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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. Foreign 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. Hello friends, welcome back to the Good Old Grateful Dead cast. We are well and truly into our fourth season and in this episode we start digging into the music and stories from the new Grateful Dead Box set set Listen to the River St. Louis 717273 through season four. You can get new episodes of the Good Old Grateful Dead cast right here every other week. Visit us at our website dead.netdeadcast and check out the extra materials we have for you to explore regarding this episode. Also@dead.net deadcast are all of our past episodes, including complete seasons one, two and three and and you can link from there to any and all of the podcasting platforms available so you can listen where you like to listen. Please help this podcast by subscribing hitting that button and if you're up to the task, leave us a review. Thank you very much. You have no idea how kind and helpful it is. The new Grateful Dead Live archival release is right around the corner. It's entitled Listen to the River St. Louis 7172 73. This set includes seven previously unreleased concerts from St. Louis, Missouri recorded on December 9th and 10th 71 at the Fox Theater, October 17th, 18th and 19th, 1972 at the Fox Theater and October 29th and 30th, 1973 at the Keele Auditorium. Production of the 20 CD set is limited to 13,000 individually numbered copies and will also be available in its entirety as a digital Download exclusively@dead.net in Apple, Lossless and FLAC 19224 dead.net will also exclusively release Light Into Ashes, Fox Theater, St. Louis, MO 101872 as a double LP on 180 gram custom vinyl. This one's limited to 7200 copies and the set focuses on an exceptional hour plus jam plucked from the Grateful Dead's October 18, 1972 show at the Fox the breakout show from this set is Fox Theater, St. Louis 121071 and will be available as a 3 CD set and a limited edition 5LP set, also on 180 gram vinyl. Folks, this is an exceptional collection of music that highlights this important transitional period of the band from the end of the Pig Pen era through the establishment of Keith God show as the band's pianist and ultimately integration of vocalist Donna God show as a full fledged band member. And this is prime Grateful Dead music. You can't miss this one. All of these configurations of Listen to the River St. Louis 71, 72, 73 are set for release now on October 8th and pre orders are open now at dead.net St. Louis is a special place unlike any other city in the United States. When you start diving into it, it makes sense that it was one of the Grateful Dead's favorite places to play back in the day. Over the course of the next three episodes we are going to explore the music from this great new box set, Listen to the river, uncover the reasons the Dead love to play there, and tell all kinds of wonderful behind the scenes stories to illustrate the point. This episode comes close to rivaling any previous episode as far as number of guests go, but suffice to say we're going to hear from a multitude of citizens from the City of Blues that is set on the Big River. Lets see what Jesse Jarno has in store for us this time. Hi folks and welcome to St. Louis. First thing we're going to do is we're going to get a level on our monitors here so we know what we're doing.
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That was Bob Weir welcoming the crowd to their own city at the fox Theater on December 9, 1971. The very first notes of the brand new Listen to the river box set capturing seven St. Louis performances from 1971, 1972 and 1973. Grateful Ed Archivist, legacy manager and box set curator David Lemieux.
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The selection process is always very complex. People are always quite often suggesting doing a Greek theater box set or a Red Rocks or some of the kind of classic Grateful Dead places. And while I think that's interesting, I always find it it's the wrong way to approach something, to approach it based on the venue, based on the city. And don't get me wrong, there's phenomenal Greek shows and Red Rocks and stuff, but I've always been of the mind to start with the music first and foremost.
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It's not just that the Dead played frequently in St. Louis, it's that they frequently played classic shows in St. Louis. Was there something in the water? There are three classic sets of shows with a plot arc all their own.
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It tells the story of what is this, 20, 22 months. So it's less than two years of the Grateful Dead's history, and it shows the transition between, you know, going from the Pig Pen Keith era to. To the Keith and Donna era, right through the Wake of the Flood era. So it kind of covers three very distinct albums of Skull n Roses, Europe 72, Wake of the Flood, and then the beginning stages of the stuff that would appear on Mars Hotel.
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Without giving anything away, alongside seven monumental Grateful Dead performances. It's a story that includes between 1971 and 1973, surprise jams, bikers, research development, premonitions of technologies to come, pedal steel guitar, connections to the deepest roots of American music, two LSD labs, and one bar mitzvah. Let us now set our mind dials for December 1971.
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And I'd like to get a little level out of mine if there's any more. If you would. There's something now.
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I can almost hear something.
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Oh, now it seems to pop a little more for this one over here. Hey, do you think I. Do you think I have a deep voice? Well, kind of husky, kind of low, and. No, deep kind of rolling low. The 71 shows, I think, are classic examples of the Skull and Roses era. Grateful Dead, which is the country fied rock and roll. You know, this is not live Dead. This is not Anthem of the Sun. And there were some. Some of those songs you've got. Well, you've got the other one, but this is truly a rock and ROL.
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In 2017, a number of recordings returned to the Grateful Dead's tape vault, including parts of the Fox Theater shows that begin the new box set.
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I find that these two shows are extremely accessible. I've always loved 1210, but we didn't have the whole show. We had a reference copy of one set and then the other set in the master reels. But when that tape came back with the Cornell batch and all those, it kind of opened the door to that show now being a prime consideration. It was the return, the missing reel, the missing set from 71, that allowed us to look at doing a seven show box set.
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The Grateful Dead played lots of shows in lots of town. But as we discovered when putting these episodes together, the band's relationship with St. Louis really did run incredibly deep. In 1971, the dead were still mapping their own version of the United States. Their home was the Road. And on the road, they were still looking for new places to call their own. One place they loved was the Capitol Theater in Portchester, New York, which we talked about at length last season on the Dead Cast. Another was the fox Theater in St. Louis. Like the Fillmore east, it was a movie palace that was perfect for rock shows. Unlike the Fillmore east, it still showed movies. Sam Cutler, the band's tour manager in the early 70s, remembered it lovingly.
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What was happening in America was, you poor Americans are a bit slow sometimes. You didn't realize how good those rooms were. So people were turning them into warehouses. I don't know, you know what I mean? There was like the fox Theater in St. Louis. Fantastic, beautiful. The fucking cinema, but what a room. Perfect. So there's a lot of places like that around America. Unfortunately, quite a few got pulled down, but not any longer. Because what. What civic authorities in various towns realizes is if you have a Fox Theater or a Capital Theater, right, that can lead to the regeneration of a downtown area. Every time there's a Show on there, 3,000 people are coming into a downtown area that was otherwise, you know what I mean, falling on its ass.
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Last season, we trucked along with the spring 71 tour that yielded the live album Skull and Roses. We had Sam read a press release that he wrote about that period, and he pointed out one of the deep dissatisfactions with that particular tour that writing refers to.
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Was booked by an agency in New York that didn't have a fucking clue. I mean, they'd have us one night in Boston and the next night In North Carolina, 2,000 mile away, you know what I mean? With the day off in between, you know, to make the journey and get there. And so it was crazy. Yeah, the routing was horrible. And, you know, I mean, when you. When you book tours for bands, man, you know, human beings are involved. I know it's difficult to imagine that musicians are human, but they are actually, you know what I mean? And so the tours have to match, you know, the expectations of the bands, the economic situation. There's a lot of considerations, none of which were really being particularly well handled by the agency at that time. So we decided to do it in house, basically with me doing it. So, yeah, it was a lot of extra work for me, but also it was, you know, I wanted to do it because I wanted to be within our control, the control of the family of the band and myself, thinking that we could do a lot better job than some guy who's sitting in a little office on Broadway in New York, you know, booking this kind of theoretical group of people called the Grateful Dead.
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Over the course of 1971, Sam Cutler took over the Dead's booking entirely, eventually leading to the formation of his company, out of Town Tours.
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What I did was, you know, looking at America as a kind of logistical problem. My trip with America was, well, what we need to do is base ourselves either on the west coast or on the east coast or in the Midwest, and then, you know, have a base and then move out from that base to other places, you know what I mean? And then return to that base. So we minimize the amount of travel that we had to do. I mean, the problem of America is the problem of distance, the tyranny of distance. You know, you can end up, if you don't book things properly, just driving and, you know, thousands of fucking miles. I mean, ridiculous. Go to ridiculous lengths. So New York's a natural, isn't it? You know what I mean? St. Louis was also a natural. So you tended to the Southern Midwest from St. Louis, but then at the same time, you know, Chicago is only 300 miles from St. Louis. So, you know, 300 miles got to be nothing for a drive or a flight, you know, I mean, it wasn't. Mostly the band flew because it's, you know, less time trip in, you know, in the more of transportation. But you have to think about trucks. You know, trucks are the trucks have to drive, you know, they've got tons of equipment on them. But 300 miles for a truck driver is nothing. That's four hours, four or five hours, you know.
