Ulf Olsson - Listening for the Secret: The Grateful Dead and the Politics of Improvisation

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

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

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

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 Johns 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 musicSocial aspectsHistory20th century.

Classification: LCC ML421.G72 O47 2017 (print) | LCC ML421.G72 (ebook) | DDC 782.42166092/2dc23

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 thats all.

SAMUEL BECKETT

Contents

Series Foreword

From the bands inception, the Grateful Dead attracted critical attention ranging from insightful to sensationalistic. Often obscured by the media fanfare was the seriousness of the groups 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 bands 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 bands 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 Deads achievement informs and entailsfrom the 1960s and the counterculture to many of the genres of music that the Deads work incorporates highlights the bands significance and makes plain the utility, and even centrality, of its example.

Academic work on rock music traditionally has challenged scholars on a number of levels, from basic issues of definition and demarcation to fundamental critical issues. Scholars continue to investigate a range of questionsfrom tradition and artistic intent to production and audience reception to cultural and historical disseminationall framing an art form and informing a literature that show no signs of diminishing, even as they both continue to undergo drastic changes. The volumes in Studies in the Grateful Dead participate in and often directly address these contexts, offering readers a unique lens for illuminating and exploring the wealth of issues raised by one of the most enduring and significant phenomena in popular culture.

Nicholas G. Meriwether

Acknowledgments

This book has been prepared, researched, and written in both close vicinity to and at a certain distance from its object. Closeness was granted me by the University of California, Berkeley, and the Grateful Dead Archive at the University Library of the University of California, Santa Cruz: Closeness both to the sources and to the air that the Grateful Dead breathed. But critical writing seems to also depend on a dialectic of closeness and distance: My employer, the Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University, as well as the National Library of Sweden, Stockholm, have made my reading and writing from a distance possible.