# Ever know a Deadhead that only listened to the Dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 12, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349 "2020-03-12T18:07:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/1 "2020-03-12T18:07:02Z")
Was remembering some of the interesting people I roomed with while doing campaign work after college. There was one guy who only listened to the Grateful Dead and it was nonstop, 7 am and I’m wanting coffee and not wanting to hear about someone riding that train high on cocaine!! I think he has more Dead tapes than clothes. Thankfully it only lasted a few weeks, he wasn’t a great campaign worker and last time I saw him, he was trying to hitchhike across the country. Anyone else have this misfortune? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/2 "2020-03-12T18:23:37Z")
My college roommate was a big fan, but he played many other groups, too. Most notably he turned me on to the Allman Brothers, playing an album that wasn’t officially released until 20 years later. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/3 "2020-03-12T18:26:50Z")
My college fraternity was full of Deadheads, of whom there were one or two who never listened to anything but their (shitty) live tapes. But most of them were willing to listen to decent music also. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/4 "2020-03-12T19:32:32Z")
Seems like my wife and all her friends. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/5 "2020-03-12T19:46:04Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > My college fraternity was full of Deadheads, of whom there were one or two who never listened to anything but their (shitty) live tapes. But most of them were willing to listen to decent music also. That describes the guy I lived with briefly, he had so many live tapes and his Deadhead buddies would all come over and discuss the intricacies between the Denver 1977 show and the 1978 New York show ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/6 "2020-03-12T19:47:51Z")
I’ve known a few people who used to follow the band and never miss a performance. I don’t remember any of them constantly listening to the Dead at home. In my youth, the unwritten rule was that you didn’t listen to the band you were about to see for several days ahead of the show. Listening to them in the car on the way to the show was particularly taboo. And may you be struck by lightening if you wore the band’s t-shirt to the show! ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/7 "2020-03-12T19:56:07Z")
The biggest Deadhead that I knew was also the biggest Prince fan that I knew. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/8 "2020-03-13T05:49:55Z")
My ex. Among the reason’s she’s my ex. Not that I dislike the Dead, shit no! But c’mon, there’s Quicksilver too! ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/9 "2020-03-13T15:54:48Z")
My supervisor at a place I interned at was a guy that only listened to Rush. Every morning, he’d show up with a case of about 25 CDs, jewel cases & all, and pop in one after another for the whole shift. Then, pack them up and bring them home to repeat the next day. He was a really nice guy and didn’t try to evangelize us or anything. It was just all he listened to. Now I like Rush as part of the Classic Rock catalog but after a couple weeks, it got to be a bit much. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/10 "2020-03-13T16:39:27Z")
I used to manage a record store in the early 1980s. Our store was burglarized one night, and the perp simply smashed the front glass, ran in and scooped up the entire Grateful Dead bid (maybe 40 or so LPs), and ran out the door. There were literally Grateful Dead LPs leading away on the sidewalk, so we knew which direction he went. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/11 "2020-03-14T12:55:24Z")
Never heard their live tapes but they allowed fans to plug right into the sound system so the quality must be pretty good. They sold tickets for that called taper tickets. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/12 "2020-03-14T17:10:20Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Never heard their live tapes but they allowed fans to plug right into the sound system so the quality must be pretty good. They sold tickets for that called taper tickets. Of course when you get down to third generation tapes of a tape, the sound quality starts to decline. However, they certainly did sound better than a lot of other concert bootlegs from the 70s and 80s. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/13 "2020-03-14T22:22:36Z")
[Archive.Org](http://Archive.Org) [Grateful Dead free archive](https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead) (14,265 results) (but you’ve been warned) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/14 "2020-03-15T00:36:28Z")
I used to know a Deadhead, back in the '90s – he was the one-time husband of one of my wife’s friends (who was decidedly _not_ a Dead fan). I don’t know that he _ **only** _ listened to the Dead, but I think it was close. He had hundreds of concert tapes (most, I think, Nth-generation tapes of tapes), and I never knew him to listen to anything else. When he and my wife’s friend got married, he prevailed upon her to have their first dance be a Dead song (I don’t know which one; I wasn’t there). She later told me that, while she didn’t have an issue with having their first dance be to a Dead song, she was rather annoyed that he picked an 8-minute-long song. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/15 "2020-03-15T01:00:54Z")
Did they twirl? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/16 "2020-03-15T04:56:05Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I used to know a Deadhead, back in the '90s – he was the one-time husband of one of my wife’s friends (who was decidedly _not_ a Dead fan). > > I don’t know that he _ **only** _ listened to the Dead, but I think it was close. He had hundreds of concert tapes (most, I think, Nth-generation tapes of tapes), and I never knew him to listen to anything else. > > When he and my wife’s friend got married, he prevailed upon her to have their first dance be a Dead song (I don’t know which one; I wasn’t there). She later told me that, while she didn’t have an issue with having their first dance be to a Dead song, she was rather annoyed that he picked an 8-minute-long song. :smack: I’m used to weddings having the glass of champagne toast, I’d be interested to see if this wedding had an acid drop instead. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-a-deadhead-that-only-listened-to-the-dead/849349/17 "2020-03-15T06:34:31Z")
For exclusive listening one should turn to the _Mountain Goats._ [I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats](http://www.nightvalepresents.com/ionlylistentothemountaingoats) podcast and associated merchandise.