The first time I saw the Dead was on March 23, 1975 at Kezar Stadium. Nobody but the Grateful Dead could have made those crazy sounds that day, but technically speaking they were billed as Jerry Garcia & Friends, so that makes the closing of Winterland the first time for me seeing them billed as the Grateful Dead. I was 17 years old. My brother Bill was 15, and it was his first time too.
I had been to Winterland to see a couple of shows, but never the Dead. So, when the closing of Winterland was announced, I was ready. The day they went on sale, I hung around outside the Jeff’s Jeans in San Mateo for several hours asking passers-by if they would please go in and ask for a lottery ticket. I had mine and my brother’s, but I was hedging my bets that day. The Jeff’s Jeans had been allocated 50 pairs of tickets. At some point, they cut off the lottery, drew the tickets, and wrote all of the winning numbers on a big piece of poster board. I carefully went through every ticket in my little stack, and honest-to-goodness got to the last one, and right near the end of the list, I found our match. Whew!
On the night of the show, we drove up to the city in my mom’s 1969 Torino way earlier than we needed to, just so we could be there. We plopped ourselves in line somewhere near the “They’re not the best at what they do…” sign and waited and watched the crowd. More than once we were told “You guys are too young to appreciate this! You should sell us your tickets!” by less fortunate individuals. And more than once the people next to us in line laughed and said “Leave them alone! They got their tickets fair and square!”
Once the doors opened, we went in and walked around. We sat down in bleacher seats right on the floor and watched the volleyball for a while. A P.A. announcer announced that as a surprise for those who showed up early, we would be treated to a screening of Animal House, which Bill and I had not seen.
One in particular was nice: Belushi held a pose for me until he saw me lower my camera. He gave me a half smile-half snarl and a quick nod, and then he ran to the other side of the stage.
After the movie ended, it wasn’t long before NRPS played their set. The Blues Brothers were terrific. I had their record and loved it, so it was really cool to see Jake and Elwood with all of those amazing players. Seeing Steve Cropper and ‘Duck’ Dunn with that great horn section, and Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy, Paul Shaffer, et al. It was just a lot of fun. We were up front and to the side. We had a great view and I got a couple of photos. One in particular was nice: Belushi held a pose for me until he saw me lower my camera. He gave me a half smile-half snarl and a quick nod, and then he ran to the other side of the stage.
The Grateful Dead came on at or nearly at midnight — we were right at the edge of the stage. Dan Aykroyd as the P.A. announcer introduced Bill Graham as he flew in as Father Time riding a huge joint right over our heads. I got a great picture of him as he passed above us, then a wonderful cacophony of balloons popping and Sugar Magnolia greeted the New Year. And then three sets of the Grateful Dead music — I think we know that show pretty well by this time! Even though we did not have Dead show experience, Bill and I knew the music and loved it so much.
We moved around during the evening, sitting for a while sometimes and standing on the floor for much of it. I remember distinctly seeing the “Last SF Dark Star” sheet hanging from the balcony. After three sets and the second encore tune (Johnny B. Goode), Bill Graham came out to thank the band and crew and KSAN and KQED (which had broadcast the show live), and to say that breakfast was going to be served in the concourse areas surrounding the arena.
The Dead came out after what seemed like quite a while and sang And We Bid You Goodnight, which was just such a beautiful and perfect way to end the concert. We ate our breakfast (which I remember was very tasty!) sitting upstairs as the light of day trickled in. We left the building I guess around 7.
We were naturally pretty excited on our ride back down to the Peninsula, already reliving our favorite moments, and as we drove down 101, just past Oyster Point in South San Francisco, the muffler in that ’69 Torino fell off the car and clattered down to the side of the freeway behind us. The rest of the ride home was noisy, but there was nothing to do but keep going, laughing all the way. What a memorable night with my dear brother!
One more note. I have always been grateful to our parents, who were very cool to let us go. We were very young, but they knew what this meant historically to Bill and me, and they trusted us. It was the first of many, many Dead shows that Bill and I went to together, and jump-started a lifetime of love for the music, culture and live performances by the Grateful Dead.
~ Jon Toby