Grateful Dead - 1967-01-14 - San Francisco, CA (SBD)

Grateful Dead

1967-01-14

Human Be-In

Polo Field 

Golden Gate Park

San Francisco, CA

Soundboard Recording

320 kbps

Artwork Included

01. Morning Dew 

02. Viola Lee Blues 

03. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl*

*Charles Lloyd on flute

Grateful Dead - 1967-01-14 - San Francisco, CA (SBD)

As mentioned in earlier posts this month, the Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In the true spirit of the 1960s flower power era, the band attempted to be incredibly inclusive, listing 12 members as part of the band for induction. In addition to the then current line up of Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Vince Welnick, Mickey Hary and Bill Kruetzmann, the Dead also included former keyboard players Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Brent Mydland, Keith Godchaux, and  Tom Constanten, not to mention vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux. They even included lyricist Robert Hunetr, who in collaboration with Garcia, had written some of the band's most famous tunes, including Uncle John's Band, US Blues, St Stephen, Eyes Of The World, Ripple, and Touch Of Grey, just to name a few.  That said, I still think they missed 2 other members of the Dead family who should have been inducted.  First is Bruce Hornsby, who played keyboards for them for almost 2 years alongside Welnick, about the same length of service as Constanten.  Hornsby obviously was not offended, as he inducted the band.  Second was John Perry Barlow,  who worked with Weir in the same way Hunter partnered with Garcia. Weir/Barlow tunes, while not as numerous or famous as Garcia/Hunter compositions, included such staples of the Dead's live performances as Estimated Prophet, Cassidy, Looks Like Rain, Throwing Stones, and The Msuic Never Stopped, just to cite a few.

In any event, this soundboard recording goes back to the very beginnings of the Grateful Dead, before they released their first album, to a concert on Janaury 14, 1967, 57 years ago today, a seminal moment in the rise of the counter culture in San Francisco. That day, some 25,000 flower children descended on Golden Gate Park for what was advertised as "A Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In".  The Human Be-In, for short, featured counter culure speakers such as Timothy Leary and Alan Ginsberg, with music from The Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Blue Cheer, all fueled by copious amounts of LSD provided by Owsley Stanley.  The event gathered national attention, and thousands of young Americans soon began to flock to San Francisco.  All in all, the events of Janaury 14, 1967 were a prelude to the Summer of Love, and a time of seismic cultural change in the country.