Well, there were plenty of 3-4 minutes rock songs in first sets of Dead shows in the 1971-4 period. :-)
From the beginning, the members of the band made clear their complete opposition to not only the war, but to materialistic consumer society, There is a good interview with Jerry from '67, hell if i know where it is at the moment but probably can be located. This even made it into their early lyrics, e.g. Cryptical Envelopment as well as its segue mate The Faster We Go The Rounder We Get, aka The Other One, Dark Star ("Searchlight casting, for faults in the clouds of delusion."), and even more in later tunes, e.g. the reality of US history displayed in Jack Straw, US Blues, Ship of Fools, ...
Edit to add: Starting with the Human Be In, Golden Gate Park, 1/14/67, the Dead (Jerry solo vocals) performed Morning Dew, a strong statement about nuclear war (which can also be taken as being about ecological catastrophe).
Deadheads were and are music fans. The Grateful Dead made no pretenses to be rebelling against anything except the three-minute rock song.
Well, there were plenty of 3-4 minutes rock songs in first sets of Dead shows in the 1971-4 period. :-)
From the beginning, the members of the band made clear their complete opposition to not only the war, but to materialistic consumer society, There is a good interview with Jerry from '67, hell if i know where it is at the moment but probably can be located. This even made it into their early lyrics, e.g. Cryptical Envelopment as well as its segue mate The Faster We Go The Rounder We Get, aka The Other One, Dark Star ("Searchlight casting, for faults in the clouds of delusion."), and even more in later tunes, e.g. the reality of US history displayed in Jack Straw, US Blues, Ship of Fools, ...
Edit to add: Starting with the Human Be In, Golden Gate Park, 1/14/67, the Dead (Jerry solo vocals) performed Morning Dew, a strong statement about nuclear war (which can also be taken as being about ecological catastrophe).