Editing Deadhead (section)

{{Short description|Dedicated fan of the Grateful Dead and/or spinoff bands from the Grateful Dead}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Deadhead bus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|A Deadhead school bus conversion]]
A '''Deadhead''' or '''Dead head''' is a fan of the American [[rock music|rock]] band the [[Grateful Dead]].<ref name=":2">{{cite news| work= [[The New York Times]] |date= 9 June 2006| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/09/business/09hedge.html |title= I Saw a Deadhead Sticker on a Bentley| accessdate= July 1, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| publisher= Globe Newspaper Company | date= 7 June 2006| work= [[Boston Globe]]| url= http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2006/06/07/life_of_the_party/ |title= Life of the party| via= boston.com| access-date= July 1, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| work= [[Missoula Independent]] | date= 2006| place= Missoula, Montana| volume= 17 |number= 26 |url= http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=5776 |title= Puppet master| via= missoulanews.com| access-date= July 1, 2006}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| work= [[Santa Monica Mirror]] |date= 2005| place= Santa Monica, California| url= http://www.smmirror.com/MainPages/DisplayArticleDetails.asp?eid=3344 |title= Local Artists Complete SMC's Art Mentor Program| via= smmirror.com | archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20090215044024/http://www.smmirror.com/MainPages/DisplayArticleDetails.asp?eid=3344 |archivedate= 2009-02-15| volume= 8| number= 3| access-date= July 1, 2006}}</ref><ref>AScribe Newswire (2006). Article from non-profit news distribution organization: ''[http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=5776 Central Valley scientist looks at music's ‘heady’ experience]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}'', using the term Deadhead, Retrieved July 1, 2006.</ref> The Deadhead subculture originated in the 1970s, when a number of fans began traveling to see the Grateful Dead in as many shows or festival venues as they could. As more people began attending live performances and festivals, a community developed. The Deadhead community has since gone on to create slang and idioms unique to them.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deadheads – Subcultures and Sociology |url=https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultures-and-scenes/the-deadhead-subculture/ |access-date=2023-07-17 |language=en}}</ref>

Unlike other popular acts in music, the Grateful Dead are well known for the use of improvisation in their performances making each show unique.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Malvinni |first=David |title=Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0810882553}}</ref> This, coupled with the band's permissive attitude on taping performances, has created a plethora of historical material.<ref name=":0" /> Such recordings of previous performances are shared widely among the Deadhead community.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Jamie |date=2005-12-02 |title=Grateful fans bring live recordings back from the dead |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/dec/02/usa.arts |access-date=2023-07-17 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Much Deadhead-related historical material received or collected by the band over the years is housed in the [[Grateful Dead Archive]] of [[University of California, Santa Cruz]]. Archive founding curator Nicholas Meriwether, who has also written extensively about the culture and its impact on society, predicted, "The Grateful Dead archive is going to end up being a critical way for us to approach and understand the 1960s and the [[counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] of the era... It's also going to tell us a lot about the growth and development of modern rock theater, and it's helping us understand fan culture."<ref name="One of the World's Biggest Deadhead Visits Austin">{{cite web |url= http://austin.culturemap.com/news/arts/10-28-11-08-29-one-of-the-worlds-biggest-deadheads-comes-to-austin-to-talk-about-preserving-the-bands-legacy/ |title= Understanding Counterculture...| website= austin.culturemap.com| publisher= | date= | access-date= }}</ref> Over the course of their thirty-year career, the Grateful Dead performed over 2,200 live shows.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=McNally |first=Dennis |title=A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead |publisher=Crown |year=2003 |isbn=978-0767911863}}</ref>