"From Bertha to Walkin' Blues: An Iconic Grateful Dead Setlist"

Deadhead Cannabis Show

"Cannabis, COVID, and Concerts: A Grateful Dead Fan's Journey"

Larry Mishkin is back from a break spent in South Carolina with his granddaughter he shares his experience of contracting a mild case of COVID, attributing his quick recovery to his cannabis use. He references studies suggesting that certain strains of sativa marijuana may mitigate COVID symptoms.

The episode features a detailed discussion of a special Grateful Dead concert from July 15, 1989, at Deer Creek Music Theater in Noblesville, Indiana. Larry reminisces about the venue, the band’s setlist, and the memorable experience shared with friends. He highlights key performances from the show, including "Bertha," "Greatest Story Ever Told," "Candyman," "Walkin' Blues," and others.

Larry also covers recent music news, mentioning Melissa Etheridge's performance in Colorado and her upcoming summer tour. He shares updates on the String Cheese Incident's New Orleans-themed show at Red Rocks and Phish's recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, where they performed "Evolve" from their new album.

Grateful Dead

Deer Creek Music Theater Center

Noblesville, IN

Grateful Dead Live at Deer Creek Music Center on 1989-07-15 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

With: Judy, Andy K., Lary V., AWell and others

First Dead show ever at Deer Creek which had just opened that year. Became a regular stop on the Dead’s summer tour thereafter and one of the favorite places for the Deadheads given its relatively small size as compared to the stadium venues that soon became the norm for summer tours. Ironically, two days after this one-off Dead played their final 3 shows at Alpine Valley, switched to Tinley Park in 1990 and then starting in 1991 Chicago summer tour shows were confined to Soldier Field with 60,000 attendees.

INTRO: Bertha

Track #2

1:20 – 3:00

Garcia/Hunter – first appeared on Grateful Dead (live) aka Skull and Roses or Skullfuck (1971)

Played: 401

First: February 18, 1971 at Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, USA

Last: June 27, 1995 at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI

SHOW No. 1: Walkin Blues

Track #5

1:38 – 3:20

"Walkin' Blues" or "Walking Blues" is a blues standard written and recorded by American Delta blues musician Son House in 1930. Although unissued at the time, it was part of House's repertoire and other musicians, including Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, adapted the song and recorded their own versions.

"Walkin' Blues" was not a commercial success when it was issued as a "race record" marketed to black listeners. However, the song was received with great enthusiasm by a small group of white jazz record collectors and critics. Producer John Hammond chose "Walkin' Blues" and "Preachin' Blues" as the records to be played at his 1938 From Spirituals to Swing concert, when Johnson himself could not appear (Johnson had died a few months earlier).[15] The 1961 Johnson compilation album King of the Delta Blues Singers was marketed to white enthusiasts. According to most sources, John Hammond was involved in the production and the selection of tracks. The album included the two House-style songs and a song with House-style guitar figures ("Cross Road Blues" and excluded songs in the commercial style of the late 1930s. Notable exclusions were Johnson's one commercial hit, "Terraplane Blues", and two songs which he passed on to the mainstream of blues recording, "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Dust My Broom".

Dead first played it in 1966, once in 1982 and 4 times in 1985. Then, beginning in 1987 it became a standard part of Dead song lists, peaking in 1988 when it was played 23 times. Became one of Bobby’s early first set blues numbers with Minglewood Blues, CC Rider and Little Red Rooster.

Played: 141

First: October 7, 1966 at Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA, USA

Last: July 2, 1995 at Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, IN, USA

SHOW No. 2: Crazy Fingers

Track #12

4:30 – 6:12

Pretty standard second set song, usually pre-drums. Fist played in 1975, a few times in 1976 and then dropped until 1982 at Ventura County Fairgrounds (day after my first show). Played 7 times that year, dropped until 1985 (10 times), then dropped until 1987 and then played regularly until the end. Great tune, Jerry often forgot the lyrics and this version is great because Bobby saves him on the lyrics when Jerry starts to go astray. Good fun considering how many times Bobby would forget the words to his songs. But one of those things you remember if you see it happen

Garcia/Hunter, released on Blues For Allah (Sept. 1, 1975)

Played: 145 times

First: June 17, 1975 at Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA, USA

Last: July 5, 1995 at Riverport Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, MO (St. Louis)

SHOW No. 3: Truckin

Track #13

7:00 – end

Hunter/Garcia/Weir/Lesh/Kreutzman (Pigpen went inside to take a nap) by the side of a pool.

Released on American Beauty (November, 1970) final tune on the album

Played: 532 times

First: August 17, 1970 at Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, USA

Last: July 6, 1995 at Riverport Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, MO

INTO

Smokestack Lightning

Track #14

0:00 – 0:36

"Smokestack Lightning" (also "Smoke Stack Lightning" or "Smokestack Lightnin'") is a blues song recorded by Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett) in 1956. It became one of his most popular and influential songs. It is based on earlier blues songs, and numerous artists later interpreted it. Recorded at Chess Records in Chicago and released in March, 1956 with You Can’t Be Beat on the B side.

