LSD, Christine Keeler and a giant Wall of Sound: inside the Grateful Dead’s lawless early years

• In the autumn of 1972, the Grateful Dead discovered a means by which they could extract $300,000 from the United States government with which to launch their own record company. The only requirement for receiving this seed money lay in persuading the administrators of the Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Company [MESBIC] scheme that the group’s personnel were members of a minority. With this, at a stroke, the “hippies” were designated a special interest group.