In and Out Of The Garden: Madison Square Garden, 10/83
Pack the Microbus & hit the road with the Dead in ‘83, hang out with the deep scene of Dead Head graffiti writers & frisbee players in Central Park, & get back to Madison Square Garden for two shows with two room-shaking bustouts.
In and Out Of The Garden: Madison Square Garden, 10/83 supplementary text
by Jesse Jarnow
Mark A. Rodriguez’s new book,After All is Said and Done: Taping the Grateful Dead, 1965-1995 (Anthology Editions) is a valuable new addition to the Dead bookshelf, a visual and oral history of the taping culture.
Starting in 1983, David and John Leopold sold their year-at-a-glance illustrated setlists in the parking lot, with wonderfully psychedelic calligraphy by Dave. They continued through the remainder of the decade, with posters still available.
The Deadhead Dress Archive brecently launched as a collaborative project to document fan-made clothing, t-shirts and far beyond.
Corry Arnold’s various blog projects take looks into unexpected corners of the Grateful Dead’s career and surrounding universe, often with the help of long and entwined comments threads. In one infamous post on Lost Live Dead, he discusses the advertised Dead show at Ungano’s in New York in February 1970, which (as the comments reveal) may or may not have happened on the off-day between Fillmore East shows or perhaps at some other unadvertised time, or maybe not at all, but not definitely possibly. But it’s on Hooterollin’ where one can find his provocatively titled The Grateful Dead and the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.
Comment
Ethan
Interesting to hear the discussion about the Michel newsletter and stickers in 1983. No one seems to know who Ethan was. He was actually a good friend of mine in the 80's. I first met him in 1983, a young 18 year old from the Philly suburbs, I saw him quite often at shows from that year onward, first traveling with him in a Uhaul summer '83, later living with him at a house in Boulder Creek, CA in 1986. He was a big deadhead, but actually didn't have much to do with the stickers and newsletter, beyond handing them out. In fact I never got a good answer as to exactly why his name was on them. It seemed somewhat accidental. Haven't seen or heard from him in over 30 years now though.
St Stephen t-shirt for sale tonight
How funny, another Cosmic Coincidence that this show dealt with original t-shirt artwork, as well as the 83 MSG St. Stephen breakout. As luck would have it, I had a large bag full of original St Stephen t-shirts I made the night before with some friends tucked under my seat that were to go on sale after the show. Holy crap what a cosmic coincidence!!! They had a border of roses with a SYF skull in the middle. But instead of the lighting in the center of the skull there was a three color rainbow in the yin-yang shape (blue and red on either side of the rainbow with the two dots). the rainbow came spilling out of the skull jaws and spread into a pool below. It said on top: "One man gathers" and on the bottom: "What another man spills." needless to say they were an almost instant sell out. But the next night, I couldn't get a ticket, and outside the show, some asshole cop ripped open my bag of shirts and threw them into the crowd/street. and of course it being NYC, everyone grabbed them and ran. People asked me how I knew the Dead were gonna break out St Stephen and my reply was: "how did the Dead know I made the shirts the night before?"
How funny, another Cosmic Coincidence that this show dealt with original t-shirt artwork, as well as the 83 MSG St. Stephen breakout. As luck would have it, I had a large bag full of original St Stephen t-shirts I made the night before with some friends tucked under my seat that were to go on sale after the show. Holy crap what a cosmic coincidence!!! They had a border of roses with a SYF skull in the middle. But instead of the lighting in the center of the skull there was a three color rainbow in the yin-yang shape (blue and red on either side of the rainbow with the two dots). the rainbow came spilling out of the skull jaws and spread into a pool below. It said on top: "One man gathers" and on the bottom: "What another man spills." needless to say they were an almost instant sell out. But the next night, I couldn't get a ticket, and outside the show, some asshole cop ripped open my bag of shirts and threw them into the crowd/street. and of course it being NYC, everyone grabbed them and ran. People asked me how I knew the Dead were gonna break out St Stephen and my reply was: "how did the Dead know I made the shirts the night before?"
Interesting to hear the discussion about the Michel newsletter and stickers in 1983. No one seems to know who Ethan was. He was actually a good friend of mine in the 80's. I first met him in 1983, a young 18 year old from the Philly suburbs, I saw him quite often at shows from that year onward, first traveling with him in a Uhaul summer '83, later living with him at a house in Boulder Creek, CA in 1986. He was a big deadhead, but actually didn't have much to do with the stickers and newsletter, beyond handing them out. In fact I never got a good answer as to exactly why his name was on them. It seemed somewhat accidental. Haven't seen or heard from him in over 30 years now though.