October 2, 2018

1968 Show List


By request, I’m continuing my series of Grateful Dead show lists into 1968:
There is currently no single, accurate page where all the Grateful Dead shows and tapes from 1968 are listed. Setlist sources like deadlists and deadbase are out of date in places, and recent show discoveries are scattered across several sites, so I’ve provided a simple complete show list for the year.

There are fewer updates or new discoveries here than in 1966 or 1967. As with those years, there are some shows that have circulated with the wrong dates or no known dates, and a few dates that weren’t actually played. The chronology here is as accurate as possible, though revisions may continue as more lost clues and shows are found. Cancellations and old dating errors are listed.

Most song cuts are not noted. This isn’t meant to be a guide to tape sources – deadlists does that pretty well – just a basic list of shows and songs.
When available, there are links to newspaper reviews, Lost Live Dead pages, film clips, or other resources.
All the known songs played are listed (if not from tape, then from Deadbase or eyewitness accounts), though we only have partial information for many shows. The links provide more info on what’s known about the lost shows.
Hartbeats shows are included, as well as a few known Garcia jam sessions.
To streamline these show lists, other bands that played with the Dead are listed on their own page:

TAPE STATISTICS

123 Dead shows are known from 1968, though there were certainly more forgotten shows played. We have recordings from 37 shows, many of them incomplete (along with a handful of jam sessions) – about 30% of the shows played.
This is the monthly breakdown:
JAN - 6 shows, 4 tapes + a fragment
FEB - 9 shows, 6 tapes
MAR - 15 shows, 6 tapes
APR - 11 shows, 0 tapes
MAY - 17 shows, 1 tape
JUN - 12 shows, 4 tapes
JUL - 4 shows, 0 tapes
AUG - 10 shows, 5 tapes
SEP - 5 shows, 2 tapes
OCT - 7 shows, 3 tapes
NOV - 17 shows, 2 tapes
DEC - 10 shows, 4 tapes
(Hartbeats shows not included.)

Winter ’68 is pretty well-represented, since the Dead were taping shows for Anthem. Once they stopped, spring and early summer ’68 became a black hole for Dead tapes, other than a little flurry in June (courtesy of Bear). The Dead tried recording a few shows for an album again in August; after that, with Bear taping shows again, there is a trickle of random survivals for the rest of the fall. The burst of touring at the end of the year is mostly lost.

The tape record is strongly biased towards "hometown" shows. Of the Dead's 15 shows at the Carousel in early '68, we have tapes from all but five of them, and it's pretty certain most of those were taped but lost. On the other hand, once they started playing at Bill Graham's Fillmore West again in the summer, they played 10 shows there in '68, but soundboard tapes exist for only two. In contrast, we have tapes from two out of three of the Dead's Avalon shows in October '68, along with both their shows in Berkeley, and all four of their Los Angeles shows in August & December. (Meanwhile, shows from elsewhere in California have a very poor survival rate.) 
The Dead's eastern tours in '68 have all but vanished. No one was taping in April & May; Owsley was present at the Fillmore East shows in June, but only a fragment of one show survives; Owsley must also have gone on their midwest tour in Nov/Dec, but only one soundboard tape survives. I suspect that Owsley was recording every show as usual, so along with the early-’68 Anthem-show reels that were discarded, a lot of tapes from the year must have disappeared.
A few audience tapes help fill in some gaps, but there were very few tapers in 1968 interested in the Dead, so there are only five audience tapes from the year. Tellingly, only one comes from the San Francisco ballrooms, where people rarely bothered taping the Dead - the other tapes come from a street fair, an outdoor festival, and two shows out East. (I salute the anonymous taper in Columbus, Ohio, who captured a complete show - I wonder if it was the same guy who taped the Dead at the Club Agora there in 1970.)


1968

1/17/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Wed.)
TAPE:
I
Turn On Your Lovelight
Dark Star >
China Cat Sunflower >
The Eleven >
New Potato Caboose >
Born Cross-Eyed >
Spanish Jam
II
Beat It On Down The Line
Morning Dew
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl


1/20/68 Municipal Auditorium, Eureka, CA (Sat.)
TAPE:
//Clementine >
New Potato Caboose >
Born Cross-Eyed >
Spanish Jam >
Caution Jam >
Dark Star//
Viola Lee Blues
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl*
Released on Road Trips Vol. 2 No. 2. (*-bonus disc.)
OTHER SONGS:  
The Other One (part used on Anthem of the Sun)

1/26/68 Eagles Auditorium, Seattle, WA (Fri.)
TAPE:
Alligator
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose >
Born Cross-Eyed >
Feedback >
Spanish Jam >
Dark Star >
China Cat Sunflower >
The Eleven >
Caution >
Feedback
https://archive.org/details/gd68-01-22.sbd.weiner.8583.sbeok.shnf (has the actual end of the show – the Miller copy patches on 3/31/68 at the end)
Circulates as 1/22/68.
“The Dead's first set, though very good, was cut short when one of the two drummers put his foot (I think) through his bass drum.”

1/27/68 Eagles Auditorium, Seattle, WA (Sat.)
TAPE:
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
Clementine >
New Potato Caboose >
Born Cross-Eyed >
Spanish Jam
Turn On Your Lovelight*
Dark Star* >
China Cat Sunflower* >
The Eleven* 
Viola Lee Blues*
Beat It On Down The Line
It Hurts Me Too
Released on Road Trips Vol. 2 No. 2. (*-bonus disc)
Circulates as 1/23/68.  

1/29/68 College Center Ballroom, Portland State College, Portland, OR (Mon.)

1/30/68 Erb Memorial Union Ballroom, U of Oregon, Eugene, OR (Tue.)
TAPE:
New Potato Caboose
Released on Road Trips Vol. 2 No. 2 bonus disc.
OTHER SONGS:
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Gloria

2/2/68 Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR (Fri.)
TAPE:
Viola Lee Blues
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
Clementine* >
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl//
Dark Star
Released on Road Trips Vol. 2 No. 2.
* - Released on So Many Roads.

2/3/68 Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR (Sat.)
TAPE:
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose
It Hurts Me Too
Born Cross-Eyed
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Dark Star >
China Cat Sunflower >
The Eleven >
Feedback

2/4/68 Britt Ballroom, Southern Oregon College, Ashland, OR (Sun.)

2/14/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Wed.)
TAPE:
I
Morning Dew
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Dark Star >
China Cat Sunflower >
The Eleven >
Turn On Your Lovelight
II
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose >
Born Cross-Eyed >
Spanish Jam
Alligator >
Caution >
Feedback
E:
In The Midnight Hour
Broadcast live on KMPX-FM. Released on Road Trips Vol. 2, No.2

2/15/68 San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, CA (Thu.)
Free show for a prison strike. Not a Dead show per se: Phil didn’t show up, and members of the Dead jammed with other musicians, with Weir on bass.

2/16/68 Stanislaus County Fairgrounds, Turlock, CA (Fri.)

2/17/68 Selland Arena, Fresno, CA (Sat.)
SONGS:
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Turn On Your Lovelight
(These two songs were the Dead’s entire set.)

2/22/68 Kings Beach Bowl, North Lake Tahoe, CA (Thu.)
TAPE:
Dark Star >
China Cat Sunflower >
The Eleven >
Caution
http://www.dead.net/features/tapers-section/february-12-february-18-2007 (Lemieux: “the end of the show” – vocals not recorded)
OTHER SONGS:
Morning Dew
Beat It On Down The Line
It Hurts Me Too
(possibly Alligator, New Minglewood Blues?)

2/23/68 Kings Beach Bowl, North Lake Tahoe, CA (Fri.)
TAPE:
Viola Lee Blues
It Hurts Me Too
Dark Star >
China Cat Sunflower >
The Eleven >
Turn On Your Lovelight
Born Cross-Eyed >
Spanish Jam
Released on Dick’s Picks 22.
May be from 2/24/68.

