Official Grateful Dead Thread

[NextMovement41]

Originally Posted by Dave G

42 years ago today I was in this mass of people. We were right under the middle speaker tower the whole weekend. Good times
CLICK

Damn dude. Got any stories?

[Dave G]

Originally Posted by NextMovement41

Damn dude. Got any stories?

Well let’s see..
I was going to go with about 20 of my friends, but when the time it came to go everyone bailed, so it was just me and a friend who said “screw it let’s go”.
We decided to ride up on his 250 Yamaha Enduro, so at 3:00 am Thursday morning we stopped in our local Texaco station filled up the tank and each of us bought a full bag of Jamaican weed for 20 bucks a piece from the attendant and having everything we needed we were off.

For most of the way the trip was rather uneventful except for getting a ticket for not having our helmets on somewhere in NY and getting a tune-up for the bike. We stopped a few times on the way to rest, get baked and wave to the steady line of honking cars as they drove by.
At about 4 pm we were about 25 or so miles away from Watkins Glen and started hitting some major traffic, so we rode up on the shoulder the rest of the way and thankfully didn’t get nailed by any car doors.
The gates were down by the time we got there, so we tore up our tickets and all the tickets our friends gave us to sell (an action I still regret to this day but it was cool when we did it) and rode in. We drove around the track once and then parked the bike under an overpass.
We then set up our tent in a pretty empty field, which by next morning when we woke up was filled with tents and people.
Then we made our way down to the concert area and wound up at the base of the center speaker tower which we thought would be a good place to use as a visual reference. The tower base was claimed by a group of kinda scary looking freaks that looked rather intimidating. We later found out that they worked at some sort of insane asylum and were really a great bunch of people, and they sort of took us under their wing. We ended up staying there the rest of the weekend and never did get back to our tent
We then made the rounds on drug alley which was just a path where people had set up tables and you could get anything you desired. We dropped a hit of acid (or two) and people watched and actually met some friends from our town.
When we finally realized that what we thought has house music playing was actually the bands doing sound checks we headed back to the tower and caught the end of The Band’s one hour sound check followed by The Allman Brothers two hour sound check and The Dead’s three hour sound check. After that I needed a break from all the people, saw a group of trees and stepped over people and said “excuse me” for what seemed like hours before I was able to get a little solitude.

Saturday started out great weather wise and we watched the National Guard helicopter ferry in water and supplies and bought some outrageously priced food. The Dead started the concert around noon followed by the Band. Originally Leon Russel was supposed to be playing instead of the band, but was switched out supposedly at the request of Jerry.
During the Bands set some parachutes opened up above the concert with the people holding colored flares. One guy looked to be in trouble and drifted off and was later found dead.
After a few songs by the Band the skies opened up and it rained cats and dogs. The Allman brothers came on later and during their set some workers came by to wrap the tower speakers in plastic. The dudes from the asylum told them it would be in their best interest to leave the roll of plastic behind (which they did) the Allman Brothers played until almost 3am jamming with members of the Dead with a crapload of people dancing under a long snaking piece of plastic.
Next morning we found the bike parked exactly where we left if, kicked it over and were gone. We had to stop at the police station to pay our ticket on the way home. They had a bunch of pot plants in buckets that they had confiscated from somewhere and when asked we assured them we didn’t know what they were.
All in all a great experience and I'm so glad I didn't bail like my friends

[ryguy469]

That made my day! Thanks for sharing

[AJF_41]

wikipedia

Although there were no reports of violence at Watkins Glen, the day was marred by the death of Willard Smith, 35, a skydiver from Syracuse, New York. Smith dived from an airplane carrying flares. One of the flares ignited his body suit, and he was engulfed in flames. Smith's body was eventually found in the woods near the concert site.


