# Can someone explain to me the appeal of The Grateful Dead's music?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-to-me-the-appeal-of-the-grateful-deads-music/611725>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 4, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-to-me-the-appeal-of-the-grateful-deads-music/611725 "2012-02-04T03:45:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-to-me-the-appeal-of-the-grateful-deads-music/611725/61 "2012-02-07T23:46:59Z")

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One interesting thing about the band is its place in the in the counter culture; Tom Wolfe’s _Electric Kool Aid Acid Test_ chronicles this. Jerry Garcia had worked as a security guard in a mental hospital at the same time as Ken Kesey, the author of _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_. Kesey and his group of friends, The Merry Pranksters (which included Neal Cassady, the basis for Dean Moriarity in Kerouac’s _On the Road_) used to throw parties that they called Acid Tests, at which The Warlocks (who would soon be renamed The Grateful Dead) would perform; at these parties, the music was part of the scene, not the scene itself, which was mostly about taking LSD and tripping balls.

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