Deadhead Cyclist Archives
Deadhead Cyclist Archives
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 36 – September 3, 1977
If all you got to live for
After an unexpected summer off, due to injuries suffered by drummer Mickey Hart in a car accident, the magic of 1977 resumed in full force at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey on 9/3/77. T.W.I.G.D.H. features this legendary show, which was memorialized with the October ’99 release of Dick’s Picks, Volume 15. Almost three months had passed since the landmark Spring ’77 tour ended at Winterland on June 9, but the band didn’t miss a beat with this excellent concert that was attended by more than 100,000 fans, making it the largest ticketed concert in the U.S. at the time.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 34 - August 21, 1983
Ain’t nobody messing with you but you.
When I began my studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz in ’75, the countercultural vibe of the ’60s was still alive and well. Having spent my junior high and high school years in Southern California, my primary exposure to the Grateful Dead was the well-known reference in the Cowsills’ 1969 song, Hair (“It’s not for lack of bread, like the Grateful Dead”). But once I arrived on the Central California coast (Santa Cruz is just 75 miles south of San Francisco) the Grateful Dead could be heard seeping out of the cracks of dorm rooms all over campus, and providing the ambiance for every cafe in town.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 35 - August 27, 1972 & August 28, 1982
See here how everything lead up to this day
Over the course of their 30-year history, there were many faces of the Grateful Dead. Like the changes that take place within most institutions that boast longevity, the band morphed from one version of itself to another gradually, day by day, show by show, year by year. Such is the immutable law of the universe, even better evidenced by far more notable, glacially paced changes, like biological evolution or the formation of geological wonders, such as the Grand Canyon.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 37 – September 12, 1988
Believe it if you need it
Let’s start this week’s installment with a quick question: What do Quentin Tarrantino and the Grateful Dead have in common? The answer is that they are both acquired tastes. The first time I saw the movie, Pulp Fiction, I literally got up and walked out (probably during the scene in the basement of the pawn shop, but I can’t exactly recall). But over the years, Pulp Fiction has become one of my favorite movies of all time, and whenever a new Tarrantino’s film is released I rush to see it. Similarly, the first time I listened to the album, American Beauty, I just didn’t get it.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 38 – September 20, 1982
If the spirit’s sleeping then the flesh is ink
Despite being a West Coast band, the Dead had a special relationship with New York City, and played Madison Square Garden a total of 52 times from ’79-’94. As drummer Bill Kreutzmann remarked in 2015 as the band was inducted into the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame, “Out of about 2300 shows that the Grateful Dead played, the 52 we played here were nothing short of amazing.” T.W.I.G.D.H. features one of those amazing shows, 9/20/82, and a tune that was performed live on that date for only the third time, Throwing Stones.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 39 – September 22, 1991
The bottle was dusty
The Deadhead Cyclist was recently the special guest on the Deadhead Cannabis Show, and I was asked, “What was your favorite period in Grateful Dead history?” The timing of this question was particularly interesting, as just the day before the interview I was listening to the 9/22/91 show from the Boston Garden, while riding my favorite trails in the foothills just west of my home in Boulder, CO. This show is truly a gem, and I had already decided to make it my pick for T.W.I.G.D.H., making the prospect of a response a bit trickier than it might have been otherwise.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 40 – September 28, 1975
Sometimes the cards ain’t worth a dime
Among the numerous motifs found in the lyrics of Grateful Dead tunes, there is none more omnipresent than the metaphoric theme of gambling. References to games of chance – particularly card games – are sprinkled liberally throughout a seemingly endless list of tunes: Loser (“If I had a gun for every ace I have drawn…”), Deal (“Watch each card you play and play it slow…”), Candyman (“Come on boys and gamble; roll those laughing bones…”), Me and My Uncle (“You know my uncle; he starts a friendly game…”), Dire Wolf (“The wolf came in, I got my cards, we sat down for a game…”), and Scarlet Begonias (“In the heat of the evening when the dealing got rough; she was too pat to open and too cool to bluff…”) are examples that come immediately to mind. And there are also similar references In China Cat Sunflower, Doin’ That Rag, Mississippi Half Step, Ramble On Rose, Stagger Lee, Stella Blue, and Tennessee Jed.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 41 – October 11, 1980
Ripple in still water
After 3 years at a high school in Anaheim, CA and 2 years at UCLA, my life had become as stagnant as the bumper-to-bumper traffic I found myself sitting in on the Santa Ana freeway during the fall of ’74, while waiting for my transfer to UC Santa Cruz to come through. Even against a backdrop of inexperience during the waning months of my teenage years, I had learned enough to allow intuition to lead the way in making my first big grownup decision: moving from Southern to Northern California. There is no way I could have anticipated the ripples this life-changing shift would create that are still being felt decades down the road.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 42 – October 16, 1974
Once in a while you get shown the light
There are so many things I love about mountain biking is that it would be impossible to list them all. But if I had to pick the aspect of the sport I love best, it would be the way getting out on two wheels represents a true “sabbatical” from life. Once the rubber hits the dirt, and I embark on another adventure in the wilderness, all of my troubles seem to melt away. And after conquering a completely different set of obstacles on the trails, the ones waiting for me at the trailhead somehow seem more manageable than they did just a couple of hours earlier.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 43 – October 25, 1979
Maybe the dark is from your eyes
There are few opening chords in the Grateful Dead repertoire as recognizable, or as welcome, as the sustained, and then repeated, D-minor of Shakedown Street. Often positioned as the first song of the set, the tune never failed to evoke an amplified sense of excitement, especially as the crowd began to anticipate the extended, often brilliant instrumental jam to follow the final recitation of the mantra, “You just gotta poke around.” Among the many fine versions of this anthemic piece, there are few that rank higher than the one performed on 10/25/79 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New Haven, CT, the Deadhead Cyclist’s pick for T.W.I.G.D.H.