GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST

The Deadcast explores Phil Lesh’s masterpiece “Unbroken Chain,” its mysterious lyricist Bobby Petersen, & digs into the luminous synth with Ned Lagin himself; plus, the story of the album title & art with the Grateful Dead Records crew & a visit from Animal Collective’s Avey Tare.

The Deadcast explores “China Doll,” perhaps the most delicate Dead song, the innovative studio techniques pioneered for From The Mars Hotel, the formation of Round Records (& the making of Jerry Garcia’s sophomore solo album), & the infamous Wall of Sound test at the Cow Palace.

The Grateful Deadcast begins the epic story of the Dead in 1974 with the writing of From the Mars Hotel’s album-opening “U.S. Blues” & the multiple debuts of the innovative Wall of Sound, featuring new interviews & never-heard archival audio.

The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast is back for its 9th season of high adventure and historical storytelling, unlocking the secrets of From the Mars Hotel and going on tour with the Wall of Sound. Tune in starting March 28th wherever you get your podcasts.

The Deadcast finishes its season by examining Bob Weir’s ambitious Weather Report Suite with collaborator Eric Andersen & following the launch of Wake of the Flood on the band’s own label with company president Ron Rakow, plus Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan, Erik Davis, & more.

The Deadcast uncovers a most unusual lost studio session by Robert Hunter & the Grateful Dead, recorded at the Record Plant in November 1973, which we listen to in its entirety & annotate with the help of Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay & others.

Explore “Eyes of the World” inside & out with the studio multi-tracks, lost lyrics, archival audio of Robert Hunter, a meditation by Erik Davis, & a tour of the song’s evolution (yes, including that cool 7/8 ending).

We explore the Beatlesque optimism of “Here Comes Sunshine,” its roots in the Vanport flood of 1948, & the story of the brand-new custom Doug Irwin guitar Jerry Garcia debuted on Wake of the Flood.

A personal favorite of both Jerry Garcia & Robert Hunter, we explore how “Stella Blue” grew from New York’s fertile Chelsea Hotel into one of the great American songs, plus Bruce Hornsby on how Wake of the Flood made him a Dead fan.

The Deadcast explores the strange not-quite-reggae of “Row Jimmy,” featuring a long never-heard interview with lyricist Robert Hunter from 1977.

The Deadcast explores Keith Godchaux’s only song for the Grateful Dead, the unassuming but complex “Let Me Sing Your Blues Away,” the debut single from Wake of the Flood & Grateful Dead Records, co-starring Donna Jean, company president Ron Rakow, & a gaggle of early Dead tapers.

The Deadcast begins our deep dive into Wake of the Flood, including multi-track breakdowns for Mississippi Half-Step, never-heard outtakes, studio memories from Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, & the origins of Grateful Dead Records with co-founder Ron Rakow.

The thrilling conclusion of our visit to the record-breaking Watkins Glen Summer Jam, featuring John Belushi crashing the backstage, a super jam onstage, a teen-run pirate radio station, & the birth of a new generation of Dead Heads.

Musicians, organizers, & fans tell the epic story of how the Watkins Glen Summer Jam started as a giant rock show & turned into history when more than a half-million came to see the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, & The Band.

Our stadium-sized season finale visits the Dead’s June 1973 mega-gigs with the Allman Brothers Band in Washington DC, featuring the Allmans family, legendary tapers, searing heat, super jams, backstage brawls, & the manifestation of the Ouroboros.

The Deadcast visits one of the Dead’s most legendary hometown shows with the band, crew, & Bay Area Dead freaks, featuring 3 sets in the Golden Gate Park sunshine, technological innovations, & an important paper by the Haight Street Free Medical Clinic.

Feel the ocean breeze and spend a sunny Sunday with the Grateful Dead as the Deadcast visits Santa Barbara ‘73 with first-time showgoer Al Franken, archivist David Lemieux, the show’s promoters, and more.

