When did the Grateful Dead click for you? First experiences apply

[PoetryGirl]

So my experience has been quite a journey that continues to empower me timelessly. I still have moments where the lyrics suggest the coin toss of looking at life from heads or tails sets the more spiritual or heartful view in my path and the aha! follows. .....And then there is the chance to let go and let the music carry you away to a different time and place where you lose you and find a newer you on the other side because of shrugging off "life".

My first show when Terrapin was building and everything seemed connected began this intrepid travel, for me.

[acududeman]

First show in April '83 I was hooked right way.

 

Swept away in a sea of lysergic wonder.....never looked back.

[Rude]

I had skeletons and live dead when I was like 14. BMG music club lol. Listened to dark star a bunch but was a little over my head at that point.

[Dead duck]

It really took a while to grow on me. Had a friend that would ask "what do you want to listen to" when we were getting ready to partake, but what he meant was " what kind of dead do you want to listen to". And he really didn't care what you answered because he already had in mind what he was going to play. Europe '72 is what was playing when it finally clicked for me. China cat/rider to be specific.

As far as my boys I used to put headphones on my pregnant ex's belly while she was sleeping. Played the reckoning for my oldest. Live dead for my youngest. Oldest loves acoustic dead while give my younger a 20 minute darkstar and he's ecstatic. Go figure. So it was ingrained in them since before birth.

[Tea]

First listen: Live Dead

First that hooked: 8.27.72

First Show: 4.11.88

When the axis shifted: 4.15.88

First Best Show: 7.2.88

First JGB: 11.25.88

[Island Bro]

In 6th grade I received Working Man's Dead album for Christmas from my grandmother (thank you granny!!),,,immediate hook. All I can say is that the music seemed vaguely familiar even when I first heard it. Went on to get more albums and cassettes through middle school along with listening to Jimi, Led Zep, Beatles, Bob Marley and others. I think Skeletons from the Closet was my next album and then American Beauty after that. I remember it took me a while to get into the albums of Shakedown Street and Terrapin Station but I got the inoculation. I was a teen of the 80's and the pop music of the era did nothing for me--Duran Duran, Culture Club, Hall and Oates, etc.

In high school I started getting turned on to live dead music with cassettes being gathered from friends--luckily there were a handful of deadheads in my high school who kindly made tapes for me. Cornell '77 was one of my very early tapes and that deepened things for me.

Then got to my first show in '88 and the hook was in deeper,,,,way deeper. It was like discovering color for the first time after living in a black and white world,,,can you dig?

What can I say but, Thank You for this music and the time and space it came from!!

[August West]

The Half Step at Englishtown is what got me. Up until that point it was just another concert. I was more excited to see Marshall Tucker that day. First show, hook, line, and sinker. All downhill from there.

[John A]

No specific moment.  Got dragged to the Carrier Dome 10/20/84 freshman year at Cornell by some serious Heads in my dorm.  I didn't dislike it, but nothing clicked.  In fact, I was flabbergasted by how badly Garcia was butchering the Revolution encore (only song I recognized).

 

By Spring '85 I'd hear tapes these guys were playing in their room and something started to click.  By Spring '86 I had a couple dozen tapes, but I wasn't on top of getting tickets for tour in time.  Knowing I had to step up my game, I spent the summer '86 in California, catching two of the 3 Greek shows.  By now I knew most, if not all, of the songs.  Then Jerry got sick and the rest of my planned summer West Coast shows were cancelled.  By then there wasn't a doubt I would come back for the New Year's run, having send in multiple mail orders to secure tickets. 

 

By Summer '88 I knew East Coast touring wasn't where I wanted to be, so I moved to the Bay Area, seeing countless shows - both Dead and JGB - with a 1/2 hour commute.