Grateful Dead at the Fillmore Auditorium: 7/16/66

Grateful Dead
Fillmore Auditorium
San Francisco, CA
7/16/66

Set One:
1. I Know You Rider
2. Big Boss Man
3. Standing On The Corner
4. Beat It On Down The Line
5. In The Pines
6. Cardboard Cowboy
7. Nobody's Fault But Mine
8. Next Time You See Me
9. He Was A Friend Of Mine
10. Cream Puff War

Set Two:
11. Viola Lee Blues
12. Don't Ease Me In ->
13. Pain In My Heart
14. Minglewood Blues ->
15. Sittin' On Top Of The World
16. You Don't Have To Ask
17. Cold Rain And Snow ->
18. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl ->
19. It's All Over Now Baby Blue
20. Dancin' In The Streets

The show from 7/16/66 seems to be the first "complete" show (fitting the schemata of later shows having a first and second set) that I've encountered so far. In between the two Dead sets is a Jefferson Airplane set, as Garcia tells us after concluding Cream Puff War. Bill Graham also introduces the band as "the oldest juveniles in California." That may have been, especially with LSD still legal,  but the Dead played this night like something more than juvenile.

To me, set one seemed to be standard '66 fare. Cream Puff War was the most jammed song of the set, keeping with the momentum they've built up on that tune to this point. Set one also has the first Cardboard Cowboy I've encountered before. Does anyone else think it's kind of a weird song? - Not bad, just odd. I also really dig Nobody's Fault But Mine, but couldn't find any additional information about it. Set 2 is where the show really took off to me. I love the version of Viola Lee, which Lesh tells us afterwords, is a song about jail. In Minglewood you hear Weir's earliest attempts at singing. Bobby's unique style and newness to the job are both quite apparent in this version. I had to turn my stereo down at one point to reign in Weir's screeches.

7/16/66 represents the first time the Dead performed Don't Ease Me In. The lyrics are very similar to those sung in later years. The playing of the tune, however, matches the 66-style of the band. And although this is the first official performance by the Grateful Dead, the tune sounds as though Jerry's played it before - perhaps in one of his bluegrass bands from earlier in the decade.

I suggest anyone give this show a listen. Set 2 especially warrants at least a listening of the show. 
You can listen here at archive: http://archive.org/details/gd1966-07-16.sbd.miller.21063.shnf


For a quick listen, here is Viola Lee Blues:

Grateful Dead at the Fillmore Auditorium; 7/3/66

Grateful Dead at Olompali, 6/1/66

Grateful Dead
Fillmore Auditorium
San Francisco, CA
7/3/66

Tracklist:
1. Dancin' In The Streets
2. I Know You Rider//
3. //He Was A Friend Of Mine
4. Next Time You See Me
5. Viola Lee Blues
6. Big Boss Man
7. Sitting On Top Of The World//
8. Unknown (missing)
9. Bring It On Down The Line (missing)
10. Cream Puff War (missing)
11. It's A Good Thing (missing)


The existing part of the show from 7/3/66 played at the Fillmore Auditorium is another good warm-up for the summer and fall shows of the true summer of love. During this time the band was living communally at a place called Rancho Olompali (pictured above). The main building was situated on over 8,000 acres of land. There the band was free to play, trip, and party whenever they wanted to. For Phil and Jerry, Olompali represented the pinnacle of their psychedelic use. Said Garcia in 1971, "Novato was completely comfortable, wide open, high as you wanted to get, run around naked if you wanted to, fall in the pool, completely open scenes. Everything was just super-groovy. It was a model of how things could really be good... It was good times - unself-conscious and totally free" (Jackson 105). Lesh adds, "Bear was still paying the rent, and we would go into town, play our gigs, and then repair to our paradisiacal retreat and continue the explorations of conciousness and inspiration that had come to define our lives. We continued, of course, to trip every weekend, whether we were playing a gig or not" (Lesh 89).  Olompali was a significant place in the band's development as a unit. Although 710 Asbury gets all the fanfare, the Dead truly developed into its communal being while in Novato at Olompali.


