Garcia said “We were great for seconds on end.” I was lucky to see Jerry play for about 1,000,000 seconds exactly. Thanks for your 1,000,000 views here . Dave Davis wrote this blog for 500 posts and 5 years from 2015 to 2019. Contact me at twitter @gratefulseconds

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Caught In The Middle Of A Runaway Train with World Champion Bill Walton in Portland, 1977-10-02 (With Jerry Interview)



After Englishtown, the guys started up within a month and played about 8 week of excellent shows often overshadowed by the Spring 1977 tour (see my shows 11/4 Colgate, 11/5 Rochester, 11/6 Binghamton).

On the third night at the beautiful Paramount in Portland (after 2 nights at the beautiful Paramount), the band decided to play Casey Jones. Only they forget how the song goes, so they do what they have to do, and keep playing and keep playing it.

This is one of my favorite moments of 1977, only it took me until at least 2007 to hear it (30 years).  I think up in Heaven, Jerry still might be playing this

Also of note is the terrific long Jerry interview after the show, where he mentions going to Eqypt in 1978 (Funny I didnt learn of this until John Scher put in the big screen at Giants after the 9/2/78 show ended). Have fun as usual, some goodies here   Also Bill Walton went to school as a member of the World Champion Portland Trail Blazers.  Good thing Bill won it in game 6 so he could get down to Winterland in time for June 7-8-9.   Think he ran to Hartford on May 28, got jazzed and ran the table to get to SF. Would one of you ask him for me?   He and his wife Lori were really nice to Nancy and I at a Dark Star Orchestra benefit at the Fonda a few years back, but I forgot to ask him about Spring 1977.





https://halmasonberg.wordpress.com/2010/04/04/backstage-with-jerry-the-interview-portland-oregon-1977/   (also mp3 of interview)

Reviewer: ripple95 - favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - June 20, 2005
Subject: 1977: The year that keeps on giving
I got this show from a friend, and boy was I psyched for a Casey Jones opener! This version highlights what made the Dead so different from other bands. Casey hadn't been played for some time and Jerry's spotty memory leads him to forget the "trouble with you" verse uh oh? Nah! The band jams for a while, making this a unique version of the song. Jerry sure fixed that one! Dupree's is another breakout and has that 1977 wallop behind it. The scarlet>fire is also great (as it usually is.) Playing is also a delightful beast. Another great 1977 show.


four from 10-29-77



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

About a year ago, I asked Bill on his Facebook page if he went to the June 77 Winterland shows. Alas, no response. Most likely the page was managed by someone who didn't realize Bill would likely want to answer that quetion.