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By December 1971, the Fox Theater was burned into the Grateful Dead's itinerary. Here's Phil Lesh at the start of the December 9th show.
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While we're testing our monitors, there might be something that could be said about trying to be nice to this place. In other words, don't stand on the seats or kick in the walls or rip out the ornaments, seeing as how this is the only place we like to play around here. And if we can't come back here to this theater, we won't come back to this town, which means you'll have to go to Keele Auditorium and listen to Grand Funk Railroad. I'm your captain yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I'm your captain yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I'm your captain yeah, yeah, yeah Ye.
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The Dead had played around St. Louis for years, debuting at the Armory in May 1968. Like a lot of big and small towns across the country, St. Louis developed its own countercultural scene in the late 60s and early 70s with a hip neighborhood or two, an underground newspaper, a freeform radio station, and a bushel of head shops and boutiques, maybe near a local university. It was a network that both mirrored and connected to what had emerged a few years earlier in the Bay Area. All of which the Dead tapped into both consciously and instinctively when they hit the road. It took them a few years to find their zone in St. Louis. St. Louis University student Tony Dwyer would wind up as a local member of the Dead's family.
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You've got the shit that's happening in New York and the stuff that's happening in San Francisco, and you know, then you've got St. Louis in the middle. And, you know, we didn't have communications then the way there is now. And, you know, they'd read the East Village Other, they'd read whatever, you know, whatever paper was coming out of San Francisco. And there was a really hip crowd in St. Louis that sort of synthesized what was going on on either coast. And they really outdid themselves. They took it a step further without even realizing it. They were envisioning what was going on on the east coast and what was going on on the West Coast. And some of the happened was just incredible. The art, the music, I mean, everything, it wasn't recognized at that point for sure. But I mean, and in St. Louis at that time, it was really easy to be a big fish in a small sea. I mean, I think I was 21, 22 when I bought my first house there, you know, in the central west end. I mean, people could do shit. People started businesses, people did all sorts of stuff that was all kind of counter culture related.
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Joe Schwab is the owner of the incredibly cool independent St. Louis record store, Euclid Records. If you live in St. Louis and haven't picked up the new box set yet, Euclid's is your jam. He watched St. Louis's counterculture era as a kid.
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At that time, the central West End, where it was located in St. Louis was just a very bohemian kind of area that had sort of spawned from Laclede Town. Laclede Town was like late 60s. And that was kind of the first. First of the real hippie type areas which had spawned from Gaslight Square, which was kind of the beatnik area of St. Louis at the time. And all of them were kind of located in the central west end of the city. It just kind of moved to different areas, this bohemian kind of thing. I didn't know much about Laclede Town and Greg Allman came in my store one time and he and Duane had lived there on their way from the south out to the west coast.
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Tom Wood saw the dead in St. Louis starting in 1970.
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A big, huge city park in St. Louis, Forest Park. There's a building on top of a hill, it's called the Pavilion. On Sunday afternoons, bands, live rock bands would play at the Pavilion. So it was a happening. You know, it was like St. Louis's version of, I guess, Golden Gate park or something, you know, where there'd be a band set up, people would show up, you know, family friendly, bikers would show up even too, you know, and there'd be a happening. That was a regular thing, I think, pretty much from like maybe 1971. 72, 73, 74.
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Bob Simmons saw his first dead show in May 1970 at Merrimack Junior College. A few months after a chance meeting in Golden Gate park with Phil Lesh.
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Quicksilver Messenger Service played at Forest Park. A free concert. And it was kind of word of mouth. I had heard that Janice Joplin came in and gave a free concert, but I missed out on that one, actually. The grateful dead, in 1969, they played the free concert at Washington University at the Quadrangle. I missed that concert. I wasn't aware of it, but I had gone to the Quadrangle in Washington University to hear other music that was coming in.
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Playing for free outdoors was a time honored rock tradition that the Dead had helped pioneer in Golden Gate park in the 60s. It was also a sound promotional strategy. In many towns, the Dead played for free outdoors before moving on to ticketed gigs. One way they built their reputation as a people's band. They didn't play Forest park, but they did do a free show at the Washington University quadrangle in April. 69. Released as volume 12 in the download series, went pretty well. Dark star crashes.
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Pouring its light into.
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Ashes Mostly taking our road manager to.
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Jail Manager to jail if we play anymore. So we ain't gonna let our road manager go to jail. We like our road manager a lot. He's a real good guy. And you people are really good too. Thank you.
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In May of 1970, when the Dead played at Merrimack Junior College in Kirkwood, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, then on their first national tour, also played for free at the Washington University Quadrangle. No road managers were harmed. One reason for the Dead's frequent returns to St. Louis was likely also manager John McIntyre, a St. Louis native with deep ties to the city. The Dead got a taste of the city's big room for rock when they opened for the Iron Butterfly at the cavernous keele Auditorium in April 1969. A beloved show to local Dead freaks right in the heart of the psychedelic Live Dead era, But not particularly a venue at which the Dead nor the Heads felt welcome, nor one they could yet fill on their own. For that matter, a few months later, an old movie palace downtown presented its first rock concert.
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All right, everybody, clap your hands. Come on, we're gonna take a trip now. Come on. Going back to Miami Going back to Miami Going back to my girl I said I'm going back to Miami in.
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The audience for Wayne Cochran one of the nights was Saint Louis University student Tony Dwyer.
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The Fox Theater was a block away from St. Louis University. And it's a 4503 seat room and fucking beautiful. And, you know, it hadn't had a full audience since, you know, Dr. No or Goldfinger or, you know, something back in the early 60s. And somebody there decided they were in Las Vegas. And they booked Wayne Cochran and the CC Writers for a week. And the show was a complete failure. And we got a note from Edward Arthur, from Arthur Enterprises that owned the theater, and said, you know, anybody at St. Louis University of the student body is welcome to come free of charge. Just come on over and see the show. So I get there and there are like 150, 200 freaking people in a 4,500 seat room. And I'm listening. Wayne's got a great band. He was a great entertainer. But I'm walking around everywhere. I'm in the mezzanine, I'm in the balconies, I'm looking around, I'm looking at this place, and I said, I want to fill this fucking place. At some point. St. Louis gets pretty gray in February, March, that kind of shit. They want something to happen. And they have a thing called Greek Week, where all the fraternities and sororities do shit. And it can be anything from debauchery to, we did a series of Jean Luc Godard movies and this and that. And I said, you know, I think we ought to do a concert. And everybody said, yeah, well, that'd be cool. You know, we could do that in the gym. And I said, no. The fucking gym. No, not in the gym. We're gonna do it at the Fox. You know, everybody started throwing out ideas as to what band they wanted to see. The shirells or fucking 13th floor elevators, you know, whoever it was. I suggested no, that what would be appropriate would be the Grateful Dead. At the Fox, it comes the day that they're to arrive and somebody needs to pick up the band. And a buddy of mine, one of my fraternity brothers, said, you know, you can use my VW bus to go get him. And it came time to go get him and we couldn't find him, so he didn't have the keys. And a buddy of mine said, don't worry about it. And we hotwired the bus and went to the airport to pick them up. And you know, of course back then there wasn't tsa, there wasn't any of that bullshit. You pulled up to the curb and got out of the car and went inside. The airport was basically empty and walking down and here are six or seven guys walking off a plane and it's the band. And Osley and I said, gentlemen, here we are, let's go do it. And Figpen comes up to me and slaps his hip. He's got a fringe pouch with a pineapple granddad or something in it and said, you know, me and Billy, we just drank. You know, these guys are the ones that got in trouble last night, got busted in New Orleans. So anyhow, we go to the airport, Hilton and Garcia and Weir and I think McIntyre, Osley, want to go see the theater. It's like two or three o' clock in the afternoon now. So we go there and of course there's no staff at the theater. So we go in the front door. Garcia goes by and there are these bunch of elderly ladies, these octogenarians working the concession stand and they're preparing for the evening. And Garcia turns to one of the ladies and says, bet you're going to sell a lot of popcorn tonight. I'm standing in the lobby of the theater and there's this guy walks in. He's got long reddish blond hair. He's about 6, 4, and one of his legs is about 4 inches shorter than the. And he's limping in and he's got an overhead projector and a box full of shit. And I said, yeah, what can I do for you? He said, well, I don't have a ticket. And I said, yeah, okay. Well, what can I do for you? And he said, well, I'd like to do a light show. And I said, okay, how much do you get? And he said, well, I'll do it for nothing. Well, that's the case. That's the greatest light show I've ever seen. Come on. And he goes up and he's got this fucking overhead projector. You know those projectors you probably wouldn't know about those overhead projectors, you know, the professors used to do notes in 300 seat auditoriums. This fucking guy goes up there with his oil and water and dye and whatnot and puts on a fucking show. That was ridiculous. And the next day in the Globe Democrat, the morning paper, the fucking upper fold is a picture of the stage with this light show going on. Grateful dead invades St. Louis or whatever the fuck it is.
