For the past 25 years, David Lemieux has been living a Deadhead’s dream. After spending the majority of his teens and twenties following the iconic band and trading tapes, he was hired in 1999 to be the Grateful Dead’s official film and audio archivist, producer, and legacy manager. At that point, Jerry Garcia had passed away and The Dead had not yet started touring, much less recruited John Mayer, formed Dead & Company, and sold out stadia. Even as the band offered fans acts to a living, jamming legacy, Lemieux went to work making sure that the bands ubiquitous, psychedelic iconography did not fade away.
This week, Dead & Company, which will likely be the last iteration of the band that started out as the Warlocks, plays its final show July 16 at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Hawkers will sell t-shirts in the parking lot. Brands that have worked with the band, putting dancing bears and gleeful skulls on everything from bags, to shirts, to downhill skis, will move units.
Lemieux, who, in addition to his archival responsibilities, now runs the merch side of the Dead’s company from British Columbia, didn’t get on stage or take a bow. In a sense, he’s the one member of the band (not his words) who gets to keep playing. “I’m 52 years old now, but I feel like I’m still young because I love my job,” he laughs. “I don’t look forward to retirement.”
Even in the absence of shows, the demand for stuff isn’t going anywhere.
“We’re constantly producing different things, whether it’s a vinyl reissue, a box set, or a video. We’re working on a big motion picture that we need to license Grateful Dead music to or it’s the licensing of all of the great merchandise,” Lemieux says. “Dead & Company as an iteration is going to be ending and that’s a bummer,” he says. “But there’s gonna be a lot of ways to consume the Dead.”
Lemieux remains busy. Fortunately, he was kind enough to take some time out of his schedule to give SPY a rundown of what he considers the absolute best merch in the archive.
The Grateful Dead Movie, DVD
“Jerry [Garcia] spent most of his time on the Grateful Dead movie when he wasn’t touring with his own band, or after that with the Grateful Dead. To me, I find that to be the ultimate, the absolute perfect, and the most important Grateful Dead audio-visual document. I find the movie captures what a Grateful Dead concert, and a particular time, which was 1974, meant.”
Europe ’72 Complete Recordings Box
“Twenty-two shows over the course of April and May, 1972. The band’s first big European tour, and every night was magnificent. They produced an album — a triple album — in 1972 called Europe ’72. Thankfully, they also recorded to multi-track tape the entire tour. It’s probably the most consistently great tour in the Grateful Dead’s history. Every night is spectacular.”
30 Trips Around the Sun box
“In 2013, we started talking about what we’d do that was going to be very special for the Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary in 2015. I came up with this grand idea of doing a box set that would even surpass Europe ’72 and ’73 CDs. It would be a complete Grateful Dead show from every year they toured: 1966 to 1995. It’s an 80-CD box.”
Sunshine Daydream
“To me, it’s the quintessential Grateful Dead experience. It’s almost like an acid test, but it’s outdoors in a field with 20,000 hippies outside of Eugene, Oregon, which is the Grateful Dead’s home away from home. It’s one of the few shows from that era for which there is film, footage of most of the show, plus audio.”
Pacific Northwest 1973-74 box
“All of these box sets always start with the music — it’s never a gimmick to do a region or a series of shows from a city. This was when we decided we can do something that thematically holds together with just the Pacific Northwest, but spread it over a couple of years. As a Deadhead, they’re just wild.”
Dave’s Picks series
“Dave’s Picks is a complete Grateful Dead show on three CDs with gorgeous artwork. We get a different artist in residence to do an entire year’s worth of Dave’s Picks, with four releases a year. The next year we get another artist, and then we have some great photos and liner notes inside. They’re really fun to do.”
Truckin’ Up to Buffalo DVD/CD
“Trucking Up to Buffalo [is] a truly spectacular show from late Brent Mydland’s tenure with the Grateful Dead. Unfortunately, he would pass away about a year later, but this show really captures it all. You get these incredible crowd shots of Rich Stadium packed with 50,000 people swaying to the music on a beautiful day on July 4, 1989.”
Giants Stadium 1987-91 box
“When they played New York City or the Metropolitan area, there was a special energy that New York gave the Dead. The music is outstanding, but in addition to that, [the box set] covers two iterations of the band.”
K2 skis
“There are a lot of Deadhead skiers. K2 is the perfect company for the Grateful Dead because they get it. They’re the Pacific Northwest company, they’re cool, and they’re open to design collaboration. I’ve skied on some pretty bad skis, a lot of really good skis, and these ones are the most, I think, effortless.”
Section 119 Clothing
“It’s nice to have a tiny element of Grateful Dead without screaming Grateful Dead tie-dye and a huge lightning bolt zero across the front. Section 119 does the most tasteful, subtle, beautiful clothing. Mark [Pincus, the president of Rhino Entertainment] and I, who take a look at this stuff and approve it, are just constantly blown away by the quality.”
686 Outdoor + Ski Clothing
“The quality of 686’s ski wear is top-notch. It’s durable, it’s warm, and everything about it is perfect. But the designs! I skied in that stuff all of last winter and people stopped me on the slopes to take a picture when I had [on] Grateful Dead goggles and 686 head-to-foot — a tie-dye ski outfit, with big Grateful Dead logos. It’s loud but cool.”