Tales From The Lot - Grateful Dead Show Experiences

TFTL Ep 25 I Ducked Into A Barn Door

• Will - Paul Cirincione • Season 3 • Episode 25

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Venture back in time with Boston's very own Paul Cirincione as we unravel the enthralling narrative of a life steeped in the melodies of the Grateful Dead and the dynamic world of live music recording. Our foray begins with Paul's initiation into the taping culture at a Dead show in '78, with nothing but borrowed equipment from an unlikely source. His chronicles from the golden era take us through the small, smoky venues and the blossoming vending scene, contrasting the cumbersome recording gear of yesteryear with the sleek technology we see today.

Join us as Paul reminisces about seeing the Grateful Dead, sharing tales that intertwine his personal milestones with about 100 concerts over a decade. Whether it's a snow-laden odyssey to the Stanley Theater or a serendipitous ocean swim, Paul's vivid storytelling captures the essence of Deadhead culture. We'll get an insider's look at iconic venues, the spontaneous camaraderie among fans, and the remarkable drive that fueled the journey despite the demands of adulthood and a full-time job.

But the musical expedition doesn't end with the Grateful Dead. Paul's diverse taste leads us through the punk scene's prime years, highlighting connections with legendary figures like Joey Ramone and intricate stories that bring us face-to-face with the likes of Al Kooper during a pivotal moment in music history. It's an intimate narrative that paints a picture of the raw humanity of these icons, etching Paul's experiences into the broader canvas of live music's transformative power. Let's set the stage for a symphony with Paul Cirincione as our conductor.

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Musical Memories

Speaker 1

Tales from the Lot, episode 25,. I ducked into a barn door. My guest is Paul Cirincione from Boston. He's here to talk, taping in the 70s, 80s, 90s, seeing a whole bunch of shows and good times. Here we go. Hi, welcome to Tales from the Lot. This is Will. My guest this time is Paul Cirincione. He's coming to us from Boston. I think I didn't butcher it, but how are you doing, paul?

Speaker 2

Very good. No, that was as close as could be expected. For a first try at least right, Ciancioni, if you want to pronounce it in Italian.

Speaker 1

Yeah, welcome. So you're in Boston now. Is that where you're from originally?

Speaker 2

No, I'm originally from the New Haven, Connecticut area.

Speaker 1

Okay, so up in New Haven.

Speaker 2

Connecticut specifically.

Speaker 1

That's cool. What were you into musically? What were you listening to growing up?

Speaker 2

Oh boy. Well, I am the baby in the family, so I have the benefit of much older siblings and I have been a music freak since I was very young, benefiting from those siblings' record collections. So the Byrds, the Beatles obviously, Stones, jefferson Airplane, hendrix, joplin, you know that bunch but oddly enough none of them were into the Grateful Dead that I got into a little later through a friend.

Speaker 1

Gotcha. So yeah, they were filtering you some good music. It sounds like oh yeah, very a friend Gotcha.

Speaker 2

So yeah, they were. They were filtering you some good music.

Speaker 1

It sounds like, oh yeah, very much so. So you, you did you meet somebody who was into the dad that turned you on to it.

Speaker 2

Yeah, A friend of mine, uh, who was a year or two older than me, uh turned me on to them. That would have been the skull and roses record or skull fuck, as it was sort of originally intended to be called and then, uh, really got into him right after the europe 72 album came out, so that would have been 73 sometime, and I was hooked from that point on.

Speaker 1

Oh well, it came out that fast I think so.

Speaker 2

I think it was 73, I'm pretty sure. But it took a few more years for me to attend my first show, which was New Haven in May of 1977. So just a few days prior to the infamous Cornell show. But that run and it was quite a show.

Speaker 1

That's a fine vintage there.

Speaker 2

It is. It was a great tour. I mean, I didn't know that at the time, but now, years later, looking back at it, a lot of people look at that 77 tour as really really something special.

Speaker 1

Yeah, no doubt. What was it like outside.

