Grateful Dead oral historian and host of the nationally syndicated Grateful Dead Hour David Gans will teach a new continuing studies course at Stanford University exploring the history and cultural impact of the Dead and their community of fans.
Psychedelia and Groove: The Music and Culture of the Grateful Dead is a fully online course geared toward Deadheads and those interested in learning about the Grateful Dead phenomenon. The class lasts for six weeks and is divided into three sections, starting with a historical perspective of the band’s evolution, followed by analysis of the Dead’s diverse and ever-evolving musical catalog, and concluding with the band’s cultural impact on society, including its “connection to art, literature, and social change, as well as its unique fan culture and the phenomenon of the ‘Deadhead.’”
The course will feature a number of guest speakers, with classes covering subjects like songwriting, interpretation, improvisation, recording, and more. Readings for the course include This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead by Gans and Blair Jackson, who is one of the guest speakers; No Simple Highway: A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead by Peter Richardson; A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead by Dennis McNally; as well as the films A Long Strange Trip, The Grateful Dead Movie, and A Box of Rain.
“We’ll trace the Dead’s trajectory from private parties and pizza joints to theaters and hockey rinks and stadiums, examining their achievements and struggles,” the syllabus reads. “We’ll see how this music and this culture affected the lives of thousands of fans; we’ll take a look at a tribe that has grown over the decades and now features Deadhead families four generations deep.
“We’ll hear how the music changed over time, as the dialogue among these musically diverse characters inspired growth both individual and collective; we’ll see how the Grateful Dead invested in high-quality audio tools and sound systems to deliver maximum creativity at maximum quality from the Summer of Love to the summer of ’95.”
Registration for Psychedelia and Groove: The Music and Culture of the Grateful Dead is now open. (You do not have to be enrolled at the University to register.) For more information and to sign up for the course, head here.
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