Neil Young's Postponed Concert and a Look Back at 1989

Deadhead Cannabis Show

"A Day on the Green: Celebrating 35 Years Since the Legendary Concert"

Larry Mishkin highlights a significant Grateful Dead concert from May 27, 1989, at Oakland Alameda County Stadium, part of an AIDS benefit organized by Bill Graham. The event featured artists like Tracy Chapman, John Fogerty, Los Lobos, Joe Satriani, and the Grateful Dead. Larry delves into Fogerty's set, backed by Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, sharing insights and historical context. He also touches on the canceled Neil Young concert due to illness, expressing disappointment and hope for rescheduling. The episode mixes personal anecdotes, music history, and current events in the music world.

Grateful Dead

May 27, 1989

Oakland Alameda County Stadium

Oakland, CA

Grateful Dead Live at Oakland-Alameda County Stadium on 1989-05-27 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

A Day On The Green: Aids Benefit Concert:

1. Tracy Chapman

an American singer-songwriter, widely known for her hit singles "Fast Car" from her debut album “Tracy Chapman” (1988) and "Give Me One Reason" from her fourth album which on that day was still a few years awat, “New Beginning” (1995). Fast Car has enjoyed a resurgence thanks to Country star, Luke Combs, who’s cover version went platinum in 2023 and by September that year was a No 1 country hit making Chapman the first black woman with a sole songwriting credit at No. 1 on the Country charts.

John Fogerty

Of Credence Clearwater Revival fame

1. Los Lobos
2. Joe Satriani

an American rock guitarist, composer, and songwriter. Early in his career he worked as a guitar instructor, with many of his former students achieving fame, including Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan, and Alex Skolnick. Satriani went on to have a successful solo music career, starting in the mid-1980s. He is a 15-time Grammy Award nominee and has sold over ten million albums, making him the bestselling instrumental rock guitarist of all time.[3]

In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for his first solo tour.[4] Satriani briefly toured with Deep Purple, joining shortly after another departure of Ritchie Blackmore from the band in November 1993.[5] He has worked with a range of guitarists during the G3 tour, which he founded in 1995.

Tower of Power, and, last but not least Dead

INTRO: Althea

Track #3

4:51 – 6:21

From the Go To Heaven album (April, 1980), Garcia and Hunter masterpiece. Always a Jerry favorite and loved by Deadheads everywhere, this was the third song of the show following the Touch of Grey opener (of course) and Greatest Story. Great guitar work, lovely vocals, this song really launches the show and gets everyone in the groove.

Played 273 times

First: August 4, 1979 at Oakland Civic Auditorium, Oakland, CA, USA

Last: July 8, 1995 at Soldier Field, Chicago

The weather for the Day On The Green concert was perfect. Bill Graham, apparently, had an exclusive arrangement with some greater power, so that it never, ever rained when he was having a major outdoor show, and his deal remained in place for the May '89 AIDS Benefit. Another oddity about the AIDS Benefit was that there were no less than five opening acts for the Grateful Dead, which I think was some kind of record for a Bay Area Grateful Dead show. To see that whole event would mean at least 12 hours in the sun, just to wipe yourself out for what we all really wanted to see at the very end.

It seems shocking today that a Benefit concert for a terrible disease would be seen as a progressive political act, but such was the Reagan 80s. At least in San Francisco, efforts to prevent AIDS and provide care for those suffering from it had finally expanded beyond the gay community into the general culture. Nonetheless it was still significant when major rock bands headlined a large benefit concert in the Bay Area's biggest venue. Concern for AIDS had finally reached parity with Amnesty International and the Rain Forest, which was a welcome thing. The Coliseum benefit was the largest of several events around the Bay Area, all organized by Bill Graham Presents, and meant to raise awareness as well as money.