We time-travel to the Dead’s massive 3-set show in Des Moines, May 1973 (& the first show on the new Here Comes Sunshine box) with stories from Donna Jean, the show’s promoters, & the Dead’s office staff, plus custom gear, big jams, an indoor fireworks fight, etc.

The Deadcast takes a special side trip into Jerry Garcia’s extracurricular projects in 1973, exploring his partnerships with organist Merl Saunders & the legendary bluegrass group Old & In the Way with guests David Grisman & Peter Rowan, & how they impacted the Dead’s music.

The Deadcast sets course for 1973, diving into the newly announced Here Comes Sunshine box set with firsthand tours of the ambitious family businesses in orbit around the Dead in 1973, including an independent record label, booking company, travel agency, clothing boutique, & more.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow deadheads, today’s regularly scheduled DeadCast will be coming in the not too distant future, fear not we have all the Golden Yummies lined up for your listening pleasure.

The Deadcast is honored to welcome Tom Constanten to discuss his remarkable tenure as Grateful Dead keyboardist from late 1968 through early 1970, his work on 3 classic albums, & his adventures before & after the Dead, including his current band Dose Hermanos.

The Deadcast returns to the Fillmore East and digs into the Dead’s 1st archival live album, History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear’s Choice), produced by former LSD alchemist Owsley Stanley & released as a tribute to Pigpen just after his death.

The Deadcast concludes our tribute to Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, exploring his years with the Dead, featuring more documents from the McKernan family archives, his alleged firing, former housemate Tom Constanten, lost song lyrics, & last songs.

The Deadcast marks 50 years since the passing of original Grateful Dead frontman Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, in part 1 uncovering his mysterious pre-Dead years in the Palo Alto folk scene, featuring a visit to the McKernan archives, never-heard performances, & archival interviews.

The Deadcast concludes its dive into the Grateful Dead’s entanglement with technology, exploring Jerry Garcia’s digital graphics obsession, how Dead Head online communities helped shape the emergent internet, lyricist John Perry Barlow’s manifestoes, & more.

The Deadcast explores the Grateful Dead’s long-term cosmic entanglement with the California technology world & the architecture of the internet itself, featuring biomusic pioneer Ned Lagin, Dead Heads at the Stanford AI Lab & Apple, sonic heroes from Alembic & Meyer Sound, & more.

We present an encore of the Deadcast’s Denmark episode from earlier this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Europe ‘72’s proper release, as well as to get you ready for (or debrief you from) the Meet-Up At The Movies presentation of the Dead’s historic Danish telecast.

The Grateful Deadcast celebrates Bobby Weir’s 75th with the birthday boy himself, exploring Weir’s world with Don Was, Jeff Chimenti, members of the expanded Wolfpack, & orchestral collaborator Giancarlo Aquilanti.

The Deadcast welcomes Bobby Weir to honor the 50th anniversary of his 1972 solo debut “Ace” (& its forthcoming reissue), made with an all-star backing band that happened to be the Grateful Dead, featuring archival audio with “Ace” lyricists John Perry Barlow & Robert Hunter.

Pack the Microbus & hit the road with the Dead in ‘83, hang out with the deep scene of Dead Head graffiti writers & frisbee players in Central Park, & get back to Madison Square Garden for two shows with two room-shaking bustouts.

The Deadcast examines how the Grateful Dead remained a center of innovation in 1982, exploring their new sound system with John & Helen Meyer of Meyer Sound, an audacious plan to sell live tapes, the DIY zine scene, one future hit, & two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden.

We point the Deadcast to the ‘80s & channel the room-shaking power of the 1981 Madison Square Garden shows on the new box set with archivist David Lemieux, promoter John Scher, photographers Jay Blakesberg & Bob Minkin, tapers Jim Wise & Charlie Miller, & many more.