2/24/68 Kings Beach Bowl, North Lake Tahoe, CA (Sat.)
TAPE:
Morning Dew
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose
Alligator >
China Cat Sunflower >
The Eleven >
Alligator >
Caution >
Feedback
OTHER SONGS:
Cold Rain and Snow
Born Cross-Eyed
Released on Dick’s Picks 22.
May be from 2/23/68.

3/1/68 Clifford’s Catering, Walnut, CA (Fri.)
3/2/68 Clifford’s Catering, Walnut, CA (Sat.)
SONGS:
Cold Rain and Snow
Turn On Your Lovelight

3/3/68 Haight Street, San Francisco (Sun.) – free show
TAPE:
Viola Lee Blues
Smokestack Lightning
Turn On Your Lovelight
It Hurts Me Too
Cryptical Envelopment//
OTHER SONGS:
The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Dancing in the Street
FILM:

(The old Deadbase listing of 3/7/68 San Quentin Prison was misdated from 2/15/68.)

3/8/68 Melodyland Theater, Anaheim, CA (Fri.)
3/9/68 Melodyland Theater, Anaheim, CA (Sat.) – Early and late shows.
SONGS:
China Cat Sunflower
And We Bid You Goodnight 
(probably Dark Star, The Eleven) 
“[The Dead] played just two very long, mostly instrumental songs in its allotted 30 minutes, not bothering to identify either number by name.”

3/11/68 Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA (Mon.)
SONGS:
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose >
Born Cross-Eyed >
Caution
With Tom Constanten. (Information per Deadbase, but their source is unknown.)
“The two drummers came up with a counter play that developed into an Afro-Cuban rhythm. The songs they played remained unnamed.”

3/15/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Fri.)
This show was taped for Anthem, but it’s unknown how much (if any) of it survives in the Vault.


3/16/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Sat.)
TAPE:
I
Dark Star* >
China Cat Sunflower* >
The Eleven* >
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
II
Morning Dew
It Hurts Me Too
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Alligator >
Caution >
Feedback
And We Bid You Goodnight
* - Released on So Many Roads.
“On one song, McKernan… launched into a kind of formless Joycean chant… The set ended with fireworks and smoke-bombs.”

3/17/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Sun.)
TAPE:
I
Turn On Your Lovelight
II
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose
China Cat Sunflower >
The Eleven >
Caution >
Feedback
Released on Download Series Vol.6.
OTHER SONGS:
Dark Star >
Born Cross-Eyed
(The first set was recorded, but the release notes state: “The majority of the songs from set 1 could not be salvaged due to technical problems that were partly due to "sound experiments" conducted on the master tapes during the production of Anthem Of The Sun.”)

3/18/68 50 Green Street, San Francisco, CA (Mon.)
The Dead set up to play a free show for KMPX strikers, but were soon stopped by the police.

3/20/68 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Wed.)
KMPX strike benefit.
SONGS:
Morning Dew
Dark Star
Turn On Your Lovelight

3/22/68 State Fair Coliseum, Detroit, MI (Fri.)

3/23/68 Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI (Sat.)
3/24/68 Fountain Church, Grand Rapids, MI (Sun.)
The Dead didn’t play these shows and went home early.

A planned spring tour of the eastern US, the Bahamas, and Europe was dropped:

3/24/68 Parking Lot near 50 Green Street, San Francisco (Sun.)
Garcia played with Traffic in a free show for the KMPX strike.

Weekend of March 23-24, 1968, Limekiln Creek, Big Sur, CA (Sat/Sun.)
Garcia jammed with drummer Jim Stern and others at a Vernal Equinox festival, which was held as a wake for Neal Cassady, many San Francisco musicians attending. Specific day & lineup uncertain.

(The old Deadbase listing of 3/26/68 Melodyland Theatre, Anaheim, was misdated from 3/8-9/68.)

3/29/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Fri.)
TAPE:
I
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Sitting on Top of the World
Dark Star
Morning Dew
II
Turn On Your Lovelight
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose >
Born Cross-Eyed//

3/30/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Sat.)
TAPE:
I
Morning Dew
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
Dark Star >
China Cat Sunflower >
The Eleven >
Turn On Your Lovelight
II
Born Cross-Eyed >
Feedback >
Spanish Jam >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy//
“Set 2” (there’s no setbreak on the tape) may be from a different date, perhaps 3/31.

3/31/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Sun.)
TAPE:
Turn On Your Lovelight
Beat It On Down The Line
Dancing in the Street
//Caution >
Feedback >
And We Bid You Goodnight
The date attribution is uncertain; the first three songs were previously ascribed to 3/30/68.

4/3/68 Winterland Arena, San Francisco (Wed.)
KMPX First Birthday Benefit.
SONGS:
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose >
Born Cross-Eyed
Alligator >
Caution
(This song list may be spurious, from a misdated tape.)  

4/12/68 Thee Image, Miami, FL (Fri.)
4/13/68 Thee Image, Miami, FL (Sat.)

4/14/68a Greynolds Park, North Miami Beach, FL (Sun.)
Free Love-In show.
4/14/68b Thee Image, Miami, FL (Sun.)

4/19/68 Thee Image, Miami, FL (Fri.)
4/20/68 Thee Image, Miami, FL (Sat.)
4/21/68 Thee Image, Miami, FL (Sun.)
SONGS:
Dark Star
Alligator
http://archive.org/post/935528/anthem-of-the-sun-tour-east-coast 
"In general the first set was a lot of the first album and the second set was Anthem of the Sun."

4/26/68 Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA (Fri.)
4/27/68 Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA (Sat.)
4/28/68 Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA (Sun.)

5/3/68 Ferris Booth Hall terrace, Columbia University, New York City, NY (Fri.)
SONGS:
Morning Dew
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
(The Deadbase listings of Cold Rain & Top of the World were due to an overdubbed film clip.)
FILM: (silent footage; several different edits)

5/4/68 Pritchard Gym, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY (Sat.)
SONG:
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
“In a set without a break that lasted over two hours, they played one epic number that lasted over an hour.”
“They played three songs in total. The first song was Good Morning Little School Girl, at about 15 minutes. Two other songs followed, one was about 35 minutes long, and the last one went on for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I wish I could say what the other songs were but I didn't know them at the time... I was amazed at how long the songs were so I checked... I remember thinking that the third song was ending after 45 minutes or so - but it sputtered back to life.”

5/5/68 Central Park, New York City, NY (Sun.) – free show
SONGS:
Morning Dew
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose
Alligator
Turn On Your Lovelight
http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2012/02/may-4-9-1968-new-york.html
"In their finale, one of the drummers appears to run amok and savagely attacks his cymbals, while another member of the band sets off a small explosion." 

5/7/68 Electric Circus, New York City, NY (Tue.) – Early & late shows.
SONGS: 
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Turn On Your Lovelight 
Beat It On Down the Line
Morning Dew 
He Was a Friend of Mine 
Alligator>
Caution
5/8/68 Electric Circus, New York City, NY (Wed.) – Early & late shows.
SONG: Viola Lee Blues
5/9/68 Electric Circus, New York City, NY (Thu.) – Early & late shows.
SONG: He Was a Friend of Mine
"After opening with a solid, rock-oriented first set [they came] on at midnight with a virtuoso rock-jazz improvisation that must have lasted an hour or more."

5/12/68 The Dome, Virginia Beach, VA (Sun.) – Early & late shows.

5/17/68 Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA (Fri.)
SONGS:
Morning Dew
(possibly Good Morning Little Schoolgirl)

5/18/68a Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose, CA (Sat.)
Northern California Folk-Rock Festival.
TAPE:
Alligator >
Caution >
Feedback
This was the Dead’s complete set: “Jerry Garcia said they'd do Alligator and they did, for about forty minutes. That was their set and it blew the place wide open.”

5/18/68b Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA (Sat.)

5/21/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Tue.)
“Tuesday Night Jam” with Garcia, Hart, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, and Elvin Bishop; then in a second set, Steve Miller’s group & Will Scarlett.

