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The multi instrumentalist, songwriter and singer Paul McCartney transformed music alongside John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison in the 1960s, becoming an influence, directly or indirectly, on almost every musician who emerged in the following decades. The Beatles<\/a> impact is massive and continues to resonate.<\/p>\n McCartney had the opportunity to see the evolution and ramifications of the revolution they started across every aspect of a band\u2019s creativity. Over the years, he has given his opinion his opinion on many bands, including the Grateful Dead<\/a>, one of the most successful touring groups of all time.<\/p>\n Paul McCartney\u2019s opinion on the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia<\/p>\n Paul McCartney likes the Grateful Dead and the late guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia, whom he praised in the past. The Beatle first met them in the 1960s and even created a photo film about them. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what prompted me (in going out on the road), the Grateful Dead. \u2018Deadheads, man! Allright\u2019 (he imitates Grateful Dead fans). Listen, if Jerry (Garcia) can still do it that good, you know, I mean, there\u2019s hope for us all,\u201d he said during a press conference<\/a> in 1989. At that time, the Beatle had not performed a show in the United States since 1976. He mentioned the Grateful Dead many times in interviews, saying they were one of the main bands that inspired him to return to the road.<\/p>\n McCartney said at the time that seeing them attract so many young fans gave artists like him, The Rolling Stones and The Who encouragement to continue playing. He was impressed by how they became even bigger in the 1980s and was struck by seeing his nephew\u2019s friends showing up wearing Grateful Dead shirts.\u201dMy own personal thing was seeing the Grateful Dead become so popular over the last few years. Because you know, I\u2019ve got like young nephews and their friends and stuff in America, particularly. I\u2019ve seen them grow up and it is strange to see these kids coming around with headbands on and Dead t-shirts. You know, (they are) well into Jerry (Garcia) and the gang.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued:<\/p>\n \u201cSo you think: Well, hell it does mean that there isn\u2019t really a youth factor, it\u2019s more a music factor. I do think kids are getting more into 60s music. My kids are certainly like into Otis Redding, James Brown, Traffic, Jimi Hendrix. You know, maybe through Steve Winwood then they go back to traffic,\u201d he said in a TV<\/a> interview.<\/p>\n The Beatle also noted that the Dead were one of the few bands that could truly play to stadiums full of people during that era. According to him, it was something he felt younger bands could not do. \u201cI think that\u2019s what\u2019s happening now, basically I think that the young kids haven\u2019t quite got the experience to play all these big arenas all the time. So you find groups like the Grateful Dead coming back just because they have got the experience, they can do it. The kids can go out there and they can see a band play live which is the other thing. A lot of the young kids can\u2019t play live,\u201d he said during a press conference<\/a> in 1989.<\/p>\n Interestingly, John Lennon said in one of his final interviews<\/a> in 1980 that the name \u201cSgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band\u201d was created by Paul, influenced by visiting the West Coast scene. \u201cAfter a trip to America and the whole West Coast long-named group thing was coming in. You know, when people were no longer the Beatles or the Crickets. They were suddenly Fred And His Incredible Shrinking Grateful Airplanes, right? So I think he got influenced by that and came up with this idea for the Beatles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Paul McCartney visited the Grateful Dead at their house in San Francisco in the 1960s<\/p>\n Curiously, McCartney met the band still in the 60s, when he visited them at their Ashbury Street house in San Francisco\u2019s Haight district. They had mutual friends and as he revealed\u00a0in the documentary \u201cIt Was 20 Years Ago Today<\/a>\u201d (1987). The Beatle thought that whole movement wouldn\u2019t last that much. \u201cI remember going to Ashbury district where the Grateful Dead lived in San Francisco. I\u2019m going around to see them because we had mutual friends. I went around and sort of called on them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just like that, you know, just like mates and stuff. I remember thinking \u2018I can\u2019t see this lasting\u2019. Because the media are going to get this and all this \u2018Flower Power\u2019 and Haight Ashbury. It (would) pretty soon (be) turned to be rip off street, when they knew kids were running away from home and going to Haight Ashbury to be a wonderful peaceful person. So of course, all the rip off merchants started to populate those places: Sunset Strip, Haight Ashbury,\u201d Paul McCartney said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).