Originally the Oakland show was supposed to have joint headliners, with both the Grateful Dead and Huey Lewis and The News. A few weeks before the show, however, Huey Lewis had to drop out of the show. Rather sheepishly, his management publicly conceded that the stadium show was cutting into ticket sales for Lewis around Northern California, and they couldn't afford to work for what was effectively nothing.

The Dead, of course, had no such concerns. At a press conference, Jerry Garcia graciously said that Huey had to listen to his management, it was part of the business. Huey Lewis And The News were the biggest act in the Bay Area at the time with respect to record sales, and yet the Dead outdrew them by several multiples. The Dead were no longer an aging hippie band who hadn't broken up--they were the biggest draw in town.
By 1989, the Dead were huger than ever, thanks to "Touch Of Grey" – which the Dead opened with - and the Coliseum show was an opportunity for a lot of people who had always wanted to see the Dead but hadn't been been able to get tickets. Frost and Shoreline shows sold out pretty rapidly, so regular rock fans who wanted to see the Dead were out of luck. Thus the crowd was very Dead-positive, with plenty of Deadheads, but far less like the insular club of Deadhead veterans that were characteristic of Bay Area shows at the time.

There were many fascinating aspects to this event, but in retrospect the most fascinating was that former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty was second on the bill, and it was known before the show that Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir would be part of his backing group.

Creedence had been hugely, titanically popular, but Fogerty had been in a bitter dispute with his record company since the mid-70s, and as a result had refused to play any of his great Creedence songs in concert. By 1989, however, although Fogerty's ire towards Fantasy Records had not subsided, for various reasons he had come to terms with his old songs, so it was widely known that not only would Garcia and Weir be backing Fogerty, but that they would be playing Creedence classics as well. Everything pointed towards an event of historic proportions.

There is a You Tube video of the entire Fogerty set that I encourage you to view.

Fogerty had a unique status in the Bay Area at the time, and everyone was reminded of that when word was unofficially "leaked", I believe through Joel Selvin's Chronicle column, that not only would Garcia and Weir back Fogerty, but that Fogerty would be playing old Creedence songs.

John Fogerty hit the stage in the late afternoon, last up before the Grateful Dead. His band, previously announced, was
John Fogerty-lead guitar, vocals
Jerry Garcia-guitar
Bob Weir-guitar
Randy Jackson-bass
Steve Jordan-drums

Jackson and Jordan were well-known and well regarded as session players. Randy Jackson was a working member of Santana's band at the time, among many other gigs. Today, of course, Jackson is best known as a judge for the TV show American Idol, but that was far in his future. Jordan had played the Bay Area recently, on the 1988 tour with Keith Richards, whose album he had co-produced. Fogerty played 11 songs in about 45 minutes.

Born On The Bayou
Green River
Down On The Corner
Rock And Roll Girl
Centerfield
Proud Mary
Midnight Special
Bad Moon Rising
Fortunate Son
encores with Clarence Clemons-tenor saxophone
Suzie Q
Long Tall Sally

The question many would most like to have answered about this show is "who rehearsed?" From watching the video, it is clear that John Fogerty had run through the songs with Randy Jackson and Steve Jordan. Now, Creedence songs are delightfully basic, as well as famous worldwide, so pros like Jackson and Jordan hardly needed many takes. On every song, however, Jackson and Jordan both provide a funky bottom and plenty of accent. They knew the tunes, and they knew how to make them swing, so I think they had worked on them with Fogerty.

Jerry Garcia, however, was notorious for never wanting to rehearse. Weir is far less notorious for avoiding rehearsals, though it is also known that he is famously not on time, so it may amount to something similar. Since John Fogerty wasn't particularly close to any members of the Dead, it's clear that Bill Graham was the one who got Garcia and Weir to accompany Fogerty, and in so doing make it "an event," in classic Graham style. Could Graham have persuaded Garcia to rehearse? The alternative is strange, namely playing a show in front of 40,000 people with at least two band members completely flying blind.

