Dar N Nomen. өз | М. Hart James Adam с Come on honey, come along with me This zine is a listener's guide to the Grateful Dead's performance at Virginia Tech's Cassell (pronounced castle) Coliseum on the 14th day of April, 1978. Maybe you know that show already. Fonds. you don't,. Either ways proceed immediately to your refridgerator and grab your beverage of choices Fix yourself a bologna sandwich. Snatch up your technology of choice and slowly and safely merge onto the information super- hignwaye.Point your browser to one of the following Uniform Resource Locators: https: //archive org/details/gd1978-04—14 esbdemiller o. 83717 osbeok .flacl6 (or) https: //archive eorg/details/ga78-O4—14 osbdeclugstone 725lesbefaileshnf While you're waiting on that page to load, turn your e 1 up as loud as uL ро: Take a big bite of that sandwich. Hit the 'play'! button on your screen and sit back in a comfortable chair. Smile. Tnis is going to be fun. MAXELL.THE TAPE THAT'S TOO GOOD FOR MOST EQUIPMENT. Maxell Corporation of America, 130 West Commercial Ave., Moonachie, N.J. 07074 Let RCAtum your television into . SelectaVision I am deeply honored and GRATEFUL that Jesse Jarnow, Tyler Wilcox, Darryl Norsen, and Je M. Hart agreed to contribute to this projecte The four of them together E are a Mount Rushmore of Headse.Having them participate in a project as bush league and personal as this is mind-blowing, and a testament to their generosity and kindness. Those same contributors sent»me their words (Darryl sent the badass art on the back cover) via email in | а way that was modern and. quick апа accuratee Like a dumbass (in search of a certain aesthetic) I went. and retyped everything they wrote on this sad old typewriter. Therefore, I'm to blame for the errors of spelling and syntax and punctuation that crept ine. I apologize to them, and to you, dear reader. Some administrivia: So far as I know, all of the band pictures included in this zine were indeed taken on 4/14/78.. The advertisments are stolen from the April, 1978 issue of Playboy magazine. The contemporary press clippings are from The Collegiate Times - the Virginia Tech student newspapere We made 56 (4 X 14) copies of this zine. You are holding number ۶ i | ө. James Adams 4/14/78 Set List First Set 1. The Promised Land 2. Tennesse Jed 3. Me and My Uncle > à. Big River 5. Peggy-0 6. Looks like Rain 7. Dire Wolf 8. It's All Over Now 9: Dupree's Diamond Blues 10. The Music Never Stopped Second Set le Samson and Delilah 2. Smokestack Lightening (gage) 3e Ship of Fools ц, Dancin! in the Street > 5. Drums > 6. Space > 7. The Other One > 8. Black Peter > 9, Sugar Magnolia Encore 1. Johnny В. Goode Jerry Garcia - Lead Guitar, Vocals Donna Jean Godchaux ~ Vocals Keith Godchaux - Keyboards Mickey Hart - Drums Bill Kreutzmann - Drums Phil Lesh - Electric Bass Bob Weir - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals ee Introduction by James Adams Cassell Coliseum, in Blacksburg Virginia, is the arena for Virginia Tech's indoor sports teams - basketball, namely, but also volleyball and wrestling. Down in the basement guts of the building, adjacent to the locker © rooms, is a space set aside for visiting sports teams to spend the night. It's something like a hostel for out of town competition. It's a place where visiting athletes can crash ahead of a game, or wait out the night before their block of hotel rooms is available e. On Friday night, ‘April 14, 1978, the visiting baseball team from Old Dominion University (ODU) occupied the Cassell basement team room. Imagine players milling about, trying to catch some rest before the next day's doubleheader against Virginia Tech's Hokiese. Maybe some of the players tried to study while others played cards or broke curfew to go out and look for girls. Meanwhile, just upstairs and above their heads, kids were matching tickets to one of about 8,000 available seats, including some on the floor of the arenae Then the lights dimmed, a cheer followed, and the Grateful Dead took the stage. Hours of delicious American rock music followed, with turns along a path that had stops for mind=bending psychadelia but also clear-eyed country and folk. Like most Grateful Dead shows there was something for everybody that night, so long as they took the time to pay attention and listen