As I have discussed in prior chapters, there were an array of issues with the actual performances coming out of the Grateful Dead during the years 1992-1995. What I have not yet discussed are the issues with 'deadheads' during those years. I put the term 'deadheads' in quotes because, for the moment, it is a term that will be used as a catch-all. However, very shortly, we'll see that term used a bit more selectively and with harsher levels of discrimination.
I'll start with some of the basics of this discussion. First, to be a deadhead, you have to love the Grateful Dead. It does not mean that you have to be an apologist and not be critical of them, but you do have to some serious love for this band. Second, here is my list of absolute requirements that will disqualify you from being a card-carrying deadhead:
* If you went to the parking lot of a Grateful Dead show more for the party than you did for the music, you were not a deadhead.
* If you absolutely had to have drugs or alcohol to enjoy yourself at a Grateful Dead show, then you were not a deadhead. BTW - I'm not being a teetotaler here, I'm just conveying that if you, in your basic biological 'natural state' dont enjoy the Grateful Dead, then you're not a deadhead. If you did drugs at every show that is fine. But if you could not enjoy yourself without drugs at a Grateful Dead show, you had bigger issues to work on.
* If you did not know at least half of the names of the songs they played that night, then you were not a deadhead. That is not to say that couldnt walk out of the show mesmerized after witnessing something that was previously unfamiliar and now not be a potential deadhead. That happened all the time. Sometimes people saw the band, were totally blown away, and learned what all the songs were a bit later.
* If you talked a lot during the show to your buddy next to you, then you're not a deadhead. Deadheads LISTEN to the Grateful Dead. Saying something really quick during the music once in a while is not some kind of foul. But if you talked through an entire song on multiple occasions (other than drums and space), then you were not a deadhead.
* If you got shut out of more shows than you got into, then you're definitely not a deadhead. Showing up without a ticket, generally, is fine. But the caveat with the previous statement is that you were willing to do just about anything (short of violent crime or sexually debasing yourself) to secure a ticket. That means paying an exorbitant fee or trading something of extremely high value for a ticket is totally acceptable. So I'll restate this rule in a slightly different way; if you were perfectly content to just sit outside in the parking lot while the Grateful Dead played to a paying audience, then you were not a deadhead
Sadly, a great number of the people at Grateful Dead concerts (inside the show and certainly outside the show) were not deadheads. This was as true as it was in 1973 as it was in 1993. As a real deadhead, you just kind of put up with it. Sadly, I was not there pre-1986. I have heard from reliable sources and also believe that 1986 was the year that the quality of Deadheads started to diminish in relation to the quantity of people at the actual concerts. This was mainly in part due to the full blown stadium tours with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, along with Bob Dylan. The exposure those tours afforded the 'scene' was way more than it was ready to absorb.
It was pretty cool outside of a Grateful Dead show. There were lots of friendly people having a good time. Many of them having arrived from a variety of disparate places (geographically, economically, and socially) There were handcrafted items for sale and a sense of freedom from the everyday trappings and expectations of society. It seemed to be its own polite society unto itself. There were also a lot of social lubricants being freely passed around too. Generally, everybody liked that...sometimes a little too much. But up until 1986 the coolness of the Grateful Dead 'scene' was just a poorly kept secret that allowed it to exist with only a bit of hassle here and there. After 1986 it became a known destination for the masses and resulted in a classic case of 'the tragedy of the commons'; which is to say, a greater number of people took rather than gave.
There was a certain amount of inevitability to the scene's demise. Back in the 60s and the 70s it was en vogue among younger people to be very kind to your fellow human being. That began to very slowly transition in the 80s, and by the 90s it was mostly en vogue for a lot of the young (particularly men) to be aggressive. You could maybe blame punk rock, gangster rap, violence on TV, or the slow erosion of Victorian etiquette, but regardless of who or what was to blame, a certain segment of newer deadheads were very aggressive and a lot of that aggression would manifest itself after shows when they were drunk. It was an ugly element that had always been there, but now it was a trend among the younger deadheads that were 'on tour'.
Running in parallel, you had another very silly side to the deadhead community during those final years that was 'on tour' mainly there to sell wares. They had stumbled onto this big party and figured out that they could stay pretty buzzed and be a carnival barker while bringing in lots of cash.
Somewhere in all this were the real deadheads. Some of the real deadheads sold things, some of the real deadheads even got aggressive once in a while, and lots of them got buzzed. But none of them were aggressive most of the times. And none of the real deadheads were constantly figuring out ways to fleece people outside of the show. Maybe lots of the real deadheads got buzzed, but they mostly managed it in a mellow kind of way. The best deadheads I've met are kind of like the Grateful Dead band and crew themselves; passionately anti-authoritarian whilst simultaneously being politely uncooperative.
But people at the Grateful Dead concerts, by and large, during the years 1992-1995 were shit. I like to think that if you could empty out all of the people that were there just for the party (frat boys, curious voyeurs, drug takers that were not interested in Grateful Dead music, etc), and then get rid of those that were just 'on tour' parasites (i.e. - professional vendors), you would probably end up with about 60%-70% of the audience numbers that flocked to shows up until the 1995. That would leave you the Grateful Dead playing the occasional stadium in huge markets, but mostly shed-style outdoor venues and featureless basketball / hockey arenas. What I imagine is the audience mostly plateauing at 1984 and 1985 sizes. Imagine 30% to 40% of the audience being gone. You would basically never have more than 20-40 people outside of a show while the concert was going on. Maybe if they played a Berkeley Community Theater or a Red Rocks you would get 100+ shut out, but there would be less than 10 of those types of shows a year.
For you deadheads that were around in 1985 and before, it was a mellower scene right? There was still some craziness now and again, but by and large, the deadheads were different. I wish I got to experience that. My early years (1988 and 1989) had crowded shows and crowded parking lot scenes, but they did not have a lot of aggressive elements going on among the fans. I did not start seeing that until around 1992. And as I've said, 1992 is the beginning of the end. Not only for the band itself, but for the culture of deadheads. It was sad to watch it happen.
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