September’s Theme At So Many Roads

Every September, my musical thoughts turn to the Grateful Dead, and with good reason. September is the month during which I saw the most Grateful Dead shows (25), including:

• My first Dead show on September 3, 1977, the historic Englishtown concert, released as Dicks Picks 15. 
• My favorite Dead show on September 18, 1987 at Madison Square Garden (posted on So Many Roads) 
• The send-off show on September 2, 1978 at Giants stadium before the band left to play the Pyramids (posted on So Many Roads) 
• All 5 nights of the 1987 run at Madison Square Garden 
• Eight of the 9 nights of the 1988 run at Madison Square Garden 
• The September 10, 1991 show with Brandford Marsalis at MSG (posted on So Many Roads) 
• The September 18 - 20, 1990 shows at MSG that were released as part of The Road Trips Series

So, in thinking of this month’s theme for So Many Roads, I wanted to honor the Dead and my September history with them. However, I didn’t want to simply post a bunch of shows I attended. Rather I wanted to do something a bit more special that encapsulated the band’s entire career.

First, I’ll post 4 Dead shows in September from each decade in which they they played live   1960s, 1970’s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Second, I’m going to post 31 concerts by other bands, one from each year the Dead were active as band from 1965 to 1995. Each of those 31 shows will be from a different artist. For each band posted, I’ll give you the historical connection between that band and the Grateful Dead.  Some of those connections will be pretty obvious and extensive, such between the Dead and Bob Dylan or The Allman Brothers. Others linkages will be a bit more tenuous like those between the Dead and bands such as The Doors or Dire Straits. And still others will downright surprise you - wait until you read the Steely Dan and Elvis Presley posts. The complete list of bands posted by year is below:

1965    Bob Dylan

1966    Jefferson Airplane

1967    Jimi Hendrix

1968    The Doors

1969    The Who

1970    The Byrds

1971    James Taylor

1972    Elvis Presley

1973    The Allman Brothers

1974    CSNY

1975    Jimi  Buffett

1976    The Band

1977    Marshall Tucker

1978    Bruce Springsteen

1979    Santana

1980    Bob Marley

1981    The Rolling Stones

1982    Warren Zevon

1983    Elvis Costello

1984    The Bangles

1985    Don Henley

1986    Bruce Hornsby

1987    Los Lobos

1988    Elton John

1989    Neil Young

1990    John Hiatt

1991    Warren Haynes

1992    Dire Straits

1993    Steely Dan

1994    Traffic

1995    Van Morrison

All in all is 35 posts, loads of great music and some cool historical linkages between the Dead and the rest of the rock world. By the way, this list is not meant to be inclusive of every band connected to the Grateful Dead. Given that I was trying to get a show from every year from 1965 to 1995, and given that I don’t have September tapes from some groups, I couldn’t cover everyone! For example, I know that artists such as John Fogerty, Johnny Cash and Chuck Berry, all with ties to the Dead are missing. I’m sure there are more but hopefully you’ll enjoy what I am able to post. Let me know if you like this approach and maybe we’ll try it with a different band in some future month. And if you know of an important link between any band that I post and The Dead that you think I’ve missed, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment under the post.

Enjoy the tunz!