for themselveso. At least one ODU baseball player thought the band sounded great filtered through the cement and wood of the coliseum abovee Certainly other players were annoyed by the racket and commotion. Hither way, it's hard to imagine the ODU starting nine got any rest that night. Virginia Tech beat them twice the next дау» ` (conte) The Grateful Dead was in the midst of a spring tour that took them mostly to college towns along the east coaste The band played Duke two nights prior, and would play William and Mary the following evening. They'd played those schools before and they were familiar . territory... But the Dead's stop at Virginia Tech was their first and proved to be their only visit to Blacksburg e That's easy to understand if you've ever been to Blacksburge If you find yourself at Virginia Tech, chances are you set out for there from the start, The place isn't on the way to anywhere else and the campus is tucked deep into the interior of southwest Virziniae That doesn'$ mean there weren't any Heads in town. Besides the homegrown variety that come from Everytown, USA, Virginia Tech has always had a sizeable population of out-of-state students from places like Ohio and New Jersey (always New Jersey!). The coolest of those kids surely brought their knowledge of the band with them down to the campus surrounded by cattle fields and wooded hills. But those Heads, and anyone else looking to score tickets, had to endure Virginia Tech's antiquated ticketing processo Sales were made only at the campus box office, housed in Squires Student Center, and were made first-come, first servede So a line began to form and a party broke out weeks before the ticket window went upe It must have been a great time, Reviews written by students who attended the show remark more on the tent city and perpetual party around Squires than they do about the misic they heard once they got inside Cassell. But not everybody was there to party and wait for ticketse.Virginia Tech's annual 'Spring Parent's Weekend! - billed nowadays as a chance to visit campus and "make lasting memories with your student" - occured at the same time as the impromptu cosmic campout for tickets. Imagine that scene. (conto) coo Ma Hen RRR PIN sy зе UMS „УМ, ). ою 92 501412321 20; sun pe30)d : S jo !оїзалр "97170 se BUMS” 5 Meu "n сте do aA ТЕ ара ou АА v LOE TA RCO s e pA Ades abi > i iz. IB 2 19: 5 IR E BJ ІШ de | 5 How many dads drove to Blacksburg to visit their daughters,.only to find a ragged horde huddled along the brick wall leading to the entrance of the school's central student center? I bet at least one concerned mother returned to her safe suburban home no longer convinced that her son was secure 4n a rural bastion of learning... She probably wrote a letter to The Deane. Even the half-hip might have looked at the weird crowd and wondered: "What the hell is going on here?" It was enough to prompt a changee. The next time tickets for an on-campus concert (little Feat!) went on sale, - camping was bannedand sales were offered zt multiple locations,. The party was over because the last one had been too damn goods. Those who scored tickets were rewarded with a fine night of music from the Good Ol! Grateful Deade Nobody would say it was the band's best show. ОҒ course it was nowhere near their worst. When the final tally is made it is just one of more than 2,300 stops on that long strange tripe. But that's the point, isn't it? This night happened and it's worth remembering. All of them are worth remembering, 50 why not start here? Қ ncm oe dE ed hat there x It is evident tha good рей ще rs mimber of. immature students on ОПЕ тағын toes are toler RA ho a mainita FOR. AD rara КАЙ E orn yet, but ға вау і% was ‘sOitewnere around 198, “which also: happens: to be the year I was borne: LEYS said one. is nostalgic- for the world as it was before they меге: alive,. nd. that's. probably: trues. But in a really. таге way, there! 