30 Days of Dead
It's a Dead Head's most wonderful time of the year! Welcome to another 30 days of unreleased Grateful Dead tracks from the vault, one for every day of the month, selected by archivist and producer David Lemieux. The tracks are yours, 100% free gua-ran-teed, but the real fun is taking part in the challenge for the chance to win some sweet swag from the Dead.
Those of you who know what to do, feel free to skip right on ahead. For those of you who need a refresher, here's the drill:
You know your Ables from your Bakers from your C's, but can your finely tuned ears differentiate the cosmic "comeback" tour from a spacey 70s show? Each day we'll post a song from one of the Dead's coveted shows. Will it be from that magical night at Madison Square Garden in '93 or from way back when they were just starting to warm it up at Winterland? Is that Pigpen's harmonica we hear? Brent on keys? If you think you know, lob your answer in and you just might find yourself taking home our daily prize of a 2025 Grateful Dead wall calendar or the grand prize – a copy of limited, numbered, FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL '78 boxed set!
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Stellar. Good for you. How many folks do you think enter a guess for this where and when game?
All is forgiven. Thanks for erasing! Welcome to the fold. You'll find this is such a nice forum. ("They love each other.")
July 7th, 1969, was a Monday free concert at Piedmont Park, Atlanta, following the July 4th (Friday) weekend's Atlanta International Pop Festival in Hampton GA, one month before Woodstock Festival. The Atlanta Pop Festival had 20 bands, including Spirit, Hampton Greese Band (with Col. Bruce Hampton), Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, Chicago Transit Authority, Grand Funk Railroad, It's a Beautiful Day, Janis Joplin, Blood Sweat and Tears, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zeppelin and Johnny Winter.
The Pop promoters opened the free concert at Piedmont with Spirit, Hampton Greese Band, and Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. The Grateful Dead, who were playing at the Electric Theater, Chicago, 7/4-7/5/69, were the Headliners. The show, which was supposed to start at 1pm, was strongly influenced by bountiful quantities of Owsley Acid. This was a big event for the region in the south, as Georgia was not used to the quantity of hippies and "Summer of Love" ethos of the Bay area. The Allman Brothers Band, who had begun playing free concerts at Piedmont as early as May of 1969, were rumored to be in attendance at this 7/7/69 show. Some say there was a big jam at the end, but listening closely I do not hear Duane, Gregg, or Dickey Betts in the mix. So yesterday, 11/4/24, was the 55th anniversary of the release of the Allman Brothers Band eponymous album.
There are always lil clues to narrow down the choices but listening to numerous renditions is my only solution to finding the right show. My Hint: find one section in the song (a strange detail) vs listening the the entire song.
Not as familiar as most of you with this era so I struggled for many tries until frustrated, then in desperation I went to the comments for cryptic clues. That helped but Ladnarc has been to every show. And Bundubush, are you sure you have all your shows attended listed? I had it early on but didn't realize the person whose archive show I was listening to had the songs out of order which I realized the second time through. A worthy quest nonetheless!
Cheers