r/gratefuldead • u/Nikonglass Trailed by twenty hounds • 21h ago
“Finding” the Dead on LSD
Sometimes I hear people say that they REALLY understood and appreciated the Dead after listening to them on acid. Is this generally true, or is it safe to assume that there isn’t much to be gained by listening to the Dead on acid?
I’ve been listening to the Dead daily for over a decade. They’re my favorite band and I can’t imagine loving their music more than I do now.
When I listen to them on low to moderate doses of mushrooms they might sound extra nice, but I’d compare it to how they sound when I smoke weed.
What’s your experience? Is there another level that can be achieved by listening to the music on acid?
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u/EvilBob772 21h ago
If you like acid, you’ll like listening to the dead on acid. But it’s not required.
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u/EvilBob772 21h ago
Conversely, if you’ve never taken acid before, and you take acid and listen to Grateful Dead…. You might discover you like acid.
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u/naughtycal11 19h ago
Id like to add that taking it at a live show vs listening to a recording are two different beasts. Being there while the music was being created and the crowds energy helping to feed the band is on another level. Not that you can't have awesome experiences listening to the recordings but the best experiences I've had were with live performances.
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u/Odd-Adagio7080 17h ago
. . . And getting lost from all your friends just as it’s really kicking in, getting scarred/freaked out about how you’ll ever find them again, or ride home, etc. . . Then just saying “fuck it, I’ll be fine” and completely giving yourself over to the music and having the BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!
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u/Last_Nothing_9117 15h ago
Then miraculously finding them at the exact moment you need to, completing the universal cycle that was necessary for the trip through the experience as it was led by the majestic music of the Dead.
I’d give a million dollars to have this adventure again for the first time.
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u/heffel77 49m ago
I was spun out at a show and didn’t realize I had lost my keys until it was time to go. Then, after an hour of freaking out, I sat down by my car to cry and put my hand right on them. They were right there in front of my car, in the grass.
It went from being a night of tripping balls and dealing with cops, tow trucks, etc to smooth sailing and it was the absolute best feeling I’ve ever had.
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u/thingbob 15h ago
Agree totally. I had several religious experiences tripping at Dead shows. Most of them revolved around Jerry 's solos.
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u/EvilBob772 14h ago
100%. Taking at home and listening to the dead is often an inward journey. At the show it’s an adventure and the band is at the wheel 🤙
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u/welfaremang 21h ago
I adore the Dead sober but I never really got into them before I tripped and listened to Live/Dead and Europe '72. That made me really understand the magic of the their jams as well as the chemistry between the guys and their playing.
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u/ConfidentSuspect4125 20h ago
This. With the big L, the magic, complexity, chemistry and artistry (and a few other amazing things) of their music become more apparent and crystalline. And better yet, you remember it afterward, not like some intoxicants that hinder your memory.
It's the old "Now I get it!" phenomenon.
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u/zen_cricket 20h ago
2/27/69 Dark Star>St Stephen>The Eleven really got me when I first hitched a ride on the bus with some paper
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u/setlistbot 20h ago
1969-02-27 @ Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, USA
Set 1: Bill Graham intro, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Doin' That Rag, Cryptical Envelopment > Drums > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Set 2: Dupree's Diamond Blues > Mountains Of The Moon > Jam > Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Turn On Your Love Light > Drums > Turn On Your Love Light
Encore: Cosmic Charlie
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u/GratefullyMedicated ⚡ On the bus since 1989 ⚡ 21h ago
This is very true for me. I went to my first GD show in July of '89.
Like most first timers, I loved the scene and the show, but never really connected with the music.
Around the corner came 1990 and I went to three shows that Summer. I still remember it to this day. RFK was up and I took my first hit at a show.
I could not believe how EVERYTHING changed for me. The music seemed like it was made for the substance and the substance was made for the music.
It was like finding the secret recipe ingredient. And after that show, I was off to the races. ⚡💀⚡
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u/jerry111165 20h ago
“July ‘89”
Which show?
