January 22, 1971: Jerry Garcia Interview

GARCIA AND THE GRATEFUL DEAD

With the Grateful Dead in town to do their gig at Lane a couple weeks ago, I took the opportunity to pay a visit to Jerry Garcia, the man always seemingly in the forefront of the legendary San Francisco band.

Dropping by his motel room the afternoon before the show, I found him as always: warm, affable and unaffected by the universal acceptance his group always finds. During the course of the short interview, Babs, a cohort from the Acid Tests and a resident of Ken Kesey’s Springfield farm, dropped by with best wishes.

The questions came easy and Garcia’s answers even easier. And so, a bit of enlightenment hopefully, into what the Dead are doing now, and what we can look forward to in the future:

With your last two albums, “American Beauty” and “Workingman’s Dead,” you seem to have shifted somewhat in your music. Do you notice a change?

Yeah sure, of course. But the change is more in our record-making than in what we do. The thing is, early last year we started getting more into singing. And with it, we got into songs. I was into writing songs for the thing about – it was the revelation of suddenly, “Oh, singing. We can sing together!” It was like a whole new thing for us.

Those two should really be considered one record. In that they’re kind of like the same body of stuff. It represents a year’s worth of a certain direction. Our next record will be a live one, and then I think the next time we do a studio record it will be a different shape.

Those records are not necessarily the first two steps in a continuing progression then?

No, not necessarily.

I think a lot of people are under the impression that the Dead have found their groove, and those two records are beginning of what you're going to be doing. 

No, it’s just another facet of what we do. I think of everything we do as being developmental, but on a very large cycle. That is to say, our cycle is about a year long. We’ll be on a certain trip for about a year, and the first part of the year we’ll be getting to it, and the last part of the year we’ll be sort of getting away from it. It’s just the way we do.

Do you have any idea what cycle you’ll be going into next?

The live album will be a wrap-up of our live shows for the past year or so. It’ll be a lot of the things that we’ve been doing for a long time, but have never recorded.

We’ll try to make it good. I can’t really say what it’ll be, because we haven’t got the tapes yet, and we won’t be able to tell until after we put it together.

For “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty,” what made you decide to go into the studio and sing?

We didn’t decide to go into the studio and sing, we just decided that singing was a good trip. Because, early last year, Crosby, Stills & Nash were hanging around a lot in our scene. It’s just groovy, you know, singing is just a good thing. We started getting into hanging out with just acoustic guitars and singing. Me and Bobby (Weir) and Phil (Lesh), just working out stuff. It was fun to do. 

Also, those last two records, we pretty much had them together in the sense that the music was together when we went into the studio. We went in knowing what we were going to do and we were after doing it easy. We were trying to minimize the hassles for ourselves in the studio by doing it as simply and as quickly as possible. And it worked out well, both records we did in really a short time for us. But it’s only one facet.

Have Crosby and those people been hanging out in your scene much lately?

Phil and I and Bill (Kreutzmann) just played on about 90 per cent of Crosby’s new album, which will be out shortly. It’s really nice, and we’ve worked with David a lot. Steven has played with us time and again. There’s a loose sort of association, and I played on some tracks from Graham Nash’s album, which will probably be out soon.

I notice you played on the Paul Kantner album. Was that the result of the same kind of a scene?

Well, we’re all friends. I mean it’s like, the social circle in which we have revolved, like the Grateful Dead as a family. The Jefferson Airplane have been our friends for years.

They’re like old, old friends of ours, from before they were the Airplane, just as people in their various scenes and our various scenes; we just overlapped a lot.

It was just a natural outgrowth. Kantner was working on this album and I would happen to be at Wally Heider’s (recording studio) and he’d say, 'Listen, I have some stuff, would you listen to it, and if there’s anything you like, would you play on it.'

I said sure, and I liked it. I went for the idea. You know Kantner’s an amazing cat, and he’s like one of those guys that – he’s just got a lot of energy and he pulls really amazing performances out of people. He’s good.

Have you been exploring any types of music that is, say out of the ordinary for you?

As a matter of fact, there will be a record of some of that music coming out. I did a thing with a friend of mine who is an amazing organist, named Howard Whales. I really don’t know how to describe the music except that it’s very far out. It’s unusual for me.

It’s just some of the strongest, most high-energy, aggressive sort of music that I’ve ever had any part in. I guess that album will be out probably in February sometime. It’s experimental for all intents and purposes.

Have you been experimenting at all with any instruments that you’re not that familiar with?

Well, the steel. The steel is the thing. I’ve been fiddling around with the piano a little bit. I’ve fiddled around with almost any instrument that’s available to me. I’ll goof around on them a little. I try to make some attempt to understand or at least to play a minimal amount on it. That’s just my normal interest in music.

Right now, the instruments I can play more or less competently are the guitar, five-string banjo, and I’m getting so I can at least get through stuff on the steel. I don’t like to have to get into something unless I think I can really devote a proper amount of time and energy to it to learn it right.

It’s been going around that the change that was evident in your last two albums was because the Grateful Dead have completely given up drugs and gone into some different trips.

Well, we’ve never been entirely into drugs. There’s always been people in the band who take drugs, and people who don’t. We don’t try to affect each other’s thinking in terms of what you should or should not take. If somebody’s on a trip of taking a certain drug, you’re free to do that.

We play together as a group and we’re living the same reality. After all this time together it’s gotten so we’re really comfortable amongst ourselves, since there’s been so much weird shit we’ve been through that nobody else knows about really. They’re shared experiences of such an exotic nature that there are levels of communication that we can get to amongst ourselves, which because of the situation we’re in is just not available to us with almost everybody else. That’s also why our other friends are musicians, in the same world.

I mean, when you’re in high-energy situations 80 per cent of the time, you have a different reality to face than a person who lives a normal day to day life.

There seems to be a problem all across the country of increased gate-crashing and violence at rock concerts. Do you endorse this, or do you have negative feelings about it?

It’s been happening at our gigs more and more often the past year. If it gets any worse, we’ll just quit touring. We don’t play background music for riots.

Do you get a chance to play with the groups that you’ve played with for so many years: Quicksilver, the Airplane, etc.?

We get our chances once in awhile, not all the time. But see, we all live in the same area. We all see each other a lot. Like Freiberg, from Quicksilver, lives three houses up the road from me.

In fact, our next joint project is me, David Freiberg, Crosby, Grace (Slick), Paul (Kantner), and Phil. We’re doing a thing together, making an album. Putting the material together and rehearsing and stuff. 

Any idea what the group of people will be called?

No.

It doesn’t really matter?

No.

Do you know what label it will be on?

There are several possibilities. It may be on Atlantic, might be on Warner Bros. With Kantner’s Starship album, it went to RCA because it was Kantner’s album. This one, I think we’ll do the album for us probably, and then decide who’s going to have it.

