By Associated Press’s JANIE HAR
AP’s San Francisco For three days of performances and celebrations commemorating the 60th anniversary of the gritty jam band that came to represent a city where people made love, not war, and wore flowers in their hair, fans of the Grateful Dead are swarming to San Francisco.
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With an expected 60,000 people each day, Dead & Company, which includes original Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, will begin performing at Golden Gate Park’s Polo Field on Friday. The band last performed in that area of the park in 1991 during a free gig after lifelong Deadhead Bill Graham, the concert promoter, passed away.
Of course, things have changed.
For many devoted fans who recall a time when a joint cost more than a Dead concert ticket, the $635 general admission ticket for all three days is shocking.
Nevertheless, Deadhead David Aberdeen is ecstatic.
According to Aberdeen, who works at Amoeba Music in the flower-powered, bohemian Haight-Ashbury area, this is the spiritual home of the Grateful Dead. I think it’s quite appropriate that they commemorate it this way.
The Grateful Dead, who were founded in 1965, are widely associated with San Francisco and its underground culture. Members later played a big role in the 1967 Summer of Love while residing in a remarkably affordable Victorian in the Haight.
The band moved to Marin County, which is on the opposite side of the Golden Gate Bridge, after that summer turned sour due to severe acid trips and police raids. But even after legendary guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia passed away in 1995, new Deadheads continued to emerge with the help of cover bands and Dead & Company offshoots.
According to Dennis McNally, a former Grateful Dead publicist and author, there are 18-year-olds who were clearly not even a glimmer in someone’s eyes when Jerry died, and these 18-year-olds acquire the values of Deadheads.
Deadheads are able to recall the exact moment they fell in love with the music, as well as why and how. The fact that the band plays different songs at each event is something that fans adore. Additionally, they welcome the sense of community that accompanies a Dead show.
When Sunshine Powers got off a city bus at the age of 13 and entered the Haight-Ashbury district, she made her first pals.
Suddenly, I felt like I belonged. Powers, 45, who owns the tie-dye store Love on Haight, adds, “Or like I didn’t have to fit in.” It was like, “Okay,” but I’m not sure which one it was.
In a similar vein, a Grateful Dead mixtape helped her 47-year-old friend Taylor Swope get through a challenging first year at a new school. From Brooklyn, New York, the proprietor of the Little Hippie gift shop drives to sell goods, catch up with old friends, and attend performances.
I felt as though I had finally discovered my people because I didn’t fit in anywhere else. “So that’s a big part of it,” she remarked, referring to the attraction.
Becoming a Deadhead can occasionally be a process.
The 60-year-old Thor Cromer had seen multiple Dead performances but had mixed feelings about the hippies. On March 15, 1990, in Landover, Maryland, that changed.
He claimed that whatever magic was used in that show, it was directly put into my head.
Cromer, who was then employed by the U.S. Senate, eventually took a leave of absence to accompany the band on tour, attending an estimated 400 performances between the spring of 1990 and Garcia’s passing.
Cromer, who is currently employed in the IT industry, is traveling from Boston to join countless other rail passengers who dance in the closest rows to the stage.
In 1984, 62-year-old Aberdeen attended his first Dead performance. He was selected to drive a packed VW Bug from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, to Syracuse, New York, since he was the only member of his college group possessing a driver’s license.
“I found it rather strange,” he remarked. However, I enjoyed it.
When the Dead performed at a location close to his college the next summer, he fell in love.
Aberdeen recalls that as the band returned for their second act, a huge rainbow appeared over them and that it was raining heavily during the performance. They performed a Garcia ballad that isn’t often heard, “Comes a Time.”
Many people will be present, and there is a lot of excitement, Aberdeen stated. When will we have another chance to get together like this?
Although no new dates have been announced, fans had the opportunity to see Dead & Company in Las Vegas earlier this year. Drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart are 79 and 81 years old, respectively, and guitarist Bob Weir is 77. In addition to Garcia, bassist Phil Lesh passed away last year at the age of 84, while keyboardist Ron Pigpen McKernan, one of the original members, died in 1973.
As San Francisco recovers from pandemic-related knocks to its tech and tourism industries, Mayor Daniel Lurie, who is not a Deadhead but considers Sugar Magnolia to be his favorite Dead song, is ecstatic about the economic gain.
He claimed that they are the reason so many people are familiar with and adore San Francisco.
The city is filled with celebrations, performances, and parties over the weekend. Beginning Thursday, Grahame Lesh & Friends will play three nights. Phil Lesh is the father of Lesh.
Officials will rename a roadway in honor of the San Francisco native on Friday, which would have been Garcia’s 83rd birthday. The Jerry Garcia Amphitheater, situated in a park close to Garcia’s childhood home, is the venue for the city’s annual Jerry Day celebration on Saturday.