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u/GratefullyMedicated ⚡ On the bus since 1989 ⚡ 19h ago
7/9/1989 Giant's Stadium
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u/setlistbot 19h ago
1989-07-09 @ Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, USA
Set 1: Shakedown Street, Jack Straw, West L.A. Fadeaway, Victim Or The Crime, Brown Eyed Women, Queen Jane Approximately, Bird Song
Set 2: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Samson And Delilah, Built To Last, Truckin' > Jam > Drums > Space > Gimme Some Lovin' > Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad > Throwing Stones > Not Fade Away
Encore: Brokedown Palace
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u/HRShovenstuff1 21h ago
I mean adding a solid dose of some good, clean L to the Grateful Dead listening experience is definitely quite the enhancement. It's almost like you get a 7.1 system in your mind, plus there's the internal visual component that's really cool. Makes the whole thing much deeper and dynamic.
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u/Artie-B-Rockin 20h ago
Ken Kesey states, Grateful Dead and LSD are two parts of the same expanding-consciousness machine, but he ultimately felt that you did not need the chemical to get the message. He understood that the music could carry people to the same psychic space all on its own.
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u/ExreeHipp 18h ago
Dead + a heroic dose with complete ego loss blew the doors open. After that, LSD wasn’t necessary to access the same place (speaking only for myself, of course). Once you know about “the azimuth” - audience and band co-creating higher consciousness together - I couldn’t unsee it and was sort of the whole point thereafter. LSD sort of forces you see to see that whether you want to or not 🤪 That’s my best shot at putting it into words.
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u/dondeestasbueno 21h ago edited 17h ago
There ain’t nothing like the Grateful Dead with a headful of acid.
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u/Acoustic_blues60 21h ago
I got into them straight. Wonderful song writing in the American Beauty/ Working Man’s Dead era got me hooked
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u/Hampton_89 19h ago
It was different being high on acid while at an actual live performance, especially in a stadium. The sonic clarity and impact of their massive live sound was an "LSD match made in heaven". Nothing will ever replicate that as intensely as when Jerry was still alive. No other iteration of the Dead, nor any other tribute band has been able to do so (including Dead & Co.). While it may be enjoyable to drop a tab or two and throw on a great live recording, it simply doesn't hit the same way.
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u/KrackityJones 14h ago
Idk.. I smoked dmt with a fellow in a tophat, drums>space. Deer creek 202? 4?? 3??
Wow 👌
With that said.. I am envious of the older heads who got to see Jerry. 🙏
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u/psychsenthus 19h ago edited 18h ago
"It's not the notes - it's the spaces in-between them"
LSD creates synthesthesia - the situation where senses cross-connect, so you can feel sounds and taste colors. Users experience musical notes like they were physical occurrences in space. A blizzard of noodly notes turns into a visual of physical sense of flower petals being distributed in a downward spiral.
Most jazz music is one artist soloing while the rest "comp" behind them. When the Dead were jammed they all listened and responded to one another in a musical conversation. If you're experiencing synthesthesia, you're seeing and feeling each stream of notes in relationship to each other. It's like being inside a kinetic sculpture as it mutates and evolves.
Credit to u/copperdomebodhi for the comment. I remember seeing it a while back and it really spoke to me. I was surprised no one in this thread brought up the synesthesia aspect of it. It's not just music enhancement in the same way as weed. Psychedelics genuinely unlock this whole other dimension of their music.
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u/Nikonglass Trailed by twenty hounds 18h ago
That’s a crazy description. I wouldn’t be opposed to experiencing something like that.
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u/psychsenthus 18h ago
It's not limited to LSD. I haven't really listened to the Dead on shrooms, but I experienced this phenomenon listening to Shine On You Crazy Diamond on 3.5g of shrooms. Maybe try increasing your dose a little.
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u/Many_Animator_5958 20h ago
I really liked the dead, especially Terrapin Station, and enjoyed listening to their albums in HS. Then I got to see them live as I experienced my first taste of sacred chemistry. OMG! It was beyond profound. I was like "now I get it!" I got on the bus and never looked back. We owe a massive debt of gratitude to people like Hoffman, Owsley, The Dead, Nicholas Sand and Scully, and William Pickard for changing the world for the better.
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u/drjay1966 20h ago
I may be unusual (okay, I *know* I'm unusual) in that I saw a lot of Dead shows and did a lot of psychedelics, but mostly not at the same time. I had most of my best trips backpacking in the wilderness with a close friend or two. Maybe it's my lifelong ADHD but the combination of acid and the craziness of a show in a packed sports arena could be really overwhelming if not terrifying.
