an to get discouraged because of their lack of gigs, but they never even thought about giving up. Their first gig was a pizza parlor which they played three nights every other week. Eventually, word got out because of their unique rock n’ roll blues sounding music and other gigs were calling.The original set up of the Warlocks didn’t last long because Garcia asked their bass player Dana Morgan to leave and hired his friend of long time named Phil Lesh. Although Lesh had never actually played the bass, Garcia knew he was a talented musician, so there was never any doubt. Within two weeks of acquiring a bass, Lesh was playing in the band. Garcia’s notion to bring Lesh into the band was a giant step for the evolution of the band. (Troy 35)Reading about other bands, Garcia found another band named the Warlocks. It was evident that the band had to change their name, they did not want to be confused with any other band. Fumbling around for two to three weeks the band could not find a suitable name. Brainstorming for an idea, Garcia was thumbing through an Oxford dictionary when he saw the phrase Grateful Dead. At first no one liked it, they worried that their fans wouldn’t like it. Despite their worries, they decided to keep it, and became the Grateful Dead.. You had Kruetzmann the hard swinging drummer, Lesh the intellect, Garcia the folkie, Wier the eager kid, and Pigpen the blues loving biker. They were a strange bunch of mismatches, but they had one thing in common, they loved their music. pp 8A group called the Marry Pranksters, a group of psychidelic practical jokers put together public parties called acid tests, where they served Kool-aid mixed with LSD, which at the time was legal. The Dead would play, people would dance, and the Beatniks would spout poetry from the sound systems, and at the same time watch the walls melt. Performing the acid tests enabled the Dead to st...
