GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST – "Here Comes Sunshine: Grateful Dead & Co."

Release Date: May 2, 2023
Hosts: Rich Mahan & Jesse Jarnow
Special Guests: Donna Jean Godchaux-McKay, Alan Trist, Rosie McGee, Sally Mann Romano, Steve Brown, David Lemieux

Episode Overview

This episode inaugurates Season 7 of the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast by diving into the behind-the-scenes world of the Grateful Dead during 1973—a year of transformation in music, business, and community. Centered on the new “Here Comes Sunshine 1973” box set, it explores not only the band's musical evolution but also the web of independent businesses the Dead and their extended family built: from their own record label to travel agencies, clothing boutiques, and sound system innovations. Through first-hand accounts and rare archival voices, the episode paints a vivid picture of the Dead’s “virtual company town” in Marin County and their quest to remain true to their countercultural roots while navigating stadium-scale success.

Key Themes and Discussion Points

1. The Grateful Dead Ascend in 1973

• The band had grown from underground heroes to stadium headliners.
• "In 1973, as spring began to bloom, the Grateful Dead were pretty much the biggest band in the land. ...from arenas to stadiums." (Jesse, 04:34)
• This era features in their new “Here Comes Sunshine 1973” box set—5 previously unreleased, epic stadium shows.

2. The Dead’s “Solar System” of Family Businesses

• From 1973 onwards, the Dead were more than just a band—they were a constellation of interconnected enterprises:
  • Grateful Dead Records (their own label)
  • Ice Nine Publishing
  • Out of Town Tours (booking agency)
  • Fly By Night Travel (travel agency)
  • Kumquat May and Rainbow Arbor (clothing/art boutiques)
  • Alembic (custom instruments, sound engineering)
• “In 1973, the Grateful Dead manifested as their own virtual solar system. Not just a band, but a cluster of supporting businesses…” (Jesse, 04:34)
• Motivation: Maintain independence from “the suits” of the 1960s-70s music industry and create reliable, community-based support structures.

3. The Quest for Independence and 'Hip Economics'

• The Dead’s business strategy reflected the ethos of the counterculture—small-scale, rapid money movement vs. the unwieldy structures of big business.
• Alan Trist described the guiding principle as “questing”: “How do we vision quest in our own movie? How to do something that's creating a new world that the 60s were kind of trying to do.” (Alan Trist, 13:57)
• “Hip economics is essentially that you can have a small amount of money and move it around very fast and it would work out.” (Jerry Garcia, via Rosie, 27:43)

4. Origins and Evolution of Key Businesses

a. Merchandise & Clothing (Kumquat May & Rainbow Arbor)

• Originally started by Susila Kreutzman to be closer to drummer Bill Kreutzman.
• Sold t-shirts, art, secondhand items, jewelry, and was a social hub for family/friends at home.
• Notable quote: “Susila... created a business from scratch... She’d throw boxes of shirts in the back of the equipment truck and fly off to the gig...” (Rosie McGee, 16:18)
• Eventually sold to Winterland Productions—catalyst for the modern concert merchandise industry.
• “She eventually sold the business to Winterland Productions... one of rock's first enormous T-shirt companies.” (Rosie, 21:54)

b. Publishing (Ice Nine)

• Managed by Alan Trist, focused on handling the band’s copyrights and song registrations.
• “It's really a good idea... to have your own publishing company. ...so we've gone through a couple of managerial change arounds and turnovers...” (Bob Weir/Alan Trist, ~11:24)
• The band strove to keep all creative and business operations under their own umbrella.

c. Alembic – Custom Sound & Instruments

• Born out of necessity for superior live sound and technological innovation.
• Helped birth “The Wall of Sound,” legendary in live music history.

d. Out of Town Tours (Booking Agency) / Sam Cutler

• Launched by Sam Cutler post-Europe ‘72 tour to handle touring logistics for the Dead and other artists, keeping as much activity “in-house” as possible. (Rosie, 55:24+)

e. Fly By Night Travel

• Launched so spouses/friends could afford to travel with the band and to capture commissions for tour travel bookings.
• “If you're buying retail from a travel agency, you're going to pay full price. But if you are the travel agency, you can pay without the commission…” (Rosie McGee, 67:41)
• Required to be legitimate and regulated, with hired “cover” staff for legal compliance.

f. New Record Company: Grateful Dead Records

• Driven by Ron Rakow and the “So What Papers”—a proposal for complete independence, potentially via local “Deadhead franchises.”
• “The currency is records. That's a currency. They're well packaged, tradeable, entertaining, and people like them. They certainly buy a lot of them.” (Reading from “So What?” Papers, 35:41)
• Debated various models: full independence, distribution through others, franchising, even a subscription model (decades ahead of its time).