5 E Јіпе Between '77 апа 778: inthe sound: Of the Grateful Dead. as. they appear. on Liv orécordings,: : symbolic of any number of narrátives.about the real end of: the 1605; the Déad's personal: lives, their- drug habits, technology, music, amd; anything/évery thing else; It.was: the same yearthat. would end with. Bob- Dylan having a religious experience in an Arizona: hotel room and converting tó Christianity. In a мау, Т don't, think the turns are pci lt For ihg реда; І aes it all mand fest Я in their: saying and the way their instruments sound (seperately and together) and especially Jerry Garcia's voice, which turned to à: laryngitic gurgle somewhere between New Year's Eve and the first time he opened his mouth to sing on January 10th in Los Angeles, I'm.of*the camp that thinks it never quite recovered. That spring, .- Keith ‘Godéhaux moved ‘ta cénter=stage,. playing.a sometimes: sickly sounding Yamaha e But these are "bigger shiftse..On’a show Бу. show basis, äs always, I still find the Grateful Dead: to- be a complete. goddamn’ =. delight, though: asthe later "20s come in, 155522150 music with mannerisms that I haye to. Tanen. CE and make that. part Of my delights. Ы INT Like“ every: doce Ие Dead show, T can find.a 156.60 loye about. their sole nigh t ir: Blacksburg. Suffice it to say, however, I won't be reaching for this*version of PEQGY-O again-anytime soong. though it contains’ a quick: uo eu of he “ыс Ks soundt: багъа! 5 daro 8. "slow Songs, as he oui during cir 2 GOUT » (cont. ) СОТ аш, however, hire for the. DUPREB!S DIAMOND: BLUES, ihe last of a half-dozen !77-!78- performances with the two-drunmner/Godehaux lineup, ‘ала ultra-present Garcia vocals, the groove gelling maybe even more: -than the '69 versions. Afterwards, someone in the- crowd shouts, "hey, Bobby, 'THE OTHER ONE," arid he “replies with a ‘quick and truthful. off-mic Mater." ae ‘Honestly, “the main Rie where т find fassive® joy | (though а1во-а tiny bit of regret) in April 478 Grateful Dead recordings is the birth of the. band! S; infamous drumz/space segments. Regret because it: would come to gentrify the Dead's: most psychadelic. jamming tendencies, but joy. because it was’ ‘generally . а new. kind of improvisation for them, a platform, non= ^. linear, unattached: to songs, with по commitment or...” mandate to éven develop it out of а song, It is a conceit as much as an excuses: Despite the. Dead!s deep experience with space jamming, it was still a new way to organize the way they played. I only.wish;. generally speaking, that the Space: ege nts were as long as the àrumze 2. оор. Б ~The messy DANCING IN THE STREET beforehand with “the fun gang vocals and unusual start/stop. jam is all- well' and good, and. probably an excellent boogie, hut the newest thing in Grateful Dead music is when · everybody spilled out.into the drummers! area, now outfitted with steel drums and toys and a. ghostly“ synth that sounds like a human voice, which turns Up spurting: different insane noises on many of the Spring !78 tapes. There's a great multi-camera video Of the Duke show from a few days: before where Garcia and roadie Steve Parish and many others joyously take to the percussion, and Т сап only assume that's what's going on during this typically oversized '78 drühg/ space. То my ears, it takes about 10 minutes to align into something coherent. It's my ‘hope/dream/intention to someday weave together eras of drumz/space into : period-specific INFRARED ROSES-like installments, unless some other enterprising Dead freak beats me to it, a development I would welcome with open arms. .The BLACK PETER also has some new-to-me vocal growls from Garcia, another spring '78. fingerprint, though ; it might continue onward into the later !70s and “early '80s, a period of which I really only. know the biggest picture. Even still, it's a move absent from his vocal bag.since at least ye olden Warlocks. days. Another move on BLACK PETER not present on апу Previous Grateful Dead recording, so far as I knows Garcia scatting along with a few phrases of his guitar ‘solos. The show ends with another. period ing ERAS begun: -by Weir in October, and continued well into the !80s. and maybe beyond, a tic that puzzled me when I first encountered it during the tape tráding era, and a tic. which puzzles me now. After the encore JOHNNY B. GOODE comes crashing to an-end,. Weir steps to the mic and offers a squeaked falsetto "thank you." Why the : falsetto? I'll never understand. Or maybe I'll figure it out when т азар to- the next She: 4/14/78 by Tyler Wilcox Whenever I've done a big crawl through the Dead's 30 trips around the sun, 1978 always feels like a little bit of a letdown