Grateful Dead—Kresge Plaza, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 6, 1970
55 years ago today, the Dead played a free outdoor concert on the student union steps to honor a national day of student protests against the Vietnam War. The performance was recorded from the soundboard by MIT radio station WTBS, which is gold as the Grateful Dead apparently don’t have the reels of this show in their vault.
Peter Kaye was the sole Deadhead at MIT’s radio station in the spring of 1970. As he was watching the Dead set up their gear, he asked Dan Healy if he could get a feed off his board. When Healy agreed, Kaye bent the arms of the technical staff at the station to help him run a telco line on the campus to the station where the head engineer, Larry Killgallen, recorded the show onto an Ampex 350. That winter, a bus full of folks from the Hog Farm broke down in Boston. Kaye befriended a few like-minded pranksters and, at some point during their stay, “lent” them the master tapes of the Kresge gig. Shortly thereafter, cassette tapes of the legendary free concert were being traded with abandon.
Maybe it was the occasion, or possibly it was just due to the dismally cold weather, but the band does crank out an ample amount of energy on this one. The recording perfectly captures some of the impromptu rawness of the day. The opening Dancing in the Streets is glorious, with Dark Star colorings and a well-developed Tighten Up jam. The China Cat Sunflower > Know You Rider couplet is quite nice and features a blistering midsection bridge. Another highlight of the set is the Morning Dew, with its subject serving as a timely comment on why everyone was gathered in Cambridge that afternoon. Next up, Good Lovin’ is fast and heavy and contains a vigorous bass and drums jam at the 7-minute mark. After a Casey Jones that suffers from a dropout on the tape, the performance concludes with an extended take on St. Stephen > Not Fade Away.
The following schedule of planned events in connection with the strike and protest of the Indochina War appeared in the Tech, MIT’s student newspaper on May 6, 1970:
STRIKE! FACULTY CANCELS CLASSES
6 am onward – Leaflets and canvassing information will be available in the Student Center West Lounge for use in canvassing factories.
12 noon – Humanities Department Meeting.
12 noon – Meeting of interested MIT employees in Walker Memorial.
1 pm – Mass meeting in Kresge.
2 pm – There will NOT be a free concert by the Grateful Dead today.
Eventually, the plastic tarps weren’t enough to protect the band from the nasty rainfall that grew progressively worse throughout the set. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the musician’s fingers getting cold and stiff; the resolve is there, but Jerry’s lines get increasingly more ragged and dissonant. Bobby sums up the sentiments of the band: “It’s too fuckin’ cold to play.” Based on the invention and creativity on display that day on the plaza, one can only imagine the setlist they would have generated under more favorable weather conditions.
What a great story. And that setlist!