On this day in 1977 one of the
iconic Weir > Garcia song combos that helped define the Dead’s later-day
sound was born in the City of Blues. Just as “Scarlet Begonias” found its soulmate
in “Fire on the Mountain” earlier in the year, “Estimated Prophet” segued into
“Eyes of the World” for the first time in the St. Louis Arena on 5-15-77.
Scarlet > Fire and Estimated > Eyes would be performed in succession at
the start of many second sets over the next eighteen years, and few Deadheads
were ever disappointed, no matter how many times they’d seen it. These were
catchy songs with danceable grooves and optimistic lyrics. The transitions
between these combinations featured creative instrumental journeys that built
anticipation, and the release into the ensuing tune was usually rapturous.
As Garcia tunes up at the start of
set two, he teases “Eyes of the World” before “Estimated Prophet” is launched. It’s
inevitable that the marriage of these tunes would be consummated. “Estimated”
was played almost every night in ’77, and Garcia savored the outro which gave
him an extended opportunity to experiment with the sounds of his Mutron III
filter. The last jam of the St. Louis
“Estimated” crackles and pops as the smoldering remains ignite “Eyes of the
World.”
Phil’s bass leads the way before he
hands the baton to Jerry who fills St. Louis with the living/loving spirit of
“Eyes.” The initial between verse instrumental is charismatic as if the band’s
reveling the secrets of enlightenment. Garcia’s guitar soars as he eventually
leads his mates into a skimming stones chord progression which is followed by
Garcia’s playfully taunting leads: “na-na-na-na-na-nana, nana, nana, na-nahhh!”
A rousing outburst of applause from the faithful follows each solo. The
distinctive statement of this “Eyes” is Garcia’s outro. Ascending notes ring
out from his guitar in climatic fashion—a cast of all-star hummingbirds singing
in the night.
Later in set two, Deadheads go crazy
as they identify the “St. Stephen” intro. After the group harmonizes “Seashore
washed by the suds and the foam. Been here so long he's got to calling it home,”
they cut into what sounds like “Not Fade Away” a verse earlier than usual. The
chord sequence actually leads to the Dead’s debut performance of “Iko Iko.”
This is a brief one verse presentation that slides into another steaming ’77
“Not Fade Away.’ These kind of unique segues where the band tries something
they had never done before, and executes precisely, exemplifies the Dead’s May
’77 mojo.
In addition to the first Estimated
> Eyes and “’Iko Iko,” the band delivers their first “Passenger,” and their
second-ever presentation of “Jack-A-Roe” in the first set. The “Dancin’ in the
Street” that concludes the opening set is perhaps, the most extraordinary
performance of 5-15-77. Donna Jean Godchaux is the preeminent singing voice
here, and the extensive instrumental is packed with turbo-charged funk
reminiscent of a Sly & the Family Stone. The final singing chant produces
lots of yelping and giggling from Donna, Jerry, and Bob. After Weir proclaims,”
We’re gonna take a short break,” the band rumbles the arena with a thunderous
fanfare that makes this unique from any other rendition of “Dancin’.” Confirming
the magnificence of the evening, after the “Uncle John’s Band” encore, Lesh
growls, “Yeah, St. Louis, how sweet it is! Thank you all and good night.”
The Grateful Dead performed a pair
of acoustic/ electric shows in the Fillmore East on May 15, 1970. Eleven days
earlier, on May 4, four students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State were
murdered by Ohio National Guardsmen. There was chaos on college campuses across
America, and the Grateful Dead happened to be performing in the thick of it as
they played seven shows on East Coast campuses from May 1 through May 9. As the
Dead mobilized a peaceful, hedonistic horde of followers through the years,
college campuses became fertile breeding grounds for Deadheads, and that tradition
may have been born during those turbulent times. 
As America was ensconced in chaos,
inspiration flowed like wildfire for the Grateful Dead. A
week after playing on 5-15-70, the Dead made their first trip to perform
overseas at the Hollywood Festival in Newcastle, England. It was there that
Robert Hunter had the greatest afternoon in songwriting history as he wrote the
lyrics to three new anthems. “I wrote ‘Ripple,’ ‘Brokedown Palace,’ and ‘To Lay
Me Down’ all in about a two-hour period the first day I ever went to England,”
Hunter said. “I sat there with a case of retsina and I opened up a bottle of
that stuff, and the sun was shining. I was in England, which I’d always wanted
to visit, and for some reason this creative energy started racing through me
and I could do no wrong—write, write, write, write!”
