1967 Setlists

1967 is very much the “lost year” of the Dead. Out of about 120 shows played that year, we only have about a dozen on tape. Surprisingly, there are actually quite a few memories and accounts of lost ’67 shows available, so we can still get a good picture of how the Dead’s repertoire evolved through the year. As an experiment, I thought I would try compiling all the songs known to be played in 1967 – from the circulating tapes, the setlists available on deadlists and deadbase, and the reviews of lost shows on dead.net and setlists.net. Here are the results…

Updated October 2017.

1-13-67 [witness]
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

1-14-67 [tape & film]
Dancin' in the Streets

Viola Lee Blues

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

(The Morning Dew on our tape comes from a later date, and it doesn't seem to have been played at this show.)

3-18-67 [tape]

Set One:

Me and My Uncle

Next Time You See Me

He Was A Friend Of Mine

Smokestack Lightnin'

Morning Dew

It Hurts Me Too

Beat It On Down The Line

Dancin' In The Streets

Set Two:

Golden Road

Cream Puff War

The Same Thing

Cold Rain and Snow

Viola Lee Blues

Death Don't Have No Mercy

3-24-67 [Deadbase]
Viola Lee Blues

4-8-67 [TV show]

Cream Puff War

(Walkin’ Blues – played as comparison with Quicksilver’s version)

4-9-67 [film clips]

Dancin’ in the Streets
Caution
King Bee
Viola Lee Blues 

Chevrolet (sung by Garcia)  

Gloria 

(The Youtube clip is labeled “4-20-67” but this seems to actually be from the 4-9-67 street dance/Panhandle show.)

4-12-67 

Golden Road (opened the set) [deadbase]
Viola Lee Blues (An attendee writes: "I remember the Dead ending a set (I think they only played a single set) with Viola Lee Blues.")

4-28-67 [dead.net comment]

Viola Lee Blues

Golden Road

Cream Puff War

4-29-67 [deadbase/deadlists comment]

Viola Lee Blues

5-18-67

Louie Louie [deadbase]

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl [dead.net comment]

(This show was at the Awalt High School gym, possibly accounting for the odd cover. There are an astonishing number of reviewers on dead.net, which apparently has a strong contingent from Mountain View; of course their memories are all vague.)

5-20-67 [setlist.net comment]

Morning Dew

5-29-67 [witness]
Viola Lee Blues
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Cold Rain and Snow
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

6-1-67 Tompkins Square Park [deadlists]

Golden Road

Dancin' in the Streets

Midnight Hour

Beat It On Down The Line

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Cold Rain and Snow

Morning Dew

Viola Lee Blues

(This setlist comes from Mike Bobrik, an eyewitness - a couple tracks are confirmed by a film clip.)

6-6-67 [deadbase]

I'm A King Bee

It Hurts Me Too

The Same Thing

Big Boss Man

Alligator

Midnight Hour

Beat It On Down The Line

Me and My Uncle

Minglewood Blues

Don't Ease Me In

Cold Rain and Snow

Viola Lee Blues

It's All Over Now Baby Blue

(I’m uncertain about the provenance or reliability of this setlist, but it looks fairly plausible – most of these songs were in their regular repertoire this year. Whoever wrote this list mostly grouped it by singer: Pigpen songs/Weir songs/Garcia.)
(Phil Lesh also remembers Alligator being played at the Café au Go Go.)

6-7-67 [dead.net comments]

Viola Lee Blues

6-18-67 [tape]

Cold Rain and Snow

Viola Lee Blues

Alligator > Caution

6-21-67 [film clip/dead.net comment]
Alligator (possibly from an earlier park show)

(possibly Viola Lee Blues)

6-28-67 [newspaper review]
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

7-2-67 [witnesses]
Dancin' in the Streets

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

(Deadbase listed this as 6-xx-67 El Camino Park, Palo Alto.)

7-18-67 [witnesses]
Golden Road
Turn On Your Lovelight (possibly)

7-21-67 [deadlists]

Set one:

1. Viola Lee Blues (30:00)

2. Morning Dew (5:00).

Set two:

1. The Golden Road (3:00)

2. (Pigpen song) (13:00)

3. New, New Minglewood Blues (4:00)

4. (????) (14:00)

5. [Friend of Mine] (?) (8:00)

6. Midnight Hour (15:00).

(Tom Ordon wrote: “All times are approximate since I was just looking at my watch. I had the first album, so I'm sure songs 2, 4 and 5 were not on it.”)