What has happened to Quicksilver; are they together now, or have they broken up?

Old Quicksilver no longer exists, and the band that’s being called Quicksilver now, are interested in changing the name. What it is now, it’s Dino Valente, Gary Duncan, Greg Elmore, and David Freiberg.

Then those four were originally with Quicksilver in the beginning anyway.

Right. Cippolina is no longer with them, and Nicky Hopkins isn’t with them now.

What is the music scene like in San Francisco now?

Everybody who was in those scenes in ’64-’67, around there, all those people are older and better. They’re good at what they do, and everybody’s pretty settled into a working groove. The music scene is very close. Everything’s just been slowly getting closer all along. We all know each other, and we hang out together. It’s good. It’s a beautiful working situation. I wouldn’t be anyplace else.

Do you ever find yourself getting behind time, being on the road and all?

Oh, time becomes a totally utter continuum. There isn’t any chronometer of time. It starts to be TV time, check-in time, plane time, and gig time. It’s just described in a whole other way, that’s all. It’s not minutes and hours and that.

How much are you on the road now?

Well, last year we were on the road a lot, but this year we’re going a lot lighter. We’re not doing as much work, just taking it easier.

Do you ever get tired of being on the road?

We don’t do it like that. We don’t make it inhuman on ourselves. I mean, there are some people who go out for six weeks, eight weeks, three months, and stuff like that. It’s like a long tour for us if we’re out for as long as two weeks.

Have the Grateful Dead always been a group where everybody pretty much has an equal part?

Oh yeah. We wouldn’t have it any other way. See, nobody wants to go through the trip of being a leader, or any of that.

How big is the audience’s role in a Grateful Dead show?

If it’s a good show, the audience’s role is at least half of what is going on.

When you go out onstage, do you ever have a concept of the audience, as far as expecting certain things from them?

No, I try not to do that. I try not to fall on any kind of performing devices, if I can avoid it. I mean, we’re hip to them all; there are tricks, but we try to avoid them. I try to do it as much on an intuitive, emotional level as much as is there.

Have you found any disadvantages to becoming a nationally known group with the following you have?

We don’t go on any trips, so there aren’t any disadvantages. We don’t put ourselves in that position.

The ego things?

Yeah. We’re just not on that trip. It doesn’t really affect – I mean, I don’t have any sense of being a national group. I only have the sense that I’m trying to become a good musician, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do for a long time. That’s what I’m still trying to do, and that’s really where it’s at with me.

As for the rest of it – it’s fun to read about yourself in the paper, but it doesn’t have any real bearing on your real existence. It’s bullshit is what it is.

(by Steven Smith, from the Oregon Daily Emerald, February 12, 1971) 

Thanks to Dave Davis. 

December 9-10, 1971: Fox Theatre, St. Louis

JUST ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT

 

When a group as young as the New Riders of the Purple Sage get hot on stage, they ARE playing for you, and you melt into their rhythms, start clapping your hands, and dancing in the aisles. Anyone who missed this concert at the Fox Theater on Thursday and Friday (Dec. 9-10), when the program was broadcast live on KADI, will have to suffer until they come round next year. The Sage outshone the Grateful Dead, their hallowed sponsor. 

"I don't play with the Purple Sagers anymore," says Jerry Garcia, the Dead's lead guitarist, backstage before the show. He helped the New Riders get started by playing with them and promoting them. Garcia plays pedal steel guitar on the first Sage album. 

"The group got together in Palo Alto the same as the Dead," says Joe, the Sage road manager. 

Balloons are flying and being popped by cigarettes as the Purple Sage warms up. "We dig the Fox Theater and we dig coming here, so take good care of it," announces Marmaduke, the blond-haired lead singer. He emphasizes that the management is holding the ticket money against damages, and the audience respects this request. 

Then there is a pause for technical difficulties. "The speakers are busted on the left side," the crowd yells in chorus, upset at the management. 

"Hey man, lousy speakers don't have anything to do with capitalism," quips Marmaduke. He snarls about, sounding uptight. "Oh fuck," he bewails & then tries to play up his 'obscenity' by adding, "That's gotta be the most unused word in the English language." 

The Fox usually has tremendous acoustics and good stage views (except on the mezzanine), plus a carved, sculpted, gilded interior. That's why these bands choose to play here. Garcia adds, "There isn't a ballroom here we know of (where people could dance freely)." 

There are hoots and applause. By the time the Riders finish "Six Days on the Road and I'm Gonna Make It Home Tonight!" Almost all of these "working men" songs separate male and female roles. 

This song comes as the stage turns luminous blue. The Riders begin a gentle song about new love, "Come Sit Beside Me." Tie-died amplifiers frame them on stage and look like inlaid mosaics under the spotlights. The theater gildings glow as Marmaduke sings, "Would you like to play with me?" The women are dancing out of sight, behind the musicians. 

"Who's playing pedal steel?" is yelled twice from the audience. Garcia used to fill that spot, and now the metal moaning strings of his protegee range thru us, very moving. This new man got constant attention from the house because of his boss plays on the steel strings, but they never introduced him. 

The drummer's hands never stop, and we think it's Spencer Dryden, who is on their first album. He even plays tambourine with the Dead after his set. His rhythm permeates the sound but never upstages it. He deserved a solo but didn't play one. 

There is little gimmickry or gaudy showmanship; perhaps that's why the audience at one point asks if the Airplane are surprise guests. "Next you'll ask for Mick Jagger," retorts John Dawson (Marmaduke), and the crowd cheers approval. 

The Sage receives a standing ovation for "When it all comes round again." This is a long, autobiographical song, including questions about remembering how you felt when Kennedy was assassinated, The chorus is, 

Can you remember my friend, 

What it felt like in the end? 

Don'tcha wish you had a friend 

When it all comes round again? 

The Sage has just introduced what is likely to be next year's favorite song, and the audience is listening and enthusiastic. 

Upfront, young people are passing a full hash pipe around. There is more dope around than at the Dead's concert last spring, and the majority of the audience is under nineteen. 

A theater spokesman estimated 4000 attendance on Thursday and a 4500 capacity crowd on Friday, but it seemed like more people both nights. There was no damage before, during, or after the concerts. Outside, officers straightened the crowd outside before the doors opened. Inside, heavy, alcohol breathing cops kept trying to seat people. They had little success down front, because there was no place to move. The second and third balconies were more hawkishly patrolled, however. 

The New Riders have drawn a ring of standing admirers to the stage area. Their songs are simple and real - about working class men and the women they love. There is dancing as they sing, "Hello Mary Lou, Goodbye Heart." 