Over the course of four sets of
music on 5-15-70, the Grateful Dead played seven songs from Workingman’s Dead, which was recorded,
but not released until June 14, and three songs that would be on American Beauty, released later in the
year. The acoustic set of the first show featured “Friend of the Devil,”
“Candyman,” “Cumberland Blues,” and “New Speedway Boogie” in succession. The
lyrics of “Speedway” must have resonated with the audience in the aftermath of
the Kent State shootings. The song was in response to the disastrous concert at
the Altamont Speedway, but the One way or
another this darkness got to give chorus must have sent chills through the
crowd.
An intense version of “Easy Wind”
which appears on Fallout from the Phil
Zone, is sandwiched between “Casey Jones” and the second live performance
of “Attics of My Life.” This was now a group that could sing almost as well as
they jammed. The St. Stephen > Cryptical Envelopments > Drums > The
Other One > Cosmic Charlie segment of the set is sensational. “Garcia’s
tenacious playing during “The Other One” stands out in this psychedelic
blizzard of sound.
After the Dead’s opening acoustic
sets, Garcia remained on stage to play a set with the New Riders of the Purple
Sage. Jerry clocked in more than seven hours of stage time on this historic
day. The acoustic set was once again splendid at the late show, and Dark Star
> St. Stephen > Not Fade Away > Turn on Your Lovelight closed out the electric
set with a heavy dose of cosmic rock. This was an incredible period of activity
for the Grateful Dead as they were bursting onto the national scene and on the
verge of commercial notoriety with their impending album releases.
Three weeks prior to the Grateful
Dead’s May 15, 1980 show at the Nassau Coliseum, Go to Heaven was released. This was the beginning of a period of
creative inactivity as the band would only release two more studio albums
during their remaining fifteen years, and for the most part, their show format
would remain the same. However, the band’s legend and popularity continued to
flourish, but it would do so based upon the foundation they had built. Go to Heaven never took flight
commercially, and critics dismissed it, although it added several strong tunes
to the band’s live rotation. Garcia and company were photographed in white
suits for the album cover, to give us the illusion that they were in heaven.
It’s a lame cover, especially when compared to the Dead’s precious gallery of iconic
album artwork.
After the closing of the Fillmore
East, the Nassau Coliseum emerged as the band’s go to venue in the vicinity of
New York City. There were forty-two Dead shows played at both the Fillmore East
and Nassau Coliseum, but since there were early and late shows in the Fillmore,
the Dead played more dates in Nassau. Eventually the Dead played fifty-two
shows in Madison Square Garden, but the majority of those came after the 1987
release of In the Dark. The Nassau
Coliseum, a Long Island sports arena that was home to the New York Islanders
during their run of four consecutive Stanley Cup Championships from 1979 -1983,
is also one of the legendary shrines of Grateful Dead folklore.
The second show of a three-night
run, 5-15-80 Nassau commences with Jack Straw > Franklin’s Tower, a mighty
one-two punch. From this opening set, the outstanding performances are “Straw,”
Peggy O,” and Lazy Lightning > Supplication. Overwhelming electrical voltage
flows through the “Supplication” jam. Solid versions of the new tunes, “Far
from Me” and “Fee Like a Stranger” are turned in towards the end of a
satisfying set.
“Althea” kicks off set two, and it’s
not nearly as fabulous as the following night’s “Althea,” that former Minnesota
senator and Saturday Night Live cast
member, Al Franken called the best “Althea.” It’s one of the great versions of
that song, but the “Althea” from 8-30-80 Philadelphia Spectrum reigns supreme.
Garcia and mates poured a ton of passion into “Althea for a couple of years,
but then the live performances of the song became more robotic and predictable.
For some odd reason, songs from their latest albums like “Shakedown Street,” “I
Need a Miracle,” “Alabama Getaway,” and Althea,” all exploded on the scene with
inventive jamming. Garcia’s interest in pushing these songs further seemed to
wane, as if he had taken them as far as they could go.