<\/p>\n The term \u201crip off merchants\u201d, used by Paul, is British slang for people who exploit others financially. They will often be overcharging, selling poor quality goods or taking advantage of vulnerable people. He felt that once it became fashionable and was picked up by the media, many of those people would appear in order to cash in.<\/p>\n The Grateful Dead photofilm that Paul McCartney did<\/p>\n McCartney was married to Linda Eastman<\/a> from 1969 until her death in 1998. She was a famous photographer who shot many bands during her career, including the Grateful Dead. In the 1990s, they decided to retrieve the negatives of photos she had taken of them in the early days. Thoso images of them during that era were rare, so they decided to create a photo film.<\/p>\n The whole process took years to be completed and, sadly, was not ready until after Garcia\u2019s passing in 1995. The film was released the following year and screened at several film festivals. It was McCartney who chose their songs \u2018That\u2019s It For The Other One\u2019, \u2018New Potato Caboose\u2019 and \u2018Alligator\u2019 for the soundtrack. They perfectly aligned with the images.<\/p>\n During the making of the movie, he was in contact with Jerry Garcia<\/a>. But when it was finally released, Paul McCartney lamented he was not able to show him the result. \u201dI heard on the news that Jerry had died. I thought, \u2018Oh no, I was just about to show the film to him. I\u2019d been in correspondence with him, because he was a painter and I thought he\u2019d like this. Unfortunately, I missed him. I suppose it has become a little bit of a tribute to Jerry because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul McCartney continued:<\/p>\n \u201dIf Andy Warhol can film the Empire State Building for three hours, I figure I can do something with four rolls of film,\u201d he told the New York Times<\/a> back then. He recalled that when he was ill as a child, he used to stare at a newspaper photograph until he could imagine it moving. Some of the Grateful Dead photos taken by Lind gave him that same impression.<\/p>\n \u201dI noticed where she was trying to get a portrait of Bob Weir<\/a>, she would take a whole roll of him, one photo after another. Of course, she only needed one shot, but in looking at the whole roll it looked like a movie. Your eyes almost ran it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n The impact of the Beatles\u2019 \u201cSgt. Pepper\u2019s\u201d on the Grateful Dead according to Jerry Garcia.<\/p>\n Although the Grateful Dead\u2019s music was quite different from what the Beatles were doing for most of their career, they were influenced by them. According to Jerry Garcia, it was especially the album Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band which was an important influence. They covered many of their songs live over the years like \u201cDear Prudence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRevolution<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Beatles, I\u2019d say, mainly the thing was the movies, really. (They are) the thing that did it more than the records did. Because the records, both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones\u2026 The Stones was all stuff that I grown up with it, like retakes of the old Marshall Chess Records. It was a little Muddy Waters, a little Chuck Berry, you know. But it was all stuff that I\u2019d heard before and I understood the way it worked, the way it functioned.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt that time I\u2019d been playing Bluegrass banjo for about 4 or 5 years and it wasn\u2019t the music so much that interested me. The Beatles, their first records were so sappy, I didn\u2019t really like them that much, frankly, you know. But when the first movie came out \u2018A Hard Day\u2019s Night\u2019, it had such a great flow to it, such great style and the thing of fun. At that time I was playing very loosely with friends, I sort of surrendered to that idea to \u2018I want just want to have fun! Heck with being serious,\u2019 you know.\u201d<\/p>\n Jerry Garcia continued:<\/p>\n \u201cSo I was in that frame of mind anyway. Seeing this movie of these guys who were playing and having fun. That\u2019s the thing I think that kicked The Beatles off the most in the West Coast as far as the Folk music, coffee house post Beatnik circuit. Most of the San Francisco bands evolved from that space.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe first time that we heard \u2018Sgt. Pepper\u2019, we were in New York. (We were) playing at the Caf\u00e9 Au Go Go, down the Village. One of the girls who worked there came in with a copy of it and put it on the PA. I remember listening to it and it was sort of transparent, it sort of went through my head. (We listened a few more times) and started to sneak in. Of course, The Beatles had been kind of leaking psychedelia in the last few records before that. They were kind of getting squishy around the edges.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo this record really came to be the anthem of Haight Ashbury, if you could say anything was. I would certainly say that (one) and possibly \u2018Blonde on Blonde\u2019 (Bob Dylan<\/a>), was the other one of those records that you heard all time, in every house,\u201d Jerry Garcia told Rolling Stone<\/a> in 1987 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).<\/p>\n