In June of 1969, the Grateful Dead played a four night stand at the Fillmore West with a few guests accompanying them on stage along the way. These shows interested me because I recently read that more LSD was running through their system than humanely possible (and larger amounts than were normal even for the Dead) and wanted to see if they’re playing was noticeably affected. It has been documented that for at least one set Garcia and Pigpen, and maybe other band members sat out and did not play and at one point Phil Lesh had to be walked to the stage and where his bass was strapped around him.
Even though I know that the band members were taking copious amounts of acid during this era, I have not really been able to tell in my listens to various shows if a if a given member was tripping and since there is strong documentation that LSD was prevalent during this run, I buckled down and listened.
A few words should be spent on where the Dead were at musically in 1969. The setlist had not yet blown up yet but the band was in full exploration mode and still learning how to play with one another and what the band lacks in song diversity they greatly make up for in excitement and improvisation. A listen to their Fillmore West 1969 box set, which consists of shows recorded in February and March, confirms this.
6/5/69 – notes.
Set one opens with the mystical ballad, Morning Dew. Me and My Uncle follows. Doin’ That Rag has a nice tight jam and segues into He Was A Friend Of Mine, sung by Garcia with some great harmonies and a little vamp that appears many years later in the Tenth Avenue Freezeout version on Live in NYC (coincidence?). A short Hard To Handle and a strong Cosmic Charlie. Cryptical Envelope > Drums > The Other One > Cryptical Envelope kicks off the meat and potatoes of the show and ends set one. Interestingly, Billy starts The Other One via Drums and the band follows.
The second set is continuous. China Cat Sunflower > Sittin’ On Top Of The World > Dark Star > Saint Stephen > The Eleven > Lovelight. China Cat is compact with an outro jam. The Dark Star begins like almost all Dark Stars of the period and the exploration section at the midway point features the band members going in separate ways resulting in disorganization for a few minutes before returning to the song’s main theme. Stephen is fiery and the William Tell Coda into Eleven is nice. The energy in Stephen hints at what is to be heard in Eleven where the band just flat out rocks.
One of the other reasons I wanted to write about the band in this time period was that each Lovelight contained a Pigpen rap that differed from night to night. As Dennis McNally noted in A Long Strange Trip, one night Pigpen took it upon himself to sell the Brooklyn Bridge to an audience member for pocket change. The 25 minute Lovelight on 6/5/1969 involved lessons from Pig’s mama as well as her inquiries as to Pig’s health. Good stuff.
After listening to the show, I couldn’t tell whatsoever if the band was diverted due to dosing but the show was a ton of fun to listen to. Here is a link to the 6/5/1969 Grateful Dead show from the Fillmore West.
Tags: Grateful Dead
