Grateful Dead 1978 College Campus Show Tournament

In 1978 the Good Ol’ Grateful Dead performed 81 times with 13 of them played inside college campus venues. There is nothing terribly unique about the Grateful Dead playing college campuses; 1969-71 had a slew of them, they played on college campuses pretty consistently in the 70’s and 80’s and even returned to play a few of them in ’93 and ‘94 after several absent years.

We are here on this thread to host the year’s most exciting music contest, and the participants are 1978 college campus shows because from time to time on this thread here we make the request to any listening powers that be to take our hard earned money for a College Weekend ’78 Box Set comprised from some portion of the three straight college campus shows from 4/12-4/15, or the five college campus shows out of six total between 4/21-5/7. Some great tapes recorded by the great engineer Betty Cantor are somewhere, yet others are in the vault, great shows; so why not right?

So for any new readers still tuning in, someone on that other thread had the bright idea to stack up these shows, along with the other five 1978 college campus shows, against each other in a College Basketball Tourney style hootenanny to see who will reign as the killer college campus show of 1978. Everyone reading has the chance to play along as these shows have a good availability of nice sounding soundboard and audience tapes on the Internet Archives so that anyone can listen to the shows head to head and determine a winner.

So here are the contestants.



With some guidance from our expert selection committee, shows were laid out and seeded based on some of their “key wins”, a.k.a their setlist’s jamrific potential at least as on paper, the polls if you will. For the initiated, the selection committee, to avoid bad press, released some of their methodology; but like any selection committee, somebody always goes away mad. All in all though, things should be spread out pretty evenly and it is looking like a good competition this year.


Here is our bracket with the seeds and the game numbers listed as well.

To play along, listen to the whole shows going head to head with open ears—remember that set lists are sometimes not worth the paper they are rolling things with—and then post your winner for each game based on any criteria you choose; throw in some play-by-play analysis for the TV audience, or simply PM me if you prefer. Remember to choose your winner before the final buzzer at midnight of the day each round ends per the schedule below. We will tally them up and see who survives and advances; and like any good March Madness, we will look for a few upsets and buzzer beaters.

 

For those not familiar with the Grateful Dead on the Internet Archives, one can stream a number of different sources for most all of the Dead’s shows and many of them have great sound quality to boot. For convenience I have linked the main page for each show, so you can try out a few versions for size or simply go with the most popular versions by their listened-to count next to the microphone.


McArthur Court (U of Oregon), Eugene, OR (1/22/78)

Uni Dome (University of Northern Iowa), Cedar Falls, IA (2/5/78)

Cameron Indoor Stadium (Duke U), Durham, NC (4/12/78)

Virginia Polytechnic University, Blacksburg, VA (4/14/78)

William and Mary Hall, Williamsburg, VA (4/15/78)

Rupp Arena (Lexington Center), Lexington, KY (4/21/78)

Horton Field House (Illinois State U), Normal, IL (4/24/78)

Thompson Arena (Dartmouth College), Hanover, NH (5/5/78)

Patrick Field House (U of Vermont), Burlington, VT (5/6/78)

Field House (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Troy, NY (5/7/78)

Campus Stadium (UC Santa Barbara), Goleta, CA (6/4/78)

Autzen Stadium (U of Oregon), Eugene, OR (6/25/78)

Pauley Pavilion (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA (12/30/78)

 

[In my best Howard Cosell voice]

In the first round we see the first underdog is clearly UC Santa Barbara - the Gauchos have a real uphill climb to get past the very famous show at the home of the Illinois State Redbirds, Horton Field House. We'll see how they measure up in the days.... to.... come.

 

See he gets it!

 

The whole reason I got into crazed psychedelic trippin-balls music like the Dead in the first place is because I’m terrible at games and contests and sports stuff!



But you kids have fun while I stare at the patterns in the carpet....

 

UC Santa Barbara has a cool logo!

 

I think those Ivy League boys from Dartmouth have their work cut out for them. I am going to try to find the time to participate. I have heard about half of the shows in the bracket before, and it's a good excuse to check out the rest.

Note that excellent video footage of the entire Duke show is available on YouTube, although that is perhaps an unfair advantage over RPI. Highlights include Garcia doing windwills and a Kreutzmann drumstick toss during Truckin', and a very animated Garcia in US Blues. I strongly root against Duke in other brackets, so I have to pull for RPI here, although I don't think I've heard anything from that show except the Scarlet->Fire before.