The Sage ends with two of their sexiest songs, "Hand Job" and "Louisiana Lady." 

Now straight from Madison Square Garden in New York, it's the Grateful Dead. We crowd up to the stage, watching them set up. Pigpen comes out and the crowd applauds. 

Bob Weir, the main vocalist, is front and center for most of the set. As he sings, his clean angular looks and his long ponytail are somewhat incongruous. 

After the set begins, Pigpen sometimes rises from his organ and adds new rhythm to the band, singing old favorites like "Big Boss Man" and doing a harmonica solo. 

Jerry Garcia isn't playing pedal steel guitar tonight; he's playing one of the two electric guitars. He usually takes the lead on instrumentals; his knowledge of music is heavy and innovative. Jerry solos on "Shake it, Shake it," a heavy handed number, and the mystical "Black Peter." 

Then the Dead sing "Casey Jones." This year's audience rises like last year's did, turned on and clapping their hands over their heads. 

Since the Dead promoted this concert themselves, it seems likely that they'll leave town with half of the $4 a head take when the music's over. That's $17,000 for two nights. There is that old rumor that the Dead are going to announce buying the Fox, but on Friday they announce that they have no intention of buying it. 

Instead they play until 1 am and the show is broadcast live on KADI. 

The songs, or maybe the sound system, haven't turned on the balcony, as much as some of the others. "Where is the cosmic Dead?" they plead. 

The Dead conclude with an elastic version of: 

I'm gonna love you night and day; 

Love, love don't fade away. 

It includes riffs of other songs like: 

I'm goin' down the road feelin' bad. 

Perhaps the Dead are saying that something has got them down. Wish they'd get over their success inertia. 

The Friday encore (after about 5 minutes of applause from the audience) is "Just Another Saturday Night." It's 1 am. Another 2 full evenings of music over until next time. 

"Did you live through it?" shouts a girl. 

"No, I died," moans a wide-eyed boy near the exit. 

It's raining hard, brothers & sisters. 

 

(by Jan Garden, from the Outlaw, December 24, 1971) 

https://archive.org/details/gd71-12-10.sbd.yerys.1311.sbeok.shnf

*

 

CONCERT HASSLES

 

The concert at the Fox Theater featuring the Grateful Dead and the New Riders also featured an example of the increasing incidence of police hassles met by some people who attend rock concerts in St. Louis. People inside were constantly being herded (Thursday nite) by ushers and police. The management confiscated at the door any cameras, newspapers, tape-recorders, and wine that they and the watchful guards could find. But outside, before the concert, a lesson in what happens when people don't stick together came home to at least one person who was beaten outside the theater. 

Ron arrived early (as did quite a few people) with his friend, Laurie. About 4 or 5 o'clock the police began to gather everyone waiting for the concert against the wall of the theater, and set up a rope to hold them in. As the crowd grew, Ron handed his camera to a friend further up the line for safety, and a short time later he decided to get out of the line and go wait somewhere else. The police let him out of line. A policeman told him it was all right to go get his camera. 

But, as he reached across the rope to retrieve the camera, a cop grabbed him from behind and pulled him away. Although Ron yelled that all he was doing was getting his camera, the cop dragged him away to the alley near the Fox. 

Once in the alley, although there were other people there, several cops took hold of him. They then clubbed him twice on the head, knocking him to the ground and opening a wound that required several stitches to close. 

The police threw him in a car and drove away. A few blocks later, noticing that Ron was still bleeding, the policeman in the backseat with him said, "Stop that bleeding all over my seat, you son of a bitch." The car stopped and they pushed him headfirst out of the car to the sidewalk, where he lay until a vehicle came and took him to the station where he was finally informed that he was under arrest for resisting arrest and two other counts. He was released to his parents (Ron is 17) on $500 bail for each charge. 

Ron and his family have filed complaints with the police inspector. They believe something will come of that. Ron says that he has always respected the police, and he can't understand what happened. 

Problems with the police at concerts are growing. What helps the police harass people is a general feeling of un-togetherness in a crowd or between people who are not taking into account the situation of their sisters and brothers. Inside the concert, many people remained calmly unaware of the harassment being experienced by other people. To our knowledge, no one came to help Ron; no one followed the police. Concerts and music have long been a means for people to get off together. Let's get it together.

 

(from the Outlaw, December 24, 1971)

 

*

JERRY GARCIA CLOSE-UP

 

"I follow astrology, but it's more earth-consciousness, calendar-consciousness, solar consciousness. I respect the physical limits of the universe," smiled the thickly bearded and mustached Jerry Garcia, his long black hair waving and shining. 

Garcia, the Grateful Dead's spokesman, vocalist, and lead guitarist was earthly and enlightening when I interviewed him before the Friday concert at the Fox Theater. 

The Dead's three electric guitarists - Jerry, Bob Weir, and Phil Lesh on bass, plus Pigpen, who sings and plays organ and harmonica, met in Palo Alto around '65. 

"From there we moved to L.A. and started living together," reported Jerry. "We lived in San Francisco, from '66 to '68." 

Having lived nearby them, I remember the Dead house on Ashbury. "It was a house, not a commune." Their recent nix on politics was not true then. The Dead gave street concerts shortly after the Haight St. riots of 1967 and '68. They parked a truck at Haight and Shrader and played until it was too crowded to move in the streets. They also played in the series of free concerts in the lush meadows of Golden Gate Park. These became so jammed that they were discontinued. 

The Dead also played outside San Quentin in the spring of '68, adding sparks to that prison's first protest. At this time, the inmates had their own underground paper circulating inside the walls. Three days after that sun-filled concert whose motto was, "Prisoners of San Francisco unite with Prisoners of San Quentin," the inmates went on strike for better conditions. 

"Have you played at any other prisons?" 

"We did play inside Terminal Island, the Federal Prison in L.A.," said Jerry. 

"Are you still giving free concerts?" 

"We've been doing live radio everywhere," Garcia replied. "It's the only way you can do free concerts anymore - because of Altamont and overkill." 

"How long have you been married?" 

M.G. (Garcia's wife): "We've been married 5 years and have 2 children." 

"Were you planning to stay in England this summer at Stonehenge, for the summer solstice?" 

Garcia: We always plan that. 

Q: Did you make any arrangements? 

Garcia: We always make some arrangements. 

Q: Did you play anyplace for the winter solstice? 

Weir: Washington. 

Q: DC? 

Weir: Where else? 

Garcia: Those other voices are all illusions. Don't listen to them. I don't remember where we played. 

Weir: Aren't you going to ask us where our name comes from? 

Garden: I know. It comes from the Egyptian Book of the Dead: 

Out of the land of darkness, 

the ship of the sun is drawn 

by the Grateful Dead.

