tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post3794593731053269869..comments2024-03-16T06:44:23.745-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: February 15, 1968: San Quentin PrisonLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-23226918309963295782020-07-03T22:38:18.120-07:002020-07-03T22:38:18.120-07:00I added an article from the LA Times, which is pre...I added an article from the LA Times, which is pretty similar to the Hayward piece - no new details on the concert.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-3843772210274149232018-08-28T20:25:49.655-07:002018-08-28T20:25:49.655-07:00The Berkeley Barb ran an article on the upcoming p...The Berkeley Barb ran an article on the upcoming prison strike plans on the front page of the 2/9/68 issue ("SAN Q ROCKS") - <br /><br />"FREEMEN BACK CONS AS PRISON SEETHES<br />The walls of San Quentin will begin to rock shortly after dawn next Thursday. <br />Pressure will begin to mount from then on both inside and outside the grim penitentiary. <br />Inside the cons will return en masse to their cells and refuse to obey the routine work orders. <br />Outside free men will mass to let the cons know the free people support them. ... <br />The Grateful Dead and the Quicksilver Messenger Service have said they will do their thing outside the walls, presumably at full amplification. <br />On Thursday, February 15, San Quentin inmates will hold a 'unity holiday for convicts.' While the convicts are taking a short vacation from prison work, a massive festival of free men will be taking place just outside the fence..." <br /><br />The 2/23/69 Berkeley Barb continued the story of the San Quentin strike: <br /><br />"CONS CALL IT WIN <br />... The present series of strikes began last Thursday at San Quentin as about 700 free men gathered outside during the course of the day to support convict demands for fair, humane treatment... <br />[Most of the inmates went to work that day, as the warden moved the work schedule to earlier in the day.] As a result, the inmates were back in their cells early, in the late afternoon, when the gathering outside was at its peak.<br />Cons in two of the cell blocks could then see the hundreds gathered outside or hear the free sounds of The Grateful Dead and The Phoenix. Never before had so many been on hand to support the beginning of a convicts' move for basic prison reform... <br />The next day, shouting swept through the prison, spreading word of the strike... [The strike soon spread until most prisoners stopped working, and the warden ordered a general lock-up.] <br />Visible and audible support on the outside will reappear this Sunday when rock bands, including The Phoenix which vibed the prison walls last Thursday, arrive back outside the gates in mid-afternoon to play for the inmates. <br />Plans are afoot to hold a weekly rock concert at the gates until the cons get the human treatment they seek." <br />As an aside, on Feb 14, "the Asst. Warden was asked if he enjoyed the Grateful Dead or the Quicksilver Messenger Service... After some hesitating, the Asst. Warden replied, 'Not particularly.'" <br />(Berkeley Barb 2/23/68, p.7) Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-5190875407579880762016-03-05T21:00:37.298-08:002016-03-05T21:00:37.298-08:00Thanks for the photo. That would have been interes...Thanks for the photo. That would have been interesting to hear - I wonder what they played with Gravenites....some blues, I presume. (He was in Electric Flag at the time.)<br /><br />A little trivia: Gravenites had been a co-composer on the Butterfield Blues Band tune "East-West," which I think had been a big influence on the Dead back in '66. He would also help produce Quicksilver's first album in '68, and also worked with Joplin and Big Brother. The odd thing is, this appearance is his only connection with the Dead that I can think of. (Maybe since they were a more insular group.) <br />However, he would have a pretty strong Garcia connection. In 1970, he was producing Brewer & Shipley when Garcia recorded some pedal-steel for them; and Garcia also played a benefit show with him in 1990. Most importantly, he was the guy who introduced Garcia to Merl Saunders. Saunders was doing studio sessions with Bloomfield's band in 1970: "Doing that, I met Nick Gravenites, who was doing a lot of sessions. He would hook me up with this guitar player...Jerry." Apparently, Saunders met Garcia & John Kahn while working on sessions that Gravenites produced, and they invited Saunders to the Matrix.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-91601286308245767872016-03-05T05:38:50.352-08:002016-03-05T05:38:50.352-08:00http://www.gratefuldeadfamilyalbum.com/#!page-64-h...http://www.gratefuldeadfamilyalbum.com/#!page-64-horse/cl2m yet another photo <br />erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18080237165302231537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-37855804955003148342015-03-04T11:37:10.205-08:002015-03-04T11:37:10.205-08:00I added the picture. Dister wrote in his memoir th...I added the picture. Dister wrote in his memoir that Phil was absent and Weir played bass. Phoenix bassist Jef Jaisun also says that this event was more of a jam session with various players including Garcia & Jack Casady. Nick Gravenites also played guitar at one point.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-80680222775068965672014-10-31T22:09:31.333-07:002014-10-31T22:09:31.333-07:00There's a photo of Garcia & Weir playing a...There's a photo of Garcia & Weir playing at this event - Weir is playing a borrowed bass (not Phil's), indicating that Phil didn't make it to this show; which confirms what eyewitness Alain Dister wrote in his book. <br />http://scarlet-fire.tumblr.com/image/83616939562 Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-24042880980913713392013-06-06T04:08:22.575-07:002013-06-06T04:08:22.575-07:00After the Midnight Hour encore at the Carousel on ...After the Midnight Hour encore at the Carousel on 2/14/68, there was a stage announcement: <br />"Hey remember, we're all prisoners till everybody is free. So tomorrow come out to San Quentin - they need our support. One o'clock, or one-thirty, or two o'clock. Anytime around then. Country Joe and the Fish came here from New York tonight, and so when they left it was about four o'clock their time (in the morning) and they got up at eight. They wanted to stay around, jam some more, but - they're gonna rest up and come out to San Quentin tomorrow - as well as the Dead, and some of the Airplane, and some of the other bands." <br /><br />Deadlists has a memory from David Minton: <br />"I vividly recall going to a prisoners benefit on a point overlooking San Quentin. Garcia, Casady, one of the guys from the Charlatans, maybe Barry Melton from CJ&Fish were playing on flatbed trucks. I think there was a strike on in the prison."<br /><br />The article mentions only the Grateful Dead, but it's likely the reporter didn't inquire too closely about the membership of whoever was playing on the truck.<br /><br />The Outlaw was the underground prison newspaper, which called for an inmate strike on Feb 15 as a "Convict Unity Holiday," making several demands to improve prison conditions. This was picked up by the Berkeley Barb, which gave it heavy coverage.<br />Eric Cummins' book The Rise And Fall of California's Radical Prison Movement goes into a lot of detail about this period - in its account, the Dead, the Phoenix, and several members from Country Joe & the Fish came. <br />One person remembered, "The Grateful Dead...brought a flatbed truck and brought their own equipment, their amps and generating equipment. They pulled their flatbed truck out there on the little peninsula, and they got up on that. It was publicized on one of the rock stations as well as in the Berkeley Barb... There weren't many [prisoners] who could see, but they could all hear and they knew they had the support." <br />Cummins writes: "On February 15, 20% of the inmate population struck. The Barb had drawn a large crowd to the prison gates... The group of about 400 to 500 strike supporters scribbled chalk paintings before the prison gate, played drums and tambourines, and launched colored balloons up over the prison walls. The following day, 75% of the prison shut down. The nonviolent strike lasted a week, accompanied by daily noontime demonstrations at the east gate..." <br />The Berkeley Barb continued its steady prison coverage, and after inmate demands were not met, "on August 2 the inmates struck again... Outside, two rock bands and a mariachi group entertained demonstrators who had arrived by carpool caravan from a noon rally at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza."Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com