May 2, 1970: Harpur College, Binghamton NY

LIVE DEAD LIVE DEAD LIVE DEAD LIVE DEAD

The article above this one raves about Pentangle. Sure, they gave a fine concert.
BUT...they didn't approach the Dead. The concert was the finest in Harpur history...the finest the Dead has ever given on the East Coast to my knowledge. And the finest concert I've ever seen - and that includes a 3 hour thing in Tompkins Square by the Blues Project, Janis and Big Brother's finest moment at the Fillmore East and also all of Woodstock.

LIVE DEAD
Waiting at the door. Tons of freaks waiting also. Painted. Tripping. Stoned. The doors open. A mad rush for the floor. Balloons fly through the air. "Clear for an aisle." "Anybody got any matches?" "No Smoking." "Anybody want Electric Wine?" Whoo. Whoo. Screams. A Bird Call.
Then the dead. Garcia and Weir come out and do acoustic stuff. I don't remember most of it. Some was really fine. Most was really fine. An acoustic "Beat It On Down The Line" that was really fantastic. Sit down. Everybody sit down. Garcia plays "Don't Murder Me." Screams. We sit and stand. End of acoustic set.
"Where's the electric?"

THE NEW RIDERS
Announcing the NEW riders of the Purple Sage. Out comes some blond haired freak. Marma-Duke? Fine country music. The crowd roars but "where's the electric?" Riders do a fantastic version of the old Jack Jones song "The Race Is On" and a great "Weight" and "Lodi" which puts Creedence to shame. Then out comes Weir and they sing some more country stuff.
Break.
The Electric. Garcia plays the first two notes of St Stephen and the crowd goes berserk. The light show (Better than any I've seen) flashed St. Stephen with horns and snake hair. St. Stephen more powerful and better than on Aoxomoxoa or Live Dead and the crowd fills in the album screams.
That's It For The Other One, the long first cut on the second album, endless and non-ending and phenomenal. Garcia's guitar is cosmic. Then a song I don't know. Someone told me it was the Train song. People flopping on top of themselves. Garcia throws in a Dark Star riff I think. Sit down, people scream. Good Lovin or maybe it was Dancing In The Streets. Pipes and Joints flow to the Music.
IT'S IN THE MUSIC.
Pigpen gives a stirring rendition of Good Lovin and Garcia gives a break which almost goes into Lovelight but never quite makes it.

IT'S IN THE KOOL-AID
Cosmic Charlie and people jumping up and down. The hour grows late and the Dead is giving their best concert on the east coast and where? AT HARPUR. Here. Binghamton dinktown USA and the dead are amazing.
IT'S IN THE WATER.
On the screen a cartoon: A guy rolling a stone and falling under it again. Cold Rain And Snow, one of the best things in the set. The music comes on and keeps coming.
Break.
Everybody gets water and runs through the rain; People look dazed. Some sitting giving TRIPRAPS and others sleeping.
MORE DEAD
Cool, calm, collected and totally controlled and superb Morning Dew OFF THE FIRST ALBUM. THE DEAD NEVER DO ANYTHING OFF THE FIRST ALBUM ANYMORE. bullshit.

ANTHEM OF THE DEAD
Followed by Viola Lee Blues with three buildups, the last ending with people screaming and shouting and Garcia pulling the most phenomenal notes out of one guitar. AND WE BID YOU GOODNIGHT, which they don't stop singing because no one will let them go.
But they do and the concert ends.
five and one half hours.
IT'S IN THE MUSIC.

(by Richard Wolinsky, from the SUNY Colonial News, May 5 1970)

DICK'S PICKS 8

 

* * * 

 

As a bonus, the Pentangle review from the same issue: 

 

PENTANGLE

 

Pentangle. A light flight through the warm night, cooled by the supercool of taste, perfectionism and Britishness and the airy, soothing voice of Jacqui McShee. Jazz, blues, and folk weaving in and out of a strange medieval tapestry. 

I could go on and on like this; I'll admit to being a Pentangle freak. I don't know if you liked the concert. If you are a lover of hard rock, that's o.k. with me. But if you have to be hit over the head with amplification, or stimulated by the theatrics of a Mick Jagger, the subtlety of the Pentangle concert may have been too much for you. Even to one familiar with the group's sound, the volume problem of the concert came as a surprise. Miss McShee's vocals were perfect, but the intricate guitar work of Bert Jansch and John Renbourne was often nearly lost. In addition to this, Jansch [seemed] to have difficulty using the microphone for his vocals and banjo playing. I spoke to him about this during intermission; he explained that "we aren't used to playing in such a large hall." The Pentangle is a group that would be shown off to better advantage in a small club, and they seem to be at their very best in the recording studio. 

Although Jansch and Renbourne are great, versatile instrumentalists, they are obviously more comfortable with acoustic guitars. The liner of their most recent album, "Basket of Light," proudly proclaims that "All instruments played on this album are acoustic." On record, Jansch and Renbourne alternately caress and tear the hell out of their strings - the range of expression they achieve is incredible. But in the concert, Renbourne used a hollow-body electric and Jansch played an acoustic with clamp-on pickup. The electrification, though necessary, proved to be limiting -- Renbourne and Jansch simply could not play as they do on the records. Still their virtuosity was something to behold. Although Jansch has the bigger reputation (as a guitarist and as Donovan's prototype), Renbourne stood out as lead player. He displayed a great deal of fluidity, in contrast to the percussive guitar sound usually associated with the group. The concert was a demanding one; you really had to listen carefully, but it was all there. 

[ . . . ] Pentangle bassist Danny Thompson is...a fantastically agile bass player, [and] Thompson became the group's main crowd-pleaser. His extended solo excursions were very impressive, and his playing was every bit as witty as his featured song, "Blue Monk." I sometimes found myself wishing that Thompson would back off a little, but whenever he resumed back-up duties he blended right back into the group context. (No, I take that back -- Pentangle is such a perfectly balanced group that everyone is playing lead all the time.) Danny Thompson is a fine instrumentalist, and maybe he can do the vocals if Miss McShee should ever quit. 

Terry Cox, the percussionist, was much like Thompson in his ability to move in and out of the spotlight. To play drums in such a delicate group is a demanding job, and one which Cox carries off well. His drumming might be described as communicative. Cox's glockenspiel playing is a perfect touch, and his harmony singing is excellent. 

An added note on the Pentangle rhythm section -- their use of shifting time signatures is one of the most sophisticated things in popular music. For example the song "Light Flight" goes from 5/8 to 6/4 to 7/8 -- smoothly and effortlessly. Who could have ever figured that out? I read it on an album. 

In this concert, the Pentangle concentrated on material from their first and third albums. They opened with an impressive "Sally Go Round the Roses," but quickly warmed up with "Bruton Town" and several unfamiliar songs. High points of the evening were a brisk "Light Flight," a beautiful "Hunting Song," the hypnotic "Lyke Wake Dirge," and the intricate instrumental "Bells." The Pentangle closed the second set with a jam on the mystical "Pentangling" and came back with a slow, bluesy "Way Behind the Sun" for an encore. 

By the way, I can think of few things sillier than clapping or stamping one's feet in time to a Pentangle song. The group probably had a secret laugh every time they changed rhythm. Thanks, people, for making it harder to hear. I hope you had a good time at the dances. 

Miss McShee, I hope I haven't slighted you in all this talk about instruments. You too are an instrument. You sit there like one and you sing like one. What would be ostentatious vocal gimmicky for anyone else is natural for you. What a voice. 