After playing Lost Sailor > Saint
of Circumstance, 5-15-80 Nassau continues with a precisely played set: Playin’
> Uncle John’s Band > Drums > Space > Not Fade Away > GDTRFB
> Good Lovin’. This is a prime example of Grateful Dead arena rock; enough
jamming to satisfy Deadheads, and a crisp collection of focused top shelf songs
to impress rock fans who weren’t obsessed with the band. This run of songs is
immortalized on the 2002 release. Go to Nassau,
a compilation of performances from the Nassau Coliseum shows of May 15 and 16. It’s
a much better album than Dead Set,
the compilation release of electric songs from the Radio City/ Warfield run of
1980. May 15 is a well-represented date in the band’s discography.
The early ‘80s is an era that has
been slighted as far as official releases go. If there were a soundboard
recording of 5-15-83 Greek Theatre, it would be a great addition to the
Download or Dave’s Picks series. This night finds the band, and especially
Garcia in a state of peak virtuosity. The opening set was a standard nine-song
affair with a blazing “Cassidy,” and Garcia steps into overdrive during a
flamboyant “Deal” prior to intermission.
Soundman Dan Healy was born on May
15, so there’s a Happy Birthday singalong before the Dead fire up the second
set with Help > Slipknot! > Franklin’s. There’s a bright metallic ring to
Jerry’s guitar as he storms through “Slipknot!” And the band keeps a long thirteen-minute
version of “Franklin’s Tower” interesting all the way through. The other
transcendent performance of this final night of a three-show run in Berkeley’s
Greek Theatre is a poignant “Stella Blue.” Garcia’s fingers were ablur as he
tore into a climatic outro solo. What Garcia would bring to the “Stella” outro
was always uncertain. Some nights the solo would slither like a soft breeze as
it leaked into “Throwing Stones,” “Around and Around,” or “Good Lovin;” On
other nights, the outro was a dazzling exhibition that needed no supporting
cast.
Grinding
their way through their second East Coast tour of the year, the Grateful Dead
turned on the students of another university of higher education when they
played the Athletic Center at Rutgers on 5-15-81. The show had a festive flow
to it as Mississippi Half Step > Franklin’s kicked the night off, and
Scarlet > Fire opened set two. The jams are concise and there’s a
light-hearted tone to 5-15-81 except for “Little Red Rooster.” This is a
maligned blues tune which suffered from lack of imagination, and interest from
Garcia as the decade moved on. But during the song’s infancy from 1980 -1982,
“Rooster” was a wild beast. During the Rutgers “Rooster,” Garcia unloads a
savage jam following Weir’s pesky slide guitar solo. When I was touring in the
early ‘80s, I savored hearing “Rooster,” which alternated on a nightly basis
with “C. C. Rider” during the first set. Check out the 5-15-81 “Rooster.” You too
will be impressed.
This
date in Garcia history also provides us with a classic performance from Legion
of Mary. This Jerry Band lineup included, Merl Saunders, John Kahn , Ron Tutt
(drums), and Martin Fierro (sax and flute). Legion of Mary toured together for
a year and was disbanded in July of 1975. On 5-15-75, Legion of Mary was on fire in San
Francisco’s Great American Music Hall.
The band’s arsenal included reggae, soul, R & B, and jazz standards.
“Tore Up,” a number from the early days of rock and roll, opens the show. From
this concert, there’s an excellent performance of “I’ll Take a Melody,” that
appears on the must-have release, Legion
of Mary: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 1.
The
Legion of Mary bonus disc contains two tunes from 5-15-75: Stevie Wonder’s,
“Boogie on Reggae Woman,” and Dylan’s underrated classic from John Wesley
Harding, “Wicked Messenger.” Just as Jimi Hendrix found the mojo in “All Along
the Watchtower,” Garcia released the beast within “Wicked Messenger.” Soul
meets gospel in a grinding bluesy container as Garcia turns “Wicked Messenger” into
an instrumental tour de force. May 15, 1975 was the last time any Garcia Band configuration
played “Wicked Messenger.” On 7-12-87 Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead played
the definitive version of “Wicked Messenger” in Giants Stadium. It was the last
time Garcia played the song live, and it was first time Dylan had performed it
live.
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