electric bass

The Grateful Dead’s bassist drew on his classical and avant-garde background to create his unique approach to the instrument.

Photo by Ebet Roberts

Lesh, whose bass effortlessly integrated the celestial, extrasensory, and deeply earthy within the Grateful Dead’s music, transcended many of his peers by fusing a classical upbringing, avant urges, and a boundless sense of irreverence and adventure.

The kindest Deadheads are empathetic to those who don’t immediately grasp the Grateful Dead’s art and appeal. The band’s music, after all, was loose, searching, inventive, improvisational, and, on occasion, utterly lacking form as most Western music audiences would understand it. That’s partly because, unlike some contemporaries that were uniformly inspired by the British invasion and folk rock, the Grateful Dead arose from a much more divergent set of influences. But no member of the ramshackle Haight-Ashbury dance combo was an odder fit than bassist Phil Lesh, who passed away October 25, 2024 at age 84.

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