Talk:Deadhead

Redirect to Grateful Dead?

Redirect to Grateful Dead? --Robert Merkel 22:34, 4 Aug 2003 (UTC)

I disagree. Deadheads (or Dead Heads, in the band's own spelling) now exist even though the band itself as a touring entity does not. Therefore, I think the fan-base, as a group merits its own entry.

Further, the Grateful Dead article itself would be far too long if a comprehensive explanation of "Deadhead" were included.

I also disagree. Deadheads are a separate if linked phenonemon and is notable enough to deserve its own article. Also noted that WP has a separate article for Trekkie, rather than a redirect to Star Trek. Wasted Time R 20:35, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

"I also disagree. Deadheads are a separate if linked phenonemon and is notable enough to deserve its own article. Also noted that WP has a separate article for Trekkie, rather than a redirect to Star Trek."

Dead Heads exist regardless of whether the Grateful Dead exists. It's an extremely diverse culture that does not need the members of the band to survive. "The Boys" might have created this monster, but they can't control it.

Subcultures

BTW: perhaps there should be a separate article on all the subcultures that have sprung out of the Dead's odd experiment. There are queer Dead Heads who organized themselves, there are Orthodox Jewish Deadheads, The Merry Punsters (picky Dead Heads with a comical bent), Deafheads (Heads who enjoyed the music via a volunteer interpreter in their own special section that the band provided), the Net Heads, you name it.

Not all of these subcultures still exist, but it was still a fascinating cultural phenomenon.

Testimonial

This is completely not relevant, but hear me out; this is one generous group of people.

I met a man one time who simply could not stand Grateful Dead music, but he heard that the parking lot was a good place to score marijuana. ;-( (just the kind of Dead Head no one likes.).

He went to the lot with no money, no car, no ticket and no dignity. Well, he kept a tiny bit of dignity: he decided he would not beg. He borrowed a sheet of paper, a pen and cardboard six-pack holder from a woman, and then he rooted around in the dirt, making balls out of the turf. Then he walked through the crowd, yelling:

"Mud balls! Get your mud balls! Only one dollar!"

People were so charmed by his refusal to beg that by the end of the evening, he had a ticket, a full pack of assorted cigarettes, several beers, dinner, $15 and a place to sleep. He didn't get the drugs he wanted, but by that time, he was so overwhelmed by generosity that it didn't matter.

Sorry, this isn't related to the article, but I just wanted to let people know that America can be very wonderful place.

Unsourced information

Sorry to do it, but I have removed a mass of unsourced, POV claims that contain only original research. I will be fine re-adding these in if viable sources can be found. Cheers! -- MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 02:31, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

You seem to be clueless about Dead culture. See http://groups.google.com/groups/search?q=rec.music.gdead+%22miracle+seeker%22&qt_s=Search for many references to "Miracle seekers", for example. Wasted Time R 02:45, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I am not "clueless" of the culture. I know most of this is true. The problem is sourcing the information. Please see WP:OR and specifically Wikipedia:Reliable_sources and Wikipedia:Reliable sources#Bulletin boards, wikis and posts to Usenet. --MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 02:49, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I know all about WP:OR. Its rationale in WP is to keep physics cranks out; beyond that, it gets applied in cases where it doesn't really make sense. Like this one. If you know, and I know, and a couple dozen writers in rec.music.gdead knew, and a whole bunch of other people know about miracle seekers, then what is the purpose of pretending that they didn't exist just because no newspaper (whose archives are easily available) wrote about them at the time? Since the miracle seekers bit was added to this article, no one has objected to it on factual grounds, only you on pedantic grounds. Wasted Time R 03:00, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Then it would be considered original research on your part. The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. This means that we only publish material that is verifiable with reference to reliable, published sources. as found at Wikipedia:Verifiability. As long as you follow the policy, I have no problem with its inclusion. --MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 03:09, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

So why pray tell did you leave in the stuff about the Lot? Shakedown Street? The subcultures? Tapers of "on nights"? It's all just as unverified. Wasted Time R 03:50, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I am waiting to remove it while I work on a cited article, using Garcia: An American Life by Blair Jackson, Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip Jake Woodward, et al, and Phil Lesh: Searching for the Sound by Phil Lesh as my sources. --MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 03:54, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

There's nothing in your precious WP:blah about "waiting to remove" unverified material until cite research is done, so I've removed it all for you. Wasted Time R 04:00, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Okay, it looks relatively WP:NPOV now and the original research stuff has been removed. If there are any qualms about material still in the article, please feel free to remove. If anyone finds sources on stuff that was removed that are reliable, make sure to replace it. There is a bit more from the books I will likely add soon (I just have been a bit busy). Cheers! -- MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 21:34, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Anyone think we should mention something about the Live Music Archive problems from last year? I know there were one or two articles run in major publications about it that I can scrounge up. -- MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 21:36, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

>Sorry to do it, but I have removed a mass of unsourced, POV claims that contain only original research. I will be fine re-adding these in if viable sources can be found...

Here's one for you from http://members.aol.com/tedalvy/ts.htm:

Excerpt from the book by Grateful Dead Bass Player Phil Lesh:

The unique organicity of our music reflects the fact that each of us consciously personalized his playing: to fit with what others were playing and to fit with who each man was as an individual, allowing us to meld our consciousnesses together in the unity of a group mind.

