What is the Grateful Dead skull called?
Steal Your Face
Without question, the single most recognized image for the band, even more so than Garcia’s face probably, is the “Steal Your Face” design. Also commonly referred to as the “lightning skull,” the concept was born out of necessity, really.
What is the origin of the Skull and Roses Grateful Dead?
The skeleton and roses on this iconic poster came from a 19th century illustration in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a book of 11th century Persian poems the artists discovered in the public library. Mouse and Kelley liked all of their posters to be different: “I always tried to keep my style open,” said Mouse.
What is the Grateful Dead symbol?
Among the band’s symbols there is one that stands out even today. It is the Steal Your Face skull symbol. The drawing of a circle with a human skull and a lightning bolt appeared in 1969. The band took part in a lot of concerts, so there was a need for some emblem to identify their equipment in backstage areas.
Why do the Grateful Dead use skeletons?
Why Dancing Skeletons? “So the kids, they dance, they shake their bones.” The Dancing Skeleton motif conveys the psychedelic nature of the Grateful Dead and their music. Skeletons are closely associated with death.
What are the Grateful Dead dancing bears names?
The slug that started it all. What is this? There are five different Grateful Dead bears on the album cover, in colors red, orange, yellow, green, and blue, though bears have since appeared in many different colors in different Grateful Dead related artworks.
What does the 13 point lightning bolt mean?
The 13-point lightning bolt was derived from a stencil Stanley created to spray-paint on the Grateful Dead’s equipment boxes (he wanted an easily identifiable mark to help the crew find the Dead’s equipment in the jumble of multiple bands’ identical black equipment boxes at festivals).
Is Bertha the name of the Grateful Dead skeleton?
Skull and Roses (“Bertha”) Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse designed the poster, but the famous skeleton originally comes from a 1913 “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” illustration by Edmund Joseph Sullivan. The band later used the design again on their untitled 1971 album (often called “Skull and Roses”).
Is Bertha the skeleton?
The skeleton with a crown of roses, affectionately named Bertha, is a classic piece of Grateful Dead imagery.
Why are there 13 points on a Grateful Dead bolt?
Who drew the Steal Your Face?
Owsley Stanley
Steal Your Face: Owsley Stanley — the LSD icon who was known as “Bear” in the Dead community — is widely credited for helping to design the band’s “Steal Your Face” (lightning bolt on skull) logo.
What is the name of the purple Grateful Dead bear?
That’s a story another day, but basically, Bear Stanley was an extremely important person to both the Grateful Dead and the countercultural movement of the 1960s. He also designed the Steal Your Face logo in collaboration with Bob Thomas, and the Grateful Dead bears were inspired by his association with the band.
How did Grateful Dead get its name?
December: Grateful Dead born: The band changes its name after learning of another group called Warlocks. Garcia spotted the phrase “grateful dead,” which the band later discovered to be from an Egyptian prayer, in a dictionary, and it stuck.