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From [e-mail] Thu Jun  2 08:22:43 PDT 1994
From: Gary Shank                                       <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: conference paper on the dead -- WARNING:  VERY LONG
Date: 1 Jun 1994 00:32:53 GMT
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here is a draft of a paper eric and i are doing on the dead.
input corrections etc much appreciated....more on the conf later.
the tables are shaky  but readable -- alas on my editor
gary

The Grammar of The Grateful Dead  (copyright 1994, Shank & Simon)

(Draft, please do not quote without permission --
copies can be sent electronically if this copyright
notice is retained)


Gary Shank
Northern Illinois University

Eric J. Simon
Harvard University


Paper for a Symposium on "The Cultural Semiotics of
The Grateful Dead" Fifth Congress of the
International Association for Semiotic Studies 12 -
18 June 1994 Berkeley, CA

A View of the Gathering

     Imagine the following scenario:

A linguistic anthropologist has come upon a large
gathering of people.  Almost all of them are wearing
colorful costumes that are striking in their variance
from the normal drab and formal clothes that are
usually found in this area of the world.  The
gathering has herded itself into a large outdoor
arena.  Dusk is settling, and it is early summer.
While most of the tribespeople are chatting
informally and casually among themselves,  they
continue to covertly monitor a stage area at the
front of the arena.  A large assemblage of musical
paraphernalia has been gathered upon the stage.
Finally, midst the wild cheering of the audience, six
musicians come on stage.  Two of them settle behind
a collection of percussion instruments.  Three of
them carry guitars.  The final musician sits down to
a keyboard.  The guitarists plug into amplifiers, and
proceed to fine tune and test the sound pickup.  The
crowd is cheering more wildly than ever.  There is an
electrifying tension in the air,  and an anticipatory
mood continues to build.  More often than not, the
musicians turn their backs to the crowd, as they
concentrate on getting ready to play.
      After completing these preparations in a steady
and unhurried way, the musicians finally turn to face
the crowd collectively.  They shout things to each
other, nod their heads, and slowly begin to make
music.  At first, they are noodling around, testing
the sound and checking to see if each other is ready
to play.  At no time has any of the musicians said
anything at all to the crowd.  Eventually, a theme
starts to emerge.  Perhaps it is from the bass guitar
or maybe it is a particular rhythm line laid down by
one or more of the drummers.  More often than not,
the theme seems to be lead by either the rhythm
guitarist or the lead guitarist.  As the theme takes
shape, the crowd, who has been standing since the
musicians arrived,  begins to howl gleefully and
dance.  Then, either the lead guitarist or the rhythm
guitarist steps up to a microphone and begins to
sing.  Upon recognition of the song, the crowd begins
to dance more wildly, cheer with Dionysian abandon,
and sing along.
      The band continues to play for 45 minutes to an
hour, playing six to nine songs.  At the end of the
final song, the rhythm guitarist says to the crowd,
"We'll be back in a little bit."  After 30 to 40
minutes, the band returns to the stage and performs
the same tuning and noodling ritual.  People in the
crowd shout song titles, but these vocalizations are
ignored by the band members.  They start playing
again, settling into a series of songs that run into an
extended drum session, a long free-form
improvisational instrumental segment, and finally
back into two of three songs. In all, the second set
runs from 90 minutes to two hours.  After a rousing
final number, the band leaves the stage silently.
They are beckoned back for a single encore.  At the
end of the final song of the night, the lead guitarist
says to the audience,  "Thanks and goodnight."
Over a three hour span, the members of the band have
said exactly eleven words to the crowd.  And yet, if
the anthropologist interviewed members of the
audience, he/she would most likely find a sense of
profound closeness and intimacy between the band
and the crowd.  What I have outlined is a typical
Grateful Dead concert.  How is it that the Grateful
Dead is able to create a powerful and intimate
concert experience with so little overt verbal
communication?  Why are Grateful Dead concerts
treasured by the audience as unique and
transformatory experiences?  And why is the
Grateful Dead more popular now than they were in
the 60's?
       Research by social scientists into the nature of
rock n roll is not all that unusual, but most of it
deals with ethnographic (Kotarba & Wells, 1987) or
participant observer (Goodall, 1991) activities,
including research dealing explicitly with the
Grateful Dead experience (Pearson, 1987).  In this
paper, we are less interested in the sociological
dynamics of the Dead and their audience, and more
interested in the semiotic characteristics of the
music (Henrotte, 1992) and the larger semiotic
codes of culture (Solomon, 1988; Leeds-Hurwitz,
1993) encapsulated in the Grateful Dead phenomenon.
Toward that end, we will use the nature of the
Grateful Dead setlist as the basis of our study into
the social and semiotic dimensions of their music.
Furthermore, we will expand upon the semiotic
structure of the concert to look upon the entire tour
experience not as just a series of unique concerts,
but as the embodiment of a curious and powerful
temporal anomaly that can be best understood via
postmodern scrutiny.  Our strategy will be to start
with the modernist approach of structuralism, and
see how far that allows us to go in an explanatory
direction.  In the end, however, postmodern concepts
and ideas will be used to try to shed new light on the
most unique and perplexing phenomenon of popular
music:  The Grateful Dead and their legion of
Deadheads.

