Phil Lesh Talks about 1971 and 1990 in Grateful Dead History

Have fun.  Phil speaks about Dead years prior to his year re-creation shows
In 2015, Phil Lesh spoke about his memories of years like 1971 and 1990 prior to recreating shows from those years

Ralph J Gleason Brings You Inside the April 6, 1969 Avalon Show with Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers, Aum and the Grateful Dead

Here is some beautiful Ralph J Gleason writing from 50 years ago this weekend



Gram Parsons would play Long Black Limousine more then 8 months before the Dead add it to the mix.  Wonder if Burritos wore Nudie suits. But the highlight is the Death Don't and Ralph's writing.
As usual the real write up is here http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/03/april-4-6-1969-avalon-ballroom-san.html  Long Lost Dead.  This is just some bells and whistles.

There is a great Owsley connection I am tracking down
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-nov-13-et-backtracking13-story.html

Let It Grow: A Study of the Grateful Dead in Newspapers, 1968-1994

Newspaper mentions growth for the Grateful Dead were off the charts between 1968 and 1994, with the biggest growth coming after Jerry Garcia's return from his coma in 1986. The return, coupled with  stadium tour with Bob Dylan saw the total number of mentions in 20 key newspapers grow from 474 in 1968 up to 4,165 in 1987. 

Average Grateful Dead mentions per Newspaper in 20 newspapers per year

1968    24 times per newspaper for the year

1973    53 times per newspaper for the year

1977    76 times per newspaper for the year

1982    85 times per newspaper for the year

1987   208 times per newspaper for the year

1991   217 times per newspaper for the year

1994   279 times per newspaper for the year

While there was a big jump from 1968 to 1973. a lot of this was due to coverage of the Watkins Glen event, especially in papers like the NY daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer.  Most of the 20 papers I selected for this study, were very pro-Dead, which reflected their local readership.  After back to back to back to back blow up shows, the St Louis  Post-Dispatch in 1973 became a top-5 nationwide paper for Dead fans to read about the Dead.

The hot 1977 shows saw the Los Angeles Times and the small Asbury Park press both significantly increase their Dead coverage, as did the NY Daily News and the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle (with about a million Winterland shows that year).

Dead coverage pretty much plateaued out with 1982 seeing very limited growth. One paper that expanded its coverage in the early 1980's was the Hartford Courtant.

Then came 1987 with more than double Dead awareness from 1987.  Interesting the Orlando Sentinel started its massive push into Dead news (maybe Deadheads started to retire to FL?).  And 1987 news stayed at that level 1991.   Finally during the era of the 1990's as the Dead were typically the top-grossing touring act of the era, we saw another giant increase in articles on the band.