Garcia said “We were great for seconds on end.” I was lucky to see Jerry play for about 1,000,000 seconds exactly. Thanks for your 1,000,000 views here . Dave Davis wrote this blog for 500 posts and 5 years from 2015 to 2019. Contact me at twitter @gratefulseconds

Friday, August 12, 2016

The Dude Turns 20: My Last Keith/Donna Show Providence Civic Center January 18, 1979


My last Grateful Dead song as a teenager was Casey Jones in New Haven around midnight on January 17, 1979.    
And on my 20th birthday, I watched Keith and Donna play for the 23rd and last times as members of the Grateful Dead at the always fun Providence Civic Center.  It started awesome, got a bit rocky towards the end, but I will always love Keith and Donna.

This was a typical late-1978, early 1979, without those beautiful early Shakedown Streets, but this did include my first He's Gone>Truckin'>The Other One, and my only sans drums version as it continued into Wharf Rat and Around & Around to close the set.  Charlie Miller posted a version with a seemless second set, as he is app to do on shows with a certain regard. Grab it here or FLAC

This old-school 51 minutes plus medley is right out of the golden single drummer era 1972-1974
He's Gone>Truckin>The Other One>Wharf Rat>Around & Around, the only such, no break for drums or space, version I would ever see in my nearly one-million second career with the Grateful Dead.  If you press play, above or below, you will get these 3,000 seconds on the entry to my 20's.

This Truckin' features a nice vocal add-in by our friend Phil.  There has always been a great photo of this show, which I feature here now.  This was found here, and is a Jim Anderson (buy his work!)





The next time I would get a classic He's Gone>Truckin>The Other One, drums would preceed TOO, but the Dew would follow on September 11, 1981 at the Greek.


Nothing is gonna bring him back. Love you still Jerry.



1 comment:

Unknown said...

I was there. Bought a Winterland 12/31/78 poster that still hangs in my office, with the blue rose, "Blues Brothers, NRPS, Breakfast served at dawn". The "Deal" particularly sticks in my mind.