after what's come befores I think this is partly because for a brief. moment during this period,. the cand started sounding ike А Professional Rock Organizatione.A little bit slick, a little bit going-through-the-motions,. Even those dangerous vocal harmonies. are smooth in the late Godchaux erase. These cpmplaints aside, 4/14/78 is an extremely enjoyable showe I діс that the tempos aren't super rushed; even the opening PROMISED LAND seems to prize groove over energyş Jerry is in fine form, hitting all the sweet spots, whether it's a burnin; solo on ME AND MY UNCLE or his painfully great playing on SHIP OF FOOLS. Kreutzmann.and Hart aren't stepping on each other's toes too much = and their long, often disco-tastic DRUMS is very entertaining. Lesh is engaged; he really grabs the wheel during a stormy THE OTHER ONE. Donna gives it her alle Weir is Weire. Keith is ..e is Keith even onstage? I guess he's back there somewhere, І feel like he's sorta checked out by !78,. But yeah;,. overall, this recording captures what must've been a fun night at Virginia Teche Go НоКіеѕе 5 Choice Cut: Is this PEGGY-O perfect or.what? The band lays-back just right, letting Garcia-ride a-gentle wave.and savor every syllable. "What would your mother think if she could hear my guineas clink? * 1978-04-14 Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University . by do М» Hart | I acquired a stack of tapes from this leg of the !78 spring tour іп а single trade when I first got to college, The Duke University a William & Mary (4/15), and Huntington, WV (4/16) shows all sounded great and contained terrific playing. My source for those tapes also had the Virginia Tech show from 4/14 but indicated that the quality of his tapes wasn't too great. I opted to get something else and thus, ten years passed before I heard this showe In the meantime, the others grew immense in my personal catalog. William & Mary had solid playing throughout, terrific sound, and features an outstanding MORNING DEW. Huntington also sounded great and includes a top flight SCARLET BEGONIAS 7 FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN. Duke was an all around keeper that filled in the gaps in the other two. I didn't forget the Blacksburg show; I simply didn't miss it. While the internet may be assigned blame for a wide range of ills visited upon the modern human race, ready access to Grateful Dead recordings shall long be remembered as one of its greatest successes. So here we are, a fair number of years since those college days when XL-IIs were precious, living in a day when the vast trove of shows reside at the tap and swipe of a few fingers and I'm finally able to correct the oversight of my youthe. After a bit of tuning, Chuck Berry's rock & roll travelogue, PROMISED LAND wends its way across the South and opens the show with a blast of guitar, a bit of choogling, and Bobby and Donna singing loud and proude Jerry takes his turn on TENNESSEE JED winds its way around the beat and peaks with a cautionary but wistful exhortation to retreat from worldly adversity. (conte) As the band pauses to tune ар, Bo task critics who disparage the ba g.i mich time between numbers." Both acknowledge that а real thing that they actually do and Phil ‘notes, "but that's not right for them to criticizes" Bobby adds, "that's not their job." i. Ue ata it's Despite this reasonable point, I mention the ining and banter for the sake of accuracy, rather than as an instrument of criticism, Everybody needs а bbeather now and thene- e Ме ы CER John Sebastian's ‘ME AND MY UNCLE comes next with. rapid-fire country rock leads from Garcia which only quicken after the band slides into Johnny Cash!s BIG RIVER. Here's another musical journey, .following a lost love down the Mississippi, that keeps us dancing. Keith takes a solo somewhere there in the middle before Jerry steps up and wrestles that very river into submissione Jerry next guides us into the deep, Faulkneresque, territory of Fennario with his take on the Lovely ballad PEGGY-O. The solos match the tender beauty of the lady in the title. Not to be outdone, Bobby calls for his own ballad, LOOKS LIKE RAIN. The John Barlow lyric soars with Donna's harmonies and Jerry's leads punctuating Weir's emphatic delivery. Returning us from.a lovelorn urban apartment to