The Dead

340 Pages·1980·72.478 MB·English

by  Hank Harrison

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Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
China-America Digital Academic Library (CADAL)
https://archive.org/details/deadOOharr
The Dead
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Millbrae, California
Hank Harrison
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Copyright © 1980 by Hank Harrison
Celestial Arts
231 Adrian Rd.
Millbrae, CA 94030
No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical,
photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a
phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval
system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or
private use without the written permission of the publisher.
First Printing, September 1980
Cover design by Betsy Bruneau
Flying Eyeball illustration © Alton Kelley
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Harrison, Hank.
The Dead book.
Cover title: The Dead.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Grateful Dead (Musical group) I. Title
II. Title: Dead.
ML421.G72H4 1980 784.5’4’00922 [B] 79-56661
ISBN 0-89087-282-1
ISBN 0-89087-300-3 (pbk.)
12 3 4 5 6 7 86 85 84 83 82 81 80
For Courtney, Nana and
the boys at the Bohemian Club
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AeKliOOJLEDGmEIiTS
This single volume represents Book Two and Book Three of the Dead
trilogy of which The Dead Book is Volume One. It is possible that they
may never be published in one volume or in a set, but the data is here,
nonetheless. The first book is a demographic analysis, while the second
and third books are stylized longitudinal studies of a rock group in
process over more than two decades.
I first felt the need to develop a follow-up study in 1969 after I observed
the Altamont concert with horror, a huge human gathering filled with
manipulations and Faustian energies that will be discussed long after I
am gone.
It is imperative that no one dismiss the rock movement of the ’60s and
’70s as insignificant simply because it did not address itself to the status
quo, since it did address itself to the mainstream of the future.
After teaching in the public school system from 1976 to 1980, I was
convinced that there may never be an insider’s account of what hap-
pened in the Bay Area in sociological terms. Therefore I have provided
some framework with which future generations might better evaluate
our struggle as we emerged as the fifth column of a sixth estate from our
San Francisco bohemian roots.
It was clear that the media, as a fifth estate, and mom and pop just
didn’t want to comprehend the craziness of the movement or the commit-
ments required. Even the European radicals had no idea what we were
up to, and the New York beatniks, still agog from the success of abstract
expressionism. Pop, Op, and Kitsch, thought it was very weird indeed.
Hardly anyone, least of all ourselves, had any idea that we might actually
pull off this psychic coup de grace.
The rock groups of the Bay Area, the Loading Zone, the Elaming
Groovies, the Mystery Trend, the Dead, the Beau Brummells, the Eamily
Dog-Avalon Eamily, Big Brother and Janis, Quicksilver, the Airplane-
Starship, SVT, and Tuna and on and on into the night, even Ralph J.
Gleason in his way, were the marching bands and conductors for a
movement that swept the nation and the world in the most subtle wave
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ever to oecur in modern history. We used lots of decoys and distractions,
we posed as clowns, crazies, fools, and witties, scoundrels and trouba-
dours, all to achieve our goal . . . which we never could quite define in
words . . . just a feeling, really.
Others, such as Charles Reich and Theodore Rozak or Alvin Toffler,
each posing as an apologist for their respective generations have vari-
ously referred to the rock culture as “Consciousness Three” or “The
Counterculture” or “The Third Wave,” but all of these approaches have
been taken by outsiders writing from decidedly outside views. For what
it’s worth, I have written this trilogy from the only perspective I could
have possibly gained.
I would like to thank a number of people whose help was invaluable in
the preparation of the book and the manuscript. Nancy Jeffers-
Cummings of the Clark County Library, and Dr. and Mrs. John Standish,
the Dead, Bill Brach, Spencer Dryden, Herb Greene, “Sweet” Richard
Hungeon, Marcie Ross, the Celestial Arts staff, Danny Moses of the Sierra
Club, Jay Moses, Jon Goodchild, Dame Frances Yates, John Michelle,
Simon Vinkenoog, Lyn Ward, R.H. Blyth, John Dos Passos, Pig Pen’s
Mom and family. Pig Pen, Bob Petersen, T.C. and Sea, Philip Wylie,
Nelson Algren, Saul Alinsky, Herbert Marcuse, all of the people who
subscribed to the Archives Newsletter, Henry Humble, Dead Heads ev-
erywhere, Henry Miller, Dr. Lloyd Saxton, Dr. Marilyn Buckley, Roshi
Suzuki, Wendy and Jon Sievert, and Master Yoda.