MUS 80 — Come Hear Uncle John’s Band: The Music and Culture of the Grateful Dead
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): David Gans
Date(s): Apr 28—Jun 2
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Tuesdays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 5:30—7:20 pm (PT)
Tuition: $415
Refund Deadline: Apr 30
Unit(s): 1
Status: Registration opens Feb 23, 8:30 am (PT)
The Grateful Dead occupy a singular place in American history, bridging the counterculture of the 1960s with enduring ideas about community, creativity, and freedom. Emerging from San Francisco’s psychedelic scene, the band blended original songwriting, reimagined Americana, and open-ended improvisation into a living experiment in collective artistry. Their concerts became laboratories for democratic collaboration, where music, audience, and technology converged into something unpredictable and new. In this course, longtime Dead chronicler David Gans returns to illuminate the group’s creative process and evolving ethos. Guest authors will situate the band within broader movements in art, business, and technology, tracing how its improvisational model fostered innovation far beyond music. Through close listening, archival media, and lively discussion, we’ll explore how the Dead’s radical openness continues to shape ideas of authorship, audience, and cultural imagination.
Guest speakers include:
Jesse Jarnow
Writer, DJ, and co-producer of the official podcast The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast, Jesse Jarnow brings deep context and enthusiasm to the world of the Grateful Dead. Since 2009, he has been documenting every era of the band’s history, and his book Wasn’t That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America reveals his knack for connecting music to broader cultural stories.
Len Dell’Amico
Filmmaker, author, and longtime inner-circle collaborator with the Grateful Dead, Len Dell’Amico served as the band’s video director from 1980 to 1995. His new memoir, Friend of the Devil: My Wild Ride with Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead, offers a rare behind-the-scenes view of the band’s creative culture and visual legacy.
Gary Lambert
With more than five decades in the music industry and a deep affinity for the Grateful Dead, Gary Lambert is the founding editor of The Grateful Dead Almanac, the band’s official newsletter. He is the co-host of the SiriusXM radio show Tales From the Golden Road. His rich archive of commentary and storytelling makes him a trusted voice on the band's legacy.
Jim Newton
Journalist-turned-historian Jim Newton spent 25 years at The Los Angeles Times before turning his attention to the countercultural legacy of the Grateful Dead. His latest book, Here Beside the Rising Tide: Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American Awakening, places the band in the broader sweep of American cultural history.
Charlie Miller
A legendary audio archivist and engineer, Charlie Miller is renowned in the Grateful Dead community for meticulously restoring and transferring hundreds of the band’s live recordings—now considered definitive versions by collectors. A longtime collaborator with guitarist Steve Kimock, he continues to engineer and preserve landmark performances. His unparalleled ear and technical expertise illuminate the enduring sound and spirit of the Dead’s live legacy.
Rebecca G. Adams
A sociologist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Rebecca G. Adams is a pioneering scholar of the Grateful Dead’s social world. Her influential research on Deadhead communities helped establish the band as a serious subject of academic study, revealing how music can generate enduring networks, shared identity, and alternative forms of social organization. Widely cited across sociology and cultural studies, Adams brings a rigorous, humane lens to the Dead’s improvisational ethos and the communities it inspired.
Guest speakers include:
Jesse Jarnow
Writer, DJ, and co-producer of the official podcast The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast, Jesse Jarnow brings deep context and enthusiasm to the world of the Grateful Dead. Since 2009, he has been documenting every era of the band’s history, and his book Wasn’t That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America reveals his knack for connecting music to broader cultural stories.
Len Dell’Amico
Filmmaker, author, and longtime inner-circle collaborator with the Grateful Dead, Len Dell’Amico served as the band’s video director from 1980 to 1995. His new memoir, Friend of the Devil: My Wild Ride with Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead, offers a rare behind-the-scenes view of the band’s creative culture and visual legacy.
Gary Lambert
With more than five decades in the music industry and a deep affinity for the Grateful Dead, Gary Lambert is the founding editor of The Grateful Dead Almanac, the band’s official newsletter. He is the co-host of the SiriusXM radio show Tales From the Golden Road. His rich archive of commentary and storytelling makes him a trusted voice on the band's legacy.
Jim Newton
Journalist-turned-historian Jim Newton spent 25 years at The Los Angeles Times before turning his attention to the countercultural legacy of the Grateful Dead. His latest book, Here Beside the Rising Tide: Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American Awakening, places the band in the broader sweep of American cultural history.
Charlie Miller
A legendary audio archivist and engineer, Charlie Miller is renowned in the Grateful Dead community for meticulously restoring and transferring hundreds of the band’s live recordings—now considered definitive versions by collectors. A longtime collaborator with guitarist Steve Kimock, he continues to engineer and preserve landmark performances. His unparalleled ear and technical expertise illuminate the enduring sound and spirit of the Dead’s live legacy.
Rebecca G. Adams
A sociologist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Rebecca G. Adams is a pioneering scholar of the Grateful Dead’s social world. Her influential research on Deadhead communities helped establish the band as a serious subject of academic study, revealing how music can generate enduring networks, shared identity, and alternative forms of social organization. Widely cited across sociology and cultural studies, Adams brings a rigorous, humane lens to the Dead’s improvisational ethos and the communities it inspired.