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Along with sound engineer Owsley Stanley, soon confined to the Bay Area due to the bust in New Orleans just before coming to St. Louis. Check out our Truckin episode. Ramrod was the only crew member that night, arriving late with the gear they'd been busted, but nothing was confiscated. Though there'd be some exaggerated stories about that in later years. But Owsley was there in full force.
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So we're running late and fucking Osley, he's running around, he's up in the mezzanine with an oscilloscope. He's got white noise, know, running everywhere. At any rate, all these guys that were involved in my fraternity, we had these guys basically acting as they were kind of overseeing what's going in the audience. They were security guards, kinda, and a buddy of mine and I dosed them all. And these guys were, I'd say two thirds of the fraternity were in pre medicine. And I think the next day a third of them switched to chemistry. I mean, they would. I mean, we changed lives and for the better.
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Owsley's recording of the Dead's Fox Theater debut on February 2, 1970, can now be heard as Dave's Picks Volume 6, Tom Constantin's last show as a member of the Dead.
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We breaked him in the wall all his children grew and grew they never grew so tall before they never cross.
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A doll again the Fox didn't become a regular home for rock music in St. Louis, though John Ellis was on the bus early.
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Most of the concerts were, you know, were held down at that time. Were held down at Keele Opera House and Keele Auditorium. I think what happened is it was probably easier to get business done at the opera house or the auditorium because that's where the normal channels were all set up, you know, with the union stage crew and all that stuff. To me, it's odd that the Fox wasn't used to the next rock band that played. There was traffic. And that was in June of 1970. And that was a spectacular show because they were touring in support of John Barleycorn and it was only the three piece band, which was the Last time they ever toured is just the trio. And then after that, there were no more Fox shows again. Until the next time the Dead came.
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They played the nearby Mississippi River Festival in the summer of 1970 and the Keele Opera House that fall.
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The first time it was hard to get tickets to see the dead was October 24, 1970. That's when you know the Post, Working Man's Dead new fans came along.
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And then they returned for two more nights in March of 1971, one of which is on the 30 trips around the sun box set.
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Said told me when I went down Said she said, son she said, son all you need all you need all you need all you need.
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It was during these March 1971 performances in St. Louis that the St. Louis Post dispatch first reported on the Dead's deep love for the Fox, attributing a quote to Dead manager John McIntyre that the Fox was a boss place. But the story didn't attribute a different quote. One source suggested that the fox, which opened January 31, 1929, might well sort of become a Fillmore Midwest between the two famous Fillmore rock halls in the east and west coasts. We'll get back to that idea. The Grateful Dead spent the 60s as the most underground of underground bands. Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, both issued in 1970, had put them into the radar of the mainstream and more importantly, financial solvency. Their fan base was expanding every which way. Clusters of Dead fans were emerging and finding each other. As Tom Palazzola remembers, I'm not technically.
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A Deadhead, I'm technically a Dead freak because I was really early on their mailing list.
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With the release of Skull and Roses in the fall of 1971, the Dead established their newsletter. Dead Freaks Unite, the announcement read. We heard more about that during our Skull and Roses season. But it's a subtle distinction between Deadhead and Dead Freak. Freak was one of a few terms that some of our long haired forebears might prefer to be called rather than hippie. Remember that? As Tom recounts how he got to the fox Theater in December 1971.
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I don't know if you saw the Netflix documentary called Crip Camp. Oh, anyway, fabulous, fabulous thing. Not, not anything about the Dead, but about kind of something that was going on at that time. And I was involved in locally in the same thing, which was I worked for the Easter Seal camp for children. You know, they called it at that time for crippled kids. It was pretty amazing because it was really just a bunch of freaks that were trying to have these kids have fun. And it was through that I kind of got more. I knew of the Dead and everything, but it was through that that I got more involved with it and went to that show.
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And with the release of Skull and Roses, the numbers grew even more rapidly.
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They had this album that had come out that was heavily promoted. Warner Brothers got really behind Skull and Roses and. And then they hit the roads. They were playing these smaller theaters where they probably could have played bigger places.
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In September, Warner Brothers issued the self titled double live album known as Skull N Roses, which we talked about last season. With unprecedented promotions throughout the country, record stores declared it Grateful Dead Month. As a negotiating tactic, the Dead had threatened to call the album Skull Fuck. Using the gambit to extract a $100,000 marketing plan from Warner Brothers to buy airtime on radio stations in order to broadcast over a dozen shows from the band's fall. Calculated for inflation, that's over a half million dollars. Live radio might have been the perfect medium for the Dead in 1971. Getting their music out to new audiences, promoting their new album, and playing even newer music at the same time. Several decades before artists began streaming their tours, the Dead were beaming theirs out on the airwaves.
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The other thing that we did in New York and in many other markets, of course, was to make the music available, sell the tickets to the show, and then make the music available over FM radio so people that couldn't get to the show or didn't know about the show could hear it on radio. So it's easy to reach many, many thousands of people via radio.
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Of course, live radio broadcasts had been a staple since the 1920s, a defining part of careers ranging from bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe to jazz titan Charlie Parker and far beyond. The practice had died off a bit in the rock era. But just like the Dead embraced the swing era ballrooms, the Dead also embraced live broadcasts. Going live from the Carousel on Freeform KMPX on Valentine's Day 1968. They experimented with broadcast media whenever they could, including a pair of televised performances From Winterland in 1970 with quadraphonic sound provided by radio stations. The Grateful Dead loved live radio and rightly so. Deadcast hero Cory Arnold of Lost Live Dead has posted an incredible multi part history of the Dead in FM broadcasts, which we've linked to@dead.net Deadcast the first broadcast of the fall 71 tour was a full five hour extravaganza on KQRS in Minneapolis with a full set by the New Riders of the Purple Sage, presumably paid for by their label Columbia to promote their own new record. In between sets, it featured interviews with both Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh conducted during the soundcheck, setting the stage for both the show and the fall tour to come. This place is going to be transformed when the show starts, you know, or.
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When we get playing tonight, you know.
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So it's like, it's kind of groovy.
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To get an idea of what kind of vehicle is being used, you know what I mean? Do you have any idea?
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The tour opener was also the debut of Keith God show, the Grateful Dead's new piano player, which we went into in depth during the last episode of the Grateful Dead Cast. For the tour's first few legs during October and November, Pigpen was absent. Pigpen is sick. That's the main reason for not being on this tour.
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And you know, when he's well, when he's well again and we get into.
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Our next set of practices, whatever that.
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Is, you know, something will come.
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But actually, Pigpen didn't really play that.
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Much organ on that many tunes or anything like that. He was mostly more into just doing what he does, singing.
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This next little bit has an off mic appearance by road chief Ramrod.
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Do you have any idea how many pieces of equipment, individual pieces of equipment, the Grateful Dead brought with him along with the new riders?
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How many pieces do we have, Ramrod?
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150 pieces of equipment, plus 22 people, nine of whom are gonna play. And this is really quite an organization, isn't it, right? To all these guys that are working here on the stage, you know, we're all, you know, we've all been through a lot together.
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For Phil Lesh, the band and equipment assembling on stage represented something wondrous.
- [35:34]
A
It's come around to me, it's come around full circle. We're sort of beginning a new. A new cycle, a new leveling off at a new plateau or starting to climb again. You might say, do you feel this musically now or just as a touring unit? Everything's coming together on every level. You can't separate the music from what goes on, both in our heads and in the world.
- [35:59]
B
And indeed, in their memoirs. Both Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzman would heap praises on this period of the band between when Keith Godshow joined in late 1971 and when the band took their break from the road in 1975. It was also getting hard to avoid the fact that by the fall of 1971, the Grateful Dead were one of the most popular bands in the United States. The days when they could play small theaters were clearly numbered. Many of the shows on the band's fall 1971 tour were two night stands and sometimes more in cities where they probably could have played in bigger rooms. Keep that in mind when contemplating this next bit of audio, which was included in the setbreak entertainment at the Minneapolis tour opener.
