Dylan And The Dead

Today's anniversary show we go back to Giants Stadium in 1987 for the Dylan and The Dead tour. I don't have the soundboard of the Dylan and the Dead but you can download an audience copy HERE. Then you can rip a soundboard copy of the Dead's set HERE and HERE. 

Jerry Garcia used to refer to Sue Swanson as the band's first fan. A classmate of Bob Weir, she and a bunch of her friends were there in '65 as the band played their first few gigs before kicking Dana Morgan Jr out of the band and asking Phil Lesh to join the band on June 18th. She was also there when Kesey and the Pranksters recruited the band to "preform" at their Acid Tests. So it's no wonder that she was referred as the first fan by him. 

As their first fan she did a good job of introducing the band to other people and musicians. In 1965, the most popular solo musician was Bob Dylan. That year he released two emincely popular albums in "Bring It Back Home" and "Highway 61 Revisited." For as popular as those albums were, audiences would flock to his shows to see the folk star preform these songs solo acoustic. Dylan was quite the visionary, and he started performing electrically with The Band, causing audiences to revolt. He might be the first preform to not give the audience what they wanted. Even Shakespeare gave the audience what they wanted by reviving his character of Falstaff in Henry the IV Part II. Bob cut across the grain, which was smart because in the long run it kept him relevant in the music scene. Albums like "Blood on the Tracks" and "Desire" would have been lost as solo acoustic albums in the disco 70's era. 

So in the height of the Bob Dylan stardom, Sue Swanson meet Bob Dylan in the San Francisco airport. She approached Dylan and told him that he should hook up and listen to her favorite band the Grateful Dead. They were still two years away from recording their debut album, when she told him this. He probably thought nothing of the band that she told, even though he would have  appreciated the same songs that the band were performing at the time like "Viola Lee," "Cold Rain," and his own "Baby Blue." 

Twenty-one years later, Bob would tour as an opening act for that same band and would lay the ground work for a 6 show tour where they would combine forces. These shows were recorded and released as a live album. The visual recording is this show was preserved and can be played below. 

I: Bucket, Loser, Greatest, Loser, Tons of Steel, Ramble, Masterpiece, Push, Promised, Bertha

II: Dew, Playin', Drums, Space, Other, Stella, T Stones, NFA

Dylan: Slow Train, Memphis Blues, Long Time, Highway 61, Baby Blue, Thin Man, John Brown,  Wicked Messenger, Queen Jane, Chimes, Joey, Watchtower, Times 

E: Touch, Knockin'