Grateful Seconds: The Grateful Dead Play 56 Glorious Shows in Our Beloved Berkeley, 1966-1989

Thursday, December 12, 2019

The Grateful Dead Play 56 Glorious Shows in Our Beloved Berkeley, 1966-1989

My 500th story on Grateful Seconds is a little visual history of the Grateful Dead in Berkeley where I lived from 1981 to 1987 Please enjoy.

I did a little research project which I'll try to polish next year.

I'll be mostly goin' fishin' in 2020. But I'll be @gratefulseconds on twitter.

So the Grateful Dead probably played 56 shows in Berkeley, give or take a 1966-67.

I have placed these in two eras, with Pig and without.

THE OG ERA (15 Shows)

1966 3 at the College, 1 in the Town

1967 1 at the College, 1 at the High School

1968 1967 1 at the College, 1 at the High School

1969 this little Piggie had none

1970 1 at the College

1971 2 at the High School

1972 4 at the High School

THE MODERN ERA (27 Shows at the College, 14 at the High School)

1981 3 at the College

1982 3 at the College

1983 3 at the College

1984 3 at the College, 6 at the High School

1985 3 at the College, 4 at the High School

1986 3 at the College, 4 at the High School3

1987 3 at the College

1988 3 at the College

1989 3 at the College

I only found one definitive error in Deadbase, it's the Ski Hut show (was in SF)

We are down to 56, North Face was the SF branch

5-7-66 1st Known Berkeley Show

Steve Brown photo one week later

1/13/1967 Dead pitch hit for first show at BCT

Same Month

Greek 1967

1968
https://kamlashow.com/2015/04/14/remembering-ustad-ali-akbar-khan-with-alam-khan/

Buying Lps in Berkeley August 1968

October at the Greek 1968

1969 And the Dead rested.

June 21 1970

1971 BCT

August 1972

I have only been familiar with this show since October, 2009, but to me, this is The Perfect Show.

Well, all of 1972 is off the charts, but this little show at Phil's high school in the Berkeley Community Theater is simple Perfect. It's interesting that the next time on August 25 might have been the Just Exactly Perfect Show, however it's missing much of what I expect is the best part of the show. And of course the trip up to Oregon followed. :)

For some reason, when I listen to this night, it just feels right, it feels perfect to me. It's the playing, it's the singing. it's the rare Dark Star>Morning Dew (more on that soon!). It's everything. It's perfect.