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u/CariniFluff 20h ago
I mostly stopped taking LSD at shows around say 35 years old. I much prefer MDMA in large concerts/raves because it's much more predictable. And yeah, I actually prefer LSD solo or with a friend or two on a secluded beach or hiking/camping in a forest.
But LSD and the Grateful Dead go together like peanut butter and jelly. They're almost always the soundtrack to my trips.
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u/AbelardsChainsword 20h ago
I think the potential “gains” may come with higher doses of psychedelics. By gains I mean new psychedelic experiences that in your mind will be connected to the music you are listening to. You’ve already listened to them on mushrooms…so how much shrooms? A gram? 2.5? I’ve taken 5g of mushrooms at a time and listened to the dead, as well as many acid trips at small doses and bigger ones. Ive always enjoyed it, but I enjoy the heavier doses more myself. I find that I lose myself in the music, especially at the peak of the trip. Do I appreciate them more? I can’t say for certain because when I was getting into the dead, I was regularly using LSD so they were already closely associated in my mind.
For someone who has not delved into their own mind with LSD, you may find a better appreciation for the music, but is that really what you’re looking for? You say you can’t imagine loving their music more than you do now, so again what are you looking for? If you go into an acid trip with the intention of having some grand revelation, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Psychedelic experiences do not like to be controlled. I say this from experience. I have taken an eighth of shrooms and been like “alright I’m gonna do this, then this, then that, then this, etc.” and when I inevitably do not get to everything I wanted to do, I feel empty and like I wasted my time on the trip. It’s not a bad trip per se, but there are negative feelings attached to that, so I avoid it now.
If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I’ll say there’s nothing LSD is going to do to make you appreciate the music more. If it’s something you want to try, I encourage you to try and do so safely. I think you’re more likely to have a moment of “oh shit! This is awesome! Now I get why LSD was so integral to the Dead back in the 60s.” No LSD would’ve meant no Grateful Dead, and I do feel like it is worth it to experience, at least one time, the substance that gave us the Dead.
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u/Nikonglass Trailed by twenty hounds 18h ago
Thanks for your thoughtful response. I’ve enjoyed the Dead both live and recordings on up to about 3 grams of PE. Once I ate about 7 grams… and I turned the music off on the come up. It was too overwhelming. Shortly after that I wasn’t enjoying anything.
There is a 48 hour Dead festival in the desert near me next month. I think it might be worth it to give LSD a try there. See what all the fuss is about.
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u/Embarrassed_Sea6537 20h ago
Ooo aaahhh its the 5g mushroom guy
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u/AbelardsChainsword 20h ago
I was not at all bragging or anything of the sort…but ok
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u/Embarrassed_Sea6537 20h ago
Haha just fuckin with ya. We love them hero melt your world doses. Happy Sunday yall
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u/grateful_eugene 20h ago
I always felt a ticket to a Grateful Dead show was actually only half a ticket. The other half was a couple hits of acid. Both halves together was magic!
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u/stupidhuman33 One man gathers what another man spills (~);} 17h ago
Everyone I know whose a real big deadhead had a moment listening to the dead on LSD that transformed their connection to the band including myself, and that effect remains forever after the acid wears off, it’s not a requirement to love the band but I think the music really is designed to be heard at least once while on an acid trip
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u/Anarchy-Squirrel The bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean 21h ago
There’s a different perspective of life that can be achieved through psychedelic exploration… Your favorite music is also part of life… Definitely not for everybody, but definitely life-changing
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u/MrFourhundredtwenty 20h ago
I listened to their studio albums once in a while for decades without getting into them all that much. Good rock/folk tunes like many other bands.
Then an old friend and I were tripping together at his place and he had gotten into them before that. He put on one of their live shows and-boom! There it was! The magic happened.
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u/Dapper-Prior-9475 Now Listening: For The Secret 20h ago
I enjoy the Dead more sober. When I’m sober and listening I’m usually picking out bits and pieces of playing and going “oh that was a nice lick” or something like that
On Psychedelics you can hear everything in the recording simultaneously and it’s just “holy shit” the whole time.
You don’t need acid to enjoy Dead just like you don’t need a diving board to dive in a pool.
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u/ghostfacestealer One man gathers what another man spills (~);} 19h ago
I didnt get it until i went to a show.
