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.