By COLLIN GALLION

8-18 Media

Special to the Journal

Salutations, everyone! Welcome back to part 6 of Collin’s Guide to the Grateful Dead, where we’ll hopefully explain why your child is turning into a deadhead.

In today’s column, we’ll be taking a look at some frequently used lingo within the deadhead community. These can be terms used to describe things ranging from tickets to fans. So think of this column as a short dictionary for Grateful Dead lingo to use on your friends and family. There will, also, be another column coming up where we take a look at the fans themselves, and how deadhead is used as an umbrella term to describe the spectrum of Grateful Dead fans, so be on the lookout for that. One last thing to mention before we begin, a majority of these terms are taken from David Shenk and Steve Silberman’s book “Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads,” which goes into more detail about the following terms mentioned in this column. So if you’re curious and you want to know more about these terms, then I highly suggest checking out the book for yourself. With that out of the way, let’s begin.

¯ Deadhead – A fan of the Grateful Dead; Most commonly used as an umbrella term to describe all fans of the Grateful Dead. This term was first used on the inside cover of the band’s Europe ’72 album.

¯On The Bus – Another way of saying you’re a deadhead; Used to describe how long someone has been a Deadhead for. To “get on the bus” means to realize that you are a fan of the band, while to “get off the bus” means that you are no longer a fan of the band. This term is based off of the song, The Other One, in which Bob Weir describes how he got on the bus to Never Neverland with Cowboy Neal at the wheel. The bus was a symbol of the hippie counterculture of the 1960’s, when authors Ken Kesey and Neal Cassidy would use a bus to transport participants of the acid tests across San Francisco.

¯Miracle – Another name for a ticket; More specifically, a ticket that is received either for free or for a higher price. This term originates from the song, “I Need A Miracle”.

¯ Stealie – A nickname for the Grateful Dead’s logo, consisting of a skull with a lightning bolt on its forehead with a red and blue background. The term “stealie” derives from the lyric “Steal your face right off your head” from the song “He’s Gone”. While not the only symbol of the Dead, it is the most iconic logo the band has ever used.

¯ Jonesin’ – Use by Deadheads who are overdue for a show. Ex.: “Man, I’m jonesin’ for a show right now!” The term was originally used during World War 1 to describe heroin addicts.

¯ Crankin’ – Meaning that the band is playing hard. Ex.: “Dude, did you see the band last night? Phil was crankin’!”

¯ Shakedown Street – An area of the parking lot where Deadheads come together to sell and barter handmade goods and food, named after the album and song of the same name. Oftentimes, these events happen in the parking lots of stadiums and venues where the Dead are playing. They also happen on their own times in different places across the country. Some things you might find at these Shakedown Streets include handmade clothing, stickers, bags, ponchos, food and drinks, and much more. So keep an eye out for a Shakedown Street near you.

¯ Going Into, Coming Out Of – Used to describe how the band flows through one song to the next, often symbolized through arrows. For example, Help on The Way going into Slipknot!, going into Franklin’s Tower would be Help -> Slip -> Franklin. Another example would be China -> Rider, meaning China Cat Sunflower going into I Know You Rider, or Scarlet -> Fire, meaning Scarlet Begonias going into Fire on The Mountain.

¯ Ticket Monster – A nickname used by Heads to describe Ticketmaster, the online ticket purchasing website infamous for selling tickets at unbelievably high prices and instituting high add on fees.

¯ Tie Dye – A form of clothing consisting of swirling colors and images widely worn by Deadheads since the early 80s.

¯ Take a Step Back – Bob Weir’s favorite form of crowd control whenever the Deadheads got too close to the stage. During these moments, Bob would make the audience play “everyone’s favorite fun game”, and proceed to tell everyone to take a step back, and then another, and then another. Moments like these would be used in times of technical difficulties and tunings.

¯ The Cowboy Slot – A portion of the show where Bob would sing a set of cowboy songs. Refer back to CGTTGD Pt. 3 if you want to know a little bit more about Bob and his western influence.

¯ The Phil Zone – An area, usually on the left side of the stage from the audience point of view, where Deadheads who are major fans of Phil Lesh will group up together to get as close to Phil as possible. There is also the Jerry Zone, usually on the right side of the stage, and the Bob Zone, which is in the middle of the stage. So if you went to a show and someone told you to “Meet me in the Phil Zone”, you now know!

¯ Bombs – Also known as “nuggets”, these are moments when Phil plucks a note that is so low, it could rattle the stage and the ground.

¯ The Kind – Used to describe something pleasant or excellent from food to performances. Ex.: “That veggie burger was the kind!” or “Did you catch that kind Scarlet -> Fire?!”

¯ The Ick – The opposite of The Kind. A slang term to describe an infection while on tour.

¯ Dead Dreams – A term used to describe anytime a Deadhead has had a dream about being around the Dead. Ex.: “I had a dead dream that I went to Winterland and I got to play with the band.” Don’t we all have those.

¯ Captain Trips – Jerry Garcia’s nickname from the early days of the Grateful Dead, when he was infamous for spiking people’s drinks with LSD. Also the name of the virus from Stephen King’s 1978 novel “The Stand”.

¯The Vault – A well kept collection of the Dead’s most legendary shows and performances, often released on vinyl or in CD box sets called “One From The Vault”.

¯ The Curse – When a musician grabs the attention of Deadheads after playing with the Grateful Dead. Some artists who have caught the curse include Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Greg and Duane Allman, John Belushi, and Janis Joplin.

And those were just a few of the many slang terms used within the Grateful Dead community. Of course, that wasn’t all of them, and more terms are being made everyday, as long as the spirit of the Grateful Dead and their followers still remain. If you ever come across someone speaking like this, than you’ll know what they’re saying.

Stay tuned for part 7, where we’ll take a look at the Deadheads themselves, and the many variations that are sprinkled across the Grateful Dead spectrum. Until then, stay weir’d!