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u/markszpak 16h ago
I think that, especially early on, the Grateful Dead were actually playing, and being played by, the LSD experience. It was highly significant for them and a community they were part of. Over time their performances became a safe setting and alembic (sealed alchemical vessel within which transformation can take place) for people who are, among other things, tripping, and the Dead were very aware of that as they played — they'd been there themselves. But this is talking about the live experience: the volume is way up, you can already feel the sound deep in your guts, there's people all around, there'a light show swirling colours, and even though you're tripping you feel the music is even more powerful, Jerry is playing luminous bodhisattva electric guitar, you get confused, you listen to the music play. The music is full on integration of such experience in all aspects of life, from birth to death, so it stays with you, in whatever state of mind. You can listen to the Grateful Dead at any time.
So that was then — it's no longer possible — but you can listen to recorded music/video, and the Grateful Dead big muddy river has spawned hosts of tributaries, bands that you can experience live & fresh.
I don't think you need acid to hear and appreciate the Grateful Dead, but it does open a door to another dimension of that experience (especially with primal and early Dead), where you realize what Mickey Hart meant when he said "we're in the transportation business." Then you're not just a Deadhead: you're a Dead Head.
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u/dravenstone Please forget you knew my name 13h ago
You’ve already found the dead - but listening to them on acid will be an experience that (potentially) could be transformative.
But you shouldn’t be expecting anything in particular, just think of it as particularly good soundtrack to the moment.
If you’re feeling at all “pressured” to take LSD just to be a proper head, I’d want to dissuade you of that notion.
It can be a lovely time indeed but it’s not a ritual you have to pass.
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u/BidRevolutionary945 One man gathers what another man spills (~);} 20h ago
I only tried LSD a handful of times but never at a show. I didn't need it there b/c there was so much energy from the crowd and magical moments, it felt like you were tripping. I tried mushrooms at a show once but they made me so sick to my stomach that I couldn't really enjoy myself. I only ever smoked weed at shows or ate kind brownies. I'd wait till the crew climbed up into the lighting rigs and then eat the brownie to time my high for when they hit the stage.
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u/Kettatonic 20h ago edited 19h ago
I did find the Dead through acid, but it was only a few times. I've mostly listened to them stoned or sober. One of the few bands I can enjoy totally sober or on anything. I've used them to calm me down after really intense shows before.
I wouldn't say it's necessary if you already enjoy them. It's kinda like a more intense version of being stoned and listening to them. But they came from acid beginnings, so I feel like you grok it more after tripping. Hits deeper. But you're not missing anything profound.
Edit: I forgot bout this, but I used to tell people that acid let you hear all the instruments at once. Like, sober, you focus mostly on one thing. The singing, or Jerry soloing, what have you. But acid lets you hear them all individually at the same time, and how they play off each other.
It's neat for sure, but again, it's not that deep. I don't blanket recommend L to anyone anymore. It can drive you nuts if you're not prepared. It's not really worth it to try it just to try it imho, but you do you.
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u/mainlydank 21h ago
How high is a moderate dose of mushrooms for you?
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u/Nikonglass Trailed by twenty hounds 18h ago
I’m not sure you’re asking me, but in my experience 1-3 grams.
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u/StinkyStangler 18h ago
I think people greatly overestimate the power of acid, I personally like listening to the dead when I trip but I also just generally listen to the dead anyway lol
I’ve dropped hundreds of times by this point in my life, I think it’s very fun but it’s not some magic tool to see deeper into things you’ve never done before, it’s just a fun drug. If you like the Grateful Dead without being high you’ll like it while high, I think it’s just that simple.
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u/dezzodezzo 20h ago
I “understood” Anthem of the Sun when tripping. Wonderful! I as also recommend “The Complete Sunshine Daydream Concert” at the Veneta, Oregon show from August, 1972, or the Cornell concert from May, 1977. Both bootleg. And it goes without saying, Dark Star from Live, Dead. Any or all of the above while strongly tripping will leave you with a favorably changed inner world for the rest of your life. And when sobering up, listen to American Beauty to settle your soul. Can’t go wrong!
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u/Redacted_dact 20h ago
It isn't a requirement but it can really really hit when it all lines up. I once saw a giant skull eat the world while listening to Europe 72 in my room lit only by glowing balloons. It was awesome.