5/22/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Wed.)
“Jerry Garcia and others” in jam session, a benefit for the Jazz Action Movement. No recording exists.

5/24/68 National Guard Armory, St. Louis, MO (Fri.)
5/25/68 National Guard Armory, St. Louis, MO (Sat.)
SONGS:
Morning Dew
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Probably Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
(The old Deadbase songlist for 5/24/68 was spurious, from 2/5/69.)

5/31/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA (Fri.)
6/1/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA (Sat.)
6/2/68a Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (Sun.) – free show
6/2/68b Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA (Sun.)
The poster listed inaccurate dates of 5/30-6/1.

6/4/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Tue.)
“Benefit Tuesday Jam” with Garcia, Elvin Bishop, Barry Melton, Steve Miller, and others. (Ralph Gleason wrote that “there was a long jam session going on with all kinds of guitar players and saxophones and rhythm men.”) No recording exists. It’s unknown how many Tuesday night jams were actually held at the Carousel.

6/7/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA (Fri.)
SONGS:
St. Stephen >
Dark Star
6/8/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA (Sat.)
6/9/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, CA (Sun.)

The 1968 Mystery Reels include three show fragments from this time period that most likely come from these Carousel runs. (I don’t believe they’re from the Fillmore East shows in June.)
TAPE:
//St. Stephen >
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose >
Alligator >
Caution//
(Previously circulated under various dates such as 4/3/68 & 5/24/68.)

TAPE:
St. Stephen >
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
Turn On Your Lovelight

TAPE:
Morning Dew
It Hurts Me Too
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
Turn On Your Lovelight

6/9/68 Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (Sun.)
The Dead were to play a free show with Jefferson Airplane, but were stopped by the police.

6/12 + 6/13/68 Paradise Theater, Staten Island, NY
Canceled.

6/14/68a Fillmore East, New York City, NY (Fri.) – early show
SONGS:
Morning Dew
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose
(possibly Good Morning Little Schoolgirl)

6/14/68b Fillmore East, New York City, NY (Fri.) – late show
TAPE:
Feedback >
The Eleven >
St. Stephen 
Alligator >
Turn On Your Lovelight >
Caution* >
Feedback*
* - Released on the Fillmore West 1969 bonus disc.
OTHER SONGS:
Possibly Dark Star?

6/15/68a Fillmore East, New York City, NY (Sat.) – early show
6/15/68b Fillmore East, New York City, NY (Sat.) – late show
SONGS:
Dark Star (dedicated to Wes Montgomery)
Possibly the Other One?

6/16/68 Daytop Village, Staten Island, NY (Sun.)
The Dead were scheduled to play a Daytop Village benefit, but didn’t show and were replaced by the Jeff Beck Group.

6/19/68 Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco (Wed.)
Black Man’s Free Store benefit. 
SONGS: 
St. Stephen 
Dancing in the Street 
(The tape with this date is actually from 2/19/69.)

6/21/68 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, CA (Fri.)
This show with the Mothers of Invention was canceled.

6/22/68 Travelodge Theater, Phoenix, AZ (Sat.)

7/11/68 Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA (Thu.)
This show was not played; the poster is most likely a fake.

7/12/68 Kings Beach Bowl, Lake Tahoe, CA (Fri.)
7/13/68 Kings Beach Bowl, Lake Tahoe, CA (Sat.)

7/14/68 Marina Green, St. Francis Yacht Club, San Francisco (Sun.)
Jazz Action Movement benefit. The Dead apparently didn't show.

7/27/68 Honolulu International Center, Honolulu, HI (Sat.)

7/28/68 Rancho Olompali, Novato, CA? (Sun.)
Garcia jams with Mickey Hart & Jack Casady.
Whether this jam actually comes from the same date as the Olompali photos of Garcia & Casady is unknown, but doubtful – in the photos, the stage is set up for the full Dead to play, so there was evidently a lost Dead show there as well.

8/2/68 Hippodrome, San Diego, CA (Fri.)
8/3/68 Hippodrome, San Diego, CA (Sat.)

8/4/68 Orange County Fairgrounds, Costa Mesa, CA (Sun.)
Newport Pop Festival.
SONGS: 
Alligator
Feedback (probably following Caution)
FILM:

8/13/68 Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo, CA
STUDIO TAPE:
Clementine Jam
“Nobody’s Spoonful” Jam
Eleven Jam
Released on the Aoxomoxoa CD bonus tracks.

8/20/68 Fillmore West, San Francisco (Tue.)
SONGS:
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
(Setlist from Deadbase, source unknown.)

8/21/68 Fillmore West, San Francisco (Wed.)
TAPE:
I
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Alligator >
Feedback
II
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Turn On Your Lovelight
E:
In the Midnight Hour

8/22/68 Fillmore West, San Francisco (Thu.)
TAPE:
I
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
II
Dark Star
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose
Alligator >
Caution >
Feedback >
And We Bid You Goodnight

8/23/68 Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA (Fri.)
TAPE:
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Alligator* >
Caution* >
Feedback*
* - Released on CD reissues of Anthem of the Sun and Two from the Vault.

8/24/68 Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA (Sat.)
TAPE:
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose >
Turn On Your Lovelight
Morning Dew (plug pulled)
Released on Two from the Vault.

(8/28/68 Avalon Ballroom – There was no such show.)

8/30/68 Fillmore West, San Francisco (Fri.)
8/31/68 Fillmore West, San Francisco (Sat.)
9/1/68 Fillmore West, San Francisco (Sun.)

TAPE:
I
Dark Star >
St. Stephen>
The Eleven >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Turn On Your Lovelight
II
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
This tape was misdated as 8/28/68, but most likely comes from one of the Fillmore West shows. (Some copies also included the Other One suite from 4/6/69.)

9/1/68a? Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco (Sun.)
Haight-Ashbury Medical Clinic benefit. The Dead were originally scheduled to play on the 2nd, but went to play a festival in Washington instead. Deadbase asserts they played this date, but it’s uncertain whether they played at all. 

9/1/68 probably Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo, CA
STUDIO TAPE
Jam 
https://www.dead.net/30daysofdead/nov-29-2019 
With Tom Constanten, I think. Date uncertain. 

9/2/68 Betty Nelson’s Farm, Sultan, WA (Mon.)
Sky River Rock Festival.
TAPE:
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy//
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Alligator >
Caution >
Feedback
The Dead weren’t scheduled to play, but showed up anyway. After their set, Pigpen played organ in a blues set with Big Mama Thornton & James Cotton.

9/12/68 probably Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo, CA
STUDIO TAPE:
Clementine (many takes)
Space Jam
Clementine rehearsal with Phil on vocal, Tom Constanten on organ. Date not certain.

9/20/68 Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA (Fri.)
Ali Akbar College of Music benefit.
TAPE:
//Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Drums
Drums with guests Shankar Ghosh & Vince Delgado.

9/21/68 Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo, CA (Sat.)
STUDIO TAPE:
Clementine Jam
From a studio jam session with Garcia, Lesh, Hart, David Crosby & Vic Briggs.

9/22/68 Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA
Autumn Equinox festival.
SONGS:
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
New Potato Caboose
Alligator >
Caution >
Feedback
In the Midnight Hour
(Setlist from Deadbase, source unknown, perhaps unreliable. Old tape copies of 8/21/68 used to circulate with this date, so this setlist may partly come from that tape.)
“When the Dead came on at about dusk, they played Anthem of the Sun.”

9/27 + 9/28/68 Shrine Hall, Los Angeles, CA (Fri/Sat.)

10/5/68 Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA (Sat.)  

10/8/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Tue.) – Hartbeats
TAPE:
Clementine Jam >
The Eleven Jam >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
The Seven
Dark Star Jam >
Cosmic Charlie
Blues Jam
Jam
The Other One Jam > Jam
Elvin Bishop blues set w/ Hart & Jack Casady.