Perspectives: Full Circle with the Dead

Extended stand in Berkeley should be a model for tours

Among friends
A short time ago the Grateful Dead played a four-night engagement at the Berkeley Community Theater, a hall that seats 3500 when the orchestra pit is used.
The entire series of four performances -- 14,000 tickets -- was sold out by the end of the second day the tickets went on sale. There was no special advertising campaign, just the usual announcements in the standard Bill Graham ads.
No other group appeared with the Dead on the show and the music began early every night, at seven o'clock, and went on until 11 or 11:30 PM. The theater is part of a high school campus, and it is against various rules and regulations of the local and State Departments of Education to run after midnight.
The Berkeley Community Theater is not a dance hall. There is no flat, wide area on which to dance or crash. There are only regular auditorium/ theater seats and it was a reserved seat affair with numbered tickets and prices ranging from $3.50 to $5.50.
It was beautiful. Night after night the audiences were warm, friendly, appreciative and enthusiastic. Even the usual Bill Graham Quiz, in which he stands on stage and answers questions ("When is the Airplane coming? September 15 and 16 at Winterland. John Lennon? John Lennon is at Madison Square Garden Saturday night.") went down without heckling or antagonism.
The music was superb. The band played straight through each night with only a half-hour intermission long about mid-evening. Of course the Dead are unique and the affair would have been obvious as a Grateful Dead tribal stomp even to a deaf man. All you had to do was to look around backstage and see the women, babies and dogs and it couldn't have been anyone but the Dead.
However, what they did was not the kind of thing which is possible only for one special group. It is possible for a lot of groups and it should be noted and considered by the whole rock & roll world.
The standard rock show of today has evolved from two sources. The old original Fillmore dance concerts and the all-star touring show/ concerts of the Fifties. At the Fillmore, the concert was three groups: a lightweight, middleweight and a heavy, each playing about an hour and the show generally repeated twice an evening. A light show was standard right from the beginning. The Fifties concert/show with Paul Anka or Fats Domino would include half a dozen groups or singles each doing two or three songs (concluding with their hit) and then the star doing about an hour.
But earlier, in the Swing Era of the Thirties and Forties, the big bands drew crowds of thousands to dances with only the one group, themselves, on each show. Count Basie or Benny Goodman would play from eight or nine o'clock until 2 AM with only a ten or 15 minute break every hour or so. Occasionally -- and for a very special promotion -- another band would be added and it then became "A Battle of the Bands" with, say, Andy Kirk and Count Basie, or Benny Goodman and Count Basie in which each band alternated hour by hour from eight or nine o'clock until, sometimes, four AM. In those days you stood on the dance floor, you didn't sit or crash.
I have never known why it was necessary to sit or stand through two opening groups to hear the band you came for, except as a means of introducing new groups to an audience.
The whole concert style of Goodman, Ellington, Kenton and the rest which became standard operating procedure at the beginning of the Fifties and which set the matrix for the Fats Domino/ Paul Anka/ Bill Doggett touring shows which followed, was a combination of the status (ego) involved in playing a concert as opposed to a dance and a method of getting new locations to replace the dwindling dance halls. Also, dance halls could have only one ticket price and concerts could be scaled in various echelons for a bigger gross.
So now we have come full circle. The Grateful Dead can play four nights (and they obviously could have played a week) at a concert hall with absolute artistic and commercial success. Some of the patrons -- Graham estimated 20 percent -- were repeaters, buying tickets for every night. It reminded me of a big band playing the Roton Point Casino when I was in high school. We'd be there every night. Or Glen Island where we would make it three nights out of five, say.
There were other good things about the Dead's Berkeley series. Because it was for four nights and there was room enough for everybody (ticket swapping was common with Listeners' Personals on KSANFM acting as a bulletin board), there was none of the hysterical meat-market serum at any of the box offices. There was time enough for us all.
The Dead do not go in for any of the show biz nonsense you see with some Svengali-created groups in which costumes and lighting attempt to create the drama missing from the music. The Dead are very straight ahead in their presentation. To begin with, they are among friends and they know it. And of course it is axiomatic that, being among friends, there is nothing to live up to. Just be yourself.
Aside from the individual virtues of the group, they have mastered the ability to control dynamics to a more consistent degree than any other group I know of except the James Brown band. The Dead can come down to a whisper and still keep it moving, and this is one of the hardest things to do in group music. That they make it appear to be so effortless is a tribute to their ability. That, too, is hard to do, but as everyone knows who has become expert in any field, it's easy when you know how and the Dead sure do know how.
For me, Jerry Garcia was always one of the true original sounds in contemporary instrumental music. Like a very few others (B.B., Hendrix) it has always been possible to pick him out right away. In earlier days he was not a particularly impressive singer. But he has developed into one now. It was evident from the records that he was getting a lot better, but then in the studio it is possible to aid the voice in a way it can't be done in live performance, and now on the concert stage Jerry is a fine singer, again with a highly personal sound.
Phil Lesh (like Jack Casady) has always been a fascinating bassist precisely because he did not play the bass like other bass players but instead made it into a continual counter-melody to Garcia and the song. But Lesh has gotten even better and his bass playing takes over from time to time to become a uniquely dominant voice.
Bob Weir is the personification of the Dead's philosophy of "let it grow." Standing there beside one of the greatest guitarists of his time, Weir has grown. In other circumstances he might have been inhibited, but the Dead's ambience let him be, and he has become a fine singer and an excellent player. Bill Kreutzman has mellowed out over the years as a drummer and really swings his ass off. Keith Godchaux, who replaced the ailing Pig Pen, plays keyboard which gives an unusual pianistic sound now and Donna Godchaux sings an occasional song in a charming Southern-flavored voice.
All in all the week was pure joy. Now why don't the Band, the Who, Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, and the rest do the same thing? Must we always be prisoners of those amphitheaters?
RALPH GLEASON
(RS 118, September 28, 1972)

From the GD Newsletter August 1972, Guess Santa Barbara Bowl didnt happen :)

SET 1

The Promised Land

Sugaree

Jack Straw

China Cat Sunflower >

I Know You Rider

Me And My Uncle

Bird Song

Beat It On Down The Line

Tennessee Jed

Playing In The Band

Casey Jones

SET 2

Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo

Mexicali Blues

Brown Eyed Women

Truckin'