On a very special bonus episode, we check in with Mickey Hart about his latest drones and hear high tales of Grateful Dead madness, from frying bacon onstage to using firearms as percussion, plus stories about his handcrafted instrument, the Beam, and a look into the Barn, his recording “crucible” in Novato and one of the great and oft-forgotten studios of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

This week, the Deadcast swaps feeds with the Comes A Time podcast hosted by Dead & Co. bassist Oteil Burbridge & comedian Mike Finoia, featuring their interview with promoter Peter Shapiro, impresario behind Fare Thee Well & the Capitol Theatre, & author of a new book.

We time travel to one of the Grateful Dead’s most legendary shows, the 1972 benefit that saved the Springfield Creamery, featuring eyewitness accounts of heads freaking freely in the scorching heat amid some of the most incandescent jams of the band’s career.

The Deadcast explores the backdrop for one the Grateful Dead’s most extraordinary shows, saving the Springfield Creamery at an off-the-grid potluck picnic amid Merry Pranksters, colorful commune dwellers, & innovative yogurt pioneers during the heady summer of 1972.

Our Deadcast season finale explores how the Grateful Dead crafted 73 hours of tape into the sparkling triple-LP Europe ‘72, commissioned iconic cover art, spawned several new businesses, created a global impact, & eventually built a groundbreaking box set four decades later.

The Grateful Dead (& the Deadcast) finish the Europe ‘72 tour with 4 rapturous nights at London’s Lyceum Ballroom, where they record much of their new live album, including a most psychedelicized tour finale, plus deep dives into “Ramble On Rose,” “Morning Dew,” & other classics.

The Europe ’72 tour’s last week on the Continent includes a free show in Lille (where a Greenpeace co-founder has a far-out experience), a broadcast from the biggest pirate radio station in the world, a famous new sticker for Jerry Garcia’s Stratocaster, & adventures in the Alps.

The Grateful Deadcast explores the Netherlands with band & crew, dives deep into “He’s Gone,” learns why Dutch Dead fans were headier than regular Dutch rock fans, glides through the longest ever “Dark Star,” & traces the Hippie Trail from its northwestern terminus in Amsterdam.

The biggest gig of the Grateful Dead’s Europe ‘72 tour, their largest ever overseas show, & one of our biggest Deadcasts yet, reconstructing the legendary Bickershaw Festival mudbath with enraptured audience members including an extended conversation with Elvis Costello.

The Deadcast’s grand tour of Europe ‘72 hits the City of Light, goes museum-hopping with band & crew, digs deep into 2 classic shows at L’Olympia & the 5 songs recorded there for the live album, reconstructs how everybody got too high, & puts together the pieces of the Lille riot.

The Grateful Dead truck into West Germany, film a session for the Beat-Club, get thrown out of their hotel, jam in a planetarium, meet Naked Frankfurt Dude & many American GIs, are pranked by their light crew, influence the course of German psychedelia, & play 3 legendary shows.

In which the Grateful Dead make landfall on the Continent, do battle with Danish customs, play on the 1st live rock telecast in national history, perform in a university cafeteria, visit Hamlet’s castle, cross paths with a countercultural hero, wear clown masks, & get cool sweaters.

Board the red-eye to London & storm England with the Dead as they open their Europe ‘72 tour, featuring family members, legendary jams, British Dead freaks, letters home from Pigpen, a trip to/at Stonehenge, Bozos, Bolos, & the birth of Hypnocracy.

The Deadcast begins our 10-part series on Europe ‘72, revisiting the Grateful Dead’s legendary triple-LP & epic tour, as the band prepares to blaze a new circuit across the Continent with more than 40 family members, custom recording gear, & the makings of a classic album.

The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast is back on April 7th and we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of Europe ‘72 by going on the whole tour, featuring members of the band, crew, family, European heads, 11 Dark Stars, and 10 episodes of high adventure, every Thursday through June.

The Deadcast celebrates the 30th anniversary of 1991’s “Infrared Roses,” the last original Grateful Dead album (with cover art by Jerry Garcia & track titles by Robert Hunter) & explores the band’s MIDI years.

