The Grateful Dead Might Live Forever in Philly, January 5, 1979

Philly loves the Dead. Always. And the papers loved the band too.

Just another show, but fun , good and rocking. This was a set of two shows in Philadelphia held one week apart 1-5 and 1-12-1979.  I had last seen the band at my 19th show in Rochester 11-21-78 and would see my 20th-23th starting a few nights later in Utica.

It's the first show after the very very famous 12-31-78 Closing of Winterland showSugaree
New Minglewood Blues
Candyman
Mama Tried
Mexicali Blues
From the Heart of Me
Brown Eyed Women
It's All Over Now
Stagger Lee
Music Never Stopped

Bertha
Good Lovin'
It Must Have Been the Roses
Estimated Prophet
Eyes of the World
drums
Truckin'
Nobody's Fault But Mine
Black Peter
Around and Around

Johnny B. Goode

Here they are at the first of four shows at The Philadelphia Spectrum in 1979.

The Grateful Dead "Surprising Good" Opening for Cream in Sacramento March 11, 1968

Yes, I have seen the Dead at the very small Sacramento Memorial Auditorium. No I didn't see this show.  It would have been cool if both bands played Sitting on Top of The World.

Mick Martin wrote an excellent review. Wonder where you are now??

The show with Cream was the Dead's second Sactramento appearance.  The first was at the Beaux Arts Ball in December, 1966

And the Dead also played another show on 10-5-1968 in Sacramento at discussed here in the Express on October 10.  I have only seen the Youngbloods listed before and not the other groups

Rare Franklin's Couplings

So in the 1990's when I would drive around in my car with Evan, Neil, and Gwen, I would sometimes play the Grateful Dead (loud).  One day when Evan was about 6 years old, he told me he knew who the Grateful Dead were and he immediately started singing "Roll Away, the Dew" and whenever the kids wanted to tease me about the Dead that's what they would sing "Roll Away, the Dew" as shorthand for the Grateful Dead.

If you rolled the dice at a Grateful Dead show after 1974, chances are slim you would hit a Franklin's Tower (about 15%, 209 of last 1391 shows, my own experience is 12 out of 80 or 15%).  But if you were going get to roll away the dew, you had about a 50/50 chance of seeing the whole Help On The Way>Slipknot>Franklin's Tower.  As you can see from the chart below, in 104 out of 219 times. You had about a 33% chance of seeing a Mississippi Half Step>Franklin's or Feel Like a Stranger >Franklin's.

But, if you were a lucky guy, you might see one of those specials times, that Franklin's Tower would appear in an unusual spot, like opening the show, the encore (me, me, me) or out of the closing jam of Stella Blue.  This is the story of those rare and unusual appearances of Franklin's out in the desert.
Here's some for you or here.

The only standalone Middle Set Franklin's Tower  SF September 28,1975  
In only the 3rd version there was Just a broken string and a two song delay between Help/Slip and Franklin's 

June 9, 1976 Boston Encore Franklin's Tower  1976 I was there. Only encore. Were you guys just too tired to play the whole suite guys after the St Stephen??  Weird that this, the 6th version, was the only time they played as an encore.  It felt right but I would have loved the entire thing. Kind of like Terrapin at Englishtown.  Tease.

October 15, 1976 Shrine, Los Angeles  Comes A Time>Franklin's Tower
He's Gone > Drums > The Other One > Comes A Time> Franklin's Tower> Sugar Magnolia
Last version in 1976, only time out of Comes A Time. Just listen.  One of the best shows of 1976

January 30, 1978 Chicago Stella Blue>Franklin's Tower
Estimated > Eyes Of The World > Space> Stella Blue > Franklin's Tower > Around And Around
During the totally underrated January month of 1978, the Dead pull this out of their hat during a nice Stella jam which I heard on Sirius the other night. Which gave me the idea to do this piece.

May 9, 1978   Syracuse  The only Show Opener Franklin's Towers. Cool.  I didn't even know about this one until the last few years

November 29, 1980 Gainsville  Shakedown Street>Franklin's Tower 

In Alligator Alley, the boys combine Shakedown and Franklin's for the only time ever to lead off the second set.

July 18, 1982 Ventura Samson & Delilah>Franklin's Tower
On the beach with the boys, the once only pairing opens set two.