 

Good point about the Uni Dome show at Northern Iowa. One issue I see though is that the three shows on the Archive are incomplete. Looks like only the second set is available.

 

1978
in January, Jerry lost his voice, maybe on the 7th in San Diego? possibly an effect of some speed drug? something that starts with a B?
He was hoarse as hell for the next 2 or 3 weeks , fortunately for him the soundboard recordings for January '78 are also hoarse as hell.
One of the shining lights in that month was Jack Straw and the ripping raw guitar solos.
Jan 1978 was the month of Jack Straw, 78-01-07 - San Diego 78-01-10 Shrine 78-01-14 Bakersfield 78-01-18 Stockton 78-01-22 Oregon with a polished peak at 78-02-01 Uptown
Later that spring, Jack Straw was a transformed song.

 

True. Here is the list of the first set, with the songs bolded that are on Dick's Picks 18.

Bertha [6:32] > Good Lovin' [5:36] ; Brown Eyed Women [5:51] ; El Paso [4:16] ; Tennessee Jed [8:17] ; Sunrise [3:46] ; New Minglewood Blues [5:11] ; Friend Of The Devil [8:11] ; Passenger [5:04] ; Deal [6:23]

(A version of "Brown Eyed Women" is on DP18 but according to Wiki, which may not be reliable for this, it is from Madison February 3.)

 

I thought there would at least be an audience tape of the whole show. Anyway, that second set is great - maybe it will be enough to carry it.

 

This whole thing just makes me beyond happy. What a cool way to get even more involved while listening and discussing some of the best music made by my beloved GOGD!

Cheers to everyone who worked on getting this together. This is going to be so much fun!!!

Thank guys!!!!

 

The 4/21/78 Rupp Arena show has the most rippin' "It's All Over Now" you will ever hear. Am I posting this as a plug for 4/21/78?

No! I'm posting this to advise against overlooking the more (seemingly) pedestrian tunes because, well, once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places ...

Game on!

 

Though I know it to be true, tis hard to imagine bands playing Horton Field House. If any of you were ever in the building then you know what I mean.
Thankfully ISU built a proper arena (redbird arena) later on, though it has a canvas roof. It actually has pretty good acoustics.

 

Another PSA: the Relisten app for iPhone is incredible. It had a nice interface to search the Archive and now allows for downloading to listen offline.
First 2 shows downloading now!

 

My alma mater, and the location of my first ever show, which is the one in this tournament. Guess what I'll be voting for.

Anyone else get to any of these shows?

 

This means I'm gonna have to listen to a bunch of GD shows. Nothing changes.

 

Deadhead Archives is great for android. I use it all the time at work. Great access to the big digital music vault that is archives.org

 

January '78(and maybe up to Red Rocks in July) is the Garcia highpoint after the hiatus. His playing and tone is so good. The Shrine and Eugene recordings is a great way to start.

 

I'm going to listen to full shows where it's possible but I know that I judge a show by 90% from the big jam/second set.

 

I've had that show on DVR for years. A little tech difficulties in the sound at the beginning, but we get my all time favorite Pretty Peggy-o. I usually hate Fuke ... But not in this instance

 

That Peggy-O is sublime. Jerry and Phil give each other a look and Jerry goes through a second solo run through the chords that is unreal.

 

Heady version has 04/16 as the sweetest Peggy. The 14th is also listed before the 12th. I can't remember my favorite but I know that they killed her in April and it's one of the three

 

One of the important upsides to this event is that folks will really be digging into shows from 1978. I hold the hope that in doing so y'all will recognize how much more varied, experimental, and rich these shows are.

 

This tour also stopped at the non-college venue, the Civic Arena, in Pittsburgh on 4/18/78. That was my first Dead show (saw Jerry Band a month earlier). Somehow, at this, and future shows, always seemed to catch a Terrapin or WRS in the second set.

New Minglewood Blues
Sugaree
Looks Like Rain
Dire Wolf
Beat it on Down the Line
Loser
El Paso
Tennessee Jed
Lazy Lightnin'
Supplication


Scarlet Begonias
Dancin' in the Streets
drums
Samson and Delilah
Terrapin Station
Around and Around
U.S. Blues