5. Community & Company Town of San Rafael

• By 1973, the Dead’s operations resembled a “company town,” with various business operations clustered in Marin County—offices, warehouses, stores, and rehearsal space “Club Front.”
• Annie Leibovitz’s famous 1973 group photo of the Dead’s extended “family” embodies this era—a mythic company town with “60 people... kids and dogs...” (Rosie, 26:09)
• Myth-busting: Those shown were usually active contributors, not freeloaders.

6. Cultural Tensions: Scale vs. Values

• The challenge: Grow big while staying true to roots and counterculture ideals.
• Alan Trist: “We were constantly having to balance that energy that had to be created with the questing direction that was desired.” (42:22)
• Even as the Dead played stadiums and moved serious merchandise, integrity and “doing things right” remained central.

7. Innovations in Live Sound

• The Dead and Alembic pushed boundaries: They put sound systems behind the band (eliminating monitors but creating new feedback challenges), invented phase-canceling microphones (which didn’t please all singers), and ultimately led the way to the legendary Wall of Sound.
• "It was the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd who were doing the most amazing stuff with sound...” (David Lemieux quoting Dennis Leonard, 79:27)
• Donna Jean Godchaux: “They just squeezed all of the life out of the vocal, you know, all of the tonality out of the vocal. That's my opinion. But it was hard.” (83:10)

8. Role of Friends (“Family”) and the Women in the Scene

• The growth of these businesses often stemmed from practical needs: spouses, friends, and women of the Dead community launched and operated key ventures—merch, travel, administration—not just as boosters but as entrepreneurial leaders.

9. Dead Humor & Philosophy: The “Ten Commandments of Rock and Roll”

• Robert Hunter’s satirical employee briefing (100:10) lampooning the dark side of the music biz and offering a dry warning to new employees at Grateful Dead Records.
• Example: “Number nine. Remember that anything you don’t understand is trying to fuck you.”

Notable Quotes and Moments

• Donna Jean Godchaux on Early Days:
  “Being in a band that big was an incredible thing... it got big so quickly there was hardly any time to adjust what was happening.” (05:44)

• Alan Trist on Group Vision:
  “Group vision questing... staying in our own movie or the Grateful Dead movie meant working with records, with touring, with music.” (13:57)

• Jesse Jarnow on Community:
  “[The] company town... All these companies were created around a band that was just about to break out like big time.” (27:43)

• Rosie McGee on Dead Values:
  “It was communal in the sense that we had no money, and it was the only way... that they could survive. So we were all gathered, this group of friends around a. A band.” (28:15)

• Donna Jean Godchaux on Adapting:
  “Grateful Dead kept evolving and you just had to roll with everything. The Grateful Dead was trying to keep up with the Grateful Dead.” (84:21)

• Jerry Garcia (from interview):
  “We’re the Don Quixote's of rock and roll. ...Trying to figure out how to make the experience... more in line with what it feels like, which is a positive sort of outpouring of good energy.” (79:07)

• Steve Brown’s Job Interview:
  “It wasn't about what I knew in the business. He [Jerry] didn't care as much about the business as he just did... how I would be as a person to be with. ...And Jerry turned to Rakow and said, he's hired.” (93:48)

• Ten Commandments of Rock and Roll (Robert Hunter):
  “Number nine… Remember that anything you don't understand is trying to fuck you.” (100:54)

Important Segments & Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |--------------|-------------| | 04:34 | Introduction to 1973—Dead as Stadium Band; Box Set Context | | 05:44 | Donna Jean Godchaux on joining the Dead/family expansion | | 13:57 | Alan Trist on questing, group vision, and “staying in our own movie” | | 16:18 | Rosie McGee on Susila Kreutzman & birth of Dead merchandising | | 21:54 | Expansion and eventual sale of merchandising to Winterland | | 23:25 | “Deadpatch” campus/dead’s company town—San Rafael context | | 27:43 | “Hip economics” and the myth of the Dead “supporting freeloaders” | | 35:41 | Reading from the “So What Papers”—vision for a Dead franchise network | | 41:06 | Alan Trist’s “State of the Changes” memo—record company options | | 55:24 | Sam Cutler and Out of Town Tours—booking goes in-house | | 67:41 | Rosie McGee & Frankie Weir on founding Fly By Night Travel | | 83:10 | Donna Jean on phase-canceling mics and sound system woes | | 100:10 | The Ten Commandments of Rock and Roll, Robert Hunter/Band Philosophy | | 104:14 | Steve Brown on daunting “responsibility factor” starting record label |

Episode Tone & Takeaways

• Conversational and nostalgic with a deeply informative, myth-busting bent.
• Emphasis on community, experimentation, and the organic growth of the Dead’s world—no dry business talk but a celebration of vision, chaos, and ingenuity.
• Speaks both to committed Deadheads and curious newcomers, spotlighting unsung contributors, especially women and support staff, as much as the legendary musicians.

For the Curious:

• Full show and photo links are at dead.net/deadcast.
• Listeners invited: Share your 1973 Dead tour stories at stories.dead.net.

Summary prepared by GOOD OL’ GRATEFUL DEADCAST expert summarizer.