The Grateful Dead in Concert

Jim Tuedio, professor of philosophy and director of the university honors program at California State University-Stanislaus, is the author of numerous scholarly articles and is a past president of the American Society for Philosophy, Counseling and Psychotherapy. He lives in Denair, California. Stan Spector is a professor of philosophy at Modesto Junior College in Modesto, California, and is the author of many scholarly articles. He is a past director of the college honors program and is currently co-chair of the Grateful Dead Caucus.

Table of Contents



Tuning Up

Foreword: The Grateful Dead Phenomenon

STANLEY KRIPPNER     

Preface: Kaleidoscopic Entry to the Show     

Introduction: “Shall We Go?”     



First Set: Musical and Lyrical Elements of Grateful Dead Improvisation

Non-Systematic Thoughts About Improvisation

CRISTIAN AMIGO     

Mandalas and the Dead

GRAEME M. BOONE     

The Eccentric Revolutions of Phil Lesh

BRENT WOOD     

American Chaos: Charles Ives and the Grateful Dead

SHAUGN O’DONNELL     

“Mr. Charlie Told Me So”: Heidegger and the Dead’s Early Assimilation to the Technology of the Blues

DAVID MALVINNI     

Dark Star Mandala

GRAEME M. BOONE     

“Where All the Pages Are My Days”: Metacantric Moments in Deadhead Lyrical Experience

REVELL CARR     

“Not Just a Change of Style”: Reading Workingman’s Dead as an American Commentary with Americana Roots

ERIN MCCOY     



Second Set: Some Philosophical Contours of Grateful Dead Improvisation

Improvised Philosophy

ALAN TRIST     

“Pouring Its Light Into Ashes”: Exploring the Multiplicity of Becoming in Grateful Dead Improvisation

JIM TUEDIO     

“Searching for the Sound”: Grateful Dead Music and Interpretive Transformation

JASON KEMP WINFREE     

Plato’s Pharmakon: Grateful Dead Concerts and the Politics of Getting High

ELIZABETH CARROLL     

When “Reason Tatters”: Nietzsche and the Grateful Dead on Living a Healthy Life

STAN SPECTOR     

The Other One and the Other: Moral Lessons from a Reluctant Teacher

STEVEN GIMBEL     

Innocence and Experience in the Grateful Dead: A Reading of Stuart Hampshire

NICHOLAS MERIWETHER     



Third Set: Experiencing Community Through Grateful Dead Improvisation

Modeling Improvisation

MARY GOODENOUGH     

“Mysteries Dark and Vast”: Grateful Dead Concerts and Initiation into the Sublime

ERIC K. SILVERMAN     

Bears and Flags: The Grateful Dead’s America and Bohemian Nationalism

JAY WILLIAMS     

Improvising Community: A Hermeneutic Analysis of Deadheads and Virtual Communities

GARY BURNETT     

Strategic Improvisation: Management Lessons from the Dead

BARRY BARNES     

Cultural Communication Codes Among Deadheads: A Chronological Account of Communicative Improvisation

NATALIE J. DOLLAR     

Examining Grateful Dead Improvisation as a Catalyst for Creating Sustained Communitas

AMANDA DIEDERICH-HIRSH     

“I Can’t Do Anything but Lie”: Studying Deadheads While Wearing Simmelian Lenses

REBECCA G. ADAMS     



Encore

The Thing Is the Thing Is the Thing Is the Thing Is There Is No Thing

CHRISTIAN CRUMLISH     

All His Children Grew and Grew (Who Killed Uncle John?)

DAVID GANS     



Greensleeves

The Grateful Dead Came to Our House One Day (with 20 People and a Bottle of LSD): A Story About Discovering the Power of Channeling Healing Energy

JEAN MILLAY     



Contributors     

Index