(by Jan Garden, from the Outlaw, December 24, 1971)

 

For pictures from the Outlaw, see: 

https://twitter.com/bourgwick/status/1447343902969716742

December 12, 1971: Bar Mitzvah Party, Airport Hilton, St. Louis

GRATEFUL DEAD SURPRISES PARTY GUESTS, PERFORM WITH MEMBERS OF SPRING RAIN

 

Members of the Grateful Dead and New Riders of the Purple Sage played at their first Bar Mitzvah when they jammed with members of the Spring Rain, on Sunday, Dec. 12.

The band members from Ladue included Sherri Weingart, Mark Slosberg, and Doug Heller, who were playing at the Bar Mitzvah party of Richie Gerber, a student at West Ladue, in the Hilton Airport Inn. Two other band members, John McSweeny and Steve Fisher, attend Country Day School and Bruce Byers attends John Burroughs School.

Several members of the rock groups who were staying at the hotel, stopped at the doors of the room to listen to the band. Guests at the party talked with the musicians, who signed autographs and gave posters to some of the guests.

When Sherri Weingart asked them if they wished to play, they responded enthusiastically with four numbers. Spring Rain then played for half an hour. Phil Lesh, the drummer for Grateful Dead [sic] then came up and played the drums while John McSweeney played some blues music on the piano. Other members of the band then drifted up to accompany the others.

Following the party the members of Spring Rain spent over an hour conversing with the other musicians about music and various other topics.

 

(from the Panorama, the Ladue High School student newspaper, December 1971)

 

+ + +

The Dead and the New Riders had played at the Fox Theatre on December 9-10, 1971, and were still in town before heading on to Ann Arbor for their next show on December 14. During their stop in St. Louis, they stayed at the Airport Hilton…and gave another impromptu performance before leaving.   

Richie Gerber, a student at West Ladue Junior High, turned 13 in 1971 and had his Bar Mitzvah ceremony on Saturday, December 11. The party for him was held the next day, Sunday December 12, around 6 pm in a ballroom at the Airport Hilton. It was a kids-only party without about a hundred 13-year-olds attending. Unbeknownst to Richie, “the Grateful Dead were staying at the same hotel where my party was held.”

The party music was provided by Spring Rain, a professional teenage band that was one of the most popular bar mitzvah bands in town. They worked 2-4 engagements a month, playing songs by Carole King, James Taylor, Elton John, Buffalo Springfield, and so on; and they also featured a special oldies set (with songs by Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.). "We did the stuff that got the kids out on the dance floor." They were 15-to-16-year-old students attending Ladue, Country Day, and John Burroughs high schools. The band members were:     

Bruce Byers - guitar
Steve Fisher - singer
Doug Heller - drums
Jon McSweeney - piano player
Mark Slosberg - bass player
Sherry Weingart - lead vocals      
            
Richie had an older sister, Debbie Gerber. During the performance, she and two of her friends left the party room and went walking down the hall to the hotel lobby. In the lobby was an open bar surrounded by tables. As the girls walked by, they saw members of the Dead hanging out at the bar – Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann, Godchaux & “Marmaduke” Dawson of the New Riders. (I’ll refer to them as “the Dead” for short, although Garcia & Pigpen were not there.) Being "attractive cheerleader" types, the girls caught the Dead's attention as well. Richie says, “My sister Debbie wandered by the bar and received a "cat call" from within. She turned, and it was Phil Lesh and Bob Weir.”

The Dead had spent some time at the bar and they were toasted. This did not deter the girls - Debbie was a Dead fan. Richie recalls, “Debbie was 17 at the time and was, well, a flirt. She and two of her friends starting nudging their way toward the band members. Debbie started talking with them, told them why she was there, and they mentioned they overheard the music. For a while, they were flirting with Debbie and her friends (Lynn Kessler and another friend) and Debbie was urging them to come in and play a few songs. Long story short, she convinced them to come to the party.”

The party room was down the hall, but Spring Rain could still be heard in the bar. The Dead did not need much urging to come check out the party, and they “stopped at the doors of the room to listen.”

Spring Rain was playing unawares. Mark Slosberg’s 13-year-old younger sister Jo came over to tell him, "Mark, Mark, the Grateful Dead are here!" He was annoyed at her pestering and told her to go away. She said, “No, look – they really are in the doorway.” She pointed and sure enough, there they were.
Doug Heller recalls, “We were playing a big party. These long-haired guys stick their heads into the ballroom. They heard us playing, they later explained.” Mark says, “They had been drinking in the lounge when they heard us and wandered over.”
Richie himself was not too impressed: “Everyone was in awe, but me… When my sister said ‘I have a surprise for you, someone wants to say hello,’ I was hoping for Garry Unger!” 

Richie wasn't into rock & roll yet and wasn't interested in the Dead - he was more into hockey - so he didn't pay any attention to them.

Spring Rain stopped their set and somehow had the presence of mind to ask the Dead if they would like to play a song or two during their break. Everyone encouraged the Dead to play. According to the article, “When Sherri Weingart asked them if they wished to play, they responded enthusiastically.” The Dead didn't want to interrupt the band, but agreed to play during Spring Rain's break.
They took over Spring Rain’s instruments and played 2 or 3 New Riders songs, led by Marmaduke. Steve Fisher also remembers Bob Weir singing a song: “One of the tunes they did after a quick rearrange of the Altec Lansing speakers was El Paso.”
Richie recalls, “When the band members saw them, after they picked their lower lips off the floor, they handed their instruments over to the Dead, as we sat back and watched them play for 45 minutes!”

As soon as the 13-year-old party guests saw the Dead were there, they realized they had to get the word out. There was one place to go: the bank of pay phones in the hotel lobby. Mark remembers, “All of the kids with older siblings ran out to the lobby and called them on the pay phones.” Their homes were nearby, so within 15-20 minutes, their friends and older teen siblings started arriving, having rushed to the Hilton. Richie recalls, “I definitely remember people showing up to watch as word got around town.” With a hundred more high-schoolers quickly crowding in, the ballroom soon turned into a madhouse.

The Dead stopped playing after a few songs; and after their break Spring Rain came back to do their oldies set led by Steve Fisher. He called it their “Screamin’ Steve schtick… We would do that act after a short break where I would go and dress it up (black leather jacket, black wing tip shoes/white socks, slicked hair etc.), then come back out and do Blue Suede Shoes, Great Balls of Fire…” The Dead didn’t leave: “They were in the back of the banquet room howling with laughter.” Steve was somewhat intimidated as the Dead whooped it up during his set while all the 13-year-olds ran around in excitement.

