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- [00:00]
Rich Mahan
Announcing Dogfish Head Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale Collaborating for over a decade now, Dogfish Head and Grateful Dead have crafted a light bodied pale ale brewed with sustainable kerns of grains, granola and heaps of good karma for a refreshing brew that's music to your taste buds. Check out dogfish.com for more details and to find some Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale in your neck of the woods. Dogfish Headcraft Brewery is located in Milton, Delaware. Please drink responsibly the Good Old Grateful Dead Cast the Official Podcast of the Grateful Dead I'm Rich Mahan with Jesse Jarno exploring the music and legacy of the Grateful Dead for the committed and the curious. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Deadheads, welcome to season 11 of the Good Old Grateful Dead Cast. I'm your co host Rich Mahan. Thank you so very much for tuning in in this episode of the Good Old Grateful Dead Cast. We continue to enjoy the ride as we dive even deeper into the upcoming Grateful Dead box set. Enjoying the Ride this episode we continue our look at the shows and enjoying the ride from the East Coast. We want to extend a hearty thank you to everybody who pre ordered Enjoying the Ride. It is now officially sold out, but you can still grab great music from the set by digging into the Music Never Stopped, which distills enjoying the ride into a shorter route through the band's Diamond Anniversary celebration. Featuring at least one song from every venue in the deluxe set, it offers a briefer but no less illuminating journey through the music that shaped the Grateful Dead's live legacy. It will be available on May 30 from rhino.com on three CDs, six LPs and digitally. Also recently announced is a brand new Grateful Dead Greatest Hits, a perfect entry point for the budding Deadhead in your life and a great single disc addition to your collection. Grateful Dead Greatest Hits will be available as a single CD or LP and comes out June 13th. Make sure to visit dead.net for more info on both of these not to be missed releases. Head on over to dead.netdeadcast and check out all of our past episodes, including the complete seasons 1 through 10 and everything up till now for season 11 and you can link from there to your favorite podcasting platform so you can listen how, where and when you like to listen. Please help the good old Grateful Dead cast by subscribing, sharing us with your friends on social media, hitting that like button, calling your mother and if the spirit moves you, leave us a review. Thank you very much. Do you have a great tour story you'd like to share. Bet you do. Do it over at stories.dead.net Record yourself telling about that epic road trip or the best show you ever saw. You just may hear yourself on a future episode of the Dead Ca. But remember, we can only use your story if you record it. Thank you. We have transcripts from many of your favorite Deadcast episodes available for your reading pleasure@dead.net deadcast index. Check them out. Well, east coast shows and west coast shows each had their own vibe for sure. Both great, yet different in their own unique ways. In this episode, Part two of our look at the great east coast venues included on the new box set Enjoying the Ride, we pull back the curtain on some truly epic shows that have gone down in Grateful Dead history as some of the best the band played. Can you dig it? Jesse Jarno and I knew you could.
- [03:53]
Jesse Jarno
Well, this job I got is a little too high. Well, I'm rolling out another I'm gonna wake up in the morning love I'm gonna pack my thigh I'm gonna be.
- [04:12]
David Lemieux
On down the line without fail every spring from 1976 through 1995, the Grateful Dead manifested on the east coast of the United States, usually moving between New York and virginia, like this 1981 Hampton show we're listening to right now. Sometimes they ventured a bit further north, south or west, but it's not a coincidence that all four shows we're talking about today come from between March and May. Together, they make a representative slice of the band's touring strategy. Play the east coast in the spring.
- [04:46]
Jesse Jarno
Going down the Line Going down the line Going down the line Going down.
- [04:56]
David Lemieux
The line Grateful Ed archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux My New York friends.
- [05:02]
Gary Lambert
They could go see the Dead within two hours at the Garden or Nassau or Hartford or down to the Spectrum or a little bit further to Boston up or Cap center down Giant Stadium. Brendan Byrne There were a lot of places to play that was true right.
- [05:16]
David Lemieux
From the band's earliest east coast trips. Gary Lambert I saw them play 35.
- [05:21]
Sam Cutler
Shows in 1970 and only had to.
- [05:23]
Gary Lambert
Go more than a 90 minute radius.
- [05:26]
Sam Cutler
Outside New York once, I think, or twice.
- [05:29]
David Lemieux
Last episode, we discussed how the Dead made beachheads in New York and Boston, starting with their earliest trips out of the bay area in 1967. But it's harder to pinpoint a run of shows that might easily be called their first east coast tour, because very often the Dead operated like those New York fans. They made camp in Manhattan, often at the Navarro Hotel near Central park, and ventured on Trips elsewhere, May of 1970, looping through upstate and central New York to Connecticut, Boston, Worcester, Manhattan, Philadelphia and Atlanta is the first thing that looks recognizably like a spring east coast tour. That was the Dead at Harper College early on that run. Now Dix picks eight. We talked a lot about the Dead's early East coast touring strategy with our late correspondent Sam Cutler during the third season of the Dead, cast about Skull and Roses. Here he is reading from his 1971 press release.
- [06:35]
Sam Cutler
We're going to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Piddling first this side of the state in a gymnasium. At some point, Anonymous College is this place run by the Hamish. And then into Pittsburgh, where we play to 2000 heads in the middle of a bus strike and a Snowstorm that leaves 12,000 empty seats and everyone pissed off back to the bus. You're on the bus or you're off the bus. Where is the damn bus?
- [07:00]
David Lemieux
Throughout the 70s, Sam Cutler and other strategists worked out the Dead's East coast plans, but it was hardly an exact science in 1971.
- [07:09]
Sam Cutler
We change plans while we're making them and fly to Bangor, Maine, where we've never been, and there's going to be some freaks up there. And then, inexplicably, to Durham, North Carolina. The truck driver, Slow Joe, cruising through 2,000 miles in 48 hours with two gigs, three girlfriends and no sleep.
- [07:28]
David Lemieux
We've linked to the rest of that episode@dead.net deadcast Sam Cutler's work pointed them towards the 1973 Watkins Glen Summer Jam, the massive show in front of an estimated half million fans with the Allman Brothers and the band that minted a new generation of Northeastern Dead freaks, which we talked about extensively a few seasons back. And then in 1977, they played for another 300,000.
- [07:53]
Jesse Jarno
Ladies and gentlemen, the finest band in the land, the grateful Dead.
- [07:57]
David Lemieux
The 1977 show at Raceway park in Englishtown, New Jersey, was another major marker for the Dead's northeastern fan base, and perhaps the moment they consolidated their critical mass. On today's episode, we move mostly away from the densely populated urban centers of the Northeast and as such, with only four shows to cover, have a little more room to spread out. Winslow Caldwell left us this story that flows nicely into our first show today.
- [08:41]
Gary Lambert
In the late winter of 1978, I stayed for several days as part of a line party slash Deadhead gathering, all waiting for the ticket office to open to get our tickets for the May 5, 1978 show at Dartmouth College. We had a great time all together, hanging out Throwing Frisbees, listening to music as we waited for the box office to open. We were there for days now. It was chilly because this is New Hampshire. And I had a sweater that I loved, had a great pattern on it. It was super warm. But I left it once when I was, like, doing something. I left it there on the ground, and when I came back, it was gone. Well, easy come, easy go.
- [09:32]
David Lemieux
The band shows in Vermont and New Hampshire in May 1978 were their first visit to either state.
- [09:38]
Gary Lambert
But then months later, great show at Dartmouth. And the next night they were playing.
- [09:43]
Sam Cutler
In Burlington at uvm.
- [09:45]
Gary Lambert
And I had no car at the time, so I hitchhiked. VW bus picked me up on Route 89. It was taking me to Burlington. They picked up a friend along the way, and the friend lived way back on a dirt road. Got to the friend's house, he started walking down towards the bus. And what was he wearing? He was wearing my sweater. I said, dude, that's my sweater. And he took it right off, gave it to me.
- [10:15]
Sam Cutler
No problem.
- [10:17]
Gary Lambert
Smiles all around.
- [10:18]
David Lemieux
Winslow got his sweater back exactly a week before the first show. We're going to focus on today. Seven days later and six and a half or so hours to the south in Philadelphia. By the time the band returned from their 1975 road hiatus, the period for all four shows we're talking about today, they understood touring much better. And they certainly understood the Spectrum in Philadelphia, which they played regularly starting in 1972, including the September 21st show now on Dix Picks 36.
- [11:27]
Jesse Jarno
Half a mile from Tucson by the morning light. One day gone and another to go. My old buddy, you're moving. But two stars.