- [36:38]
A
I thought I heard a baby crying. Roger has reverted back to infancy in the space warp. What will happen next? Listen for part three of A Message for Roger.
- [37:02]
B
That's Robert Hunter, Probably a bit of prankstery audio that aired during at least one set break of the 14 broadcast shows. Weirdly, some of those effects were also playing in the background during the interviews.
- [37:14]
A
We just heard, Roger, we try to warn you, you should. You're out now, out in time, boy. You may never be here again.
- [37:35]
B
The set break entertainment was only recorded for one other show on the tour, so it may well have aired again, or perhaps there were further episodes. But if it is in fact Robert Hunter, it provides a psychedelic missing link between the weirdness of what's become of the baby and the parables of St. Dilbert that soon started appearing in the Dead's newsletter.
- [37:54]
A
Roger, can you read me? This is Roger.
- [38:07]
B
In early December, Pigpen rejoined the Dead on the road and the band played at the sold out Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden in New York to 5,000 fans and in some estimates up to another 3 million listening at home on WNEW. Then it was off to St. Louis and the fabulous Fox Theater. The last broadcast of the Dead Skull and Roses tour is from the fox Theater in St. Louis. December 10, 1971 on KADI, a five hour new riders and Dead extravaganza presented by Spectrum, the city's largest head shop. Tom Wood grew up near the Spectrum's original location in Kirkwood.
- [38:41]
A
The building that the Spectrum rented for their shop was directly across the street from the Kirkwood City Hall. So at that time, KC95 was the only rock station in town. The only one. That was it. One. Okay. She. So Casey was always, you know, promoting concerts and they'd say, make sure you pick up all your supplies of the Spectrum and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, they were always pumping up the Spectrum. So Casey organized a pig roast in the backyard of the City Hall. So everybody went to this roasting a pig, get it? You know, in 1970 or 71.
- [39:34]
B
But Spectrum moved and expanded. Tom Palazzola.
- [39:37]
A
The head shop that I used to hang out at was one called Spectrum. Gene Grace, who owns Spectrum and I still know Gene, he loved audio Equipment and we sold him a lot of audio equipment and he and I became friendly with each other. That was a place you could go. That was before Webster had built up and it was really a small hippie capital, you know. Now it's a conservative area. It's so funny how things turn like that. He had this head shop that was. He ended up only almost this whole street and kept opening up more and more rooms on this thing, black or light rooms. He had an incredible amount of different rolling papers. And I'll never forget he did. My father used to do. We would do all night sales where we were open all night, midnight madness sales. And Gene loved the idea. So he did one time. So I'm over there late at night and it was so funny. I mean, I'll never forget this. He says, come here, Tom. And so I come over, he says, come on back here. He takes me behind the counter of the rolling papers and he hands me a shopping bag and says, take all you want. And I. I didn't buy papers for I don't know how many years. Katie simulcast the dead on that night at the Fox. Katie. The Rock of St. Louis, K A D I. That was an FM station that came on as well after Casey.
- [41:08]
B
When the dead arrived in town In December, the St. Louis Outlaw reported on drug prices in their dopescope column. Mescaline, purple caps, real fine, $2 a hit. White caps, light trip, good acid window pane, new batch, supposedly pure, no prices cited. The outlaw got a brief interview with Garcia and Mountain Girl before the Friday. I follow astrology, but it's more earth consciousness, calendar consciousness, solar consciousness. I respect the physical limits of the universe, Garcia clarified for the Outlaw. But lots of towns had freeform radio stations and hip communities and underground newspapers. Speaking of which, enormous thanks to the state historical society of Missouri and especially David McMullen at the New York Public Library for helping facilitate the transfer of microfilm of the St. Louis Outlaw. Public libraries are the best, but St. Louis had one more thing that made the city particularly attractive to Jerry Garcia. Scotty's music, arguably the pedal steel capital of the known universe.
- [42:07]
A
The day of the first show, I wound up with Garcia and Mountain Girl at Scotty's music out in Overland, Missouri, or, you know, somewhere in the suburbs. Scotty's music was. Scotty was a pedal steel player and Garcia wanted to. To go out, and Garcia, I think, had an Emmons pedal steel and he wanted a showbud amp or something like that.
- [42:36]
B
Jerry Garcia made some unlikely pals in his lifetime. One of them was DeWitt Scott, the late founder of Scotty's Music. Opened in Overland, Missouri in 1963, the store was legendary. As Euclid Records owner Joe Schwab recalls.
- [42:49]
A
Scotty's was the world headquarters for steel guitar. If you go out to Scotty's over on Midland, you know, you might run into Curly Chalker or Buddy Emmons or Doug Jernigan. And you know, all these just incredible steel guitar players. You know, everybody who was anybody on the steel guitar hung out at Scotty's.
- [43:11]
B
We are so pleased today to welcome Scotty's son, Michael Scott, President of the Pedal Steel Guitar hall of Fame.
- [43:17]
A
Scotty's was the very first steel guitar shop in the country, probably the world as well. Scotty being a country player, he was actually on the Grand Ole opry at age 18 with Hank Williams Senior. He's been playing country all his life.
- [43:35]
B
In the late 60s, the store began hosting its legendary steel guitar conventions.
- [43:39]
A
The very first one, it was actually a show. It was in 1968. We had like 35 people show up and man, we. We were busting buttons on our coats. We thought we were really doing good. But it grew to the International Steel Guitar Convention. And we would have between 3 and 5,000 people in house and upwards of 3 million on the Internet. It was truly the largest convention of its type in the world.
- [44:07]
B
Scotty left behind an unpublished memoir and wrote a little bit about his friendship with the Dead. Michael agreed to read some of it for us. I think this story refers to the band's show in October 1970 at the Keele Opera House. Back to back with the Kiel Auditorium.
- [44:21]
A
I was at my store, Scotty's Music, in St. Louis and a whole bunch of long haired people came in. And all I said to them was howdy. I didn't know who they were. They got really friendly and in fact invited him to keele Auditorium in St. Louis for their sound check. I went down and there was a ZB steel guitar, ZB standing for Zane Beck, sitting on the stage with a Show Bud amp and a guy who was playing it. He asked me to sit down and play some. I did. This guy was sitting on the floor looking up and when I hit a lick, he would say, far out. And asked how I played that. Of course he showed him as he would any other person. I still didn't know who the band was. I went to the concert that night and I found out that it was the Grateful Dead and the steel player was Jerry Garcia. Jerry. He set up a chair Just a few feet from him on stage. He said he was enjoying the show until the guy tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and it was Bob Hile from Marissa, Illinois. Now, I've known Bob Hile all of my life. Literally. Bob said to him, scotty, turn around. He did, and there was no one behind the stage anymore. Bob said, nobody is allowed behind the stage when the Dead are playing. So he got embarrassed and got off the stage.
- [45:55]
B
Scotty's became a regular hang for Garcia in the early 70s, to the point that local heads almost knew to expect him.
- [46:01]
A
I wound up there with Mountain Girl and Jerry. There's a picture of the two of us and I had asked him a question. I can remember it vividly, and it was about his pedal steel plane, because obviously that was the topic in the room. And I asked him a question as to why when he played with the New Riders, he was so laid back. Whereas when he played with Crosby, Sils and Nash and did teach children that, you know, he ripped it. And you know, typical Jerry, as modest as he was, he said, well, the New Riders are not my band. So, you know, I'm just laying back. And he said, carson, Stills and Nash asked me to rip it. So I did. It was that simple.
- [46:49]
B
We've posted that picture of Garcia and Tony Dwyer at Scotty's@dead.net deadcast we spent.
- [46:56]
A
The morning there and then I went back and I sat in the front row seat at the Fox. And bear in mind, I had nothing to do with the show. I sat there and watched every piece of equipment be moved. I watched sound checks, I watched everything. I don't think I ate for the two days. At any rate, I was there the entire time.
- [47:16]
B
Lots of the Dead fans who saw the Band of the Fox had seen movies there growing up, including Bob Simmons.