What Pentangle gave us was an evening of extremely tasteful and beautiful virtuoso performances, bringing together many diverse traditional and original styles in a truly distinctive sound. I hope you enjoyed the concert.

 

(by Paul Bethge, from the Colonial News, Binghamton University, 5 May 1970) 

 

 

Pentangle played there on May 1. The 4/14/70 Colonial News had an article on the "Spring Weekend" schedule:

PENTANGLE, BUTTERFIELD, DEAD, TAYLOR, ISB

All those persons holding tickets for spring weekends at Stony Brook and Buffalo should read on about Harpur's "Spring Week" (and cross their respective fingers that no one cancels out). 

This year, aside from the annual Spring Weekend, to be held May 1 and May 2, there will be two additional concerts given the following week. All concerts are being sponsored by [the] Convocations Committee and Student Center Board. 

On Friday night, May 1, there will be two performances that will take place in the men's gym. Pentangle will be on first for two fifty minute sets, with a fifteen minute intermission. They will be followed by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, who are appearing at Harpur for their third time. Tentative plans are being considered to remove all seating from the center of the gym for Butterfield, and to hold a dance concert. A feasible idea has not yet been reached. 

Both groups have signed with Convocations for $3,500. 

The Grateful Dead will appear on Saturday, May 2, also in the Men's Gym. They will be preceded by a group, The Riders of the Purple Sage. The length of the Dead's set has not yet been determined. Seating for the concert is indefinite at this point. The Dead is appearing for $4,000. 

Following the concert, there will be [a] dance in the Women's Gym. It will begin at about 11:30 p.m. The band is known as The Jam Factory. They will perform until 2:00 a.m. 

Ticket prices and sales have not yet been announced, but they will be the least expensive prices of the year. The reason for this, according to Convocations, is that the committee has met its budget requirements for the year. It is able to forego profit necessities. 

After Spring Weekend, there will be a concert held on Tuesday, May 5. The group is the Incredible String Band. ISB has signed a contract for $3,000. They will be appearing at the Fillmore East for an entire week at the end of April. At Harpur, they will appear without their mime troupe. 

James Taylor, a popular country singer, will perform either the following Friday or Saturday, May 8 or May 9. Taylor has released one album on the Apple label. His contract is for $3,000. 

Both performances will probably take place in the Women's Gym. The tentative prices have been set at $1.25. The date of sales has not yet been established. 

The possibility of having one concert each month for next year is being examined by Convocations and the Student Center Board. 

Other activities for Spring Weekend include a picnic at Chenango Valley State Park, a road rally to that park, an outdoors barbecue, and a movie. 

Last year's performers at Spring Weekend were The Chambers Brothers and Iron Butterfly. It was one of the more successful weekends in Harpur history. 

The April 17 issue had a schedule correction - the Butterfield concert was moved to a different gym: 

The schedule of concerts listed in the last issue of the CN was wrong. It seems that no one is really quite sure about concerts; also what's Spring Weekend without confusion? The list below is the final, unexpurgated list announced by the Student Center Board. 

Friday, May 1 at 8:15 pm, Pentangle will be featured in a concert in the men's gym. This will be followed by a dance-concert given by Paul Butterfield in the women's gym.
On Saturday, the Grateful Dead will perform at 8:30 pm in the men's gym. There will be none of the usual seating arrangement. At 11:30, the Jam Factory will play for a dance to be held in the women's gym.
Tickets for the above events will go on sale Saturday, April 25. Prices will be: Pentangle $1.00, Paul Butterfield $1.00, The Grateful Dead $1.50, Jam Factory $.50.
...Because the Grateful Dead concert will have no seats and Paul Butterfield is a dance concert, only Pentangle will have reserved seats.

Other Spring Weekend events included a raft race, a road rally, a buffet dinner in all dining halls, a picnic at Chenango State Park, and an open jam session and free movie ("The Wild One") in the Social Room.

See also: 

http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2020/11/week-of-may-2-1970-suny-binghamton.html

April 26, 1970: Poynette, Wisconsin

Here are two different news viewpoints of the Sound Storm festival. They don't say anything about the Dead, but they do set the scene for this lost show.


ROCK FEST GRINDS TO CONCLUSION

POYNETTE, WIS. - The bacchanalian rite that began here Friday with wine, women, weeds and virtually nonstop acid rock music began to wane Sunday night.
Thousands who camped for the weekend in the kames and drumlins of a rolling wooded farmland near here began to leave after the Grateful Dead - a nationally popular rock group and the top billed band of the "Sound Storm" rock fest - left the stage.
The sheriff's department estimated Sunday's crowd at 25,000. Another 25,000 were here Saturday and 12,000 on Sunday - many of them holdovers for the entire three day celebration.
At 11 p.m., there were about 3,000 persons at the site and promoters said the bizarre bazaar probably would wind up about 3 a.m. Monday.
Sunday's crowd climbed higher and higher as the sun made its ascent. Many persons in it were in states of delirium from the caterwauling guitars and the drugs and marijuana.
One naked young man danced atop a U-Haul van beside the four tier stage.
An "Earth People Beach" was established beside a creek that meanders through the 660 acre wooded farmland two miles west of Poynette.
Dozens of young men and women peeled off their clothes and frolicked in the water.
One young woman in the teeming crowd, unabashed by the photographers who approached her, sun bathed nude save for her rose colored glasses.

Donald K. Bobo, vice president of Golden Freak, Inc., of Madison, which promoted the festival, said Sunday night, "we're wiped out, bankrupt, we've lost 25,000 bucks."
Bobo said that although crowds were large, thousands of persons entered the sprawling grounds without paying. He declined to say what the production costs were for such things as renting the land, hiring nearly 50 rock bands and more than 100 security guards.
The workmen who manned the mobile electric generating plant for the stage lights and musical amplifiers complained late Sunday that they had not been paid. They threatened to pull the plug.
Donations were then collected from the crowd to keep the beat going. At about 11 p.m., $500 had been collected - half the amount the workmen said they had been promised.
A highlight Sunday, besides the appearance of the Grateful Dead, was a hippie wedding on stage.
Barbara Swenson, 21, of Madison, a winsome bride with a garland of baby's breath flowers in her blond hair and wearing a floor-length cotton gown, gave this expanation for the fest wedding:
"All of these people are our friends and where could we find a church big enough for them?"
The bridegroom, Robert Leslie, 22, of Oconomowoc, lead guitarist in the Northern Comfort, one of the performing groups, nodded agreement.
Columbia County Sheriff Vearn Golz reported that only three arrests were made during the three days - two for littering and one for drunken driving.
"It's just amazing," Golz said. "If you had this many middle age people, drinking the way these kids are, you'd have no end of fights and trouble."
The major note of trouble of the festival was a fire which destroyed an abandoned farmhouse on the grounds and three cars parked nearby.
About 20 volunteer firemen from the village of Poynette battled the blaze which leveled the two story building. There was no immediate estimate of damage in the fire, which authorities said was of unknown origin.
A supervising nurse in a medical aid station reported that the 35 volunteer nurses and doctors had given medical attention to about 60 persons, two dozen of them for bad drug trips.

(by Dean Jensen, from the Milwaukee Sentinel, April 27 1970)



* * * * *


WISCONSIN 'WOODSTOCK' -- INSIDE STORY
LOVELIEST OF VISIONS; TERMS OF TERROR

[Caption: At right are a few of the more than 50,000 young Americans who gathered in Poynette, Wis., for a rock music festival weekend before last. It was a miniature Woodstock. Here is the last of three reports by Chicago Today reporters Dick Cheverton and Glenda Sampson and photographer Steve Kipp.]

