# Grateful Dead reference in the song Hair

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-reference-in-the-song-hair/88646>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 21, 2001, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-reference-in-the-song-hair/88646 "2001-10-21T00:16:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-reference-in-the-song-hair/88646/1 "2001-10-21T00:16:47Z")

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In the Cowsills’ hit “Hair”, there’s the line:

“It’s not for lack of bread  
Like the Grateful Dead…”  
Is it as simple as it sound? Were the Dead known for their, uh, poorness?

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**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:** [October 21, 2001, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-reference-in-the-song-hair/88646/2 "2001-10-21T00:54:25Z")

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Well, they all lived togather in one house, at one point, at 710 Ashbury Street in Frisco, about a block south of Haight.

Materialism is a tool of The Man, y’know.

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**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-reference-in-the-song-hair/88646/3 "2001-10-21T20:28:34Z")

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I think Ukelele Ike nailed it.

Of course, then in the 80s the Dead were consistently one of the top grossing concert acts. Tools of the man, indeed.

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**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-reference-in-the-song-hair/88646/4 "2001-10-21T21:51:09Z")

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The song “Hair” is of course not original with the Cowsills. It came from the musical _Hair_, which was eventually made into a movie. What’s being asked in the song is whether the character singing the song is letting his hair grow long because he can’t afford a haircut. He says that that isn’t the reason. In any case, even if the Grateful Dead was a struggling band at one point, they were never so poor that they couldn’t have gotten haircuts.

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**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:** [October 21, 2001, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-reference-in-the-song-hair/88646/5 "2001-10-21T22:16:20Z")

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Good point, **WW**. I also have the feeling that Rado and Ragni put that line in the song because a) it was an easy rhyme, and b) mentioning the Grateful Dead in a lyric they were writing in 1966-67 made them look _au courant._

And **Chrome** is correct in stating that the Dead were, for several years, the top-grossing concert band in the US. Yes, they did live in Marin County and own nice automobiles. But they also started the Rex Foundation, which funds impoverished avant-garde composers, supports the arts and education, and does other nifty stuff.

> **[Official Site Of The Grateful Dead | Grateful Dead](https://www.dead.net/)**
>
> Official Site Of The Grateful Dead