- [11:45]
David Lemieux
The Dead actually played the Spectrum on their second ever trip to Philadelphia in 1968, but it wasn't what you might think. Super listener Brian Schiff left us this story.
- [11:55]
Brian Schiff
The first concert I ever attended was on December 6, 1968, at the Philadelphia Spectrum. It was called the Second Quaker City Rock Festival, and it featured Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Grateful Dead, the Iron Butterfly, Sly and the Family Stone and Steppenwolf. The early concerts at the Spectrum had a revolving stage, but the Grateful Dead came on second, and they refused to revolve, not surprisingly. Fortunately, I was sitting right in front of them. And I remember at first being completely enthralled by Jerry Garcia's wide striped pants. It was the real hippies had invaded the east coast from San Francisco. Being that I was sitting right in front of them, the music was fabulous. I remember roadies also shooting off Some flamethrowers from behind the stage, which we weren't sure why, but it added something special to that show. What I always remembered from that was the song. Alligator Pigpen was phenomenal. The rest of the show was also great, except for Steppenwolf, who was horrible.
- [13:27]
David Lemieux
But it took a fair bit of relentless gigging to actually headline the place.
- [13:31]
Sam Cutler
Sam Cutler we filled the Spectrum in Philadelphia of 17,000 people. How did that happen? That happened because three times I did tours of fucking colleges in Pennsylvania. Throughout Pennsylvania, right? The ban on buses going from college to college and playing in field houses. But, you know, playing for five or six hours, man, students just stoned off their faces and couldn't believe it.
- [14:00]
David Lemieux
When the Dead started playing the Spectrum regularly, the revolving stage was long gone. By the time of their killer shows there in 1972 and 73, they'd worked out their road routine between the evolving alembic sound system and their growing road crew. But just like the band, promoters in the early 70s were still learning to put on rock concerts and sometimes a few steps behind the Dead. The band's involved manual for how to put on a Dead show included a rider that requested protein rich steaks for the road crew. Perhaps one legacy of Owsley Stanley's influence is that the band's crew did not like carbs in their diet.
- [14:37]
Sam Cutler
There's a famous event, the Great Spaghetti Disaster. There was a. The promoter, who should be nameless, was dressed in white shoes and a white suit, no less. And we all sat down on these long kind of trestle tables to spaghetti Bolognese. And Sparky, bless him, Mark Raisin, one of our great equipment guys, not to be fucked with, he walked up to the promoter and said, did you order this spaghetti? You know, is this you're doing? And the promoter said, yeah, well, you don't like it? Whereupon Sparky dumped it right on the top of his head. So there was spaghetti all over his white suit. That was another little thing. That my diplomatic skills were rapidly called into service.
- [15:25]
David Lemieux
Correspondence suggests that the incident involved a different crew member, but same difference. Shout out to the late great Sparky Raisin. The result was that the Dead parted ways for several years with Electric Factory, their Philadelphia based promoters, not returning to the Spectrum until the spring of 77. As with Madison Square Garden in New York, there is virtually nowhere else to go.
- [15:46]
Sam Cutler
The Grateful Dead are not Dead.
- [15:48]
Gary Lambert
Bands poured into their concerts at the.
- [15:50]
Sam Cutler
Spectrum in Philadelphia from all over the.
- [15:52]
David Lemieux
Country and can often be found waiting.
- [15:54]
Sam Cutler
In line all night for tickets to their concerts.
- [15:56]
David Lemieux
Chris Goodspace was an east coast head.
- [15:58]
Sam Cutler
In this era, Spectrum, other big venues.
- [16:01]
Chris Goodspace
You can literally feel the energy rippling.
- [16:04]
Sam Cutler
Around the venue and kind of like.
- [16:07]
Chris Goodspace
The wave almost, but without people standing.
- [16:09]
Sam Cutler
Up and doing their hands.
- [16:11]
Chris Goodspace
It's all this energy contained.
- [16:13]
Sam Cutler
Especially outdoor west coast shows, you don't.
- [16:15]
Chris Goodspace
Get that intensity, you know.
- [16:17]
Sam Cutler
So an East Coast Dead show is totally different animal than a West coast show.
- [16:23]
David Lemieux
Last season we spent a good deal of time inside Friend of the Devils, the recent box that compiled eight shows from April 1978. It was a few weeks after that set closing Huntington, West Virginia show that the band rolled into the Philadelphia Spectrum on May 13, 1978. The Spectrum show is a good example of the kind of show this box was designed to highlight. Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux.
- [17:21]
Gary Lambert
It was entirely venue driven and we have the Spectrum as one of our key venues in Grateful Dead history. One of the shows that came to the top of that list was spectrum 78. I've listened to it many times over the years, and every time We've done a 1978 release in the last 10 years, it's been given serious consideration, but didn't quite make the cut for whatever reason.
- [17:44]
David Lemieux
Brian Schiff estimates that he saw every Dead show at the Spectrum from the Quaker City rock festival in 1968 through the band's final shows there in 1995 when they debuted on Broken Chain.
- [17:55]
Brian Schiff
I was a Flyer season ticket holder for a year. So I've. I've literally was at the Spectrum hundreds and hundreds of times. It had a lower ball and an upper deck, and originally that's always there. And then when the Flyers got really popular in the early 70s, they actually added a third deck around, like around the roof. But it was just like the main concourse when you walked in the door off the outside that sort of circled the arena and that was kind of it. There wasn't any real other little interesting nooks and crannies in there. It was like the outside and you walked in and you were just in the arena in the ball. My flyer season tickets were section H, row 14, which was in the hockey arena between the red line and the blue line. So that was like the perfect seat for the Dead. Also, like, like just a quarter of the way back from where the stage was and on the side and. And 14 rows up from the floor. So that was always a great seat as far as I was concerned. That was where I tried to go.
- [18:48]
David Lemieux
Scott Jones left us a story about hitting the spectrum in 78.
- [18:52]
Sam Cutler
I was in the middle of law school finals. First year.
- [18:56]
Rich Mahan
I had a criminal law exam on Monday.
- [18:59]
Sam Cutler
Show was Saturday night, if I recall. It was a crazy night. We went nuts on the way there. Nuts in the lot. I was on my own there at the show. After doing about everything you can.
- [19:27]
Jesse Jarno
We can share what we gotta use. Cause we can share all of my.
- [19:38]
Sam Cutler
I recorded this one myself with my old Sony 158 cassette deck from the second row in front of the monitors for Godchild Keith. By myself with the deck around my neck and both mics being held in one hand.
- [19:58]
Jesse Jarno
Sam.
- [20:29]
David Lemieux
We talked a lot about Garcia's plane in 1978 during that Friend of the Devil season.
- [20:34]
Gary Lambert
The first set of this show, I think, is one of the best from the May tour. The May tour running May 6 to May 16. Great music never stopped. Incredible music never stopped. I like that sound from May 78. It's a very distinct sound from April, which is still that kind of tail end of 1977 sound.
- [21:56]
David Lemieux
Over the course of the April 1978 shows on the Friend of the Devils box, the band half accidentally engineered the template they'd employ for the second sets. Over the rest of their career, they.
- [22:06]
Gary Lambert
Also fell into more of a formatted second sets in particular. You know, maybe four songs and then Rhythm Devils and maybe a little space and then usually not Fade Away or Ikea or Trucking or something out of drums or other one. 76 and 77, there was a lot more flexibility in how they were structuring those second sets. April is when they kind of settled in, and May the band has really settled into that format and they're having a ton of fun.
- [22:33]
David Lemieux
For Brian Schiff, the second set of the spectrum in 78 was faith affirming.
- [22:38]
Brian Schiff
That first set, I mean, it was great music, but there was no real jam songs, except for they ended with Music Never Stops. I remember even thinking, like, is my love starting to wane? Kind of. But then the second set started, and it was of my 125, one of the best second sets ever. I used to question how much Jerry Garcia really loved singing. But that night he was singing phenomenally. And he seemed like totally into all of his vocals. So then they started playing. Terrapin was the third song, and it was just absolutely Stell.
- [24:03]
David Lemieux
Brian was with his buddy and softball.
