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The Grateful Dead: Meadowlands, New Jersey

Richard Gehr, The Village Voice, 21 April 1987

‘S FUNNY. Today the Grateful Dead can’t capture the attention of the so-called alternative audience, just as they couldn’t the so-called straight audience in the late ‘60s. Yet anyone with ears and a brain knows their music’s radder, riskier, rootsier, and ruder than you-name-it’s; plus, they swing. Double-plus, the Dead do something no other musicians of their stature or influence dare: they suggest the possiblity of utopia in everyday life. Operating in a big way far outside the margins of mainstream video (or even indie) culture, the Dead indirectly nurture humanity, goodness, joy, truth, and solidarity among their devoted audience in a much less corny manner than you’d suspect. Preconceptions aside, the Dead do no less through their music than espouse the quaint notion that art can save your life.

Total word count of piece: 1117

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