Artist:The Grateful Dead
Song:Friend Of The Devil
Album:American Beauty
The Grateful Dead were one of the most enduring groups to emerge from the San Francisco psychedelic scene of the 60s. Fans that followed them around on tour were called Deadheads. The leader of the group was singer songwriter Jerry Garcia (born Aug. 1, 1942 in San Francisco). He learned to play guitar as a teen and was a big bluegrass fan. He became friends with Robert Hunter (born Robert Burns June 23, 1941 in San Luis Obispo, CA) in 1961. Hunter would become Garcia's lyricist. They met electronic music composer Phil Lesh (born Mar. 15, 1940 in Berkeley, CA). Garcia was playing in various local bluegrass groups and formed Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions aloong with guitarist Bob Weir (born Oct. 16, 1947 in San Francisco) & keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (born Sept. 8, 1946 in San Bruno, CA). The group was renamed The Warlocks in 1965. Lesh played bass and drummer Bill Kreutzmann (born Apr. 7, 1946 in Palo Alto, CA) was added. The Warlocks became very popular in San Francisco but Garcia changed the name to The Grateful Dead in late 1965. Supposedly he found the name in a dictionary. The group signed with MGM in 1966 but the initial recordings were terrible and they were dropped. They then signed with Warner Bros. in 1967 but seemed to have difficulty reproducing the energy of their live shows on records. They also added second drummer Mickey Hart (born Sept. 11, 1943 in San Francisco) after they performed at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. In 1969, The Grateful Dead finally released a live album, Live/Dead, and it was their biggest success. In 1970 Garcia decided to return to his folk roots with Workingman's Dead & American Beauty. These albums were critically acclaimed and sold very well but the Dead were always a live act first. Friend Of The Devil is an obvious road song written by Garcia. Rhino rereleased American Beauty on CD in 2003 with bonus live tracks. Ron McKernan died in 1973 and was replaced by Keith Godchaux. The Grateful Dead left Warners in 1974 for United Artists and then went to Arista in 1976. Godchaux died in a car accident in 1980 and was replaced by Brent Mydland. The various members of The Grateful Dead have all recorded worthwhile solo projects over the years but the group stayed together until Jerry Garcia died on Aug. 9, 1995 at age 53. Normally I would try to find a video of the Grateful Dead but I didn't like the one video I found of the group performing this song. But I do like this performance of Friend Of The Devil by Jerry Garcia and mandolinist David Grisman on David Letterman Sept. 1993.
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