Dark Star >

Morning Dew

Sugar Magnolia

Ramble On Rose

Greatest Story Ever Told

Sing Me Back Home

One More Saturday Night

ENCORE

Uncle John's Band

The show is here

Review of August 21 show

You can see that many people above and below agree with me.

http://www.deadlistening.com/2009/10/1972-august-24-berkeley-community.html

https://dailydoseofdead.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/today-in-grateful-dead-history-august-24-1972-berkeley-community-theater-berkeley-ca/

http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2009/12/some-overlooked-shows-from-1972.html

http://liveforlivemusic.com/news/dark-star-orchestra-to-recreate-berkeley-1972-grateful-dead-show-blocks-away-from-original-concert/

http://cryptdev.blogspot.com/2012/08/grateful-dead-august-1972.html

http://headyversion.com/show/650/grateful-dead/1972-08-24/

https://www.gdao.org/items/show/251553

http://moderndeadhead.blogspot.com/2010/02/grateful-dead-berkeley-august-1972.html

https://archive.org/details/gd72-08-24.sbd.miller.18093.sbeok.shnf

David Lemieux has made his BEST EVER Dave's Pick. it is so rare to find unknown Dead tunes and David has done it, as recent as 1972!! The Other One goes into Stella Blue, Saturday Night and Sugar Magnolia. I have never seen those in any listing or print before today. Thanks David

When I fist heard this show, I could not believe how outstanding ever version of every song was. I would have named this show The Perfect Show instead off the night before, but it was incomplete.
No more as that wild long-as-hell Other One did continue into three songs we never knew before, Stella Blue, Saturday Night and Sugar Magnolia. And then we were off to the Field Trip at Kesey's.

See David quickly knowns how cool this show is.

Back in January 2015, I asked David to released a Berkeley Show
https://gratefulseconds.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-mecca-berkeleys-greek-theater.html

"Open Letter to David Lemieux ( vault@dead.net.). Please correct a terrible omission and officially release a Grateful Dead show from Berkeley. I know, I know, Jerry shows from Berkeley are all over the place, but guys, out of the 57 Grateful Shows in Berkeley (of which I went to at least 15), please do the right thing." David rocks as always.

This is the Perfect Show, Part Two with the night before http://gratefulseconds.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-perfect-show-berkeley-august-24-1972.html

With the exception of the single CD 1968 Greek show, this is the first show ever released officially from Berkeley. And an amazing choice since no one has ever revealed the entire show before. All l the SBD tapes simply ended with Truckin' > Jam > The Other One > Jam

(1) Cold Rain And Snow [5:51] ; (2) Black Throated Wind [5:56] ; He's Gone [8:42] (3) ; (4) Beat It On Down The Line [3:08] ; Loser [6:27] ; The Frozen Logger [0;39] ; (5) El Paso [4:36] ; Black Peter ; Jack Straw ; Friend Of The Devil ; The Promised Land ; Bird Song ; Playing In The Band ; Bertha
Two	Truckin' > Jam > The Other One > Jam Here is Mr Charlie Miller's incomplete

Disc 1
1. Cold Rain And Snow [7:46]
2. Black-Throated Wind [6:19]
3. He's Gone [10:16]
4. Beat It On Down The Line[3:26]
5. Loser [8:29]
6. El Paso [4:56]
7. Black Peter [9:12]
8. Jack Straw [5:01]

Disc 2
1. Friend Of The Devil [4:10]
2. Promised Land [3:37]
3. Bird Song [11:25]
4. PLaying In The Band [16:48]
5. Bertha [6:40]
Disc 3
1. Truckin' [16:02]
2. The Other One [28:03]
3. Stella Blue [9:03]
4. One More Saturday Night [5:46]
5. Sugar Magnolia [7:57]

START

1972

1973-1980 The Long Berkeley Sadness

1975 Close but not Berkeley

1981-1989, All Greek 24/7

The Pinnacle at the Greek

I saw the Dead 80 times but luckily 13 were at my favorite venue the Greek in Berkeley. It was my favorite place. 1981 (3) 1982 (3) 1983 (1) 1984 (1) 1985 (3) 1986 (2) 1987-1989 zero.