the "timbers of Fennario," Jerry plays a terrific, albeit brisk DIRE WOLF o. The university рарег, The Collegiate Times, billed this ав "Dont Murder Me." Other typical press errors abound іп the printed post-mortem. Bobby answers the upbeat challenge with a Bobby Womack cover, IT'S ALL OVER NOW, better known from the Rolling Stones! rendition. This one is some pretty straight-ahead rockin". DUPREE'S DIAMOND BLUES snuck back into the onstage repertoire for a couple shows in '78 but the lyrics, clearly, befuddled Garcia. You've got to admit, there's an awful lot of them. Still, it's always a pleasure to heare. ( conte) A ripping take on THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED closes the set, which is ironic but I'm pretty sure that's why they did it so often. This one nudges towards the outer limits yet keeps its feet near the cround.. Press reports have the set break running a fairly standard fiity minutes = just long enough to get your footing back before the liehts go down and the rug gets pulled out from under you once again, The pounding drums of SAMSON & DELILAH open set two, Nothing like some fiery Biblical rock on a Friday nishte Then after a cruel SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING tease, Jerry sings a beautiful, plaintive, SHIP OF FOOLS, The drums lay out a quick dance beat, Bobby scratches out a funky rhythm, and Jerry fires up the Mutron for a Disco Dead take on DANCING IN THE STREETS. This is as pure a boogie jam as the Dead ever got; probably exhausting for those who had the mettle to get down to it that nighte. Inspired work from Weir throughout but listen as Jerry lays back about nine and a half minutes ine They break it nearly all the way down until exploding back with a mindbending bridge three minutes. latere That brings it all back to the chorus after fourteen minutes,. finally, after all that 43560 boogie, the drummers’ . are left in charge of the stage. They get a thumpin' 2 = ав igitheit wont. Twenty minutes. pass before Keith, ge. Donna, and the guitar slingers return. The ;post-DRUMS © | Jam fs spacey and weird; Mickey and Billy QO not seem .. | to take апу sort of break before they, bolsteréd by . ce. hil's traditional strafing run down the bass neck, 12 explode into THE OTHER ONE. ^^ e Is that Donna playing claves? , Energetic but not extended, this OTHER ONE packs in ^ . both verses along with a good dose of fiery jamming =- © апа. bombast before they ease down into BLACK PETER. |. : Here, we have the true gem of the fourth quarter if: not the entire show. What begins as a standard-great | read of a lovely ballad, builds with a potent first. . o (conte) solo and an increasingly passionate vocal performance from Garcia. The outro vocals and guitar playing are stellar, marking this version as an all-timer,. Weir responds with a run at his rock & roll ode to hippie girls, SUGAR MAGNOLIA. Everybody throws theit weight into their instruments and together they pound out the Sunshine Daydream coda to close the sete The encore calls back to the opener (which the Collegiate Times called disappointing) with another Chuck Berry number, Johnny В. Goode. After a night of wide-ranging (sometimes interstellar) travel, this is far from disappointing. This is the Grateful Dead bringing us all back home, So ends a terrific show in a terrific run of shows on an oft overlooked timeframe in the history of the Grateful Deade. e Жжжж, ж. жож Ж Ж ж ok ok, ж, Ж. Ж. Ж. ж, ok ok ok жж ж ж.ж The Virginia Music History Zine Series This.is issue 3 in an ongoing series of half-drunk homemade zines that are built in my basement and explore the music history. of Virginia. Issue 1 took a look at the Virginis. places, people, and things that may have inspired Daniel Bachman's mesmerizing guitar tunes. Issue 2 told the story of the 1961 бак Leaf Park festival in Luray and the feuds that shaped the early years of the bluegrass scene. I've got a plan for issue 4 and ideas for others, to follow, so long as I don't get bored or lazys.So do stick around, listen up, and collect them all. James Adams Owner/Operator „жж E жж. жж, жж ж. жж жж. ж. F жж ж, жж ж ok ok ^ GIVE YOUR SOUND SYSTEM A LIFT WITH - _ SpeckerUPPERS ADJUSTABLE SPEAKER STANDS HOLDSUP ^" ^: = : ТО 150 LBS. 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