"One man gathers what another man spills..." - THE GRATEFUL DEAD

The Grateful Dead did as much as anyone to start the cultural convulsion that led to the first "acid tests" in 1965, and then to the pop festivals - Monterey and Woodstock and Atlantic City - and now they were on the stage at Poynette, Wis., looking out over a churning sea of seeking faces...

CUT TO VIETNAM:
There's a war going on, remember? And it's getting bigger.

CUT TO YALE UNIVERSITY: Its president, Kingman Brewster, is warning that student morale is sagging, and apathy growing. Psychiatrist Rollo May warns that, in his belief, apathy leads not to exhaustion, but to violence.

BACK TO POYNETTE: Jerry Garcia - 'Captain Trips' they used to call him - immersed in his music, working around until he finds the door and steps thru, into one of those long, incredibly complex musical corridors...
And they keep it up for 4 hours. In the dust and setting sun of the last day of the Soundstorm rock and roll festival.

Shall we go, you and I, while we can
Thru the transitive nightfall of diamonds... - THE GRATEFUL DEAD

A young man sat on a hillside Saturday afternoon, silently carving a minute face into the limb of a tree. Its expression shifted in the shifting sunlight...
Four kids sat wrapped in a plastic bag, smoking grass, and they looked like ominous embryos from the movie, "2001: A Space Odyssey"...
A girl with sunburn passed the medical bus and someone - without being asked - reached out and daubed lotion on her nose...
There was dust and dirt and lost souls / there was flagrant flouting of the nation's drug laws / there was sharing and togetherness and eerie beauty.
When we went to Poynette, it all looked...odd. The dustbowl "natural ampitheater" (think about those two words for a minute...); the churning crowds, the tents springing up like a medieval encampment. Three days later - after it had all imploded and the hillside where we had encamped looked like home - it was the other way around...

CUT TO A CAR, driving back to Chicago, Sunday night: We pass the comfortable townspeople of Poynette sitting on their porches in plastic-web lawn chairs. We drive into darkness, the tail lights of the cars on the road sharding like drops of frozen blood. We drive into the suburbs and the regimented, mass-produced apartment houses and the curtain-walled office buildings with their flourescent innards spilling out into the darkness.
Back into Chicago and the concrete and the asphalt and the square street corners and the pinched people crossing the streets on rheumatic legs while the auto horns scream at them to move faster faster faster.

Chicago didn't exist for 3 days. We were in the woods and the nearest telephone - when it worked - was half a mile away.
Now we are back, and the apartment door has closed, and there is a sudden, claustrophobic feeling as the lock snaps shut and the safety chain glides into place...

Wonder who will water all the children of the garden
When they sigh about the barren lack of rain
And droop so hungry 'neath the sky... - THE GRATEFUL DEAD

CHICAGO AGAIN: It comes with sudden, terrible clarity: one does not stop on a city street and chat with perfect strangers. One does not lightly offer help nor ask for it. One does not share; one protects. And preserves.
Poynette was - for 3 fragile days - a lesson in glittering possibilities. It was togetherness and sharing and, yes, there were also dirt and foul-ups and lost souls.

It was a perfectly protected reservation, an enclave of people who happily call themselves "freaks," a drug ghetto, a glmpse of a future that may already be obsolete.
The national reporters all went to Woodstock last year and watched kids downing pills and smoking grass. They concluded that the current drug laws are about as evenly and honestly enforced as were the booze laws during prohibition. Poynette just put the icing on the cake.
But it was more than that.
You got the feeling that it was a battered and almost broken army that had encamped on those lush Wisconsin hillsides. They seemed to be whispering "Gimme Shelter," echoing the Rolling Stones...

GIMME SHELTER, even if it's for 3 perishable days.
Would it have lasted beyond those 3 days? Probably not. It was made to be a memory.
But there is a quiet power in memory: the glittering possibility, once glimpsed, is not easily dismissed. The children of Poynette will be back again...somewhere, sometime...

William Tell has stretched his bow
Till it won't stretch no furthermore
And it may require a change
That hasn't come before... - THE GRATEFUL DEAD

(from Chicago Today, May 5 1970)


* * * * *


The only way to have a successful rock festival is, apparently, to let it happen of its own accord as much as you can. The more directions, instructions, and restrictions the promoters create, the less people seem to take it on themselves to make what has to happen happen. If that is the case, then the midwest's first major rock festival, near Poynette, Wisconsin, was one of the best ever. No one, before, during, or after, had so much as a vague idea of what was going on. Totally nondirected, the ten thousand or so wandered about their business with total aplomb, and only the smallest disasters occurred. Thousands ducked through the woods and past the admission gate, a ridiculously easy thing to do; still, many lived out their Viet Cong guerrilla fantasies skulking from tree to tree, homing in on the music in the dark. The promoters of course lost their shirts, but when they broadcast a plea for contributions to help pay off some of their contracts, they pulled in well over a thousand dollars in an hour. Several of the myriad campfires got out of control in the unseasonably warm and dry weather, but no fire has a chance when two hundred longhairs descend on it with blankets, tents, flags, buckets, feet, etc, stomping and dancing til it's ground into mud. Most remarkable was the total lack of crowding which made Woodstock, Altamont, and almost all of the rest of last year's festivals so claustrophobic in front of the stage. The adolescent desire to push to the front was just not there, and folks spread out around campfires, talking, sharing dopedope, food, and wine til the cows came home, and after that too. The microphone was reasonably open, and every conceivable variety of requests, chants, orders, songs, arguments, poetry would likely come rolling out over the wooded hills at unpredictable times.
Perhaps the real reason for the easy, down-home spirit was that the featured band was the Grateful Dead. Now if it had been Led Zeppelin, we could have expected to see all sorts of suburban teenybeats pushing towards the stage, sitting zombielike for three days with no understanding of the life-support systems that had to go on around them. But the Dead - well, the Dead are just Something Else. After two days in which the only musical standouts were Wilderness Road, the Dead came on at two in the afternoon and played til the sun went down. They and the audience laid down an endless acid wipeout that featured public nudity, drug taking, wine drinking, and all the other articles of faith. That along with a plentiful supply of sunshine made it an afternoon to remember; later that night, Baby Huey summed it all up with his cover-the-bases chant:
"Power to the people
Power to the revolution
Power to the cosmos......"

(by Armando, from the Seed (Chicago), 1 May 1970)


See also:
http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2009/12/sound-storm-york-farm-poynette-wi-april.html

ALAS, NO TAPE!