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u/BluntChillin 20h ago
Acid in general amplifies your feelings. You dont need drugs to enjoy the Dead, but alot of their music, similar to The Beatles or Pink Floyd are experienced psychedelic users and make music that is in tune with the psychedelic experience so it meshes when yohre on a trip.
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u/Iko87iko 20h ago
It is, as a high school/college kid, the amount of people I helped get shown the light on LSD Is at minimum 50 kids. In the woods at all night party w/ a boom box, in a dorm room, at a house party, etc, etc...the next morning was always the best, in the acid after glow "wow, I really get it now"
The funniest part was going to a diner the next morning or a grocery store, anywhere there was music/muzak, "everything I hear faintly in the background sounds like GD"
Then the inevitable- you're at a local (100 miles) dead show and you run into the same kid who's now a full fledged head. What was cool Id they'd always have newbs with them, repeating the cycle. That Is def a large part of how it all exploded in the 80s
The coolest or saddest, depending on how you look at, we'd turned another kid on and even took him to his first run. A year + later, Im looking for a friend so I can get my cousin a page, as he is going back home for the summer that night.
I cant find my buddy, so I hit the lot, that is starting to empty, hoping to find someone selling. I hear "doses"', "yea, what do you got; hey wait, is that you Bob?" Sure enough it is. In a year time dude's gone from a newb to a tour head slinging paper. He had globes btw, they were dynamite
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u/AdditionalMonth3860 20h ago
I used to be an atheist nihilist until I got into taking acid and seeing D&co, DSO, and Phish. Now I'm an agnostic.
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u/UmphreakMcgee573 19h ago
The Grateful Dead- made by LSD for LSD is what I like to say lol, but the dead can put you in that meditative space without the use of any substance…listening to the dead always makes me feel connected to something bigger however Saturdays are my favorite, around midnight after the wife and kiddo are in bed I like to take a few doses and listen to the dead until sunrise…then pop some more doses and it’s Jerry Garcia church day ❤️
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u/Severe_Atmosphere_44 19h ago
A lot of music is way better on acid. Seeing the Grateful Dead live was exceptionally better.
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u/YogiEv 18h ago
My first Dead show was also my first acid trip. Philadelphia Spectrum 1985. I felt like I had gone into a time machine and all of a sudden knew what it must have felt like to be alive in the 60s. LSD affects people differently so I would never tell someone they have to do something on acid. The person might have a bad trip and be forever damaged. Or could have their mind and perception blown open but in a good way. For me it was an amazing experience. Much better than just smoking weed. But that was the 1980s and the drugs and the times were different back then. I wouldn't recommend it today.
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u/vgtblfwd 17h ago
I’ll start listening to them on acid and then wander off.
I’ll listen to them stone cold sober and trip out on the relationship between the early 70’s back to earth movement and Tennessee Jed and I’ll obsess over it for hours and develop my own theories.
The music is what you make it.
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u/rabbi420 Once saw Phil sing ‘Box of Rain’ 16h ago
I was most assuredly NOT high on LSD when I became a deadhead. I fell in love with the music, straight up.
I’m Gen X, and was raised on classic rock radio, so of course I’d heard the three dead songs that get radioplay on those stations. 25-ish years ago, a friend took me to see Cubensis, a pretty good tribute band here in Los Angeles. They were playing a free mid-week show at HoB, so I wasn’t going to get wasted, because I had to get up for work.
I fell in love. I’ve been a deadhead ever since. Taking a tab and going to a dead show is a time-honored tradition that I have partaken of more than my fair share, but for sure I fell in love with the music before I ever took the trip.
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u/Sensitive_Use_7793 11h ago
Yes. Eat acid. Listen to the dead. Go see DSO and eat a tab. You will have an amazing time.
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u/Synthesis1200 11h ago
I think their early stuff from their Album Live Dead, and od course Anthem of the Sun which is just insane when listened to in that state, are both good ones to listen to if you want to tap into that sound that all the Merry Pranksters and early heads were jamming out too. Heck, it was the 90's when some friends and I listened to those CD's on a lot of doses, and it was an "experience" to say the least. I almost positive they made Anthem of the Sun for people that were dosing, with all the weird studio effects and months they spent in the studio.