- [24:05]
Brian Schiff
Teammate, Mitch, one of my closest friends, who was also one of my closest Deadhead friends, guy named Mitch Weinberg. When we graduated and we came back to Philly, we wanted to create another softball team. So that was in 77. So we came up with the Terrapins. We thought that was a great name. And I'm pretty sure I designed that shirt, which had the Terrapin like from the album cover, but holding a baseball bat and having a baseball cap on. And then a couple years later, as players were changing on the team and stuff, and we had to get new jerseys, we said, why don't we put strategy as a strength and not disaster? Why don't we put SSND on it and see if anyone knows what the hell we're talking about? And so we did put it on that shirt. And every league we played in, people would ask us what it stood for, and we would never tell them. We refused to let anyone know. So you have to listen, even listen to Terrapin Station and see if you can figure it out.
- [25:15]
David Lemieux
We've posted a picture of the jersey@dead.net.
- [25:17]
Brian Schiff
Deadcast when Mitch was really screwing up, as he was our pitcher on the mound, that was what I would walk up to him and say to him, strategies are strength and not disaster.
- [25:27]
Gary Lambert
So.
- [25:27]
Brian Schiff
So go throw a goddamn strike already.
- [25:30]
David Lemieux
Good pep talk, Brian.
- [25:31]
Jesse Jarno
From the northwest corner of a brand new, a rare and different to Terrapin Station in the shadow of the moon, Terrapin Station.
- [26:01]
Brian Schiff
The Terrapin was. Was off the charts.
- [26:03]
Gary Lambert
David Lemieux in 77, 78. Terrapin into playing was the way to go. And I love that. I love the way Terrapin would build, build, build, explode, and then it would peter down. And then you'd hear, we're count down the 10, and then right into playing in the band.
- [26:53]
David Lemieux
Sometimes playing in the band jams thin out as they move into the drum section. Tonight, it gets denser. As we explored in our Friend of the Devils episodes, the original Rhythm Devils concept of spring 1978 was for an expanded crew to take over Mickey Hart's percussion collection. According to the Lansdale Reporter, the Spectrum gang included all six band members and assorted people from the crew. One scene report from a fan suggests that Bill Walton, sidelined from basketball for the season, was among them, which I find eminently believable.
- [28:24]
Gary Lambert
I love the post drums section. The entire end of the show after Rhythm Devils is just straight rock and roll in your face. I find they're having a ton of fun in blowing the roof off the place as they tended to do with the Spectrum.
- [28:54]
David Lemieux
Brian Schiff, the trucking on that.
- [28:57]
Brian Schiff
It was absolutely rocking the pieces. The music was great. What I call the jump backs they did twice. There's an incredible interchange between Bobby and Jerry with. With Jerry, you know, doing lead stuff and Bobby playing slide guitar. And I listened to it recently since I knew we were doing this and I couldn't. First I was thinking, is it Jerry playing slide? But then you hear Jerry's playing his stuff. They played Black Peter one time at the Spectrum, completely in the dark. Like they just shut all the lights out because it was Black Peter. And I'm pretty sure that was that one. But I can't say.
- [30:33]
Jesse Jarno
To this day. And it's just.
- [30:55]
David Lemieux
Scott Jones went back.
- [30:57]
Sam Cutler
To the hotel, which was the old Hilton across from the Spectrum and the baseball stadium. Out of money, dry as could be. Law school exam in 36 hours. I'm in the elevator. A guy goes, hey, follow me. Long story short, I get in the Dead's party suite. There's a cooler, beer. Jerry and Keith are there. I point to the cooler. Jerry nods at me. I chug a beer, point to the cooler again. Jerry smiles, nods again, chug another beer. Spent about an hour and a half in there, drinking beer, listening to them talk, smoking a little with Bobby, chatted with Mickey. Great, great night.
- [31:54]
David Lemieux
From the Dead cast traffic copter. Mr. Completely.
- [31:57]
Gary Lambert
In the era before online maps, if you weren't from the Northeast, it was really smart to talk to someone who was and take notes about the actual right way to get anywhere because there's so many localisms about what you do and don't actually want to do as opposed to what makes sense. Looking at the atlas or maybe what comes in with your tickets from mail order, you know, little flyers they sent out, which is, oh, just, you know, go up 95 and take this exit and then do this. And then your friends are like, no, if you do that, you, you know, go two exits further, then come down on this thing and park here. That kind of lore most, none of which I remember, but seem to exist for every venue.
- [32:49]
David Lemieux
I remember having to keep track of the split in i95 around the Philadelphia area, which it sounds like Mr. Completely also reckoned with, or maybe didn't.
- [32:58]
Gary Lambert
It all seemed to matter because otherwise you'd be stuck in construction on the Parkway or something like that, or like my dumb ass did. Ended up driving through the enormous South Philly ghetto after a show, spun to the gills trying to find the highway because I took the wrong exit, right? You know, what looked like the right exit but was labeled weird in some way.
- [33:28]
David Lemieux
The Northeast highway exchanges could spit you out anywhere. And like the Dead's tour sometimes did, we're going to zag north before we zig further south. David Lemieux.
- [34:04]
Gary Lambert
I remember going to the Hartford Civic Center. And I'd seen them there a bunch in 87, 88. And I remember going in 1990 and just getting off the highway exit and going to downtown Hartford. It was raining. It was March 17th. It was St. Patrick's Day. 90. Dead were playing the 18th and 19th. And it's raining and it's dark and it's nighttime. And these two guys jaywalk. And I had to like, oh, I almost hit them. And it was Brent. And I was like, oh, my God, I was hit Brent. I remember that very well. Downtown Hartford stayed in a hotel. Happened to be the same hotel the crew was staying in. So I was like, there's Harry Poppock and there's Dan Healy. I couldn't believe it.
- [34:41]
David Lemieux
David was pulling into town for some excellent shows, but just over nine years late for the one we're talking about today.
- [34:56]
Gary Lambert
They started playing there in 77 at the. @ the Hartford Civic Center. The Dead played this great show in. In May of 77.
- [35:25]
David Lemieux
That's the release now known as 2 Terrapin.
- [35:27]
Gary Lambert
Another incredible 16,000 seat, the right size east coast venue that was very welcoming to the Deadheads. And it was, you know, it was a good place for them to play. But then, unfortunately, it literally snowed so hard that the roof caved in in 78. And so they had to shut the venue down, come down shaking, Bigfoot, Carrot.
- [35:49]
Jesse Jarno
Still so hot that the room came deep.
- [35:53]
Gary Lambert
And then when they returned there in 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88, 90. They played a lot of good shows at the Hartford Civic. Consistently good shows, too, and some interesting ones for sure. The 81 show in particular, it was a show that has long been on my radar, and it was always up there with 3, 9, 81 at the Madison Square Garden.
- [36:18]
David Lemieux
This seems to be a recurring theme because dude just never stopped playing. Garcia had been through Hartford a month before, playing the Bushnell Theater with the Jerry Garcia band in early February 1981, part of four weeks of side trips before just three nights off and heading back out with the Dead. The Grateful Dead hit Hartford on PI Day.
- [36:37]
Jesse Jarno
You know, it's gonna get stranger, so let's get on with.
- [36:49]
David Lemieux
We talked a good deal about the Grateful Dead in the spring of 81 during our in and out of the Garden episode about that year, which we've linked to@dead.net deadcast. The previous fall, the band had tightened themselves up to record what would become the twin acoustic and electric live albums Reckoning and Dead Set. Hartford was the last night of a 13 show tour that had started in Chicago and worked its way east. And after Hartford, the band was getting ready to hop over the pond for their first European show since 1974.
- [37:19]
Gary Lambert
It was a good place and it was a funny little arena. It was home of the Hartford Whalers at the time. March 14, the first set in particular with one of the biggest early 80s versions of sugary I've ever heard.
- [37:33]
Jesse Jarno
Sam.
- [37:59]
Gary Lambert
I feel that Sugary hit that kind of peak in May of 77. There's a lot of good Sugaries on that tour. And then it was always really good after that. But I feel that the1 on 3-14-81 at the Hartford Civic center is up there with those 77 versions. It hits the Harford first set matches the second set. This first set is just up there with one of the best, certainly one of the best from the early 80s and one of the best from the eras. The second set of this show, it doesn't have a big jam, it doesn't have a shakedown or Scarlet Fire. It's got a lot of really precisely played, really high energy, perfect songs.
- [39:42]
David Lemieux
I love the way Garcia navigates the Ship of Fools vocals here. Ultra present and always timely.
- [40:09]
Jesse Jarno
See.
- [40:24]
Gary Lambert
Great other one too.
- [40:45]
David Lemieux
If you keep track of teases. Garcia quotes from Bach's Joy of Man's Desiring during the transition into Stella Blue.