Some Necessary Contextual Grounding

     In dealing with any complex phenomenon, it is
necessary to lay out a few ground rules in the
beginning.  Otherwise, the study of that phenomenon
can grow and expand in any number of directions.
This is the case with the Grateful Dead.  Some of the
areas of potential examination which will not be
explored are;  the whole motif of the Sixties and the
youth revolution, the Deadhead culture per se, the
link between the band and drug use, psychedelic art
and music per se, marginalization of the music of
the band and of Deadheads in general, and so on.
While these topics are worthy of study, they can only
be presupposed for the sake of this presentation.
One area that is critically important for subsequent
understanding, though, is the origin of the name of
the band.

-------- Insert Table 1 about here ---------------

       The name "Grateful Dead"  suggests images of
death and violence and alienation that, when matched
with the skeletal imagery that pervades the visual
presentation of the band, leads the uninitiated to
equate the music of the band with heavy metal and
possibly satanic strains of popular music.  Actually,
the music of the Grateful Dead is an amalgam of
American popular music from bluegrass to country
and western to pop music to jazz and blues, as well
as atonal "space" music and the signature
psychedelic riffs that characterized most San
Francisco rock bands of the late Sixties.  What, then,
is the significance of the name "Grateful Dead,"
especially in the face of so much real and potential
misunderstanding and miscommunication?
      There are a number of legends about the choice
of the name.  The most likely explanation is that the
name reflects the ancient folk motif of the Grateful
Dead man.  As Thompson (1977) notes:

     The helper in a notable group of European and
Asiatic tales is a mysterious person known as the
grateful dead man....  In all these tales we learn of a
hero who finds the creditors are refusing to
permit the burial of a corpse until the dead manUs
debts have been paid.  The hero spends his last
penny to ransom the dead manUs body and to secure
his burial.  Later, in the course of his adventures, he
is joined by a mysterious stranger who agrees to
help him in all his endeavors.  This stranger is the
grateful dead man.  The only condition which the
dead man makes when he agrees to help the hero is
that all winnings which the latter makes shall be
equally divided.  (p. 50)

     One of the critical assumptions for this paper is
that the band deliberately personifies many of the
characteristics of the grateful dead man of legend,
and that this personification is at least implicitly
understood and practiced by most fans.
       Perhaps the best way to see this process at
work is in the handling of concert tickets.  First of
all, Grateful Dead tickets are distributed in a totally
unique way.  The band charges the same price for all
tickets, regardless of where the seats are.
Furthermore, they sell approximately half of all
venue tickets themselves via mail order, and the
band selects the seat assignments for reserved
seating venues.  In Gary's case, during the 1993
Rosemont Horizon run, where he ordered four tickets
for each of the three nights they played, he received
first row center lower balcony seats the first night,
seventh row floor seats the second night, and left
side upper balcony seats the last night.  For most
California shows, all seats are general admission,
and the fans are left to seat themselves in a
civilized and equitable manner, which they generally
do.  Ticket prices are also usually below prices for
similar rock groups.  For example, in the summer of
1994, ticket prices in the Chicago area were as
follows;  Bonnie Raitt ($40), Rolling Stones ($50),
Pink Floyd ($75), Eagles ($120), and the Grateful
Dead and Traffic playing together ($35).  In addition
to regular tickets, the band also sells a limited
number of special tickets directly behind the
soundboard called "taper tickets" so that people can
bring in taping equipment and make copies of the
show.  They are allowed to make copies under the
agreement that they do not sell these copies, but
they are free to make copies for, and to trade copies
with, other tapers and fans.  Currently, it is possible
for a Grateful Dead fan to get taped copies of
literally over a thousand different concerts.
Furthermore, these copies are made without cost;
the recipient either trades copies of another show or
sends the taper blank tapes and return postage.
Finally, there is a strong ethic among Deadheads
against scalping.  Extra tickets are expected to be
sold at or below cost.  While this "rule" is not
ironclad, it does hold true in the vast majority of
cases where Deadheads exchange tickets with each
other.
      This atmosphere of benevolence is found in other
Dead and Deadhead settings.  Concert goers
congregate in the parking lot of a venue well before
show time, where they buy and vend a wide variety
of goods, from jewelry and veggie burritos to beer,
soft drinks, tee-shirts, bumper stickers, and even
balloons filled with nitrous oxide.  Once inside the
stadium or concert hall, fans routinely introduce
themselves to each other and carry on elaborate
conversations about their own personal tastes and
experiences with the Grateful Dead scene.  Most
concerts are cross-generational;  at least half of the
audience is below 25, even though they are
predominantly white and apparently, in spite of their
strange tie-dyed costumes, at least middle class and
often professionals or college students in training to
be professionals.  The key concept in all dealings, in
the lot or concert hall, is the notion of "karma."  In
fact, the concerts draw a substantial number of
persons without tickets who are looking for that
extra ticket at face value, and the feeling is that the
success in getting that "miracle" ticket is a matter
of a person's karma.
      While there any number of other factors that can
be drawn upon to set the scene for a Dead show,
these are enough to allow for the beginnings of a
systematic look at the communication patterns
which develop between the band and their fans at a
concert.

