Music and the Divine: The Acid Tests and their Role in the Grateful Dead’s Foundation Story

Abstract

In this article I discuss the way in which the Acid Tests, multimedia parties organized by author Ken Kesey in 1965 and 1966, were interpreted by the Grateful Dead, who played at the Acid Tests and were one of the most successful of the bands to emerge from the 1960s psychedelic scene in rock. In examining the construction of the meaning and significance of the Tests that band members created, we see a group that in many ways resembles a new religious movement struggling to create, make sense of, and free itself from its foundation story—a struggle repeated by many groups before and since. © 2014, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.