After this half-hour set, the Dead then played with Spring Rain. Mark says, “Spring Rain still had some time left to play on the gig so we came back. It was just a jam…we jammed jointly on some blues changes. Spring Rain probably started out with a 12-bar thing to get the set going and it just ramped up from there.”
The article reported that the Dead’s drummer (Kreutzmann) “came up and played the drums while Jon McSweeney played some blues music on the piano. Other members of the band then drifted up to accompany the others.” Doug Heller didn't know the Dead and wasn't happy about giving up his drum set to Kreutzmann: "I was not thrilled about that."
Mark thinks it was only about ten minutes. “It was just a basic jam. I don’t remember much soloing. We weren’t really improvisers or soloists at that point.”
Mark may have given his bass back to Phil Lesh to play. Lesh was interested in Mark’s bass: “I had a fretless Fender Precision bass that he had never played on before… He was actually a little confused because he was a bit toasted.”

Jon McSweeney, who was blind, stood out among the players in Spring Rain. According to Bruce Byers, “the piano player was a real talent and actually jammed with the band and made the playing interesting. The other guys in the band would not have held their own without the keyboard player being so good.”
The Dead took note. Mark remembers, “They were particularly interested in our blind piano player Jon McSweeney, who at the time was our best musician and really carried us. I think they were just drunk enough to think they might have run into the next Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles.”
Jon himself says, “I was terribly sick that night, but I wanted to be a pro and not let the band down, so I showed up. Near the end of our first set, someone told me there were some Dead and New Riders members in the room. Then, during our break, they played about four songs! After that, we got to jam with 'em a little, and we talked with 'em a bit. I told Bob Weir I'd just started learning guitar, and he said, "Whatever turns you on." It was magical; I just wish I hadn't felt like shit. 'Course, I would've been REALLY bummed if I'd skipped the gig and found out later!”

After the music was over, many of the young girls there hung out with the Dead outside in the hallway, away from the adults. The Dead signed autographs, some of them on the girls’ chests. (Some girls lowered their dresses so there would be more room to sign on.) One girl remembered, “They were all pretty horny…Lesh in particular.” Mark’s sister Jo comments, “Phil Lesh was a total letch but we teenage girls didn’t think too badly of him – he was famous. We were 13-year-old midwesterners.” Others at the party didn’t notice – Mark observes, “In the bar with the parents later they were all on their best behavior.”

Afterwards, the bands headed to the lobby to sit around the bar, and talked for “over an hour.” The Dead wanted to talk more with Jon the blind piano player. Steve recalls “talking with Jon, his mom, and Bobby Weir at that table in the bar with our cokes.” Mark says, “After the gig, the band members sat around in the bar with us, but they were mostly talking to Jon and his mother who was there to pick him up from the gig.” Bob Weir also recommended that Spring Rain go record at the studio at Scotty's Music, and warned them not to take drugs.

The Dead stuck around for quite a while talking to the kids and parents, but eventually retreated to their rooms. Spring Rain still had some work ahead of them, as Mark recalls: “We still had to break down all of the equipment for the night.” All the teens went home with a memorable experience to tell about their crazy night. "It was the talk of the high school for years to come." Mark says, “I never had to do anything else in high school to be ‘known.’”

But Spring Rain didn’t get the chance to meet the Dead again when they returned to St. Louis in 1972. Mark recalls, “The following year we all tried to get into the stage door at the next Dead show at the Fox but were denied.” Steve adds, “The next year we went to see them at the old Fox Theatre and we were dismissed as hangers-on and not allowed in the back stage door, while we had envisioned ‘hanging with the guys’ like last year.”
 
Richie says, “Many photos were taken… We had at least 15 pictures of the Dead playing and interacting with Spring Rain. I remember one picture with one of the band members standing behind Debbie, who was holding a guitar, trying to show her a few things (Debbie was taking lessons at the time). Unfortunately, my mother had a fire at her home years ago which took many of the photo albums… None of the Dead photos survived.” 

Co-author John Ellis would like to thank:

Thanks to Bob Glik & Andy Eidelman, and special thanks to Joe Schwab for starting the Facebook thread that included myself and Jesse Jarnow.

Special thanks to Mark Slosberg who made this possible; and to Richard Gerber, Debbie Gerber, and Jo Barry.

And thanks to the members of Spring Rain who contributed their memories (Bruce Byers, Steve Fisher, Doug Heller, Jon McSweeney, Mark Slosberg & Sherry Weingart).

 

April 1971: Boston Music Hall & Fillmore East

April 8, 1971 - Boston Music Hall 

 

[The first part of the review covered Three Dog Night at Boston Garden.]

 

[ . . . ]  If the Garden was a triumph for one of the best of the mass favorites, the Boston Music Hall was a disaster for one of the leading elitist favorites. I don't care who you are or what your taste is - if Three Dog Night had taken that stage last Thursday night for five minutes, they would have come closer to doing what the Grateful Dead failed to do all evening: getting people off. The Dead performed like slobs. The sound was unmixed - you couldn't hear the bass until halfway through the concert when someone finally got the bright idea of turning it up. Never known for their singing ability, the vocalists butchered everything in sight. Someone in that group sings consistently off key, and whoever he is they ought to find him, put a towel in his mouth, and tell him to cool it. Their instrumental work was uninspired, their performing attitude sterile and, in the words of the Last Poets, sanctimonious. 

Who cares if they play for six hours when four of them are less than ordinary, less than interesting, less than moving? Should it really be necessary to wade through hours and hours of rambling uncertainty and false starts for twenty minutes of solid jamming? Thursday night at the Music Hall it was strictly coitus interruptus: the band never really came. 

The audience was a show, too. Where Three Dog Night gets high school students, the Dead gets the dropouts. There was enough manic dizziness, enough mindless reacting, and enough dope to last this city for the next six months. 

The Dead may be a great band in their own way because they know how to build energy. On record, they take the time to make sure it sounds right. But live - whew. How long can they go on without a good lead singer, a good drummer, and so detached an attitude? 

The most frustrating thing about them is that they are constantly repairing with one hand what they have destroyed with another. Jerry Garcia tried to sing Smokey Robinson's "I Second That Emotion." His heart was in the right place but the band was simply not up to this kind of material. His singing was horrid. I threw my hands up in disgust only to hear him line out a beautifully melodic solo on guitar (he is an unquestionably fine guitarist) in the very next instant. 

Such are the confusions of the Grateful Dead. One minute they do something beneath criticism and the next they do something above it. Jerry Garcia can't sing but he sure can play. They are masters of the change-up. And we all know that change-up pitchers are good in short doses but don't make it over the long haul. 

 

* * *  

April 25, 1971 - Fillmore East

I saw the Dead again last Sunday at the Fillmore East. The mail on my previous report was so critical that I had no choice but to see them again, to check my reactions. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I was right. They were every bit as bad at the Fillmore as they were at the Music Hall. And while the audience cheered ritualistically, everyone in the Fillmore seemed to realize it wasn't happening. 