- [40:58]
Jesse Jarno
Sam.
- [41:33]
Gary Lambert
I love Hartford Civic Center. I saw a lot of Dead shows there. Saw my first show there.
- [41:37]
David Lemieux
That's now Dave's picks 36.
- [41:50]
Sam Cutler
Brought me.
- [41:51]
Jesse Jarno
Out in the cold rain and snow.
- [42:14]
Gary Lambert
It just felt like a very good place for the Dead to play because it's a good sized city, but it's not too big. It's not Boston, it's not Philly, it's not Madison Square Garden. It's a big enough city for the Dead to kind of be a little bit anonymous in, but it's also small enough that we felt like we were home.
- [42:30]
David Lemieux
Not every head shared this take to some. Hartford was Harshford. Mr. Completely.
- [42:36]
Gary Lambert
I never had the Harshford experience that people talk about with the terrible security and cops and stuff like that. But that was just luck. But after 87, it wasn't a special room. It was just another shed.
- [42:50]
David Lemieux
But sometimes you harsh the Ford and sometimes the Ford, well, it harshes you.
- [42:55]
Gary Lambert
It's a pretty big city, but it's no match for Deadheads again. There's another place that they got asked to not come back after the spring.
- [43:02]
David Lemieux
1990 shows where David almost ran over Brent Midland and an estimated 5,000 deadheads camped out in the city park. The Dead didn't return, though the Jerry Garcia Band did. With a few exceptions, by the late 1980s, the dead could no longer play some of their favorite venues. The Dead certainly had lots of fans in the Mid Atlantic region, but maybe one reason they found some favorite homes there is because the venues allowed enough space to fit both the local heads as well as the rabid Dead freaks of the Northeast that hit whatever shows were an easy ish, striking distance, at least for most of the 80s. In our friend of the Devils episodes about the Dead Spring 78 tour, we heard about how the tour picked up more Deadheads as it moved north. I'd argue that the balancing line was probably somewhere just south of Washington D.C. roughly where the highways get untangled and the roads open up a little bit more. How do you get to Washington DC? Mr. Completely.
- [44:09]
Gary Lambert
And like, there was a classic thing like that with RFK Stadium, where if you're going to rfk, there's this like series of exits and if you take the wrong one that really looks like the right one, you actually end up in Anacostia, which is not where you want to be, as opposed to ending up in the parking lot for RFK Stadium, which is where you do want to be.
- [44:31]
David Lemieux
But beyond the Beltway, things loosened considerably.
- [44:34]
Gary Lambert
Everywhere in the Northeast had somewhere like that, whereas everywhere in the south the dangers were just cops, cops, cops, cops, cops. But like getting to the venue, if you missed the venue, like there was no chance of getting on a one way high, you know, parkway with no exit for 12 miles. All of a sudden you're two counties over and you're like, how the hell did I get here?
- [44:59]
David Lemieux
Once free of the Northeast's gravitational pull, all kinds of different touring strategies came into play.
- [45:05]
Gary Lambert
In the pre cell phone era, we developed, my friends and I, just a couple of ways of meeting up in places. And it all just grew out of going to shows at Hampton. None of it was planned. It just became the habit that if you're staying at a hotel and there is a Red Roof Inn near the venue, you stay at the Red Roof Inn near the venue.
- [45:29]
Sam Cutler
Next time, hit the roof. Red roof ends call 1-800-THE ROOF.
- [45:33]
Gary Lambert
This developed over the course of years into literally a herding mechanism. And of course it only extends so far. At those times I've actually tried to look up, you know, how far north did Red Roof inns go in 1990? And because they weren't everywhere, but they were everywhere in the south and they were pretty far, I think in the Midwest and they went some north. But it wasn't like a fully established. It wasn't like Howard Johnson's or something like that where you could go anywhere and Howard Johnson had his hojo working somewhere.
- [46:11]
Jesse Jarno
Howard Johnson got his hojo working. Hold your working on me.
- [46:20]
David Lemieux
Really teed us up for an NRBQ drop, huh, Mr. C?
- [46:23]
Gary Lambert
Like 85% of my hotel room party memories are at a random red roof to the point that sometimes I have a hard time remembering was this Greensboro or was this Charlotte or was it Hampton or Roanoke or any of these places that had them? And Waffle Houses, it's a little bit of a joke now. Waffle Houses are more famous for disaster recovery and late night brawls than anything else. But at the time, it was the most reliable food you could find on the road in terms of food that wasn't gross, where you could actually just get a decent hash browns and eggs and bacon and coffee at any time in the middle of the night, anywhere you were, it was always going to be the same.
- [47:09]
Sam Cutler
Just say good morning.
- [47:11]
Gary Lambert
Good morning.
- [47:13]
Sam Cutler
The Waffle House way.
- [47:14]
David Lemieux
I like it that way.
- [47:15]
Rich Mahan
We've got things any way you like.
- [47:17]
Jesse Jarno
Them, 24 hours a day. Just come on in, come on in. You'll see, you'll see. We're gonna treat you like your family.
- [47:33]
David Lemieux
David Lemieux had his own post show dining preferences.
- [47:36]
Gary Lambert
We got to know all of the 24 hour restaurants around the country. Denny's was a big one for us. Denny's, you could always get that club sandwich with the little toothpicks holding it in cut into quarters with french fries.
- [47:49]
David Lemieux
But like Red Roof Inn, Waffle House was a meetup spot for at least some crews.
- [47:53]
Gary Lambert
If you're gonna get food the day of the show, like at a restaurant or late night afterwards and there's a Waffle House, you go to the Waffle House and. But it was always gonna be edible, right? And you wouldn't get hassled. And they weren't weird about people being in there late. They weren't weird about people being in there for two hours where you're trying to get your face back on so you can drive to the next place, which there was a lot of that. There was a lot of will like try and get as far as the, as far as the Waffle House. Have some food ground out and then be ready to drive another three or four hours after that in a little better state of mind relative to driving.
- [48:39]
David Lemieux
If you're all in a better headspace now, get your local microbus up to 88 miles an hour. We're headed for Hampton 81.
- [48:48]
Gary Lambert
Spring is here, so bring the family to the Spring Carnival. Enjoy the Amusements of America Midway with new exciting rides, plus all of your old favorites. Don't forget WristBand days, Thursday, May 11 and Sunday, May 14, when you can ride all the rides as often as you like. For one, Bryce the applause. Amusements of America Midway, the family fun place.
- [49:06]
David Lemieux
There are many legendary factors about the Dead's appearances at the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia. But one, perhaps underrated bit is that their spring visit sometimes coincided with the Amusements of America Traveling Carnival. Set up in one quadrant of the parking lot, as they were for the May Day, 1981 show on the new Box. The circus was in town, and so is the circus.
- [49:44]
Gary Lambert
David Lemieux For east coast venues. Everybody would go to the Spectrum and the Gardens because they were easy to get to. And they, they drew from these huge metropolitan areas. But the Hampton Coliseum, I think, was the first, one of the only real destination east coast venues. Up there with Red Rocks, up there with the Greek Theater in Berkeley, up there with the Frost, up there with all these places that it was a really special place to see the Dead, because for whatever reason, they delivered when they played there.
- [50:42]
David Lemieux
Opened in 1969 and originally called the Hampton Roads Coliseum, it's still there, gleaming on the side of i64 with its distinct giant molded wings created on site when the venue is built. There were a few factors that made the 14,000 capacity room a comfortable home for the Dead.
- [50:59]
Gary Lambert
It was a smaller venue. It also was a general admission venue. Every venue I ever saw, the Dead on the east coast, the floor was entirely seats. The Hampton Coliseum, the entire venue, seats and floor was all general admission. So it had that kind of California vibe. Like I saw the Dead of the Kaiser. Saw them at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Those were big venues that were entirely general admission. Everybody was respectful. Nobody, you know, fought for seats or anything. You sat where there was room and that was it.
- [51:27]
David Lemieux
Mr. Completely.
- [51:29]
Gary Lambert
Hampton had a rep as not a bad cop place. So different from Richmond. Like the cops there were not weird. It was a relatively easy place to get in and out of. Like it was a good driving destination. It was like easy hotels, easy. Like everything about it was easy. And that's kind of what people liked about it.
