It’s the eternal Deadhead debate: Which of the band’s 2,000-plus shows was its finest?
“I knew that we played well that night,” drummer Mickey Hart tells EW.
“It was a good show.
Credit: Lawrence Reichman
I don’t remember any bad shows on that tour.
Obviously, this was one of those nights when everybody was in sync.
It becomes a mystical thing after a while.
Jon Reis.Jon Reis
You’re dealing with a whole other consciousness once you get to that place.
It’s telepathy.”
They regained their sea legs in ‘76 and then recorded another album, 1977’sTerrapin Station.
Those events contextualize the excellence of the spring ‘77 tour.
“We really played very accurately and quick,” Hart says when describing the effects of theTerrapinsessions.
“We were pushing ourselves technically.
You have to really be on your game when you’re playing at those speeds.
I think that’s reflected in everybody’s performance.”
“That really brings a band together,” he says.
“You bond in a different way than just [being] out there playing the music.
Now it becomes a ritual more of a spiritual thing as opposed to playing the notes.”
But there were personal reasons that elevated the spring ‘77 shows, too.
“Jerry was real healthy,” Hart says.
“We all were motivated to play.
It was one of those times where it was just right to tour.
Everybody was feeling really good.
That’s what happens: You play good music when you’re feeling really good.”
That evening in Ithaca, New York was particularly special, though.
“We played ‘Morning Dew’ that night,” Hart recalls.
“I remember we kept going on and on and on.
One thing started building over the other and the other.”
“It was a very magical snowstorm,” Hart says.
“It was quite serene.”
Decades later, though, one unexpected detail about the Cornell show sticks out for Hart.
“My current wife was going to Cornell at the time in ‘77,” he says.
“She never made it to the concert.
I met her in 1990, and we married.
She maybe went to a Barry Manilow concert or something, I don’t know.
Maybe Kansas or somebody.
I don’t think she was even into the Grateful Dead then!”
All told, the longevity of spring ‘77 and the Cornell gig specifically doesn’t surprise Hart.
Not that he’s especially familiar with the May 8, 1977 concert.
“People love this, obviously,” he says.
“I’ve never heard it.
I’ve never listened to it.
But from what I hear, the deduction is this: It’s spirit music.”
