40 years ago tonight, the #gratefuldead in colorado, opening 3 nights at red rocks, presumably magical for nearly all attending. late summer ’83, show #10.
soundboard: https://archive.org/details/gd83-09-06.sbd.clugston.5489.sbeok.shnf
executive crew audience tape: https://archive.org/details/gd1983-09-06.143039.beyerm201.holbrook.flac1644 [1/5]
9/6/83 red rocks: pretty satisfying show, even more so when listening to an audience tape & projecting to red rocks on a late summer’s night. way-committed garcia on opening ALABAMA GETAWAY, only muffing a few syllables, & extra-present across the set. sweet PEGGY-O. 11-minute BIRD SONG overcomes sickly GS-1 synth tone, patiently climbing before dramatic half-time peak. [2/5]
joyful 26-minute HELP ON THE WAY > SLIPKNOT! > FRANKLIN’S TOWER is blurry on many details but garcia finds deep turns in vibed SLIPKNOT! middle. 60-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND > DRUMZ > SPACE > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > PLAYING IN THE BAND > THROWING STONES > NOT FADE AWAY. PLAYING tethered by hi-hat until last moments. weir tosses SPACE shapes to garcia, a breath from coalescing into a theme. graceful suite-ish linkage from PLAYING reprise into THROWING STONES, though that’s a lotta weir. [3/5]
memories of the dead at red rocks, tonight in 1983, part 2. #deadfreaksunite #gd090683 [5/5]
@bourgwick Really cool jam out of Playing into Space
@bourgwick coke summer
I was there, I had seen them in Cleveland in 1981, and then they avoided cleve for a stretch, so we headed out to Red Rocks, it was a hard ticket to get.
We kept a journal, called it "Go Man Go" picked up hitch-hikers along the way, and had them tell us their stories.
Stayed at Chief Hosa's campground.
Met the "muffin family"who had came in a hearse from Berkeley with literally no license plates, at all
@tor_haxson wow, does the journal survive?
We lost Go-Man-Go
In the spring we went back out, and we all lied to our families in order to get there.
That journal was "Lie Man Lie"
I think Lie Man Lie survives.
Friend who kept them has suffered some mental health challenges, and we have lost touch.
I yelled a lot, sorry tapers I was excited.
What a venue, what a scene.
A story..
Some "Jersey Dead Heads" arrived early and had been camping at Chief Hosas'.
There was a fire ban, but the Jersey freaks had a fire anyhow, and were heating up a can of beans in the fire.
Cops show up.
"No Fires boys"
...
Just then the can of beans in the fire explode in Jersey Freaks Face.
Cop breaks into laughter and leaves.
My buddy was totally Kerouac focussed, so we talked a lot about Cassady who apparently has a Denver affiliation.
We may have drove through a neighborhood that was relevant.
That is what probably inspired the journal, that and just manic excited exuberance.
I do remember Bill the hitchiker details a bit. He was heading home to Kansas after his relationship fell apart in Fon Du Lac..
His advice for us youngsters with regards to Love..
"Choose the Daisy, not the Rose"
I guess attractive women may have broken Bill's heart.
And then about wildlife on the highway..
"Honk at the deer, save their life, a good man honks at the deer"
"running over a box turtle sounds like popping a giant zit"
@tor_haxson @bourgwick I stayed at chief hosa in 87. Sadly a familiar tour face died there overnight one night. A young greaser sort of guy, he had kind of a late Pigpen look. Like skinny Pig with the cowboy hat vibes. They found him cold in the morning from an OD. My first time seeing a thing like that.
Otherwise the vibe was very rainbow space cadet with the harmonic convergence that summer, a major new age marketing/hype event. Lots of Mayan calendar mumbo jumbo.
Strange contrast.
Totally strange contrast..
I celebrated the harmonic convergence at the serpent mound with a bunch of middle aged new-age ladies.
We held hands and circled the mound. There were a LOT of us.
Mayan Calendar, Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent, in ohio, ancient magic. Mayans in Ohio..
I don't want to mock Quetzalcoatl, because well you never know.. but even he would have thought it was hilarious.
@tor_haxson @bourgwick well, I certainly hope we provide he and his friends some amusement now and then.
The Harmonica Virgins were an incredible and unique bit of flavor that summer.
A group of my friends were the first in our cohort to attend a Rainbow Gathering earlier that summer, before joining dead tour. To a soul they all got the "rainbow runs" and spent a week-plus on the can instead.
I was a little over the whole new age, cosmic side of freak culture after those events.