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]
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 @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.