10/9/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Wed.) – Hartbeats
10/10/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Thu.) – Hartbeats
TAPE:
Jam
It’s A Sin
Blues Jam 1*
Blues Jam 2*
Look Over Yonder Wall*
Jam  
Turn On Your Lovelight Jam >
Drums >
Jam >
The Other One Jam >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Dark Star Jam >
The Eleven Jam >
The Seven
*-with guest harmonica player Marvin 

There's also a stray mystery fragment, a 13-minute Hartbeats jam in atrocious, muffled sound quality, date unknown: 
https://themidnightcafe.org/2018/05/26/lossless-bootleg-bonanza-mickey-the-hartbeats-san-francisco-ca-xx-xx-68/  

For a guide to the Hartbeats shows and setlists, see:

An October/November tour of the UK and Europe was canceled. Prospective dates included:
“The Revolution, London (October 10th);
Mother's, Birmingham (11th);
Middle Earth at the Round House, London (11th and 12th);
Granby Hall, Leicester (18th);
Liverpool University (19th);
Continental tour of Belgium, Holland, Sweden and Denmark (22nd-31st);
Country Club, Hampstead (November 3rd).
Other dates are to follow.”
The tour would have ended with a free show in London on Nov. 15, and the International Experimental Pop Festival in Utrecht, Nov. 23.

10/11/68 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Fri.)
SONG: Morning Dew
Pigpen was absent on this date and the next two.

10/12/68 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Sat.)
TAPE:
I
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
II
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose >
Drums >
Jam >
Feedback
Morning Dew (date uncertain)
(This is the same Morning Dew found on copies of 1/14/67.)

10/13/68 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (Sun.)
TAPE:
I
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
II
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose >
Drums >
Jam >
Feedback

10/18/68 The Bank, Torrance, CA (Fri.)

10/19/68 Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV (Sat.)
With Tom Constanten.

10/20/68 Greek Theater, U of C, Berkeley, CA (Sun.)
TAPE:
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Turn On Your Lovelight
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Caution >
Feedback
Released on 30 Trips.

(The old Deadbase listing of 10/21/68 “Jefferson Airplane House” is a false date, attributed to various Dec. ’68 Hartbeats shows or the 10/28/69 Airplane house tape. However, a few jams on cassette under this date with Garcia, Kaukonen, Casady, Dryden & Hart appear to have never circulated online.)

10/28/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Mon.) - Hartbeats 
Confirmed by a newspaper report
Latvala said a tape of this date is in the Vault. 

10/29/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Tue.) – Hartbeats 
TAPE
/Clementine Jam 
Dark Star Jam 
St. Stephen fragment 
https://archive.org/details/gd68-10-30.sbd.sacks.1205.sbeok.shnf
Parts of this show were taped over on 10/30; these are the bits that survive on the 10/30 reels. Date uncertain; more discussion in this comment
10/30/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Wed.) – Hartbeats
TAPE:
Dark Star Jam >
Death Letter Blues
The Other One Jam >
Turn On Your Lovelight Jam
Clementine Jam >
The Eleven Jam >
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Instrumental*
Blues Jam*
Prisoner of Love*
* - with Elvin Bishop.

10/31/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Thu.) - Hartbeats

11/1/68 Armory, Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, Chico, CA (Fri.)
TAPE:
II
Dark Star >
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose//
Alligator >
Caution >
Feedback >
And We Bid You Goodnight
SONG:
Viola Lee Blues

11/4/68 Longshoreman’s Hall, San Francisco (Mon.)

11/6/68 probably Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo, CA (Wed.)
STUDIO TAPE:
Turn On Your Lovelight
Dark Star
St. Stephen >
The Eleven (multiple takes)
Rehearsal with Tom Constanten.

11/7/68 Fillmore West, San Francisco (Thu.)
11/8/68 Fillmore West, San Francisco (Fri.)
11/9/68 Fillmore West, San Francisco (Sat.)
11/10/68 Fillmore West, San Francisco (Sun.)
SONG: Morning Dew

11/13/68 EMU Ballroom, U of O, Eugene, OR (Wed.) 

11/15/68 Gill Coliseum, OSU, Corvallis, OR (Fri.)
SONGS: 
Turn On Your Lovelight
Morning Dew

11/16/68 Erb Memorial Union Ballroom, U of O, Eugene, OR (Sat.)
The show was cut short by a false bomb threat.

11/16/68 PNE Coliseum, Vancouver, BC (Sat.)
Canceled.

11/17/68 Eagles Auditorium, Seattle, WA (Sun.) – Early & late shows?
Indian Rights benefit. 
SONGS: 
The Eleven
Feedback 
http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2019/02/november-17-1968-eagles-auditorium.html

11/22/68 Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Columbus, OH (Fri.)
TAPE:
Morning Dew
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Turn On Your Lovelight
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose
And We Bid You Goodnight
Per Deadbase, Kreutzmann was absent, but I’m not sure the tape bears this out.

11/24/68 Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI (Sun.) – Jefferson Airplane show.
Members of the Dead jam with the Airplane: “Jerry and Phil and Bob showed up about 12:30 and jammed with the Airplane til about 4:00 in the morning.”

(The old Deadbase listing of 11/24/68 Hyde Park Teen Center, Cincinnati, was misdated from 11/29-30/68.)

11/25/68 Memorial Auditorium, Ohio U, Athens, OH (Mon.) – free show
SONG: And We Bid You Goodnight
(One recalled setlist may come from 11/22/68.)
Previously thought to be 11/23/68. Tom Constanten joined the tour here.
"30-minute "songs" which have no melodies, which start nowhere and end nowhere with nothing happening in between..."

11/27/68 Kinetic Playground, Chicago, IL (Wed.)
SONGS:
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
Alligator
(possibly Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Lovelight)

11/28/68 Kinetic Playground, Chicago, IL (Thu.)

11/29/68 Hyde Park Teen Center, Cincinnati, OH (Fri.)
SONGS:
Good Morning Little School Girl
(possibly Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose)

11/30/68 Hyde Park Teen Center, Cincinnati, OH (Sat.) – Early & late shows.
SONGS:
Morning Dew
Dark Star
St. Stephen
Turn On Your Lovelight
The Dead “played three tremendous songs” in the late show. Pigpen & Tom Constanten both played keyboards at these shows.

12/1/68 Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI (Sun.)
SONG: And We Bid You Goodnight?

12/6/68 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA (Fri.)
“In the midst of a song that lasted perhaps 20 minutes…a guitarist…wrenched from his instrument a series of high, feedback-augmented chords…”

12/7/68 Knights Hall, Bellarmine College, Louisville, KY (Sat.)
TAPE:
I
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
New Potato Caboose
II
Rosemary
He Was A Friend Of Mine
It Hurts Me Too
Morning Dew
And We Bid You Goodnight
Both drummers are present in the first set, but one drummer (Kreutzmann?) stops playing in the second set. One reviewer claims that Lovelight was also played.

12/13/68 The Bank, Torrance, CA (Fri.)
SONG: Turn On Your Lovelight
12/14/68 The Bank, Torrance, CA (Sat.)

12/16/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Mon.)
Garcia & Hart jam with Jack Casady, Spencer Dryden, David Getz.
Although there was no newspaper listing, there was a jam session at the Matrix on this day (per a JGMF source). This tape may be from a different date. One list of non-circulating Matrix reels (per JGMF) has Garcia with Casady, Elvin Bishop, and Johnny Winter on this date.

12/17/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Tue.)
A jam session with Garcia and Harvey Mandel (per JGMF) - Mandel was scheduled at the Matrix from the 17th-19th. No recording circulates.

12/20/68 Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA (Fri.)
TAPE:
//The Eleven
Mountains of the Moon
Turn On Your Lovelight
OTHER SONGS:
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Morning Dew
(probably Dark Star > St. Stephen)
REVIEW:

12/21/68 Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA (Sat.)
TAPE:
Turn On Your Lovelight
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment >
It Hurts Me Too
Alligator >
Caution >
Feedback >
And We Bid You Goodnight

12/23/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Mon.)
Open jam session with Jerry Garcia, Jack Casady, and others. The tape dated 12/16/68 might come from this night. But one list of non-circulating Matrix reels (per JGMF) has Garcia with Santana & Elvin Bishop on this date.

