In 1967 the Grateful Dead had an auspicious bit of exposure at the Monterey Pop Festival. They performed in the line-up after The Who, and before Jimi Hendrix. Pete Townsend smashed his guitar to pieces and Jimi Hendrix lit his guitar on fire. Quite a raucous start for the originators of open-ended jam-style blues-rock n’ roll, which in turn became the prevailing sound of the free-love, peace and hippie movement.
I grew up in Carmel the neighboring “artist colony” south of Monterey. I hadn’t been to the Monterey Fairgrounds since 1975. Not much had changed. In fact, one might guess the same sawdust still covered the ground at the part-time rodeo arena and part-time jazz festival venue.
This was going to be a wonderful evening filled with friends and family. I didn’t realize Bob Weir and Phil Lesh hadn’t been back to these fairgrounds since 1967. When Phil took the stage for a solo moment to raise awareness for organ donations and show his gratitude to the young donor <Cody> who saved his life, he began by saying, “It's interesting being back here again after 45 years, not much has changed."
My brother Michael has been a Grateful Dead fan since the early 80's. While he was a student at Berkeley, the only way he could get in to a show was to work as an usher. Michael is a connector and collector of friends. Wonderful, unrelated, warm and interesting people have always surrounded him. When I went to a show by myself at Red Rocks, it was Michael's friends from Boulder who made room for me to hang out with them. I was welcomed with love and cheer just because Michael and I are related. I'm very fond of people like that. At the first show in Monterey, Michael, his fantastic wife, Kim and their posse had staked out quite a bit of front-and-center real estate to enjoy the show. They were positioned perfectly between Bobby's mike and the sound board. As is typical with Michael and Kim, they introduced us to friends they'd made at shows 25 years ago who are still traveling and meeting up with them. There is a friend of theirs from NY who I believe is trying to best his own all-time record of attending 30+ shows this year.
During the first set, I sat with friends from my everyday life. They've been Grateful Dead fans for 35 years. Their daughter is also a Dead fan. I once asked what their secret was to raising a daughter who also loved the music? My friend answered, "I went to nine shows while I was pregnant." Ah-ha! I only went to two or three each time. Maybe that's where I went wrong.
I was looking forward to this show. But, after having just seen six shows in seven days, I'm not sure I had the same level of enthusiasm as my friends and family who were seeing show number one-of-two for this tour. I mean how much better could it be? I was just in LA for those phenomenal shows at The Greek and in Las Vegas. And, of course, Red Rocks! My brother posted a note after seeing the set list of the second LA show asking if there were any good songs left? Uh...yea, actually, they came up with a slew of spectacular oldies but goodies. It was a FANTASTIC show! I was surprised by how many songs they played that I hadn't already heard, including, Promised Land, Candy Man, The Mighty Quinn, Estimated Prophet, Dear Prudence, Not Fade Away and Touch of Grey. The band was about 30 songs away from the end of the tour and yet they did not let up for one moment. There was no sense that the end was near. The band just dove deeper into each song. It was wonderful to hear The Beatles' Dear Prudence, a song I've loved for many years. Estimated Prophet is like an anthem in my house, so at the last show I was attending, it was pretty sweet to hear the words, "California, preaching on the burning shore. California, I'll be knocking on the golden door." To me that song is ALL Bob Weir. I'm sure he can sing it forward, backward and upside down, but I'm moved every single time I hear it. Thanks John Perry Barlow for those illuminating lyrics.
During the set break I was telling the group we were with about Furthur playing the Pink Floyd song, Time, the night before in LA. And then, I could have sworn during Unbroken Chain near the end of the second set, there was a little Pink Floyd inspired moment of guitar playing in there. Very fun. After the encore, A Touch of Grey, when the arena lights came back on, my sister-in-law, Kim, told me a great story about the filming of the Touch of Grey video. Apparently, after a show at Laguna Seca in 1987, the band asked a couple of hundred fans to join them for the video shoot. Kim was one of the fans. She appears in the video.
When I checked in with friends and family about the second night in Monterey, they had the same unanimous response: Comes a Time was the stand out song for them. In a night that included Althea, Throwing Stones, Shakedown Street, Morning Dew and Friend of the Devil, I think it would have been hard to pick just one. Even though I wasn't there, it seemed like this was an extraordinary show to end this phase of the Fall tour. According to my trusted reporters, the grateful and joyful crowd relished the few minutes the band spent embracing one another with warm hugs after the encore song One More Saturday Night concluded the night.
A couple of non-Deadhead friends asked if I was "Furthured-out" by now and if I was sick of the music and ready to hear something else? NO! and NO! I feel like I was just getting started.
Interview with Bob Weir in the Monterey Herald
Thanks to Dylan Carney for use of his photo
