Grateful Dead

Man it was hot that day. We were stupidly in the front with a hundred thousand people pushing on us--dehydrated, passed out girls being handed over the railing to the security guards--and a large goon with a red gallon jug shouting "Fruit Punch!" triumphantly.

only time i ever went to philly friday show we drove up from md 3 hour drive pulled into the biggest parking lot turned out to be the wrong parking lot for vets stadium was a lot of fun hot i got my tickets from ticket monster after being shut out for rowanoke va.so we had reserved in the stand tickets got iree in the lot. went to go in at 6 pm witch was show start time figured dylan was going to open woops,was a crazy crowd getting in thi small hole only two people could get in at a time so i told my freinds if we get seperated we would meet at our seats. i get in and going up the walk to the stadium theres this guy saying this is whats its all about! and i look at the giant screen and there jerry face on it and their starting iko iko jack straw sugaree best sugaree ever!the place is more than half empty i meet my friends and we run down the benches to the field where we stayed all day . seeing jerry play pedal steel guitar was the best . the grateful dead will be playing alone and togeather with bob dylan the hot line said oh thats what that ment the play a whole show none stop and then come back and back up bob dyaln for his set this was one of the best concerts i ever attended this whole show should be a " view from the vault" ..........please please !!! thanks and stay in touch............aiko aiko

After listening to 93.3 FM for most of my teen years, I finally got to say, "God Bless The Grateful Dead" over the air waves! The local DJ and resident Dead Head, Peirre Robert used that line every time he would play the Dead. I met him on the floor of JFK. He was carrying a portable unit and broadcasting from the show. I asked him if I could say the line over the air. He said sure but disappeared into the masses. About 5-10 minutes later, I felt a tap on the shoulder and it was him with the microphone in my face! One of the best concerts! A lot of kindness was shown on that very very hot day!

My first show. I vividly remember the sunset during Black Peter. I never looked back. I was hooked for the next seven years on the road. Twenty years later i remember most of it,damn clowns. Excellent Sugaree. This would make a nice View From The Vault.

I had an experience I will never forget at this concert. I was in a bit of an altered state and must have dropped my ticket on the way into the concert. The person walking behind me saw it fall and picked it up and gave it to me.AN ANGEL ON EARTH!! I would call it karma, as I have done good deeds in my life. The sun was HOT, and so was the Dead!!

who loves you in philly baby?

it was my very first show didnt know what to expect but after i was hooked

...123,000 tie-died shirts. The stadium was awash with color. It was HOT that day! We arrived early and my friends and I somehow landed a spot dead center about thirty feet from the stage. At one point, everyone disappeared and I was alone for what seemed like forever in the hot sun, but I did not want to lose our "spot". I was dying of thirst when my friend, Kov, reappeared with two friends from the Scranton area, whom I had never met before. One of the guys carried a tray of snow cones and gave me the extra one he had thoughtfully bought for someone who might "need" it. Need it? Man, that snow cone saved my life. Oh yeah, and then the show. What a show! One of only two Grateful Dead concerts I ever attended, but I have been a huge Grateful Dead fan since.

What a sick show this was I went to a couple on the east coast that year and had a blast with all my friends every now and again we try and get to a few concerts during the summer to remember the good old days, right now we got some radiohead tickets and will hopefully be getting some others next month got to see who playing and where.

At the time, I loved the GD but did not as yet know their music very well. I knew Dylan, however, very well and was excited to see them together. I would like for anyone who saw the Dead and Dylan together to confirm the following observation: Regardless of what one may say about the quality of their performances together, the Deadheads on the whole displayed an annoying indifference bordering in many cases on outright rudeness to Dylan. I remember thousands of them milling around aimlessly and restlessly during the Dylan set in front of the bleachers where I happened to be seated. I had to endure one negative Dylan comment after another. As we now know from Dylan's CHRONICLES, that was a period in which he was really struggling, between the last glories of the 70's and the new voice he would slowly find during the 90's. I wonder how the members of the Dead feel about their collaboration with him. Another thing I'd like someone to confirm...It seems to me that Dylan just sort of gave up or quit about halfway through "Joey" before launching into a perfunctory "Watchtower". I remember wondering why he chose that song, which to me is one of his longest, most boring, and least characteristic songs (I also remember thinking that Jerry sounded marvelous in the backup vocals). Dylan and the Mafia? He's written about a lot of things, but... I also had an epiphany at this concert that Dylan was a reincarnation of the Biblical Job, returning with a message for the 80's, but I won't mention what may have induced such a hallucination... A beautiful but very hot drive from Penn State down to Philly. I remember stopping, famished in a Denny's on the way home and getting involved in a really annoying discussion with a boorish, pedantic Deadhead who felt he should indoctrinate with Dead sooth as this was only my second show. Wish I could be that young again... Jonesbaron

