![]() ![]() That amounts to more than 5,000,000 doses. By his own account, he produced at least 500 grams between 19. He was reportedly the first known private person to manufacture mass quantities of LSD. He also helped develop the group’s “wall of sound.” Many in the media called him the Acid King. He was the sound engineer for the Grateful Dead and recorded many of the group’s live performances. Said Bear of the bears, “the bears on the album cover are not really ‘dancing.’ I don’t know why people think they are their positions are quite obviously those of a high-stepping march.”Īn American-Australian audio engineer, “Bear” was a key figure in the Bay Area hippie movement in the ’60s. The bears themselves are a reference to Owsley “Bear” Stanley, who recorded and produced the album upon which they appear. Thomas said that he based the depictions on a lead sort, which is a block with a typographic character etched on it, from an unknown font. 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.Drawn by Bob Thomas as part of the back cover for the band’s 1973 album, History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear’s Choice), the “dancing” bears may not even be dancing at all. 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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