Grateful Dead

Couple of quotes that caught my eye To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. Thomas Campbell What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us. Helen Keller BROKEN CHAIN “Little knew that morning that God was going to call your name. In life we loved you dearly, in death we do the same. It broke our hearts to lose you, you did not go alone; for part of us went with you the day God called you home. You left us peaceful memories, your love is still our guide, and though we cannot see you, you are always by our side. Our family chain is broken and nothing seems the same, but as God calls us one by one, the chain will link again.” RIP JERRY

This day 95. Saddest day in Deadhead History, one of the saddest days in my life. I miss you and think of you everyday.

I miss you Jerry.You brought me so many smiles and so much joy and happiness for so many years. Thank You. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman-Song of Myself

I agree with aud. It is fitting. Boy o boy, I still miss him like the dickens. "Whiskey in the Jar" gets played alot on this day. and Visions and She Belongs To Me... and a whole lot more. Peace to all on this day. “The Omnipotent Grateful Dead!”

Somehow it just seems fitting that on this day in Grateful Dead history, there were no Grateful Dead shows. I'll miss you forever, Jer.

mythical and gypsy soul It has been my perception that the real hardcore touring was more something that started to grow in the late 70's and got really big in the 80's and 90's. Yeah, people traveled a long way to see shows, but not to one after another across the country. I could be wrong, but don't think I am. There are others out there that know more about this than me. Any thoughts or memories? Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman-Song of Myself

On this date in Deadhead history: - In 1982, the Grateful Dead played the Alpine Valley Music Theater in E. Troy, WI.

you get an A+ on that little essay. i was actually thinking bout the deadheads themselves. certainly only one who was on the road during that period could give us another glimpse at touring from that standpoint. i wonder how many missed shows because of stations beging closed or using the "odd/even" license plate rule(remember that?) thanks for that thourogh post. good job!! nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile

"We were dealing with stuff like telepathy on a daily basis..." --Bob Weir, reflecting on the experience of falling in with Kesey, Cassady & Co., as quoted in Blair Jackson's outtakes from Garcia: An American Life, Chapter 5 (accessible at blairjackson.com); it still applies Well, the embargo was imposed in October of '73 and lifted in the following March, but pump prices remained high thereafter --just about double what they'd been before the embargo, depending upon locale ("most massive transfer of wealth in recorded human history," etc.). Plus, a lot of filling stations simply couldn't keep a supply of it --if they could get one in the first place. The historical record indicates that the band did a total of 27 shows at both ends of the country and several points in between during the span of time running from late October of '73 to the end of the year (and no New Year's run at the end of '73 --hmmm). In the new year, they only played four shows (three Winterland, one Cow Palace) before 12th May of '74, by which time the embargo had been lifted but the die well and truly cast nonetheless. March of '74 also had ushered in the Wall of Sound, which as we've been told was so enormous and required so much set-up work that two full kits of it were sent out on the road --with crews-- and while the band would be playing in one town, the other complement of gear and its crew would be trucking off to the next one and setting up there, and the two teams would leapfrog their way thru an extended run of shows. Also as we know, the whole thing eventually was abandoned as overly cumbersome from a labor-and-logistics standpoint and as cost-prohibitive to boot, so there at least must be a correlative thing going on here if not actual causation --and in any case, the band would be on a punctuated sabbatical of exactly eighteen months' duration by late October of that year. Things got really bad in '79, too --more so skyrocketing pump prices, as I recollect it, than stations simply running out of it and incapable of resupplying, as had been the case in '74 (in much of the country, at any rate; California for one had to go to rationing in '79). It really came down hard in May, during which the band were off the road after the first two weeks. No shows after that until three in the northwest at the end of June, nothing after 1st July until three at Red Rocks/McNichols in mid-August, and then another pause before a tour beginning on the East Coast on 31st August. And so there you have it. Whatever the actual impact on the band's touring decisions --and it's well worth noting that upwardly spiraling transportation costs cut immediately into prospective concertgoers' available discretionary funds for tickets, travel and lodging-- the fact remains that while it could be argued that they may have succeeded in slowing it down, neither OPEC nor even the Ayatollah could stop rock 'n' roll.

wow man, u are blowing my mind. i was going to post the other day about how folks in the times of the great gas shortage of the '70's made it from show to show!!!! we are truly connnected.. nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile