Grateful Dead

Summer flies and August dies / The world grows dark and mean…
—Robert Hunter, “Days Between”

Don’t get me wrong—I love 1970s Grateful Dead. It’s the decade they made their greatest albums, introduced most of their coolest songs (both originals and covers) and played hundreds of their finest shows. Just look at the number of official releases of ’70s Dead concerts—it dwarfs any other decade.

The original artwork gracing the cover of the new Spring 1990 box, and others spread throughout the beautiful and informative book included in the package, are the work of a Brooklyn-based artist named Wes Lang.

The 35th anniversary of the release of the Dead’s Terrapin Station album on July 27, 1977, got me thinking about that magical year and how—or if—that disc fit into that time, and the ways it represented the Grateful Dead to the outside world.

Much has been made about how, even more than usual, this year’s Gathering of the Vibes in Bridgeport, Connecticut is a Grateful Dead family event, as it features appearances by Phil Lesh & Friends, the duo of Bob Weir and Bruce Hornsby with special guest Branford Marsalis, the Mickey Hart Band and Bill Kreutzmann’s 7 Walkers. Wish I could be there!

Recently, I’ve been on a kick of listening to big chunks of certain Grateful Dead tours in chronological order. It started after I lauded the summer 1991 tour in this space a few weeks ago. I decided to check out the last 10 shows of that jaunt—from Charlotte through Sandstone (Kansas), to see if they were as good as I remembered.

I must admit, when the lineup for this year’s Gathering of the Vibes in Connecticut July 19-22 was first announced, it got me seriously salivating.

The world is a better place with Little Feat in it.

After years of painstaking work and many months of preparation, the much-touted Grateful Dead Archive at UC Santa Cruz is set to open to the public with a celebration on Friday, June 29, between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Hallelujah!

On June 19, 1987—25 years ago this week—MTV showed the video of the Dead’s just-released single, “Touch of Grey,” for the first time.