Grateful Dead was born 50 years ago in ... San Jose? (xpost from Lounge)

[KamaAina]

http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_29187212/grateful-dead-was-born-50-years-ago-san

Rock 'n' roll took a mind-bending turn 50 years ago at an unassuming 19th-century Victorian house on a San Jose lot that's now home to City Hall.

It was there, on Dec. 4, 1965, that the Grateful Dead was officially born.

Yes, San Jose. The legendary band forever associated with San Francisco had already been gigging in the South Bay and Peninsula as The Warlocks and before that as a Palo Alto-based outfit known as Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. But it wasn't just the new name that made the Dec. 4 concert so significant. It was also its role in the first real public "Acid Test," a series of parties built around the collective use of the psychedelic drug LSD, hosted by "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" author Ken Kesey and his network of friends, artists, writers and musicians called the Merry Pranksters.

The melding of rock and LSD at these parties/social experiments, considered a watershed moment in the birth of the hippie movement, had a huge impact on the Dead, shaping its psychedelic rock sound and, perhaps more important, its foundation for the communal concert experience and the close-knit collective of fans it created.

So we have made a contribution to civilization besides the Doobie Brothers, the Eggo waffle, and competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Matt Stonie! Oh, and I'm going to City Hall this very afternoon!

[underpants]

1. How do you get there?

Do you know the way?

[KamaAina]

2. Supposedly there is a hardcore thrash version of our unofficial civic anthem!

I wonder if the Dead covered it while they were down here.

[bestproducer]

3. Grateful Dead was born 50 years ago in ... San Jose?

Sure

[Nitram]

4. Well, they actually died 50 years ago.

Last edited Wed Dec 2, 2015, 09:35 AM - Edit history (1)

And gratefully so.