tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post3148076379471751939..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: July 11, 1969: New York State Pavilion, Flushing Meadow ParkLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-16974017489016372582015-12-28T10:21:36.825-08:002015-12-28T10:21:36.825-08:00Sorry, never mind, must be the NYT you cite above....Sorry, never mind, must be the NYT you cite above. Thanks!Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-75880520107495655702015-12-28T10:19:36.349-08:002015-12-28T10:19:36.349-08:00What is the reference for that first Christgau pie...What is the reference for that first Christgau piece you cite?Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-80222440641114398572015-04-05T21:01:12.560-07:002015-04-05T21:01:12.560-07:00Robert Christgau wrote of this show (after describ...Robert Christgau wrote of this show (after describing their Fillmore East set a few weeks earlier) -<br />"They returned for an appearance at the Pavilion, a canopied open-air ballroom at the New York State Pavilion of the World's Fair. With little advance publicity, they drew almost 5,000 fans. The Pavilion is perfect for rock--spacious, airy and far from Manhattan. The spirit of the place infused everyone, and the Dead played one of those titanic sets we'd always dreamed about. It lasted two hours and featured lots of unfamiliar material--some more country songs and a wonderful Pigpen rendition of Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle." For that entire time the bulk of the audience stood and listened. Miraculously in this era of concert rock, many people were dancing. The set ended with three long improvisatory pieces, including "Love Light" and an encore of "Cosmic Charlie," from Aoxomoxoa. The country and soul songs are essentially warm-ups for this, the Dead's true music... They are expected back at the Pavilion before the close of the season."<br /><br />Christgau also mentioned in his 7/24/69 Village Voice column: <br />"The Pavilion in Flushing Meadow, where the Grateful Dead played to 4600 people and Chuck Berry to 700 (for shame), could become the first good music scene in New York. Not only should you give it a try, you should consciously support it..."<br /><br />The Dead's shows on July 11-12 marked the opening weekend of a summer-long Music Festival at the Pavilion (produced by Howard Stein) - all shows were $3. The Pavilion was described in the ads as "an outdoor ballroom with dancing and food": <br />"The Pavilion is located amidst the fountains, green grass and open spaces of Flushing Meadow Park. You can put yourself in the middle of this unhassled, free-form ballroom and let the sound take you where you want to go. The music is heavy and continuous, the food good and inexpensive, the atmosphere the way it must be...free...with the kind of freedom that allowed San Francisco to give birth to electric blues. Come and spend a summer with us."<br /><br />According to Annie Fisher's review, the Pavilion atmosphere lived up the hype. Note that she got to the show on "a school bus hired by the press agent" - when Howard Stein was doing rock shows at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester the next year, he also invited the press to a party at the Dead's 3/21/70 show there, and brought them in by bus. <br />Fisher had seen the Dead frequently in 1968, though I don't know if she saw them in early '69. She says they "took half of a marathon set to warm up," but once they did they were "as usual better than ever before." She was delighted to see Pigpen sing Lovelight (he also did 3 other numbers in the show) - it "galvanized band and audience alike... He transforms them when he swings in." (Our tape cuts out 9 minutes into Lovelight, but we do have a marathon version from the next night in which Pigpen encourages audience members to sing.)<br />Oddly, she says "it's a gas to see him in the group again." She must have heard the report that he was leaving the band (Christgau also mentions it), but Pigpen had been present at all the band's NYC shows. <br />She praises Garcia's pedal steel, which he played for a couple songs (including Hard to Handle). But it's really intriguing when she says Garcia played a loving "acoustic encore" - what could that have been? Christgau said Cosmic Charlie was the encore. But he also reported that at the (lost) 6/20/69 Fillmore East show, Garcia & Weir had played a "brief acoustic spiritual" as the encore. (Possibly Cold Jordan.) At any rate, Garcia did play a long acoustic Mountains of the Moon the next night.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com