“So the kids, they dance, they shake their bones.” The Dancing Skeleton motif conveys the psychedelic nature of the Grateful Dead and their music. Skeletons are closely associated with death. When juxtaposed with dancing, a joyful and expressive part of life, the Dancing Skeleton represents a sublime paradox, the hint of death in life, and life in death- the dependency and interconnectedness that exists between alternate planes of reality. Some consider the Dancing Skeleton to be the quintessential Dead emblem: a "Dead" figure, dancing in celebration despite its lack of life, certainly seems to embody the idea of “Grateful”.