“ Many historians claimed that the Watkins Glen event was the largest gathering of people in the history of the United States. In essence, that meant that on July 28, one out of every 350 people living in America at the time was listening to the sounds of rock at the New York state racetrack. Considering that most of those who attended the event hailed from the Northeast, and that the average age of those present was approximately seventeen to twenty-four, close to one out of every three young people from Boston to New York was at the festival. ”

In 2013, a maintenance crew from Watkins Glen International found abandoned cars from the event in the woods on track property.

[AJF_41]

wiki says 600,0000 people were there

[thehammer316]

I've heard stories from Watkins Glen. Nobody ever said they heard a thing. They were all so damn far away. Thanks for sharing.


Still to this day, biggest festival in America clocking in at a reported 660k

[Dave G]

Originally Posted by thehammer316

I've heard stories from Watkins Glen. Nobody ever said they heard a thing. They were all so damn far away. Thanks for sharing.

Getting there on Thursday and of course camping out next a speaker tower helped a lot
Just a little nugget, I remember Rick Danko asking if anyone in the audience had a bow for a violin. I guess I still remember because it was such weird thing to forget

[skwormin]

Originally Posted by thehammer316

I've heard stories from Watkins Glen. Nobody ever said they heard a thing. They were all so damn far away. Thanks for sharing.


Still to this day, biggest festival in America clocking in at a reported 660k

holy shit.

Originally Posted by Dave G

Well let’s see..
I was going to go with about 20 of my friends, but when the time it came to go everyone bailed, so it was just me and a friend who said “screw it let’s go”.
We decided to ride up on his 250 Yamaha Enduro, so at 3:00 am Thursday morning we stopped in our local Texaco station filled up the tank and each of us bought a full bag of Jamaican weed for 20 bucks a piece from the attendant and having everything we needed we were off.

For most of the way the trip was rather uneventful except for getting a ticket for not having our helmets on somewhere in NY and getting a tune-up for the bike. We stopped a few times on the way to rest, get baked and wave to the steady line of honking cars as they drove by.
At about 4 pm we were about 25 or so miles away from Watkins Glen and started hitting some major traffic, so we rode up on the shoulder the rest of the way and thankfully didn’t get nailed by any car doors.
The gates were down by the time we got there, so we tore up our tickets and all the tickets our friends gave us to sell (an action I still regret to this day but it was cool when we did it) and rode in. We drove around the track once and then parked the bike under an overpass.
We then set up our tent in a pretty empty field, which by next morning when we woke up was filled with tents and people.
Then we made our way down to the concert area and wound up at the base of the center speaker tower which we thought would be a good place to use as a visual reference. The tower base was claimed by a group of kinda scary looking freaks that looked rather intimidating. We later found out that they worked at some sort of insane asylum and were really a great bunch of people, and they sort of took us under their wing. We ended up staying there the rest of the weekend and never did get back to our tent
We then made the rounds on drug alley which was just a path where people had set up tables and you could get anything you desired. We dropped a hit of acid (or two) and people watched and actually met some friends from our town.
When we finally realized that what we thought has house music playing was actually the bands doing sound checks we headed back to the tower and caught the end of The Band’s one hour sound check followed by The Allman Brothers two hour sound check and The Dead’s three hour sound check. After that I needed a break from all the people, saw a group of trees and stepped over people and said “excuse me” for what seemed like hours before I was able to get a little solitude.

Saturday started out great weather wise and we watched the National Guard helicopter ferry in water and supplies and bought some outrageously priced food. The Dead started the concert around noon followed by the Band. Originally Leon Russel was supposed to be playing instead of the band, but was switched out supposedly at the request of Jerry.
During the Bands set some parachutes opened up above the concert with the people holding colored flares. One guy looked to be in trouble and drifted off and was later found dead.
After a few songs by the Band the skies opened up and it rained cats and dogs. The Allman brothers came on later and during their set some workers came by to wrap the tower speakers in plastic. The dudes from the asylum told them it would be in their best interest to leave the roll of plastic behind (which they did) the Allman Brothers played until almost 3am jamming with members of the Dead with a crapload of people dancing under a long snaking piece of plastic.
Next morning we found the bike parked exactly where we left if, kicked it over and were gone. We had to stop at the police station to pay our ticket on the way home. They had a bunch of pot plants in buckets that they had confiscated from somewhere and when asked we assured them we didn’t know what they were.
All in all a great experience and I'm so glad I didn't bail like my friends

I'm a little confused on the bolded parts. Why did you rip up the tickets?