Speaker 2

I mean, do you remember anything about it? I mean, there was no vending right. What wasking T-shirts out there? In fact, a good friend of mine screen printed a bunch of T-shirts. I wish I still had one, but that was a long time ago and it wasn't quite the scene that it became. It was a little mellower.

Speaker 1

Right, yeah, I believe that, and they could still play smaller venues. New Haven Coliseum is where I first saw them and that was about about a 10 000 seat arena and you were, you were hooked.

Speaker 2

After that, I was hooked, yep, yep went to that and then, a few weeks later, a hartford show. Uh, in may, may 28th, 77.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

I think that's the day it was. May 5th was my first show was my first show and May 28th my second.

Speaker 1

I do remember listening to a lot of a Hartford 77 show back in the day on a cassette. That was probably the one.

Speaker 2

Well, that's been released officially, I think as part of the I forget what series, what it was called, I forget, but it's on the CD that I have.

Speaker 1

you know, I'll have to check that out. It's a good show, I mean.

Speaker 2

I could turn around and check my collection and pull it out, I'll find it, I'll find it, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1

And then did you see a bunch right after that. I mean, how soon and how often were you going?

Speaker 2

um, well, that was it for 77 then. Uh, you know they, they would typically do a swing through new england in the spring every year, so they would hit, uh, you know, probably new york. Uh, new haven, hartford, springfield, providence, boston. So my next show, which would have been my third, was the New Haven, hartford, springfield, providence, boston. So my next show, which would have been my third, was the following May in New Haven, and that has been officially released as a Dick's Pick, I think, dick's Pick's 25, I believe and that was the first show that I taped. As a precocious 17-year-old almost 18-year-old, I borrowed a tape deck from my pot dealer of all people, and you know, in those days we could get tickets at the box office so we would go down to the New Haven Coliseum and sleep out the night before. You know, sleeping was, you know, not really what happened, but you know stayed up all night.

Speaker 2

You know partying and you know playing cards or what have you. But you know we were able to get good tickets. So I had like about the. I think I was in the 15th row center on the floor and I set up a mic stand. I had this big old cassette deck and you know, even though that has been released officially, I kind of enjoy listening to my recording. I got to say it was a pretty flawless recording for a first timer, you know, and I'm still recording shows to this day, not so much dead, but you know I'm a music freak in general. You know a wide variety of tastes and in fact I just recorded some music yesterday, nice, and the equipment is substantially smaller. This is what I use now, which is an amazing little deck.

Speaker 2

Compared to the old Super Scope 330 that I had, that was about that big.

Speaker 1

Right. Does that have two little mics on the top? Is that stereo? What is that? What's?

Speaker 2

going on. Yeah, these are. I could change the direction of them and they tilt out. It's Bluetooth so I could have an app on my phone so I could monitor the record levels from afar.

Speaker 1

Very cool. Do you just put that in your pocket or do you hold, like, how do you? What do you do with the uh, with the recorder?

Speaker 2

there make sure that everything is kind of the same and more often than not these days, I'm doing it legitimately, meaning with, uh, with the permission of the artist, but without, without the permission. It's very easy to be discreet. As you can see, it's so small, um, I mean, I don't know what if I have a here's an old school, my phone.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's even smaller, um, and it's dark. So I don't go to a whole lot of big concerts anymore. You know I've been there, done that. You know I'm 63 years old, I've done that and it's just so damn expensive. So I'm happy in the clubs. And in Boston we have a very good music scene here.

Speaker 2

I also have a very nice external stereo mic, this Audio Technica, which is a little better. These are amazingly good, but this Audio Technica which I actually found in the trash once, I don't know who, it's a $300 mic, I don't know who the hell was throwing it away, but that I use, you know, for you know again, when I don't have to be you know private about it. You know if I do an outdoor show, but typically this produces amazing results Nice.

