Teaching a Grateful Dead class for Stanford Continuing Studies!

MUS80 - COME HEAR UNCLE JOHN’S BAND: The music and culture of the Grateful Dead

Registration is open for the next quarter of my class at Stanford Continuing Studies!

MUS80 – Come Hear Uncle John’s Band: The Music and Culture of the Grateful Dead will be the fifth iteration of this class.

Six Tuesday-evening classes starting April 28 (5:30-7:20 pm Pacific time)

It all happens online, so anyone can take the class from anywhere!

I bring a unique set of assets to my teaching. I am 72 years old: I’ve been a musician since I was 15, a Deadhead since I was 18, a journalist/oral historian since I was 23. I saw hundreds of Grateful Dead (and related outfits) shows; I have been playing Grateful Dead music with bands and on my own for more than 50 years; I have interviewed nearly every member of the band (and countless associates) multiple times; I have played music with members of the Grateful Dead a few times; I contributed (uncredited) two and a half lines to Bob Weir’s songs, and my catalog includes two songs co-written with Robert Hunter. What I lack in formal training is more than made up for by my direct experience of the music and the people who make it and consume it.

I will not be delivering any lectures. I characterize the class as “conversational and improvisational, like the music we’re studying.” If you’re looking for a comprehensive history of the Grateful Dead, I recommend Amir Bar-Lev’s documentary The Long Strange Trip, the brilliant Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast, and numerous memoirs and histories (see below).

The best thing you can do to prepare for MUS80 is to watch the musicians making music. The Grateful Dead Movie is loaded with wonderful footage of the band members interacting onstage, and the bonus disc has lots more. Sunshine Daydream is another essential document. The Closing of Winterland, So Far, Dead Ahead, Downhill from Here, all the View from the Vault DVDs – and you can find lots of bootleg video (as well as lots of official releases) on YouTube.

Our primary mission is helping non-musicians (and musicians, for that matter) to understand how this music works, though we’ll also be looking at other aspects of the culture a little more this time around.

The class happens on Zoom, Tuesdays 5:30-7:20 Pacific time. I usually open the room at around 5:15 so we can schmooze a bit before class, and we also hang out for half an hour or so after its official end. The sessions are recorded and available via Canvas during the current quarter, so if you aren’t able to attend a session live you can catch up later. We’ll probably have at least one guided listening session, also on Zoom.

Guest speakers:

Like me, my longtime radio colleague and friend Gary Lambert has been listening to this music, playing this music, and documenting this music for most of his life. We have been presenting guided listening sessions in between the class meetings, and we will continue that very popular bonus feature this quarter.

We’ll also be talking about the Deadhead culture – Shakedown Street vendors, rail rats, taping and tape trading, and all that. Prof. Rebecca Adams has been studying it (and living it!) for decades.

Jim Newton will talk about the life experiences that shaped Jerry Garcia’s charismatic personality and the band’s place in the cultural and economic history of California.

I am delighted to bring Charlie Miller to the class this quarter; he started out as a taper and wound up doing sound and recording for Steve Kimock and others, and he has become a kingpin of the unofficial Deadhead audio archiving community.

Jesse Jarnow will share the immense trove of stories he has collected as the co-producer/co-host of The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast, and wisdom he has acquired while writing about psychedelic drugs and folk music.

Len Dell’Amico will share his experiences working directly with Jerry et al as the band’s in-house filmmaker. His book Friend of the Devil is a brilliant and insightful look at the Dead’s internal culture, and he’s a wonderful storyteller.

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There are no requirements for this class other than interest in the topic, but if you’re new to the culture here are some books you might find informative (including books by our guest speakers):

Here Beside the Rising Tide – Jim Newton

Friend of the Devil: My Wild Ride with Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead – Len Dell’Amico

Deadhead Social Science: ‘You Ain’t Gonna Learn What You Don’t Want to Know’ – Rebecca Adams and Robert Sardiello

Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America – Jesse Jarnow

This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead – Blair Jackson and David Gans

Garcia: An American Life – Blair Jackson

Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead – Phil Lesh

A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead – Dennis McNally

Dancing with the Dead – A Photographic Memoir 1964-1974: My Good Old Days with the Grateful Dead – Rosie McGee

Growing Up Dead: The Hallucinated Confessions of a Teenage Deadhead – Peter Conners

Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection – Brian Anderson

Duke University Press has several titles in their Studies in the Grateful Dead series: https://www.dukeupress.edu/series/studies-in-the-grateful-dead

I would also recommend a film: Box of Rain by Lonnie Frazier, “A Grateful Dead Fan Documentary - A film about a road trip, acceptance, and the healing power of music.”

A couple of additional notes:

Every iteration of this class has created a T-shirt! We collaborated on the design, and a class member printed them. We even have permission from Stanford to use their logos. I expect we’ll do it again this time.

I am happy to offer students a discount on my books and music, all available at perfectible.net – use coupon MUS80 for 20% off. I have these titles available:

· This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead (Blair Jackson and David Gans) (hardcover and paperback)

· Conversations with the Dead: The Grateful Dead Interview Book

· Improvised Lives: Photos and Stories 1972-1985

· The Grateful Dead by Jim Marshall: Photos and Stories from the Formative Years 1966-1977 (Amelia Davis and David Gans)

All books are autographed! Blair lives a block away, so we both sign TIAAD!

One other book I wanted to mention: Aging Gratefully: Deadheads Then and Now, a book of photos by Bill Lemke. I am the co-author, responsible for the text. Signed (by both of us) copies are available at aginggratefullybook.com

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To sum up: Thank you for being part of this wonderful experiment! I am always available via email (david@trufun.com)!

Your humble “professor,”

David Gans