The Structuralist Turn

     If the communication between the band and its
fans is rich and multi-layered, then it is necessary
to look below the surface to see patterns and
characteristics of this communication.  At first
glance, the tools of structuralism seem to be perfect
for this task.
     Structuralism is the modernist technique derived
from the work of Saussure (1959) that allows us to
look at a variety of phenomena as if they were
linguistic in nature.  Structuralism established
itself as a powerful force within linguistics
(Barthes, 1964;  Jakobson, 1970; Fiske, 1982), but
exercised its greatest utility as a model for
understanding cultural phenomena such as
anthropology (Levi-Strauss, 1966; Douglas, 1970;
Leach, 1974; Leach, 1976),  popular culture (Barthes,
1957), and myth (Levi- Strauss, 1979).
      While Saussure pioneered many critical
structural concepts, the one of most use for this
work is the distinction between the diachronic and
synchronic study of structures.  Briefly, the
argument is that there are two simultaneous
dimensions within each enduring structure, and each
dimension contributes to the understanding of that
structure.  The diachronic dimension deals with the
historical development of the structure.  In language,
the diachronic dimension is concerned with such
elements as the evolution of modern languages from
ancient roots, the shift in connotation of meanings
over time, and the development and extinction of
slang and new words.  Up until Saussure, most
linguistic work was based on diachronic
considerations.  With Saussure's work came the idea
of synchronic structure.  By synchronic, he meant the
study of how various linguistic elements are related
to the overall structure of the utterance, and indeed
the overall structure of language itself, at a given
point in time.
       In this work, there are parallels between the
diachronic and synchronic dimensions in the analysis
of Grateful Dead concerts.  As with language, most
of the effort has been diachronic.  In the case of the
Grateful Dead, this diachronic fascination is well-
founded;  as can be verified by Deadbase VI (Scott,
Dolgushkin & Nixon, 1992),  in over 2000 concerts
from 1965 to 1991, the Grateful Dead have never
repeated a single setlist.  In other words, each and
every Grateful Dead concert has been a unique
phenomenon.
     While this diachronic dimension of uniqueness is
directly involved in such Deadhead phenomena as
touring (going to an entire set of shows for the tour,
encompassing weeks and many cities), and mini-
touring (going to all the shows of a particular venue,
such as the three shows at Rosemont in 1993), there
is a covert side to the uniqueness phenomenon that
is perplexing at first.  Given that each and every
show is unique, how is it possible for fans to have
any sense of coherence during a show?  A key aspect
of coherence for any concert is predictability, in the
sense that the audience has some sense of what
might come next.  Without some backbone of
predictability, concerts lack any apparent structure
for the audience.
       Let us digress briefly to look at how four
different types of concerts establish predictability.
Then, we can compare each type of predictability to
the potential for predictability in a Dead concert.
First, there is the issue of predictability for a
classical music concert.  This is handled quite
overtly.  The symphony or performers release ahead
of time a list of pieces to be played, and the
audiences chooses to attend and guides its reactions
to this playlist.  The second case is predictability of
a rock group on tour.  In most of these cases,  each
show of the tour follows a standard playlist.  While
this list is not published, it does tend to get around
to fans.  Also, the playlist is usually tied heavily to
current album work, since most tours are designed
to promote album sales.  Finally, most groups have a
few highly popular and visible songs that fans expect
to hear, usually as closing pieces or as encores.  The
third case involves a jazz concert.  Hear, most fans
are not as well versed into particular songs per se,
probably due to the total instrumental character of
these songs.  Predictability comes from the order of
improvisation within each song, so that each
performer who solos gets to do so within a defined
parameter of performance.  The final case is the bar
rock band.  In this case, the set lists seem to be
more spontaneous.  Predictability is based on the
fact that bar bands often play multiple gigs, and the
crowd comes to recognize their usually limited
repertoire.
      The key to understanding the synchronic nature
of the Grateful Dead is to realize that they are
essentially a bar band with jazz undertones, and a
massive playlist that does not allow any given
audience to be all that successful predicting what
they might play at a given time.  At last count, the
Grateful Dead have played approximately 500 songs
in concert at one time or another.  This is quite
different from the basic bar band who might have a
playlist of 30 to 40 songs.  In a given tour,
 which usually runs three weeks and 15 concerts, the
Dead will play over 100 different songs.
      Working with all these background pieces and
constraints, is it possible to pull together a more
universal structural picture of  a Grateful Dead
concert?  That is the task at hand for the next
section of this paper.

Creating a Grateful Dead Setlist Grammar

        The strategy  for deciphering an internal
synchronic grammar for the Grateful Dead set list is
to realize that they do not play songs per se, but
groups or families of songs.  Therefore, in a given
set, they can pick and choose songs from a category,
and then insert those songs into implicit, yet well
understood, places within the set.
      In order to test this theory, the following data
were gathered.  First of all, a basic list of songs
were comprised from Deadbase VI.  This list
consists of all songs played over 200 times from
1965 to 1991.  These songs can be found in Tables 2
and 3:

---------- Insert Tables 2 & 3 about here --------

       One important aspect of these charts is the
identification of lead singers.  The Grateful Dead
currently use two lead singers, who nearly always
alternate songs.  Each singer tends to sing a
different type of song.  Bob Weir, the rhythm guitar
player, has a deeper and more gravelly voice, and
tends to sing blues, cowboy songs, and more avant
garde melodic pieces.  The most famous Dead song
that Weir sings is probably  "Truckin."  Jerry Garcia,
the lead guitar player, has a higher and more folksy
and bluegrass type of voice, and tends to sing more
upbeat and folk-oriented pieces.  The most famous
song that Jerry sings is probably "Touch of Grey."
Our first layer of predictability comes from the
identity of the lead singer.  If Jerry is singing a
song, then most veteran concert goers are expecting
Bob to sing the next piece.   This pattern is changed
only when;  1)  Vince Welnick and/or Phil Lesh sing,
or  2)  either Jerry or Bob sing a well- defined
multiple song sequence.
      Building upon the basic alternation move is the
idea that each singer selects a certain song from an
implicitly acceptable list of songs.  The
acceptability of a song is first of all based upon
whether the given song "belongs" in the first or the
second set.  In order to test this idea,  another set of
data were collected.  A list of the 100 most
commonly played songs over the last ten years was
assembled, along with the number of times each song
was played either in the first or second set, or as an
encore.  For the sake of this grammar, encore songs
were dropped from the analysis, which focused
instead on first set vs second set structure.
      This list was then cross-referenced with the
list of 200+ played songs, to get the 64 most
representative Grateful Dead songs.  Only one song
from this cross-referenced list , namely  "US
Blues," was predominantly an encore song, and so
was dropped from the categorization.  The remaining
63 songs were grouped into a  set of families that
are found either in the first set or the second set of
the concert.
       The creation of the families were based on an
examination of recent setlists from Deadbase VI  and
personal knowledge on our part of the likelihood of
the representative songs belonging to one or more of
the families.  These family groupings, along with the
percentages of location within the appropriate set,
are given in Tables 4 & 5:

--------- Insert Tables 4 & 5 about here ----------

         The categories here provide the basis for the
setlist grammar.  Ideally, all  500 songs played by
the Grateful Dead can be placed in one of the
category  families.  More importantly, this grammar
ought to be able to predict that if a particular song
is played, whether it will be played at a certain
point of the concert.  To test this possibility, 30
shows over a period from 1980-1991 were randomly
selected from Deadbase VI.  The number of
representative songs played, and the percentage of
these songs correctly placed by the setlist grammar,
are given in Table 6:

---------- Insert Table 6 about here --------------

       The data clearly show that it is plausible to
assume that there is indeed an implicit setlist
grammar operative during Grateful Dead concerts.
Such an implicit grammar serves a number of
purposes.  First of all, it provides a basis for
predictability for fans, without creating a lockstep
pattern so commonly found in other rock concerts.
Second, it sets up a recursive system for the band
itself, so that their sets can continue to be unique.
In other words, it gives the band a direction for
musical growth while preserving a link with past
performances.  Finally, it provides the band with
some ideas for adding and creating new songs.  As an
example of this, Table 7 delineates the songs on the
list of 100 most played songs were not played 200+
times:
--------- Insert Table  7  about here -------------

       When these songs are examined via the set list
grammar, they fall into the following categories
delineated by Table 8:

------------ Insert Table 8  about here -----------

      As Table 8 shows, these songs have been
integrated smoothly into the grammatical "flow"
that allows the Grateful Dead to add new songs, drop
old songs, revive songs, and create new groupings of
music and still preserve some of their unique
musical heritage.

The Postmodern Turn

     While the analysis above seems to indicate that
there are underlying structures that define the
musical creation that delineates the songs and
setlists of the Grateful Dead, there are still a
number of key questions that need to be answered.
Two of the most important are;  1)  Are the members
of the band aware of the nature of such a structure
and deliberately employ it or is it more implicit,
and  2)  Why have they survived the shifts of public
tastes to be even more popular now than in the era
which was considered their heyday?  To get at these
issues, we have to take off in a different, and more
postmodern, direction.
      The modernist perspective is committed to the
notion that underlying structures, rather than
historical or cultural factors, account for
regularities such as the ones discovered by our
setlist analysis.  In other words, structures of order
comprise a central position in understanding such
phenomena as setlist predictability.  Postmodernists
take a significantly different turn.  Derrida (1993)
for example describes the role of the center in
modernist inquiry as follows:

     The function of this center was not only to
orient, balance, and organize the structure --  one
cannot in fact conceive of an unorganized structure -
-  but above all to make sure that the organizing
principle of the structure would limit what we call
the FREEPLAY of the structure.  No doubt that by
orienting and organizing the coherence of the
system, the center of a structure permits the
freeplay of its elements inside the total form.  (p.
224:  italics his)