- [51:53]
David Lemieux
For Northeast Deadheads, it made a destination distant enough to generate adventure. Usually when the Dead performed Chuck Berry's the Promised Land, they were celebrating the song's destination in California. But at the Hampton Coliseum, they were just across the bridge from the song's departure point at the Norfolk bus station. The 81 show is less than two months after the Hartford gig we talked about before. But on the Grateful Dead timeline that included their Europe 81 tour, recording an unheard album with Robert Hunter at Front street, mixing the live album Dead Set to be released over the summer, appearing on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show with Ken Kesey to promote Reckoning, and playing an acoustic benefit for Siva, Sing out for Sight, the band's last performance engineered by Owsley Stanley, recently released by the Owsley Stanley foundation as sing out, Hampton 81 is hot across the board. Another show in the band's somewhat conservative post Dead set mode before the gradual rewearding of the middle 80s. There's a scorching Let it grow in the first set.
- [53:28]
Jesse Jarno
Sam.
- [53:54]
David Lemieux
And great moments of Liftoff in the second.
- [54:27]
Gary Lambert
The Dead just seem to love playing there. It just seems appropriate that that's where the bust outs would happen. Boxer Rain 1980 along with the first.
- [54:47]
David Lemieux
Box of rain in 13 years, they also debuted Bob Dylan's Visions of Johanna. And while no doubt Hampton was special for its own reasons, there was a semi practical reason why the venue saw the band debut or dust off songs. They were tour opening shows. Mr. Completely.
- [55:04]
Gary Lambert
When I went in 85 and 86, I put very little effort into getting tickets and just got them. It was fine, no problem. Like in 86, I think I went and stood in line for two hours or something. 87, it was like go camp overnight at the ticket place if you actually want seats. But that was just the Jerry hype. That wasn't Hampton height. That was first east coast shows after Jerry almost died. And then those shows were not exceptional musically, with a couple of exceptions. The infamous Hampton Terrapin from 87, unbelievable. Captured on video famously through the roof. But among the people that I went with, that's when it started accumulating like heady vibe.
- [55:55]
David Lemieux
And then there was 1989 when the name formerly the Warlocks appeared on the venue marquee, first since the Greek. 84 Dark Star we spoke about a few episodes back, but also the first help on the way slipknot since 85 and the first addicts of my life since 72. You can find all this on the formerly the Warlock CDs cementing the venue's legendary reputation. Just in time for the Dead to never play there again. But as with a few other spots we're talking about today, the Jerry Garcia band returned. Their 1991 show is now part of the pure Jerry Series. And there's a pretty good tour story that goes with that one. Too good not to include Mr. Completely.
- [57:08]
Gary Lambert
I always stayed at the Red Roof. That was just part of the thing that was part of our whole deal, like I've discussed. But the Chamberlain Hotel was this famous party scene. And it's this, this old, old building that's literally out on the naval base property in Norfolk. And it's out on the water. Like you have to drive through the naval base to get to it and. Which you wouldn't think would be a magnet for heads, except it's one of these hotels that at the time now it's been, I guess it's been fixed up. It was really big and not too expensive and had been really nice with all that velvet psychedelic wallpaper and super psychedelic rugs on the corridors and shit. But it was old enough at that point that the management, like, weren't very strict. So it was a buck wild party out at this place and, like, heads in every room and just bedlam and biters parties and people tripping balls, walking up and down the hallways and like, truly psychedelic wallpaper everywhere. There was a pool, the whole thing. And I went out there just for parties a couple times. But the funniest thing that happened there, funniest unless you got busted, was in 91, a bunch of heads were staying there for Jerry band shows. And Dan Quayle ended up staying there. And his Secret Service detail raided the whole place, like, swept it bottom to top to, like, clear it for Dan Quayle to stay in the executive suite on the top floor. So I know people who flushed like thousands of dollars worth of acid and stuff down that, like, you know, imagine getting busted, like, get, like. And some people got actually busted by Dan fucking Quail, Secret Service deep detachment, because he was staying in the same hotel they did. But it was a hoot until that happened.
- [59:45]
David Lemieux
By then, the Hampton legend was well printed.
- [59:48]
Gary Lambert
There's no question Warlocks was the pivot point, like, after. I also never heard it called the mothership until the 90s, even though I can see why people call it that, you know, like, that wasn't a thing. I never heard that term.
- [60:03]
David Lemieux
I mean, somebody probably used it sometimes, but Usenet searches back up this assertion. No references to Hampton as the mothership appear until 1996. In the 90s, Hampton Coliseum became a favored venue for fish, and its lore accumulated. It's a short drive to our next venue, a little less than 200 miles and barely a year later, for starters. And if the Hampton Coliseum looks Like a mothership. Our next destination looks like a giant Pringle. It was a giant Pringle directly adjacent to Washington DC's Beltway. David Lemieux.
- [60:55]
Gary Lambert
The Cap center was another venue where you get off the highway and then you had to go this long road to get into the Cap Center. And again, it wasn't too bad. The Cap center at the time was used 40 nights a year for hockey, 40 for basketball. Plenty of concerts. They knew what they were doing, but if you could avoid those things. So we oftentimes would stay at these hotels that were walking distance. They were a long walk, but they beat traffic. So instead of, you know, 40 minutes in traffic, you got a half hour walk to the place.
- [61:24]
David Lemieux
The Dead made their first foray to the Cap center in summer 1974, bringing along the wall of Sound. It's hard to say the place was ever beloved, but they kept on trucking back in 76, 78, 80, 81. And our first capital stopped today, September 15, 1982. Please welcome creative director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, David Leopold.
- [61:47]
David Leopold
If you'd asked my dad today, you raised five kids, what was the biggest mistake you made as a parent? I'm pretty confident he would say letting.
- [61:55]
John Leopold
The boys go to red Rocks in.
- [61:56]
David Leopold
1982, because nothing ever happened.
- [61:58]
John Leopold
But we were never the same.
- [62:00]
David Lemieux
And please welcome back from the Arhoolie Foundation, David's twin, John Leopold.
- [62:05]
John Leopold
We literally never came back from that trip. We were on a different road after that one.
- [62:10]
David Lemieux
John is executive producer of the new album A Tribute to the King of Zydeco. Clifton Cheniere featuring the Freakin Rolling Stones, which we've linked to@dead.net deadcast but in 1982, being teenagers in the middle of Pennsylvania, they had to be resourceful about getting to gigs.
- [62:26]
John Leopold
We worked in this pseudo mall in downtown Harrisburg called Strawberry Square. Dave worked at a delicatessen and I worked at a Tex Mex restaurant. And we had to figure out how to get to shows.
- [62:39]
David Leopold
We were indiscriminate. If you could drive us, you might have been a serial killer, but that was good enough for us.
- [62:45]
John Leopold
The previous September, we went to Buffalo. There was a guy who worked in the bookstore there and we convinced him to drive us. We didn't really know him that well, but he drove us to Buffalo. And so this time there was a woman. I don't remember where she worked, but she worked Strawberry Square. And I think she liked the idea of twin boys going to a Grateful Dead show. It seemed, you know, interesting.
- [63:11]
David Lemieux
But even in Harrisburg, the Leopolds had started connecting to the outside Dead scene. We told some of this story in our in and out of the Garden episodes, but it bears repeating.
- [63:20]
David Leopold
DAVE My dad had a Watts line. You can make unlimited long distance phone call. You paid one price. And he worked for the Pennsylvania Senate. And we grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Nothing ever happened. So after school, we would go down there and call people. That's how John met Blair Jackson. Read the book, and so let's give him a call. It was another world.
- [63:45]
David Lemieux
They found another good use for it.
- [63:47]
John Leopold
JOHN In Philadelphia, we were selling posters. We had this 11 by 14 poster. It had like a rose in the middle that the petal spelled out Grateful Dead. And right before showtime, this van came by, swooped in, gave us a summons, and grabbed all of our stuff. Winterland Productions was enforcing the copyright and kind of blew us away. And we like, take the posters, but we bought all this other stuff. We sold these posters just to have money to buy other stuff, right? I mean, that's what we were doing. We were 16 years old and we came home and we were upset about it. And my father's a lawyer, and he read the summons and he said, well, you can protest it for three days. So Dave calls up the lawyer, whose name was M. Kelly Tillery. He says, hey, you stole our stuff. And the guy says, but you broke our copyright. I can take you to court. And. And Dave says, my father's a lawyer. I got free legal help, so I'm going after the stuff you stole from me. And that caused the guy to think for a moment. But maybe six or eight weeks later, we get this huge box. I mean, just huge box of stuff, because it had our. Our stuff and, like, lots of other people's stuff too.
