Grateful Dead—State Pavilion, Flushing Meadow Park, Queens, NY, July 11-12, 1969
w/Joe Cocker & The Grease Band and Tribe
The Grateful Dead play two at the site of the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows. The closest thing to an East Coast Acid Test according to many NYC Dead Freaks, the July 11-12 concerts marked the opening weekend of a summer-long Music Festival at the Pavilion—all shows were $3. The Queens venue was described in adverts as "An outdoor ballroom with dancing and food." Joe Cocker & The Grease Band were on their first American tour, which included performances at the Newport Rock Festival, Denver Pop Festival, and a certain 3-day affair in Bethel, NY.
The first night’s tape via a Dick Latvala soundboard transfer is one of my favorite recordings from this era. It opens with some interesting stage banter and Bobby’s nonlinear telling of The Brick Story—a perfect way to kill some time during a long tech break. Garcia plays 12-string electric for the first two, a swinging Dupree’s Diamond Blues, and a spritely Dire Wolf. Hard to Handle is next. Garcia shifts to pedal steel for the only time he would do so on this tune, which is a nice twist. We get more steel guitar action for Silver Threads and Golden Needles; Jerry’s playing is a joy and something to savor given the pedal steel’s limited presence during the Dead’s sets over the years. Casey Jones is solid and they’ve almost got the intro lick in place. I so love those early takes on the tune, especially the nifty organ fills from Tom Constanten.
The back half of the set is superb with the boys playing a fun alternative suite: an hour of Alligator > The Other One > Death Don’t Have No Mercy > Turn On Your Lovelight. Unfortunately, we’re missing the beginning of Alligator, and the tape cuts in at the end of the drum break, with the 'Taketa, Taketa' chant. Even so, we get 15 minutes of Garcia shredding after the drums, and the jam into The Other One is fierce with lots of great ensemble playing. Dig the Goin’ Down the Road instrumental theme embedded in the mix—so unusual. And like so many Bear tapes of this era, the end is missing too, and Lovelight cuts after 8 minutes. It could, conceivably, have been four times longer. We’ll have to live with what we’ve got.
The second night features the last pedal steel segment to open a show. All that exists is a low-quality audience recording which I’ll include here for completists. Fare thee well to Mountains Of The Moon, the last recorded version, and the only one with a jam, gentle and modal. In addition, there’s also a hot Doin’ Thaa nice China Cat Sunflower > Mama Tried pairing but, because of the tape quality, it’s a severely underrated version of the song with an extended intro and a perfect segue out of the jam. The second c&w tune to work in the slot, Mama Tried, is played uptempo.
Lucky for us, we do have a partial soundboard recording of night two. It’s a beauty, with an hour-long Dark Star > The Other One > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Turn On Your Lovelight medley. The tape cuts into Dark Star, dropping in post-verse with Constanten’s B3 and Kreutzmann’s toms prominent in the mix. Some good swells and a Sputnik jam seem to signal the second verse, but they swerve into The Other One instead. The version is compact and muscular. After the post-verse tag, someone onstage (Phil?) shouts for more Dark Star, but Garcia’s already into the St. Stephen intro. As was the custom, St. Stephen segues into The Eleven, played at breakneck speed with its discordant layering and entangled 11/8 time signature. The Eleven morphs easily into the set-ending Lovelight. The take is jammy and participatory with Pigpen pulling people onto the mic, including Mickey Hart.
In her review, Village Voice columnist Annie Fisher spent a good deal of copy railing on the venue: “…you can walk up to the bandstand close enough to touch a leg of whoever it is you want to touch on the leg on stage. No goddamn revolving stage, no goddamn light show, and no seats anywhere...you can plant your ass on the mosaic New York State on the floor if you must, but it's just about impossible when the Grateful Dead are playing."
And damn, did they ever play.