Get Shown the Light : Improvisation and Transcendence in the Music of the Grateful Dead / Michael Kaler, Duke University, Duke University.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kaler, Michael, Author.

, Duke University, Author.

Contributor:

funder.

Series:

Studies in the Grateful Dead

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Durham Duke University Press, [2024]

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

Michael Kaler is Associate Professor, teaching stream, at the Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy at the University of Toronto Mississauga and author of Flora Tells a Story: The Apocalypse of Paul and Its Contexts.

Summary:

Of all the musical developments of rock in the 1960s, one in particular fundamentally changed the music's structure and listening experience: the incorporation of extended improvisation into live performances. While many bands-including Cream, Pink Floyd, and the Velvet Underground-stretched out their songs with improvisations, no band was more identified with the practice than the Grateful Dead. In Get Shown the Light Michael Kaler examines how the Dead's dedication to improvisation stemmed from their belief that playing in this manner enabled them to touch upon transcendence. Drawing on band testimonials and analyses of early recordings, Kaler traces how the Dead developed an approach to playing music that they believed would facilitate their spiritual goals. He focuses on the band's early years, the significance of their playing Ken Kesey's Acid Test parties, and their evolving exploration of the myriad musical and spiritual possibilities that extended improvisation afforded. Kaler demonstrates that the Grateful Dead developed a radical new way of playing rock music as a means to unleash the spiritual and transformative potential of their music.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

An Autobiographical Introduction

1 The grateful dead

2 Setting the scene

3 How the grateful dead learned to jam

4 Improvisational tactics, 1965-1974

5 Writing about improvisation

6 Other improvising rock bands

7 Music, Transcendent Spiritual Experience, and the Grateful Dead

8 The Grateful Dead's Spiritual Context

9 What They Did

Appendix Grateful Dead Personnel and Performances

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed November 08 2025)

ISBN:

9781478094326

147809432X

OCLC:

1473267121