     But postmodernism represents a turning away
from this sort of centering to a fragmentation of the
center.  As Lyotard (1979) pointed out, there are no
more central themes, or grand narratives, that serve
to pull together all aspects of a phenomenon around a
single central point to coalesce a single coherent
whole.  Instead, there is the freeplay of the form
itself.  The center is substituted and re- substituted
not by rote or rule, but by the act of play and change
itself.  In the midst of this free form and relative
shifting of perspective, history and culture come to
play key roles, and the ahistorical and acultural
ideas of the modernist vision take their places as
pieces of the puzzle, and not the rules of the game.
However, as Zurbrugg (1993) points out, in art
especially , postmodern culture, "...has a surprising
capacity to precipitate creative fertilization in
strange, unexpected ways, which may come 'first
from here and then from there' (p. 1)."
      In relation to the issue of the setlist structure,
the modernist would hold that the structuring
process would be part of the conscious attempt of
the band to create a coherent whole, while the
postmodernist would say that the structure we find
is a derivation of the freeplay of the band with the
nature of the setlist per se,  and that any coherence
is more a byproduct of musical exploration than the
need to create a product around a skeletal form.
Another analogy would be as follows;  the modernist
would say that the band builds a setlist around a
skeletal form, while the postmodernist would say
that the band juxtaposes songs and song groups to
create fresh new ideas, but that the juxtaposing
process is historical and ongoing, and that any given
setlist is part of a larger playing around with the
form of the setlist itself.
      While it is impossible to garner any definitive
evidence to support a definitive answer, the
following interview data suggest strongly that the
postmodern definition is a better account of what
actually happens when the band explores the nature
of setlists (Sievert, 1993):

Interviewer:  How do you decide what tunes are
subject to blending into another?  One tune IUve
always thought had potential to move into another
tune is "Cassidy," but it always stands alone.
Is this deliberate?
Bob:  There's a thought.  It's never really occurred to
me.
Jerry:  Yeah, right.  Sometimes you just don't think
of it.
Bob:  Remind me next time.  (p. 15).

      As fate would have it, seven days after the
interview, at a Cal Expo concert, the band went from
"Cassidy" into a rendition of "Uncle John's Band" and
then back into "Cassidy."
      The final notion deals with the popularity of the
band, and the fact that this popularity transcends
the psychedelic era of the late 60's that was the
period of the birth of not only the Grateful Dead, but
a whole host of similar bands.  Most of those bands,
such as Big Brother and the Holding Company,
Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger
Service, and Canned Heat are long gone.  Hot Tuna and
Jefferson Airplane, resurrected as Starship, still
play, but not to the huge stadium audiences that the
Dead draw.  One reason for this might be that the
Dead, unlike the other bands, were less a product of
their era, and more a product of a larger frame of
reference.  Can that frame of reference be
understood in a different sort of grammar; perhaps a
postmodern grammar?
       If there is a postmodern grammar to correspond
to the structuralist grammar used to understand
setlists, that grammar needs to be tied to the
juxtaposition of transhistorical and transcultural
phenomena.  When the Dead are looked at from an
historical frame, there is compelling evidence that,
more than any other presence within popular culture,
they juxtapose a blending of powerful covert
mythological understandings of mortality and
celebration with a medieval consciousness.
       We will explore the medieval connection first.
Eco (1990) has argued consistently that our era
represents a return to medieval consciousness.  Part
of that consciousness is, "...a total lack of
distinction between aesthetic objects and
mechanical objects....All was ruled by a taste for
gaudy color and a notion of light as a physical
element of pleasure (p. 82)."  Furthermore, "...Today
as then the sophisticated elitist experiment
coexists with the great enterprise of
popularization..., with enterprises and borrowings,
reciprocal and continuous.... (p. 83)"  These
descriptions not only describe medieval
consciousness, but postmodern thought as well.
If we continue the comparison, then Eco's (1990),
"...bands of outcasts (who) roam (as)  mystics,
adventurers.... students (turned) into vagrantes, (who)
look always and only to their unofficial masters....( p.
80)" are perfect parallels to denizens within Hakim
Bey's (1991) Temporary Autonomous Zones, or TAZs,
where postmodern adventurers hole up in
communities of their own choosing.  TAZs in the
medieval world consisted of monasteries or bands of
wandering mendicants; today, we find TAZs among
computer hackers, powerlifting jail inmates, urban
gangs, performance artists, and folks on tour with
the Grateful Dead.  All of the above, from the poor
begging friars of the 12th century to the Deadhead
hustling spare change in the parking lot before a
show, share in the dynamics of marginalization.
More interestingly, there are a greater number of
covert Deadheads who don the monastic robes of
Deadheadism, namely their tie dyes and concert
tapes and bumper stickers, and dip into the marginal
atmosphere of the show and then back into their
more "straight" lives the next day.  To say that
these folks are re-living lost youth is problematic,
since many of them are under 30 to begin with.
While the structuralist approach seems to work
exceedingly well with the music, both the medieval
aspects and the covert mortality tales alluded to
earlier (and discussed next) are best understood via
a visual medium.  This is one reason that the visual
motif has always been a powerful part of the
Grateful Dead experience:  it creates the moral and
cultual-historical frame that complements the
development of the music per se.
     In terms of the visual dynamics of the medieval
component of the Dead, one only has to go to a show
to realize the fact that a Grateful Dead show is the
most medieval looking spectacle in contemporary
culture short of a meeting of the Society for
Creative Anachronism.  Parking lots become
medieval fairgrounds.  Gaudy  swirled and tie dyed
costumes, akin to those described by Eco as part of
the medieval aesthetic, are everywhere in sight,
creating a feast of color for the eye.  Jugglers in
belled caps wander freely, displaying their skills.
Circles of drummers and guitarists create enclaves
of music.  Instead of campfires around gypsy wagons,
we have smoky Coleman stoves and Weber grills
cooking grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza slices, and
veggie burritos.  From tape players and car stereos
we hear the hypnotic trance-like sounds of long
Garcia solos from "Fire on the Mountain" and "Dark
Star" and "Estimated Prophet" and these sounds
rival any of the exotic music from the far shores of
Constantinople or points East that haunted the
nobility in the courts of the Middle Ages.
      Layered upon this medieval base is a curious
blend of death and celebration.  Skulls and skeletons
are everywhere.  But the skulls are smiling and the
skeletons are dancing.  Beside the dancing skeletons
are rows of dancing Teddy Bears.  Solemn symbols of
20th century American culture are slyly
transformed:  four multi-colored Teddy Bears in an
Iwo Jima pose plant a rose stem, an orange dinosaur
on a black background with a tab of LSD on its tongue
advertises "Jerry's Acid Park," and in the most
famous example in recent times, the Dead
merchandising people sold a tee shirt of a skeleton
in a basketball jersey dunking a basketball with the
proceeds going to support the Lithuanian Olympic
basketball team (the Dead sponsored them at the
1992 Olympics, including providing the team with
tie dyed warmup suits).
      At the visual level, we can argue that the
"grammar" of the Grateful Dead revolves around the
consciousness of the Danse Macabre.  As Aries
(1991) points out, the privatization and isolation of
death is a modern and particularly Western notion.
In the medieval world, which we argue serves as the
conceptual and visual lynchpin of the Grateful Dead
experience, death was an everpresent force of
significance.  In other words, we need to turn to
death in order to understand how to live.  In the
medieval tale of the Three Living and the Three Dead
(Aries, 1991), a group of three young noblemen are
riding through the forest when they come upon three
skeletons riding skeletal mounts.  They realize that
these dead riders are none but themselves in the
future, and they are warned, "Momento mori!" or
"Remember that you too will die!"
      While the Three Living and the Three Dead brings
home the awesome significance and inevitability of
death,  the Danse Macabre (Aries, 1991) pulls
together the significance of death with the wisdom
of celebrating in the joy of living.  In the Danse
Macabre form, we have the living and the dead
alternating in a ring dance.  Dead butcher dances
with live baker, and dead housewife dances with
living nun.  All roles of society are scrambled.  How
can society really matter, when the living and the
dead dance together?  In the Danse Macabre are the
echoes of the carnival, where joy and celebration are
mustered in the face of coming suffering and
repentance.  Therefore, we see the operation of a
subtle grammar of celebration and carnival, of
disrespect for the stodgy status quo as being blind
to the forces that really matter.  We cannot escape
the "memento mori" and so rather than trying to hide
from it by immersing ourselves totally in a culture
tied to the material here and now, Deadheads either
temporarily or permanently remove themselves to a
Danse Macabre marked with musical and other forms
of excess, experimentation, and nomadism, all of
which are at variance to the normal flow of society.
While we cannot chart out the postmodern grammar
with as much detail as the structural grammar, such
is to be expected.  Modernism generates form, and
postmodernism juxtaposes islands and channels of
significance.  We feel that they complement each
other quite nicely.