12/24/68 The Matrix, San Francisco (Tue.)
Garcia jams with Harvey Mandel, Elvin Bishop & co.

12/28/68 The Catacombs, Houston, TX (Sat.)
SONGS:
Morning Dew
Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment
An alternate setlist:
Beat It On Down The Line
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Anthem of the Sun (the entire album)
Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Dark Star
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
A show was also scheduled at the Catacombs on 12/27, but whether it was played is unknown.

12/29/68 Gulfstream Park Racetrack, Hallandale, FL (Sun.)
Miami Pop Festival.
TAPE:
Turn On Your Lovelight
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Drums >
The Other One >
Cryptical Envelopment >
Feedback >
And We Bid You Goodnight

12/31/68 Winterland, San Francisco (Tue.)
SONGS:
In the Midnight Hour (with guests)*
Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
The Eleven >
Turn On Your Lovelight  
The Dead’s first live 16-track recording. * survives on a distorted tape in the Vault.
Lemieux: “The reels of 12/31/68 were erased to record the January '69 Avalon shows…with one lonely Midnight Hour left on tape, featuring all of the musicians who performed that night in an all-star jam. The sound on this 16-track recording is very poor, filled with distortion.”


STUDIO

Some studio sessions with known dates are listed above, but other mysteries remain.
No specific studio dates are known for the Anthem mixing sessions in early 1968, nor are any outtakes available, unless you count the scraps of unused live tapes the Dead discarded. My guess is that the studio recordings on Anthem were done in 1967, and the 1968 sessions were entirely devoted to sorting, combining, and mixing the live tapes; but some of Tom Constanten’s contributions may have been recorded in March ’68.
The Dead had already gone through a series of studios in late ’67, making enemies among the engineers wherever they went. In winter/spring 1968, mixing was mostly done at Columbus Recorders in San Francisco, but the Dead also tried mixing at Criteria Studios in Miami (April ’68) and at Apostolic Studios in New York City (early May ’68).

Unknown ’68, Unknown Studio
STUDIO TAPE:
Caution Jam
http://www.dead.net/features/tapers-section/january-22-january-28-2007
Lemieux: “a studio jam recorded sometime in 1968, likely the summer.”

October 1968 – Early 1969 Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo
STUDIO OUTTAKES:
St. Stephen >
The Eleven
Barbed Wire Whipping Party
Doin’ That Rag
Dupree’s Diamond Blues
Instrumental (Garcia & drums)
China Cat Sunflower
Cosmic Charlie
Doin’ That Rag #2
Mountains of the Moon
What’s Become of the Baby
Rosemary
Mountains of the Moon #2
http://archive.org/details/gd69-xx-xx.sbd.dodd.16760.sbeok.shnf
Barbed Wire Whipping Party (alternate mix)

Many of these are early takes or basic tracks without overdubs, thought to be from the 8-track recording sessions in late 1968, but some tracks are likely from early 1969.

Deadbase included an incomplete listing of Aoxomoxoa studio dates in late 1968-early 1969; I don’t know their source, but the dates and tracks seem plausible enough, possibly taken from tape logs.
All dates at Pacific Recording, San Mateo:

9/5/68 (Thu.) – St. Stephen
9/6/68 (Fri.) – St. Stephen (x2), What’s Become of the Baby
9/10/68 (Tue.) – St. Stephen
9/11/68 (Wed.) - St. Stephen, What’s Become of the Baby
9/13/68 (Fri.) – St. Stephen
9/21/68 (Sat.) - see above.
9/26/68 (Thu.)
9/29/68 (Sun.) – St. Stephen
10/2/68 (Wed.) - What’s Become of the Baby
10/3/68 (Thu.) – Barbed Wire Whipping Party (x2), What’s Become of the Baby
10/4/68 (Fri.) – Clementine, Barbed Wire Whipping Party (chorus)
10/7/68 (Mon.) – Clementine, Barbed Wire Whipping Party
11/5/68 (Tue.) – Clementine

1969
1/6/69 (Mon.) – Mountains of the Moon
1/15/69 (Wed.) – Doin’ That Rag, Mountains of the Moon
1/20/69 (Mon.) – Dupree’s Diamond Blues, China Cat Sunflower
3/11/69 (Tue.) – Cosmic Charlie, Mountains of the Moon

(8/13 and 9/12/68 weren’t listed by Deadbase's source, and the 11/6/68 rehearsal was instead listed as “12/??/68 Alembic Studios.”)


WEB SOURCES


39 comments:

  1. Still working my way through this (thanks for all the hard work), but wanted to point out that 1/20/68 also appears on Grayfolded, specifically the Spanish Jam > Caution Jam section.

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    1. Aha - Grayfolded also includes a bit of the Dark Star from Lake Tahoe, but it's dated 2/24/68 - one reason I suspect the commonly accepted dates for 2/23 and 2/24 might be reversed. (The other reason is that the Deadbase song listings, long before Dick's Picks 22 was released, also match the "switched" dates.) But for now I left the dates as currently accepted, with DP22 CD1 = 2/23 & CD2 = 2/24. (The reels used for the release were not dated.)

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  2. There are some proposed-but-unplayed shows I didn't include:
    - in planning the Northwest tour in January, the Dead considered playing Corvallis, Oregon on Jan. 31 (probably at the OSU Ballroom), but I don't think anything was actually scheduled. (They also looked into playing at the Salem Armory, and alternate venues in Portland, before settling on the Crystal Ballroom.)
    - the Dead were said to be in the initial lineup of the first Quaker City Pop Festival at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia PA, 5/18/68 (announced in the 5/11/68 Billboard, p.16). However, the entire festival was dropped and rescheduled for October with a different lineup, and the Dead played the second one in December. I'm not sure if they were actually committed in May, since they managed to appear at both the LA Shrine and a San Jose festival that same day, both of which would have been scheduled in advance.
    - the Dead were also said to be "committed" to playing the Phantasmagoria III benefit festival at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, initially scheduled for June 13-16, 1968 (announced in the 5/17/68 Los Angeles Free Press, p.16). But the festival had scheduling problems, and was rescheduled for June 27-29; and an ad in the 6/21/68 Free Press (p.11) listing all the bands omits the Dead, so they must have pulled out early. Perhaps they didn't like the Phantasmagoria arrangements, or perhaps it conflicted with their Shrine show on July 11.

    One cancellation I'm curious about is the Paradise Theater in Staten Island, June 12-13. I don't know anything about this other than its listing in Deadbase (and a Wed-Thurs show booking is odd), but I would guess there was some promoter conflict for the Dead between the Paradise and Bill Graham's Fillmore East, and Graham won. (The Dead had managed to avoid playing for Bill Graham in the US since May 1967!)

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  3. On Anthem of the Sun there is the mystery second half of the "New Potato Caboose" jam (the first part is from 3/17/68, but the second half is not from any show on the Archive). My guess is that it is from another March Carousel show (maybe the 15th, 30th or 31st).

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    1. Probably one of those... Hopefully enough of 3/15 survives in the Vault to find out.

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  4. It seems some Dead tapes from Columbus Recorders were held in Silver City, New Mexico at least until 2007. They may or may not be Anthem tapes from 1968 but here seems as good a place as any to mention them.

