Why were the Grateful Dead called the Grateful Dead?
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Most internet music sites, such as Allmusic.com, rehash over and over that Jerry Garcia took the name “from an Egyptian prayer discovered in a dictionary.”
A more detailed discussion can be found in the essay “The Ripple Effect” by Joseph Holt in *Perspectives on the Grateful Dead: Critical Writings* Robert G. Weiner, ed. Westport, Conn: Greenwood, c1999. The author states that in 1965 “the band at that time was calling itself the Warlocks, but later discovered that this name was already in use by another rock band. So they all met at Phil Lesh’s house to discuss new names. Nothing seemed to work, and then they turned to the dictionary.” It was Funk and Wagnell’s *New Practical Standard Dictionary of the English Language*, 1955 ed. “Jerry Garcia opened it at random and the first entry he saw in the dictionary was ‘Grateful Dead.’ It turns out ‘Grateful Dead’ is the name folklorists have given to a genre of European folktales that all have a common motif. Someone is charitable to the widow or orphan of a person who has recently died, or perhaps just helps to pay for the funeral. At a later time and in an unexpected way, this person is assisted out of a crisis by the ghost of the ‘grateful dead,’ who has come back from death to repay the favor. At first no one in the band much liked it, but the name was so compelling, so haunting, that it stuck (Shenk and Silberman 120).” This cite is: Shenk, David, and Steve Silberman. *Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads*. New York: Main Street Books, 1994.
AP is attracted to this more detailed story rather than the Egyptian prayer story, although there’s perhaps some connection between the folktales and spirituality of Egypt and of Europe. The Rev. Dr. Holt, an Episcopal minister, incorporated “sacramental reflections on the Grateful Dead” into his Ph.D. dissertation, according to the abstract.