- [47:22]
A
The Fox was built in 1929. My family is from St. Louis. I'm sure my mother, who was born in 1919, I'm sure she went to the Fox. I'm sure my grandparents went to the Fox. The first time I went to the Fox, I vividly remember it was 1956. There was a monster dinosaur movie called Rodin that played Monster of is a skyscraper. When he moves, the whole earth quivers and quakes and an abyss of horror opens up. See these prehistoric beasts emerge from the bowels of the earth after 200 million years to devastate mankind. They also would have this Wurlitzer organization that would come up, it was below ground and then it would rise up like on an Elevator stand. You would have an organist perform before the movies. And maybe in between movies if there was, say, a double feature. My father knew Stan can, who was the person that played the Woolitzer there. One of the largest Woolitzers in the world is in the Fox Theater. And Stan can was a character around town. And because of my father's involvement with audio, our family had been involved with audio since 1938. So we know all the people that like stereo equipment. And Stan can was one of them. And he was quite an interesting character. So through that, I would able to go and see stuff at the Fox. And it was a movie theater for a while. And I mean, it was a grand movie theater. When you walk into the Fox Theater, it's special. It's not just a regular movie house. It's very ornate inside. The seating, the upholstery is like, red. Like the red of my shirt. Or if you think of a rose like American Beauty, it's that kind of red. The lighting when you walk in is kind of soft. They'll have lights on the wall like sconces. And the feeling that you get when you walk in, it's like some type of a temple. Like, maybe an Asian type temple. But for me, as a guy even walking in to see the Grateful dead in, say, 1971, if I had a hat on when I walked in, I took it off. It almost felt sacred. And when the Dead performed there, I think they sensed the same thing. This place was meant for art. It was just a beautiful setting, and the acoustics there are terrific. When you walk into it, even though some of it might be worn, it was still special. You knew that it had life in it.
- [50:20]
B
And some of the fans seeing the Dead at the Fox might even still be seeing movies at the Fox. The week the Dead came through in December 71 featured a horror double feature.
- [50:29]
A
Vampires, voodoo vixens and victims. You'll find them all in the house that drift.
- [50:42]
B
With the weather dipping below freezing outside. It was time for the Dead. We're gonna blend the two knights a little bit. Tom Wood.
- [50:49]
A
It was general admission. And so we get in line in the afternoon, right? And as soon as they open those doors, man, there was a flood of young kids running to the seats. I mean, and you'd run in, you know, and there'd be like a hundred people running full speed, you know, to get center section, you know, row 10 or row 15. And that's where I sat most of the time. You know, we're just way up close, and the smell of Patchouli and the smell of incense and the smell of herb. It's just like, you know, such a sensual thing that when you're a kid, you know, it's like this is a whole different world. This is not the world that I have to go to school in or, you know, that I deal with. This is its own thing. You know, this is like the Grateful Dead, you know, carnival tent, Bob Simmons. This orchestra pit from the stage was maybe, I'm guessing, about 15 or 20ft across. And then there was the railing, and then there was like a walkway until the first row of seating. And in that walkway that might have been maybe 20ft wide or so. And so listening to the Dead concert, if you got there early, you could get up close.
- [52:07]
B
The shows follow the same format as they had for the last year and a half, beginning with Sam Cutler explaining how the night would go. This is from the broadcast on the second night, the evening.
- [52:17]
A
This evening is going to be begun by the New Riders of the Purple Sage. And after they played for us, we'll have a short break, and then the Grateful Dead will be playing. If you haven't dug it already, take a look up above your head and.
- [52:38]
B
Look at that lamp up there.
- [52:40]
A
It's really beautiful.
- [52:42]
B
Totally.
- [52:42]
A
Sam, it's my pleasure to say thank you for WELcoming us to St. Louis and to ask you to welcome the new Riders of the Purple Sage, the new writers, David and Linda Hibbenstreet. They were close friends with my girlfriend, myself. Anyway, David and Linda, we grew up together from about the age of 13. And so my birthday was on December 9th. David and Linda were getting married on the 11th, and so on the 10th, we went to see the Grateful Dead along with the new writers. When the new writers were playing, we were up close to the stage, too. And probably somewhere midway through their set, they kind of took a pause or whatever, and I called up to the stage, and again, I was maybe 30ft away from Marmaduke John Dawson. I said, hey, we've got a wedding here tomorrow. And he looked over and he saw and he announced that David and Linda were getting married the following day. And so with that, I could add my friends David and Linda. They now live on the southwest coast of Ireland. This coming December 11th, they'll be celebrating 50 years together. You know, they got a good start the night before with a great performance by the new writers and the Grateful Dead.
- [54:24]
B
Happy birthday, Bob. Happy anniversary, David and Linda.
- [54:29]
A
This one goes out the of especially for David and Linda. Anybody else who likes it, too? I don't know you, you've been lady on my mind.
- [54:51]
B
When the Dead hit the stage on the first night, Bob Weir took the liberty of introducing the band. I love this. And now, ladies and gentlemen, here they.
- [54:58]
A
Are, straight from Madison Square Gardens in famous New York, the great Boliv.
- [55:16]
B
Man, they sound so good. The shows in early December 1971 mark the beginning of one of my favorite Grateful Dead lineups, with Pigpen and Keith Godshow playing side by side, pig on B3, Keith on piano. It reminds me of the band with Garth Hudson on organ and Richard Manuel on piano, though they don't do it on every song. It's totally working on this truckin channeling a bit of the album recording.
- [55:52]
A
Together.
- [55:53]
B
Love, more or less in life, just each of you.
- [56:05]
A
I look at the set list and they're very much Skull and Roses centric, Bertha and the other one in Warfrat and all those kind of things.
- [56:38]
B
One could almost make a full alternate version of Skull and roses from the two December 71 shows at the Fox, but one big difference was that fresh two keyboard lineup with Keith Godchau's piano playing giving Bertha a very different feel than the version just released.
- [57:09]
A
Back into the tree.
- [57:15]
B
One song from Skull and Roses played both nights at the Fox had received a new twist since the versions recorded in the spring. Playing in, the band had a brand new jam. This is from the December 10 show, but it was a brief jam by a year later. The song would regularly crack 20 minutes at the Fox as it was through the fall of 71. The jam was all of 60 seconds, but they were a sweet 60 seconds.
- [58:37]
A
And then you've also got a fair amount of great old Pig pen stuffs, good lovin and things like that. When I was feeling so bad I had my family doctor about what I hear.
- [59:11]
B
Unfortunately, I think Pig may have needed a second opinion. But this 18 minute version of Good Lovin is a centerpiece of the December 10th show. It features some great Garcia and God show jams.
- [59:25]
A
Sam.
- [59:52]
B
And some solid Pig Pen here exporting a standby part of his turn on your love light wrap.
- [59:57]
A
One of the things that make me feel so good Just because Just because she got boxed back knitted painted Nova Scotia hi.
- [60:27]
B
Ever wonder what boxback knitties are? Short answer Sexy ladies garments from the early 20th century. Probably a mishearing of midis. A verse Pig pen borrowed from Lightning Hopkins. We've posted a Link to Eric Aaron's scholarly examination of box back knitties at dead.netDeadcast Pigpen may have been sick but when he came back in December 1971, he began what was perhaps his most creatively present time in the band. Over the course of that year, as both Pigpen and Weir introduced new songs into their own songbooks, the band's set list began to alternate almost evenly between the three lead singers.
- [61:04]
A
Here's yet another new song that I guess most of you haven't heard. That's that's a key for you. Pirate radio or pirate record 3/4 out there enthusiast, right? To get your tape machine spinning because here it comes.
- [61:21]
B
That was weird. During the New York broadcast in early December, introducing one of a few songs Pigpen had debuted since the Skull and Roses dates Premiered in July, Mr. Charlie was co written with Robert Hunter, destined for Europe 72 at the Fox. Pigpen played it in his first slot on both nights here from the 10th, along with an alternate version of Skull N Roses. One could also program an album of brand new unreleased songs. Nearly a dozen fresh to the Dead's repertoire since their last visit to St. Louis in March. A trio from Garcia's just recorded but yet unreleased solo debut, which we delved into last season, plus a few that would be on Weir's album Ace the next year, and a further bunch that became the Core of the Dead's Europe 72, all of which we hope to get to in greater detail down the line. The fans at December 71 Fox shows would have been hearing Brown Eyed Women, Mr. Charlie, Jack Straw, Sugaree, Tennessee Jed Ramble on Rose, Mexicali Blues Loser and one more Saturday night, all for the first time. They'd all be available on official albums within the next year. One that wouldn't is Comes a time.
- [62:54]
A
Comes a time.
- [62:58]
B
When the blind man.
