Grateful Dead

A beautiful moment in time.

The day of my 18th birthday. No better way to spend it than catching an amazing free show in Golden Gate Park. That's hard to top.

If memory serves, this was a surprise concert which came during their mid-70s hiatus. I was living across the street from the Park at the time and heard music wafting, raced over to Lindley, and spent the afternoon in a tree. The band was pretty ragged, but nobody cared. They were back!

e-mail friskotatt2@yahoo.com... 4 more tatt2 flix goto http.myspace.com/mobb_ shop if anyone out there can help me out i am looking for the front page clipping of 2 little hippiegirls sitting on the hill holding eachother. i am pretty sure it was from this show. and although they were only about 12/13 yrs of age at the time iremember them making the trip from bekeley to the city .they r both x,s of mine [brigette a.k.a. stoney n robin cochran] thyanx

My mom took me to this show in the park when I was 8 years old! We lived right near by on Irving St. My first show!

Maiden voyage of my 1960 Morris Minor from Fairfield CA. Surprise announcement on the radio. Wow! Look what I've become. Fan for life. An' still dancing bare.

This was a wonderful day. My friend Alex turned me onto the free concert and we had a blast there that day. I shot from sitting on top of his shoulders to get above the crowd! A real memory. Overcast but comfy. Rich, saturated, muted colors of the park. Debut of Jefferson Starfish. They parked a big semi trailer next to the stage with a big new airbrushed colorful Starship mural painted on the side of it facing crowd. Kind of garish for the park, really. Personally I enjoyed the Dead better that day but I guess the Starfish really got some business done. Got great photos of Jerry and white Travis Bean guitar and Bob in tan corderoy bells smiling, laughing and kicking right towards me and my camera. Sadly, the best shots for timing and composition were blurred by my bopping movement in my telephoto lens. Well, Deadhead 1st, photographer, 2nd. Natural order of life.

My first Grateful Dead Concert was one of Pigpen's last in SF . Although I watched them a few times in the 80's and once in the 90's, almost all of my many concerts were in the 70's in the Bay Area during the Keith and Donna years. What a privlege to have these memories!

Wow, this show took place just 25 whole days before I first arrived on this bright blue ball just spinning,spinning free dizzy for eternity!

I was in the park leaving with my flower child girlfriend and a huge stream of people flowed toward us. I asked where are you going. I turned around fast and saw the whole beautiful event with big trees and kites and frisbees and my friend from vermont ready to share. Oh Yeah I like it !

After missing out on the Kezar show in 73 and my first attempt at a Winterland show in Oct. 74, I eventually finally made it. Twenty feet from the stage when we walked up for the Starship and in a huge sea of humanity for the Dead. Heard about a birth, saw a Hell's Angel stab someone, and had my mind blown. Nothing like a day in Golden Gate Park...

hitched from sunnyvale for this show with pa alvarado,,,had a great time,,,,

hitchhiked home after concert lived in Santa Clara.

This was my very first concert. I was living in SF on Portrero Hill. I was 6 years old and riding on the shoulders of my brother and sisters father! The first time I'd been in a large crowd. It was magical! The energy was palpable and the vibe was fantastic. Who knew that 10 years later I would be collecting tapes and going to every Midwestern show I could.

Memories are so fleeting. I think I heard from a friend that there was a radio announcement about a free show in the park and the Dead were going to play. We hitailed it up from south bay to be sure to be there. Is this the show where a radio station got a permit for the Starship to play, and the Dead piggybacked stealthly on the permit? A wonderful day in the park, a treat to hear and see the Dead when they were so rare during their hiatus. It was full of people very crowded. Too bad by then they had dropped Blues for Allah.

Gary Reeves was teaching a class at Jonhston College, Redlands Ca in the Fall of 1975. The class was called Dialectic of the Dead. He later became a CNN anchorperson. He had 2 footlockers full of Dead Reel-to-reels. We studied Harrison's The Book of the Dead, among others. We spent full moons mushrooming out in Joshua Tree. We also studied Little Feat and Zappa, and dug on Peter Frampton... I was into musique concret... Anywho I was a South-side Chicago kid who ended up at The U. of C. Laboratory H.S. in 1970 cause my parents didn't want me to go to public H.S. cause of gangs. My first true white folks/hippy experiences in Hyde Park... The co-op dude recommended I but Santana Abraxas as a transition to R&R album, followed by Led Zeppelin II. The stage was set. Despite that I grew up on the streets with Jeff Fort's Black P. Stone Nation, The Disciples, and the Trey gangs (based on x3rd street - 43rd, 53rd, 63rd etc.) I hung with the Main 21 ( the execution squad ) at the Museum of Science and Industry in 7th & 8th grade. They would hang out at the Wurlitzer Organ booths and I would play the soul/r&b tunes while they jammed and mac'd on the girls. The dead eventually spoke to me singing I had such dark eyes... But this show (Lindley Meadows) was a Johnston School outing! We got the school van and the school gas card and headed up to frisco, stopping along the way at haughts where class members knew (very groovy) people. I was taking a most auspicious amount and mix of substances that by the time the Airplane started kicking out the jams (@10am) in the fog I was in heaven. Then the psychedelic juggling acts started the retreat of the fog... I sat down in a sea of blue jeans contemplating what a long strange trip it had become and how far away from home I was... And then the dead played me with the opening tune, like a slow motion fast forward to now, and I rose in time lapse like a psilocibin shroom sprouting into the midday sun... and we have Contact!!!!!! From then on: Don't ease me in!!!! All the Chicago Deadhead Johnstonian went back to Chicago in 1976 and the Dead followed us there... and I foresaw that after the Midwest camp blew it's seams at Alpine Valley that Soldiers Field would be the only place left to "do that rag" What a great start in Blues For Allah. When I arrived at Johnston College, David Jacobs and I bought copies of BFA, took cid and spent a whole day playing - stopping - writing down after debating - the lyrics - only to find out the next day we had missed the extra page in the album with the lyrics spelled out... Nothing left to do but smile Smile SMILE!!!!! Cheers y'all!