The show is a quick, fine example of how the Dead were playing at the time. I love the tone of Garcia's guitar. It's interesting how different his playing and tone was in the early days as compared to what it became, even as early as 1969.Viola Lee Blues is tight, and well played, though is much shorter than later versions. Big Boss Man is also a solidly played number. Like I mentioned in my last post, the band is just starting to turn up their level of jamming after the lyrics. I look forward to hearing them expand on this during the coming shows. Of note is the Dancin' in the Streets to lead off. This is the first known performance of the song, according to Deadbase. For a first-go, it's a pretty solid performance. You can tell the the band rehearsed this song before bringing it onstage. After the tune, Jerry gives a dedication to a store on Haight street called Hasidica (sp?). IK Rider is cut at the "hollow log," verse, and the tape doesn't pick up again until after "Friend of Mine" has already started. Sitting on top of the World is also cut at the end. According to the setlist program, there are four additional songs for this date, which do not appear on my file. If they are indeed from this day, and anyone has them, I would love to add them into the collection.

Other stage banter:
Phil prepares the audience for a ballad right before "Rider."
Jerry says before "Viola Lee," "We had a request for this before..... before we did it. It's called Viola Lee Blues."


As always, if you'd like a copy of this show, let me know. Although archive has a listing for this show, the tracks are not correct. Otherwise, I'd post it here.

Grateful Dead at Fillmore Auditorium; 66/07/01

Show poster from early July 1966.

Grateful Dead
7/01/66 ???
Venue unknown; possibly the Fillmore Auditorium

Tracklist:
1. Cold Rain & Snow
2. It's All Over Now Baby Blue
3. Cream Puff War
4. I'm a King Bee
5. Stealin'
6. Dancin' In the Streets//


I'm back!!! To those of you who actually read this thing, sorry that I've been gone for the past year. I've been busy to say the least. Organization, though, has finally found its neat little head into my life once again, so I'm ready to go!

The next installment on our path likes on July 1st, 1966. Or at least Archive.org would like us to say so. A partial show for this day appears under their list of '66 shows. Because of that I included it in my playlist.

Of course, we try and do our homework around here. The Dead's website does not list any show for this date. I found the same thing on the setlist program. With some digging, I also found a poster from the shows held at the Fillmore Auditorium during the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd or July in 1966 (shown above). If you take a quick look, you'll see that the Dead are on the bill for the July 3rd portion of the series (the next show I'll listen to), and clearly do not appear under the July 1st heading. Further,  7/3/66 is provided as the band's first performance of "Dancin' In the Streets." Yet it's the last song recorded on this tape. From listening it also doesn't sound like their first go at it either.

If not from July 1st, when is this snippet from? A commenter  on archive.org suggest that this part of the show from July 17th, only a different recording of it.  When I get there, I'll certainly see if I can tell.  Does anyone care to weigh in on an approximate date in 1966 where this show is from?

Regardless of the exact date, this is a really nice recording. The sound is an A, with clear vocals and strong instruments. The improvement on the groups' communication is starting to come through on some of these songs. After the lyrics in Cream Puff, King Bee, and Dancin' the boys start in on what I'd consider to be a Dead-like jam. They're not spacey by any means, but the chords and notes start to extend away from those typical of their songs. During Cream Puff War it almost seems like they are trying to transition into another song. Phil shows up great, and really drives them into a good place.
Dancin' (probably not the first version) is pretty fun just listening to a young Bob Weir sing. He clearly needs to work on his voice, but you get the typical Weir spunk nonetheless.  God their young!

Go take a listen over on archive! Shed some light on it for us!
http://archive.org/details/gd66-07-01.sbd.vernon.19924.sbeok.shnf

And guys, I'm back for good this time.