On the day of the show the story is that Garcia and Weir had a dressing room run-through with Fogerty and the rhythm section, agreeing on the tempos and the intros. Sandy Rothman has described how the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band did not really practice songs, they just agreed on an intro and tempo and sang a chorus together. Granted, Rothman, Garcia and David Nelson had played all those songs before, but it was usually twenty years earlier. Still, one chorus run through was sufficient. So I think Fogerty talked Garcia and Weir through the planned songs, but they had never really played together until they got on stage.

Creedence songs have a nice groove, but they aren't jamming platforms, so of course Garcia just plunks away through the entire show, maybe not his most memorable performance. On one hand, Jerry Garcia's health in 1989 was as good as it had been in at least a decade, nor it would ever be that good again. Yet the stunning success of "Touch Of Grey," gratifying as it must have been, insured that the bubble of Garcia's life meant that he was more insulated than ever. Garcia wasn't just a legend to Deadheads, he was in the pantheon now, the biggest rock star in the Bay Area, in a beautiful cage with no escape.

When Fogerty kicks off the familiar, booming riff of "Born On The Bayou," Garcia is tucked back on stage left, next to Steve Jordan's drums. Randy Jackson is on the other side of Jordan, and Weir is right next to Jackson. Although Garcia plays a very simple figure behind Fogerty for "Bayou," his eyes are on Jordan, and Jerry has a big, happy grin on his face. I'm not imagining this--Garcia has a big grin on his face throughout the entire set, and he mugs happily with Jordan as the drummer plays fills and accents through the set. Weir seems to be having the same kind of fun with Randy Jackson over on stage right. Fogerty is the star, front and center, but the band is getting their own groove on behind him.

SHOW No. 1: Down On The Corner (and Band introductions)

John Fogerty (w. Jerry and Bobby)

JERRY GARCIA JOHN FOGERTY CLARENCE CLEMMONS AND BOB WEIR 5-27-1989 AIDS BENEFIT OAKLAND CA (youtube.com)

10:49 – 12:42

"Down on the Corner" is a song by the American band Creedence Clearwater Revival. It appeared on their fourth studio album, Willy and the Poor Boys (1969). The song peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 20 December 1969. The flip side, "Fortunate Son", reached No. 14 on the United States charts on 22 November 1969, the week before Billboard changed its methodology on double-sided hits.

The Fogerty set isn't a big deal to Deadheads, but it's hard to get around the fact that Garcia is having a great time. Whether Fogerty was "bigger" than Garcia is beside the point. Fogerty is a genuine star, with genuine hits, so he is the center of attention while he is on stage. For any singer less important than Fogerty--as in, just about all of them--Garcia could not hang back, but he can do so here. For 45 minutes, it's like Garcia is at the Keystone Berkeley or something, hanging out with his peers, playing the guitar parts that are dictated by the music, simple though they may be.

When they got to "Down On The Corner," Jerry is practically jumping up and down. In a small but fascinating moment, he steps up to the mic to sing the backing vocals. Now granted, the whole English speaking world knows that it goes "Down on the corner/Out in the street/Willie and The Poor Boys are playing/Bring a nickel, tap your feet," but Jerry actually steps up to sing. Over the years, Deadheads have seen and heard Garcia make lots of guest appearances with various artists. Yet how often did he sing the chorus of other people's hit songs?
After "Down On The Corner," Fogerty introduces the band, and Garcia's back is turned when it is his turn, as he's tuning up. Fogerty says "wake him up!' and Garcia turns around. "On guitar, Jerry Garcia!" Garcia grins and goes back to tuning, and Fogerty says "Genius at work." This is just musicians goofing around, albeit goofing around on stage in front of 40,000 people, but Garcia gets to be just another dude on stage, perhaps for one of the last times. A few months later (August 2, 1989), he would share the stage with Carlos Santana and Ruben Blades but that was for a TV special where he was a featured guest. At the Oakland Coliseum, he's just a hired gun playing a bunch of top 40 songs.