Did you sneak in later?

So was there a full day of just soundchecks (Friday it sounds like) but yet people were allowed in? What else was there to do there?

Where did you sleep all weekend if you never made it back to your tent?

How old were you then, and how old are you now?

Thanks man, really cool stuff. Makes the GD50 show at Soldier Field seem like a small gathering. jesus.

[Dave G]

Originally Posted by skwormin

holy shit.



I'm a little confused on the bolded parts. Why did you rip up the tickets?

Did you sneak in later?

So was there a full day of just soundchecks (Friday it sounds like) but yet people were allowed in? What else was there to do there?

Where did you sleep all weekend if you never made it back to your tent?

How old were you then, and how old are you now?

Thanks man, really cool stuff. Makes the GD50 show at Soldier Field seem like a small gathering. jesus.

[QUOTE=skwormin;16079974]holy shit.

I'm a little confused on the bolded parts. Why did you rip up the tickets?

There was no one taking tickets when we got to the gates (which were wide open) we just walked through the open gates and threw our tickets up in the air, which in retrospect was a little dumb, I mean they cost 10 bucks each It was funny at the time and we were just happy we made it

So was there a full day of just soundchecks (Friday it sounds like) but yet people were allowed in? What else was there to do there?

All the bands did sound checks on Friday. Sound check really doesn't do what happened justice it was more like a loose warm up concert and by that time there was a whole lot of people there. Some people will tell you that the Dead's sets that day were better then Saturdays. And we did what every red blooded hippy would do at concert in those days

Where did you sleep all weekend if you never made it back to your tent?

We had our sleeping bags at the towers and slept out under the stars Friday, and under a very long makeshift shelter made out of speaker plastic on Sat night. Our Asylum buddies shared some of their food and beer with us too

How old were you then, and how old are you now?
17 and old as dirt

[skwormin]

you are awesome. Thank you for taking the time to answer me.


I am fascinated by the 70s especially the Dead's following. So cool you were there.

When I was 17 I had just seen my first concert a year or so before.... saw Furthur for the first time in 2011 and fell in love right away. I wish I could have lived back in the 70s!!

[WidespreadMule3]

Listening to Blues for Allah to start my day - what a fantastic album.

[NextMovement41]

Originally Posted by Dave G

Well let’s see..
I was going to go with about 20 of my friends, but when the time it came to go everyone bailed, so it was just me and a friend who said “screw it let’s go”.
We decided to ride up on his 250 Yamaha Enduro, so at 3:00 am Thursday morning we stopped in our local Texaco station filled up the tank and each of us bought a full bag of Jamaican weed for 20 bucks a piece from the attendant and having everything we needed we were off.

For most of the way the trip was rather uneventful except for getting a ticket for not having our helmets on somewhere in NY and getting a tune-up for the bike. We stopped a few times on the way to rest, get baked and wave to the steady line of honking cars as they drove by.
At about 4 pm we were about 25 or so miles away from Watkins Glen and started hitting some major traffic, so we rode up on the shoulder the rest of the way and thankfully didn’t get nailed by any car doors.
The gates were down by the time we got there, so we tore up our tickets and all the tickets our friends gave us to sell (an action I still regret to this day but it was cool when we did it) and rode in. We drove around the track once and then parked the bike under an overpass.
We then set up our tent in a pretty empty field, which by next morning when we woke up was filled with tents and people.
Then we made our way down to the concert area and wound up at the base of the center speaker tower which we thought would be a good place to use as a visual reference. The tower base was claimed by a group of kinda scary looking freaks that looked rather intimidating. We later found out that they worked at some sort of insane asylum and were really a great bunch of people, and they sort of took us under their wing. We ended up staying there the rest of the weekend and never did get back to our tent
We then made the rounds on drug alley which was just a path where people had set up tables and you could get anything you desired. We dropped a hit of acid (or two) and people watched and actually met some friends from our town.
When we finally realized that what we thought has house music playing was actually the bands doing sound checks we headed back to the tower and caught the end of The Band’s one hour sound check followed by The Allman Brothers two hour sound check and The Dead’s three hour sound check. After that I needed a break from all the people, saw a group of trees and stepped over people and said “excuse me” for what seemed like hours before I was able to get a little solitude.

