The initial configuration included Hite as vocalist, Alan Wilson on bottleneck guitar, Mike Perlowin on lead guitar, Stu Brotman on bass and Keith Sawyer on drums. In 1965, some blues devotees there decided to form a jug band and started rehearsals. Bob Hite had been trading blues records since his early teens, and his house in Topanga Canyon was a meeting place for people interested in music. History Origins and early lineups Ĭanned Heat was started within the community of blues collectors. Walter Trout and Junior Watson are among the guitarists who played in later editions of the band. For much of the 1990s and 2000s and following Taylor's death in 2019, de la Parra has been the only member from the band's 1960s lineup. Since the early 1970s, following the early death of Wilson, numerous personnel changes have occurred. Three of their songs - " Going Up the Country", " On the Road Again", and " Let's Work Together" - became international hits. Canned Heat appeared at most major musical events at the end of the 1960s, performing blues standards along with their own material and occasionally indulging in lengthy " psychedelic" solos. The music and attitude of Canned Heat attracted a large following and established the band as one of the popular acts of the hippie era. After appearances at the Monterey and Woodstock festivals at the end of the 1960s, the band acquired worldwide fame with a lineup of Hite (vocals), Wilson (guitar, harmonica and vocals), Henry Vestine and later Harvey Mandel (lead guitar), Larry Taylor (bass), and Adolfo de la Parra (drums). It was launched by two blues enthusiasts Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, who took the name from Tommy Johnson's 1928 "Canned Heat Blues", a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called "canned heat". The group has been noted for its efforts to promote interest in blues music and its original artists. From there, Deadheads began creating their own merchandise featuring the dancing bears including bootleg stickers and shirts to name a few, and the symbol was forevermore associated with the Dead.Canned Heat is an American blues and rock band that was formed in Los Angeles in 1965. Because the bears were featured on the album art as well as within the social sphere of communal drug use at the band’s live performances, they quickly became a symbol deeply entwined with the culture of listening to the Grateful Dead. What does this have to do with the dancing bears you ask?Īctually a lot! Following the release of the Dead’s album, the bears motif began appearing on Stanley’s LSD blotter art, which also just so happened to be widely circulated at most Grateful Dead concerts at the time. In addition to being the band’s sound engineer, Owsley Stanley was also one of the world’s first private LSD manufacturers. The Bears originally appeared on the back cover of the Grateful Dead’s Bear’s Choice album launching the design into the public eye, but this album circulation only accounted for a portion of the rapid fame attributed to the bears. The actual principal design for the style of bear we now commonly associate with the Grateful Dead was born from a 36-point lead type slug featuring a generic bear print that Thomas found and used as his primary artistic inspiration. There is also speculation that the moniker “Dancing Bear” was attributed to Stanley in reference to his peculiar choice of dance moves at concerts while high on acid. The choice to create a symbol using bears as the focal point stems from Owsley Stanley’s nickname “Bear” given to him by childhood friends as a result of his excessive chest hair. In addition to these ubiquitous graphics, Thomas also designed the art for the The Dead’s Steal Your Face and Live Dead as well as the logo for Alembic, an American manufacturer of high-end electric guitars, basses and preamps started by Owsley Stanley, the Grateful Dead’s sound engineer. Thomas actually has a long history tied with The Dead having co-designed the band’s iconic “Lightning Bolt” logo with Owsley Stanley in 1969 as a means of keeping track of the band’s equipment while on tour. The dancing bear design was originally created by artist and renaissance man Bob Thomas for use on the back of the Grateful Dead’s 1973 album The History of the Grateful Dead, Volume 1 (Bear’s Choice). A Design Born from Artistic Collaboration
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