The MVV Journal
Grateful Dead Saga: Primal Dead: Haight-Ashbury and the Brith of San Francisco Psychedelia
By 1966, the Grateful Dead had found more than a new name. They had found a home. In Haight-Ashbury, they became part of a rapidly expanding world of musicians, artists, experimenters, and outsiders who were reshaping San Francisco culture in real time. From 710 Ashbury and the psychedelic ballrooms to the Summer of Love, Monterey Pop, their first record, and the increasingly adventurous music pouring from the stage, the Dead were becoming something far stranger and more ambitious than the bar band that had once called itself the Warlocks. This is the story of Primal Dead, when a band, a neighborhood, and a cultural revolution collided.