Behind the Meaning of the Logo: The Grateful Dead Bears

Today, the Grateful Dead are remembered for their long, jam band concerts and dedicated group of fans who would follow the musicians around from stop after countless stop.

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While The Grateful Dead didn’t wow the world in terms of album sales, they did make a long-lasting name for themselves with concert tickets sold and fan base hypnotism.

The group is also remembered for another reason, outside of its musical prowess. You can see it now in your mind’s eye. Yes, the famous Grateful Dead bears.

But what’s the history of this logo, this emblem? Let’s dive in, shall we?

Origins

The American rock band known as The Grateful Dead was formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California, not far from San Francisco. They are remembered for their blend of folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock, and more styles, all mixed with a little (or a lot) of psychedelia.

Their live performances are still the stuff of legend today. Often leading instrumental jams, the group’s frontman Jerry Garcia wowed fans, who were later known as “Deadheads.” The band had only one top-40 single, yet they’re as well known as groups like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, which had seemingly dozens.

The Grateful Dead, which earned an infamous status for the many bootleg copies of their live shows, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Comprised of Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann, the band was originally known as the Warlocks when they started playing in the Bay Area during the counterculture renaissance of the 1960s.

In 1995, Garcia passed away and the group has splintered into spin-off acts like Dead & Company, Phil Lesh and Friends, and more.

The Bears: Are They Dancing or Marching?

Drawn by Bob Thomas as part of the back cover for the band’s 1973 album, History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear’s Choice), the “dancing” bears may not even be dancing at all.

Thomas said that he based the depictions on a lead sort, which is a block with a typographic character etched on it, from an unknown font. The bears themselves are a reference to Owsley “Bear” Stanley, who recorded and produced the album upon which they appear. Said Bear of the bears, “the bears on the album cover are not really ‘dancing.’ I don’t know why people think they are; their positions are quite obviously those of a high-stepping march.”

Who Was Owsley?

An American-Australian audio engineer, “Bear” was a key figure in the Bay Area hippie movement in the ’60s. He was the sound engineer for the Grateful Dead and recorded many of the group’s live performances. He also helped develop the group’s “wall of sound.” Many in the media called him the Acid King. He was reportedly the first known private person to manufacture mass quantities of LSD. By his own account, he produced at least 500 grams between 1965 and 1967. That amounts to more than 5,000,000 doses.

He died in a car accident in 2011.

History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear’s Choice)

The live album by the band was released in July of 1973 on Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded on February 13 and 14, 1970, and offers concert highlights from the show at the Fillmore East in New York City. It peaked at No. 60 on the Billboard 200.

The Bears Continued

Since their initial drawing, the “dancing” (or marching) bears have taken on a life of their own. Visit any hippie shop from the Bay Area to Europe and you’re likely to see at least a sticker, a patch, t-shirts, or even posters with the bears on it. They represent a certain section of counterculture, one that loves marijuana and psychedelics.

On the Bear’s Choice album, there are five different Grateful Dead bears. They’re in the colors red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Since then, they’ve been reproduced in many more hues. They were so popular that the bears began to appear on Owsley’s blotter art, meaning on the acid tabs themselves. People were literally tripping on the bears.

The bears have become so popular that even Nike has released sneakers inspired by them: the SB Dunks. Now, that’s a legacy.

(Photo by Kirk West/Getty Images)