Why are the Grateful Dead such a polarizing band ?

Answers are as follows ----- KLB said: Deadheads are a breed of their own. I grew up in SFO when The Grateful Dead was alive and well. Saw them in the early days at Winterland, had a great time, and that was enough for me. Still LOVE to crank some Dead, though. =================== Professor Scrotenhauser said: The Professor gives you a good answer - that they're just worshiped, and that the most fervent cult members are generally regarded as losers. This guilt-by-association thing and the fact that the Dead are known for being a very loose band make some people associate them with laziness, which is not fair at all. Garcia was a brilliant guitarist, and didn't get that way by slacking. Some of their songs are deeply moving. Lady With A Fan has splendid, thought-provoking poetry for lyrics. Why does he say the soldier's strength was "strategy and not disaster"? Because it rhymes with "master"? What is a soldier prepared for? Traps. What is a sailor prepared for? Nothing but disaster. ==================== You are of course correct. I suspect if anyone were to do some serious research they would be able to demonstrate that there were good reasons for this based on the very different lifestyles of their loyal fans, the so called "Grateful Heads", and the ordinary fellow , the man in the street, who simply does not get what all the fuss is about. The "Grateful Heads" are by and large a bunch of feckless wasters prone to growing their hair long, adorning it with flowers, indulging idealistic notions of free love and peace and the abolition of property. They are generally so mashed off their faces after shooting up "wacky baccy" that they actually think they enjoy the Grateful Dead s music. On the other side of the divide we have people who actually have to work for a living and through their taxes support the lifestyles of the "Grateful Heads". The irony is that if property and big business were to be abolished as the "Grateful Heads" wish, there would be far less taxpayers money available to fund their lifestyle, but such finer details are no doubt lost in a cloud of smoke form the "wacky baccy". Of course I m no square, I was something of a hepcat in my youth, and I once grew my hair past my shoulder, wore bell bottom flares, and flowers in my hair. I got some very strange looks on the streets of Surbiton I can tell you. ===================== They Pelted Us With Rocks And Garbage said: Three primary reasons. First off ,because they were extremely popular, and popular bands always draw criticism. Secondly, you add that to the fact they were always a live band, which means all those kiddies who worship classic rock will never get them, because they can't be boiled down to a condensed milk version like so much other classic rock. Some bands are about the live experience, not the studio pretend version. If you ranked bands which built followings based on their live music, the Dead would be the apex of that pyramid. They're the anti-rapper. The anti-sample band. The band which is the opposite of the music nerd sitting with his lap top in his room or the guy who lives in a mansion, but never tours. Third, because they embraced experimental music in a big way while still clinging to the roots music which made rock. Thus they pissed off two groups at once, the people who hate old music and the people who hate odd or experimental music. ==================== Anonymous said: They aren’t. Most people simply don’t care. ===================== My response: I listen to the Dead every day and here's what I think: they did what few bands actually do in their musical career -- they built a community of followers that broadcast a spirit of peace and freedom into an American society from the 1960s to the 1990s which became increasingly corporately-controlled over that time-frame; their political decision to allow members of the audience to record their concerts was only one example of their overall anti-capitalist philosophy of distributing their productions in an unfettered fashion and lastly, because at the height of their fame, they were able to maintain a certain level of artistic integrity. I am not one of those who think commercial success ruined the band. Like Bob Dylan, another extremely polarizing figure, they were true artists and their body of work may be judged on artistic (non-commercial) standards.