The Grateful Dead played hard to get - and it worked. They had little interest in money and mainstream acceptance. The band�s repertoire was a marketer�s nightmare and even now the group confounds the uninitiated because of decisions made decades ago -- decisions to play obscure folk and country music, improvise for hours at a time, and play to its own gallery.

The Dead�s instrumentation wasn�t far removed from other rock groups of the time � guitars, bass, drums (more often than not, there were two drummers pounding away), keyboards, and vocals. The difference, easily distinguished at the bottom, was the classical education of bassist Phil Lesh, who studied with Luciano Berio, worshipped John Cage, and soaked up Ravi Shankar and early �60s John Coltrane. He rarely sounds like he�s playing the same song as the rest of the group, yet each lope and loop fits neatly and surprisingly in.

Guitarist Jerry Garcia (above) started as a folkie, veered into bluegrass, strolled easily into country music, and the leap to Chuck Berry was forgone. Playing was what he did best and, at his best, his spider-web sound has the ring of freedom. He is the keystone to the group and should be celebrated every bit as much as Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young or Coltrane.

For the full celebration of the Grateful Dead take An Overgrown Path to Dead '72 contributed by guest blogger Lee Landenberger. And there's also some breaking news there on the hot topic of free downloads as the Dead (the business) crack down on an independently run web site that offers free downloads of their music.

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