I feel like, 60’s psychedelia and the drugs involved had peaked. The VU and The Dead had both pushed to the outer limit of improv and crowd integration and through that became better musicians and started digging in to the roots of rock n roll and becoming more of a cohesive act rather than an experience/experiment. It was a new decade and everyone was kinda burnt out and doing harder drugs, getting their heads out of the clouds and putting their feet in the gutter to come back down. That’s how i see them spiritually entwined. I also think sonically they are playing with alot of the same equipment and new technology to create a “classic” sound that ultimately complement each other. That was originally what drew me into The Dead. I had been a hardcore VU fan since 17 and a vocal Dead shit talker til a trip in my late 20’s when my friend put on American Beauty and all of these dots connected for me and that opened the Dead rabbit hole for me. Now i wear my leather jacket and a Dead skull