- [63:00]
A
Takes your hand says don't you see Gotta make it somehow on the dream you still need.
- [63:19]
B
Gorgeous music by Garcia and Hunter debuted that fall, played for a year, then mysteriously shelved until after the band's mid-70s hiatus. I love Garcia's vocal performances on nearly all of these versions. Just heartbreaking. Earlier in the fall, during the tour's first leg, they played the song with an additional verse. This version is From Chicago on October 22nd on Dave's Picks 3.
- [63:49]
A
Like an angry stream.
- [63:55]
B
Hear yourself say.
- [63:58]
A
Things you could never mean.
- [64:03]
B
Whereas the tone of the rest of the lyrics features a somewhat passive narration, this verse has a far more direct and present narrator. Perhaps one reason they got dropped after the tour's first leg. When the heat cools down.
- [64:21]
A
And you fan your man.
- [64:35]
B
Another newly debuted song that Pigpen sang both nights at the Fox had only appeared for the first time just three days earlier and only existed in the Dead's repertoire for a grand total of seven performances. A rare seasonal number.
- [65:08]
A
Tell him he can hurt Tell him he can take the freeway down and a way where the Rudolph wasn't like.
- [65:16]
B
A merry go round Run, Rudolph, Run, of course, was popularized by local titan Chuck Berry. Said Santa to a boy child what.
- [65:25]
A
Have you been longing for?
- [65:29]
B
All I want for Christmas is a.
- [65:31]
A
Rock and roll electric guitar. And then away went Rudolph whizzing like a shooting star.
- [65:42]
B
Run, Run, Rudolph Santa.
- [65:44]
A
Litre make it in town Santra make him hurry Tell him he can take.
- [65:51]
B
The freeway down Though Chuck Berry was a great songwriter, Run, Rudolph, Run is credited to Marvin Brody and Johnny Marks. Johnny Marks also being the author of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Rockin around the Christmas Tree, A Holly Jolly Christmas and other songs with a similar theme, you can probably guess Chuck Berry grew.
- [66:10]
A
Up in St. Louis. You know, looking back on it, you know, with Run, Rudolph Run, Johnny B. Goode, they were playing homage to Chuck berry.
- [66:19]
B
Oddly, the December 1971 shows are among the very few in Dead history to not include what my pals Rob and Steve on 36 from the vault called the Triple Berry. Johnny Be Good around and around and the Promised Land. The band would come closer on future trips through town, but the Dead were always paying tribute to Chuck berry, whether in St. Louis or not. Find your nearest local Bob Weir and he'll probably pay tribute to Chuck Berry if you give him a half dozen songs. But the Dead didn't need Chuck Berry tributes to make their St. Louis visit special. They just sort of were. The vibe was just there.
- [66:52]
A
I saw Jimi Hendrix, I saw Prem. I saw the Dorse. The feeling of those performances, while they were awesome, the feeling with the Dead was different. It was like these guys, they put their clothes on the morning, they did whatever they had to do during the day, and then they picked up their guitars and instruments and then they just started playing. There was no pretension about them. And another aspect of the Dead that I listened back on that I really enjoyed at that time. Somebody breaks a string and so. Or maybe the monitors are too loud or something like that. And so Bobby will come on and say, hey, you know, we're trying to get the perfect sound here, you know, whatever. It was all a joke. I mean, it was so casual and informal and, you know, maybe on a certain night they're taking some breaks between the songs or whatever. It was all just really peaceful and enjoyable, just very relaxing. And but yet the energy was so high, they were gearing up for their next song, figuring out what they wanted to play. And then when they break into it, it's just, you know, it's just beautiful. Well, we just weathered through our first equipment malfunction. You'll all be pleased to know the.
- [68:16]
B
December 10th show also contains a mega rarity praise for the sound system. The monitors sound beautiful.
- [68:23]
A
Just beautiful.
- [68:27]
B
After an abortive semester in Arizona, John Ellis was back in St. Louis for the December 71 shows.
- [68:32]
A
By 71, their style had changed so much that they were, you know, morphing, you know, once again, you know, but they were morphing into a style of professionalism and shorter songs and less jams. So that was. That took some adjusting. When I first caught on to the Debt, I felt like I was missing something from the years prior. I wish I would have caught on earlier. As I look back on it now, I really was happy that I found him at the time that I did. If you go back and look, listen to the soundtracks, it's all different styles of music and the transition of music from when I'm hearing Pigpen till the final time I saw him at the Fox Theater. And now Keith is coming on with the piano and the style of music that Keith was playing and how he was adding to the Duds performance and the direction that they were going. We're going to take this opportunity to introduce our new piano player, Keith Godshow. This was totally new to me that Keith had joined. I didn't know that Pigpen had health issues. Pigpen did perform on December 10, 1971. I always really enjoyed having Pigpen in the mix. His Persona, his voice, his organ. It was just a beautiful facet of the Grateful Dead. And then finding out that Keith is joining too, in piano, that added a new energy in itself.
- [70:40]
B
That was from the December 10, 1971 show. We explored that energy at length in our last episode titled Enter Keith. God showed.
- [70:47]
A
I might take this opportunity to tell you, tell all you folks here tonight that this is really a nice theater.
- [70:54]
B
The dad really loved the Fox.
- [70:56]
A
It's one of the very few finest in the country, if not in the world. And it's a good place to have a rock and roll show. And the owners of the the theater hope that you won't, you know, be careless and rip it up so that we can, you know, keep coming back and other groups can keep coming here. One time when I was there, it probably was 71. It would make sense. Weir was talking to the Audience and people were standing on the seats. And, you know, part of the issue among the Dead community is always that there's always new, younger Deadheads showing up at the shows, right? And that happened immediately when I started going to see him.
- [71:45]
B
By the early 70s, there were some rumors running around town.
- [71:48]
A
They were really strong rumors, but nobody had any information about it. It was just. There was no meat to the bone other than, did you hear the Dead are going to buy the Fox? And then of course, you know, it became urban legend. But there's nothing to back it up. The dead, obviously, in 1970 were not in financial condition to do anything except tour. Yeah, right. Well, I mean, yeah, it would have been if they'd had a spare 20 million, which they never did. Oh, they loved the Fox. They didn't want to own it, man. No, not that I, you know, nice fantasy. So they would have loved to have owned a 747, probably, but you know what I mean? Again, a fantasy.
- [72:34]
B
The rumors, however, were very real. The local underground newspaper, the St. Louis Outlaw, even commented on it in their write up of the December 71shows. There's that old rumor that the Dead are going to announce buying the Fox. But on Friday, they announced that they have no intention of buying it. Writer Jan Garden reported. It's not clear exactly where they announced this, but there's a lot of chatter just off mic that you can kinda hear on Jeffrey Norman's new mastering job. But whatever the rumors, Tony Dwyer gets right to the bottom of it for us.
- [73:04]
A
Yeah, there was talk, oh, yeah, they're gonna buy it. Yeah, they loved the theater. There was no fucking way, because, number one, it wasn't for sale. I tried to buy it, I tried to get a lease on it to do 100 shows a year, and they wouldn't even let me do that because they had a guy named Dion Peluso who was the manager of the theater, and he'd been there since 1935 and he was a movie exhibitor and that was it. And Edward Arthur, who owned the theater, Arthur Enterprises owned it, you know, yielded to him and said, you know, the guy's been with me forever. There was no way at that point it was not for sale.
- [73:41]
B
Maybe in another incarnation, as Bob Weir once said. The tapes for the St. Louis shows were engineered by road crew member Rex Jackson, the namesake of the charitable Rex Foundation.
- [73:51]
A
1971 were recorded to 10 inch tape, but also at 7 and a half inches. So you get an hour and a half on a reel. So each show is two reels which is good for us because there's no tape cuts. As an archivist, it would be amazing if every show the Dead had recorded from the era was on 10 inch reels. Even if it was all 7 and a half IPS, which all the 7 inch reels are 7 and a half inches per second. But that means that every 45 minutes we get a cut. Whereas with a 10 inch reel you're talking an hour and a half, 32, 33 minutes, which is much better for that. I don't know what the process was on that tour in particular, but certainly Rex, as far as I know, learned a heck of a lot from Betty in the recording. I know that, for instance, earlier in 71, there are some Rex recordings that were, you know, very much. Betty had her hand in them. So I don't know what her responsibility was at these shows if. And I don't even know if she was there. I think so. But they're Rex's recordings, but certainly with some Betty input and you'll hear that they sound phenomenal. So it always came down to the handwriting to determine who do we credit on the album.