December 30, 1982 Oakland Throwing Stones>Franklin's Tower
Great second set of   Touch Of Grey; Throwing Stones> Franklin's Tower; Lost Sailor> Saint Of Circumstance> He's Gone> D/S> Truckin'>Stella Blue [8:43] > GDTRFB> Johnny B. Goode
Followed by an encore Hard To Handle ; Tell Mama. The night before New Year's. I was at both nights.

March 13, 1985 Berkeley High School  The Music Never Stopped>Franklin's Tower  

Another cool once-only 1985 setlist of The Music Never Stopped > Franklin's Tower > Estimated Prophet > Spoonful pre-drums.

June 20, 1987 Greek Hell In A Bucket>Franklin's Tower  

Back in Berkeley, this time at the great is another once-only couplet, this time to open the show.

April 3, 1988 Crazy Fingers >Franklin's Tower  1988

Hartford sees a second set of Playing In The Band> Crazy Fingers > Franklin's Tower > Man Smart, Woman Smarter to open second set. 

The Late 1970's Dead Dance at Duke

One of the favorite college spots for the Grateful Dead was always Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC, the home of Duke University (5 shows between 1973 and 1982 after one outdoor show with Pigpen in April 71). Thanks to a hero named Voodoonola2, you can see the full 1978 show below.  Or you can get your mind blown by the 1976 first set Crazy Fingers>El Paso by clicking above.  And of course the music is here or here  For real historical info (from a real Grateful Dead historian) try http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-grateful-dead-in-north-carolina-and.html
As usual, I am just a fan.

Our reviewer from the 1978 Daily Tar Heel, must have had an early deadline as Allen calls "Jack Straw" and "Dire Wolf"  and starts dancing and stops writing anymore about the show.

I like both of these shows, but especially the Fall '76 one. And the entire Fall 1976 tour actually.

9-23-76
SET 1
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
New Minglewood Blues
Ramble On Rose
Cassidy
Brown Eyed Women
Lazy Lightning >
Supplication
Crazy Fingers >
El Paso
It Must Have Been The Roses
The Music Never Stopped
SET 2
Help On The Way >
Slipknot >
Franklin's Tower >
Looks Like Rain
Eyes Of The World >
Samson & Delilah
High Time
Dancin' In The Street >
Wharf Rat >
The Other One >
Morning Dew

4-12-78
SET 1
Jack Straw
Dire Wolf
Beat It On Down The Line
Peggy-O
Mama Tried >
Mexicali Blues
Row Jimmy
New Minglewood Blues
Loser
Lazy Lightning >
Supplication
SET 2
Bertha >
Good Lovin'
It Must Have Been The Roses
Estimated Prophet >
Eyes Of The World >
Drums >
Truckin' >
Wharf Rat >
Around & Around
ENCORE
U.S. Blues

The Dead's First Visit to Vermont, May 6, 1978

The Grateful Dead made only four visits to Vermont, two little ones at University of Vermont in Burlington in 1978 and 1983 and two giant ones at Highgate in 1994 and 1995. I was lucky to see the first in 1978, the next night after the band's only visit to New Hampshire.  Darn I forgot what a hot first set this is, and there are several very strong tapes at the Archive thanks to Jerry Moore among others.

Even though my sister Debbie was a Junior at UVM in Spring 1978, I remember I had to sleep outside on a field somewhere on campus the night after the show, since the campus security woke us up from dorm common rooms.  Oh, the good old days.  And don't forget to listen to the Terrapin Station from this show, it's one of those perfect 1978 power keg versions.

I suggest Ben and Jerry were at this show, although since their company was founded in Burlington, only ONE DAY before the show, they may have been a little busy. Still, it looks like about a 20 minute walk to Patrick Gym.  So tell me Ben & Jerry were you one of the few thousands that went to the show.   Trey did not go to the show since he was barely a teenager and likely in Princeton or Watertown this day. And here is your music or here 

I have never seen a full complete soundboard of 5-6-78 although one does exist of the dual couplets of Terrapin>Playin' In the Band and Wharf Rat>Sugar Magnolia that ends the show and a separate one of set one. And I am not sure why Bobby didn't play the Race Is On as I recall some big horse race that afternoon.

The first discussion of the show was in the February 3 local paper

And like other northern New England states (like Maine, see Lewiston), local officials were not happy

The Burlington Free Press had a nice review two days after the show. Click on the picture to get a readable copy. Charles Frazier did a remarkable job in his review since he mentions nearly every song the band played that day. "More happiness"

1978 Era Ticket Prices. I didn't know I could have paid only $8 and slipped around to the front.

11-15-81 Garcia Returns to Patrick

Sugar Magnolia > Caution

After 1971, Caution was on its last legs with the Dead.  So many great tunes ended with Ron's death. As the chart below shows, Caution was almost entirely a 1968-1969 vehicle.

