Grateful Dead Sleep Stories

By The Shakedown Archives

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Category: Music History

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Episodes: 131

Description

Grateful Dead history, sourced from the books and the tapes. Each documentary takes one story (a song, a show, a person, a strange night in the band’s thirty years) and follows it through the archive: interviews, setlists, liner notes, fan-club mailings and the recordings. A companion series adds long-form talks with the writers, musicians and Deadheads who were there, or who have spent decades digging. First up: journalist Toby Rogers on the jazz underneath the Dead. New episodes weekly. Full videos and more on our website.

Episode Date
How Bill Graham Changed The Dead Forever
Oct 28, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Year the Dead Went Disco and Lowell George Made Shakedown Street and more
Oct 28, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Summer Bob Dylan Toured With the Grateful Dead, and Jerry's Dylan Songbook and more
Oct 27, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Detroit Soul Records Jerry Garcia Carried Into the Grateful Dead and more
Oct 26, 2026
Bill Graham's Crowd Control Became a Six-Day Tent City
Oct 25, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | John Perry Barlow, the Wyoming Rancher Who Wrote Bob Weir's Cowboy Songs and more
Oct 25, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | Life Inside 710 Ashbury, the Grateful Dead House the Police Raided and more
Oct 24, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | Before the Dead: Jerry Garcia's Banjo Years, the Coffeehouses, and the Jug Band and more
Oct 23, 2026
How Bob Marley’s Rejection Led To Grateful Dead’s Iconic ‘Scarlet Begonias
Oct 22, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | Why the Dead Needed Two Drummers, Billy, Mickey and the Rhythm Devils and more
Oct 22, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | Merl Saunders, the Organ Player Who Taught Jerry Garcia to Play Again and more
Oct 21, 2026
600 Speakers, 75 Tons, and One Problem Nobody Solved
Oct 19, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | Bill Graham, the Fillmore, Winterland and the Dead's New Year's Eves and more
Oct 18, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Summer New York Gave the Dead a Key Made of Flowers and more
Oct 17, 2026
The Album Robert Hunter Tried To Erase
Oct 16, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | John Kahn, the Bass Player at Jerry Garcia's Left Shoulder for Twenty-Five Years and more
Oct 16, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Night Jerry Garcia Grabbed Phil Lesh, and the Birth of Anthem of the Sun and more
Oct 15, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | Keith Godchaux, and What Really Pushed Him Out and more
Oct 14, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | Box of Rain, the Last Song the Dead Ever Played and more
Oct 13, 2026
22 Years of Trying to Forget One Sound
Oct 13, 2026
Sleep Stories — How Phil Lesh Quietly Rebuilt the Grateful Dead: Friends, Not a Reunion
Oct 12, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | Watkins Glen, and the Band That Survived the Unsurvivable and more
Oct 11, 2026
Why Jerry Garcia Never Turned On the Hells Angels
Oct 10, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Hidden Stories Behind Every Song on Workingman's Dead and more
Oct 10, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Night They Played the Pyramids Under a Lunar Eclipse and more
Oct 09, 2026
Brent Mydland & the Year the Dead’s Sound Was Reborn
Oct 07, 2026
The Solo Career That Was Never About Fame
Oct 04, 2026
Sleep Stories — The Missing Link Between Beats and Hippies: Cassady, the Bus, and the Hand-Off
Oct 01, 2026
How a Failed Bob Dylan Tour Rewrote One of His Most Famous Songs
Oct 01, 2026