We uncover the secrets of the Grateful Dead’s legendary tape vault with archivist David Lemieux, from LSD alchemist Owsley Stanley to the making of the Betty Boards, from “Dick’s Picks” (& Dick Latvala’s own home recordings) to the 10th anniversary of “Dave’s Picks.”

We examine the emergent interdisciplinary world of Dead Studies & pay a virtual visit to the annual Grateful Dead Scholars Caucus, hearing presentation excerpts from a spectrum of musicologists, historians, psychologists, and more.

We give thanks to Dead Heads and use listener-submitted stories to tell to the Heads’ history from the Haight-Ashbury to Shakedown Street, with Bill Walton, DeadBase founder Mike Dolgushkin, sociologist Rebecca Adams, Steve Silberman, & and many new friends.

We are beyond honored to welcome former Grateful Dead vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay herself to hear the wondrous story of how she went from Alabama to the top of the charts before fate led her to San Francisco, Keith Godchaux, and the Grateful Dead.

The Deadcast finishes our tour of St. Louis at the Kiel Auditorium in fall 1973, featuring Warlocks-era insider Steve Brown, local heads, the return of musicologist Graeme Boone to go deep into Dead’s jams, & a visit from Rich’s parents.

We explore the Grateful Dead’s formative early 1966 months in Los Angeles under the patronage of Owsley Stanley, LSD chemist & the band’s new sound engineer, featuring Owsley’s assistants Tim Scully & Don Douglas, Merry Pranksters, Rosie McGee, & an archival interview with Owsley.

We go behind the scenes, into the crowd, around the specially-installed mirror ball, & inside the music at the Dead’s 3 legendary 1972 shows at St. Louis’s Fox Theatre with promoters Sepp Donahower & Tony Dwyer, musicologist Graeme Boone, & Dead freaks who were there.

The Grateful Dead’s relationship with St. Louis went deep as the new Listen To The River box set and this Deadcast prove, featuring promoter Tony Dwyer, offstage jams at Scotty’s Music, and the time the Dead crashed Richie Gerber’s bar mitzvah.

The Deadcast opens its 4th season with one of the most unlikely but totally true stories in Grateful Dead history: how Keith & Donna Jean Godchaux approached Jerry Garcia at a bar and announced that Keith was the Dead’s new keyboardist, going deep into Godchaux family history.

The Deadcast takes a special season-closing look at Jerry Garcia’s classic eponymous debut with co-producer Bob Matthews and friends, recorded during the summer of 1971 by Garcia and a small crew of close collaborators including Bill Kreutzmann and Robert Hunter.

A truly all-star Deadcast examines the infinite approaches to playing Dead music, from traditional to radical, with a massive span of musicians who’ve played it, from jazz arrangers to indie rock heroes, from actual Dead members to Japanese cover bands.

The Deadcast examines how the Grateful Dead became a genre and school of music unto themselves, tracing the history of Dead covers to New Jersey in 1969, Calcutta in 1975, & beyond, featuring special appearances by Phish’s Trey Anastasio & Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan.

The Deadcast finishes its all-star “Skull & Roses” dive with cosmic diplomat Alan Trist, Courtenay Pollack’s new tie-dye speakers, a surprise trip abroad, the closing of the Fillmore West, studio parties, explorations of the album’s legendary art & infamous original name, & more.

We celebrate the 80th birthday of the late Robert Hunter, the Grateful Dead’s primary lyricist, exploring his extraordinary partnership with Jerry Garcia and work with other collaborators, as well his poetry, fiction, and solo career.

The Grateful Dead only visited England a half-dozen times in 30 years, but the quintessential American band’s relationship ran deeper than it might seem, filled with unexpected connections & fans as devoted as any Dead Heads back home, including lyric scholar Alex Allan.

The Deadcast sticks around the Fillmore East for even more backstage stories with stage crew member Allan Arkush, including movie nights with Jerry Garcia and the guitarist’s brief stint doing Hollywood sound effects.

