#Grateful dead free

“A four-block stretch of fabled Haight Street yesterday was voluntarily surrendered to thousands of hippies and hippie-watchers.

#Grateful dead free

March 3: Live on Haight Street: The band plays a free show on the back of a flatbed truck for thousands assembled on Haight Street. Pigpen and Bob Weir were fined $100 each.

Rock Scully (the long-haired group’s long-haired business manager) and audio engineer Bob Matthews were fined $200 each. 2: Hashbury bust: Band members and friends are busted in a pot raid at 710 Ashbury St. Two drummers! The pair become known as the Rhythm Devils. 29: Hart beats: Bill Kreutzmann invites Mickey Hart to sit in with the Dead, making the band a sextet with two drummers. “The Grateful Dead did a fine set with some marvelously exciting and interesting guitar solos by Jerry Garcia and a great demonstration of their tightness and swing,” Gleason wrote. June 18: Monterey Pop: The Grateful Dead play the Monterey Pop Festival, in between the Who and Jimi Hendrix (who famously sets his guitar on fire during his performance). has apparently gotten this wonderful feeling on the tapes of the sessions.” “The Dead are the most consistently excellent rock group around, their instrument work is beautiful, they swing like angels and Warner Bros. an album which has everyone excited,” wrote Gleason. “The Grateful Dead have recorded for Warner Bros. March 1: First album release: “Grateful Dead”: The Grateful Dead release their self-titled debut album on Warner Bros. Tambourines, drums, flutes and chiming bells appeared and the air was filled with the buzz of voices and the sound of music,” wrote Gleason, who affirmed that “there were no drunks.” Some came in their 20th century teepees, old school buses, caravans and VW buses, and lined the embankment, overlooking the field. 14: First signs of the Summer of Love: At least 20,000 - including some Hells Angels - gathered at Golden Gate Park’s Polo Field for the “Gathering of the Tribes,” the prelude to the Summer of Love that came to be known as the “Human Be-In.” “The tribes gathered early in the day. 31: Working for the man: Grateful Dead signs with Warner Bros. They played a total of 29 shows, and recorded two live albums - “Vintage Dead” and “Historic Dead” - there.ĭec. May 19: Avalon Ballroom: The Dead play their first show at Avalon Ballroom, located at Sutter Street and Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. Millionaire” was inspired by newspaper accounts that described him as the “LSD millionaire.” LSD,” Stanley also mass-produced acid when it was still legal. “Without his technical innovations - he was one of the first people to mix concerts live and in stereo - the band might never have emerged from the San Francisco scene,” Rolling Stone wrote in a 2007 profile. 11: Stanley amplifies the Dead: Owsley Stanley, an early financier of the band, becomes the Grateful Dead’s sound engineer. Gleason, who went on to become a founding editor of Rolling Stone.įeb. When the good rock music wailed, it was great,” wrote Chronicle Music Critic Ralph J. When the dull projections took over, as on Friday, it was nowhere. “The truth about the Trips Festival is that it was a three-night, weekend-long rock ’n’ roll dance with light effects. 22: Trips Festival: Kesey brings in the Dead to play the Trips Festival, held at the Longshoreman’s Hall in San Francisco’s North Beach. Garcia spotted the phrase “grateful dead,” which the band later discovered to be from an Egyptian prayer, in a dictionary, and it stuck.Īfter 50 years, Grateful Dead are summer’s hottest ticket The lineup also includes the John Handy Quintet, Jefferson Airplane and the Mystery Trend.ĭecember: Grateful Dead born: The band changes its name after learning of another group called Warlocks. 10: Fillmore first: The Grateful Dead, still known as the Warlocks, perform at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco for the first time, as part of Bill Graham’s S.F. It was the dawn of the San Francisco hippie era, and the Pranksters set the psychedelic scene.ĭec. Kesey and his fledgling group the Merry Pranksters, which included Neal Cassady, hosted these legendary counterculture gatherings as public experimentations with LSD. 4: Can you pass the Acid Test? The group becomes a staple at author Ken Kesey’s Acid Test parties. June 18: Lesh on bass: Phil Lesh, recruited by Garcia to replace Morgan, plays his first show as bassist for the Warlocks at Frenchy’s in Hayward.ĭec.