Conclusion

     We are finally drawn back to the fundamental
question of communication.  Whether we look at it as
a modernist or postmodernist phenomenon, or both,
the fact remains that the Grateful Dead communicate
with their fans in just about every way but
conversationally.  One of us (Gary) is reminded of a
series of portraits that his wife, an accomplished
artist painted a number of years ago.  These
portraits were pictures of our daughters, and each
one captured them  perfectly.  Interestingly enough,
though, none of the portraits showed their faces.
Instead, the girls were captured in poses and
actions.  The faces were smooth and blank, and yet
the viewer could sense anger, impatience, or joy.
I asked my wife why she didn't paint in their faces,
and she replied that she didn't need to.  People who
knew Bridget and Morgan could identify them from
the actions and gestures, and people who didn't know
them had the freedom to insert faces that mattered
more to them.  We feel that the Grateful Dead is in
many ways a band without faces, in the same sense
of the portraits.  While we have identified grammars
to help delineate poses, it remains the privilege of
the individual fan to fill in the faces.  We leave you
now with one last portrait, taken from the lyrics of
Robert Hunter (1993).  As we ponder the mystery of
this extraordinarily significant and mysterious band,
they tell us:

      Some folks look for answers
      Others look for fights
      Some folks up in treetops
      Just to look to see the sights.


      I can tell your future
      Look what's in your hand
      But I can't stop for nothing
      I'm just playing in the band.   (p. 170)


Tables

TABLE 1:
Members of the Grateful Dead

ROLE                    NAME

Lead Guitar     Jerry Garcia (founding member)

Rhythm Guitar   Bob Weir  (founding member)

Bass Guitar        Phil Lesh   (founding member)

Drums                Bill Kreutzman (founding member)

                          Mickey Hart (1966 - 1971, 1974 - present)


Keyboards            Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (1965-1971)
                             deceased

                           Tom Constanten (1971)

                            Keith Godchaux (1971 - 1979)
                             deceased

                            Brent Mydland (1979 - 1990)
                              deceased

                            Bruce Hornsby  (1990 - 1991)

                            Vince Welnick (1991 - present)

Vocalist               Donna Jean Godchaux  (1971 - 1979)

Lyricist                Robert Hunter (1965 - present)