For us, the philosophical basis of this concept was articulated by the science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon in his novel More Than Human, wherein the protagonists each have a single paranormal talent – telepathy, psychokinesis, teleportation – and are joined by a quadruple paraplegic who acts as a central processing unit. The process by which they become one is called bleshing, from a combination of mesh and blend. (Today’s archetype would be the X-Men.)

Now I'm going to put the page back the way it was. And I'll add this reference to it.

Moeron, you might want to consider discussing this with us before you go ahead and try to change it again. No one that I know of appointed you Keeper Of The Deadhead Page.

Michael Trigoboff

That is fine for the reference (do you have a page number for it? If not I will just flip through the pages), but the following comment still is riff with WP:POV:

• "The band and Deadheads also had "off" nights which wasn't surprising given the large number of shows and tremendous travel schedule the group and its fans maintained over the years. An "off" night might be characterized by low energy, mumbled words, Jerry Garcia singing the wrong lyrics or forgetting the lyrics, Donna Godchaux singing way out of key, short set lists, or even a rare missed encore."

So I am going to remove it until we have a source (even though I know that you mean, it still goes back to my above reference to "verifiability, not truth"). As far as your last comment Michael, remember to assume good faith and that we are asked to be bold here on Wikipedia when it comes to editing. I saw an article that needed some work, so I edited it. There were differences between editors and we have talked them out (and will continue to do so). I really appreciate yours and Wasted's time on the article in an effort to make this better. -- MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 01:16, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Reading the quote and then reading the reference exert in the article don't really seem to match up. I will look for other sources about the "X-Factor", but it may have to be removed. -- MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 01:20, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Being bold

As mentioned above, Wikipedia encourages us to be bold. Here goes...

Grateful Dead concerts were psychedelic phenomena. They were explorations into the nature of consciousness, performed by a dedicated band of researchers. They were also Major League Fun, which did not detract from the seriousness of the endeavor. I'm a Deadhead. I participated in the psychic events at Grateful Dead concerts. Did you, Moeron?

My hopes for this topic page are that Deadheads will come along and add their perspectives and produce better and more interesting descriptions of the phenomenon. What you are doing instead is to apply a rule without any regard to the appropriateness of that rule to the topic. Most of the important things that happened at Grateful Dead concerts are "recorded" in the minds of the Deadheads, not in books. Restricting this page to what got published on paper will eliminate the main point of why there were Deadheads at all.

The rigid application of an inappropriate rule is totally incompatible with the spirit that animated Grateful Dead concerts, which was to find out what human consciousness could do when it was freed of the usual constraints.

You say things like "may have to be removed," which makes it sound like you're speaking with the voice of some disembodied higher authority. But you're not. You have no more authority in this matter than I do (and possibly less, if you weren't there at the concerts).

I say it's not appropriate to limit this topic to what's printed on paper. This isn't an article about physics. It's an article about metaphysics. I haven't seen any controversy about what's written in this article. No Deadheads have weighed in to say, "No, that's not the way it was at the concerts." It's just you attempting to insist that a rigid and irrelevant rule be applied to this article.

I don't see any reason why I should let you do that. You don't outrank me or anyone else around here. You don't speak with any "voice of authority," just with your own voice - as do I.

Michael Trigoboff 22:40, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree whole-heartedly with the above; I made a similar argument in the earlier section above, but Michael Trigoboff makes it even better. Wasted Time R 22:42, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Nothing is wrong with the X-Factor stuff and the fans being a part of it, that is cited in the paragraph above the one you replace, making the information redundanct. The problem comes with the on-off nights senario: "The band and Deadheads also had "off" nights which wasn't surprising given the large number of shows and tremendous travel schedule the group and its fans maintained over the years. An "off" night might be characterized by low energy, mumbled words, Jerry Garcia singing the wrong lyrics or forgetting the lyrics, Donna Godchaux singing way out of key, short set lists, or even a rare missed encore." I understand totally what you mean because we Deadheads can pick up on these things. But Wikipedia has two policies that are explicit about this sort of thing.

• The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. This means that we only publish material that is verifiable with reference to reliable, published sources.
• Articles may not contain any previously unpublished theories, data, statements, concepts, arguments, or ideas.

There is nothing I would like more than to include this information, but we need a source in order to do it. I will keep looking through the six books on the Dead I have and see what I turn up. My best suggestion, though, is to check for newspaper articles that state something about the band having an "off-night". I will be checking the LA Times archive and see if Rolling Stone has anything. Again, thanks for all of your hard work on this article. Cheers! -- MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 01:12, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

I am in the process of seeking outside assitance on this issue (hopefully from an admin) through either WP:RFC, WP:3O, or WP:WQA. Cheers! -- MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 01:20, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

In the meantime, I will continue to restore what you continue to insist on deleting. Michael Trigoboff 01:27, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Fair enough, though I am baffled why you are including the relatively same information in a paragraph as the preceeding one. Thanks! -- MOE.RON ^{talk | done | doing} 01:30, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, do you want to discuss it, or do you just want to fight an edit war with me? I'll do it either way, but I'd prefer the discussion. What I won't do is cede to you the authority over this page, or the authority to be the arbiter of how to appropriately apply Wikipedia's rules to this page. In my view, the way you're applying those rules is absolutely inappropriate. Michael Trigoboff 01:36, 26 June 2006 (UTC)