Toby Rogers: The Jazz Secret Behind the Grateful Dead
Sep 30, 2026
Hip Economics & Ammo Cases: Untold Story of The Music Never Stopped
Sep 28, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | Pigpen, the Bluesman Who Started It All and more
Sep 26, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | What It Was Like to Follow the Dead for a Whole Summer and more
Sep 25, 2026
A Con Man, Crab Sandwiches, and the Leanest Grateful Dead
Sep 25, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Nights That Became Legend and more
Sep 24, 2026
Sleep Stories — Dark Star: The Song That Never Played the Same Way Twice
Sep 23, 2026
Sleep Stories — China Cat Sunflower: The Song That Drifted In Like a Dream
Sep 22, 2026
Sleep Stories — Why The Dead Took 7 Years To Rise Again: The Quiet Stretch After the Band Stopped
Sep 22, 2026
Sleep Stories — Acid Tests: The Primal Parties That Forged the Dead
Sep 21, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The First Show, Back When They Were the Warlocks and more
Sep 20, 2026
The Messy Truth About Keith Godchaux’s Exit: A Theft, A Secret Replacement, and Two Resignations
Sep 19, 2026
Truckin’ by Grateful Dead: The Story Behind America’s National Treasure
Sep 13, 2026
The Night The Dead Collaborated With The Sufi Choir | A Historic 1971 Performance, Lost for 50 Years
Sep 10, 2026
Donna Jean Godchaux’s Legacy: From Muscle Shoals to the Grateful Dead
Sep 07, 2026
The Dead's Parking Lot Was Their Best Invention [And Worst]
Sep 06, 2026
Pigpen Wasn't Crazy. He Was the Point.
Sep 05, 2026
Scarlet Fire — Rolling Stone ranked half a song #1
Sep 04, 2026
Altamont — how one festival night changed the Dead
Sep 04, 2026
New York Summer of Love — the Dead’s real festival week
Sep 03, 2026
Owsley’s Wall of Sound — why he built it
Sep 02, 2026
Forgotten peak season — the Dead’s overlooked year
Sep 01, 2026
The record that ended the Dead — what actually killed the deal
Sep 01, 2026
MK-Ultra - how Dead lyrics started
Aug 31, 2026
Sleep Stories — Festival Express with Janis Joplin: The Legendary Train Tour
Aug 31, 2026
Sleep Stories — Scarlet Begonias into Fire on the Mountain: The Greatest Dead Segue
Aug 30, 2026
Jerry's song pick - the Dead track he thought he ruined
Aug 29, 2026
Sleep Stories — Sufi Choir Bonfire in Winterland
Aug 29, 2026
Sleep Stories — Dancing Bears: Owsley, Bob Thomas, and the Dead’s Icon
Aug 28, 2026
Sleep Stories — Jerry's Two Bands: Dead and New Riders
Aug 27, 2026
How Deadheads Built the Internet: The Grateful Dead’s Tech Legacy
Aug 26, 2026
Sleep Stories — Owsley's Ultimatum: Bear and the Band's Breaking Point
Aug 26, 2026
Sleep Stories — Garcia Coma: Five Days the Dead Almost Ended
Aug 24, 2026
Sleep Stories — Europe 72: Two Nights That Almost Ended
Aug 23, 2026
Sleep Stories — After the Music: The Last Grateful Dead Setlist
Aug 23, 2026
Sleep Stories — Family Around the Band: Chemists, Crew, and the Circle
Aug 22, 2026
Sleep Stories — Strange Fortune: Hip Economics and The Music Never Stopped
Aug 21, 2026
Donna Godchaux's Voice Was More Complicated Than You Think
Aug 20, 2026
Sleep Stories — The Sound and the Men Who Chased It: Wall of Speakers and Tapers
Aug 20, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Rooms the Dead Haunted
Aug 19, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Cursed Chair: The Men Who Sat in the Keyboard Seat
Aug 18, 2026
How Owsley 'Bear' Stanley's LSD Shaped the Grateful Dead's Sound
Aug 17, 2026
Owsley Stanley Gave the Dead Everything. At a Price.
Aug 17, 2026
How Deadheads Created Social Networks Decades Before Facebook
Aug 17, 2026
Jerry Garcia’s 1986 Coma & The Grateful Dead Reborn
Aug 16, 2026
Why the Grateful Dead Belonged on Saturday Night Live
Aug 16, 2026
The Song Garcia Called "Marginal" Was a Fairy Tale
Aug 15, 2026
Warren Haynes Had to be Jerry Garcia and Duane Allman — In the Same Year
Aug 15, 2026
The Grateful Dead Song Born from an ACID Nightmare
