i ask because i'm truly baffled as to their wide appeal amongst psychedelic drug users, i don't find anything psychedelic about their music.
its probable that you just haven't heard their psychedelic stuff, they stopped being an overtly psychedelic band sometime in mid-1969, and never really went back to that.
check out the 2/27-3/02/69 fillmore west run (it was released as a box set). it is literally the most overtly psychedelic music i have ever heard in my life, and represents the true peak of their psychedelic era. their later music is also psychedelic, but only in the sense that any other great music is, not purposefully so.
i'm glad they didn't get too hung up on the psychedelic stuff tbph, that is just a small part of what makes that band so special. the truly special part is their ability to incorporate diverse influences and mash them up into an artform that is totally unique and their own.
for the most part, i think deadheads are probably the biggest group of musical snobs you'll ever find. snobs because of their passion for all things music.
i agree and definitely feel you on that point, although its really less of a snobbishness and more that most deadheads seem to have a musician's ability to instinctually recognize when something musically groovy is happening (even those deadheads who aren't themselves musicians). i think in a sense, the grateful dead's music is like... very obvious music. in the sense that you can immediately tell when something special is going on, it doesn't have to be explained at all, everybody is kind of just on the same page. and this trains deadheads to recognize those moments in other music that may not be so obvious.
I like to think of them as the ultimate American Music band
i definitely agree. to me, the grateful dead represents the true spirit of america. not in any bullshit patriotic sense, but in that they did something totally unique that also payed homage to an extremely diverse array of influences, and did so with a palpable sense of adventure. that is america to me.
