41 Years Ago
In "The Undead: Lively fans flock to hear the Grateful Dead's hypnotic music," the June 19, 1984 Golden Transcript described a mass visitation of Grateful Dead fans who were in town for a series of concerts at Red Rocks.
The article claimed that fans were camped in "every empty spot between Golden and Morrison." The writer clearly enjoyed the chance to write about the counterculture.
It described one of the campsites in detail, including a tie-dyed sheet, a VW bus, and a hammock. The inhabitants included a young man wearing sandals and faded Levi cutoffs and "a tired-looking woman in a jungle print sundress...curled in a tattered brown blanket on the ground at his feet." The next campsite had two men "naked to the waist" and "a rail-thin blonde in cutoffs and a canary yellow tank top" who was barefoot.
The reporter spoke with a woman who had been following the band for four years, traveling in a bus. She paid her expenses by selling jewelry and working in vineyards. "The sun has aged her face beyond her 24 years." She enjoyed her nomadic lifestyle. "It's a good way of life. You party with people, and the band makes people happy."
The article cited several drug-related offenses during the band's previous visit to Red Rocks, but said 1984 had seen fewer such incidents.
Deadheads seem to be a peaceful lot, at least There are rarely any reports of violence in connection with a Dead concert.
One man (he asked not to be identified) who has worked for the band about 20 years says he is tired of the way people harp about the deadheads' use of drugs.
“It's incidental,” he said as he toyed with a tear-drop shaped crystal hung from a chain around his neck that encased a red and yellow glass copy of an hallucinogenic mushroom
“It’s the music, man. The music.”
Golden Transcript - June 19, 1984
