Grateful Dead

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I was far to young to be at this show although I was only 30 minutes away. Pigpen's rap during Good Lovin' is probably his best ever. "Sold, the Brooklyn Bridge"

InOctober 1983 after the MSG and Hartford Saint Stephen's shows We're truckin' thru the Adirondack Mts in the dark of night, planning to arrive at the Lake Placid Holiday Inn where I intended to redefine the terms of "Early-Confirmed-Check-In" with the local innkeeper. I had a briefcase of my bootlegs that were copied for me from my new tour buddies Scott and Tully. This Dillon Gym (10th generation at least) was of especially good quality and hearing it played today has just answered a question that has dogged me for years. After the tremendously great time at the Lake Acid show, we had retreated back to the Holiday Inn for a cook-out with meat. mmmmm So we had the hibachi fired up outside our ground floor room, smoking up the hill that the hotel was on pretty good. I had my Hitachi boom-box playing this tape outside while we cooked and smoked. After a while I realized that my Dillon Gym 71 was providing the music for all balcony smokers and glow-in-the-dark frisbee players . Any,who this head who was hanging out above us pondered out-loud, "Do you ever think they will play Hard to Handle or Big Boss Man again"? I could remember the question, the face, the place but not the music that was being listed to at the time. This show was it. And they did Break-out both songs over the next 2 years Here's the set list from GD radio playback on May 11, 2012 Grateful Dead @ Princeton’s Dillon Gym April 17, 1971 Set 1 - Truckin' Big Railroad Blues Big Boss Man Bird Song Playing In The Band Hard To Handle Loser Mama Tried Casey Jones Sugar Magnolia Set 2 Good Lovin' > Drums > Good Lovin' Me And Bobby McGee Deal Beat It On Down The Line I'm A King Bee, Bertha Sing Me Back Home Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad > Lovelight Cheers !

A frosh security guard would not let Ron McKernan (a.k.a. PigPen) in, backstage, after he had arrived late. To my recollection, Pig did not have 'proper credentials'; & the security kid had no idea who he was (let alone the Dead). After a heated exchange...Pigpen declared (to the shocked, red-faced freshman) in a real big & burly way..."look, goddammit...I'm in the fuckin' band...!!!". Needless to say, at that point he & his girlfriend were ushered in immediately.