Road Trips Vol. 4 No. 1
$23.98
May 23 & 24, 1969
Road Trips Stops at Big Rock Pow Wow 1969!
The winter and spring of 1969 was a particularly exciting time for the Grateful Dead. They were finishing up their long-awaited third album, Aoxomoxoa, and playing with a passionate intensity unequaled in their nearly five years together. The group’s epic Fillmore West run at the end of February gave us most of their masterpiece, Live Dead – not to mention the gargantuan, out-of-print, 10-CD Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings (and the superb 3-CD compilation from those shows). This is the era when “Dark Star” really blasted off into space, when tunes like “St. Stephen” and “The Eleven” were peaking (along with the audience!), and just about every night was a wild adventure for both the crowd and the band. The Dead played 146 shows that year – the most of any year – criss-crossing the country a couple of times and playing all sorts of interesting and far-flung destinations, blowing minds at every bend in the road.
Without a doubt one the coolest places the Dead played that year was the Seminole Indian Reservation in Hollywood, Florida, just north of Miami, at a rock festival known as the Big Rock Pow Wow, May 23-25, 1969. The Dead headlined the first two days of the festival, and their complete sets from the Pow Wow, recorded by the Dead’s inimitable soundman in that era – Owsley “Bear” Stanley – are spread across the three discs that constitute Road Trips Vol. 4, No. 1. Whoo-hoo! Unlike some of the other huge festivals held during 1969, the Big Rock Pow Wow was a fairly low-key affair – it attracted just a few thousand folks, mostly locals, many of whom camped in the woods and meadows of the sprawling reservation grounds and convened each afternoon and evening for ten or more hours of music featuring the likes of Johnny Winter, Muddy Waters, Joe South, The Youngbloods, Sweetwater, Aum, NRBQ, Rhinoceros and a handful of South Florida favorites. There was Seminole dancing and chants onstage and off – and the adjacent restored Seminole village was bustling with native crafts-makers (and sellers), as well as various hippie merchants peddling their wares. Because the festival took place on Seminole land, there were no police or conventional security. Timothy Leary’s “people” were somehow involved in putting on the event and Dr. Tim wandered the grounds and occasionally spoke from the stage. “Orange sunshine” acid was everywhere.
The Dead provided their own very psychedelic soundtrack for the weekend with two fiery sets that show the group at their exploratory best. The first show was built around what would become known as the Live Dead sequence: “Dark Star” > “St. Stephen” > “The Eleven” > “Turn On Your Lovelight,” each piece jammed powerfully and with purpose, flowing like electric lava – bubbling and spurting and occasionally exploding as it erupts out of the speakers and into the crowd. There are all sorts of fascinating twists and turns in the jams (including a couple prompted by Garcia breaking strings!) and the “Lovelight” has Pigpen leading the charge for a very funky half-hour rock’n’soul romp. Also notable from the first show is a superb “Morning Dew” (which appears on Disc 3 due to the timing limitations of the CD format)…
The next night (beginning Disc 2 here) the Dead open with another excursion through “Lovelight,” but as you might expect, this one has its own unique feeling – same song, different vibe. From there it’s a tour through some of the other chestnuts of the era, including the then-new “Doin’ That Rag,” the wonderful ballad “He Was a Friend of Mine,” which eases into “China Cat Sunflower,” followed by another slammin’ “Eleven,” before arriving at a haunting and potent “Death Don’t Have No Mercy.” What a rollercoaster! The reminder of the second show (on Disc 3) includes “Alligator” – appropriate for what is most definitely alligator-country! – a drum duel with Mickey and Bill calling on the native spirits, and a version of “St. Stephen” that begins unlike any other version from this era – and ends in eerie feedback before a final “We Bid You Goodnight.” Saturday evening reportedly ended with Timothy Leary requesting that all stage lights be turned off and then speaking quietly to the dazed and buzzed crowd about the light show going on in the sky above – planets and constellations and shooting stars. Ya gotta love the ’60s!
Road Trips Vol 4. No 1 – Big Rock Pow Wow 1969 is yet another sonic gem from Bear’s reel to reel master tapes, and mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman for maximum fidelity and punch. As always, it includes a beautifully designed booklet with period photos and an essay about the shows. There’s some pretty amusing stage patter you won’t want to miss, too. We think it’s one of our best releases yet, but judge for yourself: You can get more info and order this latest Road Trips by going here.
– Blair Jackson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Road Trips Volume 4 Number 1
Live album by Grateful Dead
Released November 16, 2010
Recorded May 23 – 24, 1969
Genre Rock
Length 184:53
Label Grateful Dead
Producer Owsley Stanley
David Lemieux
Blair Jackson
Road Trips Volume 4 Number 1 is a live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. The thirteenth of the Road Trips series of archival releases, it contains two complete performances by the band, recorded on May 23 and 24, 1969. It was the third Road Trips album to contain three CDs, and the second that did not include a bonus disc with advance purchases. It was released on November 16, 2010.
Road Trips Volume 4 Number 1 is subtitled Big Rock Pow-Wow ’69. It was recorded at a rock festival called the Big Rock Pow-Wow, which took place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, May 23, 24, and 25, 1969, at the Hollywood Seminole Indian Reservation in West Hollywood, Florida. Other artists who performed at the festival included Johnny Winter, Sweetwater, Joe South, Aum, NRBQ, Rhinoceros, Muddy Waters, and the Youngbloods. At the end of the Saturday night concert, Timothy Leary spoke from the stage.
Track listing
Disc one
May 23, 1969:
Hard to Handle (Otis Redding) – 5:47
Dark Star > (Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Bob Weir, Robert Hunter) – 18:56
St. Stephen > (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter) – 9:01
The Eleven > (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter) – 10:38
Turn On Your Lovelight (Deadric Malone, Joseph Scott) – 30:59
Disc two
May 24, 1969:
Introduction – 4:27
Turn On Your Lovelight (Malone, Scott) – 27:27
Doin’ That Rag > (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:43
He Was a Friend of Mine (“Just a Hand to Hold”) > (Mark Spoelstra) – 8:49
China Cat Sunflower > (Garcia, Hunter) – 5:24
The Eleven > (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter) – 5:17
Death Don’t Have No Mercy (Reverend Gary Davis) – 7:00
Disc three
May 23, 1969:
Morning Dew (Bonnie Dobson, Tim Rose) – 9:44
Me and My Uncle (John Phillips) – 3:17
Yellow dog story (Weir) – 3:12
May 24, 1969:
Alligator > (Lesh, McKernan, Hunter) – 4:00
Drums > (Hart, Kreutzmann) – 7:33
St. Stephen > (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter) – 5:58
Feedback > (Grateful Dead) – 4:17
We Bid You Goodnight (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 3:22
Personnel
Grateful Dead
Tom Constanten – keyboards
Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals
Mickey Hart – drums
Bill Kreutzmann – drums
Phil Lesh – electric bass, vocals
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan – vocals, percussion
Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals
Production
Owsley Stanley – original recording producer
David Lemieux – release producer
Blair Jackson – release producer
Jeffrey Norman – CD mastering
Scott McDougall – cover art
Rosie McGee – photography
Jim Wiseman – photography
Steve Vance – package design
Blair Jackson – liner notes
Tom Constanten – liner notes