I Can See You - by Paddy Summerfield c. 1986

Tuesday, August 05, 2025

Jerry Garcia posts | so many road . . . . . . Grateful Dead & Jefferson Airplane - 1967 - Toronto

 Grateful Dead & Jefferson Airplane - 1967-08-04 - Toronto, Canada (SBD)

Grateful Dead & Jefferson Airplane
1967-08-04
O'Keefe Centre
Toronto, Canada
Soundboard Recording
320 kbps
Artwork Included

Grateful Dead:
01.  New Potato Caboose         
02.  Viola Lee Blues      
  
Jefferson Airplane:
03.  She Has Funny Cars         
04.  Bringing Me Down           
05.  High Flying Bird           
06.  White Rabbit              
07.  Come Back Baby             
08.  Runnin' 'Round This World  
09.  Tobacco Road              
10.  Run Around                
11.  It's No Secret             



It was billed as the summer of love. In the wake of the Monterrey Pop Festival in June 1967, the flower power generation and psychedelic rock music, both of which had become synonymous with San Francisco, were firmly embedded in the public consciousness. On July 7, Time Magazine featured a cover story entitled, The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture. It is estimated that around 100,000 people traveled to San Francisco in the summer of 1967. The media was right behind them, casting a spotlight on the Haight-Ashbury district. Albums such as Sgt. Pepper's by the Beatles and Surrealistic Pillow from San Francisco's own Jefferson Airplane, with their vivid imagery and allusions to drug use, climbed to the top of the Billboard charts. Ever the sharp eyed promoter, Bill Graham took the Airplane and Grateful Dead on tour across the US and into Canada, billing the shows as "Bill Graham Presents The San Francisco Scene" in order to capitalize on the attention that the city of the Golden Gate Bridge had been receiving. The 2 bands played Toronto from July 31 to August 5. This soundboard recording captures part of the Grateful Dead's set and the entire Jefferson airplane performance from August 4, 1967, 58 years ago today. Stop back tomorrow for a 2nd installment from this joint tour. 

The connections between Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane go far beyond their 1967 visit to Canada. As mentioned above, both the Dead and the Airplne emerged from the San Francisco scene in 1965 and would be leading lights of psychedelic rock. The 2 bands would headline the Human Be-in on January 14, 1967 in Golden Gate Park, a concert which put San Francisco’s counter culture on the map and served as a prelude to the Summer Of Love.  The Airplane and Dead also performed at Monterrey Pop in June 1967, and at Woodstock in August 1969. In fact, the 2 bands shared the same bill quite frequently, with Deadbase listing 50 such concerts from 1965 to 1970. Who knows how many more undocumented pairings also took place?   In 1967, as the Grateful Dead were working on their debut album, Jerry Garcia also spent time helping the Airplane produce their landmark 2nd album, Surrealistic Pillow. Garcia in fact, was the source of the album’s title, when he mentioned that, as a whole, the album sounded "as surrealistic as a pillow is soft." Although RCA, the Airplane’s record company would not acknowledge Garcia's considerable contributions to the album with a "Producer" credit, he is listed as "spiritual advisor."  







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