I was never able to reconcile Deadheads with the dull earnestness and rigid conformity of the Left. The Leftists actually went to the music festivals to support a cause. Bleah. The weird thing I noticed about Deadhead couples was that they tended to settle into traditional sex roles. I wonder if they realized it. Anyway ...
It was and is a weird part of the counter-culture that I still like to interact with from time to time. Of course here in the South we are all Allman Brothers and Widespread Panic fans as well.
I think I know the Dead’s catalog of songs fairly well and they dealt with such universal messages and so on, from the songs I know it would have been hard to pigeonhole them into leftist politics, “We bid you goodnight” is obviously a Church hymn which I know you all know as their usual closing, then you have “St. Stephen” too. And then, there other songs too many to mention, “Friend of the Devil”, “Ripple” of course, probably their defining song to me, so many songs and yet from the ones I am familiar with, unpolitical. “Jack Straw”, “Playing in the band”, I even enjoy most of “Shakedown Street”. I once had a friend who was very knowledgeable on music and he said they were sort of like the American Beatles. I’ll always remember that and it seems to have the ring of truth to it.