The Deadcast trucks into Bill Graham’s Fillmore East, where the Grateful Dead recorded the bulk of Skull & Roses in April 1971, featuring stage crew member Allan Arkush, tour manager Sam Cutler, & a deep dive into “Wharf Rat” with Darkside’s Dave Harrington.

After special guest Judy Collins joins us to untangle the surprising origins of the Dead’s most-performed song, “Me & My Uncle,” the Deadcast wades into the oversold 3-night April 1971 Dance Marathon that became part of “Skull & Roses,” guided by tour manager Sam Cutler and friends.

Our celebration of the Skull & Roses 50th anniversary reissue continues as we explore the “spaceship in construction” of the Grateful Dead in 1971 with Rosie McGee, luthier Rick Turner (maker of Jerry Garcia’s Peanut guitar), tie-dye pioneer Courtenay Pollack, & rare audio.

We begin our 50th anniversary celebration of 1971’s live album Skull & Roses with co-producer Bob Matthews, lighting director Candace Brightman, tour manager Sam Cutler, David Crosby, & David Freiberg, plus lost sessions, a 6-night false start, dream telepathy, song origins & more.

We wish you a merry Pranks Day with a surprise Deadcast about the first known live Grateful Dead tape, from 1966, and reveal what happens when you try to shut down an Acid Test, featuring Merry Pranksters Ken Babbs and Denise Kaufman, with additional storytelling by Jerry Garcia.

The Deadcast season finale wraps up American Beauty and looks at the iconic Truckin’, the autobiographical album-closing road anthem, unpacking the band’s history from its verses, lost lyrics, and never-heard original ending.

A surprising and wide-ranging conversation with Ned Lagin, the pioneering jazz-trained electronic composer whose friendship with the Grateful Dead began when the band crowded into his M.I.T. dorm room to jam and would encompass contributions to American Beauty and Wake of the Flood, nearly 20 onstage appearances with the band between 1970 and 1975, and Lagin’s own Seastones project, released by Jerry Garcia’s Round Records, featuring contributions by Garcia, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, David Crosby, Grace Slick, and more.

Two episodes in one: we meditate on the harmony tracks and metaphysical overtones of the hymn-like Attics Of My Life, before David Crosby and Steve Silberman return for extended look at how the American Beauty sessions flowed into Croz’s masterpiece, If I Could Only Remember My Name, where Jerry Garcia and the Dead served as supporting musicians and friends.

Jumping off from “Till the Morning Comes” and the outtake “To Lay Me Down” we hear from Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay on falling in love with (and to) the Dead, Bob Weir on the secret to recording Phil Lesh, Stephen Malkmus with a psychedelic book recommendation, and time travel to Winterland in October 1970.

We examine how the Grateful Dead classic “Brokedown Palace” forms a hidden but powerful song suite with “Ripple,” the preceding song on American Beauty, with guests Bob Weir, pianist Howard Wales, longtime Dead publisher Alan Trist, historian Nicholas Meriwether, and musicologist Mike Hamad, plus a search for Pigpen’s cat.

On a very special bonus episode, we check in with Mickey Hart about his latest drones and hear high tales of Grateful Dead madness, from frying bacon onstage to using firearms as percussion, plus stories about his handcrafted instrument, the Beam, and a look into the Barn, his recording “crucible” in Novato and one of the great and oft-forgotten studios of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

We examine Ripple, the timeless cosmic hymn leading off Side B of American Beauty, written during what Robert Hunter called a peak experience, and take a close look at the Dead’s very own softball team, with guests Bob Weir, David Grisman, Ned Lagin, and many more, including Ripple chorale performer Sam Cutler.

With the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, we examine how “Candyman” updates an old folk meme, we welcome David Crosby to talk about the hottest session guitarist in 1970 San Francisco, Jerry Garcia; plus a cavalcade of stars.

