tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post6774149400420763784..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: July 7, 1969: Piedmont Park, AtlantaLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-30617406449988314922023-03-14T01:26:23.168-07:002023-03-14T01:26:23.168-07:00This is a very rare example of a Dead playing a &q...This is a very rare example of a Dead playing a "free show" where the promoters actually paid the band a hefty sum to play the show.Grateful Secondshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16866611234014012885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-4881817616361961512022-01-17T10:18:55.759-08:002022-01-17T10:18:55.759-08:00I came over from Birmingham for the AIPF, got invi...I came over from Birmingham for the AIPF, got invited to stay over at a house a couple of blocks from the park, and for me, because of the opportunity to hang out with some other guitar players and hear a lot of great music, Piedmont Park was a much nicer experience than the Festval, which was itself epic. I wish those days could have gone on forever.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09138921045856359990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-76861985081487211602021-06-30T08:48:40.052-07:002021-06-30T08:48:40.052-07:00this will never be - which it should be - released...this will never be - which it should be - released as a 'picks' - the ds>st.s>the11>toyll is like 85 minutes long! too long for a CD. maybe put 'dark star' on CD1 and the rest on disc two?<br /><br />I-) <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-12998702603281575432018-08-24T19:08:05.628-07:002018-08-24T19:08:05.628-07:00Later issues of the Great Speckled Bird included a...Later issues of the Great Speckled Bird included a few comments on this show.<br /><br />A 9/22/69 article on past events in Piedmont Park: <br />"The day in the park The Allman Brothers wiped us out, taught us that a white group of musicians in love with the blues, devoid of hype, overproduction, and a record company breathing down our necks, could shed the skills of the blackface artist and play brilliant, contemporary music of young white America... Then, on the heels of the marathon Atlanta Pop Festival...we had The Grateful Dead in our very own park, the musical essence of the communal spirit of San Francisco, which has been murdered at its birthplace but which is defiantly sprouting up in every city, town, and hamlet where there are young people - hour after hour of fluid time and space blended with harmonies and rhythms that were not so much music as a healing balm of sensation, felt as if for the first time... <br />The Allman Brothers were there [last Sunday] to prove that they are in better shape than ever. Their rhythm section swings harder than ever, their organist is still in top form, and the two lead guitarists - especially Duane Allman on slide guitar - solo as brilliantly as the last time we heard them. The sounds they make together are among the finest musical creations of any group in rock music. When they closed the show with their bluesy arrangement of Donovan's "First There Is A Mountain," the spirit of the people in attendance approached that of The Grateful Dead concert where everybody - everybody - was stoned, tripping, and very together." <br />(from "Our Park" by Miller Francis Jr., GSB 9/22/69, p.12) <br /><br />A 10/27/69 article on a recent music festival: "Sadly no light show...but the Allman Brothers made up for it. Little more can be said about them, other than the fact that only The Grateful Dead in Piedmont Park have generated the same energy that was created Sunday night. The whole experience was highlighted by a lovely girl dancing beautifully on stage." <br />(Charlie Cushing, "Sunday," GSB 10/27/69, p.9) <br /><br />And an announcement for the Dead's 5/10/70 show: "Remember Piedmont Park, and what the Dead did there? This should be more of the same." <br />(Miller Francis, "Atlanta Rocks," GSB 5/11/70, p.10) <br /><br />Two different reviewers both point to the Dead show as a high-point in Atlanta's rock history, and both say that the Allmans create the same kind of spirit and energy in the audience. Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-67833724959242492522018-08-21T21:42:38.569-07:002018-08-21T21:42:38.569-07:00Not a regular concert review! No details on bands ...Not a regular concert review! No details on bands or songs here; the Bird's reporter instead tried to recreate the feeling of being in the crowd at a Dead show. (The rest of the article, covering the festival on July 4-5, was in the same impressionistic style.) <br />One remarkable part of this article is what's missing: a host of other bands had played the free park show on July 7, and there was a large multi-band jam session after the Dead played, but here (by chance, or not) they aren't mentioned, and only the Dead are written about. It was their first time playing in Atlanta, and clearly this was considered a Big Event. It's depicted as a magical experience of delirium, laughter, love, dancing, ecstasy... The rest of the festival, in contrast, was portrayed in a rather negative way as tired, disappointing, hot and crowded and unpleasant. <br /><br />One Archive witness recalled, "This was a 'thank you' free concert staged by the organizers of the first Atlanta Pop Festival which had gone off quite well [two] days before. Opening for the Dead in Piedmont Park picnic pavilion were Delaney & Bonnie, Spirit and Chicago Transit Authority."<br />Another attendee, David Powell, writes: "That free Piedmont Park concert took place after the first Atlanta Pop Festival at Hampton Raceway on July 4th weekend. Amazingly, the Allman Brothers and the Dead were not booked for the festival. [The Allmans were still unknown.] The Piedmont Park concert started in the afternoon and went on into the night, with a thunderstorm/power outage delay. Local bands Radar and the Hampton Grease Band opened. In addition to the ABB & the Dead, acts that had played at the festival -- Spirit, Chicago Transit Authority and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends also played. My memory is hazy, but the Dead closed the show and at various times were joined by Duane & Dickie, Glenn & Harold, Delaney, Randy California and Terry Kath." <br />More details are given in the Strip Project account. <br />In some places it's rumored that the Allmans guested in the Dead's show during Lovelight, but they didn't. Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com