Jerry Garcia & Friends— Bob Fried Memorial Boogie, Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA, June 17, 1975

w/Kingfish and the Keith & Donna Band

Here’s a Rob Bertrando-recorded gem from the oft-misunderstood and disregarded retirement period when the Dead were on a year-and-a-half hiatus from touring. This Winterland performance is the second of the four Bay Area shows that reunited the band during the recording and release of Blues for Allah. I’ve written about the first and final shows of the storied year (the SNACK Benefit at Kezar Stadium, and the exquisite Bob Menke field recording at Golden Gate Park) in earlier blog entries, both of which are essential listening for anyone interested in this period. Of course, the complete unveiling of Blues for Allah came on 8/13/75, at the Great American Music Hall. That performance was recorded, and much of it was later broadcast live on various FM stations on September 1, 1975, to publicize the release of the new album.

So it went, on a Tuesday night in mid-June, the Grateful Dead headlined a benefit for the late artist Bob Fried who had suffered a stroke and died on January 9th. His story is interesting and begs a few words if you can indulge me. Robert Fried originally trained as a commercial artist at Cooper Union in New York. Following his undergrad studies, he expanded his art pallet during a two-year stay in Madrid with his wife, Penelope. It was in Spain that Fried first encountered psychedelics, where one could buy Sandos LSD at any pharmacy as a headache remedy. Psychotropic drugs pushed Fried’s work in a more abstract direction, especially in the large-scale paintings he produced while abroad. By 1966, Fried and his family had moved to San Francisco so he could pursue an MFA in painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. While at the Art Institute, Fried became friends with poster artists Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin. Fried’s first rock poster was commissioned by Griffin, who asked Fried to create the third poster of a triptych for concerts at the Avalon Ballroom by The Charlatans.

From 1967 through 1970 Fried became a key contributor to the Bay Area's rock poster scene making concert posters/handbills for Chet Helms of the Family Dog, Bill Graham, and a handful of other promoters. In 1974 Fried received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for printmaking. That same year Fried and four other Bay Area artists were commissioned to travel to Baja California to prepare materials for an exhibition reflecting their trip. It was a great loss to his family and the entire poster community when Bob Fried died, on the day of the exhibit’s opening at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This Winterland benefit concert was staged to help Bob’s family navigate the difficult financial period after his passing.

The second show of the year—billed as Jerry Garcia and Friends—begins with music from a few other Grateful Dead offshoot groups. Weir’s side project Kingfish delivers a smoking, two-hour set, including a handful of tunes that will grace their debut LP the following year; the Keith & Donna band (with Ray Scott on lead guitar and Kreutzmann on drums) played a terrific set of material, all from their recent Round Records long player. Finally, the full Grateful Dead ensemble hit the stage, and, unlike the more polished sound of the Great American Music Hall, this gig is for people who like their jams dangerous and unpredictable. It’s the reason that Dead scholars often make the claim that 1975 remains the most intriguing year in the band’s ever-intriguing history, filled with creative chances and decisions that would define the band’s next two decades.

Following the obligatory band introduction by Uncle Bobo, the Dead roll out the maiden voyage of Crazy Fingers, with Garcia taking two choruses before they head back into the verses. The playing and phrasing are near perfect and it's hard to believe that this is the first time they ever performed this tune in a live setting. After a few short numbers—including a heartbreaking Peggy-O—the band launches into their first staged performance of Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Franklins Tower. The resulting set closing music is beautiful, especially the only instrumental version of Help on the Way they would ever play.

The back half is all about the B-side of Blues for Allah. Although they encore with a few classics, it’s the Blues for Allah > King Solomon's Marbles/Stronger than Dirt/Milkin' the Turkey > Blues for Allah sequence that leaves my mind in stitches. The half-hour instrumental exploration is stunning and is a fine set piece, though it’s the last time they would play it as such. Listening to this tape, I’m reminded of how 1975 was such an inspired, metamorphosing year for the Grateful Dead. It was—and always will be—simultaneously an ending, a beginning, and something completely unknown.

Rob Bertrando tape