The Third Night of Phil and Phriends is one of the finest concerts and Best nights of my life. An editorial by Kevin Long

The Third Night of Phil and Phriends is one of the finest concerts and Best nights of my life. An editorial by Kevin Long 

 

         The Kevin Long in 1999 had very little responsibility and according to my family, even less ambition. I lived for The Grateful Dead, Phish and Steve Kimock. I had no legal job and all my time was consumed following Phish, Other Ones, S.C.I, KVHW ect. These three historic Phil and Phriend's shows happened quickly, relative to when I heard about them in Memphis, TN. This was 1999 and I was still almost a decade away from meeting the internet. Literally, when I heard about these shows no price or mountain was too high to keep me from my three favorite musical forces combining for three glorious nights at the Warfield. One hell of an expensive plane ticket and still to this day,  the most I ever paid over face value for three tickets and I was there! Something this perfect could not possibly live up to the hype. Phil Lesh, John Molo, Steve Kimock, Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell. Holy Shit! The band members read like a modern day "Derek and The Dominos". Well my friends these fucking concerts took unattainable goals and smashed them.  The first two nights were beyond perfect, they were heavenly. Up to that point it was quite possible the best shows I have ever seen. But we are here to talk about night three. 

         This band had chemistry from the word "Viola Lee Blue's". Still by the third night it was cosmic! The first set started off with a loose Instrumental "Dark Star". Instantly, you knew the night was going to be "Page-singing "Bird Song" good". The opening sequence of Dark Star> It's Up To You >Days Between >Dark Star(1st verse)> My Favorite Things(Instrumental) is so fucking good I can hardly stand to listen to it. "Kimock should join Phish," I thought to myself since his chemistry with Trey was undeniable. I will not ramble on much more since you can now watch these historical shows. Watching them brought back a flood of the best goddamn memories of my life. On this mystical run, where my three musical worlds joined together to make history. From Terrapins where Phil, Trey and Page trade vocal duties to great ends or a "Down with Disease" that melts flawlessly into "Dark Star"'s, well that would be my ideal afterlife. For three nights life was perfect and you can't put a price tag on that. Thank you to all who were involved in sharing these timeless shows on YouTube. You made this forty one year old remember just how good it got. Watch Below. 

* – w/ Donna Jean Godchaux

April 17, 1999

Set One: Dark Star (instrumental)> It’s Up To You (instrumental), Days Between> Dark Star (1st verse)> My Favorite Things (instrumental), *Mississippi Half-Step, *Bird Song (Page) 

Set Two: Terrapin Station (Phil and Trey on leads, all on backup)> Down With Disease (Trey)> Dark Star (2nd verse-Page on lead vocal), Friend Of The Devil, Casey Jones (Trey), Morning Dew> *Going Down The Road Feeling Bad> And We Bid You Goodnight 

Encore: Box Of Rain

* – w/ Donna Jean Godchaux

This week Fry-day Comes Early: The Grateful Dead at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, OR 8-22-93

  I will be at the ACL music festival this Friday, so here is the weekly GD show a little early.

This show is, in my opinion, one of the best of the 93' tour and the nineties in general. The show is kind of infamous for the opening "Jack Straw" because Jerry came ready to rock and during the opener Bobby was having equipment trouble and melted down backstage, repeatedly slamming his guitar against a trash can. It was good for the fans though because while Bob was gone, Jerry and Phil took the opportunity to jam the ever-loving crap out of this "Jack Straw". It was a great, not for for Bob obviously, way to start a show. The Fat Man came ready to rock tonight. Followed by "Bertha" the one-two punch that opened this show is great. The rest of the first set has Phil responding to the "Let Phil Sing" banner with a solid "Broken Arrow" but the true glory of this show is in the "Help>Slip>Frank" second set opener.

Grateful Dead, Autzen Stadium, 8-22-93

The first set is nothing to brush off but the magical second set contained a wonderful rendition of "Ship of Fools" and has a very spacy drums that included Jerry joining the drummers on stage. Of course, the "Days Between" is amazing. This show was a benefit for the Rex Foundation so it was a matinee show but the band brought the heat. This is the first show I've brought to Grateful Music from 1993 and I hope you don't fall for the trope of "all nineties shows are garbage" because this show is a great one. Take your friends who listen to death metal and play them this "Help>Slip>Frank" and watch their faces. This is one of those "H>S>F" that makes new fans. There won't be any extended commentary on the set list because there are a couple of clips of the show to watch but trust me, listen to the whole thing and you will hear a nineties show that is well worth your time.

 This show proves they could turn it on when they wanted too. The jam section of "Music Never Stopped" to end the first set could go on forever. It was a smoking set closer. I don't even mind the "Corinna". I know I would've been getting down.

Written by: Greg Heffelfinger

Set One:

Jack Straw 
Bertha 
Little Red Rooster 
Broken Arrow 
Althea 
When I Paint My Masterpiece 
Tennessee Jed 
The Music Never Stopped 

Set Two:

Help On The Way ->
Slipknot! ->
Franklin's Tower 
Samson And Delilah 
Ship Of Fools 
Corrina ->
Drums ->
Space ->
The Wheel ->
I Need A Miracle ->
Days Between ->
Not Fade Away 

Encore
Liberty

Watch Jerry and Phil destroy this song while Bobby is off stage "fixing" his equipment against a trash can.

Check out the always touching "Days Between"

© 2016 Grateful Music LLC

The Grateful Dead and the Secret Sauce: LSD, Owsley and the Primal Dead

The Grateful Dead and the Secret Sauce: LSD, Owsley and the Primal Dead.