We deadheads bought almost a quarter million tickets. The final 27 shows were all sold out and scalped at high prices. The final two years were $30 Rex benefits.

Year Shows Tickets Price Sales
10/1/1967 5,000 2.00 $10,000
10/20/1968 6,000 2.50 $15,000
1981 3 25,500 11.50 $293,250
1982 3 25,500 12.00 $306,000
1983 3 25,500 13.00 $331,500
1984 3 25,500 14.00 $357,000
1985 3 25,500 15.00 $382,500
1986 3 25,500 16.00 $408,000
1987 3 25,500 17.50 $446,250
1988 3 25,500 30.00 $765,000
1989 3 25,500 30.00 $765,000
Greek 29 240,500 16.96 4,079,500

A few more Greek stories:

http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2017/09/the-first-weekend-at-greek-september-11.html
http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2017/05/25-years-ago-on-may-21-22-23-1982.html
http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2015/11/does-this-count-as-attending-sitting.html
http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2018/03/the-other-day-they-waited-sky-was-dark.html
http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2015/01/the-mecca-berkeleys-greek-theater.html

1988

Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain C C Rider [8:44] , the Dead rarely played China Scarlet back to the back and when they did, it was out of control
After a strongly played set two, Jerry pulled out It's All Over Now, Baby Blue which was one of the highest highs I ever felt at a Dead show. If you haven't heard this version, it's racked with emotion. Pretend that the 12-31-81 version never happened and just put on this on. Likely the best Jerry moment I ever felt of him singing a Dylan song.

Sunday was more spirtual in nature as Bobby used to say. Sundays became more of a goofy show in some regards at the Greek with interesting mixes of tunes. According we had special Greek pairings with
Jack Straw > Bertha ;
Me And My Uncle > Big River ;
To Lay Me Down > Little Red Rooster and
Ramble On Rose > Let It Grow > Might As Well
Cold Rain And Snow > Samson And Delilah
Lost Sailor > Saint Of Circumstance >
into an interesting mix of
Terrapin Station > Never Trust A Woman > Drums > Space > The Wheel > I Need A Miracle > Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad > Sugar Magnolia
Encore (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction > Brokedown Palace to end the show. Again, a lot of rare tunes and rare sequences

Overall, the Greek was aboout the feel and the feeling, which couldn't be repeated in most indoor settings. Boy do I miss these shows.

You Know It's Gonna Get Stranger

Jay Blakeberg's 1982 phboto from the Greek Perfectly Captures our View from our seats at the Greek

I loved Mike's view of the shows that was in Deadbase II but edited out of later edition

I dont havre the exact economics of 1981 but they sold out and it was probably about $280,000 for the weekend

Happy 25 35th anniversity to the three marvelous shows at Berkeley's Greek on May 21-22-23 in 1982. These were my second set of three Greek shows following the return in 1981 and there are three very nice Charlie Miller soundboards (Charlie FLACs MP3s). This follows my 2015 global Greek piece on the Mecca
http://gratefulseconds.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-mecca-berkeleys-greek-theater.html

Greeks always started 7PM Friday, 5PM Saturday and 3PM Sunday so you would always get a different mood settting over the Golden Gate, depending on your location and the night of the weekend. At the Greek, you would typically get about 60 different songs and amazing playing of what the Dead were doing at the time. While Deadbase barely lists any of these shows in the top-20 of the year, I say BS, the Greek is where you wanted to see shows in the early and mid-1980s, no hands down. The feeling, the atmosphere, the view, the fans, the walk from my house, the Sunday afternoon 3pm Shakedown, it had it all.

Make sure to check out the Playin>Uncle John's>Remarkable Jam on Friday. But, just explore it all. I will always love the Greek the most

My super 8 footage was accepted into the new Grateful Dead documentary, but I couldn't find the original super 8. Drat! But you can see Cormac and Rick Sullivan here and maybe yourself and they ended up using two different one second segments

Jim McDonnell jim

10/4/16

to Annie, me

Hi David,

I hope that this finds you well and I apologize for the long silence regarding the forthcoming Grateful Dead documentary project. We are finally in the home stretch and we will hopefully be using a small portion of your footage in this project. We would be very interested in obtaining your original Super 8 film elements for a new HD scan transfer for our usage. Per our original conversations, we will be licensing at the rate of $25/second for footage and additionally we will supply you with a new HD transfer of your footage on a drive when we return your film(s) to you. I've looped in Annie Salsich from the production who can give you all the shipping information in regards to sending your film elements. I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Best wishes,

Jim

I'm sad I lose my originals

Open Letter to David Lemieux ( vault@dead.net.). Please correct a terrible omission and officially release a Grateful Dead show from Berkeley. I know, I know, Jerry shows from Berkeley are all over the place, but guys, out of the 57 Grateful Shows in Berkeley (of which I went to at least 15) there were none (until I wrote this, haha), please do the right thing.

