Grateful Dead

One of my better fly-on-the-wall moments. This was the era of the Grateful Dead Hour on local station KFOG. David Gans had persuaded Phil to come to the studio and spend an hour talking about his favorite music, and even better, PLAYING his favorite music. I got to tag along, and being no fool brought my camera.

It was a memorable and delightful evening, with Phil playing lots of cool stuff and having all manner of interesting things to say. Things were just fabulous until he decided to play a lengthy and somewhat esoteric piece by Charles Ives, which was a perfect fit for the show itself but, we soon found out, not what the local rock 'n' roll station had in mind. At some juncture during the Ives piece, the station manager happened to tune in and hear something that definitely did not Fit The Format and got very excited. Not in a good way. Phones rang. Shouting ensued. Not on the air though.

This was long before the Grateful Dead Hour in its current form, and I don't know if any archive of it exists. But if it does, I'd sure love to hear it again. Ah, the memories.

--marye