Year   # of Caution Versions
1966         2
1967         7  (all Alligator>Cautions)
1968       21
1969       16
1970         5
1971         1
Stats per Deadbase 50, page 161

After 1971, Caution would only be played only in 6 shows, in a mini-resurgence all in 1972, although a Caution Jam would be played twice in 1974, and once each in 1978, 1979, and 1981.  I was lucky to see the October 27, 1979 Cape Cod version (see 30 Trips, 1979 for the #1 rated show of 1979)

The 1972 Cautions were principally a Sugar Magnolia follower, always in Europe (so available in great sound per the Europe '72 Complete collection), although there was one special night on March 22, 1972 at the Academy of Music in NYC where Sugar Mag jammed hard into Caution.   I first got wind of this a bonus disc on the Rockin the Rhein release, but it was also released as a tapers section release.

This is one of the most fun once-only jams in the bands history.
Listen. or here

3-22-72 NYC Sugar Magnolia > Caution> Jam > Uncle John's Band

4-8-72 London Dark Star> Sugar Magnolia > Caution

4-14-72 Copenhagen   Good Lovin'> Caution > Who Do You Love?  > Caution > Good Lovin'

4-17-72 Copenhagen Dark Star>Sugar Magnolia > Caution

4-29-72 Hamburg Dark Star> Sugar Magnolia>Caution

5-11-72 Rotterdam Dark Star > Sugar Magnolia> Caution > Who Do You Love?> Truckin'

The Late Great Leon Russell Crossing Paths With The Grateful Dead

RIP Leon.  I wish I would have seen you live.   But here's a funny tale that's seldom told. It's the day that Leon and the Dead were to play together in 1976.

It was to be a Tribute to the Apache. But it didn't happen. It was a fraud.

Well at least Phil and Jerry played with Leon and Doug Sahms 11/23/1972 or here

A great review of the show is http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2013/11/27/happy-thanksgiving-doug-sahm-and-friends-austin-tx-1972/

First Set

01 High Heel Sneakers (Tommy Tucker)

02 Wild Side Of Life (Hank Thompson)

03 Swingin’ Doors (Merle Haggard)

04 Me & Bobby McGee (Kris Kristofferson)

05 Stormy Monday (T-Bone Walker)

06 That’s All Right (Mama) (Arthur Crudup)

07 Come On In My Kitchen (Robert Johnson)

08 T For Texas (Jimmie Rodgers)

09 Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan)

10 (Is Anybody Goin’ To) San Antone (Charley Pride)

11 Sugarfoot Rag (Hank Garland)

12 I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams)

13 Jambalaya (Hank Williams)

14 Today I Started Loving You Again (Merle Haggard)

15 Columbus Stockade Blues (Traditional)

16 Honky Tonkin’ > Dear John (Hank Williams]

Second Set

01 Orange Blossom Special (Bill Monroe)

02 Kentucky Waltz [Bill Monroe)

03 Big Boss Man (Jimmy Reed)

04 Searchin’ (The Coasters)

05 Those Lonely Lonely Nights (Earl King) > Shake A Hand (Faye Adams)

06 Hey Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley)

07 It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry (Bob Dylan)

08 A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall (Bob Dylan)

09 Wild Horses (Rolling Stones)

10 Slippin’ Into Christmas (Leon Russell)

11 Money Honey (Drifters/Elvis Presley)

12 Chug-A-Lug (Roger Miller)

13 Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry) > Good Golly Miss Molly (Little Richard) > Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry)

The Players: Doug Sahm, Leon Russell, Jerry Garcia, Mary Egan, Benny Thurman, Phil Lesh, Jerry Barnett

1973-03-30: The Dead Create A Frenzy In Rochester Every Time They Play

Don't you love this rare Jerry drawing

Rochester loved the Dead as I know well from 11-5-77

Below are loves from 1973, have fun and listen here or here

Just another place where the Grateful Dead are the greatest rock band in the world

We love you Mark Starr for loving them too

Promised Land

Deal

Looks Like Rain

They Love Each Other

Mexicali Blues

Box of Rain

Cumberland Blues

Candyman

Beat it on Down the Line

Don't Ease Me In

El Paso

Row Jimmy

The Race Is On

Bird Song

Playing in the Band

China Cat Sunflower

I Know You Rider

Jack Straw

Wave That Flag

Greatest Story Ever Told

Truckin'