April 25, 1970: Denver

GRATEFUL DEAD STUNS CROWD

Magic is alive and well. It exists in the form of one of the few truly unique bands rock has produced, the Grateful Dead, which graced Denver with its presence last weekend, at Mammoth Gardens, leaving at the conclusion a stunned audience literally begging for more.
The Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, guitars; Phil Lesh, bass; Tom Constanten, organ; Micky Hart and Bill Kreutzman, drummers; and Pigpen, percussion and organ) produce music on a level that most groups don't even know exist. The songs themselves are mere frameworks, only foundations on which the Dead build their dazzling, multi-layered skyscrapers of sound. Garcia's intricate lead notes darting in and out of the melody, Weir's rhythm abruptly becoming a second lead, the two drummers sustaining a solid beat while weaving other percussion patterns: a breath-taking explosion of unified talent.
The Saturday show began with a boring hour provided by simplistic, unimaginative acoustic bluesman John Hammond. Each of Hammond's songs was characterized by its formlessness, lack of melody and inane lyrics typical of bad blues. After a while, the lyrics were as grating as his wheezing harmonica. After a very long 60 minutes, the Dead came on.
The first part of their set showed a completely new side of the band. Garcia and Weir, armed with acoustic guitars and accompanied by the bass and a drummer, did a series of folk-styled songs with a country flavor which were often catchy and (God forbid) commercial-sounding. This enjoyable new dimension of the Dead deserves to be revealed to the unsuspecting world; the idea of a million-selling Grateful Dead single is amusing as well as staggering.
The electric guitars were brought out after a full hour of unamplification. The band moved into a couple of unfamiliar numbers that had all their trademarks: Brilliant solos by Garcia; rich, full textures of sound backing him; beautiful high harmonies.
Approximately 90 minutes into the set, they began "Dark Star", a complex instrumental structure that included a segment that could only be described as experimental electronic. This probably has its roots in the Dead's earlier feedback experiments, but they have extended the idea into even more exotic territory. "Dark Star" evolved effortlessly into an exuberant, joyful "St. Stephen" that, as usual, served as a springboard for a fantastic musical interplay - Garcia soaring, really excited for the first time, Lesh throbbing, twisting notes out with obvious huge pleasure, Weir erupting from his rhythm pattern to scorch the air with his own lead. The band built to an excruciating climax and then caught its breath to build to another, and another; wave after wave, crescendo after crescendo, finally floating down to catch the "St. Stephen" melody again, which dissolved, incredibly enough, into "Good Lovin'."
Pigpen sang it, grasping the microphone like Jim Morrison, belting out the lyrics in the best Pigpen fashion. Abruptly, the song was James Brown's "It's a Man's World," which metamorphized back into the "St. Stephen" instrumental. A final climax shattered the already gaping crowd. The biggest surprise was that the song was over - one had the feeling that the entire universe consisted of this perpetual motion machine known as Grateful Dead music.
It had lasted 80 minutes, and it seemed like 5. Over an hour and 20 minutes, nonstop, and not once was it even slightly boring. The Dead left the stage, and their subjects screamed and stomped for at least 10 minutes for them to return. Wisely, they did not; after that devastating medley, anything else would have been painfully anticlimactic.
Understatement of the Year: the Grateful Dead are terrifyingly good. They are an overwhelming, almost mystical experience.
Magic is alive and well.

(by Mike DeLong, from the Colorado Springs Sun, April 30 1970)


http://archive.org/details/gd70-04-24.aud.remaster.sirmick.27205.sbeok.shnf

Our tape should actually be dated 4/25 - see:
http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/05/gd-at-mammoth-gardens-denver-co-april.html

January 1970: Garcia on the Radio

GARCIA'S 'SHIT' IS POISON, FCC RULES

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The FCC, newly-toughened watchdog for the public interest, convenience, necessity, and morality, has ruled that Jerry Garcia was "obscene" on radio and slapped a fine on an educational FM station for broadcasting an interview with him.
This despite the fact that the FCC received not so much as one complaint from a listener about the show, aired on WUHY-FM in Philadelphia on Sunday night, January 4th.
The decision, handed down April 3rd on a 4-2 vote, says a lot of things for the first time, and, if it stands unchallenged, it may well affect other small stations, in the worst ways.
WUHY was shot down for a show called Cycle II, a one-hour show described by the station as "concerned with the avant-garde movement in music, publications, art, film, personalities, and other forms of social and artistic experimentation."
The January 4th show featured a taped interview of Jerry Garcia, recorded in Garcia's hotel room in New York the day before.
In its decision ("Notice of Apparent Liability"), the Commission charged that "his comments were frequently interspersed with the words 'fuck' and 'shit,' used as adjective, or simply as an introductory expletive or substitute for the phrase 'et cetera.'"
The FCC listed examples:
"Shit man.
"I must answer the phone 900 fuckin' times a day, man.
"Right, and it sucks it right fucking out of ya, man.
"That kind of shit.
"It's fuckin' rotten, man. Every fuckin' year.
"...this shit.
"...and all that shit...
"...and shit like that..."
However, in an appendix to the decision, larger quotes were cited, making clear that the "patently offensive" words, as the FCC called them, were hardly noticeable. The subject was ecology:
"For example, I have friends who I've known since like they started college, you know, and like now it's eight years later and they're all called Ph.Ds - stuff like that. It's just coming out in those terms... I know quite a few of these people who have switched their major in the last year to Ecology and that kind of shit, because it's like really important right now. It's a big emergency going on. Okay, so - and their approach to it is generally to get together on the level of bodies of influence - that is to say, governmental shit, you know, things like that business and so forth, and stuff like that."
This kind of rap, the FCC ruled, is "patently offensive to millions of listeners." Shit...
The FCC fixed a $100 "forfeiture" on WUHY for the crime, citing its obscenity statutes. Specifically, the FCC called the broadcasted material "indecent," using the argument that if Garcia was allowed to say "shit" without penalty, then Top 40 jocks could start saying things like "listen to this motherfucker" (FCC's example). This was, the Commission noted, the first time a station was being punished for violating obscenity laws, rather than the usual "not adhering to its stated policies."
The FCC wouldn't have known about the Garcia interview except for having received letters about Cycle's immediate predecessor, Feed, a hip-oriented one-hour show that ran on Sunday nights for a year and a half until last November. The FCC didn't notify WUHY of any complaints, but instead chose to monitor the station instead. In effect, the Commission, sitting in Washington listening to an aircheck, decided "community standards" for Philadelphia and WUHY's audience. [. . . .]
[WUHY manager Mason Shaw said the station] "would have responded to listener complaints or inquiries about this. But there were none."

(by Ben Fong-Torres, from Rolling Stone, April 30 1970) - excerpt

April 3, 1970: UC Fieldhouse, Cincinnati

'GRATEFUL DEAD' COMING BACK - ALL READY TO WOO CINCINNATI

When you talk about psychedelic music, major movement originators, San Francisco, 1966, or social institutions of the rock world, there's no way you can omit the Grateful Dead.
Remember them? Back in mid '66, they were one of the two major groups (the Airplane being the other) to first sell the San Francisco sound - acid rock, blues based but so incredibly far removed as to sound like a simulated acid trip.
The Grateful Dead are seven guys, guitar and drum oriented, clean and hard in their music. They're kind of a social institution, always throwing free concerts (they were pioneers in the free field) for a worthy cause; leading the way when others are confused; one of the groups who dared to be freakie and ugly when rock groups were supposed to be well groomed and pretty.
People in Cincinnati haven't had much of a chance to get together with the Dead - their albums are few, and a very small estimation of the group's talent, thereby obscuring the Cincinnatians' main avenue of approach. To make matters worse, they've only been here once, and that a relatively small scale affair a year and a half ago.

BUT GOOD NEWS! They'll be back - Friday night at UC's Armory Fieldhouse at 8:30 p.m. to kick off the UC Spring Arts Festival. This concert is on a slightly larger scale than their last appearance - $3 a head and somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 people invited - complete with supporting acts like Ken Kesey and the Pranksters and the Lemonpipers.
Unfortunately, too many people are unfamiliar with the Dead. That's understandable, as their commercial efforts are nil and their tours fairly limited. But it shouldn't be that way.
As we said before, the group is one of the pioneers of acid rock from the "back then" period. Used to be, their music was slower than conventional hard rock, warped, distorted, lurching around the senses, and grinding on for seemingly endless periods. It was that and little more.
Today, it's that and lots more.
It's bizarre and wildly together country and western guitar licks over somebody else's 11-4 time with two other rambling solos going on somewhere else on stage.
Put it together and it sounds at first chaotic. Give it a chance however, and it takes on a number of hues.
Like the Dead are mixing a number of things - acid, blues, muted country, hard rock - and coming up  with a totally unclassifiable sound. It can sound like anything you want it to. That's part of the beauty of it all.
You can hear lots of this on "Live/Dead," the group's latest Warner Bros, release, but not nearly as much as in concert. Their stage shows are far ahead of their album performances to date.
You can see yourself Friday. Complete with custom made light show (the Dead were one of the first to play around in that department too) and no reserved seats, they're ready to woo Cincinnati.
The reason there are no reserved seats is because the Fieldhouse will be be more of a ballroom than concert hall Friday night. Just like the early days of Dead music, you'll be able to lay around, sit, circulate and play prom queen, snuggle on blankets, or dance - and their music is highly danceable.
It's nice in a lot of other ways too. It makes you feel secure and happy all over. But you have to hear and feel it all yourself - UC's Fieldhouse, Friday at 8:30. It's sure to be a nice trip.

(by Jim Knippenberg, "Soundings" column, from the Cincinnati Enquirer, 28 March 1970)

* * * 

'GRATEFUL DEAD' SHOW LIVELY

A lot of the good people came together Friday night at UC's Armory Fieldhouse. Unfortunately, there also were a lot who didn't.
The occasion was a Grateful Dead concert, held in conjunction with the UC Spring Arts Festival. Also featured at the concert were the groups Devil's Kitchen and the Lemon Pipers, playing in front of an elaborate but frequently ineffective light show.
Before the Dead came on, while the warm-up groups played, the music wasn't the main thing. The main thing was a freaky social occasion where friends could meet, smoke, chat, dance about and live in freakiness.
Off in corners, people led snake dances, clapped, exploded, played ring around the rosie, tossed frisbies and hugged each other. Throughout the audience, small knots of people danced gaily about, making sure to avoid the huge mob which lay sprawling all over the floor.

Between the hard rock sounds of the two warm-up groups, both of which were solid and skilled enough, but neither very breathtaking, members of the hog farm hovered around the mike.
They spent a lot of time telling everyone how together they were and asking for money for their communes. For their performance, they receive the "bummer of the year" award. Many of the people who were truly into the concert were pulled out by mouthy children from the west.
But everything changed when the Dead appeared on stage. By now, the light show, roving spots, pinpoints of lights and smoke thick enough to chew were doing all they could to create a "total environment."

The Dead brought us all together again. Standing up there on stage, the group is like [a] living textbook on rock history of the last five years. Back in the mid-'60s, they were among the first to play acid rock - music aimed at reproducing the sensations of a good LSD trip without benefit of the cap. Today, they're doing slightly different things.
Still approximately 10 years ahead of their time, the group is now more into a "roots of rock" thing. They have a lot of subtle country sounds, hard rock sounds of the "good old days," and a more electronic sound than before. Their country sounds aren't particularly overt, but more a suggestion type thing - like the Band.

(by Jim Knippenberg, from the Cincinnati Enquirer, April 6 1970)


http://archive.org/details/gd1970-04-03.sbd.boswell.smith.114616.flac16

See also Knippenberg's November '68 show review:
http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2017/05/november-29-30-1968-hyde-park-teen.html

*

The University of Cincinnati News Record also reported on this show. 
An announcement from the March 31 issue:

U.C.'s annual Spring Arts Festival is to feature an interesting cross of today's art forms, including prominent figures in film, poetry, rock and classical music, group encounters, and an experimental debut performance of "Inter-Media."
Festival events are slated for the first 10 days of April at sites throughout the campus.
The theme of "joy" was chosen for the festival in the belief that a great deal of human potential for joy is smothered just through living in society.
The Spring Arts Festival aims to recapture joy and share it through mutual encounter. A blending of art, music, dance, and group interaction attempts to provide a framework of approaches to joy and develop each individual's potential for it. [. . .] 
The Grateful Dead, who are culturally and musically number one in the world of progressive rock, will bring their music to the Fieldhouse Friday, April 3, 8:30 p.m. Turning aside from the traditional reserved seat concert, the Pop Concert Committee of the University Center has opted for an experiment in contemporary programming. All seats in the Fieldhouse that night are $3.00 general admission. The main floor will have no seats; those who wish may bring blankets and relax. Freedom of movement and seating will be unrestricted with the exception of aisles purposely left open for safety precautions.
There is a lot to be said for the Grateful Dead and most of it is good. Some say the group is twenty years ahead of the others. Its music is distinguished by excellent guitars and drums, strong sounds with a togetherness that might be the envy of many other groups, and a surprising amount of country-western sounds along with some blues.
Ken Kensy [sic] and his pranksters along with the Lemon Pipers will assist the Dead in getting it together out front. [. . .]

(Viktor Votsch, "Festival To Attract Arts To UC," News Record 3/31/70) 

The April 7 issue had a couple photos from the show, but no review.
The April 14 issue reviewed the show:

It must be summer; the Spring Arts Festival has gone, leaving good vibrations and small waves in its trail. The entire festival was good and like most good things, it could be improved.
The theme of the festival was "Joy," and it succeeded. For the most part, the festival stressed group interaction on a positive level. . .  The Grateful Dead concert was a gathering of the tribes, the films were the only weak point of the festival. The music on the bridge made the campus seem, somehow, alive, and there was more music, dance, and graphic arts than during the rest of the year combined.
The Dead concert was, beyond a doubt, the high point of the Festival. The idea of being able to move freely throughout the fieldhouse, and not be restricted to one seat (and, therefore, one viewpoint) is excellent. People lying on the floor, digging groups of friends, watching the crowd from the balcony - all this is very nice, very free, very conducive to an excellent performance by the people on stage.
The performances were excellent. The back up groups, the Lemon Pipers and Devil's Kitchen, did a fine job. Then the Dead came on, there it was, unbelievable harmony, fine guitar interaction, a light show that wouldn't quit, and an audience who knew how good it all was.
The Dead were on stage for two hours and 45 minutes, in that time they went back to the roots of rock. "I know you rider," a nice folk song, never had harmony or guitar riffs like that. "Dancing in the Streets" brings back memories of the ebb and flow of female hips and waiting for the Beatles. "Fade Away"-"Turn on Your Lovelight" ended the show and proved you don't have to be black to get into the Blues-Soul bag.
The people were involved with the music. There was nothing but pleasant vibrations. It may seem redundant, but there's a point to rub in, it was a great people-music-light gathering. More concerts should be staged their way. It's definitely desirable. [. . .]