As Deadheads, we always wanted certain things from Jerry. When Garcia didn't give us what we want, we grumbled, and thanks to the magic of tape and digital recording, we can collectively complain about it for decades. Good times! But we have to keep in mind that what we wanted wasn't always what Jerry wanted. For a Memorial Day Saturday, Garcia wanted to be in a band, playing songs the way they were written, singing his parts when they came around, grooving with the drummer and letting the front man do the heavy lifting. Did it ever come around again that Jerry got to play simple, popular songs with a front man with enough gravitational pull so that it wasn't All About Jerry? In that sense, Garcia's role as John Fogerty's backing musician is a last look backwards for Garcia, a time when he could just be in the band, if only for 45 minutes.

Or, as I like to think of it, the Fogerty set was a big pre-show jam session for Bobby and Jerry who soon came back out with the Dead for their standard 3+ hour performance. However you look it at it, the Fogerty set was a fun throwback for Deadheads and a chance to see Jerry and Bobby play with another legend.

MUSIC NEWS:

1. Neil Young show in Chicago canceled 90 minutes before show time May 23, 2024 at Northerly Island in Chicago.
2. Going to see Dead & Co. this Saturday, June 1, at the Sphere with a bunch of good friends including good buddy Marc from St. Louis. I hope to be able to have a report on the show for next week’s episode but with travel the next day, it may be hard to get the story ready in time. If so, there will be a big report in two weeks. Very excited to see the boys, the Sphere and all my good buddies.
3. The Music Plays the Band – new Dead cover album

SHOW No. 2: Iko Iko w/Clarence Clemmons

Track #5

5:09 – 6:11

The classic Dead cover of the Dixie Cups tune joined by the Big Man wailing on the sax. Clarence had played a few tunes during Fogerty’s set and joined the boys for this tune and a few others during the show. In ’89 the Boss was as big as ever and Clarence was a big part of that success. But he enjoyed playing in the improv style embraced by the Dead.

Clarence first played with the Dead at their New Year’s run on December 27 and December 31, 1988 in Oakland and soon after this how, on June 21, 1989 at Shoreline Amphitheater. He also played a number of times with JGB. And it turns out that one of Clarence’s final live performance was playing a show with Phil and Friends a few years back.

When the E Street Band went on hiatus at the end of the Eighties, Clemons, who by then had moved to the Bay Area, went in search of work and new musical experiences. In 1989, he toured with the first version of Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band, cut an album with producer Narada Michael Walden, and — not surprisingly, given his new home base — befriended members of the Dead.

Starting in early 1989, Clemons sat in with both the Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band (JGB) at several shows. With the Dead, he joined in on songs like “Estimated Prophet” and “Eyes of the World” and partook of the overall Dead vibe. “Clarence was an old pal, a soulful bro,” Bob Weir told RS in 2011, right after Clemons’ death from complications of a stroke. “He was a good hang. Back in the late Eighties and early Nineties, he was living out here in Marin County. He was in moving-on mode, and he, Jerry, and I mixed it up a bit. We were dropping by clubs like Sweetwater and sitting in with various bands.”

The association wasn’t just musical. “Jerry and I were both single at that time, and Clarence suggested the three of us move in together and have a bachelor pad,” Weir recalled bemusedly. “Jerry and I almost went for it. It would’ve been a lot of fun, but I don’t think anyone would have survived. Jerry was in good shape, but we were doing a little drinking.”

SHOW No. 3: Stuck Inside of Mobile w.the Memphis Blues Again w/Clarence

Track #6

2:26 – 3:51

"Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" (also listed as "Memphis Blues Again") is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan from his seventh studio album, Blonde on Blonde (1966). The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston. It has nine verses, each featuring a distinct set of characters and circumstances. All 20 takes of "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" were recorded in the early hours of February 17, 1966, at Columbia Records's A Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, with the last take selected for the album. This version also appears on Dylan's second compilation album, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II (1971).