Speaker 1

Yeah, so before we did this you had sent me a couple of links I was checking out. I think it was a 79. I was just kind of spot listening to some of the songs that I wanted to hear, like the sugary and some of the things. And what I love so much about just audience recordings in general is you can hear like the crowd erupts as the song starts like the people singing along is a little bit more in there, which is you're more in there.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I'm the same way. You know, of course I'm partial because I record it, but and part of it is it triggers memories. You know, this is what it sounded like to me when I was there, and you know some of my recorders are not so great. The one that you listened to I think you're referring to the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh While I went to. It was a two-night run. I think it was November 30th and December 1st of 79. And I made the drive down from Boston with a few buddies and went down there without tickets, pulled up to the box office at, I think, like 5 o'clock in the afternoon and scored tickets in the mezzanine, and the soundboard was in the mezzanine at this theater and this is about a 3,500-seat theater, I do believe it was. So I was dead center sitting like in the row right in front of the soundboard. I even remember dan healy giving me some duct tape that I needed for my uh, my mic stand. You know, dan healy was the sound man for the dead in those days, and so it's.

Speaker 2

That's one of my best recordings yeah, so very little crowd noise and the dead were just you know sounding really good, that night that was a those two nights really.

Speaker 1

So, uh, you saw that show in 77 back to that and then you said that was the only one in 77. And then, uh, and what?

Speaker 2

Two in 77. New Haven and Hartford. And then New Haven again in 78, may of 78, which again was a Dick's Picks, I think 28, where they combined the May 10th show in New Haven and the May 11th show in Springfield which I was also at.

Speaker 2

I did not record that one Again. This is before I bought my own deck, so I was working with a borrowed deck the night before. But it's officially released now for everybody's enjoyment and that let's see that show I think they did. That's right. They did a double encore. I think it was Johnny B Goode and Werewolves of London, or vice versa.

Speaker 2

But they did Werewolves of London, which was a trip, and I remember Bobby coming out. He had a Wolfman mask on like a full head mask with the hair and everything. That was a trip.

Speaker 1

I think I saw pictures of that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I think they played it more than once. It wasn't just that one show. I can't say whether he wore the mask all the times, but he did that night. So I was still in high school, yet to graduate from high school at that point, just about to. But uh, uh, in fact, a week or two later I graduated and uh, so, yeah, that run okay. Yeah, no, I also saw him in providence a few nights later, may 14th. It's amazing how I could remember. Well, it's not that amazing that I can remember the dates, because I've got all the recordings.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, that's the beauty of it. We can look back on it like that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, but I can remember taking a bus from New Haven to Providence with a case of beer and a bag of weed with a buddy, and we got a hotel room across from the Providence Civic Center where the dead were staying a weed with a buddy and we got a hotel room across from the Providence Civic Center where the dead were staying and that show is. I don't think it's an official release, but it's been in wide circulation for a long time and, of course, with archiveorg it's up there.

Speaker 1

I think the soundboard is up there. And that was a good show, too Great being able to find everything there.

Speaker 2

Yeah, there and that was a good show too great being able to find everything there yeah and, uh, I'm amazed my mom didn't give me a hell, for you know, you know her barely 18 year old or not yet 18 year old kid jumping out of bus and going to providence and staying overnight, but my older siblings broke her in, so by the time it came to me, you know it was like ah.

Speaker 1

Yeah she's too old for that.

Speaker 2

Go ahead, do what you want, yeah exactly Because my siblings are all like 8, 9, 10, 13 years older than me, so they were already past college age at that point. Gotcha, you know they were in college in the 60s high school and college Gotcha in college in the 60s high school and college Gotcha and able to go to see Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin and Woodstock and all those shows.

Speaker 1

Oh yeah, so good.

Speaker 2

I always wish that if I was only born five years earlier, I could have gone to the Fillmore and seen some of those great shows. But now that I'm older and I talk to younger people they say, oh, you saw Led Zeppelin, you saw you know the Dead with Keith and Donna.

Speaker 1

Yeah a lot of shows. So it's every generation has their thing.

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Speaker 2

Easy Merchant in a Box.

Speaker 1

All right. So how many more dead shows did you see? Like you say, you kept going through the 80s.

Speaker 2

I mean, how many do you think you saw in total? Well, in total, between 77 and 95,. I think somewhere around 100, give or take a few, I sort of. My most intense period, I would say, was 77 to 84. And, you know, a little more sporadic afterwards. You know once I reached, you know, adulthood, sort of. And you know a job? Yeah, life happens.