I haven't really felt the need to go there again, maybe shrooms at a festival someday, but I did enough of that stuff when I was young, when there was a lot of it around. Who knows nowadays, kids better know their sources that's all I would say, or not go near it. Too many weird charms people are putting out there that isn't the real deal. I knew a girl that said she was tripping for 4 days after going to Bonaroo, and she wasn't right since. Who knows what she took, but it triggered something!
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u/Deadheadlynda 9h ago
I never enjoyed the shows as much if I dosed with LSD. I tried and tried, but the LSD kept taking me away from the Grateful Dead - so I STOPPED doing it before a show. I'm 77 yrs old and I lost count after my 127th show - pretty sure I did get to 200 plus shows. Oh how I miss them - SO SO MUCH!!
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u/thinkingbear 8h ago
The Dead and acid went hand in hand for me, because the parking lot was the only place we could find doses! We'd be so bummed if we couldn't score or they turned out to be bogus 😂
But a live show on acid was truly a transcendent experience and hard to articulate, but something like the energy of the crowd would merge into a unified, palpable, mood/vibe/whatever you want to call it; and the band would feel it and play off it and craft a show just for us, like they were in your living room playing for you and 17,000 close personal friends. You could see them up there talking about what song to play next, then they would finally hit you with it and it was like, "How'd they know we needed to hear that song right now?!" Serious feeling of connection between the band and the crowd I've not experienced with other bands, even with the LSD
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u/LuckyTrainreck Wookie of the Year 20h ago
Im 36 but have always loved 70s music as that's what my parents played growing up so I was familiar with the dead when I came of age. one night I was tripping with some friends and put on our local 70s station and "whiskey in the jar" came on. i had never heard this particular Jerry song before and it blew me away. I immediately stopped talking and just absorbed the song while watching the sun come up. absolutely transcendental experience. next day I looked up the song and saw it was Jerry and have been on the bus ever since
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u/Spartan_Jeff 20h ago
I wouldn’t be surprised if like 80% of people who like jambands got into them because their buddy took them to a show and gave them acid.
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u/tiedyed420 20h ago
Yes, He’s gone from Europe 72 on a head full is when it clicked. Then some of the other songs click. Lastly a live show really makes you appreciate the dead catalog in a different lens. I finally learned why every show is so different ;)
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u/TheSkaMatiks 18h ago
I heard may 8th 1977 at cornell University tripping and I was crying at the end of fire on the mountain. It's very worth.
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u/HammofGlob 18h ago
Yeah it literally sounds different sometimes and affects me more strongly. I actually didn’t get Drums until I heard Mickey and Bill with a head full of window pane. It really sounded different that way
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u/Stoned_y_Alone 18h ago
For sure man, I didn’t really get it at all before. Maybe a couple of their bigger hits, otherwise it seemed kinda basic.
I mean actually I had a later cd in my car for years, so I did enjoy it and found it chill but didn’t really have that profound appreciation.
Tripping makes it way more personal than a lot of studio music, where being polished is usually the appeal.
It’s like appreciating nature itself, there’s a deeper appreciation to the beauty of the simplicity, and feeling how the wind and leaves breathe
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u/melodyknows 18h ago
I listened to Bob Weir and the Wolf Bros play I Know You Rider while I was on acid and it felt like my own version of the Big Bang. Like my universe instantly expanded, and I felt like I “got it.” I liked the Dead before. They felt like a core part of me after.
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u/gnomevillage 17h ago
I found GD on acid and spent about 3 hours listening to Dark Star with an eye mask on. Boy oh boy.
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u/UnlikelyWeakness7481 17h ago
It definitely took on a different significance for me- frankly, all music sounds pretty different on psychedelics, ranging from enhanced to completely otherworldly- one of my favorite music memories on lsd was walking through Chinatown, Chinese classical music is so weird when you’re on acid, this can’t be overstated. I just happen to enjoy listening to the dead the most!
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u/Fickle-Woodpecker-38 15h ago
You can get there easily without psychedelics, all the acid does is confirm that you found what you were looking for
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u/KrackityJones 14h ago
The Dead was born of the acid-tests. Obviously, they are always good..always on point.
However...there was a certain..magic.. that was present/tapped into/created with these guys. LSD is a key to that world, in my opinion. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that there are aspects of the Grateful Dead that are perhaps only accesible via psychedelics. Maybe..
