Grateful Dead 50th Anniversary
If you haven’t yet heard, the Grateful Dead are getting back together one more time, with a “Fare Thee Well” three night stand. They picked Soldier Field because it was the location of their final show with Jerry Garcia in 1995. 2o years later, Original members Phil Lesh, Bob Wier, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzman will be joined by Jeff Chimeni and Bruce Hornsby, as well as Trey Anastasio of Phish. They are doing 3 shows, over the fourth of July weekend, July 3rd, 4th, & 5th, 2015. Billed as “Fare thee Well”, it should be an amazing for young and old Grateful Dead fans alike.
Who is the dead and why are they following me?
The Grateful Dead was started 50 years ago in 1965 when Phil Lesh joined “The Warlocks” and they changed their name to the “Grateful Dead”. Playing gigs in the San Francisco Bay area, they became a symbol of the counterculture and psychedelic scene. Their loyal fans, known as Dead Heads, would tour with them, moving from town to town, selling handmade jewelery, bottles of water, and grilled cheese sandwiches. There really wasn’t much of anything you couldn’t get in the lot at a grateful Dead show, and when they came to town, they literally brought a town with them, with as many as 15,000 people following them at their height.
I was lucky enough to see the Dead almost a dozen times, and I was at the final two concerts in Soldier Field back on July 8th and 9th, 1995. It is an experience that never will be relived, but for the millions of us, who clung to Phish when Jerry died, Trey Anastasio makes an amazing replacement for this one time event. I’m not saying they won’t tour again, because we all know “The Music Never Stopped” on “Shakedown Street” even when “Bertha”, “Jack Straw, and “Tennessee Jed” have a “Touch of Grey”, their still “Going to Hell in a Bucket”.
Grateful Dead Envelope Art
Back in the days before the internet, there were only a few ways to get tickets to a dead show. You could go to Ticketmaster outlet and campout, you could call at 10am or whatever time they went on sale (typically getting a busy signal for a half hour or more of calling), you could wait for “a miracle” day of the show, or the best option when it worked, was to send off mail order. The first x thousand letters they received would get tickets. In order to stand out from the pack, dead heads started turning the envelopes into art work, hopeful it would increase their chance of getting mail-order tickets.
Below are some of the examples of the envelope art that was sent in this year.
Examples of the Envelope Art shared on Facebook
About Thomas Strubinger
Husband, Father, Foodie, Cardinal Fan. I am just an average joe, trying to make my way in this world. Living the dream in Juno Beach, Florida, and raising my kids right. I believe the most important things in life are your health and happiness.