Speaker 1

And.

Speaker 2

I'd see them whenever they came nearby. I never really dropped everything and followed them on tour. I would do swings, you know, catch the New England shows, and a couple of times drove to Pittsburgh, which is like a 13 hour drive from Boston. But because it was the Stanley Theater, you know, it was worth the drive and worth driving through a snowstorm in a crotchety old vw bus with no heat and in a snowstorm.

Speaker 2

for one of those uh one of those years I think it was the 80, 81, early 81 they did a run in march of 81 uh followed.

Speaker 1

The tires like five inches wide on those fans right, Something like that, and the heat they're notorious for not having any heat.

Speaker 2

The windshield was icing over the windshield wipers are frozen we eventually had to pull over at a rest area and ride out the snow, and that was an adventure. And then we continued on to University of Maryland. This is again March of 81. And then somebody, we got a motel. There's a bunch of us, like six or seven of us, and the guy with the keys to the Volkswagen decided to wake up before everybody else and jump on a plane and head back to New York. And he had the keys to the bus with him.

Speaker 2

And so we were stranded there and you know we had to get. You know, this is the pre cell phone age, mind you.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

So I can't remember exactly how we I think he contacted us, cause he realized that he had the keys and he had the the motel information. So he made arrangements. He I think was still at the airport was able to get them on a flight or some sort of service where they could get them on the next flight we had to go to the airport pick them up.

Speaker 1

Oh wow. Yeah, it was crazy. It was good, but we were freaking out for a few hours man. Yeah, I believe you.

Speaker 2

So that's an adventure from the road.

Speaker 1

You had tickets for the next show too, so you're like we got to go.

Speaker 2

No, no, we didn't. I think that's why he took off, because they were playing Madison Square Garden the next day. And that's why he took off and went. But I did not continue on to those shows, just came back to Boston.

Speaker 1

Right, you probably did see some MSG shows through the years though, being in that area.

Speaker 2

I did. I lived in New York from 86 to late 88. So I caught some of the 87 runs. I think it was September of 87. I caught a few shows, not my favorite venue, I know a lot of people love it. But you know, being from the New York area originally, I got to see Led Zeppelin there in 77. Well, actually Pink Floyd on the 4th of July 77.

Speaker 1

And then Led Zeppelin was a few weeks before that, so that was just a commuter train ride in from. New.

Speaker 2

Haven to New York. So, yeah, so those were great, but it's, you know, huge and loud. You know, especially the East Coast dead crowd was rather loud and boisterous.

Speaker 1

You know it's like.

Speaker 2

Why do you come to the shows if you've got a screen during the nice Stella Blue.

Speaker 1

I've heard that, yo. Recently somebody was telling me about the difference between East Coast and West Coast. In the 70s. East Coast he went to some MSG shows and it was pretty rowdy. Then he went to Shoreline or something like that in the 80s and everybody was sitting down and really mellow.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I only got to see them once in California. That was in 1983 in Santa Cruz, watsonville, which was a great show, and I believe that's the last time they played Deep Ellen Blues Electric anyways. And it was a beautiful outdoor daytime show, afternoon show, and got to take my first dip in the and only dip in the pacific ocean. After that, at the santa cruz uh boardwalk, probably had the best burrito in my life rode the roller coaster. See, I remember this shit yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1

And all that because of the grateful dead right yeah, well.

Speaker 2

Well, that was part of my one cross-country drive, which wasn't specifically to see the dead, but my girlfriend at the time was living in Colorado and working for the summer and I got a drive-away car and hooked up with another lovely young woman and I'll skip the story. Between Boston and Denver it's a little tawdry, but you know arrived and you know going to. We had tickets for Red Rocks.

Speaker 2

They did a three-night run there in September of 83, caught the three nights in Red Rocks, which was just magnificent. Caught the Three Knights of Red Rocks, which was just magnificent, one of the more Ethereal places To see the dead.

