The Grateful Dead, Jim Marshall, David Gans — if all of these names are on the bingo card in your brain, you’ve got something to get excited about. If not, then let us explain.
The Dead are that legendary bunch of hippies who developed a style of communal musical improvisation in the 1960s that is unequaled in rock music — a group that led the legendary concert promoter Bill Graham to declare that, “they’re not the best at what they do, they’re the only ones that do what they do.”
A band that thrived on live performances, they found an artistic soulmate in Jim Marshall, a photographer who has produced some of the most indelible images in rock and roll, including Jimi Hendrix with his burning guitar at Monterey Pop and Johnny Cash flipping the bird during a San Quentin concert. Marshall, who left us in 2010, lived in San Francisco and documented the Dead from the early days, capturing over 3,000 images of the band, from intimate candids to their live shows in the streets and in legendary venues such as the Fillmore, Winterland and Woodstock.
Enter Gans, a musician who became a music journalist and wasn’t so sure about the Dead at first. But then he went on a trip — two trips, as a matter of fact.
“I liked the softer stuff, like Jackson Browne and Crosby, Stills and Nash,” he explained. “But a friend convinced me to go see them. It was March 5, 1972. We took what turned out to be a large dose of acid and had a friend drive us from San Jose to San Francisco. We ended up in the last row at Winterland and that was it — I went out the next day and bought every record I could find.”
Fast forward to the present, and Gans is the author or co-author of seven books about the Dead, including the forthcoming “The Grateful Dead by Jim Marshall: Photos and Stories from the Formative Years, 1966 -1977.” The 288-page collection is a gift to Deadheads; it compiles plenty of unseen images from the archives as well as quotes gathered by Gans from people like Mountain Girl (Jerry Garcia’s wife), Jack Casady (Jefferson Airplane), Michael Shrieve (Santana), and many more.
There are also essays from various folks who were in the room when it happened and an afterword by John Mayer, whose most recent gig was playing the historic repertoire with Dead & Co.
Gans recalled how “their songwriting grabbed me and opened me up to other music — country, blues — the Dead was a portal to other music. It wasn’t predictable; they were improvisational. A lot of people just don’t get it; they think of the Grateful Dead as sloppy and out of tune. While perfection is attainable, it’s not the desired result.”
Gans knows what he’s talking about, as he is out there playing with his own combo, “David Gans and the Broken Angels,” which is more of a collective of like-minded musicians that changes from place to place.
Their set is a mix of Dead tunes and Gans originals, usually leaning more towards the covers. At one point, the Dead’s bass player, Phil Lesh, sat in on a few gigs and seemed to really enjoy it.
“I think that’s what gave him the idea for ‘Phil and Friends,'” Gans opines.
A recent gig at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village featured a core band of Matthew Iselin (keys/vocals), Jason Isaac (drums), Caitlin Oliver-Gans (bass/vocals) and extended cameos by Colin Taber (guitar/vocals), Jason “Wolfie” Wolf (banjo/vocals) and a guest vocal by local favorite Stephanie Marie Hall. Gans was particularly pleased to have Oliver-Gans onstage, as she is his niece.
“She was never really into the Dead,” he admits. “But she learned the tunes and fit right in. As a musician and her proud uncle, I could hardly be happier. She’s a great musician and a magnificent human being”.
The set list included classic Dead fare such as “China Cat Sunflower,” “Eyes of the World” and “Scarlet Begonias” done not as slavish imitation but in the spirit of the originals, which evolved every time they were played anyway.
“It’s a language, it’s a way of playing,” he notes. “It involves listening and responding to each other and not playing all the time. It’s a way of making music that is immensely satisfying if you’re lucky enough to have the right people to play with.”
Also played that night was “Like a Dog”, his collaboration with longtime Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. And how did that happen?
“He emailed me the lyric out of a clear blue sky! And he liked it enough that he sent me another. So I have two in my catalog and discography!” Gans tells us.
Among other things, Gans has also produced Grateful Dead compilations, tributes, and live sets, taught courses about the Dead at Stanford University, hosted numerous radio shows, including ongoing projects for Sirius Radio’s Grateful Dead channel, and written the liner notes for various reissues. All of this is in addition to over a dozen of his own CDs.
The Marshall book was a gig that any Deadhead would have cherished, as Gans got to go through the photographer’s archive with the help of Amelia Davis, Marshall’s former assistant and the sole beneficiary of Jim Marshall’s estate.
“Jim was the king of documentary photography – he would do anything to get the photo,” Gans says. “He could be an incredibly obnoxious guy, or incredibly generous. He once made me go out and get cocaine before he would do an interview. He’s pointed guns at my friends!”
His latest project is doing the text for a photo project by Bill Lemke, who photographed Dead fans in the 80s and 90s and then tracked them down and rephotographed them years later. The result is “Aging Gratefully” and is expected to be available soon.
“Almost everything I’ve done has been collaborative. I’ve had very few bad experiences. I’m so blessed to have had all these collaborations,” Gans muses. “The most important thing that I learned from Jerry (Garcia) was collaboration and absolutely profound commitment to decency and democracy.”
David Gans’ numerous projects can be explored at perfectible.net. More info on Bill Lemke’s project is available at billlemke.com/deadheads. Jim Marshall’s legacy is being carried on at jimmarshallphotographyllc.com.
Wherever you are in the US, you can find the Dead’s music being played at gratefuldeadtributebands.com.