    Ace Records (UK) compiler Alec Palao was interviewed by psychedelicbabymag in 2015 and had this to say

    "The criteria for anything I do is based around historical significance, musical quality and rarity. I relish the challenge of officially issuing material rumoured to exist or only available upon horrible-sounding bootlegs, like the Charlatans, or creating “new” albums that shine a light on a neglected artist, or neglected era of an artists career. Such was the case with the Sons Of Champlin’ Fat City, which is comprised of an unreleased album recorded in 1966-67 for Frank Werber’s Trident Productions. Getting to know Frank, an amazing cat who had turned three frat boys into the biggest sensation of the late 1950s (the Kingston Trio), was amongst the highlights of my tape sleuthing career. He was out of the biz and domiciled in the wilds of New Mexico, but after some gentle romancing, Frank invited me down to check out what he might still have and it turned out to be an embarrassment of riches, all stowed in the vault of an old post office. So much good stuff – the Sons, Mystery Trend, Blackburn & Snow, We Five plus a lot of client tapes from his studio including Grateful Dead, Sly Stone and Quicksilver items to name just a few."

    http://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2015/11/alec-palao-man-of-many-musical-hats.html

    Palao wrote an obituary for Werber with more info (http://www.lazyka.com/linernotes/personel/Werber.htm)

    "By 1967 Werber had tired of wiping musicians' behinds and had decided to dissolve Trident Productions, and so he is often written out of the histories of the 1960s San Francisco rock explosion. The Kingston Trio split in June of that year, and though he kept the studio and other investments like the Little Fox Theatre going, Frank focused his energies on the Trident Restaurant, the Sausalito eatery laid out over several floors that he had owned since the early 1960s, and which remained a hip hangout through the next decade. There was a notorious bust in late 1968, for which Frank famously employed a 'religious' defence of his pot smoking. By the 1980s, he had let most of his ties to the Bay Area go and lived in Hawaii for a spell, before permanently retreating to the secluded ranch in southern new Mexico that he bought in the early 1970s... He died of heart failure on 19 May 2007... Ace Records purchased the assets of Trident Productions."

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    1. Ace have released compilations of Werber's Trident acts but it is unclear if they hold the Dead's "client tapes." If they do, it is arguable whether they legally own the physical tapes but clearly what is on the tapes is not their intellectual property but the Dead's. I do not know what relations are like between Ace and the Dead nowadays. The Dead did get upset when Dead product licensed by Ace for the UK leaked back onto the US market resulting in the end of that agreement. Hopefully any bad feeling is now over.

      There are three obvious candidates for what is on the tapes: 1966 Healy recordings; the Fire In The City session or tapes used for Anthem.

      I doubt if Verve or the film company would leave Fire In The City tapes behind at Columbus.

      Healy (who was friends with Quicksilver, one of the other clients that Palao names) talks of using Columbus, both in the early days of the Dead and during the recording and mixing of Anthem in Troy's "One More Saturday Night" p 136.

      "I had outgrown the studio (Commercial) that I had been working in, in SF. Several of the groups had asked me to take them into the studio and I was using everybody's studios because these were record company situations. I would just go rent the time and take the group in. I was using Coast, Golden State and another small studio that was built for the Kingston Trio. That was a three-track studio, but they had just ordered an eight-track machine at about the time the GD went to LA to work on Anthem Of The Sun and they were converting their board. It was a tiny room in the basement of an old building in North Beach in SF." Later on p 139 when discussing Anthem he continues "At Columbus Recording, that studio in the basement I was telling you about."

      So there are tapes somewhere containing either Healy's lost early sessions or Anthem recordings, either of which would be very interesting if they were to surface.

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    2. Interesting indeed. The Road Trips 2.2 release in 2009 used a number of live '68 reels that had been left in a San Francisco studio that was closing...what was the name of that studio?

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    3. Ah, I pored over the new Anthem reissue booklet so much looking for new info I didn't go back to Road Trips to check that, good catch.

      On the main post, what is the source for We Bid You Goodnight on 68-3-9? I don't think I've seen that before.

      Detroit 68-03-22 and 23 were originally scheduled for the State Fair Coliseum as shown on Gary Grimshaw's artwork but after appalling weather on the first night resulted in a low gate, the second night was switched to the Grande Ballroom and the Dead flew back home before they got weathered in. You have the switch the other way around.

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    4. Whoops, fixed!

      The Deadbase reviewer of "3-26-68 Melodyland" recalled, "They ended the set with what I thought was a cool thing, an a cappella version of 'We Bid You Goodnight.'"
      He was referring to the "3/26" tape to refresh his memory, and recalled a Dark Star & Eleven which is fairly likely, although he might have gotten that from deadbase. We could infer those from another person's recollected China Cat, anyway.
      Another attendee on dead.net recalled, "They played most of the second album, Morning Dew, possibly Saint Stephen, maybe even Love Light (or maybe not)." Which to me sounds a little vague and unreliable, and a lot to stuff into a 30-minute opening timeslot, but some of that was probably played.

      Of course, most people who saw the Dead in 1968 had no idea what they were hearing - unless it was something off the first album they recognized, it was all just long unidentifiable jams. So you get a lot of retrospective statements like, "They played Anthem of the Sun" or "They played an hour-long song."
      Nonetheless, throughout the year the Dead stuck to a rather limited, repetitive repertoire with the same few suite combinations, so if someone says they played all of Anthem at a show, quite likely they did (more or less).

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  5. Charlie Miller posted a complete setlist for 12/20/68:
    Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
    Morning Dew
    Dark Star >
    St. Stephen >
    The Eleven >
    Mountains Of The Moon >
    Turn On Your Lovelight

    Which confirms what we knew, but as he said, "hopefully one day the complete sbd will surface too."

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  6. I'll post this here since it seems more updated than LLD these days - not sure who's posting what where and I'm certainly not following blogs like I used to so sorry if this is old news, but: Possible show at U of Oregon, 11/13/68 that I have not seen discussed elsewhere - auction listing from earlier this month: https://auction.classicposters.com/lots/view/1-1LX90N/previously-unseen-1968-grateful-dead-sds-oregon-handbill. Of course, it's no proof they actually played but still interesting to consider they may have gone up to Oregon midweek, played Eugene and then hung out for a couple days and played Corvallis on 11/15. I did a quick search on this SDS event but didn't find anything.

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  7. Good find! Given that the Dead played EMU Ballroom at UO (see http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2017/11/lost-shows-come-to-light.html) on Saturday the 16th my guess is the show was put back three days.

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  8. An interesting find indeed. I agree, the show was probably rescheduled from Wed the 13th to Sat the 16th; I doubt the Dead returned to the U of O for a second show.
    The venue change is also interesting - the handbill for the 13th states the show will be at McArthur Court, but the Dead ended up playing the (presumably) much smaller EMU Ballroom. Maybe filling up an arena on a Wednesday night just wasn't happening.
    This may be reading too much into the poster, but I noticed that "Grateful Dead" and Nov. "13" were in a different typeface than the rest of the handbill, making me wonder whether the band name & date were originally left blank during printing, as the booking was hurriedly arranged or still tentative. I also wonder whether the Sir Douglas Quintet ended up playing as well.

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    1. Much to my surprise, the Dead actually did play at the U of Oregon on Nov 13 and then came back for a second show on Nov 16. Added it to the list; more details in the Deadsources link.

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  9. Any idea if this is a correct date? Its in the archive but strangely enough not in the gd section

    https://archive.org/details/1968-05-24St.LouisMo-NationalGuardArmory

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    1. It is strange that it wasn't uploaded in the Dead section - this show can also be found in the collection of undated '68 Dead fragments. The date is close but probably incorrect: I believe in May '68 Owsley (who recorded this) was still just recording shows at the Carousel, so this tape is more likely to come from the Dead's Carousel runs a week or two after their St. Louis visit.

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    2. As a St. Louisan, I don't know- but have always wondered-why people insist on attributing recordings to May 24/25 1968. I got all excited many years ago when someone gave me a copy of "St. Louis 5/25/68," but by the first song it was clear it was misdated and was actually that show from Omaha I believe, February 5 1969. The 1968 tape gap is bad enough but I've always felt it's particularly a shame that their first shows in my hometown fall smack dab in the middle of that gap. Especially as over the years I've befriended/spoken to a few people who were at the more famous STL shows (2/2/70, 3/18/71, 12/10/71, 10/18/72, 5/15/77, etc.), but not one single person who was at the '68 shows. I was friends with a guitar player in a local GD tribute (his first Dead show was 5/15/77) who told me his mother was at the 68 shows at the Armory, but she's long since passed, as did he about 10 years ago. One can only imagine what they played.

