Grateful Dead - 1970-05-06 - Cambridge MA (SBD)

Grateful Dead

1970-05-06

Kresge Plaza

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA

Soundboard Recording

320 kbps

Artwork Included

01. Dancing In The Streets

02. China Cat Sunflower >

03. I Know You Rider

04. Next Time You See Me

05. Morning Dew

06. Good Lovin’

07. Casey Jones

08. St Stephen

09. Not Fade Away

Grateful Dead - 1970-05-06 - Cambridge MA (SBD)

As the 1960s became the 1970s, students on college campuses across the US increasingly raised their voices against the on going war in Viet Nam. They were stunned and disillusioned by the revelation that US troops had massacred over 400 civilians in the village of My Lai. In addition, they were personally impacted by a December 1969 change in the draft that eliminated deferments for many college students and teachers. Moreover, the April 30 announcement by President Nixon that he was expanding the War into Cambodia, seemingly flew in the face of his campaign promise to end US involvement in South East Asia. Students across the US rose up in protest of the Cambodian Campaign, with a tragic outcome at one school in Ohio.  On May 4, 1970,  during a student rally at Kent State, 28 National Guardsmen opened fire on the unarmed students, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. The incident, would of course, prompt CSNY to pen the brilliant anti-war tune, Ohio. The shootings also spurred protests at colleges throughout the United States, as well as a student strike, causing more than 450 campuses across the country to close with both violent and non-violent demonstrations.  MIT in Cambridge was the site of one of those demonstrations, as well over 1500 students held an afternoon rally on May 6., 1970, 49 years ago today. The Grateful Dead, as captured in this soundboard recording, provided free music for that rally, in yet another display of the forces of rock and roll uniting against the policies of the Nixon administration.