This is the Brian Laird Show on WMIC.

I'm Amina Serna, a producer here on the show, filling in for Brian today.

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the passing of Jerry Garcia, the band's iconic frontman.

Beyond their music, Garcia and the Dead are perhaps best known for their role in the counterculture revolution of the 1960s and beyond.

And even though the band played in support of political groups and causes,

Garcia personally disdained government, preferring instead, quote, communes, collectives,

and self-contained organizations.

That's according to our next guest.

We're joined now by Jim Newton, editor of Blueprint Magazine at UCLA, where he teaches

communication studies and public policy, and the author

of a new book, Here Beside the Rising Tide, Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead, and an American

Awakening. Jim, welcome to WMIC. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be with you. So for listeners

who may not be familiar with the dead

or are familiar, but just don't get it, can we start with a little dead one-on-one? They

emerge as a band in the mid-60s in San Francisco, and maybe the song we just heard,

a friend of the devil, maybe we can use that as a way to talk about their style of music?

Sure, yes.

As you say, they started really with what we're known as the acid test in 1965 and 66 and in and around San Francisco.

And it developed this fusion of musical styles, some of which are captured in the clip you just

presented, but it's a kind of

hybrid of bluegrass and folk and country and rock and roll and jazz, a very distinctly

American musical idiom that they played and played quite successfully for 30 years.

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