      I also wonder how that show even got booked, was McIntyre around in May 68? I know he was involved with them for the STL shows in 1969 and always assumed his ties to the area in some way or another may have been responsible for them stopping through town relatively frequently for the early years, stumbling into different venues each time. The two Armory shows in 68; the way too large for them at the time Kiel Auditorium in Feb 69 followed by a college gig two months later in April; the gorgeous Fox Theatre in Feb 1970; back to a college auditorium for 5/14; then onto the more modest Kiel Opera House in October. In March 71 they finally seem to have "settled" on the Fox (there have been rumours here in town for decades that the band "wanted to buy" either the Fox or the Kiel Opera House, depending on who you ask. They started making the rounds again when Phil returned to the Fox in 2001 for the first time since 1972 and proclaimed from the stage "why did we EVER stop playing this theater!?!" Ironically after the 3 show run there in October 72, when they came back for 2 nights in October 73, they were back at the old Kiel Auditorium.). At any rate, the point was that those May 24-25/68 shows are just dropped in between the previous weekend in San Jose/LA and the following weekend's run at the Carousel. They weren't really touring and a weekend trip way the hell out to St. Louis and back just doesn't make sense. But if one looks at the schedule for April and May it really is the first period for the band where we see shows not strictly confined to the West coast and New York (Canada excluded). So I guess maybe they were taking anything they could at the time to get more national exposure. And of course, money. But I can't see them making much, being pretty unknown in May 68 and performing to an untested market.

      Unrelated to 1968 but it's a similar story for Merramec College 5/14/70, I've never met anyone who was there. I'd love to speak with the presumably students who got that show booked, as it seems completely unreasonable for their East coast tour schedule that May. I guess that one is more on Lenny Hart.

      Anyway I meant to comment here elsewhere on 1968 recordings, specifically the Jan-March stuff, but I got sidetracked. It happens. Some other time, I guess.

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    3. Glad to hear from you. More comments are welcome!

      Yes, various recordings have been misattributed to these Armory shows over the years...not sure why. There are a few memories of the '68 shows online, but not many people were there - only 340 people attended! According to McNally's book, the Dead "flew to St. Louis for two nights, traveling two thousand miles to sell fewer than four hundred tickets. The promoter, of course, lost his shirt." (p.264)

      From the Dead's perspective in that period, one problem with St. Louis is it usually wasn't very near the other cities they played on tour, so they had to go out of their way to play there. It fit into their '69 midwest tours, but on 2/2/70 they were late coming up from New Orleans; in May '70 they dashed from St. Louis to NYC, and in October '70 from Washington DC to St. Louis. But from '71 onwards they were making more regular stops in the midwest and St. Louis was a better fit in their touring schedule.
      It's funny that they were said to be so fond of the Fox, since they only played there from '70-72. I guess it was too small for them afterwards, and they went back to the Kiel Auditorium.

      Jon McIntire was a graduate of Washington U, so he may have had a hand in booking their '69 show there (for all I know, he was the road manager the cops grabbed at the end of the show to stop the Dead playing). He'd joined the Dead team at the Carousel in early '68, but I don't know if he was involved in bookings by May '68.

      I haven't spotted any contemporary reports of the 5/14/70 show at Meramec College, so I don't know about the booking for that one. Lenny Hart was gone by then, but it fits their usual 1970 zigzag touring schedule, as Sam Cutler urged them to play every possible show to get out of debt.
      There's a report that the New Riders played a short, unannounced free show at the Quadrangle in Washington U the day before, on 5/13/70 (which I haven't confirmed). For some reason a fragment of the 5/1/70 Alfred show used to circulate as "5/19/70 Washington U, St. Louis," but that was simply an odd false label.

      My favorite review of the 5/14/70 show was a secondhand report on the Archive:
      'I have an old timer friend that drove 100 miles with friends from Springfield, Illinois to attend this show. I asked him about the show. He gave a look of disgust and said "They played acoustic instruments and it sucked. We thought we were going to see the real Grateful Dead, not wimpy soft acoustic music, so we left." I told him that they would have played electric later in the set. He just shook his said and said, "They sucked."'

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    4. I had forgotten that part in McNally's book mentioning the wasted trip to STL in 68, it's been a few years since I last read it. 340...ouch.

      It seems that aside from needing to choose larger venues out of necessity they had a hard time finding a venue that worked. There is a third round with the Kiel Auditorium in there as well, after playing the fairly large Arena/Checkerdome in 77 they moved back to the Kiel when they returned in 79 for the last show of the final Godchaux tour (oddly skipping us in 78 despite multiple tours that year that brought them to Chicago and nearly every other bordering Midwest state). That move may have been purely based on acoustics, the old Checkerdome wasn't known for its stellar sound (I personally only attended one music concert there in my lifetime and can't say it was great, Whitney Houston in 1987. Don't ask.) I *think* Garcia had a date booked at the Fox in 86 that was scrapped due to the coma, although I'd have to check if the Fox was open at the time, it closed for renovations for a while in the 1980's. So at the least, if true, Garcia must have liked the place. I remember Parish saying somewhere that the band always had equipment trouble at the Fox, weird buzzing and whatnot they could never figure out. You'd think the rumor would be that the band hated the place, not loved it.

      I may know of some people who could corroborate the NRPS free show. I knew someone who was putting together a book about the history the band had with St. Louis and interviewed a lot of local scenesters who were around in the old days, but she abandoned the idea some time ago I haven't spoken to her in a good 5 years. I also lost touch with an old head who had some really fantastic stories, some of which I had trouble believing...He claimed his band opened for one of the 69 shows, but I can't find evidence of it anywhere (though I tend to believe him). One of his stories began with him being tasked to pick up Bear and some others from the airport and take them to the hotel and being fed acid upon arrival, so anything after that is probably hazy and I wouldn't put down as fact. I definitely believed his part about Bear griping incessantly about the quality of his car stereo on the drive. But again, he told me a few stories about some of those 1969/1970 shows, and never were any of them about Meramec College (thank you for correcting my spelling on that btw, I should probably know that as I've been taking an "adult education" class there once a month).

      Random somewhat related story regarding leaving early... On 2/11/01 I saw DSO recreate the Kiel Aud 2/11/79 show. I wasn't yet familiar with their adding additional encores, so when they were doing U.S. Blues I assumed the show was over as I knew the setlist. I drove and went with 2 friends, one was itchy to leave, I think he had work early the next morning so he suggested we head out during U.S. Blues. I didn't want to but figured "eh, it's US Blues..." We still had to wait for the other friend, we sat in the car for a half hour, getting annoyed. He finally showed up and said "that Dark Star was awesome" (they did a huge section with a MLB jam, it was like 15 years before I finally heard it, it's just okay). I said "what Dark Star?" I never left a DSO show early again.

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    5. ...also, I know none of this has anything to do with the 1968 show list, for which I apologize. I've dug myself a bit of a rabbit hole with the Fox, it's funny how in the comments section on the LMA for virtually every show at the Fox someone brings up that rumor. One person's claim is quite bold...

      "The Fox was called the best house in the U.S. by Jerry, along with rumors around this time the Dead were considering buying the Fox for their Midwest home away from home."

      I would love to discover just how this all started, and why the story stuck. The biggest piece of legitimacy I personally know of came in August 1995. Local rock station KSHE asked people to send in cassettes from live shows to air in a huge multi-day Garcia tribute. I still have a pile of cassettes from the radio broadcast which provided me with hours of wonderful music. In between the music they aired all sorts of things like snippits of Garcia interviews, one which I've never heard anywhere else, a post-coma interview where Jerry talks about wanting to stick around a while because "I gotta live to 2000, I gotta see the year two-thou, man..." Though I'm sure it's out there. Hell I probably have it on a hard drive somewhere, one of those things you compulsively download but never get around to listening to.

