The Warlocks become The Grateful Dead

In 1965 six legendary Bay Area bands got their start, Berkeley in the East Bay had Country Joe and the Fish. The North Bay had The Sons of Champlin. The West Bay had three entries in San Francisco, The Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother and the Holding Company and The Jefferson Airplane. Palo Alto in the South Bay had The Grateful Dead. There were other Bay Area bands that got their start in 1965 but in my opinion, The Class of 65 laid the foundation for what was labeled psychedelic rock or the hard to define San Francisco Sound. The Grateful Dead will forever be associated with San Francisco and founding member Jerry Garcia is a native San Franciscan. But the band was actually formed in Palo Alto California just south of San Francisco. That’s where Jerry Garcia met Bob Weir, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh (from Berkely) and lyricist Robert Hunter, while he was living and teaching guitar and banjo in Palo Alto. “Palo Alto was the magic carpet. It was where everything happened. That’s where the music was…Jerry was there and Hunter was there…all the characters were there. Palo Alto was the beautiful golden basket that this all came out of...Palo Alto was INCREDIBLE in those days.” –Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Garcia. And Palo Alto is also where The Warlocks met a band of Gypsys called the Merry Pranksters who would take them under their wing and introduce them to new ideas and interesting people. Ken Kesey was The Pranksters unofficial spokesman. Back in 1959, Ken Kesey, then a grad student in Stanford’s creative writing program, started participating in government-sponsored medical research that tested a wide range of hallucinogens and was now holding acid parties promoting the still legal drug. The Warlocks changed their name to The Grateful Dead and they became the unofficial house band for the acid test parties, and as a result, The Dead’s legend spread like wildfire along with an ever-expanding counterculture. Had the government’s LSD experiments backfired? Maybe so, by the time LSD became illegal in 1966 the proverbial Cheshire cat was out of the bag, and The Grateful Dead began their legendary run. And now sixty years later, as I sit here and watch The Grateful Dead receive their well-deserved Kennedy Center Honors, I had mixed emotions. It was gratifying, ironic, shocking and sad all at the same time. Sad because only two original members remained to bear witness. (Mickey Hart joined in 1967) Gratifying because I have enjoyed their music since their first album dropped. And I must admit, it was a guilty pleasure watching some of the same people who snickered at “Dead Heads” and their music, now praise them. Shocking because there they were, the remaining members of our Grateful Dead, perched high above Washington’s elite! Had they finally taken over the World! And ironic because in receiving their Kennedy Center Honors they were simultaneously transformed into mainstream before my very eyes. It was almost too much to bear. What would Jerry, Phil and Pig have thought of all the pomp and circumstance? And at the notion, that The Grateful Dead had finally become mainstream after all these years. Well somehow, I think they would have thought it was really far out and pretty freaking Cosmic! Here is The Class of 65, The Grateful Dead. Produced and edited by LaMont R. DeBarbieri. Music by The Grateful Dead, The Warlocks, The Wild Boys and The Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers. This video is a non-profit informative and commemorative labor of love. Video meets all fair use guidelines. Happy Valentines Day & Birthday to the Grateful Dead!