                            John Perry Barlow (1969 - present)

__________________________________________________

TABLE 2:  Titles of Songs By # of Times Played from
  1965-1991  (500+ to 300+ times)


500+  times ( Lead Singer):          300+  times ( Lead Singer):

Me and My Uncle  (Bob)                  New Minglewood Blues  (Bob)
Sugar Magnolia  (Bob)                   Mexicali Blues  (Bob)
Playin in the Band  (Bob)               Looks Like Rain  (Bob)
The Other One  (Bob)                     Good Lovin  (Bob)
                                        Around and Around  (Bob)
400+  times ( Lead Singer):           Deal  (Jerry)
                                                     Big River  (Bob)
China Cat Sunflower  (Jerry)        Tennessee Jed  (Jerry)
I Know You Rider  (Jerry)              Promised Land  (Bob)
Not Fade Away  (Bob)                    Wharf Rat  (Jerry)
Truckin  (Bob)                               Bertha  (Jerry)
Jack Straw  (Bob)                         Estimated Prophet  (Bob)
                                                     El Paso  (Bob)
                                                     Eyes of the World  (Jerry)
                                                     Sampson and Delilah  (Bob)
                                                     Sugaree  (Jerry)
                                                     Black Peter  (Jerry)
                                                     Loser  (Jerry)
                                                     Cassidy  (Bob)
                                                     Brown Eyed Women  (Jerry)
____________________________________________________

TABLE 3:
Titles of Songs By # of Times Played from
1965-1991  (200+ times)

200+  times ( Lead Singer):

Us Blues  (Jerry)
Beat  It On Down The  Line  (Bob)
One More Saturday Night  (Bob)
Scarlet Begonias  (Jerry)
Stella Blue  (Jerry)
Mama Tried  (Bob)
HeUs Gone  (Jerry)
Friend of the Devil  (Jerry)
Goin Down the Road Feelin Bad  (Jerry)
Casey Jones (not active) (Jerry)
Lovelight  (Bob)
Uncle JohnUs Band  (Jerry)
Dont Ease Me In  (Jerry)
Ramble on Rose  (Jerry)
Terrapin Station  (Jerry)
Bird Song  (Jerry)
Candyman  (Jerry)
Let It Grow  (Bob)
Johnny B Goode  (Bob)
Greatest Story Ever Told  (Bob)
Row Jimmy  (Jerry)
Little Red Rooster  (Bob)
Althea  (Jerry)
Peggy-O  (Jerry)
The Wheel  (Jerry)
They Love Each Other  (Jerry)
Fire on the Mountain  (Jerry)
Throwin Stones  (Bob)
Mississippi Half Step  (Jerry)
I Need a Miracle  (Bob)
Morning Dew  (Jerry)
Ship of Fools  (Jerry)
Cold Rain and Snow  (Jerry)
Dire Wolf  (Jerry)

____________________________________________________

TABLE 4:
Set One Grammatical Structure

TYPE                  JERRY                        BOB

OPENER              Bertha (78%)             Jack Straw (96%)
                         Cold Rain and Snow  (87%)
_________________________________________________

FOLK-BLUES       Sugaree (94%)            Minglewood (100%)
                          FOTD (99%)                Rooster (100%)

                           Peggy-O (100%)        Mama Tried (100%)
                           TLEO (100%)             Greatest Story (96%)
                           Half Step (84%)
                           Dire Wolf (98%)
_________________________________________________

FOLK-COWBOY       Loser (96%)             Me & My Uncle (100%)
                             BE Women (100%)    Mexicali (100%)
                             Candyman (100%)    Big River (100%)
                             Row Jimmy (100%)  El Paso (100%)
                                                            BIODTL (100%)

_________________________________________________

BLUEGRASS-          Tenn Jed (99%)        Cassidy (99%)
 DYLAN                   Ramble Rose (100%)
                             Althea (100%)

________________________________________________

CLOSER                  Deal (97%)              Promised Land (100%)
                             Dont Ease (94%)      Let It Grow (96%)
                             Bird Song (100%)

________________________________________________

(Percentages indicating % of time of location within set)

TABLE 5:
Set Two Grammatical Structure
TYPE                JERRY                          BOB

OPENER           China>Rider  (89%)        Sampson (97%)
                      Scarlet>Fire  (98%)
__________________________________________________

GOING             Eyes (99%)                     Playin (99%)
INTO DRUMS    He's Gone (100%)           Truckin (98%)
                      Uncle Johns (99%)          Looks Like Rain (61%)
                    Terrapin (99%)                 Estimated (100%)
                    Ship of Fools (100%)
____________________________________________________

OUT OF DRUMS    GDTRFB (98%)             Other One (99%)
                          Wheel  (100%)             Miracle (99%)

____________________________________________________

BALLAD-            Wharf Rat (99%)           Throwin Stones (100%)
CLOSER SETUP    Stella Blue (100%)
                          Black Peter (100%)
____________________________________________________

CLOSER            Morning Dew (100%)       Sugar Magnolia (97%)
                                                              NFA (89%)
                                                              Good Lovin (97%)
                                                              Around (98%)
                                                              Sat Nite (56%)*
                                                              Lovelight (95%)
                                                              JB Goode (46%)**

____________________________________________________
(Percentages indicating % of time of location within set)
* with encore, 83%
**with encore, 89%

TABLE 6:
Prediction Capability Of Setlist Grammar

SHOW DATE             SET  I                       SET   II
                            n.   s.  sp.                 n.   s.  sp.