It's no secret that the Grateful Dead are considered the pioneers of psychedelic rock. How could you not be when the famous Owsley "Bear" Stanley is your patron? When the band was trying to find it's footing in the early days, LSD was still legal. In fact, it had just slipped the bonds of the CIA and the mental ward through people such as Ken Kesey, Michael Hollingshead, and the infamous Dr. Leary. Although how they went about it was vastly different, each coast of the country was getting turned on. Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters held concerts that the Warlocks could play, or not. Everything was free in that space. A large garbage can of Kool-Aid and it was off to the races. Then the Haight started getting hectic. The band had hit a ceiling oh how far they were moving, even going so far as to almost fire Bobby and Pigpen. They might have been fired but just kept showing up. Hippies! 

All of the hassles proved too much and the band decamped down to L.A. In Watts, shortly after the riots, a group of scruffy white kids could play as loud as they wanted and the neighbors certainly weren't going to call the cops. The band woodshedded down in LA long enough to get ready to come back to SF with material they play to this day.

 One of the most popular stories from this period was told by manager Rock Scully who said that Owsley had an old German printing press for capping his LSD but every time he used it, while the band was playing to cover the noise, it released little puffs of the crystal into the air. By the time the lease was up, LSD had drifted down through the house until even, some people claimed, their teeth were gritty from the powder. Owsley had them on an all-meat diet,he claimed humans are naturally carnivores, and many rules for the unruliest of bands. They also had to sell product for him to the local heads. 

The band, would go down the street and let it be known they had the product and the LA scenesters ate it up. The Doors were popular at the time and every time some cute little thing would walk up and say,"Is this the good stuff? It's for Jim" and the boys would pull out the same product that everyone else got, just from a different pocket and say" yeah but don't tell anyone else" and all had a good laugh at the pretentiousness of "The Lizard King". 

Eventually, the band could take Owsley's rules and regulations no more and scampered back to SF. Bobby stopped taking LSD on purpose, though he was regularly dosed, because he said,"by the end I was sitting in a corner bubbling my spit." They moved back to the Bay Area and moved from idyllic hippie spot to spot until checking into 710 Ashbury and Phil and Billy had another house since they were married at the time. All of this swirled and melted and congealed into the band we know and love. They were there when it was legal and saw when it criminalized. Then dealers moved in on the scene.  The party still rages though.

The DEA would watch LSD arrests rise in direct correlation to their tours in the 80's. They pushed mandatory minimum sentencing, which made no sense for LSD since doses are measured in micrograms. There are people that have been in jail longer than murderers for LSD. Get caught with a few sugarcubes in the 80's and you'd be in jail longer than the rapist next door.  Still, besides all the politics, the Grateful Dead are known as THE band to listen to while tripping. 

They played on the chemical and achieved the group mind, gestalt, whatever it was that allowed them to link up as a unit and blow minds. The sci-fi freaks, of which Jerry proudly was, called it "bleshing". Blending and meshing and from that came the swirling psychedelia of "Dark Star" and "That's It for The Other One" and the six song shows that are known as "Primal Dead." Funnily enough, Pigpen only took acid onee and not on purpose. He was a drunk among psychedelic rangers but he was still an integral part of the early Dead. Owsley was eventually arrested but the band kept playing on. With a little drop of liquid or a tiny square of paper, you couldn't be sure they were ever there at all. Next up, the eventual come down. 

Enjoy Your Days Between!

Written by: Greg Heffelfinger

Sources: Living with the Dead by Rock Scully

               Searching for the Sound by Phil Lesh

               Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams and Drugs by Bill Kreutzmann

               Acid Dreams by Lee Shlain

               Owsley and Me: My LSD Family by Rhoney Gissen Stanley

© 2016 Grateful Music LLC

Grateful Music's "Days Between" Grateful Dead Musical Retrospective. Hand picked shows from the career of the Grateful Dead. Today's kickoff show, a barn burner from 1966.

Here are some handpicked shows, some well-known, some obscure. 

We are gonna post a new show every morning for each of the Days Between. Just a little help for those in their cubicles and others who need driving music.

  

Pretty much everyone is familiar with the Dead's origin story. Bob heard Jerry playing on NYE, who absentmindedly was playing, waiting for students that would never come. The jam that ensued at Dana Morgan's music store was the beginning that led to Mother Mcree's to The Warlocks and then the change of names to The Grateful Dead.  The name The Warlocks had already been taken by a little band that later was known as The Velvet Underground.

The show we picked today was one of the best of 1966.  The band started in 1965 but setlists and good sounding tapes are sketchy at best. So I decided to pick up the next year that showed the band testing their boundaries and skills but still playing short songs that included old standards, bluegrass, Dylan covers and attempts at new songs. And of course, the Pigpen blues was already the centerpiece of the band. Enough from me, here's the show*:

Thanks to archive.org for the stream
Written by: Greg Heffelfinger

The Grateful Dead at the Fillmore. 7-16-1966

Grateful Dead

Fillmore Aud.

7-16-1966

Set One:

1.   I Know You Rider

2.   Big Boss Man

3.   Standing on the Corner

4.   Beat it on Down the Line

5.   In the Pines

6.   Cardboard Cowboy

7.   Nobody's Fault but Mine

8.   Next Time You See Me

9.   He Was a Friend of Mine

10. Cream Puff War

Set Two:

1.  Viola Lee Blues

2.  Don't Ease Me In->

3.  Pain In My Heart

4.  Minglewood Blues->

5.  Sitting on Top of the World

6.  You Don't Have to Ask

7.  Cold Rain and Snow->

8.  Good Morning Little Schoolgirl->

9.  It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

10.Dancin' in the Streets

Here is the taper info from db.etree.org.Thank You, Charlie Miller

* Fave Raveups

He Was a Friend of Mine

Viola Lee Blues

Cold Rain and Snow

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Dancin' in the Streets

© 2016 Grateful Music LLC