The Deadcast’s overstuffed season finale unpacks Blues For Allah’s oft-misunderstood title track, the unlikely story of its album art, & the remarkable coalition that manifested the Dead’s September 1975 Golden Gate Park show, officially the New Age Bio-Centennial Unity Fair.
Blues For Allah 50: Blues For Allah supplementary notes
by Jesse Jarnow
“Blues For Allah” was the first time the Grateful Dead included a proper title cut on one of their albums, and it was a monster of their own creation involving many moving pieces, the return of Mickey Hart, and a box full of crickets.
Enormous thanks to David Gans for the use of his 1984 interview with Mickey Hart, included in Conversations With the Dead. Mary Travers’ 1975 interview with Jerry Garcia can be heard here. And huge Bobological love to Ray Padgett and his wonderful Flagging Down the Double E for the use of his Scarlet Rivera interview.
The 59 Words blog interviewed Drora Prior, who translated the “Blues For Allah” lyrics into Hebrew.
The Unity Fair led to the creation of the Unity Foundation. (Bill McCarthy’s movie that triggered the events of the Unity Fair can be viewed on their site.) Larry Weissman of the People’s Ballroom went on to a career as DJ PreSkool and can be heard around Brooklyn.
After leaving the Grateful Dead’s circle, Ned Lagin pursued art, photography, and writing which can be accessed on his Spirit Cats site, as well as his return to music, the 2016 album Cat Dreams and the expanded 2018 Seastones. His work with the Grateful Dead is chronicled on NedBase.