(The Pigpen song was probably Alligator or Lovelight. I don’t know what song 4 could have been – it’s not noted as a Pigpen song, the time’s too long for New Potato, and Dancin’ should have been a recognizable song.)

7-23-67 [tape]

Jam w/ Neal Cassady Rap

Turn On Your Lovelight

7-31-67 [newspaper review]

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Post-show 50-minute jam w/ Jefferson Airplane and Luke & the Apostles

8-4-67 [tape]

Lindy

New Potato Caboose

Viola Lee Blues

8-5-67 (afternoon show) [newspaper review]
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
I Know You Rider

8-5-67 [tape]

Turn On Your Lovelight

Alligator

8-6-67 (afternoon show) [deadbase/dead.net comment]

Morning Dew

Viola Lee Blues

Alligator (with a drum solo & feedback)

Dancin’ in the Streets
Encore: Gloria jam w/ Jefferson Airplane [dead.net comment] 

8-6-67 (Expo ’67)

Viola Lee Blues (Phil Lesh: “We warm up with a couple of quickies – Cold Rain and Snow, maybe, or Sittin’ on Top of the World, and then slope right into Viola Lee Blues.” He recalls the stage manager stopped the band in the middle of Viola Lee.)

August ’67, Golden Gate Park [TV clip from “Hippie Temptation”]

Dancin’ in the Streets

8-19-67

Sittin’ on Top of the World [dead.net comment]

(possibly Golden Road & Turn On Your Lovelight) [setlists.net/dead.net comment]

8-28-67 [film clip]

Viola Lee Blues

(possibly Good Morning Little Schoolgirl) [deadlists comment]

“5-5-67” [tape]

He Was A Friend Of Mine

Golden Road

New Potato Caboose

Alligator

9-3-67 [tape]

Midnight Hour

Dancin’ In The Streets

It Hurts Me Too

Cold Rain and Snow

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Viola Lee Blues

Big Boss Man

Alligator

(Midnight Hour could be from 9-4.)

9-4-67 [tape]

Caution > Feedback

9-15-67 [tape]

Viola Lee Blues

Cold Rain and Snow

Beat It On Down The Line

Good Morning Little School Girl

Morning Dew

Alligator > Caution > Feedback

9-29-67 

Dancin’ in the Streets [deadbase, confirmed by film clip]

9-30-67
Viola Lee Blues (first set)

Alligator > (Caution) > Feedback (second set, w/ Mickey Hart)

10-1-67 [dead.net comments]

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Feedback

10-14-67 [deadbase]

Set One:

Cold Rain and Snow

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Set Two:

Alligator > Caution

10-22-67 [tape]

Morning Dew

New Potato Caboose

It Hurts Me Too

Cold Rain and Snow

Turn On Your Lovelight

Beat It On Down The Line

Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment

“1-27-67” [tape]

Viola Lee Blues

Cold Rain and Snow

Alligator > Caution

(possibly Good Morning Little Schoolgirl – cuts off after 2 seconds on our tape)

(Morning Dew & New Potato Caboose on this tape are AUD recordings of the 10-22-67 show.)

"10-31-67"
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Alligator > Caution
(This has circulated as studio outtakes, but is actually from an unknown live show.)

10-31-67 [witness]
Viola Lee Blues

11-10-67 [tape]

Viola Lee Blues

It Hurts Me Too
BIODTL 

Morning Dew

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
New Potato Caboose

Alligator > Caution > Feedback

11-11-67 [tape]

Turn On Your Lovelight
BIODTL

Death Don't Have No Mercy

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment

Alligator > Caution > Feedback

12-8-67 [newspaper review]

Midnight Hour (“a freely improvised half-hour version”)

12-22-67 [setlists.net comment]

(possibly Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Beat It On Down The Line)

12-26-67 [setlists.net comment]

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Beat It On Down The Line

Cold Rain and Snow
Alligator>Caution [newspaper review] 
(The review also confirms Schoolgirl and Cold Rain & Snow.)