- [74:55]
B
But Rex wasn't the only person taping. As Tom Palazzola remembers.
- [74:58]
A
That's a show that Kadi broadcast. At that time, my family had a high end audio store, flip stereo place. It was family operation. And one of the people that worked at the Easter Seal camp with me bought a reel to Revolution and he had it all set up because we all went to the Dead show. He had it all set up, had somebody that would turn it on so that he could record it. He probably still has it somewhere.
- [75:25]
B
Recordings of the Dead's fall 71 broadcasts became the cornerstone of early tape collections as well as the source of the next wave of bootleg LPs.
- [75:33]
A
You know, before there were tapers, there were bootleg records. I mean, and I have a lot of their bootleg. You know, I had a gentleman who, he came around our store all the time and had these albums and I, you know, so I bought all of the Dead bootlegs I could. You know, I mean, I know that it's maybe not necessarily the finest of practices, but when that's all you got and you want more, it's like, okay, I'm buying these things. So they were great, really great to have.
- [76:04]
B
Oddly, the Dec. 10 Fox broadcast never did seem to turn up on bootleg LP back in the day. Maybe it really did serve one of its intended purposes, giving people a source for their own recordings. But in December 71, the Dead played music in St. Louis at a few places besides the Fox. It was during that trip through town that Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Marmaduke, and maybe some others rolled through Scotty's for a jam session. Scotty was a taper too.
- [77:02]
A
Hello, hello? Hello.
- [77:09]
B
This is Michael Scott reading from his father Scotty's memoir.
- [77:12]
A
And both bands came to the store and we had a kind of off the wall jam session. Sometimes Buddy Cage would play the steel and then I would play. At that time, I owned Lloyd Green's old double neck show Bud with the yellow streak in the front. And that was the guitar we played on.
- [77:31]
B
You can hear Marmaduke singing John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads.
- [77:57]
A
Anytime they would get within 200 miles of St. Louis, they would call me and I would take my reel to real tape recorder to the motel and took several tapes of the Stigmatar Convention with me. And after their concert, we would listen to them for the rest of the night. I took pictures and even put up a mic and recorded that jam session.
- [78:18]
B
It went deep. Garcia never made it to the steel convention, but did get to absorb it from afar. While one of the Garcia Scotty's tapes is out in the universe, others and many, many, many of Scottie's recordings by other artists live in the vault of the Steel Guitar hall of Fame, which at the moment means they live in storage. The Steel Guitar hall of Fame is looking for a new home and can be reached via scottiesmusic.com we've posted a link@dead.net deadcast if you've got any ideas. And there was still more music to be made. Before leaving St. Louis in December 1971, as we discovered, I poked around with various St. Louis pals and pals of pals, seeing what they remembered. Dig, if you will, what Joe Schwab, owner of Euclid Records, told us.
- [79:01]
A
When I was in junior high school, there was always this legend that the Grateful Dead had played at some bar mitzvah that they kind of crashed the party and gone on and played a show. And, you know, I liked it. I liked the idea of it. It sounded good. I bought into it and that's fine. And so when the box set was coming out and I was thinking about that show, I started thinking about this bar mitzvah rumor and I'm like, well, you know, it's time to pull out the Mythbuster thing and let's try and figure this out. Did this really happen?
- [79:40]
B
I've heard my share of Grateful Dead rumors, and I never Heard a dang thing about the dead crashing to bar mitzvah. But, well, inquiring heads want to know.
- [79:48]
A
I knew that there was a connection with where I had gone to school. I'd gone to junior high school at East Ladue Junior High. And that's when the rumors were hitting. And so I kind of just sent out a Facebook post and said, okay, anybody know about this? You know, let me know. And of all people, my friend Fred Heller, longtime friend, contacts me and he goes, my brother Doug was the drummer. And I'm like, are you kidding me? Doug was the drummer? Okay, we got something here. We got a lead.
- [80:31]
B
Joe came back with a name, Richie Gerber. And plugging the name Richard Gerber into a commercial database with handy free access provided by the New York Public Library, I was able to learn that indeed, a Richard Gerber had been born in St. Louis in the first week of December 1958, on schedule to enter manhood in early December 1971. With that, please join us in welcoming to the deadcast Richard Gerber, now an attorney in St. Louis.
- [80:57]
A
This was my bar mitzvah in 1971. It was. The party was on a Sunday night. It was a kids party only. The adults party was the night before. I was not at that time into rock and roll yet. I don't even know if I knew who the Grateful Dead were at that time. I was more into the St. Louis hockey scene and stuff like that. So we had a party of about 113 year olds at the Hilton at the airport in St. Louis.
- [81:28]
B
When in town, the dead stayed in the St. Louis Airport Hilton.
- [81:32]
A
They owned the place. When they would get there, and they had 20 rooms, they owned the fucking place. I mean, who else was going to stay at the airport Hilton in St. Louis? And, you know, the dining room was there. You know, everything was there.
- [81:46]
B
You can hear Marmaduke excuse himself on the Scotties tape to head back. The Airport Hilton, it's not far. Along with traveling rock stars, another thing that Airport Hotels host is bar mitzvah parties.
- [81:58]
A
We had a local band that plays St. Louis parties and so forth. They were playing. It was a large room. It was on the main floor of the hotel, a large ballroom.
- [82:10]
B
They were called Spring Rain, and they were soon to become legends at Ledoux Horton Watkins High School. Please welcome bassist Mark Slosberg.
- [82:18]
A
We were all 10th graders. The guitar player and I had been studying with the same teacher, and we were best buds for years. And then when we formed this, I switched over to bass and he stayed on guitar. Steve Fisher was kind of our singer, soundman, producer, and John McSweeney who plays into this story very importantly because he was the blind piano player, Bruce and myself, and then Doug Heller. Doug was the drummer and there was a lovely soprano woman that we were all friends with from the new high school. And it was called Spring Rain and it was all our first band. We practiced in my parents living room. We totally destroyed it. The living room was never the same after that. I mean, and we practiced a lot and we were all very serious and we played a lot of Carole King and James Taylor and a little Crosby, Stills and Nash. And then we spiced it up. Steve did things like Blue Suede Shoes. You know, we had like different sets and he did the stuff that got the kids out on the dance floor. And at the time there weren't a lot of bar mitzvah bands in the neighborhood, but we were probably the most popular and we worked regularly.
- [83:31]
B
Drummer Doug Heller.
