The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Music in America Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation, which was established by a major gift from Sukey and Gil Garcetti, Michael P. Roth, and the Roth Family Foundation.
Listening for the Secret
STUDIES IN THE GRATEFUL DEAD
Edited by Nicholas G. Meriwether, Center for Counterculture Studies
Editorial Board
Graeme M. Boone, Ohio State University • Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University David Farber, University of Kansas • Michael J. Kramer, Northwestern University • James M. Williams, University of Chicago
Advisory Board
Mickey Hart • Bill Kreutzmann • Phil Lesh Bob Weir • David Lemieux • Alan Trist
1.Listening for the Secret: The Grateful Dead and the Politics of Improvisation, by Ulf Olsson
Listening for the Secret
The Grateful Dead and the Politics of Improvisation
ULF OLSSON
University of California Press
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University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2017 by The Regents of the University of California
“Blues for Allah” by Robert Hunter and Jerome Garcia, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “Comes a Time” by Robert Hunter and Jerome Garcia, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “Dark Star” by Robert Hunter and Jerome Garcia, Michael Hart, William Kreutzmann, Philip Lesh, Ronald McKernan, Robert Weir, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “Foolish Heart” by Robert Hunter and Jerome Garcia, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “Liberty” by Robert Hunter, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “Ramble on Rose” by Robert Hunter and Jerome Garcia, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “Scarlet Begonias” by Robert Hunter and Jerome Garcia, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “The Music Never Stopped” by John Barlow and Robert Weir, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “Touch of Grey” by Robert Hunter and Jerome Garcia, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “U.S. Blues” by Robert Hunter and Jerome Garcia, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “Unbroken Chain” by Philip Lesh and Robert Petersen, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp. “Uncle John’s Band” by Robert Hunter and Jerome Garcia, Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. adm. by Universal Music Corp.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Olsson, Ulf, author.
Title: Listening for the secret : the Grateful Dead and the politics of improvisation / Ulf Olsson.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017] | Series: Studies in the Grateful Dead ; 1 | Includes bibliographical references, discography, and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016050507 (print) | LCCN 2016052201 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520286641 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520286658 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520961760 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Grateful Dead (Musical group) | Improvisation(Music)—Social aspects. | Rock music—Social aspects—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC ML421.G72 O47 2017 (print) | LCC ML421.G72 (ebook) | DDC 782.42166092/2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016050507
Manufactured in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
We make the noises we can, and that’s all.
SAMUEL BECKETT
Contents
1.POPULAR AVANT-GARDE? RENEGOTIATING TRADITION
2.WAVE THAT FLAG: AN APOLITICAL BAND
3.CRASHES IN SPACE: ASPECTS OF IMPROVISATION
CODA: LISTENING FOR THE SECRET
Notes
Discography
Bibliography
Index
Series Foreword
From the band’s inception, the Grateful Dead attracted critical attention ranging from insightful to sensationalistic. Often obscured by the media fanfare was the seriousness of the group’s project, although some of that early attention was thoughtful, appreciative, and even scholarly. As early as 1966, academics gravitated toward the band, attracted by the intelligence and accomplishment they heard. What was also clear was the depth of the band’s commitment, which became one of the hallmarks of the Dead, especially noteworthy in an industry substantially defined by brevity, novelty, and shallowness. Over the course of their thirty-year career, the Dead managed to build a remarkably devoted audience and earn an enviable critical reputation, in part by defying industry norms and expectations; they were often cited as an exception to almost every rule that defined popular music as a commercial enterprise. Yet the band’s artistic and musical ambitions made a deeper kind of sense, creating a perennial appeal that made the Dead one of the most durable concert draws and consistently one of the top touring acts in the country in their final years. Their caliber as songwriters, their commitment to improvisation, the breadth of their repertoire, and their enduring success made them exemplars, and helped to establish the band as a unique voice in American popular music and culture.
These attributes also have made the Grateful Dead one of the most studied bands in the academy. In addition to its depth and extent, the interdisciplinary discourse on the band is distinguished by the range of perspectives it encompasses, principally in the humanities and social sciences but extending into engineering and the sciences. The Dead were known for their live performances, thus it is fitting that much of the scholarly discussion about the band began with conference presentations, though many of the hundreds of those have been developed into articles, chapters, and books.
That work has achieved a level that now merits and can sustain more detailed and focused exegeses, which this series provides. The increasing sophistication of the scholarship on many of the contexts that the Dead’s achievement informs and entails—from the 1960s and the counterculture to many of the genres of music that the Dead’s work incorporates— highlights the band’s significance and makes plain the utility, and even centrality, of its example.
Academic