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They briefly called themselves The Warlocks, but after hearing of another band having that name, They went in search of a new one. According to Phil Lesh's autobiography, They were flipping through the dictionary and there it was, Grateful Dead. Meaning was something to the effect of " the dead, having no resource when alive, was grateful to whomever gave aid (and resource) to enable "the dead' to recieve a proper burrial. Hence, the "Grateful Dead".

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12y ago
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15y ago

The name Grateful Dead was chosen from a dictionary. According to Phil Lesh, in his biography (pp. 62), "...Jer[ry Garcia] picked up an old Britannica World Language Dictionary...[and]...In that silvery elf-voice he said to me, 'Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?'" The definition there was "the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial." According to Alan Trist, director of The Grateful Dead's music publisher company Ice Nine, Garcia found the name in the Funk & Wagnalls Folklore Dictionary, when his finger landed on that phrase while playing a game of "dictionary".[23] In the Garcia biography, Captain Trips, author Sandy Troy states that the band was smoking the psychedelic DMT at the time. The term "Grateful Dead" appears in folktales of a variety of cultures.

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Q: How did the Grateful Dead get its name?
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