(Viktor Votsch, "Spring Arts Festival: Carry It On," News Record 4/14/70)

Also see another review here: 
https://deadsources.blogspot.com/2020/05/april-3-1970-fieldhouse-university-of.html  

March 21, 1970: Capitol Theater, Port Chester

DEAD LIVE AND WELL IN PORTCHESTER, NEW YORK

Recently Howie Stein has attempted to make the Capitol Theater in suburban Portchester, N.Y., the Westchester version of the Fillmore. The Capitol is a converted movie theater too. But it is really a better place to hear music.
It is much smaller than the Fillmore, so it is hard to get a bad seat. The staff seems a little less uptight about dancing and milling around, so you can almost dance. The sound system is excellent, and rarely did technical difficulties impair the music. The stage crew, like the Fillmore's, seems to know what they're doing. And no ugly light show, either.
So if you live in Westchester, it is a good place to go. If you live in the city, you have to figure on about $2.00 for the round trip ticket on the Penn Central (formerly New Haven) added to the ticket prices of $5.50 and $4.50. The Capitol, by the way, is right across the street from the train station.
The only drawback I could see was in the audience, even more teenbopper and cretin than the Fillmore's, if possible. This was apparent in the thunderous reaction to the first group, Catfish, at the Saturday late show.
Catfish is one of the most atrocious groups I have ever heard in any musical idiom. The obnoxious lead singer started by going through every nigger cliche that was popular at 135th and Lenox about 15 years ago. Their act is mostly pseudo-blues. The musicianship is shoddy, solos consisting of single notes repeated over and over or simple scales. No inventiveness. Not even a good copy of the real thing. The audience loved it, especially one part which bordered on musical fascism. The obnoxious singer told the audience to "look at the guy next to you," if he wasn't digging them, then "you know where he's at." It would be laughable if not for visions of Altamont which kept flashing in my mind.
But the real reason I was there was to hear the Grateful Dead, and they were beautiful, washing away the bad feelings brought on by the first group. They played for over 2 hours, and did many of their old favorites. Jerry Garcia played some beautiful, lengthy, melodic guitar solos. Garcia and Bob Weir, a very under-rated player, along with bassist Phil Lesh form a cohesive unit which exudes the fact that they like playing. An enjoyment of music seems to be the motivating factor behind the Dead, a fine cloth, woven of the vocal and instrumental lines which neatly overlap and interact.
They did a long sub-set of acoustic songs, particularly Garcia and Weir, and it was an entirely different group, but on the same high musical level. Unfortunately, the audience couldn't appreciate any subtlety at all and bothered them, but the Dead would not compromise with teen appeal and went right on until they were ready to go back to the amps.
In the grand finale, everybody was up and moving, Pigpen did his medley of "Midnight Hour," "Love Light," and their a capella encore was the Pindar Family's "I Bid You Goodnight."
The audience is becoming the major problem with rock concerts, and it has been the mob of punks that has ruined many an evening for me. But last Saturday they couldn't bring me down out of the ecstasy to which the Dead had lifted me.

(by David Reitman, from Rock, April 15 1970)

http://archive.org/details/gd1970-03-21.late.aud.lee.pcrp.21779.shnf (the late show)

March 1970: Bob Weir Interview

'THE GRATEFUL DEAD' - NO CONFORMISTS THERE

NEW YORK - There's not a conformist among the seven fellas who make up The Grateful Dead. Rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, 22, reveals that each of the group's members is married unofficially.
"None of us believe in marriage licenses," says Weir. "We've seen too many marriages go wrong to have much faith in the institution. Our old ladies don't object to the arrangement. The chicks accept the idea of living with us without being officially wed."
What about children born of these "marriages?"
"Oh, several of the guys have fathered kids," says Weir. "They have wonderful family situations. They live with the chicks and are very good with the children. There isn't any more promiscuity with this setup than with the old marriage arrangement."
According to Weir, the Grateful Dead are just as happy on stage as they are off. "We are soul brothers," he says. "We've known each other for six years. I think our brand of music reflects our close relationship." 
The Grateful Dead is composed of Jerry Garcia (lead guitar), Phil Lesh (bass), Ron (Pigpen) McKernan (vocals), William Kreutzman and Mickey Hart (drums), Tom Constanten (keyboard) and Weir.
They're all from San Francisco and still make their homes not far from the Bay City. "We live on ranches," says Weir, "and we see quite a bit of each other socially."
When The Grateful Dead started, they didn't cash in on their fine, driving acid-rock sound. They kept giving free concerts, especially in the "love" center of Haight-Ashbury. Eventually, they were talked into signing with a record company. Today, The Grateful Dead are with Warner Bros. Records, and their latest album - which is their fifth - is called "Working Man's Dead."
The Grateful Dead's first two LPs, "The Grateful Dead" and "Anthem of The Sun," immediately established them as one of the grooviest groups in the country. The outfit encountered quite a bit of trouble finding a name for itself at the start. They began in 1964 as Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, but soon discarded the title.
"We liked the name, The Warlocks, but some other group had attached themselves to it," says Weir. "For an entire week, we threw names around, mostly funny ones. Finally, Jerry Garcia scrounged around in a dictionary or encyclopedia and found 'the grateful dead.' It supposedly was an ethno-musicological term which meant a genre of ballads that were sung in Ireland many years ago."
Weir claims they've had no regrets regarding the choice of the name. "Oh, once in a while," he says, "a person will tell us he shudders at the word 'dead.'"
The Grateful Dead's major appeal is to college kids and dance hall crowds. "But we get some teenyboppers and a few grandparents, too," says Weir. "The day where gals ripped clothes off musicians is over. I became convinced of that at the recent Rolling Stones concert. The girls didn't chase anybody. When the gig was over, they went home quietly."

(by Bob Lardine, from the Rockland County Journal-News (White Plains, NY), 20 March 1970)

(also run by the Allentown Chronicle (PA), 19 March 1970, as "Grateful Dead Non-Conformists", and by the Baltimore Sun, 31 March 1970, as "Not One Conformist in Group")

March 17, 1970: Buffalo

WEST COAST ROCK GROUP WILL PLAY HERE TUESDAY

The Grateful Dead, a rock group from the West Coast, will appear with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on the Marathon concert from 7 pm. to 11 p.m. Tuesday in Kleinhans Music Hall.
The group will replace two rock groups that had been scheduled originally - The Byrds and Raven.

It is the first appearance here by the Dead. Members of the rock group are Jerry Garcia, lead guitar; Phil Lesh, bass guitar; Bob Weir, rhythm guitar; Mike Constanten, piano and organ; Billy Kreutzman and Mickey Hart, drums; and Pigpen, conga drums.
The group with the "San Francisco Sound" has recently released a live double album, "Live Dead." The group's songs include "Dark Star" and "St. Stephen."
The Marathon program will begin with Lukas Foss and the Grateful Dead performing "Non-Improvisation," a Bach Destruction with the music of Bach played against and within a wall of rock sound.

The Grateful Dead will perform two 45-minute sets - before and after Foss's "Geod," scheduled at 8:30 p.m.
John Cage's Variations III and IV will be played simultaneously, possibly involving the Grateful Dead along with the symphony orchestra.
Rock band and symphony orchestra will conclude the program with a confrontation beginning at 10:15 p.m.
The program will benefit the orchestra. Tickets are $4.50.

