Dead of the Day: 05-29-1971

Winterland Arena

San Francisco, California

There are several fine shows on this date, but we gotta go back to the infamous evening at the Fillmore West in 1971 for our Dead of the Day. The show gets going with a Casey Jones, right as the crowd was starting to feel the effects of the acid-laced cider that had been passed around earlier. Unfortunately, the recordings that capture the first half of the show are nearly unlistenable. Before moving on to the fairly crisp soundboard, however, you might want to check out the first ever Promised Land and the Hard to Handle that is so hot that you can still appreciate it through the tape hiss.

Recording info
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Identifier:
gd71-05-29.aud.cotsman.19153.sbeok.shnf
Source:
Audience
Notes:
‘–Both sources used for this SHN set are believed to be first generation cassettes from an unknown master. Source 1 provides most of the show in decent sound, though it is not among the better audience recordings of the era. Source 2 provides Me & My Uncle through Wharf Rat (missing from source 1) in noticeably more muffled quality. –first performance of Promised Land –Me & My Uncle is usually considered as missing from recordings of this date. Placed at the end of the show on source 2, this version does not match the 5-30-71 date and shares the ambience of the rest of the show. The confusion is probably sourced from this song not fitting on the first 45 minute tape side. –Sound Forge was used for normalization, pitch corrections, and other minor edits Thanks to: –Jim Powell for providing both sources –Source 1 is from Steve Fukawa –Source 2 is from Steve Bruzzi –DAT>CD transfer of source 2 by Marc Pujol
Description:
Casey Jones, Me And Bobby McGee, It Hurts Me Too, Promised Land, Loser, Playin’ In The Band, Hard To Handle, Me & My Uncle, Truckin’-> Drums-> The Other One-> Wharf Rat, Sing Me Back Home, Cumberland Blues, Sugar Magnolia, Deal, Not Fade Away-> Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad-> Not Fade Away
Lineage:
AUD > M? > Cass > CD > EAC > SHN
Transferrer:
Jim Powell, Steve Fukawa, Steve Bruzzi and Marc Pujol
Play
Pause
Back
Forw.
Volume
00:00
1
Casey Jones
06:02
2
Me and Bobby McGee
05:48
3
It Hurts Me Too
05:38
4
The Promised Land
02:45
5
Loser
06:35
6
Playing In The Band
04:42
7
Hard To Handle
10:11
8
Me and My Uncle
02:43
9
Truckin’
07:57
10
Drums
03:23
11
The Other One
17:25
12
Wharf Rat
11:04
13
Sing Me Back Home
08:23
14
Cumberland Blues
05:21
15
Sugar Magnolia
05:52
16
Deal
04:45
17
Not Fade Away
03:14
18
Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad
07:42
19
Not Fade Away
03:14
Choose recording

The recording we have here is a lot crisper and picks up with the straight-up, rock and roll Truckin’, which is nearly busting at its seams. As the song finishes, Billy takes over, heading into an incredible Drums that is dripping with hints of The Other One. Finally, with Phil’s help, The Other One comes out in earnest as the boys power through a seriously epic version with some deep space and soaring jams. The bus drops them right off at a stellar, sauntering Wharf Rat. And, by the time it comes around, Sugar Mags is a massive, rocking relief, getting the seriously tripping audience the opportunity to lose themselves in the music and dancing. After a short but enlightened Deal, the boys finish off the show with a ripping, jammed out NFA> GDTRFB> NFA replete with Phil’s carpet bombing and Jerry’s hot leads.

Billed as the “Acid Punch Show,” the Dead shared the stage with the New Riders, R. J. Fox, and James and the Good Bros. And, sure enough, the acid punch did show up. As “Shawn” described on Archive, he was waiting out back for John McIntire when “a VW bus pulled up, and someone got out and took two green plastic garbage cans into the stage door–the guard was obviously waiting for them, and opened the door as soon as he saw the garbage cans being unloaded from the VW van.” Shawn ended up heading into the show where he

heard someone say ‘excuse us, move aside please.’ I turned around and saw one of the green plastic garbage cans on a dolly being pushed by two people. The can was full of liquid. I immediately grabbed the rim of the can and helped push. After getting to stage right front with the can, I was handed a stack of 16 ounce cups, and told to fill them up, pass them out, and to ‘tell everyone it’s electric, take a small sip and pass it on.’” He finishes the story by relating how he brought some acid out in an empty beer can. “All one needed was 2-3 ounces of the punch in order to take a voyage. This was discovered by trial and error on subsequent days. Since that date, my two friends and I have celebrated 5-29-71.

And Shawn finished off the whole tale with a plea for a copy of the night because “since [he’s] an old fart, and pretty cyber-challenged…and on dial up,” he could not download the show. Shawn, I hope you are out there celebrating with a sweet copy of the show.

Several other folks related stories of the concert and the LSD, with all of them noting the crazy scene outside afterwards. “Saint Michael” on Dead.net said that his “starkest memory was coming out of the show and seeing this naked guy on top of a car howling at the moon with San Fran’s finest standing there laughing with each other waiting for him to come down.” With all the police activity and couple dozen hospitalizations, the city tried to shutter Bill Graham’s venue, but were unable to directly implicate him in the acid cider incident. It was all just another night in the storied history of the band formerly known as the Warlocks.

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Comments

4 responses to “05-29-1971”

  1. surrealistodefierros Avatar
    surrealistodefierros

    I just want to point out that the “first set” from this show is actually the first set of the show that happened at Winterland the following Sunday night. The Sunday night show was a make up for their canceling Saturday, due to “Garcia being sick”. In fact Garcia did NOT play pedal steel with the New Riders as he would normally have, so the New Riders set was just the four who went on later with Buddy Cage. They definitely did NOT play Casey Jones this night, as it was my first show I remember a “new song”- Bertha-as the opener, and Pigpen singing The Rub. and Sugar Magnolia and Morning Dew both in the first set. They did NOT play Hard To Handle that night, although there were many other songs doubled each night. IT does seem most listers have neglected the sorry mismatching of dates and tapes whether or not this was a plot from The Dead to obfuscate the roadie-inspired acid punch (of which myself had a nice two sips) or the confusion of whomever had to label the tapes back at the Office, these two shows have been badly misconstrued and misrepresented and little effort goes into checking if the two nights’ reels actually match or not. But god bless them, whomever has been out there making all these lists of shows and set lists owes the Dead freaks who got to this show some kind of backhand apology, because how it went down on paper isn’t what actually took place. I remember the naked guy running down Geary St. with two cops on foot after him, plaster falling from the roof in the men’s room during Going Down The Road Feeling Bad/Not Fade Away, and miraculously hitching back to our little usual down on the Peninsula after the show. Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

  2. surrealistodefierros Avatar
    surrealistodefierros

    You guys are still putting the wrong date up for this event. The correct date is May 28, 1971.

  3. Basmith2 Avatar
    Basmith2

    Happy 50th anniversary to all that were there!

  4. Peter Wheeler Avatar
    Peter Wheeler

    Well, May 30 was my first Dead show. There was an ash can full of liquid there. I don’t remember much after that, except I thought Pig’s Lovelight as kind of dirty. Hey, I was 19!

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