went w/ my then fiance and his friend. we made it onto the field of the "Cheerio Bowl" (aka rfk stadium) and up to the front. it was insanely hot! I had the BEST klondike bar ever made from some guy selling them out of a milk crate on the field....mmmmm...... :)it's been a long strange trip since then and i'm looking forward to seeing the dead in philly 5/2/09! Beth

My first show.. Ironically io was there the last time ANY concert was played at JFK, and guess who it was thats rightr the Grateful Dead. They condemned the building the next day as i recall. Regardless of the number of people that place was the shit!!

My sister brought me to this show, it was my first and the first set was awesome!! Loved Iko Iko opening! We got posters which we asked the guys we were with to hold for us. Then we got lost during set break & my sister started freaking out so we had to leave the show!! We missed the whole 2nd set but we could hear Dylan jamming with The Dead from the parking lot (which we circled many times 'till we found our car). The guys showed up and they had our posters!! Mine traveled to California & back to Buffalo and has always hung in my room where it rests today! I was hooked! GretchenS

man, was it ever hot. and another in an exhausting series of stadium dates in the sun, especially if you haven't been getting much sleep (for one reason or another). but this was a first for me -- my buddy John actually fell ASLEEP during Terrapin and didn't wake up until Saturday Night (the song, that is), even those he was dosed. the show was worth staying awake for, even if it was disappointing the dead only did one long extended solo set (instead of two, as with the Giant's Stadium date). weird feeling the shift to "second set songs" without the band leaving the stage for an hour...

I'd graduated from college earlier that year. Moved in with a roomie at 2nd & Carpenter. We both got new motorcycles and wanted to break them in. So we took off down Delaware Ave and ended up at JFK, when we remembered, "Oh shII, there's a show tonight." So we pulled over and got tix at the door. My first rock concert was Dylan & The Band in 1974 at The Spectrum. So this was my second Dylan show, but my sixth (or thereabouts) Dead show. Wandering minstrels inside the stadium, we wandered the field, met up with all manner of wonderful freakish people, and ended up way up in the stands with Pierre Robert - who was everywhere that day. We had a high time, livin' the good life.

WHAT A SHOW..THE DAY STARTED WITH ME AND MY BUDDY PICKED UP A GIRL THAT WAS HICHIKING ON THE ATLANTIC CITY EXPRESSWAY IN A WHITE DRESS HEADING TO THE SHOW IN PHILLY....WE HUNG OUT WITH HER FOR A WHILE WHEN WE GOT TO THE PARKING LOT DRINK SOME BEERS AND SMOKING ALL TYPES OF THINGS UNTIL IT WAS THYME TO HEAD TO JFK PARKING LOT FROM THE VET PARKING LOT WHERE WE PARKED.. MEET UP WITH MY BROTHER AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE JFK PARKING LOT...THIS WAS THE DAZES BEFORE CELL PHONES SO TO CATCH UP WITH THEM WAS SHOCKING WITH ALL THE PEOPLE THERE THAT DAY.. WE SHARED SOME STORIES ABOUT THE DAY SO FAR BESIDES A COUPLE OF THOSE GLOBES THAT WERE FLOATING AROUND THAT DAY.. GOT INTO JFK RIGHT BEFORE THE BOYS STARTED OUT THEIR LONG SET AND WHAT A SET IT WAS!!!! HUNG OUT DEAD CENTER STAGE TWENTY YARDS AWAY WITH A BUNCH OF DANCIN FOOLS WHO KEEP FEEDING US ALL NITE LONG UNTIL THE TOUCH OF GREY ENCORE!!!!!! AFTER THE SHOW WHEN WE GOT BACK TO MY FRIENDS TRUCK WE REALIZED THAT WE LEFT THE COOLER OF BEER IN THE BED.....OOH SHIT WE WERE THINKIN SOMEONE DRINK OUR BEER....BUT NO ALL OF OUR BEER WAS LEFT PLUS SOME!!!! THE PERSON NEXT TO US NEEDED A COOLER FOR THEIR BEER AND USED OURS AND LEFT US WITH SOME KYND IN RETURN!!!!! LATER ON AFTER A COUPLE OF THAT PHILLY GAS MY BUDDY WAS STILL ON A TRIP AROUIND THE GLOBE AND COULDN'T FIND HIS WAY OUT OF THE PARKING LOT LET ALONE THE BRIDGE TO JERSEY SO I HAD TO DRIVE HIM HOME THAT NITE!!!!!!! GOD BLESS THE GRATEFUL DEAD!!!!!!

