tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post3734857299748457099..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: May 2, 1969: WinterlandLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-22095272582076367012021-01-27T11:52:32.798-08:002021-01-27T11:52:32.798-08:00Just accidentally found these responses to that wo...Just accidentally found these responses to that wonderful concert. Someone was selling acid to the people outside waiting in line for tickets. He said it was Owsley acid although the "vehicle" for the acid was throat lozenges. I thought it was probably a scam but for $5 if figured I'd take a chance. It was really good LSD. By the time we filtered out from the concert the sun was just lighting the sky. The Winterland Ballroom was razed and apartments were constructed there. I met my son there who moved from the D.C. area as he was renting one of the apts. I didn't realize it had been the Winterland until I noticed old posters from the 60's hanging in the lobby and a plaque commemorating the old ballroom. Doug Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17317782018347359486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-30002706609889715402019-08-21T22:00:22.253-07:002019-08-21T22:00:22.253-07:00JGMF discovered that Ralph Gleason wrote an earlie...JGMF discovered that Ralph Gleason wrote an earlier, shorter review of this show for the Chronicle, so I've included that at the end. <br />Few specific Dead setlist details from the articles - <br />First set: Cold Rain & Snow <br />Second set: "Anthem of the Sun" (probably the Other One), Death Don't Have No Mercy <br />Encore: Alligator (very unusual as an encore) <br />Gleason was more of an Airplane fan ("it was the Airplane's night"), so in the Rolling Stone piece he goes into much more detail about their last set, while complaining that the Dead have "few new numbers" and their long jams "all sound the same." Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-67670610275571979132019-01-15T13:56:07.303-08:002019-01-15T13:56:07.303-08:00I was at that show, and Mongo ignited the whole sh...I was at that show, and Mongo ignited the whole shebang. I only knew of them from their Watermelon Man record, but they were a band of consummate professionals with no room for mistakes or being sloppy from overuse. I was astonished at their precision and passion. The SF music scene sometimes suffered from a loosey goosey live show ethic, but that night a band that always delivered their very best set the stage for what came after. Mongo set the bar at the highest level, and fortunately it inspired the Dead and Airplane to answer in kind. What a night! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-60416783456327660592014-08-08T17:09:09.303-07:002014-08-08T17:09:09.303-07:00(On the other hand, someone else wrote of the 5/3 ...(On the other hand, someone else wrote of the 5/3 show: "Mongo Santamaria rocked! Was not much of a GD fan at the time. Sat on the floor right in front of the stage. GD and Airplane were so loud it was a cacophony. I enjoyed Mongo Santamaria the most since their music was comprehensible.")<br /><br />An Archive witness also gives a rave review of 5/2: "The place ROCKED from the moment of the first note...all night...and the Dead finished at 2:30 am before the Airplane's 2nd set - so Bill Graham locked the doors...called it a private party - the bands played on.... Nothing ever like it again - Mongo got it started and everyone got fired up with each set... Mongo had lit up the room...the whole night each band tried to outdo the other - the energy was unbelievable."Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-9524852484267749202014-08-08T16:45:37.455-07:002014-08-08T16:45:37.455-07:00One audience member recalls on dead.net:
"De...One audience member recalls on dead.net: <br />"Dead went all the way to 2am closing time. Grace Slick came out and said "Bill Graham says we are all at a private party." Airplane came on and played until 4:30. Show was so good we came back for Saturday night [5/3] but neither band could re-capture the magic from the night before. Mongo was a distraction, crowd couldn't wait for him to finish."Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-51343195595535894862013-06-26T17:06:42.903-07:002013-06-26T17:06:42.903-07:00ayuh
ayuh<br />Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-33788439197043235162013-06-25T20:24:49.762-07:002013-06-25T20:24:49.762-07:00The Dead's show is a mess as well. Something m...The Dead's show is a mess as well. Something more than the wind must've been affecting the band that day!Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-9517771846480233922013-06-25T15:20:48.208-07:002013-06-25T15:20:48.208-07:00Man, it would be great if these Airplane sets woul...Man, it would be great if these Airplane sets would emerge. The Polo Field show is kind of a mess. An interesting mess --it is the Airplane!-- but a mess nonetheless.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-38805766816757789642013-06-25T01:16:38.244-07:002013-06-25T01:16:38.244-07:00I replaced the excerpt with the full article, whic...I replaced the excerpt with the full article, which was longer than I expected! This is a lengthy description of an evening at Winterland... <br /><br />It's no wonder Winterland was packed; according to Deadbase, the two bands hadn't played a San Francisco show together since the Carousel days a year earlier.<br />Gleason is full of praise for the Dead - his only complaint is that they don't have enough new songs. (Which would soon change!) But it seems he's more of an Airplane man at heart, as he reverently describes the Airplane's sets. <br />This article indicates what the rotating two-set shows were like, with the bands apparently conserving their energy in the first set and going wild in the second. <br />It's interesting that the Airplane played Other Side of This Life in both of their sets! They're introducing some new songs this month from the album they're recording - sadly, there's no tape of this night, but their 5/7/69 Polo Field tape also has The Farm, We Can Be Together, and their first Good Shepherd (with Grace singing).<br />I wonder whether the footage of the Airplane this night has been used anywhere? <br /><br />The same bands played Winterland the next evening, though unfortunately we only have the Dead's first set from 5/3/69, on a brief but rapturous 45-minute audience tape that conveys the Winterland atmosphere.<br />The Dead & Airplane would also play together in Winterland at the end of the month, on 5/28/69, with a bunch of other bands in the "People's Park Bail Ball" benefit. Michael Lydon describes the Dead's set in his Rolling Stone article; apparently it was a musical disaster & the band couldn't get it together at all that night.<br /><br />Gleason mentions seeing the film Tonite Let's All Make Love In London, a sort of music-montage documentary about "swinging London" which had actually been made in late '66/early '67, and featured live footage of Pink Floyd & the Stones. He was not impressed...partly, it seems, because he saw it as derivative of the San Francisco scene. Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-12268146269501571682013-06-12T21:37:16.679-07:002013-06-12T21:37:16.679-07:00That would be a no-brainer, wouldn't it? There...That would be a no-brainer, wouldn't it? There are various early RS articles on the Dead I haven't seen. Yet I hadn't thought of it... <br /><br />In any case, I should be getting the full article soon so I can replace this fragment.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-30178871089483705252013-06-12T19:41:24.673-07:002013-06-12T19:41:24.673-07:00Do you have thh Rolling Stones cover-to-cover thin...Do you have thh Rolling Stones cover-to-cover thing? It's complete, everything. But the proprietary interface is a nightmare and a massive memory hog.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-40988785578874616312013-06-09T01:50:23.363-07:002013-06-09T01:50:23.363-07:00Alas, no tape!
This is a partial excerpt from th...Alas, no tape! <br /><br />This is a partial excerpt from the article - I pieced it together from an edited selection printed in the Official Book of the Deadheads, and a small fragment in the Family Album. <br />I'd like to replace this with the full article, though, once I find it. (It was reprinted in the Rolling Stone Rock 'n' Roll Reader in 1974.)<br /><br />The date isn't in the excerpt, but it was easy to figure out - a Winterland show in mid-1969 with Jefferson Airplane & Mongo Santamaria, where the setlist does not match 5/3/69. Michael Lydon also described the 5/28/69 Winterland show in his article, and it's definitely not that date. Hence, it's 5/2/69. <br /><br />I pray that the full SBD tapes of May 2-3 '69 are in the Vault. Why not? Why not indeed?Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com