- [83:32]
A
There were a couple guys who, from fourth grade through like junior senior high school, we, you know, we stayed together and then different guys came in and out over the years. Fourth grade we played the school talent show and then we played one or two birthday parties that year. I think I probably had American Beauty or Working Man's Dead or both and was into those songs, but they weren't part of our repertoire. We hadn't sort of moved into that kind of music or tried it or anything like that. So we knew who they were and we liked the music, but it wasn't part of the thing. Steve was the only one who was driving at this point, so it would be his car to haul all the equipment around. I think I was the only guy driving. And I had my dad's yellow Pinto wagon, right? Yellow with the fake wood on the outside. We had gotten a PA together from Altec Lansing at some music store in there in town. I became. I ended up becoming a sound guy for. And that's what I do professionally. I mix sound for sports. I do like Super Bowl, US Open, tennis, US Open, golf, about a million and one basketball games, but you name it. So that was my start. It was just another party, but it was a. It was a sizable one. It was in like a big room at the airport Hilton in St. Louis. And about maybe 50ft down the lobby way was a bar. And my sister, her and a couple of her girlfriends were there at the party also. They were hanging around the lobby. They happened to be attractive cheerleader girls at the time. And they were well aware of where the Grateful Dead were. I know that my sister liked the Grateful Dead a lot. And there are people hanging around the bar. One of the band members, and I'm not sure which one, but one of the bad members from the Grateful Dead started a conversation with my sister and with her girlfriend. That conversation went on for about 15 minutes, and according to my sister, she thought they were trying to pick the two of them up. And my sister talked. This gentleman, another member of the Grateful Dead, and some other guys in another band, I think it was the New Riders of the Purple Sage, talked them into coming over to the ballroom and saying hi and just introducing themselves and maybe playing some music, because they heard you could hear the music in the bar, and they were talking about that. So my sister also was going to try to get them to pick up a guitar and play a little bit. My sister Jo comes, comes up to me while I'm playing and says, mark. Mark, the Grateful Debtor here. And I said, just like any big brother would do. Go away, Joanne. I'm trying to play. And she says, no, they really are here. Look. And she points to the door, and, you know, it's sort of like a. Like a Marx Brothers movie. You know, there's four heads in the doorway kind of thing, and there they were. My sister actually came in, said, I got a surprise. Somebody that wants to come in and meet you. I thought it was going to be gary unger, the St. Louis Blues. I said, who is this guy? So anyway, they went ahead and played, and I was probably in back, you know, throwing, you know, a soccer ball around with some friends in the back, not even paying attention to who these guys were. I always tell it that they heard Scratchy Rock and Roll, you know, Scratchy Rock and Roll Band came down the hall to hear what it is. A lot of people knew who they were right away. The band members certainly knew who they were. And the band members started to talk to them. My sister asked the band members if it would be okay if they would use their instruments and play for a few minutes. The person who we were playing for say, hey, well, could you. Could you invite him to play? And we said, well, sure. So we go and say, hey, would you guys play for us? And they said, yeah, but we don't interrupt you guys. We'll play during your break. And we're like, whoa. They come in and they kind of reorchestrate during that little break. Garcia was the only one who wasn't there, but everybody else was there, plus Marmaduke. About 20 people lined up at the payphone booths in the lobby and called all their friends. All of the kids ran out to the lobby and used payphones in those days because that was long before we had anything remotely like cell phones. The venue at the Airport Hilton was about 15 minutes away from where we all lived. So they all called their older brothers and sisters. So within about 20, 25 minutes, there were high schoolers that were starting to arrive in the lobby. There must have been 200 people there from high school, all watching the Grateful Dead play. It was Keith Kreutzman, Lash Weir and Marmaduke. That was the lineup. So the. They played new writers tunes. They played, I don't know, two, three new writers tunes that I wasn't familiar with. Those were songs that I. I didn't know. And I only came to, you know, get into the new writers after that. They played a couple of these tunes. We were in the middle of a set. I mean, you know, we were doing a job. It was like a two hour gig, let's say, you know, 6:30 to 8:30 or 7:30 to 9:30, something like that. I always held that what they were most interested in was John McSweeney was sort of the rock of our band. We were all just emerging musicians at the time. John was really good, and as a blind piano player, I think he held a special interest for them. You know, they may have been just drunk enough to think they were looking at the next Stevie Wonder or somebody. You know, I mean, he really was good and he held the band together at that time. And so they were very interested. And of course John's mother was there because she had to drive him to the, to the engagements. He remembers he was really sick that night and wouldn't have gone to the job, but wanted to be a pro and showed up. And that's, you know, and now, you know, of course he's happy that it happened. And then we had to get back and play a second set because we still had a contract to play. We had this little theatrical twist to it that we would call it Screaming Steve, yours truly. Right. So Screaming Steve would come out, we do, basically, we do a set and.
- [89:42]
B
Then the band would take a break.
- [89:43]
A
And I'd go in the bathroom and get dressed up.
- [89:46]
B
I had like this black leather jacket.
- [89:47]
A
Black wingtip shoes with white socks, pulled up my pants really high. My waist was up around my breast, I think, and greased my hair back with water. Anyhow, we come back and we do this thing. But the band was in the back of the I mean, imagine a banquet room at a Marriott or whatever it was at a bunch of, you know, 13, 14 year old Jewish kids running around for the bar mitzvah. And the bands hanging in the back having just played, you know, a number or two. But they were howling. I came out of screaming, Steve. I was like so into it, going, holy shit, they're in the back laughing. I had a cigarette like Lipman, ciggy right Hanging. Just literally let it lip right. It was sort of like. I'm sure that was all taken from the Shannon stuff that was happening about that same timeframe. It's like, okay, we got to do a thing like that. And they were howling. I mean, they were in the back row just like whooping it up and. And you know, at the time I was probably just intimidated as shit. But with little hindsight, it's probably like, hey, man, these are guys. These guys are doing their thing. Somehow or other a blues jam started up and we all kind of jammed together on a blues because that was of course the only thing we would have known together. We all ended up on different instruments at different times. And it was just a, you know, it was just a straight 12 bar blues. John may have started it as part of one of our sets. And then they sat down. I gave my bass to Phil Lesh at the time, I don't think he'd ever played a fretless bass. He commented on that, that interesting, you know, I think Doug said he gave up his drums to Kreuzman. I didn't recognize them. I mean, I've later heard some of the names of who was there, the drummer. So he's like, I'll take your, you know, I'll play your drums. So that was one thing that I was not thrilled about. Like, okay, here are the sticks. I'd love to tell you it was this, you know, phenomenal set. But we certainly weren't doing a lot of improvising in those because we talked to Weir afterwards in the bar. Us with our Coca Cola's and him with his beer, right? And he was talking to John and I was. I came over the table there and we're chatting it up some. He was telling us about Scotty's music, which is. Scotty's was the only pedal steel place in the Midwest of Refute.
- [91:55]
B
They had a little recording studio there at that place.
- [91:58]
A
And we said, you guys should get in, you know, make some recordings and stuff. I remember we're in particular he was talking about. He was honest. I swear to God, the guy Was, look. No, he was. He was telling us to, like, behave, not take drugs. Talk about Janis Joplin saying, look, junk is bad. I was like a PSA man. I'm not kidding. And Bobby's only, what, he's what, 72 or something now? So he's got six, seven years on.
- [92:23]
B
Us, and so he's not that much older.
- [92:25]
A
Just like one of our fucking sibs. The biggest memory I have is driving home that night with my little PA stuff in the back of the Pinto and pulling it out. And I was the youngest of four. My brothers and sisters were all away at school. And I come home, I'm pretty buzzed and pretty excited. Not buzzed from getting high. Just like, hey, man, exciting. And I go. My parents are long asleep. I knock on their door, and I'm sure they're going, oh, shit, he's wrecked the car, Right? Well, I say, wow. You won't believe what happened. What happened? I played with the Grateful Dead. That's nice. You know, bed. It was definitely all over the school newspaper whenever that came out. And certainly it was the talk of the school and the high school for years to come.
- [93:10]
B
We've posted our newest clipping from the Ledoux High school panorama@dead.net deadcast.
- [93:16]
A
There was a lot of folks, and we had those photos for years. Again, once I went away to school and I would tell people the stories, and once I got into the Dead, I would tell people the stories. They wouldn't believe it. So every time somebody would come over, I have to show them the album. So we must have had 40, 50 pictures. However, they're gone, and we think that album. Because not all the albums were lost in the fire. My mom had a fire apart 20 years ago in her condominium.
- [93:46]
B
He's gonna go down for another look, and we'll let you know if anything comes back.
- [93:50]
A
I do remember a picture of. I think it was. I don't know who it was, because it could have been one of the guys from the New Rise of the Purple Sage. And they. You know, to be honest with you, they all looked alike at the same time. Everybody had the long, stringy hair and had a mustache and a beard and, you know. But anyway, somebody was. She was on a chair, and this guy was standing behind her, trying to teach her how to play the guitar. He was taller, lean, very, very long brown hair, you know, down past his shoulders. I thought that he had on glasses with kind of a tan shade to them. You know, sometimes guys would wear the shaded glasses, not sunglasses, but reading, you know, regular glasses, but with a dark tint to them. Tinted glasses. Does that sound like anybody?
- [94:46]
B
That does match the description of Bobbert Weir, but really, that's crazy The Grateful dead crashing Richie Gerber's Bar Mitzvah on December 12, 1971 in between the Fox Theater shows on the new Listen to the river box set and their next gig in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, December, there's a whole lot more about the dead St. Louis and Richie Gerber's Bar Mitzvah. @ a new post on the crucial blog the Grateful Dead Guide. We've posted a link@dead.net deadcast See you next time. Same band, same river.
- [95:27]
A
Uh oh, for so long. You are on to a moment. Every time I hear people tell stories about some of these classic early Grateful Dead shows in these magnificent theaters like the fox Theater in St. Louis, it really makes me wish they'd hurry up and invent the rock and roll time machine so we can get back there and experience some of these venues and shows for ourselves. The two shows from 71 at the Fox from Listen to the River St. Louis, 71, 72, 73 are magnificent shows and it's great to hear Pigpen featured on these recordings. Next episode, we're on to 1972. Take care out there and we'll see you next time. Executive producers for the good old Grateful Dead cast Mart, Mark Pincus and Doran Tyson. Produced for Rhino Entertainment by Rich Mahan Productions and Jesse Jarno. Special thanks to David Lemieux. All rights reserved.