RT Article
T1 Searching for the (Sacred) Sound: Phil Lesh, the Grateful Dead, and Religion
JF Journal of religion and popular culture
VO 23
IS 2
SP 139
OP 154
A1 Kaler, Michael
LA English
PB University of Saskatchewan
YR 2011
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1692195980
AB In addition to being recognized for their musical contributions, the Grateful Dead were also well known (indeed, notorious) for espousing a world view that can in many ways be described as religious, and for inspiring great devotion among their fans. There have been a number of scholarly discussions of religious aspects of the Grateful Dead phenomenon, but these discussions usually have to do either with the interpretive lens through which their lyrics are understood, or with sociologically based analyses of the behaviour of their followers. Both of these approaches are explicitly or implicitly etic, and they neglect the abundant testimony from band members themselves about the nature of this new religious movement masquerading as a rock band (or vice versa). In this paper, I attempt to correct this neglect by discussing some of the religious aspects of the Grateful Dead phenomenon from the perspective of the band members themselves, particularly the bassist, Phil Lesh. Drawing on his recently published autobiography, Searching for the Sound, I will describe his model of Grateful Dead's religiosity, and show how it is reflected in the Grateful Dead's performance practice. I will also discuss briefly the ways in which the Grateful Dead's attitude toward these religious ideals can be seen as efforts to resist the "routinization of charisma."
K1 Acid Tests
K1 Grateful Dead
K1 Phil Lesh
K1 Improvisation
K1 New Religious Movements
K1 Transcendence
DO 10.3138/jrpc.23.2.139