Let This Guy In Free: The Economic History of the Grateful Dead

My book on money and the Grateful Dead is just released https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DM2DQZ9Y?psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp

 It's the 60th anniversary of the debut of The Grateful Dead.

Thanks to Gary and David for having me on Tales From the Golden Road on Sirius today.

If you are new to Grateful Seconds, check out the random place on your left, he will take you to 5 of the 550 posts I wrote on the Grateful Dead

I'm honored by the positive response to my book which is available on Amazon in Hardcover, Softcover and eBook for $30, $25 or $20.  If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read my book for free too.

I have available direct from me, personalized autographed books available with shipping for $25 in the US

To order:

Venmo $25 to @letthisguyinfree

Provide to my email davidadavis@gmail.com  

1) How you would like it autographed  (To Jim, To Dad etc)

2) Your mailing address

3) Your favorite Dead show or era

GRATEFUL DEAD EXPERTS SHOW LOVE DOES NOT FADE AWAY

"This is the first book to actually have substantial new information about the Dead in 20 years "
--Corry Arnold, Lost Live Dead

"Dave knows the numbers and Dave knows the Dead. If you want to know the nuts and bolts of how the carnival was made materially possible, then this is the book for you."
--Joe Jupille, Author of upcoming Jerry Garcia book Fate Music

"The Grateful Dead remain fascinating on so many levels, most of all that of the music itself, but as an unorthodox touring and recording act, a multifaceted cultural movement and social experiment, they evolved a makeshift approach to the music business, guided both by idealistic principles and piratical impulses, that makes for a sprawling, sorta crazy, and uniquely American saga. Davis, with the receipts in hand and love in his heart, unfurls an alternative nuts-and-bolts financial history of the life and times of this extraordinary band."
--Nick Paumgaten, staff writer, The New Yorker

How much did the Dead make on tour? This book presents the first financial history of the Dead, full of show income figures and documents from the Grateful Dead Archive.
--Light Into Ashes, Grateful Dead Guide

"Davis has done something no one has ever done before: he's made the business of music utterly fascinating."
--Eric Lefcowitz, author of Monkee Business: The Revolutionary Made-For-TV Band

"In this meticulously researched book by David Davis, we can experience Grateful Dead history in a new way, by following the money trail. There’s an abundance of new and intriguing documentation in these pages. Davis uncovers everything you need to know about the band’s economic history and places it in context with what other major touring acts of the day were earning. This is a book every Deadhead should have on their coffee table."
--Howard F. Weiner, author of eight books on the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan

. I'll be presenting at the Grateful Dead Scholars Conference in New Mexico on February 24.  http://southwestpca.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Program-2023-Final.pdf

Never Forget the Dragon with Matches Strategy that Sam Cutler created.

The Economic History of the Grateful Dead, Autographed Copies $25 in 2025

 It's the 60th anniversary of the debut of The Grateful Dead.

Thanks to Gary and David for having me on Tales From the Golden Road on Sirius today.

If you are new to Grateful Seconds, check out the random place on your left, he will take you to 5 of the 550 posts I wrote on the Grateful Dead

I'm honored by the positive response to my book which is available on Amazon in Hardcover, Softcover and eBook for $30, $25 or $20.  If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read my book for free too.

I have available direct from me, personalized autographed books available with shipping for $25 in the US

To order:

Venmo $25 to @letthisguyinfree

Provide to my email davidadavis@gmail.com  

1) How you would like it autographed  (To Jim, To Dad etc)

2) Your mailing address

3) Your favorite Dead show or era

GRATEFUL DEAD EXPERTS SHOW LOVE DOES NOT FADE AWAY

"This is the first book to actually have substantial new information about the Dead in 20 years "
--Corry Arnold, Lost Live Dead

"Dave knows the numbers and Dave knows the Dead. If you want to know the nuts and bolts of how the carnival was made materially possible, then this is the book for you."
--Joe Jupille, Author of upcoming Jerry Garcia book Fate Music

"The Grateful Dead remain fascinating on so many levels, most of all that of the music itself, but as an unorthodox touring and recording act, a multifaceted cultural movement and social experiment, they evolved a makeshift approach to the music business, guided both by idealistic principles and piratical impulses, that makes for a sprawling, sorta crazy, and uniquely American saga. Davis, with the receipts in hand and love in his heart, unfurls an alternative nuts-and-bolts financial history of the life and times of this extraordinary band."
--Nick Paumgaten, staff writer, The New Yorker