12-27-67 [setlists.net/deadlists comments]

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Morning Dew
Viola Lee Blues 

UNCERTAIN

"Whicker's World" TV show, spring 1967 - Golden Road
"Petulia" film, spring 1967 - Viola Lee Blues

Dates & locations unknown. I believe these were not actual shows, but arranged for the cameras. Although Blair Jackson says the “Viola Lee Blues” in Petulia was filmed at the Avalon, the Olompali Sunday Times #2 reported in May ’67 that “they were playing live in a warehouse here in the city.”

The Taping Compendium (p.566) lists a TV clip filmed at the Panhandle, Golden Gate Park, SF, sometime in ’67, in which the Dead play Yonders Wall & King Bee. My guess is this is the same as the “4/20/67” Panhandle clip on youtube, just with a different soundtrack; not sure how Yonders Wall was identified.

FAKES

2-12-67

Deadbase used to list Smokestack Lightning and King Bee, and now lists Cold Rain & Snow and Hi-Heel Sneakers. All of these were misdated from the 11-19-66 tape.

6-8-67 [from setlists.net – omitted on deadbase]

BIODTL, Golden Road, New Minglewood Blues, Cream Puff War, Cryptical Envelopment, New Potato Caboose, Born Cross-Eyed, Alligator, Caution

(The lack of a reputable source, and the presence of two songs that hadn’t been written yet, cast doubt on this list.)

6-28-67 [from setlists.net – omitted on deadbase]

The Other One, Minglewood Blues, Dark Star, The Eleven, William Tell, Death Don’t Have No Mercy, Clementine

(If this were from 1968 it might be believable.)

9-4-67 [deadbase]

Morning Dew, Cold Rain and Snow, Viola Lee Blues, Alligator > Caution, New Potato Caboose

(Deadbase notes, “could be from the previous night.” This setlist is from "1/27/67" and doesn't belong on this date. Deadbase also listed “Dark Star Jam” on 9-3-67, from a rehearsal.)

10-31-67 [deadbase]

Alligator > Caution, Cryptical > Other One > Cryptical

(This tape was misdated from the November ’67 Shrine shows. Not to be confused with the other 10/31/67 tape from an unknown live show.)

12-13-67 [deadbase]

Dark Star

(There was no 12-13-67 show, at the Shrine or anywhere. The Dead may well have played Dark Star that month, though.)

NOTES

One pattern among audience memories of these shows is that they’d typically remember one or two standouts, usually songs they recognized off the Dead’s first album. Schoolgirl was clearly the song that made the biggest impression on audiences, to judge by how often it’s remembered – followed by Viola Lee Blues.

The Dead’s new songs tended not to be recognized, of course; and the covers they played at shows are certainly under-represented on this list. So it’s hard to tell just how rare some of these songs actually were in 1967. There was a definite small core repertoire that they would play in show after show, and that is mostly what shows up here.

The Dead seem to have steadily winnowed down their repertoire through the year – as they introduced new jam songs, they’d drop older numbers, and some of their cover tunes became more infrequent. Songs like Cream Puff War, Golden Road, and even the venerable Dancin’ in the Streets disappear by the fall. Only about eight of the songs regularly played in spring ‘67 were still being played in the fall.

This had been an ongoing process since 1966, of course, as various folk, blues, and R&B covers and early “poppy” Dead originals were gradually discarded (even I Know You Rider was abruptly shuffled off in ‘67). Over the course of ’67 they focused increasingly on the extended jams – Garcia mentioned in a July ’67 interview that when they’d recorded their album in January, “at that time we were mostly doing blues-oriented things. Now we’re starting to get into a different thing.”

These are the numbers of times each song is included in this list (including the uncertain and “possible” times).

Viola Lee Blues – 26

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl – 19

Alligator - 15

Cold Rain and Snow - 12
Caution - 11
Dancin’ in the Streets – 10
Beat It On Down The Line - 10 

Morning Dew – 9 

Golden Road – 9
Turn On Your Lovelight – 6

Midnight Hour - 5

It Hurts Me Too – 5

New Potato Caboose - 4
Cryptical > Other One - 4

Cream Puff War - 3

He Was A Friend Of Mine – 3
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – 3 

Death Don’t Have No Mercy - 2

Me and My Uncle – 2

The Same Thing – 2

Big Boss Man – 2
King Bee – 2 

Gloria - 2

New Minglewood Blues - 2

Next Time You See Me – 1

Smokestack Lightning – 1

Don’t Ease Me In – 1

Sittin’ on Top of the World – 1
I Know You Rider - 1

Lindy – 1

Louie Louie – 1

Walkin’ Blues – 1

Chevrolet – 1

These were the new songs introduced in 1967:

Alligator  - written in late May, it starts being played immediately in June and becomes a setlist centerpiece. It took a couple months before it was paired regularly with Caution.