Wolf had performed "Smokestack Lightning" in one form or another at least by the early 1930s,[1] when he was performing with Charley Patton in small Delta communities.[1] The song, described as "a hypnotic one-chord drone piece",[2] draws on earlier blues, such as Tommy Johnson's "Big Road Blues",[3] the Mississippi Sheiks' "Stop and Listen Blues",[4] and Charley Patton's "Moon Going Down".[5][6] Wolf said the song was inspired by watching trains in the night: "We used to sit out in the country and see the trains go by, watch the sparks come out of the smokestack. That was smokestack lightning."

In a song review for AllMusic, Bill Janovitz described "Smokestack Lightning" as "almost like a distillation of the essence of the blues... a pleasingly primitive and raw representation of the blues, pure and chant-like. Wolf truly sounds like a man in otherwise inexpressible agony, flailing for words."[8] In 1999, the song received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, honoring its lasting historical significance.[13]Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at number 291 in its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time"[7] and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included it in its list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".[14] In 1985, the song was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in the "Classics of Blues Recordings" category[15] and, in 2009, it was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Janovitz also identifies "Smokestack Lightning" as a blues standard "open to varied interpretation, covered by artists ranging from the Yardbirds to Soundgarden, all stamping their personal imprint on the song".[8] Clapton identifies the Yardbirds' performances of the song as the group's most popular live number.[17] They played it almost every show, and sometimes it could last up to 30 minutes.

Dead often played it out of Truckin, would also play the blues tune Spoonful out of Truckin.

Played: 63 times

First: November 19, 1966 at Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA, USA

Last: October 18, 1994 at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA

SHOW No. 4: Space

Track #17

7:45 – 9:20

On November 28, 1973, Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia and drummer Mickey Hart staged a performance at San Francisco’s Palace Of Fine Arts. At the time, Hart – whose 80th birthday is today – was on a sabbatical from the Dead, having last performed in public with Garcia and the band in February 1971. Hart would rejoin the Dead for good in October 1974.

A poster promoting the concert shows a clean-shaven Garcia dressed in black beside an equally freshly shaven Hart wearing all white. At the bottom of the advertisement was printed “An Experiment in Quadrophonic Sound.”

Hart recalled his experience at the duo concert with Garcia in 1973 that was not only a Seastones precursor but also planted the seeds for the band’s mind-bending “Space” jams.

“There were so many exciting that we’ve done together. Adventurous musical things. He was also into adventure and creating new spaces, so we had that in common. We got together many times out of the ring – where he first discovered synthesizers, being able to synthesize his guitar, which led to MIDI.

“The first concert we did was in 1973. It was just a duo. He got an Arp [Odyssey], an electric instrument, a keyboard, and he plugged his guitar into it and that was the first time I had heard his guitar I had heard his guitar running through sophisticated synthesizers.

“I just thought of that concert, which kind of was the beginning of ‘Space’ – ‘Drums’ and ‘Space’ actually – it might have been the very beginning of it. And I think of that on his birthday, the seminal things we did together.”

After the November 28, 1973 concert, the Grateful Dead began to occasionally incorporate elements of a “Space” jam into their shows. In January 1978, Dead shows almost always included a nightly “Drums” jam paired with a freeform “Space” jam, consistently showing up mid-second set throughout the rest of their career.

Played: 1086

First: March 19, 1966 at Carthay Studios, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Last: July 9, 1995 at Soldier Field, Chicago, IL

OUTRO: Brokedown Palace

Track #22

5:04 – 6:43

The lyric to “Brokedown Palace” was written by Robert Hunter as part of a suite of songs that arrived via his pen during a stay in London in 1970. He entitled it “Broke-Down Palace,” and now that it exists as a piece of writing, it seems to have always existed. It was composed on the same afternoon as “Ripple” and “To Lay Me Down,” with the aid of a half bottle of retsina.

Its first performance was on August 18, 1970, at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, and became a staple of the live repertoire. After the 1975 hiatus, “Brokedown Palace” appeared almost exclusively as the closing song of the show, as an encore. It had the effect of sending us out of the show on a gentle pillow of sound, the band bidding us “Fare you well, fare you well…”

Garcia/Hunter

Released on American Beauty (Nov. 1970)

Played: 219 times

First: August 18, 1970 at Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, USA

Last: June 25, 1995 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.

.Produced by PodConx

Deadhead Cannabis Show - https://podconx.com/podcasts/deadhead-cannabis-show

Larry Mishkin - https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin

Rob Hunt - https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt

Jay Blakesberg - https://podconx.com/guests/jay-blakesberg

Sound Designed by Jamie Humiston - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-humiston-91718b1b3/

Recorded on Squadcast