TotD will always link to a new post on Hooterollin’, which equals and occasionally surpasses its brother site, Lost Live Dead; each new entry a weird and illustrative dive into the history of rock music–and America–in the post-war years. If you’re coming here and haven’t been there, I say: Wha? Huh? How you? Why that? Go, do, look. LOOOOOOK.
Stop that.
This post is a part of a running series pinpointing the Dead’s location during the years when people weren’t writing things down quite as much as we do today. The author (Corry342 from the Comment Section: you know him) covers July through December of 1966 in this latest installment, and I hate to call out a fellow Dead Scholar–
You are not any sort of scholar: you make things up.
–but there are significant gaps in this timeline. Why is this information being kept from us? My God! Has Corry342 been gotten to? Paid off by Big Dead? Did David Lamieuxnovermiami set him up for blackmail like in Godfather II?
I hate to do this, but–
Please don’t accuse people.
–I J’ACCUSE!
Please don’t do that to French, and don’t do it at all.
It’s the only explanation for this new evidence I’ve acquired. There were many more Dead dates during the period and the only reason Corry342 would leave this out is if he were now under the control of the Billuminati.
Really.
Maybe the Philluminati. Never can tell with secret societies.
I hate you.
Anyway, at great risk to life and limb, TotD presents THE REAL Grateful Dead Performance List July-December ’66:
July 4 – Barbecue, 710 Ashbury Street, CA Very little is known about this gig, or whether it should even be called a gig. There were acoustic guitars and singing, but then Garcia ate too many hot dogs and threw up on a cat and the cat lost its shit and went claws-first for Phil’s face and Bobby started crying and the afternoon was ruined.
August 8 – Foreign Legion Hall, Tuscadero, CA 18 people attended this show, and five of those people were dogs. Nevertheless, Billy managed to start a fight with a guy in a wheelchair, but he was a retired Marine in a wheelchair so he put up a pretty good fight. It was an even match-up, at least until the Marine’s non-wheelchair buddies saw what was happening and whipped Billy’s ass.
Also, Garcia contracted Foreign Legionnaires Disease and that is so much worse than the regular kind.
September 15 – Peckerwood Acres Country Club, Money Point, CA While we know about the gig Bobby played for his sister’s coming-out party (before Wendy Weir started talking to the ghosts of guitarists and dogs, she was very fancy), but little is known about this show played at the party for Bobby’s cousin, Poopsy Weir.
Poopsy was into the debutante thing: she loved horses and dresses and not having to look at poor people, but the thing she loved most of all was Phil’s dong. Now: Poopsy did not know that before laying eyes on the scruffy bassist that September evening, but once she realized, it became the truest thing she knew: she had to have it.
And, you know: she was cute, so Phil boffed her. Everything would have been fine had not Billy come through the banquet hall on a stolen golf cart, knocking down the temporary wall that made up the dressing room for the band. Phil was in a chair and Poopsy was seated atop him: they were pantless and boffing.
“Don’t stop boffing, Phil!” Poopsu said.
And Phil–who was facing the crowd that included the entirety of Poopsy’s family–said, “We should, though. We should stop boffing.”
And Poopsy said, “Dammit, man! Boff!”
The band did not get paid.
October 3 – Faculty Parking Lot, San Luis Obispo Community College (w/ Bay Area Blues Borrowers, Pantheotic Orkestra of Europa, Detroit Jeffy Jefferson, Radioactive Panther) This was an all-day gig featuring a lot of acts now lost to time. A couple of them were good bands, but one was a front for orangutans trained to steal jewels. See if you can spot which one!
The Bay Area Blues Borrowers made a fine sound to drink beer to, and they knew their limits. Their drummer, Johnny Mussolini, was a solid player despite his unfortunate name, and when he was drafted into the army, the band broke up. On the bright side, Johnny killed a shit-ton of Viet Cong.
The Pantheotic Orkestra of Europa was basically one guy who called himself Blueberry Ho-Tep and whoever would play with him this week. Blueberry Ho-Tep was the kind of musical genius that comes along once a decade, but he was an asshole who smelled like clams left out in the sun, plus he didn’t like paying people. Also, if you let him corner you with his cosmic religion nonsense, you could be there a while. Guy could play the fuck out of anything you put in his hands, but he was probably going to throw the instrument at a child afterwards.
Blueberry became addicted to drugs and shitting in mailboxes; the law locked him up for both, and in 1971–homeless–he was devoured by a pack of orangutans.
Detroit Jeffy Jefferson was actually named Franky Franklin, and he was from Houston. Sang real well, though. Also eaten by orangutans.
