[pickwick]

Would you say Grateful Dead or The Grateful Dead? For instance, in your iTunes library, would the artist be Grateful Dead or The Grateful Dead?

 

[breakfastchef]

I think a Deadhead would refer to the band as the 'Dead'. I chose to use 'The Grateful Dead' in my folder structure and have the software I use to display and play the tunes on my PC and DAP to ignore 'the' when listing the folders.

 

[NiceCans]

only time to use "The" with the Grateful Dead would be with "The Dead", otherwise their name is "Grateful Dead"

 

[Sordel]

Funny question ... not because I've never thought about it, but because it's been a bone of contention with me quite out of proportion to its importance!

Obviously the name of the band changed from The Grateful Dead to Grateful Dead very early in their career, so the correct term is not to have the definite article at the start. Unfortunately, "Grateful Dead" just sounds wrong to me. Jefferson Airplane is equally good to The Jefferson Airplane, and Pink Floyd is better than The Pink Floyd, but Grateful Dead is just not a good name.

It's got something to do with standard band name morphology: groups with adjective/noun names (such as The Flaming Lips, The Stone Roses, The White Stripes, The Magnetic Fields, The Chemical Brothers, The Golden Palaminos) usually use the definite article; this is true to such an extent that I always think of "The Red Hot Chili Peppers" even though that is not their name.

In practice, I have my iTunes library standardised to Grateful Dead, but I usually refer to them as The Grateful Dead on Head-Fi and in conversation. I'm quite ashamed to have thought so much about it, really.

 

[ralphp@optonline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pickwick /img/forum/go_quote.gif Would you say Grateful Dead or The Grateful Dead? For instance, in your iTunes library, would the artist be Grateful Dead or The Grateful Dead?

Me: The Grateful Dead

Official name: Grateful Dead

Deadheads: The Dead, man.

However the use of the name "The Dead" makes it somewhat difficult to tell the difference between Grateful Dead music (the music and band when Jerry Garcia was still alive) and post Grateful Dead music (the rather inferior music and band, IMHO, that exists at persent).

 

[Old Pa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by breakfastchef /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think a Deadhead would refer to the band as the 'Dead'. I chose to use 'The Grateful Dead' in my folder structure and have the software I use to display and play the tunes on my PC and DAP to ignore 'the' when listing the folders.

X2, although I have no need for MP3 folder naming.

 

[pickwick]

I think I will make it Grateful Dead in iTunes. Thanks for all of the responses.