Saturday started out great weather wise and we watched the National Guard helicopter ferry in water and supplies and bought some outrageously priced food. The Dead started the concert around noon followed by the Band. Originally Leon Russel was supposed to be playing instead of the band, but was switched out supposedly at the request of Jerry.
During the Bands set some parachutes opened up above the concert with the people holding colored flares. One guy looked to be in trouble and drifted off and was later found dead.
After a few songs by the Band the skies opened up and it rained cats and dogs. The Allman brothers came on later and during their set some workers came by to wrap the tower speakers in plastic. The dudes from the asylum told them it would be in their best interest to leave the roll of plastic behind (which they did) the Allman Brothers played until almost 3am jamming with members of the Dead with a crapload of people dancing under a long snaking piece of plastic.
Next morning we found the bike parked exactly where we left if, kicked it over and were gone. We had to stop at the police station to pay our ticket on the way home. They had a bunch of pot plants in buckets that they had confiscated from somewhere and when asked we assured them we didn’t know what they were.
All in all a great experience and I'm so glad I didn't bail like my friends

Thanks for the response, man! That sounds amazing. Thankfully Magnaball will be just a bit smaller than that

[Useliteski]

Originally Posted by Dave G

Well let’s see..
I was going to go with about 20 of my friends, but when the time it came to go everyone bailed, so it was just me and a friend who said “screw it let’s go”.
We decided to ride up on his 250 Yamaha Enduro, so at 3:00 am Thursday morning we stopped in our local Texaco station filled up the tank and each of us bought a full bag of Jamaican weed for 20 bucks a piece from the attendant and having everything we needed we were off.

For most of the way the trip was rather uneventful except for getting a ticket for not having our helmets on somewhere in NY and getting a tune-up for the bike. We stopped a few times on the way to rest, get baked and wave to the steady line of honking cars as they drove by.
At about 4 pm we were about 25 or so miles away from Watkins Glen and started hitting some major traffic, so we rode up on the shoulder the rest of the way and thankfully didn’t get nailed by any car doors.
The gates were down by the time we got there, so we tore up our tickets and all the tickets our friends gave us to sell (an action I still regret to this day but it was cool when we did it) and rode in. We drove around the track once and then parked the bike under an overpass.
We then set up our tent in a pretty empty field, which by next morning when we woke up was filled with tents and people.
Then we made our way down to the concert area and wound up at the base of the center speaker tower which we thought would be a good place to use as a visual reference. The tower base was claimed by a group of kinda scary looking freaks that looked rather intimidating. We later found out that they worked at some sort of insane asylum and were really a great bunch of people, and they sort of took us under their wing. We ended up staying there the rest of the weekend and never did get back to our tent
We then made the rounds on drug alley which was just a path where people had set up tables and you could get anything you desired. We dropped a hit of acid (or two) and people watched and actually met some friends from our town.
When we finally realized that what we thought has house music playing was actually the bands doing sound checks we headed back to the tower and caught the end of The Band’s one hour sound check followed by The Allman Brothers two hour sound check and The Dead’s three hour sound check. After that I needed a break from all the people, saw a group of trees and stepped over people and said “excuse me” for what seemed like hours before I was able to get a little solitude.