- [65:02]
David Leopold
Well, Bob Menken photos. It was a lot of bootleg images, shirts, stickers. We were into it all. I mean, we want to. It was all magic to us.
- [65:14]
John Leopold
One of those things was this 8x10 photograph of the Dead from English Town and on. But on the back it had a list of every show that they played the previous year and what they played at every show, laser beam graphics. And we were like, wow, look at all these shows. It's amazing. By that summer, we started collecting set lists and we were starting to build a network of people to tell us about what happened at shows.
- [65:40]
David Lemieux
Unlimited calling helps, but so does having Dave Leopold, a gifted graphic artist who began keeping his beautiful tour books in the summer of 1982, mixing drawings, notes, and collage.
- [65:51]
David Leopold
There was a lot of time to kill when you're on the road. We started doing it just as a way to capture the information. It's not like we learned it from somebody. But what else are you going to do? You're going to draw pictures, put in stickers, something you found at the show? Found objects are the best.
- [66:06]
David Lemieux
We've posted an image of Dave's tour book for landover82@dead.net deadcast by landover we.
- [66:13]
John Leopold
Were already started thinking like hey, we're going to put our own picture together and create the print, not printers. We started having an idea of what was happening out there in a different way. It was much more organic, right? There was no Internet. There wasn't a single source you could find it. You had to have friends who were at the show who could tell you or a taper who could share a tape.
- [66:34]
David Lemieux
In a world without Dead Base or the Golden Road or an incredibly up to date tape collection, every show was a surprise. So the Leopold boys kicked at the dust around Strawberry Square until it was time to roll out.
- [66:45]
John Leopold
We literally had to wait until she was done with work to go to the show. So we got there right before. We didn't get a lot of hangout time before the show but we got to the show and I don't even think she stayed with us. We immediately found our people and enjoyed the show.
- [67:02]
David Lemieux
The Leopolds had their own strategy for finding their friends at shows.
- [67:06]
John Leopold
John we didn't try to get right up on the rail. We were on the second level but we wanted an unobstructed view and we wanted to be in the place first, the first row and then our folks would come around to those spaces, right. Those were less contested. Your community could come together, right? Your friends could come and dance with you and everything else. So the community was really important to us In a faceless facility like that just helped that happen.
- [67:33]
David Leopold
Dave we had met people over the summer in Red Rocks and Oklahoma City. So you know, our world was expanding and you know, just some of the freaks that you would see at every show all of a sudden were like.
- [67:45]
Brian Schiff
Oh yeah, that guy.
- [67:46]
David Lemieux
And you might soon realize that you're that guy too. Not that Dave and John needed much reminding.
- [67:52]
David Leopold
Twins walking around. Yeah, it was, we were freak shows. But that was true every day of our life. You know, when we were together, especially at that stage of our life, we really looked a lot alike.
- [68:03]
David Lemieux
Dave's tour book helped bring back memories.
- [68:06]
David Leopold
As I look at that page, I remember where we were in the arena. We were on Jerry's side about, I don't know, half one third of the way back, we were over a stairwell. And I don't know if those were our seats. In fact, I'm pretty sure they were not our seats. That was just a place that was great for us because there was nobody in front of us that was sort of open space and we had a good sight line of the band, even if we weren't real up close.
- [68:34]
David Lemieux
For burgeoning set list archivists, it was a wild ride from the get go. Pardon our audience tape.
- [69:08]
David Leopold
I was looking at that page this morning. It really brought back to me the whole experience of getting there just in time. Early in my Grateful Dead career, I was always concerned about missing something and so I'd want to get to the show really early. So when we got to the show and they start with playing in the band, because it starts almost as soon as we get there, my first thought is, we've missed a set. You know, we're late in the game. How can we screw this up so bad?
- [69:48]
David Lemieux
Sadly, you're going to have to inquire with a tape head about the first set. Archivist David Lemieux.
- [69:54]
Gary Lambert
Unfortunately, the board tape was missing the first 15 minutes. Occasionally a tape is missing a minute and then we can fix it with something else. Either an audience tape from the show or something else, or an internal edit. This was a little too much.
- [70:05]
David Lemieux
That opening 15 minutes includes a sweet playing in the band into Crazy Fingers, into Little Red Rooster, John Leopold.
- [70:12]
John Leopold
There's a lot of jamming in that show. They fall into these pieces in the first set and the second set. That for us as newish Deadheads, we'd had this experience where it was close to the 60s experience, where they're playing stuff, you don't know where they're going. That was very, very exciting for us. We knew that they had broken out Dupree's Diamond Blues, that they had some new songs. We hadn't heard them, but we knew about this. If you just look and you say the 80s, Jerry's not great, and there's all sorts of drug problems and all that stuff. But for us as new Deadheads, it didn't seem like a static band to us in any way, shape or form. It just felt like a very exciting time to be into the music.
- [70:57]
David Lemieux
Go musicing for the tape of the first set and it's not hard to find. Tune in to Enjoying the Ride. And the second set opens with a monster Shakedown street. But then it rolls right into another playing jam before landing in Lost Sail. Things get ultra Conversational. En route into Not Fade Away, in Dave's Notebook, he writes a real hand clapper. The Not Fade Away hand claps had happened a few times in the earlier 70s, but this is one of the first really big instances leading to the call and response versions from the later part of the decade.
- [73:04]
Sam Cutler
Away.
- [73:05]
Jesse Jarno
No, I love will not fade Fade.
- [73:07]
Sam Cutler
Away.
- [73:13]
David Leopold
It just struck me as it was just one of those sort of spontaneous things that happened at a Grateful Dead concert that everybody was tuned into. And it seems obvious now, but I'm not sure people had experienced it just like that on the East Coast, 1982, you know, sure, if you were at Winterland in 78, sure, I can tell you the show that, you know, people were doing that. But it was. This seemed very spontaneous.
- [73:41]
David Lemieux
And for the encore, seemingly out of the blue, the debut version of the most popular song the Grateful Dead would ever write.
- [73:48]
David Leopold
And of course we wouldn't leave the venue before the encore, although there were people leaving and they started. And I just thought it was Bertha, you know, I thought, are we just hearing it weird?
- [74:11]
Jesse Jarno
Must be getting early Thoughts are running late Came by now I'm a morning sky it's so falling Roll the curtain I don't care by the candle Curse the grid dawn is breaking everywhere it's.
- [74:30]
David Lemieux
Alright in his notebook, Dave gets the title right. Touch of Gray and notes the first ever, which everyone thought was Bertha or something.
- [74:39]
David Leopold
And then obviously it's a different song. And so we just sort of stood there sort of watching it and listening to it. I wanted to know what was happening. I was young enough that I didn't want to lose myself in dancing to it, because I wanted to find out what it was like. This is a new thing. The Grateful Dead are doing a new thing. What is this new thing that they're doing? And so we listen to it and of course, the chorus is something that we remembered afterwards.
- [75:05]
Jesse Jarno
I will get back I will get back I will get back I will survive.
- [75:25]
David Lemieux
Touch of Grey had been a long time coming, played in a solo arrangement for a few years by Robert Hunter, and was the title track for that unfinished Hunter album we've mentioned a few times. But it was still a shocker, and even more so that it would remain unreleased for nearly another half decade. In addition to a few lines in a different order, this early draft has a rhyme later excised.
- [75:46]
Jesse Jarno
I see you got your list out. Say a piece. Cheers to. Yes, I get the gist of it, but it's all right. The only thing I meant to say. Sorry that you feel that way Every silver lining's got a touch of gray.
- [76:07]
David Leopold
I don't know how we knew it was called Touch of Gray. I think just people started referring to that pretty soon. Because I remember when, for instance, when Helena Bucket came out, we first thought it might be called Enjoying the Ride.
- [76:19]
David Lemieux
The debut of Touch of Grey allows us a brief glimpse of the Deadhead communication network in 1982, before the Usenet really caught on, before the golden Road, there was the tour one sheet Michael, published by Michael Linna.
- [76:32]
David Leopold
Michael started, I think sometime in 1982. That's how we probably found out about the tunes they played in Oregon. You know, the west la, the Day Job and the Duprees.
- [76:42]
David Lemieux
All the new tunes were duly reported in Michael a few weeks later. Maybe someone in the Leopold's vicinity knew the version Hunter had been playing live. By the time Dave made his tourbook page, the name of the new song had reached him via the Rounder Than Light Deadhead word of mouth network.