Turn On Your Lovelight – first appears in July, but doesn’t appear in late-’67 setlists as often as you’d expect.

New Potato Caboose – they were composing it back in March, but it doesn’t appear til August. It also doesn’t seem to be played that often in late ’67, though this could be misleading since no audience member could recognize it.

Cryptical>Other One suite – written by October, this was one of the first songs they tackled in the Anthem studio sessions, and was likely played in almost every show that fall.

Dark Star – written in September, recorded in November, but (along with its B-side, Born Cross-Eyed) not known to have turned up in live shows til January ’68.

It remains a small mystery how many of the new songs and extended suites that suddenly appear in January ’68 were being played in December ’67. The Dead had a recording-studio break of over a month from mid-November to late December with almost no shows played, and it’s likely a lot of the early ’68 concepts were put together in that period.

I should mention that “Feedback” starts turning up in August ’67, and was soon linked to Caution as the favored way to end a show. Though not a composition per se, this was a major development in the Dead’s approach to their music.

At the start of the year, they were only playing two original songs – Cream Puff War (written in spring ’66) and Golden Road (a new song written in Jan/Feb ’67). Both of these were cast aside – Cream Puff War last appears on 4/28, and Golden Road apparently stopped being played in the summer.

A few other song notes:

Cold Rain & Snow – one of the most common 1967 regulars, it utterly disappears in ’68, til turning up again on 5/31/69.

Dancin’ in the Streets – possibly dropped after Sept ’67, it resurfaces twice in March ’68, then drops from sight til 6/8/69.

Me & My Uncle – spotted twice in early ’67, then vanishes until 4/27/69.

Next Time You See Me – no known performances between 3/18/67 & 9/27/69.

He Was A Friend of Mine – after summer ’67, vanished until 12/7/68.

Smokestack Lightning – until 1970, this song was always rare.

The Same Thing – not heard again til a one-time appearance on 12/31/71.

Death Don’t Have No Mercy – this seems to have been a rare song (appearing twice in ’66 and ’67) until it became a regular in March ’68.

Midnight Hour – odd that it doesn’t show up in ‘67 until June; but it would be a rare song for the next couple years, til the end of ’69.

Big Boss Man – a regular in ’66; introduced on 9/3/67 as “an old song;” then vanishes til 6/27/69.

Minglewood Blues – another ’66 regular that barely shows up in ’67, it resurfaces on 4/26/69.

Sittin’ on Top of the World – same story: vanishes in ’67, played twice in March ’68, then disappears until 4/11/69.

It’s All Over Now Baby Blue – yet another ’66 regular that vanishes in ’67, resurfacing on 4/6/69.

Don’t Ease Me In – uncertain whether it was actually played this year (it was barely played in ’66); not heard again til 3/20/70.

King Bee – not heard again til 2/11/69.
I Know You Rider - though the Dead recorded an instrumental track for the album in January, it then disappears from the record, aside from one August '67 report, until 4/5/69.

Lindy – heard a few times in late ’66, it mysteriously appears for the last time in August ’67.

Gloria – perhaps this doesn’t count since it was played in a jam with the Airplane; but a fragment was recently discovered from 4/9/67, it was reported again on 1/30/68, and it would return to the Dead’s sets in the ‘80s. One San Francisco musician remembers "the Dead played Gloria a lot in those days." We don't know who sang it, but my bet's on Pigpen.

Louie Louie – other than a tease on 6/7/70, this wasn’t part of the Dead’s repertoire until a brief stretch in 1988.

Walkin’ Blues – other than the brief TV airing, this appears not to have been in the Dead’s repertoire at all until 1985. (Maybe they’d played it back in ’65.)

Chevrolet - a blues-rock arrangement of an old blues song done by Jim Kweskin, this survives only in a fragment from the 4/9/67 park show.