Grateful Dead—Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA, June 17, 1972
w/ The New Riders of the Purple Sage
The Grateful Dead’s first stage appearance after their whirlwind Europe vacation took place at the Hollywood Bowl. The band had played the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed bandshell once, previously, on a 9/15/67 bill with the Jefferson Airplane. Although this ‘72 outing was well over a year before the Wall of Sound started evolving, the audio system provided more than adequate sound to all in attendance. The New Riders preceded the Dead with a fairly typical set for the era, closing with an extended version of Willie and the Hand Jive. Garcia sat in with the NRPS on pedal steel. The show is also historically significant for being Pigpen’s last performance with the band, as he was too sick to tour after this.
Although there’s rumored to be a soundboard of this concert in the Dead’s vault, the tape we have on the Archive was produced by Dave and Jim Melton from Box 52, center stage. There’s a funny backstory about how Dave ended up in his seat. To begin with, the ticket sale process was a tad different in 1972. No computerized event ticketing. No electronic box offices. Just our taper, Dave Melton, mailing a check into the Hollywood Bowl ticket office, asking for Box 52. And to his amazement, they honored his request—four seats at $7.50 a pop. Hard to imagine something like that happening in today’s digital ticketing marketplace. Anyway, Dave and Jim headed to the Bowl, found Box 52, and produced a damn nice vintage audio recording the old-fashioned way via a Sony TC-40 deck and a pair of Shure Unidyne mics. The end product is a perfect balance of audience/music and very listenable.
The first set is standard ‘72 fare, with thirteen well-played tunes. Some early highlights include a beautiful Sugaree, the newish Black Throated Wind, and a hefty China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider pairing. Weir is bullied by a few heads in the front row to don some kind of funny hat—Weir! put on the hat!!!” “The hat!!!”—which he does before Beat It On Down The Line. Pig doesn’t do any singing, but is very present on B3 throughout the set. It’s most noticeable on the debut of the new Hunter/Garcia song, Stella Blue. This was the only time Pigpen played on a Wake of the Flood composition and he really nails it. A few vibrant fans keep calling out for the band to “…play St. Stephen!” and instead they go with El Paso, before closing out the frame with a full choggle ahead Casey Jones.
The back half of the night is equally as satisfying. Unfortunately, our tape is missing the Cumberland Blues opener. Instead, it begins with a 42-minute Truckin’ > Drums > The Other One > Ramble On Rose medley. The Other One jam dissolves beautifully pre-verse; McKernan’s B3 is right in the conversation, as the music spirals into Dark Star-like territory. The remainder of the set is Grade-A Good Old Grateful Dead with an electrifying Sugar Magnolia and a potent 16-minute Not Fade Away > Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad > One More Saturday Night sequence. Ron jams all the way to the end.
Farewell Warlocks, goodbye Pigpen.