(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Sun 9 November 2025 19:00, UK
How do you have longevity as a band? You should ask the Grateful Dead, they keep gaining listeners. That being said, I’m not even sure if they know they’re doing it.
“Oh, God. Success has never been a part of our schedule, exactly,” said Jerry Garcia when discussing the band’s undeniable success, “It’s kind of been a happy surprise, but in a way it presents itself as just a new level of problems. Any not that it’s not gratifying – it’s gratifying to have an audience. For us, it’s been slow and steady enough where none of it has been a shock.”
Why have the Grateful Dead continued to be such a success? There are a few potential reasons. The first is because they represent a very specific moment in time. The band are centred around the hippy movement, representing peace, love, and a time when the world didn’t seem quite as daunting as it does now. That was wonderfully reflected in their music, and as such, music becomes more and more accessible, audiences of old continue to engage with it, while audiences of the new continue to stumble upon it.
People listen to the Grateful Dead and revel in the transportive nature of music, allowing it to take them back to a period where you didn’t have to question whether the Earth may stop spinning one day. When Garcia was asked what young people in the modern age think of the sixties, he said he believes they will likely have “The feeling they might have missed out on some fun.” He continued, “Yeah, it’s possible. It’s a grimmer world.”
So, escapism certainly plays a big part in why people continue to listen to the Grateful Dead, but it’s not the biggest reason, that’s reserved solely for the strength of their live show. Never before have a band managed to capture a specific moment better with a live performance, and that specific moment pertains whatever the moment is when the band is performing. Their improvisational style of music makes it so that the band are able to take what is happening in the world, in a room, in an incredibly individual period of time, and lay it out for all the crowd to experience in a totally unique performance.
The band never fluctuated with their live show either, despite improvisation being such a big part of it, they always delivered. The strength of their show inspired a lot of other older bands to start playing live again, something which Jerry Garcia wasn’t willing to take credit for. He did, however, name a couple of bands he were happy were still performing.
“I think it’s good to see the Stones and the Who get out and work,” he said, “It’s what they do.”
The Who were always considered a tour de force when it came to their live shows, doing away with elongated solos and instead working out the best way to come together as a band and deliver the best collective performance. It was a different approach to the Grateful Dead, but that was still admired by the band. Garcia, in particular, was a huge fan of their music and of the man who was behind putting it all together. When he was talking about some of his favourite artists and those he always looked forward to seeing live, he was happy to shine a light on Pete Townshend.
“Pete Townshend,” he said, “I’m really sorry I missed him on his run. He’s the guy I really love.”
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