This was my first rock concert, let alone my first Dead show! I was six years old living on Vermont Street on Potrero Hill and my mom and dad brought me down to the park. My first show, the first large gathering I ever experienced. Brilliant.

KSAN announced the show as a Monkeys reunion. The Hells Angels knew better, they showed up in full force and partied hard.

FYI: One truly great photo of Jerry was taken at this show, a free concert in Golden Gate Park on Sunday 9/28/75, a pretty cold, grey day. It was announced the day before so as to not get too big a crowd. Nonetheless, there were at least 25,000 people. In the Sievert photo, those are people blurred in the background. Sievert was a photographer for guitar & musician magazines at the time. Just google: "Garcia Jon Sievert" and the photo will come right up.

Out-of-towners may have gotten better info about this than those of us who lived right in SF. KSAN announced the Jefferson Starship but the Dead came as a complete surprise, at least to me. I woke up late, took the 38 Geary bus to Masonic and walked from the Panhandle all the way up (about 25 city blocks) and the JS was smokin' midway through their set as I arrived. Grace was stumbling drunk but the band was in great shape; as you may recall they were at the top of the charts right then. The first I heard of the Dead was when Paul Kantner told everyone, "Don't go away, the Grateful Dead are coming right up!" Soon Phil comes out and addresses the crowd: "Long time no see." The vibe was so perfect they could have played the theme from "Starsky and Hutch" for two hours and nobody would have minded. Having only heard the new album a couple of times I especially enjoyed hearing "Help/Slip" and "Franklin." Weir forgot the lyrics to "Truckin'" but nobody cared. The weather was chilly but nobody cared. They only played one set, but nobody cared. My one friend in the Dead entourage was backstage (which was just a fenced-off section behind the temporary stage) and we got to talk a bit across the fence. The Hell's Angels "Old Ladies" had a "Free Sonny Barger" booth, where I donated a buck. At one point I thought about climbing a tree for a better view-- but all the good trees were taken! One of a kind. If you were there, you know what I mean.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rcwwl6jq8o6zcoa/Garcia%20Lindley%20Meadows%20… /Users/mwulfman/Desktop/Garcia Lindley Meadows Sept 28 1975.jpg https://www.dropbox.com/s/rcwwl6jq8o6zcoa/Garcia%20Lindley%20Meadows%20… I have tried to share a print of a long lost photoI took and recently found and scanned. It gave me the warm fuzzy feelings to see Garcia staring straight at me at eye level. through all the years. Bring one right back!

Out-of-towners may have gotten better info about this than those of us who lived right in SF. KSAN announced the Jefferson Starship but the Dead came as a complete surprise, at least to me. I woke up late, took the 38 Geary bus to Masonic and walked from the Panhandle all the way up (about 25 city blocks) and the JS was smokin' midway through their set as I arrived. Grace was stumbling drunk but the band was in great shape; as you may recall they were at the top of the charts right then. The first I heard of the Dead was when Paul Kantner told everyone, "Don't go away, the Grateful Dead are coming right up!" Soon Phil comes out and addresses the crowd: "Long time no see." The vibe was so perfect they could have played the theme from "Starsky and Hutch" for two hours and nobody would have minded. Having only heard the new album a couple of times I especially enjoyed hearing "Help/Slip" and "Franklin." Weir forgot the lyrics to "Truckin'" but nobody cared. The weather was chilly but nobody cared. They only played one set, but nobody cared. My one friend in the Dead entourage was backstage (which was just a fenced-off section behind the temporary stage) and we got to talk a bit across the fence. The Hell's Angels "Old Ladies" had a "Free Sonny Barger" booth, where I donated a buck. At one point I thought about climbing a tree for a better view-- but all the good trees were taken! One of a kind. If you were there, you know what I mean.