Grateful Dead

One of the first tapes I acquired was from this show, an audience tape. Nonetheless, the quality of this performance was so great, it didn't matter to me. Jerry's solo on "To Lay Me Down" is classic Garcia. He makes the guitar speak.

I scored four tickets to this show for $90 (face value of $40) with no idea what I was getting into -- 16 years old, never been to any concert. But the Dead heads were the coolest people at the new school I was attending, and I'd recognized BEAUTY and WORKINGMAN from younger days. By the time this show rolled around, I knew all the songs (only Brent's "Good Times" had me wondering). The friend who brought me was disappointed -- this show ended his interest in the band -- but I had only just begun. Great thanks to Alan Buck of Redondo Beach, who was next to me down by the stage & shared some refreshment with me; I've never seen him again, but we mailed each other occasionally for a few years. The Dead themselves went through some rough years but I knew I'd found something special. Listening to this show now, I *know* Jerry is spacing the lyrics; I remember him smiling in that well-there-it-is manner of his before going on, but you'd never know it from the tape: it just sounds like he gave proper measure to the next verse. And that's how it was, at this not-terribly-remarkable yet reasonably good show: we could laugh and smile and move on, and have a good time. Outside, the world was growing hostile and untrusting, cutting their hair and getting office jobs. Well, we had to be part of that too. But there was also this to turn to :-) "It's always a nice day for a blessing"