My brother ~~esau~~ Ralph with later Dead doctor Jordan

When I first moved to Berkeley on January 2, 1981 (after getting to town in time to see the 5-night run next to Lake Merritt in Oakland, I expect to immediately get a repeat of the Dead in the 1970;s, but WTF, no shows until September 11! But the announcement came that the shows were going to be at the beautiful outdoor Greek Theater at UC Berkeley, only a fifteen walk up the hill from my job at Rasputin Records. Wow. I did not realize at the time that the band had played there on 10-1-67 ("Potpourri" according to Deadbase IX, page 10, "A Benefit for The Economic Opportunity Program" of which I have not seen even the set list and 10-20-68, where is a nice recording at archive.org. At least we get to hear Pigpen once at the Greek.

I love the 1981 shows, and the audience tapes are excellent on 9-11 and 9-12, but I have yet to see SBD's so I discount releasing 9-11-81, Mickey's real birthday Bobby, 20 years prior to that horrific day in NYC.
And there were so many great day/nights at the Greek, with Friday starting at 7pm, Saturday at 5, and Sunday at 3, it was kind of like moving time zones to see the shows.

So many great nights, the nights in 1985 when Jerry played Morning Dew, China Doll and Comes A Time in the same set (6-14-85, where I was shut out of tickets and listened to it with hundreds of people in the hills right above) and the breakout of Cryptical 2 nights later. There was of course the Dark Star encore in 1984. And this is not even mentioning the shows at the High School where Phil had gone in the 1960s. Yes folks, the Berkeley Community Theater is the high school auditorium. The run prior to the Field Trip in 1972 is perhaps the mose seminal of the Dead during that era. The 8-24 and sadly incomplete 8-25 shows (go for the Charlie Miller versions) are always exactly perfect.

I was lucky to enjoy a few shows there in 1984 and 1986, the One More Halloween Night encore on 10-31-84 (thanks to Rick Sullivan for the tickets) and the Maybe You Know Brent meltdown on 4-21-86.

The wealth of opportunity for our friend David at the Vault (who I love and support, check out Scarlet/Fire in Atlanta) is right here in the 150 hours in his grasp. , My choice for official release is May 21, 1982. While a great tape exists already, few people know that there is my short video before the show, which I am presenting right here now:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wpnff0snoqk3yxj/Outside%20Greek%205%2022%201982.mpg?dl=0 if you would like to come. You can see that dude I mentioned earlier here, or perhaps yourself. I think Rob and Kirk at at the beginning. Rick and Cormac.

From a Spy novel

Gans Interviews Bobby

From Phil's Book

This is a beautiful show and I promised in the last edition I would give 1000 seconds today. Of course, my favorite part of the show is the Playing>Uncle Johns>Drums>Space>Wheel>Playing sandwich, with the taste of the similar Lewiston show still on my taste buds. My Grateful Seconds for you now is the 17+ minute Uncle John's Band which does interesting and strange things as it leads into the drums. Enjoy! And please David, just any show from Berkeley,even 1986 just so we know you have filled all the seminal places that the guys have played. Thanks in advance.

1000 Seconds of Amazing UJB and Jam into Drums

Whole Show

1983

1984

After the frenzy of sitting in the hills on Friday http://gratefulseconds.blogspot.com/2015/11/does-this-count-as-attending-sitting.html , I secured tickets for Saturday and Sunday at the Greek, I believe from Cormac. My brother Ralph said, hey I think Cormac might have an extra. Thanks Oregon Man.
Here's the whole show Starts with In the Midnight Hour>Bertha and surprises the hell out of all of us with That's It for the Other One in set two. I was standing near front right pretty close to the stage when this occured on this beautiful hot Sunday. This was a very big deal to me.