Aug 14, 2026
The Mistake That Killed Jimi Hendrix — and Saved the Grateful Dead
Aug 14, 2026
Dan Healy Changed the Dead’s Sound—Then Turned Tapers Into a System
Aug 13, 2026
When Jerry Garcia Played Two Bands every Night — The New Riders Experiment
Aug 12, 2026
Owsley’s Ultimatum: The Grateful Dead’s 1970 Breaking Point
Aug 12, 2026
How Ken Kesey's "Suicide" Changed The Grateful Dead Changed Forever
Aug 12, 2026
How Janis Joplin Lit Up the Grateful Dead
Aug 11, 2026
The Most Important Venue In a Post Jerry World
Aug 11, 2026
The Chain Nobody Saw: 1944 Murder to Grateful Dead's Final Show
Aug 10, 2026
How the Grateful Dead Made Bill Walton an NBA Champion
Aug 10, 2026
The Woman Who Saved the Grateful Dead's Legacy
Aug 09, 2026
The Night That Changed The Grateful Dead Forever
Aug 09, 2026
The Missing Link Between Beats and Hippies
Aug 08, 2026
Phil Lesh Was the Hardest Man in the Dead
Aug 08, 2026
The Dead's Keyboard Chair "Cursed" Four Men. Not Him.
Aug 07, 2026
The Song That Taught the Dead How to Jam Anything
Aug 07, 2026
His Father Swore on a Bible. Then Robbed the Grateful Dead.
Aug 07, 2026
The Shakedown Archives Is Launching Memberships
Aug 07, 2026
The Grateful Dead Didn't Leave 710 Ashbury—They Were Pushed Out
Aug 07, 2026
The Untold Story of Why Robert Hunter Stopped Touring: Food Fights & The 10 Commandments
Aug 07, 2026
The Grateful Dead Cover That Shouldn’t Work… But Absolutely Does
Aug 07, 2026
The Night the Grateful Dead Secretly Played the Tiny Club Where the Jerry Garcia Band Was Born
Aug 07, 2026
The Folk And Jug Band Origins Behind The Grateful Dead
Aug 07, 2026
How “Not Fade Away” Became the Dead’s Most Powerful Promise
Aug 07, 2026
The Grateful Dead's Most Debated 20 Minutes
Aug 07, 2026
The Real Story Behind ‘Casey Jones’ – Grateful Dead’s Cautionary Tale
Aug 07, 2026
The Most Radical Thing Robert Hunter Ever Refused
Aug 07, 2026
Why The Grateful Dead Will Never Die
Aug 07, 2026
The Grateful Dead's First Bassist Lasted Only 4 Shows
Aug 07, 2026
1974: The Year the Grateful Dead Broke Down to Build Back Up
Aug 07, 2026
How the Allman Brothers Survived the Unsurvivable At Watkins Glen
Aug 07, 2026
Grateful Dead's First Tape Is a Myth
Aug 07, 2026
MK-Ultra Was The CIA's Acid Brothel in San Francisco
Aug 07, 2026
Me and My Uncle: The Dead's Most-Played (?) Song Wasn't Theirs
Aug 07, 2026
The Grateful Dead Lore Behind Workingman's Dead
Aug 07, 2026
When Was the Grateful Dead's First Show? Three Answers, Zero Recordings
Aug 07, 2026
The Jerry Garcia And Duane Allman Paradox
Aug 07, 2026
Jerry Garcia's Last Recording Wasn't with the Grateful Dead
Aug 07, 2026
The Crowd Culture That Drives The Grateful Dead and Phish
Aug 07, 2026
Why I Make These | The Mission Of The Shakedown Archives
Aug 07, 2026
China Cat Sunflower — The Song Dreamed by a Lake
Aug 07, 2026
When the CIA Lost Control: MK-ULTRA & The Grateful Dead
Aug 07, 2026
How Neal Cassady Invented the Grateful Dead
Aug 07, 2026
December 15 1986: The Most Important Show In Grateful Dead History
Aug 07, 2026
The Impossible Job: Replacing Jerry Garcia
Aug 07, 2026
Shakedown Street: The Album That Failed at Being Mainstream and Created a Movement
Aug 07, 2026
The Two Nights That Made Europe '72...And Almost Killed It
Aug 07, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | Why You Wouldn't Last a DAY on the Dead's Road Crew and more
Aug 07, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | What It Was Like to Follow the Dead for a Whole Summer and more
Aug 07, 2026
Grateful Dead Sleep Stories | The Nights That Became Legend and more
Aug 06, 2026
Sleep Stories — Pigpen: The Blues Singer the Acid Left Behind
Aug 05, 2026
The Song That Was Never the Same Twice | A Grateful Dead Sleep Story
Aug 05, 2026
Sleep Stories — The Night the Grateful Dead Became the Grateful Dead
Aug 04, 2026
How LSD and the Acid Tests Created the Grateful Deads Iconic Sound
Oct 04, 2025