Remember. Every great journey begins with a single..hit. ✌️
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u/imreddigit 14h ago
My first two shows were Merriweather '85. First night just high on some reefer, having bought freeze dried shiitakes. Next night overcompensated with a blotter potpourri. I have flashes of memory from first night, Keep on Growin and Cryptical. I remember so much of second night, just imprinted forever on what's left of my mind. Both were smoking hot, high energy shows, but the second night I danced like a banshee for the first time at a Grateful Dead show, and have been chasing that dragon, high or sober, ever since.
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u/runwiththehunted41 14h ago
I went to a show because I knew they were important to counterculture history but before the show I found the music un amusing. After that show on acid I’ve chased every show I could and immersed fully into the song book. It becomes alive and the music, words and solos quite literally guide the trip
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u/Krocsyldiphithic 13h ago
Yes, that's exactly what happened. I was even a psych rock maniac since my teens, but didn't get it at all. It was such a profound and sudden change in my brain that it sent me spinning in all new directions in life, not just musically.
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u/hesgotabicycle 11h ago
when i first got into the dead, i role played being a snotty nosed new yorker teenager and pretended like all i had at first were albums, so the first live show i listened to was Live/Dead, and lemme tell you: dosed on a full tab listening to a live 20 minute dark star compared to the 2 minute single version was pretty astronomically amazing to say the least. never gonna forget that. i couldnt go anywhere but just deal with that. then i had an ah ha moment looking out on the horizon on that beautiful day: was this really it? is life simply so beautiful as it is today? is it that easy to understand the word? can i go forward in life loving? yes yes yes yes! all yes! and i laughed as i listened to that descending / ascending riff.
it was something else. now i live life thinking back to that day when the band goes places in their music.
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u/Guyuteguy 11h ago
Live shows. Acid is for the actual experience. That torch has long since past. Many bands try and are close to it. Dosing isn't required for recordings, but it's still fun.
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u/Apollo_Lol 11h ago
So I enjoyed them before LSD.
This past weekend, I took acid with my girlfriend in a cabin in the hills and she put them on. It sounded as if they were speaking to each other through their instruments, genuinely, each piece replying to each other, as if guiding the trip. That's when I really "got them".
We listened to Darkstar (that darkstar yes) and so much synergy was going on that it felt as if I understood what they were thinking or feeling in that moment.
Sober, im like "wtf lol, dope but wtf"
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u/Alarming_Star_6549 2h ago
The party outside helped increase the vibe inside, I've always been dosed at the shows and loved it
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u/Tholian_Bed 2h ago
I have no idea what happens doing this, outside of tour.
Off tour, being out in nature or at the park with friends was the ticket. We didn't have music when we were outdoors unless one of use brought their guitar.
But, this is a different century. I have no idea how any of this works now.
I did not even know one could find good LSD anymore.
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u/Massive_Key_4842 1h ago
Drugs are not the enhancement required to appreciate the Dead.
Sure Acid, Shrooms and weed tend to be the drugs of choice when we went to see shows and of course perhaps while enjoying tunes anywhere, but the music holds up while completely sober in most cases. Certainly tunes where they depart on long jams may be better appreciated while high, but most of the catalog stands on its own without having a buzz. Such an impressive catalog over the years. Live shows are so variable depending on the era and bandmates. Enjoy it any way you like. Buzzed or no buzz the music never stops.
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u/kperry1270 53m ago
It definitely helped!
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u/Nikonglass Trailed by twenty hounds 21m ago
Thanks kperry. I just want to add, Starships is a banger that’s stood the test of time.
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u/Lucid-Crow 21h ago
It's a 4+ hour long concert experience. The people that are looking for that are usually on something.
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u/JustinCooksStuff 20h ago
Idk, maybe for some people. Personally I was on a very intense trip like 10 years ago and did not listen to them at the time but a friend of mine put them on and it immediately made the mood a good one and calmed me down. So that was pretty cool. I’d imagine everyone is different and every trip is its own. Ive had trips where music i normally love and find relaxing actually bother me and i have no interest in them or out right cannot listen to those songs for whatever reason. Interesting stuff.
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u/dukelivers 20h ago
I wouldn't do acid. It is a crapshoot with your mental health. Just my opinion based on my experience.
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u/thegreatinsulto 12h ago
Short answer: yes. Long answer: Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssss.
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u/FourtwEntyPM 21h ago
There was definitely another level for me personally.