(from the Buffalo Courier Express, March 14 1970)

See also:
http://www.thedeadblog.com
http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/04/buffalo-31770.html
http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2018/02/march-17-1970-kleinhans-music-hall.html 

March 7, 1970: Santa Monica

GRATEFUL DEAD REALLY CHANGE SANTA MONICA

The quiet little town of Santa Monica will never be the same as over five thousand people watched the beautiful resurrection of San Francisco's Grateful Dead.
Yessiree, motorists driving down Highway One witnessed one of the strangest experiences as Frisco's big and beautiful heart made its way down the highway carrying with it five golden coffins waiting to be placed on the stage of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
Sharply at nine thirty, all five coffins opened and out came the ghostly figures of the "Dead."
The Grateful Dead are one of the first creators of the San Francisco sound and around the early 60s were known as the "Warlocks."
Following them and contributing to this new sound was Big Brother and the Holding Company, a minor hit before Janis Joplin joined them, and the Jefferson Airplane.
Because of the fantastic sound system, one could hear them anywhere in the auditorium and were continuously sending out good vibrations.
Along with the numerous solos done by each of the members of the "Dead," Bob Wher also did a few of his "put on" jokes to tickle the audience's funny bone.
Along with the Grateful Dead was a relatively new group called Cold Blood. Unlike the book or the film, this group doesn't send chills up your back but, like the "Dead," sends out a lot of good sounds.
Perhaps the only other group that can successfully accomplish this feat is John Heisman's Coliseum.

(by Ellen Michaels, from the LA State College Times, March 10 1970)

http://archive.org/details/gd70-03-07.aud.hanno.6156.sbeok.shnf

February 4, 1970: Family Dog

A BIG ROCK PARTY FOR THE CAMERAS

"Do you have a set schedule for what's going to happen?" the technician asked Bob Zagone of KQED. "We don't have a set schedule for anything," Zagone said, "we have a loose schedule."
They were in the KQED mobile video tape recording truck outside the Family Dog. Several other trucks and a generator, roaring away like a power drill, were set up in the parking lot. Zagone and the KQED crew were getting ready to videotape a Jefferson Airplane party at the Family Dog for National Educational Television.
"There's a young band called 'Kimberly' going to start playing in a few minutes," Zagone said. "Then it will be Santana. After that I don't know what's going to happen."

* * *

The cables were strung all along the sidewalk and into the hall and the huge TV cameras on dollies were rolling back and forth in front of the stage through the wild assembly of San Francisco hip society.
On stage the musicians were plugging in their guitars and tuning. In a little while Kimberly, a neat, melodic band, began. Light men experimented with different combinations. Rock critics wandered through the hall. "It has the right feeling tonight," Mike Goodwin of Rolling Stone said. And poet Lew Welch pointed out that it was one of the few times in recent memory that you could actually get close to a band and not be jammed by the press of the crowd.
After Kimberly, Santana took over and the rhythms of the drums and the bass melded with the guitar and the conga drum and rose to an incredible tension. It ended with Santana almost leaning over backwards hitting the guitar strings and bassist David Brown, his eyes squeezed shut, flailing away at the guitar. The crowd screamed. Out in the truck Bob Zagone complained, "We're not getting that audience noise," and Bob Matthews, who was doing the sound, whipped out a mike and set it up facing the audience.

* * *

"We'll go dark as they start their set and bring the lights up gradually," Zagone said, and the Grateful Dead began. In the truck the multiple images on the little screens made a fascinating montage. Jerry Garcia's face, silhouetted but still clear, approached the mike on the screen and he began to sing. The little screens which showed the pictures the various cameras were registering flicked from one to another. "Gimme a two shot," Zagone said, "let's see both of those guitars."
Out in the crowd, which was dancing or sitting on the floor and around the sides of the stage, John Carpenter of the L.A. Free Press said, "When is it going to be aired?" and hoped a definite date could be set. The man from N.E.T. said probably in April. "It's a good night," Carpenter said. "I had forgotten what San Francisco was really like. I've seen people here I haven't seen in years."
On stage the band was into those rhythmic phrases that make the Dead such groovy dance music, and several girls were dancing behind the band and on one side. Still photographers leaped up from the audience and shot pictures like the paparazzi in 'Z'.

* * *

Then the Airplane came on and Grace smiled and Marty sang "Do you want to know a secret, just between you and me?" and the lights flickered off the sweat on his forehead as he sang and Spencer dove into the drums with a fierce concentration and Jorma sang "Good Shepherd" and the crowd screamed and the cameras rolled back forth.
It was a great evening. San Francisco within a week had two TV specials shot here. Both on rock. There will be more, and if they end up on the screen as good as they are in person, the rest of the country will see something unique.

(by Ralph Gleason, from the On The Town Column, SF Chronicle, Feb 6 1970)


-- -- -- -- --


A SAN FRANCISCO FAMILY AFFAIR

It was a beautiful bash, courtesy of National Educational Television, with Jefferson Airplane and the Family Dog as co-hosts. And you'll be able to watch it in your homes next Fall.
For the first time ever, television will present rock and roll as an artistic endeavor. Members of the Jefferson Airplane will control what goes into the TV show and what doesn't. The aesthetic decisions are to be made by them and co-producers Ralph J. Gleason and Bob Zagone, director of KQED, San Francisco's non-commercial educational TV station.
The program is to be centered mainly on the Airplane, but for good measure they invited the Grateful Dead, Santana, and Kimberly. Quicksilver Messenger Service will also be included, but they missed this gig and will be filmed later. Sort of a San Francisco family affair.
And there's no better place in all of the City for such an affair than the Family Dog on the Great Highway, where the vibes are always good. The KQED cameras recorded the whole party in color for either two one-hour specials or one 90-minute special to be aired next fall. The NET laid out $80,000 for the project, which was the brainchild of KQED and the National Center for Experiments in Television.
Dog manager Jim Hay said he couldn't tell how many people were there, but it was packed and so was the parking lot outside. Most were pretty surprised at the turnout, because it was one of those things that nobody was supposed to know about. Although it was theoretically an invitation-only affair, everybody that showed up was assumed to have been invited by somebody.
Zagone said the whole thing was being put on 16-track tape, and that when it is aired, there hopefully will be simultaneous hook-ups with stereo FM radio stations around the country for better sound. This was only the first step, he said, and added that he's not sure which direction the film will finally take. "We don't know and we're trying to get away from the preconceived notions about filming for television, and so I can't say yet what it will be like," he declared. But it's sure to be the first of its kind. Future filming is planned to include recording sessions with both the Airplane and Quicksilver.
Zagone was outside the Dog most of the night in an equipment truck, monitoring and directing. "All I heard from people though was that they said it was beautiful," he beamed. Which was putting it mildly.
The joint started rocking at 9 PM, and didn't end until around 5 AM, after everybody had gotten together for a long jam. Before then, each band had played its own set, then stepped down to dig the audience and the next group.
Refreshments included Chinese pastries and pork drums, ice cream, and some Koolaid that seemed to be of Trips Festival vintage. "Hey, was that Koolaid 'electric'?" somebody asked. He was answered with kind of a funny smile. The ever-observant Grace Slick also noted a little extra whacko in the drink, and made some crack about the "ooze" in the big garbage can.

(from Rolling Stone, March 7 1970)



-- -- -- -- --


AIRPLANE HAD A GREAT PARTY AND EVERYONE WILL BE INVITED

The Jefferson Airplane has been given artistic control of its own television special - a first for the Airplane and a dream for most rock performers.
One of the finest rock bands ever, the Airplane was allowed to present its music in the manner it desired. To do so, the Airplane threw a party for its friends at San Francisco's Family Dog ballroom. The rest of the country will be able to relive the party this spring, when it is aired over the nearly 200 stations belonging to the National Educational Television (NET) network.
It was a far cry from the typical commercial television venture, with the accompanying poor lighting and sound quality that drives away many of the more discriminating rock groups. Gone were the middle-aged directors and cameramen with little interest in rock. Replacing them were a camera crew ranging in age from the early to mid-twenties, and a 31-year-old producer-director.
"Taping the Airplane's party means we had to create a new visual experience," said Bob Zagone, the youthful director and coproducer with Ralph J. Gleason. "That night of the party is gone forever, with its smells, sounds, and sheer mass of people. It can't be recreated, so we created a television experience in its place.
"The Airplane was crucial to the proper production of this special. Therefore its own light show man supervised the TV lighting, and its sound man coordinated the audio with us. The finished program will be approved by the Airplane before it is released to NET, even though NET footed the bill ($80,000)."