  8.16.80             11  9    7                   9   8   6
10.27.80             10  6    6                   7   7   3
12.27.80               9  5    5                   9   9   7
    5.1.81             10  9    7                   9   5   4
    5.8.81               9  8    8                   8   6   4
  8.31.81             10  8    8                 10   7   3
  3.14.82             10 10    8                   8   8   5
  4.12.82             10   8    7                   7   6   5
  7.18.82               9   9    8                   8   8   3
  7.28.82             10   6    6                   9   7   4
  6.22.83               6   3    3                   9   7   5
12.27.83               9   5    5                   7   6   5
  3.28.84               8   5    5                 11   7   3
12.29.84               7   5    4                   7   6   5
  2.19.85               8   4    3                   5   2   1
11.20.85               9   5    4                   7   3   3
  2.11.86               9   6    3                   6   4   3
  3.25.86               7   2    1                   8   6   4
    7.2.87             12   7    5                   9   8   7
11.14.87               6   3    3                   8   6   6
  4.22.88               8   4    3                   9   6   6
  7.29.88               8   4    4                   8   5   5
    9.5.88               9   4    4                   9   8   7
  9.30.89               6   4    4                   8   3   3
10.14.89               9   4    4                   6   3   1
    4.2.90               7   3    3                   8   5   3
    7.8.90               9   6    6                   9   8   8
  3.27.91               9   4    3                   7   6   6
  5.12.91               8   3    2                   8   5   5
  6.22.91               7   3    3                   9   6   5
____________________________________________________
Totals                269 162  142        242  183 135

n. = number of songs
s. = number of songs from the standard list
sp. = number of stnadard songs predicted by the grammar


Set I:  60.0% standard                             Set II:   75.6% standard
          87.7% predicted                                        73.8% predicted

Overall:   67.5% standard
               80.3% predicted
____________________________________________________

TABLE 7:
Song in Top 100 for Last 10 years but Not
Played 200+ Times

Titles by Rank with Lead Singer:

3--   Hell in  a Bucket  (Bob)
6--   Touch of Grey  (Bob)
20-- Women are Smarter  (Bob)
26--  Aiko Aiko  (Jerry)
35--  West LA Fadeaway  (Jerry)
39--  Feel Like a Stranger  (Bob)
40-- Walkin Blues  (Bob)
42--  Masterpiece  (Bob)
48--  Crazy Fingers  (Jerry)
55--  Queen Jane  (Bob)
57--  Watchtower  (Bob)
64--  Music Never Stopped  (Bob)
70--  Box of Rain  (Phil)
75--  Stagger Lee  (Jerry)
76--  All Over Now  (Bob)
77--  Victim or the Crime  (Bob)
79--  Shakedown Street  (Jerry)
80--  Foolish Heart  (Jerry)
81--  Saint of Circumstance  (Bob)
82--  Help on the Way  (Jerry)
83--  Slipknot  (Instrumental)
84--  Franklin's Tower  (Jerry)
85--Memphis Blues Again  (Bob)
86--  Wang Dang Doodle  (Bob)
87--  China Doll  (Jerry)
88--  C C Rider  (Bob)
93-- Big RR Blues  (Jerry)
94--  Picasso Moon  (Bob)
100-- Desolation Row  (Bob)
104-- Standing on the Moon  (Jerry)
105-- Jack a Roe  (Jerry)
106-- Long Way to Go Home  (Vince)
107-- Spoonful  (Bob)
109-- Tom Thumb's Blues  (Phil)
110-- Smokestack Lightnin (Bob)
____________________________________________________

TABLE 8:
Locating Table 7 Songs in Setlist Grammar

TYPE                       SET ONE                SET TWO


OPENER                   Bucket (86%)        Aiko Aiko (53%)
                               Touch  (47%)        Help>Slip>Frank (61%)
                               Stranger (93%)     Foolish Heart (77%)
                               Shakedown (62%)

FOLK                        West LA (98%)
                                Stagger Lee (100%)
                                Jack a Roe (98%)

BLUES                      Walkin Blues (100%)
                                Wang Dang Doodle (89%)
                                C C Rider (100%)
                                Big RR Blues (100%)

DYLAN                      Masterpiece (99%)
                               Queen Jane (100%)
                               Memphis Blues Again (98%)
                               Desolation Row (98%)
                               Tom Thumb (88%)

BEFORE DRUMS                                    Women Smarter (98%)
                                                           Crazy Fingers (97%)
                                                           Victim or Crime (71%)
                                                           St. of Circumstance (
                                                           Long Way (93%)
                                                           Spoonful (93%)
                                                           Smokestack Lightnin (

AFTER DRUMS                                      Watchtower (97%)
                                                           Standing on Moon (92%

BALLAD                                                  China Doll (100%)

CLOSER              Music Stopped (98%)
                         All Over Now (100%)
                         Picasso Moon  (88%)


UNCLASSIFIED    Box of Rain (36%)         Box of Rain (36%)


____________________________________________________
(Percentages indicating % of time of location within set)


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