- [76:59]
Jesse Jarno
We will get by we will get.
- [77:06]
Sam Cutler
By.
- [77:10]
Jesse Jarno
We will get back we will survive.
- [77:19]
David Lemieux
In 1982, the 18,000 capacity cap center was at the upper boundary of where the Dead could play. A contrast to the slightly cozier 14,000 capacity Hampton Coliseum. But Touch of Gray shot the band into a new orbit. And in the years that followed, the Capital seemed small by comparison. Starting in the late 1980s, the Dead often played there for three or four night runs. Strap in gang, we're jumping to the 90s. Archivist David Lemieux.
- [78:05]
Gary Lambert
They didn't have a lot of places down in Washington D.C. area. So this was like their Washington D.C. venue. I always loved it. I saw 11 shows there. It was easy to get in with the traffic. It was like a big parking lot. The Shakedown street area was very. That was the first time I ever saw a really defined Shakedown Street. Cap center had one big area, the main vending area, which we didn't really call Shakedown street back then, just the busiest part of it. I remember a lot of things about the Cap center being very positive. And I remember the sound being very good. And I remember just seeing a lot of good shows there.
- [78:41]
David Lemieux
Chad Eyler left us this story@stories.dead.net so.
- [78:45]
Sam Cutler
We were from York, Pennsylvania, which was just literally right up the road from the Capitol center, probably about an hour and a half drive. Capitol center always had a really good scene. Parking there was great. It was everything a Deadhead could want. So of course we score tickets for 3:17St. Patrick's Day. And that show is One of the only shows that I have a picture of myself at in the parking lot, which I show my children now who are both Deadheads, and they're kind of amazed by that, that it was so long ago.
- [79:33]
Gary Lambert
I'm a big fan of spring 93, really from December 92, when Jerry came back from his six month hiatus. Came back with some great shows in December 92 right up through Cal Expo, May of 93. That whole six months I just think is top notch dead. This show in particular, I've always been a big fan of. A year before Bruce Hornsby left for good, left the Grateful Dead, and I just felt that this was a very good example of the Vince Only iteration of the Grateful Dead. He sounds great, the band sounds great. I feel the band is inspired. You get a few of the newer songs that had debuted in 92 and 93, which is always nice. It's good to get some of that newer material in once in a while.
- [80:35]
Sam Cutler
What a just wonderful show. Of course you have the newer songs like Eternity and Liberty, but you have those hauntingly beautiful songs like the Days between and the lovely Just Lazy River Road.
- [80:50]
Jesse Jarno
Stars fall down in buckets like rain but there ain't no standing room Bright blue box cars Train by train Cloud of wild dreams unfold Way down Down along that lazy river road.
- [81:23]
David Lemieux
To my ears, this is one of the most exciting things about the grateful dead from 1993 to 1995. The amount of new songs the band was debuting in preparation for their never completed final studio album. This Cap center show has that Lazy River Road we just heard, plus Bob Weir and Willie Dixon's Eternity.
- [81:42]
Jesse Jarno
Everything. Crawl, creep or fly Just live until they die I love you honey, you love me let's love each other through Eternal through each other Eternity.
- [82:13]
David Lemieux
In the second set, the band opens with Liberty. Like Touch of Gray, it was part of Robert Hunter's solo repertoire before making the jump to the Dead. The Dead certainly never needed excuses to raise their eyebrows along with the flag, but it was even more topical than usual at these landover shows. The day before, Mickey Hart and Jerry Garcia had braved the blizzard to spend time hobnobbing with senators at the Library of Congress celebrating the release of the Spirit Cries music from the rainforests of South America and the Caribbean. Produced by Mick, The Cap Center 93 show is the Dark Star Night. But another way to describe the second set is a 44 minute plane in the band into Dark Star, into the other one. It's the last of six times these three centerpiece jams appeared in the same show.
- [83:47]
Jesse Jarno
It's.
- [84:17]
David Lemieux
Chad Eyler.
- [84:18]
Sam Cutler
It was also just a wild ride, too. I mean, the other one, you could hear it on tapes, and it was happening within the arena as well. But I think Healy was on the soundboard and he was doing some manipulation of weird voice through that song.
- [84:33]
Jesse Jarno
Spanish lady come to me she lives.
- [84:35]
John Leopold
Under the.
- [84:40]
Jesse Jarno
In Rainbow Spiral running around a triple that explodes. You let the spooky clear of my mind. I like another way.
- [85:03]
David Lemieux
There's drums in space, of course, but it's all one big jam, man. And perhaps inspired by all the folklore at the Library of Congress, or maybe just that he'd recently been playing it with David Grisman, Jerry Garcia moves into a jam on the classic Anglo folk song celebrating a legendary queer sailor, the handsome cabin boy deep in the second set, punctuating the wild, psychedelic ride. Garcia and Hunter still knew the Days between debuted a month earlier, only the third version.
- [86:29]
Jesse Jarno
And there were days between summer flies and August flies and the world grows dark in me.
- [86:51]
David Lemieux
We refer you to the Silver Snarling Trumpeter episodes for more on those in between days. Like the Landover 82 show, the encore contains the debut of a classic song, only this time it's not the Dead's classic.
- [87:18]
Jesse Jarno
Somebody.
- [87:30]
David Lemieux
Little on the bozo nose, perhaps, but in March 1993, the world was a bit upside down. Anyway, at the show that night was an 80s vintage deadhead named Dennis Alpert. And yes, he was second cousins with Richard Alpert, AKA Ram Dass, but he was no Nepo cousin.
- [87:46]
Dennis Alpert
My friend Dan Rosenthal and I went to the University of Rochester, and we used to sit around goofing, whether we were touring or sitting up at campus listening to the Dead or whatever. We used to joke that someday we're going to work in the White House, and when we do, we're going to have the Grateful Dead play on the south lawn of the White House. That was our big ha ha dream. So, anyway, so we both go work for the Clinton Gore campaign.
- [88:08]
David Lemieux
Dennis title was trip director, working directly with Senator and soon to be Vice President Al Gore traveling on that campaign.
- [88:16]
Dennis Alpert
I was Al Gore's trip director and spent every day of that campaign with either Al Gore or Bill Clinton. I basically ran the roadshow. The best way to describe it is I'm kind of the tour manager and stage manager for the Vice president. That's pretty much what my job was.
- [88:35]
David Lemieux
There was a lot of downtime.
- [88:36]
Dennis Alpert
I spent a lot of time with President Clinton on that campaign. And we talked about 60s, we talked about the Grateful Dead. We talked about music and Bill Clinton was a huge fan of the Dead. Loved Jerry. Al Gore and Tipper both, believe it or not, were fans of the Dead. Al used to talk about. He talked to me one night on the plane. I can't remember where we were going at the time, but he and I was like the only two people awake late at night. And we were talking about the Dead. And he told me that one of the eight track tapes that he had in Vietnam was Working Man's Dead. And he said he used to just play it over and over and over and over again because it brought home to him in Vietnam.
- [89:33]
Jesse Jarno
Well, the first days are the hardest days. Don't you worry anymore. Those where life looks like easy street There is danger at your door.
- [89:46]
Dennis Alpert
He was raised in Tennessee and Working Man's Dead was Americana, country, or Bakersfield sound music, whatever, and him, he identified with that. Tipper was a fan of the Dead also. She was a total flower child in the 60s and 70s.
- [89:59]
David Lemieux
Still doesn't get a pass for the PMRC, though.
- [90:02]
Dennis Alpert
I ended up going right to the White House. January 1993. One of the first things I did when I got to my office, this is like the first week of February of 1993, is I picked up the phone and I called Grateful Dead Productions in search of Dennis McNally. I'd met Dennis at a show at the Hampton Coliseum maybe a couple years before, and I said, hey, Dennis, you and I have met only once before in Virginia at Hampton Coliseum parking lot. And I'm now working in the Clinton administration. I'm a senior staffer for Vice President Gore, and we would like to invite you and the boys to the White House. And he said, shut the fuck up. And I said, dennis, this is my first official duty in my job. I'm sitting at my desk. I want to let you know it's a new generation of Americans. It's a new era. This is a young president and vice president who grew up in the same generation as the band. And we want to invite you guys to the White House. Next thing I heard, click.
- [91:08]
David Lemieux
In deference to thoughts on the Dead, this was an era when phones still did that.
