitary organist. Fewer than two years afterward, in late 1971, Pigpen was linked up by a different keyboardist, Keith Godchaux, who played grand piano beside Pigpen's Hammond B-3 organ. In early 1972, Keith's wife, Donna Jean Godchaux, connected to the Dead as a backing vocalist.

Shadowing the Grateful Dead's famed "Europe '72" tour, Pigpen's wellness had degenerated to the point that he not go on tour with the Dead anymore. His last concert appearing was June 17, 1972 at the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles, California. Keith and Donna Jean exited the band in 1979, and Brent Mydland joined as keyboardist and vocalist. Keith Godchaux died in a car accident in 1980. Mydland was the keyboardist for the Dead for 11 years until his death in 1990. He was the third Dead keyboardist to pass away. Almost straight off, previous The Tubes keyboardist Vince Welnick linked up keyboards and vocals. From September 15, 1990 to March 24, 1992, Welnick was connected by Bruce Hornsby on piano; Hornsby had formally appeared as a sit-in player commencing in 1988 and remained as such from 1992 until 1995. Welnick died on June 2, 2006, reportedly a suicide.

Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow were the band's chief lyricists. Owsley "Bear" Stanley was the Grateful Dead's soundman for numerous years in addition to being one of the greatest suppliers of LSD. Every eleven members of The Grateful Dead were initiated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and Bruce Hornsby was their presenter