To celebrate “Operator,” the fourth song on American Beauty and the first Grateful Dead song written solely by Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, we examine his life and offer an extremely rare look into the Pigpen archives, a collection of journals, letters, and more inherited by an old family friend.

We are honored to welcome the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir (!!!) for a deep look at his signature song, “Sugar Magnolia,” and the making of the Dead’s landmark American Beauty in 1970, plus surprising memories of the song from Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan.

In the fall of 1980, the Grateful Dead celebrated their 15th anniversary with a series of 25 special shows in San Francisco, New Orleans, and Manhattan, playing acoustic sets for the first time in a decade, along with two electric sets each night, The shows would yield the live double-albums Reckoning and Dead Set, as well as a Halloween simulcast that became the concert film Dead Ahead, We went behind this massive undertaking for a special bonus episode of the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast.

The Grateful Dead’s most-covered song, “Friend of the Devil,” also uncovers the secret history of American Beauty, including a never-heard demo reel for the album and totally scrapped session tapes newly released as The Angel’s Share, with guests David Grisman, David Nelson, Stephan Barncard, and more.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary remaster of the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty, we begin our track-by-track exploration of the band’s bittersweet 1970 masterpiece, powerfully embodied by opening track “Box of Rain,” featuring archival audio, and guests including co-producer Stephen Barncard and Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig.

DESCRIPTION: In our packed season finale, we explore how “Casey Jones” combined folk traditions and became an underground hit too risque for pop radio, hear a break down of the multi-track, discuss the infamous sniff and other Workingman’s Dead’s finishing touches with co-producer Bob Matthews, figure out the location and date of the cover photo, and more.

We explore how “Easy Wind” was the only song on Workingman’s Dead sung by Pigpen and the first Dead tune solely written by lyricist Robert Hunter, featuring rarely heard radio promo spots recorded by Hunter.

With special guests Graham Nash and Rhoney Stanley, our dive into the Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead examines how a mishap with an estimated $50,000 worth of LSD led to both the writing of “Black Peter,” perhaps the Grateful Dead’s most somber song, and turned Jerry Garcia into a Crosby, Stills and Nash fan.

A very Jerry bonus episode explores Jerry Garcia’s early ‘60s years in the Palo Alto folk scene and his progression from guitar strummer to banjo picker during a prodigious half-decade before going electric with the Grateful Dead, including interviews with David Nelson and Bob Matthews, both one-time members of Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions.

We flip sides on the Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead and explore why “Cumberland Blues” is a much stranger song than it might seem, chart the transformation into the so-called Bakersfield Dead, and--in an extended interview--hear how new tour manager Sam Cutler helped the band turn themselves into a real-life workingman’s Dead during one of the most tumultuous and pivotal moments in their history.

We explore “New Speedway Boogie,” the last song on Side 1 of the Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead, examining how the song grew from the disastrous 1969 free festival at Altamont headlined by the Rolling Stones, and listen to never-heard session outtakes from “Mason’s Children.”

Our close listen to the Grateful Dead’s remastered Workingman’s Dead 50th anniversary edition continues with “Dire Wolf.”

For “High Time,” we look behind the purple door of Pacific High Recording with co-producer Bob Matthews and tour manager Sam Cutler, examine session outtakes and tape mysteries with Brian Kehew and Mike Johnson, and explore how “High Time” was a songwriting breakthrough for Jerry Garcia and his new housemate, lyricist Robert Hunter.

The first of our ongoing surprise BEAR DROPS, exploring the life and legacy of Owsley Stanley, the pioneer underground LSD chemist as well as trailblazing sound engineer for the Grateful Dead.

Join us for deep dig into the rich history of WORKINGMAN’S DEAD with album co-producer Bob Matthews and others, beginning with a close listen to “Uncle John’s Band,” including its surprising roots in jazz history and Macedonian choral music, a further look into the session outtakes, and the story of the real-life Uncle John.