Radioactive Panther were a suspiciously hairy–even by hippie standards–group with murky origins. Their manager, Dr. Monkeybreaker, was a shadowy man given to quoting from the Necronomicon and challenged sanity to fistfights. Also, they could not play very well and were always mysteriously missing when jewels would disappear. Plus, they ate Blueberry and Detroit Jeffy.
They put out a couple of singles and then ate Dr. Monkeybreaker.
November 21 – Sausalito Heliport This unlikely venue for rock and roll was used by bands as a practice space and for a few shows until this one with the Dead put an end to that: Bear stole a helicopter. He only got it a couple of feet off the ground, but that’s enough to do some good damage.
December 13 – Fisherman’s Hall, Scuba del Vista, CA (Bill Graham’s Hanukkah Hoopla) No one remembers anything.
http://41.media.tumblr.com/467aca312133e920819b7f1fb8a1001c/tumblr_ne9az63mED1sd6inuo1_500.jpg
http://40.media.tumblr.com/fc89d306e72161871b82080e6ac7d301/tumblr_nfbj2zsqgy1rzezkjo1_500.jpg
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sites/default/files/styles/large_popup/public/image/2015/09/02/BT_20150902_KVANIMALS27M1U_1854759.jpg
https://youtu.be/90k-Ii2-23k
http://www.oneclickchicks.com/th/3/2/6/5/4/5/2610063.jpg
http://media.mutualart.com/Images/2012_05/01/14/144947562/0b6ac490-27c7-4cf4-b1c2-d3bd5249596b_570.Jpeg
“i told him to get the Hebrew Nationals……”
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/csp/mediapool/sites/dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls?STREAMOID=m_FbWLxNgDRDWulyZ3RkJs$daE2N3K4ZzOUsqbU5sYtWqOJRvBRr8CSJP0DijmdNWCsjLu883Ygn4B49Lvm9bPe2QeMKQdVeZmXF$9l$4uCZ8QDXhaHEp3rvzXRJFdy0KqPHLoMevcTLo3h8xh70Y6N_U_CryOsw6FTOdKL_jpQ-&CONTENTTYPE=image/jpeg
http://s838.photobucket.com/user/davmar777/media/expo%2067/Pigpen_Expo_67.jpg.html
http://expo67.ncf.ca/Expo_67_better_shot.jpg
Demented as some of these suggested lost dates may sound, they are not far from what you find on an internet search. The sixties were a long time ago, and many people have fond and completely imaginary memories of events that did not occur.
Every high school in the South Bay Area had a legend about how “Jerry went to our High School” (he didn’t) and so “the Dead played graduation” (they never did). A particularly aggravating bootleg poster that circulated claiming a Warlocks date from Dec 31 64 (all kinds of wrong, I won’t link to it) indicated my own high school, which suffered mightily from the above delusions.
There were little known Be-Ins and free outdoor concerts throughout the Bay Area in the sixties, mostly featuring local high school bands with the occasional 3rd-on-the-bill-at-the-Avalon type groups. Somehow the Sons of Champlin or Freedom HIghway in 69 morphs into the Dead in 66, because it makes for a better story, like saying you dated a cheerleader in High School–who is around to say you didn’t?
The SLO CC Faculty Parking Lot gig is a pretty realistic description of such events, even if it is thoroughly made up (there was a Be-In on the Beach in Isla Vista in 1967, featuring the Diggers and a group called Mad River, and stories about it regularly escalate)
Even somewhat real recollections of actual events include fantastic add-ons. Bear stealing a helicopter is just the least of it.
The December 13 date (Scuba Del Vista) sounds promising–“no one remembers anything.” I will look into it.
http://36.media.tumblr.com/7c62b33f7fe956e7a23777d768b44c30/tumblr_mrnanvTDSS1sff70so1_1280.jpg
I remember man, I was there……I think.
dude with Farmer Tan Thong Ass? that’s me.
Hahahaha
this hit front porch today
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/grateful-dead-amazon-bob-weir-roadie-series-1201662130/
Jeezus…..Amazon?
Weir is such a tool for, like, the man.
i hope they cast Tony Danza & Judith Light for this. maybe this Frank Nelson too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsKOaKG_V6M
Luther, that’s a great photo of Expo 67. I haven’t ever come across that one. I believe it shows Jack Cassidy & Grace Slick behind Jerry’s amps checking out the show. Also, I think Bill Graham is behind Bobby. He’s got the hunched shoulders / hands in pocket look of a person in charge of everything. Finally, it looks like there’s a TV camera on stage left. Does anyone know if any footage exist?