Eyes of the World

Not Fade Away

Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad

One More Saturday Night

Grateful Dead: The World's Best Rock Band, April 17, 1971

According to the LA Times, on April 18, 1971. the World's Best Rock Band is the Grateful Dead.  I agree.  For example, listen to Pigpen and the boys play Princeton University on the night before here
or here

The Grateful Dead’s invasion of Dillon on April 17, 1971 — Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang in tow — is famous among devotees for a quintessential performance of “Good Lovin’ ” by band member Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, then suffering from what would be fatal cirrhosis. “The concert was expensive, $10,000,” says Lockwood, a faithful Deadhead who treasures a cassette recording he made that night.

The band played until “well past midnight,” Lock­wood recalls, and “a substantial part of the audience, which was all students, was stoned out of their minds.” Concertgoers passed ­marijuana joints down the rows of seats, he says. According to legend, when a Princeton proctor demanded that ­shaggy singer Jerry Garcia extinguish his joint, Garcia snarled, “I’ll never play here again.” He never did.  https://paw.princeton.edu/article/play-song-me

Election Day 2016: The Woman Are Smarter

That's right the Woman are Smarter. Especially today

y.

This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead is A Gem

I have read every book ever written about the Grateful Dead.  This is likely the best one.
Don't just believe me, read all these five star reviews at Amazon. So far, I have the autographed hardcopy and the kindle edition, but now I want the audible. Just so I can listen sometimes.

You can get the newly released paperback at http://cloudsurfing.gdhour.com/archives/9571

I only met Blair a few times in 1981 when I worked at Rasputin Records in Berkeley, when he would come into the store and trade his new releases of random rock for Japanese-pressed Beatles LPs.

I never met David, but he has been awfully nice when I have called into Tales and with periodic retweets of my blog posts.

My favorite David story is when he suggested Weird to open in Cassidy, which they did once in Cal Expo in 1993 and found that Uncle John's Band fit nicely right inside.

But, I have followed them closely since I moved to Berkeley at the end of 1980 and I appreciate all the hard work and effort they have put into providing me and other Dead Heads with information, music , cool BAM cover interviews with Jerry, and for getting the band to split Cassidy that one special time.  I love the 1981 photo on David's website, in the soundcloud below, I hope it's ok to borrow for my non-profit fansite :)

This is just a fun read and very educational in reading, even for old deadheads like me.  I love the old Palo Alto stories, the vast list of band members, employees, friends, and Dead experts who contribute to interviews, the story of the special double-necked twelve-string guitar Bobby was going to play for the full Terrapin Station Suite encore at Englishtown (which didn't happen, but almost did, picture please).  I wont give anything else away

from Oakland Magazine, all rights reserved to them

Rejoice for the Dead in Florida May 21 and 22 1977

Rejoice for the Grateful Dead in Lakeland and Hollywood Florida  (the fab Pembroke Pines, maybe best show of that magical year). May 21-22, 1977

It's like my Mom wrote this piece in Fort Meyers (near Naples where she lives). You might hear Raised In a Lion's Den or Jailhouse Rock or Roll Jimmy Roll.   Instead there's that awesome four Jerry songs in a row sequence.

Ok, here's the shows :) 

First newspaper review I've seen of Dick's Picks 3 May 22, 1977

Thanks @black_friar66 for this

5-21 Lakeland

Bertha

Me & My Uncle

TLEO

Cassidy

Jack A Roe

Jack Straw

Tennessee Jed

Minglewood

Row Jimmy

Passenger

Scarlet> 

Fire

Samson

B. E. Women

Estimated> 

He's Gone> 

Drums> 

Other One> 

Comes A Time> St. Stephen> 

NFA> 

St. Stephen> 

Saturday Night

U. S. Blues

5-22 Pembroke Pines

Music Never Stopped*

Sugaree*

El Paso

Peggy-O

New Minglewood Blues

Friend of the Devil

Lazy Lightnin'*>

Supplication*

Ramble on Rose

Dancin' in the Streets*

Help on the Way*>

Slipknot!*>

Franklin's Tower*>

Samson and Delilah*>

Brown Eyed Women

Good Lovin'

Sunrise*

Estimated Prophet*>

Eyes of the World*>

Wharf Rat*>

Terrapin Station*>

Morning Dew*

Sugar Magnolia