The Grateful Dead: (Thankfully) Born On Stage Fifty Years Ago Today

Fifty years ago today, a California rock band played its first concert under a new name and started a long, strange trip into music history.

Less than a week earlier, the San Francisco-based “Warlocks” had learned there was another group on the U.S. East Coast using the same name. With a series of prominent gigs coming up, they needed a name that would set them apart.

Thumbing through a dictionary, band leader Jerry Garcia happened upon a folk tale listed, and asked, “What about ‘Grateful Dead?’”

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