How much did the Dead make on tour? This book presents the first financial history of the Dead, full of show income figures and documents from the Grateful Dead Archive.
--Light Into Ashes, Grateful Dead Guide

"Davis has done something no one has ever done before: he's made the business of music utterly fascinating."
--Eric Lefcowitz, author of Monkee Business: The Revolutionary Made-For-TV Band

"In this meticulously researched book by David Davis, we can experience Grateful Dead history in a new way, by following the money trail. There’s an abundance of new and intriguing documentation in these pages. Davis uncovers everything you need to know about the band’s economic history and places it in context with what other major touring acts of the day were earning. This is a book every Deadhead should have on their coffee table."
--Howard F. Weiner, author of eight books on the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan

My History of the Grateful Dead at the Mecca: The Greek and Berkeley

Link here  113 page pdf book

Lenny Hart's Last Tour Dates, December 1969 to March 1970.

 Thank the lord for Sam Cutler. At this point, the Dead were making about 5% profit on their touring revenues.  So 1,500 miles to the city. Wow

April 30, 1977: My Only Dead Show in New York City

Published on 1-30-2016

So it was another Spring Saturday during my Senior year at Andover, so I hitchhiked down to New York City to see the Grateful Dead.  At the time, it was just Dave as usual trying to see a show, but looking back it was quite the adventure.

I left in the morning, writing down in the log that I was "going home to Maine for the weekend:, but instead I headed down Main Street to the 495 on-ramp and onto the big Apple with about $25 in my pocket. I recall numerous short rides, somehow a detour to Long Island and a few train rides but I ended up on East 14th Street at the Palladium a.k.a. Academy of Music, the closest Grateful Dead at the Fillmore East experience I would ever had, And I did not have a ticket.

According to the Billboard article below from March 26, the five Palladium shows sold out after a single announcement on WNEW-FM

Peter Simon's Backstage Photo from Grateful Dead 365

The Palladium as Academy of Music 1871

 I remember looking up above the building at an open window a few hours before the show and there was Phil Lesh lookimg out with people yelling Phil give me a ticket,

Billboard Review with very incorrect setlist

Six months earlier, in October of the prior year, I had learned the art of buying a scalped ticket paying $18 for a $6 face value ticket for game one of the World Series at Fenway Park.  This day, I was able to secure one seat way up in the balcony for $19 seriously eating into my bankroll.  Very few ticket scalpers in those days in Manhattan in the bands rare shows in the city (only Beacons in 1976 and the night before) since prior to Europe 1972.  My ticket does not survive, so I will present this facsimile:

So on to the show. Just incredible, my 5th show overall and my 2nd St Stephen. I would only here one more in my next 75 shows.  I had seen show four in Springfield the prior Saturday and would go on to hear Boston and Hartford over two of the next four Saturdays. I am pretty sure I met Jerry Moore or Les from Relix or both. And I luckily was "adopted" by some local Deadhead who made sure my mind was feed and that I got to Port Authority after the show.

This was the famous "backwards" set one. Guess which is correct:


The Music Never Stopped                                           The Promise Land
Bertha                                                                           Mississippi Half Step
It's All Over Now                                                         Looks Like Rain
Deal                                                                              Peggy-O
Mama Tried>                                                               Me & My Uncle>
Me & My Uncle                                                           Mama Tried
Peggy-O                                                                        Deal
Looks Like Rain                                                           It's All Over Now
Mississippi Half Step                                                    Bertha
The Promise Land                                                         The Music Never Stopped

You should buy Grateful Dead download series #1 (number one, no less) and listen.
No photos exist of this show but I believe this is a Jim Anderson from four night later at that mind-bending May 4 show.

The second set was stellar and Stella.  My second Scarlet>Fire was followed by Good Lovin, a twist from the week before and then after Friend of the Devil and Estimated, we got the jam St Stephen>Not Fade Away>my first Stella Blue>St Stephen>Saturday Night. It;s not a coincidence the first line of this post has so many S's.  Then we got the encore treat of my first Terrapin.  I would hear this song all over the map in the coming months and years paired with all kinds of songs, but you always remember your first one. That's why it's playing now.

I never saw the Grateful Dead in New York City again. But it was a sweet experience and remembrance that I will cherish forever.