I'm Grateful!

I was racking my brain for a group to write about when it hit me. I do not have to find some kind of new music when there is such an amazing past behind me. I am choosing to tell anyone who has never heard the music of one of the best groups of all time, to go out and listen to the Grateful Dead. Born in the 1960's, the Grateful Dead had a very chaotic beginning playing solely at events called "The Acid Tests". I'm choosing not to go into these tests, but as you can imagine it was a very rocky start right from the beginning. Over the course of the next twenty years, the Dead was hit with an enormous amount of fame that none of them ever saw coming. Here we have a group of six men, some in their twenties and some not even out of their teenage years. This is a group of dropouts who were in it purely for the purpose of making music. This is something that distinguishes the Dead from many musicians of their time and our time. Having this attitude allowed the Dead to forget about what the music industry was telling them to do, and do music the was they wanted to. It is really shocking to listen to the music of the Dead and realise that this group came from the same age as Jimmy Hendrix, The Who, and Led Zeppelin. This group does not play the driving, heavy rock n roll sound of their time, but rather comforting music with American Folk at its roots. However, it is not surprising that the group had a cult-like following dubbed the 'Deadheads'. Many people, myself included, judged the Grateful Dead before even hearing the music. It is easy to judge a group if their fans are called 'Deadheads', but what you'll realise when you listen to the Grateful Dead is that they are composed of some of the most talented musicians of all time. What I have found is that it is very difficult not to like the Grateful Dead. The sound is pure happiness and joy, and who could say no to happiness and joy?