The Dead have gotten themselves into marathon consciousness. They are equating length with some sort of musical virtue. They have forgotten how to edit themselves and they force you to listen to so much bad music in order to hear some fine things that it just doesn't seem worth it. No one really knows why Mickey Hart left the group, but Bill Kreutzmann is not a good enough drummer to carry them alone. Despite their frequent use of (very mediocre) harmony, the critical absence of a lead singer with a competent voice cannot be disguised. As for the rest, well, no one has ever accused the group of being tight and they certainly aren't. Their music has no drive, nothing compelling, nothing that pushes you forward. It sits there and happens. Presumably that is the quality that appeals to their devotees, and I can vaguely see why.

That does not change the fact that the group does certain things that are incontestably atrocious. Anyone who has ever seen the Rascals running wild on a stage - anyone who has ever listened to Felix Cavaliere sing on their first album - has got to laugh at Pigpen doing their "Good Lovin'." He sings off key, he ignores the melody, and he fails to convey any feeling. If you don't believe me, listen to the Rascals do it just once. Likewise Jerry Garcia's lame version of "I Second That Emotion," and the entire ensemble's work on "Not Fade Away." In every case where the Dead do someone else's material, their interpretation is manifestly inferior. The most notable instance in all of Dead history was, of course, their butchery of Bobby Bland's "Turn On Your Love Light." 

The audience applauds about the same for every song. They don't seem to recognize any differences in quality or interest within the performance itself. To me, that kind of lack of discrimination is indicative of an insensitivity to the Dead's music in particular, and music in general. In no way is it a tribute to the group. 

(by Jon Landau, from the Boston Phoenix, April 1971)

 

 

Compare to: 

http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2020/11/april-7-1971-music-hall-boston-ma.html 

http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2019/06/april-25-1971-fillmore-east.html 

April 15, 1971: Allegheny College, Meadville, PA

GRATEFUL DEAD: MORE THAN JUST A ROCK GROUP

 

Grateful Dead is more than just a rock group. To say the least, it's a social phenomenon, and for many, a way of life. The Dead held a leading role in the development of the Haight-Ashbury freak district in San Francisco, and originated the San Francisco sound which has come to be called Acid Rock. In this, they led the way for other West Coast acid bands, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Country Joe and the Fish, to name a few. Jefferson Airplane was the group most directly influenced by the Dead, and on many of their albums, the Airplane claims Jerry Garcia (lead guitarist and leader of the Dead) as their musical and spiritual advisor. 

The Dead brought many new innovations to the stilted rock world (at that time entirely dominated by the Beatles and Top 40 radio), which have now come to be almost social institutions among the drug culture. It was the Dead and Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters who originated light shows and mixed media (sight and sound) concerts, and today the term "rock and roll" goes hand and hand with strobe lights, oildrop projectors, and weird subconsciousness movies. All these effects can be traced back to the Dead and the acid tests. Everyone, sometime, should see the Dead or the Airplane in concert with the Joshua Light Show. It must be seen to be believed. 

Another concept attributed to the Dead and the Frisco bands is the free concert. These were originally concerts put on in Golden Gate Park by the Dead, the Airplane, Quicksilver, and Big Brother, where the Haight-Ashbury freak population came together to drop (before LSD was declared a dangerous drug and made illegal) and to make love. This custom was greatly exploited and termed various names, among these, Love-In, Grope-In, Freak Out, etc. In spite of this (and their popularity) the Dead still does a great many free concerts, and unlike most other bands who have made good, haven't sold out to the dollar sign. 

The term "hippie" was first coined to describe the acid bands and the Haight-Ashbury community, and in many respects, the Dead are responsible for many aspects of the freak culture. Communal living, although by no matter of means a new idea, was made popular in our time by these San Francisco society drop-outs. The present freak appearance, beads, bells, headbands, shoulder length hair, and sandals, was developed in the early days of the Haight-Ashbury scene. The use of hallucinogenic drugs (specifically marijuana and LSD) was also brought out into the open in our time by the early Frisco freaks. Jerry Garcia and Ken Kesey were doing acid back in 1959, long before Timothy Leary ever stuck his foot in it. We should all be familiar with the stories of the early days of Haight-Ashbury, when the Dead and the other local bands would play during the week at the Fillmore, the Avalon, or the Carousel, and then do free concerts on the weekends, with an occasional acid test or small outdoor festival thrown in. The acid tests were marked by free, all-night music, bizarre light shows, and electric beverages (liquids containing vast quantities of acid), and naturally enough, the Dead was the official band for the acid tests, conceived and put on by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. (If you are interested in this and haven't read it, you should read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe.) The acid tests had a great influence over a later social phenomenon, the rock festival. 

Those of us who subscribe to the freak image owe a vote of thanks to the Grateful Dead. They were there at the beginning. They helped start it all. Their music says very little politically, and even less spiritually to aid the movement, and they seldom put on airs about the great "rock revolution", but they have had more influence on our society than any other band, except of course for the Beatles, mainly because they gave us an example to follow. In short, we are living a life style that was or- [line missing] the early Haight-Ashbury community. 

On the other hand, we should not overlook their prominence as musicians. It's true when you think of Grateful Dead, you first think of their social influence, but you must also keep in mind the great sphere of influence they have had over rock music. 

To begin, they were the originators of the Acid Rock sound. This form of music is characterized by many allusions to drugs, and also the fact that the musicians usually play while stoned, so the music reflects this feeling. Other bands, some of which I have already mentioned, followed this path to recognition, and for a little while, Acid Rock was even played on commercial radio (the song White Rabbit is a good example of this). 

Also, the Dead started some new trends in the instrumentation of rock and roll. The Dead was the first group to experiment in using two guitars, both playing leads at the same time. Before this, it had mostly been one guitarist doing the solos and the other one just playing chords to back him up. They were also, probably, the first group to use more than one drummer, and so create a type of rhythm section. Besides their two drummers, Micky Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, they also have the infamous Pigpen, who switches off between conga and organ. Many other groups have followed suit, Santana being the most notable. 

As musicians, they are of the highest quality and they are probably the tightest rock band you're likely to hear. In an article in Down Beat, a very reputable (but dull) jazz-oriented magazine, the Grateful Dead was called, "The best fuckin' rock band in this country." In a recent Rolling Stone interview, David Crosby said of the Dead's bass player, Phil Lesh, "Phil Lesh is probably the best string musician of our generation", although many critics feel he ranks second to Jack Cassidy. And even in Time magazine, in an article published in the summer of 1967, it was said that Jerry Garcia and Jorma Kaukonen were the two best guitarists in all of rock. 

