Adults Relent
CHURCH HOSTS GRATEFUL DEAD
When the Tower Club, the young peoples' organization at Fountain Street Church, suggested a concert by The Grateful Dead, adult members of the congregation balked. The "psychedelic" rock group had been involved in a drug arrest and the five members of the group looked like hippies.
Which they are and which prompted the adult Education Committee at Fountain Street to take another look. The Grateful Dead, after all, represented what their current series of programs was all about - an attempt at understanding the way-out philosophy of some of the younger generation.
So, The Grateful Dead will appear at Fountain Street after all.
The date is Sunday, March 24. The time is 7:30 p.m.
"We have been attempting to understand this hippie culture," a spokesman for the Adult Education Committee explained. "Unless we experience some of the reactions of the young, we can't very well understand or, at least, try to understand it."
First of the three-part "understanding process" was a lecture by Sue Carlson of San Francisco, who works with San Francisco groups. Following the Grateful Dead will be William Zinsswer, author and social observer, who will discuss the impact of the philosophies of the unusual groups cropping up in society.
As to the wild-looking bunch of musicians with the strange name, the Fountain Street committee reports that a program of "blues-oriented" music is expected, complete with a light show. That's an arrangement of different-colored, movable lights that are "played" with the music and swung around among the audience to get everyone completely involved in the goings on.
"In dealing with these boys (the musicians) in arranging for their appearance, we've found them rather nice," said the Adult Committee spokesman. "They do concerts for nothing, just for the good feeling of bringing joy to people, I guess. They even offered to come here for nothing."
They won't have to, however. The church group will pay them whatever is part of what is collected from the $2 admission fees. Tickets are available at the church, Dodds Record Shop, Sinfornia Record Shop, Posteria, and Grand Rapids Junior College.
The adults at the church also have been placated a bit by the group's recent public denouncement of the use of drugs, which the musicians have decided "is not the answer."
(from the Grand Rapids Press, March 10, 1968, p.34)
Thanks to jgmf.blogspot.com
The Dead did not play. Per McNally:
"The Dead went off on a logistically ridiculous and not entirely atypical road trip, flying all the way to Detroit for two shows with Eric Burdon and the Animals at the State Fair Coliseum. Their schedule then called for them to play a benefit in Grand Rapids, where the organizer was Rock [Scully]'s brother Dicken's girlfriend's mother, and then go home. In Detroit it snowed fourteen inches, and the benefit was canceled. The lovely poster, which was a drawing of Pigpen with angel's wings, was the only evidence of the dream." (p.257)
On March 24, the Dead were back in sunny San Francisco, Jerry Garcia jammed with Traffic, and the snows of Michigan were left behind.
While I don't normally post announcements for canceled shows, this one makes a charming exception.
ReplyDeleteThe plan was for the Dead to play two shows at the Coliseum in Detroit with the Animals on March 22-23, but apparently ticket sales were low, so the Dead reconsidered. Per Lost Live Dead: "After the poor attendance at the Fairgrounds, the show was moved back to the smaller Grande Ballroom [on March 23]. Animal guitarist Vic Briggs clearly recalls that the Dead went home on Saturday [the 23rd] and did not play the Grande."
The Dead weren't about to bother heading to Grand Rapids. One source writes, "Unfortunately the show was cancelled due to a fierce snowstorm. They played in Detroit just before this and it was deemed unsafe to drive the 150 miles to Grand Rapids in this weather, so no show."
It sounds like they wouldn't have made much passing the hat around at Fountain St. Church. But it's remarkable they were invited to play there in the first place (albeit through a distant Scully family connection), and the elders approved. It might be educational, after all! Hilarious to see that the Dead's show was to be bookended by lectures on the hippie phenomenon to help educate the bewildered grownups. (I think these were on different dates.)
I presume "William Zinsswer" was the author William Zinsser, best known today for his books on writing. He'd later write, "I was one of the first magazine writers to go to San Francisco in the winter of 1967 and bring back news of the 'love hippies' who had descended on the Haight-Ashbury district, decked out in 'ecstatic dress' and drugged out on LSD — flower children running away from their parents in the slumbering suburbs."
Also note that the Dead have publicly declared that drugs are "not the answer." This is likely Scully's work, easing the Dead's path through a hostile country - he'd tell reporters in '68 that the Dead had now renounced drugs, never touched the stuff anymore, etc. (What else to do when your band has made drug-bust headlines across the land?)
Another unexpected touch here is the Christian symbolism attributed to the Dead. One church spokesman is surprised: "They do concerts for nothing, just for the good feeling of bringing joy to people. They even offered to come here for nothing." Pigpen is even given angel wings in the poster...and who was to tell these innocent elders they might be a Hells Angel's wings?