First show!

I don't remember if it was hot at all,It did not rain Jerry was in his prime, Dylan is always in his prime He has so many primes The two greatest events in history: Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead I am glad they were 2000 years apart. I would not want to have to choose which one to see.

I will NEVER forget the goose bumps over my entire body when they broke into Tangled.First quiet, then gradually louder until Jerry started playing those all too familiar opening notes. When Dylan started singing...I couldn't believe It was real. All this after being on the entire tour with Dylan the summer previous.

This was my first show. During drums I thought the ground was moving up and down. Liquid !!!! Blew me away.

It was a good show but the Dyland songs seemed a bit rehearsed which of course they were. It was nice to see them finally together...a great moment in history.

Good times

Great show. Lots of fun in spite of the brutal heat. My first Dylan show.

My friend called me up who I went to Alpine 87 with and said he had an extra ticket if I could drive him and his brother to the show at JFK, on the road again. Hot day, long show, tons of fun. I remember after the show waiting for the lots to clear taking a walk with my friend around the lots and we could not stop singing and laughing the whole time going JOEY!!!! JOEY!!!!! When we arrived back at the car his brother had melted into the asphalt next to my car, we extracted from the lot and off to Giants for the next show. Nice summer.

THIS GD&BD 1987 SHOW WAS NOT THE LAST JFK SHOW! No no no. The last* JFK show was 2 years later almost to the date & it was a GD show: 07-07-1989 (w/Bruce Hornsby opening). Released as Crimson White & Indigo. No Dylan in 1989. The month, the venue and relative close time period makes many people get this confused. JFK still hosted events from 1987 to 1989 including the first Philadelphia appearance of the Gilmour, Mason, Wright version of Pink Floyd reunion "Momentary Lapse of Reason" tour just a few months after this show in 1987 that we are commenting on here (as well as U2 in '87 and Human Rights Now & the Monsters of Rock tours in '88). NOTE:* setlist sites may show JFK as a venue in 1993 for Lollapalooza etc BUT that is not an accurate name. That venue was basically the vacant dirt space that once held the actual structure of JFK stadium. JFK was knocked down by then. Anyway enough of that... This was a great hot day in the summer of 1987 @ the Ol JFK. JFK stadium parking lot was always our hangout of choice for all concerts in Phila Sports Complex (Spectrum, JFK, Veterans Stadium). The site of the former JFK is pretty much the site of the current Eagles football stadium (Lincoln Financial Field aka The Link). This day was an explosion of parking lot hangout events, of course. Shish-kebabs, burgers, chicken grilling on coals; cold beverages; racks of clothing on hangers for sale etc... the bizarre bazaar was in town. We went straight up front for the GD as the afternoon/evening light was still going. About 10-30 yards from stage. Waved to Bob W & he nodded. You could really make out all the facial expressions & communications between band members. I did not realize at the time (because I was so into the music & fun of the show) that the GD played one long set that functioned like their "normal" 2 set format. I remember strongly the following Dylan set tunes: Tangled Up, Joey, Watchtower & Serve Somebody. Dylan reportedly had to be coaxed on stage to perform because the man who discovered him, John Hammond II, passed away on this day. So he was a bit distressed. I loved the overall sound of GD fused w/BD. Petty & the HBs did a great job too the year before from the video / audio I heard (never saw them live). I started to "get" Dylan (finally) after this show. Many do not understand. But after this tour Bob really changed his approach to set lists & live performance. After the garagey guitar 1988-90 era w/GE Smith on gtr he then morphed into the Tony Garnier on bass (still!) era & onward continuing the never ending tour! The highlight of later Bob for me is the Tony Garnier, Charlie Sexton, Larry Campbell & David Kemper (of JGB fame) line up near the turn of the century. Wow. Great band.