Probably the biggest change brought about by the Dead and the other Acid Rock bands, was that they took the best of rock music off of Top 40 radio, and put it on the Underground, to use the newspeak of the day. This was their most meaningful contribution. 

The Dead did a concert in Cleveland last Saturday at Public Hall. Unfortunately, this reporter arrived too late to get tickets, as they had sold out two hours earlier, and therefore could only get as close as the lobby to listen until I (along with a number of other so-called "gate crashers") was ejected by the police into the cold night air. All I can do is to pass on reports of the people who were inside. All said the concert was fantastic, incredible would be a better word, with the Dead playing alone for 3 1/2 hours and leaving the audience totally hypnotized by the end of the concert.

 

(by Rich Arthurs, from the Campus (Allegheny College), October 20, 1970) 

 

* * *  

PRICE CHANGES, TROUBLES PLAGUE CONCERTS; 

STEVE MILLER BAND DEFINITE, DEAD MAYBE    [excerpt] 

"One of the biggest problems involved in setting up big name band concerts at Allegheny seems to be that of getting around the unknown factors," reports John Frick, College Union manager. Price changes, contract troubles, and other problems continually present problems to those involved in getting the groups here. 

Most students will remember the survey of band preferences passed out during the first term. Of the six most popular groups on this survey, only Richie Havens and the Steve Miller Band were available, and both on the same night. The Steve Miller Band was chosen and will appear in the David Mead Field House on Friday, February 13. The tickets will be priced at $3.00 for students and $4.00 for non-students. 

There was also a possibility of getting the Grateful Dead to appear this term. It is still possible that they could make it between now and March. The college union has signed a contract with the Dead, and as of now it is in their hands. It is now completely up to the Grateful Dead whether or not they will appear. However, the outlook is doubtful. Twenty-nine other schools are in this same position with the Grateful Dead. 

In the past, our bargaining power was weakened by a lack of an adequate public address system of the type requested by groups such as the Steve Miller Band and the Grateful Dead. This has been cleared up by the purchase of an $1800 system by ASG. 

Any concerts third term depend upon the success of the February 13 concert. If everything goes smoothly with the Steve Miller appearance, there could possibly be a large concert and two smaller ones in the spring. 

One big problem that is always encountered at Allegheny is that there is only seating for 2,000 in the field house. Most of the bigger groups set a minimum fee against 60% of the gate. With a drawing of only 2,000 they can't expect to make any more than the minimum. In order to get 2,000 for the Steve Miller Concert publicity has been set up in Cleveland, Erie, Pittsburgh, and other schools in the newspapers and on the radio. [ . . . ] 

(by Kip Bodi, from the Campus, January 12, 1971)

* * * 

MILLER CONCERT FINANCIAL SUCCESS; 

GRATEFUL DEAD PROBABLE IN APRIL  [excerpt] 

 

Although plagued by sound system difficulties, the College Union-sponsored Steve Miller Band concert Saturday night was a financial success. 

"Success" means that the Union did not lose as much money on the concert as it had expected. Because of this, two more concerts are currently being planned for the spring, one probably by the Grateful Dead. 

About 1750 people paid $5700 to see the Steve Miller Band. 

According to CU Director Joseph Casale, this is about $700 more than was needed to assure at least one more concert this academic year. Negotiations for the Grateful Dead, one of the early San Francisco rock groups, are almost complete for a concert April 1. 

Although the contract has not yet been signed, the CU has been assured by the Dead's agent that it will be. Unless the Dead concert is a financial disaster, another prominent rock group not yet decided on, will be signed for later in the spring. 

James Dellon, who supervised the sound system for the Miller concert, said that the difficulties were caused by the group's late arrival. "Because they came in late and the audience was already there and we had to get the show on, we had not opportunity for a sound rehearsal," Dellon said. "Microphones were badly placed in relation to amplifiers and we had no chance to check levels and the placement of mikes." 

Dellon said the difficulties could not be attributed to the new equipment - Voice of the Theater speakers and new microphones. [ . . . ] 

Part of the Steve Miller [financial] success may be attributable to increased advertising. Not only was the concert well publicized on campus, but on Pittsburgh and Cleveland radio stations and several local college newspapers as well. [ . . . ]

(by James Cowden, from the Campus, February 16, 1971) 

(A review in the same issue calls the Steve Miller concert "a big disappointment...nothing exceptional." "The set began an hour and a half late as a result of bad weather conditions... The poor quality of the P.A. system was the ruination of the concert...the sound was for the most part lost in the buzzing of the P.A. Some of the technical difficulties were the result of poor planning...mikes had to be scrounged up from all over the campus, some of very dubious quality. But, poor planning aside, the operation of the system was worse than inadequate." Not only that, but "the group simply wasn't tight." 

But an editorial in the Feb. 19 issue hoped for "a new era of better musical groups being brought to campus." It noted that the audience of 1750 was "large by Allegheny standards... Increased advertising, which succeeded for the Miller concert, and an end to sound system difficulties will be essential if Allegheny is to continue to draw sizable numbers of people from Pittsburgh, Erie, Cleveland, and western New York... Living in Meadville isn't easy for many students. The College Union is to be commended for doing a fine job to make life here better.")

* * * 

SMOKING BANNED AT DEAD CONCERT

The upcoming Grateful Dead concert could be the last big concert at Allegheny. 

According to Tom Wells, the new student manager of the College Union, Meadville's Fire Marshall and District Attorney Paul D. Shafer are upset over widespread smoking at the Steve Miller Band Concert February 13. 

There are city and state ordinances prohibiting smoking of any kind at public gatherings. 

"If people aren't cool about the smoking at the Dead concert, the Fire Marshall will shut the concert down, and ban all further shows," Wells said yesterday. 

The Grateful Dead concert is tentatively set for Thursday, April 15. Tickets, at $3 each for students, will go on sale at the beginning of next term. 

(from the Campus, March 2, 1971)

* * *

 

DEAD CONCERT SET; SMOKING IS OUT

 

'NO PROBLEMS'  

 

After much uncertainty, final arrangements have been made for what CU Manager Tom Wells calls "the biggest CU event this term" - the April 15 Grateful Dead concert. 

"There are no problems," Wells said. "We have a confirmed telegram from the Dead and they will definitely be here the 15th. The only way the concert will be shut down is if there is smoking of any kind." 

Wells promised that, unlike last term's Steve Miller concert, the Dead performance will encounter no sound problems, since the group is bringing its own equipment and sound men. 

Wells went to pains to emphasize the importance of an "orderly" audience at the concert, a point also stressed by Meadville District Attorney Shafer (see story on this page). 

"I cannot stress enough the importance of good crowd behavior," Wells said. "If there's any kind of trouble at the Dead concert, it will be the last concert at Allegheny because the Administration will cut off the concert fund. If there are no slip-ups it should really be a good concert because they have signed to play for 3 hours." 

Wells also announced a tentative schedule of other CU activities, including a series of Coffeehouses in the South Lounge of the College Union [ . . . ], a Paul Newman film festival near the end of May, and a film of The Cream's last concert.

 

D.A. GIVES WARNING

 

Meadville District Attorney Paul D. Shafer would like Allegheny students - and other fans of the Grateful Dead - to keep in mind that a section of the City Fire Code prohibits smoking in gymnasiums. 

And while Shafer emphasizes that the purpose of his warning is to eliminate the danger of a fire hazard at the April 15 Dead concert in the David Mead Field House, he also suggests that a strictly-enforced no-smoking rule will be the easiest way to prevent marijuana smoking. 

The College Union's February 13 Steve Miller Concert was reportedly the scene of widespread "grass" smoking, although some spectators heightened their enjoyment of the music with "treats" not covered by a no-smoking rule - such as various hallucinogens and marijuana-treated "Alice B. Toklas" brownies. 

Shafer said enforcement of the no-smoking rule will be "up to the college." Additional Meadville City Police will be supplied only at the request of the college, the District Attorney said, although he added that it is usual for off-duty police to be requested for such functions. 

Shafer acknowledged that he had heard rumors of marijuana smoking at the Miller concert, but said none had been confirmed since, to his knowledge, no prosecutions were made. 

Not only rumors about the Miller concert but reports of smoking at other events in the Field House, including basketball games, prompted Shafer to ask the college to strictly enforce the no-smoking rule, he said.

 

Picture caption: The Grateful Dead are set to appear at Allegheny April 15, after much suspense. What college and CU officials hope will not appear at the concert is smoke - from tobacco cigarettes or the other kind. Extra police may enforce the no-smoking rule. 

(from the Campus, April 6, 1971) 

From the April 13 issue: 

THE GRATEFUL DEAD are set to appear here April 15. CU manager Tom Wells says ticket sales at the college have been "great," but that off-campus sales are lagging. Meanwhile, campus security chief Edward Humphrey greeted rumors that a Hell's Angel brigade might accompany the Dead with the dare, "Let them come - we'll be ready for them." Student bouncers for [the] concert - who must pay their own way - got instructions on security last night as well as some Grateful Dead white t-shirts which will identify them to the crowd.

* * *  

 

DEAD: A SUCCESS ALL AROUND 

 

Unlike the previous concerts this year, Thursday's Grateful Dead show started on time, with Garcia's country band, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, who soon proved themselves worthy of traveling with the Dead. New Riders worked for the most part within a traditional country and western structure, but this was set apart from most C and W by Garcia's unique style of playing pedal steel guitar. Indeed, Garcia seemed to carry the band; yet the other members were also fine musicians in their own right. Of special interest is the fact that Spencer Dryden, formerly with Jefferson Airplane, played drums for the New Riders. The down-home country feel of the New Riders seemed to come across well to the audience, and a number of people said that they enjoyed the New Riders more than the Dead. 

Then the Dead made a very tasteful entrance with no show of flamboyance such as a dynamic introduction by some celebrity (the custom for popular groups nowadays). The first half of the Dead's act mostly comprised numbers such as "Beat It On Down the Line" and "I Know You Rider", as well as some traditional country tunes like "Mama Tried" and Woody Guthrie's "Going Down the Road (Ain't Gonna Be Treated This Way)", which they tampered with somewhat to fit their style of country rock. The band played strong from the outset of the concert, needing no time whatsoever to get into their music. The audience seemed to be impressed first by the superb musicianship which the Dead displayed and second by their warm easy going stage presence. Jerry Garcia proved himself to be a master over the audience as well as a master of his instrument, and by the end of the first set the audience was on its feet begging for more. 

"A break people, you know, a break." On this typical Garcian thought the lights were turned on and an amazing number of people (and smoke?) was revealed. To move, one had to be nearly as agile as Garcia's fingers over the pedal steel. The results, however, weren't half as gratifying. There wasn't any fresh air or resemblance of space throughout the entire gym complex. Uniforms were everywhere giving an extremely paranoid tinge to an already extremely unpleasant atmosphere. An excellent summation of the mess was the one bathroom available for the masses. It seems that in a four and a half hour period nobody's bladder was supposed to be filled. 

The lights dimmed and people crammed back together to hear the Dead's second set. From here on in, things didn't seem to go right for the Dead or the audience. It can't quite be pinpointed, but things seemed to get a little boring and tiring. Songs seemed formulated. Start with a Garcia or Weir vocal; add a Lesh, Weir and Garcia harmony; now work into a Garcia guitar lick; and finally bring it all together for a smooth ending. Despite this rather tedious pattern, credit should be given to the Dead. Garcia showed amazing mastery of the guitar as did Weir. Phil Lesh proved himself not only as an able composer but also as an agile bass player with a unique style. Finally, Kreutzmann did some exceptionally good drum work. Some of the prominent numbers that were subjected to this paradox of tedious excellence included "Sugar Magnolia," "Truckin!" and "Casey Jones." The last of this group was interesting in its finish, due to Weir's wobbling body snapping rigid and his wailing, "Casey Jones you better watch your speed." Another notable was Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Good" which the Dead managed to put across very well, to end the show. Reaction to the second set ranged from "Boy, if I could only move," to "Garcia is incredible," to "Did we already hear this?" and finally, to Weir's taking a good stiff hit of whiskey! 

Another major disappointment of the concert was that the Dead's second drummer, Mickey Hart, was not with them. This absence tended to limit the group's scope of material, as they didn't do any numbers of "Anthem of the Sun," "AOXOMOXOZ," or "Live Dead." It also detracted from the fullness of the percussion section, which reached its greatest point technically on the aforementioned albums. Although Bill Kreutzmann is probably the finest drummer in rock, he can't alone attain the fullness that the group had previously with two drummers. 

All in all, the concert was very good. Aside from the concert's being a financial success, the two bands combined to turn out about four hours of excellent music, which is sure to go down as the high point of the term. There were disappointments, though. It has been said that Grateful Dead is probably the best rock and roll band in the world, but you can never be sure because no no one has ever really seen them get it off. After Thursday's concert, we began to see some truth to this statement. The Dead has such an unlimited potential that they always seem to let you down, even though they always put on a fantastic show.

 

(by Rich Arthurs & Tom Kosbob, from the Campus, April 20, 1971) 

(Picture caption, April 16 issue - "Jerry Garcia pumps the pedalsteel for his own group, the Riders of the Purple Stage, switching to lead guitar later in last evening's concert. Garcia maneuvered the Grateful Dead through an astounding spectrum of electric, country and blues.")

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