The closing of Winterland: 40 years later it is still the highlight of all the concerts I’ve attended. I’ll never forget Bill Graham serving me breakfast at dawn. Which leads me to a story. I was a college student at Pace University in Westchester, N.Y. when I read about the plan to close Winterland, and that the Dead would perform at the final show. My immediate thought was “I’ve got to be there.”
Somehow, I knew my best shot at tickets would be to speak with Bill Graham directly, but how on earth would I be able to do that? Well, I had a plan. Bill was promoting a Van Morrison tour on the East Coast, and there was a show scheduled for the Bottom Line in New York on November 1.
About a week later I received a letter from Bill’s secretary, stating that Bill had “asked me to drop you a note to let you know that we’ll be glad to take care of your ticket needs for the closing shows at Winterland.”
I don’t recall how I knew Bill would be at the show, and possibly I was naive even thinking he would be there, but as luck would have it, he was. I walked up to him and told him that I was too young to attend the closing of the Fillmore East, but it would mean so much to me to be at the closing of Winterland. He asked for my name and address, which I scribbled on a small piece of paper, and said “thank you, Mr. Graham.”
About a week later I received a letter from Bill’s secretary, stating that Bill had “asked me to drop you a note to let you know that we’ll be glad to take care of your ticket needs for the closing shows at Winterland.” Naturally, I thanked him in person as he served me breakfast.
In 2003, when the Dead released the Closing of Winterland DVD, I noticed a photo on the back pages of the booklet shot from behind the stage at the very end of the night as the band bid farewell to the crowd and the building. And I couldn’t believe my eyes. There I am with my friends, close to the stage, forever captured in one of the greatest moments in Dead and rock ‘n’ roll history. Last year, I finally decided to reach out to Steve Schneider, the photographer, and now have a beautiful 16×20 print hanging in my house, a daily reminder of one of the greatest nights in my life.
~ Walter Whitman