      They also had lots of locals call in and tell stories about working with the band and such. I recall one guy who was their "tour chef" for a while. Another call they aired was with a local "Bill Graham" type (well, in as much as he was a Jewish guy who was The Guy who did all the Big Shows) whose first concert he put on was one of those early Dead shows. In the call he discussed the Fox rumor, and I think he also said something about "it may have been the Kiel..." I've really forgotten the details and I really don't feel like even trying to locate those 25 year old tapes let alone listen through them. Maybe some day. But I remember him adding some legitimacy to the claim that they were interested in the Fox. I'll never believe it, I'm pretty sure after the Carousel that the concept of owning a venue was never considered again, until the impractical fantasies of the Terrapin Station idea in the late 90's, anyway. Especially a venue in St. Louis of all places. But for some reason people around here insist on perpetuating the idea, much the way people seem to do with labeling tapes "St. Louis, 5/25/68." I suppose I'm doing the same...I shall speak no more of this Fox Theatre silliness.

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    6. ...I just came across a reddit thread about this being the 50th anniversary of Fox 2/2/70 and someone added a new twist. This time it's "I read somewhere that Bill Graham almost purchased the Fox and was going to make it the home for the dead in the midwest."

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  10. I made some corrections to the late October '68 Hartbeats shows - there was an extra show played on Monday the 28th which appears to exist in the Vault.
    Also, the circulating tape of 10/30 includes some music from an earlier night (I think the 29th) that was being taped over - 90 seconds of a St. Stephen jam, the end of a Clementine jam, and a Dark Star survive. The Hartbeats didn't play those pieces twice on the 30th!

    The Clementine jam started the earlier show; once it ends Garcia tells the audience "we're just screwing around," and they go into Dark Star. This is the same pattern followed on the other Hartbeats shows: an introductory jam, then a Garcia disclaimer to the audience.
    The little St. Stephen fragment is all that's left from another reel that was almost entirely recorded over.

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  11. Hello LIA, I am truly fan of your pages ... BUT when "1969 Show List"? Are You working on it or You have abandonet the progect?
    My BEST REGARDS from Italy

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    1. Well... I did the 1966-68 lists because there were so many recent updates for those years, new & complete show lists needed to be made. But with 1969, there are fewer new discoveries, deadlists (the current best Dead setlist site) is at least 90% complete in that year, and the Lost Live Dead site has tour itineraries covering the entire year, so I felt another 1969 show list might be redundant. I'm also not too excited about doing another list like this!
      But if people request it, I'll add 1969 too.

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    2. hello lia, I understand that yours is a really challenging project and it would take you a long time , but I think it is really excellent work and a beacon for all of us interested in the early Grateful Dead. Thank you very much for your blog, the best!
      Hello
      Paul

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    3. I don't comment here because I'd have very little to contribute, your work is certainly the most useful (and I've used it quite a bit) scholarship I've come across. I'd love to see a '69 post as well. That said gift horse, so if you don't get around to it we understand. Thanks again for your work and for sharing it.

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    4. The 1969 post is up:
      http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2019/11/1969-show-list.html

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  12. An attendee of 6/19/68 wrote on dead.net:
    "The show was a benefit for the Black Man's Free Store. We arrived after the food had all been eaten, toward the end of the talent show for kids in the community. The house band for the talent show was Jerry, Bobby, a drummer and bass player I didn't recognize, and Billy on conga. Three little girls did a Motown number. Then the MC asked us to give a hand for "Little Andre, only 13 years old!" Little Andre was about four feet tall, dressed in a white suit with a cape. He sang "Cold Sweat" which involved grunting about once every thirty seconds. The band took off and roared behind him, the most memorable music of the evening.
    The Dead ended the evening with "Dancin' In The Street". They sounded very tired."

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  13. An additional short studio jam dated 9/1/68 has surfaced, I think with Tom Constanten on organ:
    https://www.dead.net/30daysofdead/nov-29-2019
    I'm not sure of their date, but it seems Constanten might have participated in more of the early Aoxomoxoa sessions than we know about.

    A reader also points out that the 10/13/68 Dark Star shared on dead.net has an extra 20 seconds at the start (though it still cuts in).
    https://www.dead.net/30daysofdead/nov-30-2019

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  14. It turns out that the 7/11/68 Shrine Expo show is probably a mirage, with a poster for a show that was never played.
    There is no notice of the show in the LA Times or the LA Free Press that week. A Thursday-only booking at the Shrine is very unusual (and suspicious). There seems to be no confirmation of the show outside of a poster that was only made in 1972. And Blue Cheer, the other band on the bill, would play at the Shrine on July 26-27.
    So without more evidence, that makes the date questionable at best.
    https://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-grateful-dead-at-shrine-exposition.html?showComment=1605219989319#c6309337766149947037

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  15. I might start a petition to add The Eleven to the list for 12/21/68. Clearly when the tape cuts back in after the Alligator drums they're in a full blown post-verse "2nd theme" Eleven jam. The only thing that comes close is that oddity on the 8/22/68 Alligator where they jam a sort of Alligator theme in eleven out of the drums, but 12/21 is much more blatantly an Eleven jam with a capital E. Do people still update Deadlists?

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    1. Good catch, I agree that should probably be an Eleven jam>Alligator jam>Caution after the drums there.

      The themes were linked in other shows too: China Cat>Eleven>Caution was a common suite in the winter '68 shows (1/26, 2/22, 3/17).
      2/24/68 expands on this with an Alligator>China Cat>Eleven>Alligator>Caution.
      And in later shows we find:
      10/20/68 ...Stephen>Eleven>Caution
      2/5/69 ...Stephen>Eleven>Caution
      4/23/69 Alligator>drums>jam>Eleven jam>jam>Caution
      11/8/69 ...Stephen>Eleven>Caution...
      12/30/69 Alligator>drums>Eleven>jam
      1/16/70 Alligator>drums>Eleven jam
      2/5/70 //Eleven>Caution
      There may be others I've missed. But safe to say, the Eleven & Caution were frequent companions, and the Eleven turned up in several Alligator jams. So 12/21/68 isn't really an outlier.

      No one updates Deadlists anymore, the site's been pretty much abandoned.

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    2. Does 2/11/69 count? I'm a big fan of the inclusion of Elevens inside suites, especially Alligator sequences (5/24/69 being another oddly placed version).

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    3. I overlooked 2/11/69 in that list, you could count it. For me it's kind of a marginal connection - the Dead do a shortened Eleven, then a drum break, then move into a Caution jam - it's not really a smooth transition, more like "we still have 15 minutes left, what next?"

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  16. A witness for the 5/7/68 Electric Circus show:
    "May 7 was a Tuesday. The place was not packed. I bought a ticket for the early show and there were about a dozen or two people there. They didn't run me out after the first show and so I saw the second as well. The place was about half full for the 2nd show. They opened the first show with "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" and ended the set with "Turn On Your Lovelight". Somewhere in there were "Beat It On Down The Line" and "Morning Dew". The second show/set opened with "He Was A Friend Of Mine" and closed with "Alligator/Caution"."
    http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2013/10/may-7-9-1968-electric-circus-23-st.html?showComment=1619270109000#c2957369961829446982

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  17. Just watched the olompali doc. The aoxomoxoa pic is from there which included some of the olompali kids. The doc seemed to imply that the gd played there in 1968. There is a pic with garcia in pigtails and Jack Cassidy playing bass.

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    1. That must be "Olompali: A Hippie Odyssey." A possible GD performance was mentioned up in the 7/28/68 date above...but whenever they might have played at Olompali in 1968, it wasn't publicized (it was more like a "friends & family" gathering), so the actual dates aren't known.

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  18. A newspaper review of 11/15/68 Corvallis adds a song:
    "For approximately two hours the Grateful Dead were on stage. They opened with their rendition of "Turn On Your Love Light" which was followed by "Morning Dew" and several others."
    https://deadsources.blogspot.com/2024/01/november-15-1968-gill-coliseum-osu.html

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