Saturday started out great weather wise and we watched the National Guard helicopter ferry in water and supplies and bought some outrageously priced food. The Dead started the concert around noon followed by the Band. Originally Leon Russel was supposed to be playing instead of the band, but was switched out supposedly at the request of Jerry.
During the Bands set some parachutes opened up above the concert with the people holding colored flares. One guy looked to be in trouble and drifted off and was later found dead.
After a few songs by the Band the skies opened up and it rained cats and dogs. The Allman brothers came on later and during their set some workers came by to wrap the tower speakers in plastic. The dudes from the asylum told them it would be in their best interest to leave the roll of plastic behind (which they did) the Allman Brothers played until almost 3am jamming with members of the Dead with a crapload of people dancing under a long snaking piece of plastic.
Next morning we found the bike parked exactly where we left if, kicked it over and were gone. We had to stop at the police station to pay our ticket on the way home. They had a bunch of pot plants in buckets that they had confiscated from somewhere and when asked we assured them we didn’t know what they were.
All in all a great experience and I'm so glad I didn't bail like my friends

i am forever jealous of your life. this is unreal to read about. i was born about 35-40 years too late

[thehammer316]

Originally Posted by WidespreadMule3

Listening to Blues for Allah to start my day - what a fantastic album.

Fave GD album

[awsomepath]

Great story Dave G.

[recentlyJTR41]

Need more old heads like Dave G on here. That's so awesome man. Thanks for sharing!

[sharvey]

Finally getting around to having my posters from Fare Thee Well framed. I bought supplies to frame it myself, and will put it together tonight. Stopped at a record store nearby on my way out though and picked up a used Dick's Pick's 7 on CD. Great day so far.

[bodhisattva21]

Originally Posted by recentlyJTR41

Need more old heads like Dave G on here. That's so awesome man. Thanks for sharing!

I'm an old head but not as old as Dave G. One of the things that I enjoyed most about the Fare Thee Well shows (which I chose not to attend in person) was the opportunity to talk story with the youngin's.

[recentlyJTR41]

Originally Posted by bodhisattva21

I'm an old head but not as old as Dave G. One of the things that I enjoyed most about the Fare Thee Well shows (which I chose not to attend in person) was the opportunity to talk story with the youngin's.

I love talking to older people who saw the Dead and other great bands of the like. I know a girl whose dad went to Super Jam too...very cool

[bodhisattva21]

Originally Posted by recentlyJTR41

I love talking to older people who saw the Dead and other great bands of the like. I know a girl whose dad went to Super Jam too...very cool

I missed the 60s/70s. My first concert was Simon and Garfunkel in Central Park (81) when I was 13. Dead in 84. Fun times.

[bartender_man]

Originally Posted by bodhisattva21

I missed the 60s/70s. My first concert was Simon and Garfunkel in Central Park (81) when I was 13. Dead in 84. Fun times.

That is....Awesome!

[bodhisattva21]

I saw Jerry Joseph with Steve Kimock and Dave Schools last night. Bobby Vega, Banana and Kimock opened. $7, 20 minutes from home in a club with 200 other lucky people. Awesome.

[thehammer316]

Let's go to the Garden for Halloween!

[skwormin]

da fuck, you serious?

[recentlyJTR41]

Originally Posted by thehammer316

Let's go to the Garden for Halloween!

Yes! Hope they add some dates. Kinda bummed Gordo isn't playing but this should still be awesome.

[zajDmB1]

http://pitchfork.com/news/60684-grat...th-john-mayer/

[Useliteski]

absolutely going to try and get tickets for this.

I may be in the minority here, but i'm so glad Phil won't be on stage.
Love Phil to death as one of the core four, but you know they'd give him way too many songs to sing if he were there and Oteil has a GREAT voice.

[wthomps1]

SO stoked for this (as long as they add more tour dates closer to Colorado). Huge Mayer and Dead fan so it doesn't get much better for me!

[smb41]

How likely is it for there to be dates added?

[smb41]

Looks like this could be a lot of fun.