Bill Thompson, manager of the Airplane, is succinct in stating the goals for this venture:
"We were simply aiming for the best quality sound and lighting ever shown on national television."
Listeners in major cities such as Chicago and Washington, D.C., may hear the sound broadcast simultaneously by the local educational television station and an FM radio station, creating a stereo effect.
The sound quality which comes through a TV set should be better than usual, according to Zagone, even though most sets have poor speakers. Usually a program is recorded on a one or two-channel audio recorder. The Airplane's party, however, is recorded on a massive 16-channel Ampex audio recorder.
"A variety of visual effects are being added to the tape," said Zagone.
Light shows behind the stage and at the far end of the ballroom provided a bubbling, flashing orgy of lush hues ranging from scarlet to lime and fuchsia. The overall lighting is dimmer than customary for television, at the insistence of the Airplane. "A more comfortable and realistic atmosphere," Thompson explains.
The rest of the two-hour special centered about a recording studio session, and conversations with various members of the group. But for the party, the Airpane invited Santana and the Grateful Dead, two fine San Francisco groups, to play with them, and both cheerfully agreed. Both groups will have artistic control over their performances, Thompson said.

Whether or not the TV special lives up to its potentiality is a matter for viewers to decide when the program is aired. But the vibrations were right the evening of the taping, and Airplane guitarist Paul Kantner considered the event a fine party and said the Airplane enjoyed playing for it.
Before the taping took place, however, the television producers were subjected to a variety of hassles from police, landlords, the musicians' union, fire marshals, and tax collectors. Although it presented a new and frustrating experience for Zagone and his crew, the harassment is commonplace for the hirsute proprietors of the Family Dog.
But once the taping started, about 500 self-proclaimed "freaks" danced, swayed, jumped about and sat transfixed in the smallest of San Francisco's emporiums of rock. The ballroom is at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, and the sound of crashing waves is evident outside. But once indoors, the hundreds of long-hairs heard nothing but the roar of rock and roll music.
Free food was cooked and served by friends of the Airplane, typifying the hip community's sharing ethic. Plastic garbage pails were filled with red and green soft drinks, and vats of meat-filled pastries and rice with vegetables were wheeled into the Dog for the hungry horde.
While food simmered in the kitchen, Santana was cooking in the ballroom. Its heavily Latin-influenced beat filled the intimate setting with staccato pounding rhythms. Leader Carlos Santana, resplendent in a purple and white football jersey and a modified natural, punctuated the hammering congas with fine guitar runs.
Then the Grateful Dead joined the party. Still uptight from a weekend in New Orleans that saw several of its members busted for alleged possession of narcotics, the Dead started off slowly. But it swung into its usual mellow rock beat with a version of "St. Stephen" that wove into the old Rolling Stones hit, "Don't Fade Away," and back again to "St. Stephen."
With the audience firmly behind them, the Dead's musicians moved into "Dance in the Midnight Hour" without pause. Pigpen, confidently funky with his goatee, pigtail and cowboy hat, shouted and growled the lyrics before a bobbing mass of fans.

No party is complete without its host, so when the Jefferson Airplane finally took the stage, the audience gladly paid its respects.
After the Airplane's two sets and a short break, performers from each group crowded the stage for an hour-long jam session. The last several minutes were climaxed by a thundering, soaring blast of percussion and electric guitars. By the time Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia brought the jam to a triumphant halt, members of the audience were straining on tiptoes toward the shattering wall of sound. When the jam ended, most of the crowd was emotionally and physically exhausted.
While the Airplane is living a musician's dream with control over its own nationally televised party, the group is continuing into other areas beyond the production of singles and albums.
Manager Thompson is negotiating for the Airplane to appear in either a taped or filmed version of Shakespeare's "Richard III," with the Airplane providing music and some acting. If details are worked out, actor Rip Torn would serve as director and Geraldine Page would be his costar.

(by Robert W. Neubert, from the Yonkers Herald Statesman, April 3 1970)



-- -- -- --


SAN FRANCISCO ROCK!

When the pop music renaissance coalesced in San Francisco in 1966, it was my good fortune to be there and to witness it.
When the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and the Quicksilver Messenger Service began their first public appearances at the Family Dog dances, they ushered in a new life style as well as a new style of music, and both are now internationally known.
At that time I was working with the film crew of KQED-TV making the two Duke Ellington programs which NET later presented and which were nominated for an Emmy award. We spent much time during the filming discussing the importance of the New Rock Music, so it was like a reunion when we assembled the crews to do the two NET programs on San Francisco Rock.
The originals were all still there, still vital, important parts of the American music scene - the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, the Quicksilver Messenger Service. And added to them now was a new, exciting unit, Santana.
After a series of meetings at the Jefferson Airplane's Victorian mansion in San Francisco, Bob Zagone (who directed both shows and is co-producer with me) and I decided to take over the Family Dog ballroom for one night, do a video tape remote event there recreating the atmosphere of the early days, and then later to film at other locations.
So we did. The Family Dog ballroom (only a stone's throw from the beach; you could hear the surf pounding the city itself) became a TV production center for two nights - one rehearsal and one live party at which many of the original people from the San Francisco rock scene reassembled. The Grateful Dead, the Airplane, and Santana staged a marvelous evening which was like a dream come true for many rock fans, some of whom came from out of state just to see the classic bands together again.
The jam session which ended the night included such players as the guitarists Jerry Garcia and Jorma Kaukonen, stars of the Dead and the Airplane, as well as Gary Duncan from the Quicksilver, and Santana.
Then we went to work on the film show. The Airplane hosted a party for their friends at Pacific Hi studio in San Francisco. David Crosby, almost all of the Dead, and the Quicksilver were there, but only the Airplane played that night. Shortly thereafter we had the chance to film backstage at Winterland on a night when the San Francisco bands were running their own dance for 7,000 people. There we chanced on Dino Valenti teaching his new song, "Baby, Baby," to David Freiberg in the dressing room. We later filmed the song in performance at an outdoor free concert at Sonoma State College, north of San Francisco.
The San Francisco rock music is one of the most important strains in contemporary rock 'n' roll, combining poetry and protest and pure music in almost equal proportions. In both programs this is reflected in the singing of Grace Slick and Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, in the poetic performance of Jerry Garcia, and in the exuberant singing of Dino Valenti. Dino, who wrote the classic "Get Together," is the musician Norman Mailer quotes on the feeling of the new electric music.

(by Ralph Gleason, from the Portland Oregonian, 6 December 1970)


See also:
http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2018/09/february-4-1970-family-dog.html

http://archive.org/details/gd1970-02-04.sbd.cotsman.12601.shnf
(This is the portion of the Dead's show that's long been in circulation. Their full show was released as part of the Download Series; and the Night at the Family Dog was of course released on video. Note that it ended up as a one-hour show; the Airplane's studio session and the Quicksilver segments, taped separately, were used in the Go Ride The Music special.)

http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-4-1970-family-dog-on-great.html
(An informative post based on the Gleason article.)