- [91:13]
Dennis Alpert
He hung up on me. I called the White House operator, and I had the White House operator called Grateful Dead Productions. And they got him on the phone and they said, yes, Mr. McNally, this is the White House operator. We have a Mr. Alpert on the phone for you. So he said, well, can you give me a number to call? And they did. And so he called me Back again. But I did it through the White House switchboard. So he spoke to the switchboard first, and then they connected him to me and. And I said, yeah, I'm no shit, Dennis. Long time Deadhead. And here's the deal. When you guys are in town in March, we want to host you at the White House. Or at least we want to invite you and the band and whoever you want to come to the White House, and we'll provide you the VIP tour and whatever else, other surprises we can come up with. We just want you to come and feel welcome in the White House and know that it's a. A whole new era.
- [92:08]
David Lemieux
The success of the Grateful Dead in the late 80s and 90s was monumental. Considered as a band, it was amazing. Considered as an American cultural institution, it's dazzling. We've heard this season about the Rex Foundation's support of artists and musicians and weirdos from Ornette Coleman to Harry Smith. And in 1993, they were an arts organization with access to the White House.
- [92:29]
Dennis Alpert
They came to Washington D.C. for pre shows, I think, in March of 93. And, you know, we took care of all the logistics. And at the curb, waiting to meet them as they got. They pulled the van into the east visitors gate was my oldest brother Brian, who turned me on to the Grateful Dead, as I told you, and my friend Dan Rosenthal. And hi. And me. And out of the van pours Jerry, Mickey, Phil, Jill, mountain girl, Dennis McNally, Sue Swanson, maybe, you know, a bunch of the Dead family. Bobby blew it off. He went up to the Hill. He was doing some lobbying and had some meetings on some environmental issues, which was cool. That was no problem. And we literally spent the day with the band at the White House. They all were very familiar with the artwork that was in the White House.
- [93:20]
Sam Cutler
Why me, Abe? Of all people, why me?
- [93:25]
Jesse Jarno
Because you're such a dip.
- [93:28]
Dennis Alpert
Jerry was very. He touched a lot of the sculptures and statues that were in the White House. Like he wanted to feel it. And he and Phil would study the paintings very closely. And so, you know, we did this probably two, two and a half hour tour of the White House residence. And then we walked to the West Wing to the Oval Office with Jerry, Phil and Nikki and a small group, you know, Dennis McNally and the others that I was talking about. Heads were turning every five seconds you could hear as we passed by, was that Gary Garcia? Oh, my God, that was Gary Garcia. What are the Grateful Dead doing here?
- [94:07]
David Lemieux
According to Dennis McNally's account, Garcia's attire was sweatpants and he looked worse than the proverbial unmade bed.
- [94:15]
Jesse Jarno
If I was a bed, I would stay a maid.
- [94:20]
Dennis Alpert
I brought him down to the vice president's office. I told the vice president that we were hosting them that day. And I told him, of course, that he was hosting them. So he brought them into the office, you know, shot the shit with him for, like, 30 minutes or so and answered questions. And he showed them his amazing photo of the Earth from space he had at the time. I'm sure he has it somewhere still. It's almost like a Muppet version of himself. And he actually took it out and put it on his hand and held it there in front of the Grateful Dead and played with it. It's just hilariously funny.
- [94:54]
David Lemieux
The White House was no stranger to global leaders, but this was still a new one.
- [94:58]
Dennis Alpert
So when our group left the awning underneath the West Wing basement, come out into what's called West Executive Drive. It's basically parking now. It's just a street between the two buildings. You know, the crowd in the balcony went, yeah. You know, they all cheered, and Jerry started taking bows and waving and like, thank you very much, you know. And our friends, our fellow Deadheads, were all cheering for him.
- [95:26]
David Lemieux
There was time for tea with Tipper, and then it was time to get back to Landover.
- [95:30]
Dennis Alpert
Later that afternoon, President Clinton came back after the band had already left, and I was in the West Wing and hanging out, and he walked in and he comes up to me with a big grin on his face, and he puts his hand on my shoulder and says, I heard that you had old Jerry Garcia here today. Is that true? And I said, yes, sir, it is. He said, you son of a bitch. I can't. First of all, I can't believe you had Jerry here. And two, I can't believe you had him here when I wasn't here. So he was like, tell me all about it. I want to know all about it. What they do, what they say.
- [96:08]
Brian Schiff
How's Jerry doing?
- [96:09]
David Lemieux
The former President can now check out the musical answer on the new Enjoying the Ride box.
- [96:17]
Jesse Jarno
Freedom OO Liberty O Leave me alone Find my own way home.
- [96:35]
David Lemieux
From one form of liberty to another, here's an instant classic from the great Rebecca Adams, the sociologist who brought her class on tour and was deep into her study of Deadheads.
- [96:44]
Chris Goodspace
I had quite an adventure in the Landover parking lot after a show once. I was trying to go to the shows with all different kinds of people. You know, benders and, you know, hall dancers and whatever. I was trying to to experience Tor in a way that was different from the way my students had taught me. I went to the show with a guy who lived in Virginia and his girlfriend, and I won't go into all the details of what happened, but it is the wildest ride to a show I've ever had. And when we got out of the show on the last night, there were these police who were busting a nitrous vendor. And it wasn't that anyone minded them busting nitrous vendors. They were kind of not that well received at that point. But the police were being really mean to this guy, and they had him held down, face down in the parking lot. We're holding him down, and he was crying. It was just horrible. And this guy I went to this show with yelled out, I have a video camera on you. I'm getting everything on film. He didn't, but he yelled that to distract them, and they stopped harshing on the nitrous fender and started chasing him through the parking lot.
- [98:27]
David Lemieux
Before we return to Rebecca's part of the story, I'll point out what an incredibly perfect move this was. Both absurd and helpful and timely in the era of the Rodney King trial.
- [98:36]
Chris Goodspace
I thought it was brilliant. I mean, he got the cop off.
- [98:40]
Sam Cutler
That nitrous vendor, but now there was a new problem.
- [98:44]
Chris Goodspace
He was my ride, and I never remember where I'm parked, and I had no idea. So I started chasing the police because they were chasing my friend. There was this corporate exercise park that was attached to the parking lot. I don't know if it was part of it or what, but there were, like, these little stations where you were supposed to stop and do push ups or jump over a hurdle or, you know, do whatever exercise businessmen did on their morning walks. We ran through that, and at one point, Henry split off and went through this really uneven turf. And the cops kept going. And I started following Henry right behind him. He got to this barbed wire fence and he just scurried up over it and was down on the other side. And there I was on the inside of the barbed wire fence, and I had to climb over that fence.
- [100:03]
Sam Cutler
He.
- [100:04]
Chris Goodspace
He encouraged me, and I got up at the top and I caught my inner thigh on one of the barbs, and I literally just fell over the other side into a pile of something. It's a miracle. I don't think I hurt myself other than ripping the inside of my thigh with the barbed wire.
- [100:26]
David Lemieux
Owie. Chad Eyler had a more peaceful exit from the Cap Center's ample parking. And we'll let him send us off today.
- [100:33]
Sam Cutler
I remember driving back to York that night. We went to my friend's apartment and.
- [100:37]
Chris Goodspace
We talked about the show.
- [100:38]
Sam Cutler
We knew it was great. We knew it was great in the moment and we knew it was great.
- [100:43]
Chris Goodspace
After the show was done.
- [100:44]
Sam Cutler
That's all we could talk about. So of course we did it again. The next night. We drove back down and went to.
- [100:50]
Chris Goodspace
The 318 show, which again, just a stellar show.
- [100:53]
Sam Cutler
But that 317 was my go to tape for driving around my hometown. It was just, just what a stellar one.
- [101:02]
Jesse Jarno
Unbelievable.
- [101:36]
Rich Mahan
Thank you very much for tuning in to the good old Grateful Dead cast. Friends, we'd like to thank our guests in this episode. David Lemieux, Sam Cutler, Dennis Alpert. Hey, what's up? Dennis Tyler, Roy Hart, David Leopold, John Leopold, Rebecca Adams, Brian Schiff, Gary Lambert, Chris Goodspace, Winslow Colwell, Scott Jones and Chad Iler. Extra special thanks to friend of the Dead cast David Gans for his ongoing contributions of audio from his extensive interview archive. Executive producer for the good old Grateful Dead cast, Mark Pincus, produced for Rhino Entertainment by Rich Mahan Promotions and Jesse Jarno. Special thanks to David Lemieux, Brian Dodd and Doran Tyson. All rights reserve.