Born 84 Years Ago Today in the Golden City, the Guitar Virtuoso Who Reluctantly Became the Face of 60s Counterculture

On this day (August 1) in 1942, Jerry Garcia was born in San Francisco, California. He was a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist who mastered the art of extended improvisation. Garcia rose to prominence in the 1960s as the de facto leader of the Grateful Dead. The band became one of the pillars of the era’s counterculture movement. He also participated in many side projects with other high-level musicians in a wide range of styles. Additionally, Garcia was a session musician who played on numerous recordings.

Before Garcia was born, his father was a musician who played in numerous jazz bands. He died when Jerry was very young. However, his instruments remained in the family home. At the same time, his mother was a pianist. His father’s side of the family enjoyed singing and did so often. This rubbed off on Garcia and his brothers, who often harmonized on street corners.

1957 was a pivotal year for Garcia. It was the year he discovered cannabis. Later that year, on his birthday, his mother bought him an accordion. After some convincing, she took him to a pawn shop to trade it for an electric guitar. “That was it. Somebody showed me some chords on the guitar, and that was the end of everything that I’d been doing until that time,” he told Rolling Stone.

Two years later, at the age of 17, Garcia joined the Army. He did basic training at Fort Ord before being transferred to Fort Vinfield Scott. There, he started playing the acoustic guitar. After nine months in the Army and many counts of going AWOL, he was given a general discharge.

Jerry Garcia Gets Serious About Music

In 1961, Jerry Garcia and a few of his friends were in a horrible car accident. It killed one of the car’s occupants and injured everyone else. Garcia was ejected from the car and suffered a broken collarbone. This was a wake-up call for him. After the accident, he threw himself into music, practicing and playing his guitar almost constantly.

Later that year, he met Robert Hunter, who would later collaborate with Garcia on several Grateful Dead songs. In 1962, Garcia met Phil Lesh, who would later become the Dead’s bassist.

Around this time, Garcia started teaching acoustic guitar. One of his students was Bob Matthews, who later engineered many of the Dead’s albums. Moreover, Matthews introduced Garcia to Bob Weir.

Garcia began playing bluegrass music around this time as well. Then, he formed a jug band. He, Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and a few others formed Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions. In 1965, the music began to change after they discovered LSD. The band’s lineup changed as well. Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann joined the band. Soon, they landed on the name Grateful Dead. No one in the band liked the name, but it stuck anyway.

The Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead began touring almost as soon as they formed. They stayed on the road almost constantly until Jerry Garcia died in 1995. They soon gained a reputation for their expert and extended improvisation. The band never played a song the same way twice. Before long, they gained a following. Moreover, they helped to develop jam band music, laying the groundwork for bands like Phish, Goose, and countless others.

Deadheads, the band’s dedicated fans, would travel the country to follow the band from one show to another. The Dead were, in short, the soundtrack to the counterculture movement of the late 1960s. As a result, Garcia became a kind of figurehead. This never sat comfortably with him.

“I don’t like that counterculture idea. It’s not as though there were a culture to be counter to,” Garcia said. “There’s the range of American experience. Down at the shallow end or something, there are these margins. Somewhere in the margin, I think, is where the Grateful Dead and the Deadheads and whatever is that we are a part of,” he explained.

[RELATED: 3 Grateful Dead Classics Guaranteed To Make Fans out of Non-Deadheads]

Fortunately, modern fans can relive part of what drew so many to Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Their discography includes hundreds of live albums that track the evolution of the band and their sound over time.

Featured Image by Clayton Call/Redferns