Cryptical had left the Grateful Dead planet after Felt Forum and Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor in December 1971, and one 1972 appearance in Waterbury September 1972, so this was another of those great moments I was able to experience in person at my shows with the Dead bringing back a vintage after a many years absence. This night saw the longest period before the return, almost 150 months.

St Stephen 6-09-76 10-31-71 4 Years
High Time 6-09-76 07-12-70 5 Years
Comes A Time 6-12-76 10-19-72 3 Years
Oh Boy 12-12-81 04-06-71 10 Years
Me & Bobby McGee 12-12-81 10-16-74 7 Years
Big Boss Man 12-26-81 05-25-72 9 Years
The Eleven Jam 12-26-81 09-28-75 6 Years
Dark Star 12-31-81 01-20-79 2 Years
Hard to Handle 12-30-82 08-26-71 10 Years
In the Midnight Hour 12-31-82 04-29-71 11 Years
Mind Left Body Jam 12-30-83 10-17-74 8 Years
Comes A Time 06-14-85 10-02-80 4 Years
and Cryptical Here 06-16-85 09-23-72 12 Years

There is a wealth of information on this weekend in Berkeley, and this show too. I recommend listening to the That's It for The Other One by clicking the link above while reviewing the literature. It's fun and was totally unexpected, and only repeated four more times over the next month or so.

According to Deadbase the last time, the Grateful Dead performed That's It for The Other one complete, without drums in the middle was at the Fillmore West on March 1, 1969 (Cryptical>The Other One>Cryptical). You might remember that show. Here's some insight from experts better than me"

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE June 17, 1985
Edition: FINAL Section: DAILY DATEBOOK Page: 56

Topics:

Index Terms:
MUSIC
REVIEW
CELEBRATIONS

What's 20 Years to the Dead?
Anniversary party for 27,000

Author: JOEL SELVIN

Article Text:
It would have been amazing enough to have such a deranged, disorganized, disparate group stay together one year, let alone 20, but that is exactly what the Grateful Dead has done.
At three sold-out concerts this weekend at UC-Berkeley's Greek Theater - for a total audience upwards of 27,000 - the beloved San Francisco rock institution marked two decades of playing, although what this landmark event means is anybody's guess.
So much interest was stirred up, in fact, by this signal anniversary that all six band members went so far as to participate in an uncharacteristic press conference, where, predictably, nothing was revealed.
``It's no big deal,'' said guitarist Bob Weir. ``We're not sure when the date was anyway. It doesn't matter to anyone.''
``It's a matter of indifference,'' echoed guitarist Jerry Garcia.
Not entirely. The band performed all weekend in front of a giant backdrop painted by one of the great early San Francisco poster artists, Rick Griffin, depicting a skeleton dressed as a Revolutionary War Minuteman above the legend ``Twenty Years So Far.''
The shows opened Friday with a blast through the public address system from the beginning of the Beatles' ``Sergeant Pepper'' album: ``It was 20 years ago today . . .''
Earlier that afternoon, as many as a couple of thousand Deadheads milled around the grass outside the Greek Theater waiting to get in, throwing Frisbees and trading stories. Hippie-types in tie-dye lined the streets blocks around the site, holding signs reading ``I Need a Ticket'' or ``Just One Please.''
Some sported signs, bumper strips or T-shirts with a slogan referring to the ballooning girth of Dead kingpin and lead guitarist Jerry Garcia: ``I Want to See the Fat Man Rock.''
One enterprising soul yesterday carried a placard saying he would swap a bottle of '74 Robert Mondavi Cabernet for a pair of tickets. It was a testament to the incongruous upscale nature of certain members of the supposedly peasant set who have been attending Dead concerts over the years.
Dead concerts are more like carnivals than rock shows. Many people attended each show of the series -the Dead remains one of the few rock bands to improvise a new repertoire show by show. Craftsmen hawked jewelry and bootleg T-shirts outside, begging tickets while they made change.
An entire section of prime seats was reserved for the tapers, who sprouted a forest of 7- to 10-foot-tall microphone stands. Most rock groups frown on tape recorders at concerts, wary of potential copyright violations and lost royalties. Not the Dead.
``We can't stop them anyway,'' said drummer Mickey Hart. ``They just trade the tapes around. They don't make money from them.''
Not only have the Dead merely survived as a mostly intact unit for 20 years (five of the six musicians belonged to the original group) but the Dead, more than any other contemporaries that have managed to continue to struggle along, have remained the most true to the band's original vision.
Listening to the Dead open yesterday afternoon's show with ``In the Midnight Hour,'' the Wilson Pickett classic the band has performed for most of those 20 years, it was impossible not to notice how little the music has changed - Garcia's fluid, crystalline guitar weaving through the imaginative, fleet-fingered bass parts of Phil Lesh, with drummers Bill Kreutzman and Hart joining in intuitive polyrhythms at the bottom of the sound.
The band defies show business conventions. The Dead has yet to score a hit record. In fact, the band hasn't released new material in more than four years. A new album has been in the works for at least two years, with little progress reported.
Nevertheless, interest in the Dead never has seemed higher. Not only do their concerts sell out within hours of going on sale, the shows are not even advertised, only announced over a Dead hotline with an unlisted number.
The 20th anniversary has landed the band on the NBC Nightly News and the Today show and the group recently recorded the theme song to the revived ``Twilight Zone'' that debuts on network TV this fall.
Despite the hoopla surrounding the anniversary ``non-event'' - which the Dead slyly promote and reject simultaneously - nobody really can figure out what the longevity benchmark means, other than that the Dead itself is older than some of its fans.
Truly, few rock concert crowds span the range of ages to be found in the Dead's audience. Gray-bearded grandfathers mingle with little kids (T-shirts were even being sold in children's sizes this weekend), with a single unifying thread - the common cast of '60s counterculture.
Last among those able to attach significance to the occasion were the members of the Dead themselves. At the press conference, they weren't even sure what exact moment in the band's evolution the anniversary marked.
The date selected to represent the group's 20th anniversary corresponded, explained Dead press agent Dennis McNally, with the date in history when bassist Phil Lesh moved to Palo Alto to join the nascent rock band.
``I showed him how to tune the bass and where to place his fingers for the scales,'' said Garcia, ``and two weeks later he played the first gig.''
Lesh paid tribute the band's growth over the years. ``It's not age, it's experience,'' he said. ``It's that thing that only time can give you - mayonnaise.''
A TV reporter wanted to know what role drugs played in appreciating the Dead's music. ``To some,'' he solemnly intoned, ``The Grateful Dead and psychedelics are synonymous . . .''
``Do you mean, Does the mind play a role?'' asked Garcia.
``No, the drugs,'' the TV man replied.
``His lips are moving, but nothing's coming out,'' said Weir, as the band dissolved in chuckles.
Garcia praised their audience, the fervent Deadheads.
``They're no slouches,'' he said. ``They're paying attention. It's like they're willing us to make it good.''
The press conference ended with the band being asked what they have learned in 20 years.
``Never take your eyes off the guy to your right,'' said drummer Mickey Hart, ``or the guy to your left.''

My personal handout from 6-16-85

Midnight Hour
Bertha
Walkin' Blues
Tennessee Jed
My Brother Esau
Big Railroad Blues
Looks Like Rain
Mississippi Half-Step
Promised Land

Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Samson and Delilah
Cryptical Envelopment
The Other One
drums
Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad
I Need a Miracle
Wharf Rat
Turn on Your Love Light

Brokedown Palace

So on the 20th Anniversary Show with the Grateful Dead, the unthinkable happened. I couldn't get it. This had never happened to me. I could always score a scalped ticket. Even in New York City on April 30, 1977, I could find a $6 seat for $18 (and then be forced to hitchhike back to Andover because I didn't have bus fare back).

Wave That Flag, boys, Happy 20th

All shows were doable, until this night. So Kevin and I did the proper thing and climbed the hill behind the Greek and sat in the fields along with a dozen or so other so-inclined souls.

The first set started with fanfare and got a bit weird with the break in the middle. And it was fun when Phil Lesh and Brent returned and started seeing "Keep on Growing". But what was so memorable about this show was Set Two, the only time I ever saw Morning Dew, Comes A Time, and China Doll in the same show, never mind the same set.

In listening to the soundboard years later, Jerry did sound a little strained, but it was still a monumental performance. And the answer to the answer man above, is Yes. This counts as going to a show, I was much closer here than at Englishtown and Giant Stadium. It counts because I heard it live. And because I want it to count. I'll leave you to hear the beginning of the second set now.

The second set is here.here