Dylan played the song live in concert 748 times from 1976 to 2010. A live version recorded in May 1976 was included on the live album from that tour, Hard Rain (1976), and was also released as a single with "Rita May" as the B-side. The first live performance was at the University of West Florida, Pensacola, on April 28, 1976,[32] during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour.

Played 70 times by the Dead. Part of Bobby’s first set rotation of Dylan tunes with Queen Jane Approximately, Desolation Row, Masterpiece and Ballad of a Thin Man.

First: March 17, 1988 at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA, USA

Last: April 2, 1995 at The Pyramid Arena, Memphis, TN, USA

MJ NEWS

SHOW No. 4: Blow Away

Track #11

7:37 – 9:10

A Brent tune, lyrics by John Barlow (? – seems like a lot of Brent rapping during the song)

When you listen to (and read, thanks to the transcription efforts of careful listeners like Alex Allan of The Grateful Dead Lyric and Song Finder site) to Brent’s closing rap / rant from the version of “Blow Away” captured on Dozin’ at the Knick, you have to acknowledge that, whether the words were improvised or not, they come from the heart, and have a strong sense of immediacy and urgency.

Played 23 times

First: June 20, 1988 at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI, USA

Last: July 16, 1990, Rich Stadium, Orchard Park (Buffalo), NY – it died with Brent

OUTRO: Wharf Rat

Track #17

3:59 – 5:26

Not the closer this night, or most nights, but it could have been a perfect closer. Hunter/Garcia masterpiece.

Wharf Rats are a group of concert-goers who have chosen to live drug and alcohol-free. They arose out of the environment around the rock group the Grateful Dead and their followers the Deadheads, both of which were rooted in the drugs-embracing counterculture of the 1960s.[1]

Their primary purpose is to support other concert goers who choose to live drug-free, like themselves. They announce their presence with yellow balloons, signs, and the Wharf Rats information table. At a set break during Grateful Dead (and related) concerts they hold self help style meetings but are not affiliated specifically with any 12-Step organization and have no requirement for attendance at one of their meetings besides providing some helpful drug free fellowship.[2] Like Deadheads, members of Wharf Rats come from all walks of life.[3] By 1990, the Wharf Rats mailing list had some 3,000 names.[1]

The Wharf Rats began during the early 1980s[2] as a group of Deadheads under the name "The Wharf Rat Group of Alcoholics Anonymous". The Wharf Rats originally came from a small group of Narcotics Anonymous members who went to a Grateful Dead concert in Philadelphia and located each other by their Yellow balloons with the NA symbol drawn on in Magic Marker.[4] However due to operational differences they soon split off from Narcotics Anonymous, and are not affiliated with them, AA, or any other twelve-step program (though many of members of the Wharf Rats are members of AA, NA or other 12-step programs). The Wharf Rats see themselves as "a group of friends sharing a common bond, providing support, information and some traction in an otherwise slippery environment." The relationship between the Wharf Rats and more traditional such groups has been studied in the academic journal Deviant Behavior.[1]

While the Wharf Rats originated at Grateful Dead concerts, they now have a presence at other concerts as well. Similar groups include The Phellowship for Phish, The Gateway for Widespread Panic, The Jellyfish for The String Cheese Incident, Much Obliged for Umphrey's McGee, Happy Hour Heroes for moe., the Digital Buddhas for The Disco Biscuits, Better Than Before for The Werks, the Hummingbirds for Bassnectar, and the Sunny Bunny Recovery for Ween, Dustie Baggies for Billy Strings and The Hot Tea Party for Goose—all based on the Wharf Rats, which remain the best-known.[2]

The name of this group comes from the 1971 Dead song "Wharf Rat" (written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter and appearing on Skull & Roses), which contains the self-told story of August West, a down-and-out dockside wino

Played: 399 times

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

Last: June 25, 1995 at RFK Stadium in 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