Speaker 2

I remember pulling into this Deadhead Overrun campsite in the dark In Colorado. I think we entered Colorado On the highway around sunset so I didn't really get to see the Rockies, and this campsite was on a hill. I remember waking up in the morning on the highway around sunset so I didn't really get to see the Rockies.

Speaker 1

And this campsite was on a hill.

Speaker 2

I remember waking up in the morning and stumbling out of my tent and walking to the top of the hill and getting my first glimpse of the Rockies. It was a spiritual moment for me.

Speaker 2

And then the following two nights we camped at a campsite that was set up, I think, at a flea market site, but it was subsidized by the dead on some level, and there was a food co-op from Boulder that set up shop there and sold food and there were water trucks to provide co-ed showers, which was nice, and I happened to be camping right next to hog farm people. Wavy, gravy and the hog farm people who looked like crusty old deadheads uh, which they were, but at the time, they were probably like in their 40s.

Speaker 2

You know which?

Speaker 2

is like 20 years younger than I am now, but they were really cool and wavy gravy. I remember walking. He was walking around in his uh speedo bathing suit and his you know no shirt, his duck bill hat. And then they had an old school bus that they used to shuttle people from the campsite to Red Rocks, to the site. So that was really cool. And then continued on to my friend's place in Gunnison, colorado, spent a couple of days there and then she and I and friends of hers caravaned down to Santa Fe and caught the dead a couple of nights at the Santa Fe Downs. Again, this is September of 83. And those are special shows.

Speaker 2

Again afternoon shows. I can't remember which night it was the first or second night it was a downpour, so they cut the first set short and I literally ducked into a barn door to the line from Bertha.

Speaker 1

It was a horse track.

Speaker 2

So there were these barns there and a bunch of us sought shelter in the barn, and then the storm came and passed rather quickly and the second set began with a beautiful rainbow going over the stage. You know, I think it might have even been a double rainbow. And there you know the setting. I don't know if you've ever been to Santa Fe, but you're surrounded by the Sangre del Cristo mountains and it was just a beautiful, beautiful place to see a show.

Speaker 2

And again it was so much mellower than what I'm used to was used to in the East Coast, because you know you could sort of walk up to the stage. You know it was still crowded but not as crushing as it would be in Boston or New York.

Musician Connections and Concert Memories

Speaker 1

Now it's just crushing everywhere. I feel like oh, yeah, yeah. All right. So what's something you know you're a music junkie. What's something that you've heard recently that's new, that's really jumped out at you as something that's fantastic, that the listeners should check out?

Speaker 2

Oh geez, Well, can I give a plug to?

Speaker 1

friends of mine. Anything you want, yeah, like if it's good Look up the Chandler Travis Philharmonic.

Speaker 2

Chandler Travis Philharmonic. You could go onto YouTube and find videos. He is a guy who's been around since the early 70s, a cohort of NRBQ. I don't know if you've heard of NRBQ.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 2

Another great band from way back, but he's local to the Massachusetts area, nowadays lives in Cape Cod and just a tremendous musician, talented writer, goofy, funny guy. He was good friends with George Carlin and toured as his opening act for a number of years, recorded with Martin Mull, the comedian. Like I say, he's been around and the Philharmonic is a large band horn section, double bass one of the best drummers in the world and Ricky Bates and I'm fortunate I've been recording them a lot for the last 25 years and he performs in a lot of different configurations the big band, a smaller version of the band four piece, more rock and roll band blah blah blah.

Speaker 2

Look him up. I'd recommend that to you youngsters out there. Chandler travis, phil harmonic or just chandler travis yeah um, I'm really impressed with that billyings kid. You know he's something else. You know I don't know. I hate to pin it down. You know my tastes are varied. You know, back in the day, you know I could be at a dead show on Wednesday night and a cramp show on Friday night. You know.

Speaker 1

I left. I never liked being pigeonholed as a deadhead.

Speaker 2

I mean, I'm proud to carry that moniker but it wasn't all that I listened to, like some people really devote everything and all to the dead. But I was into the punk scene in the early 80s and you know X and Los Lobos and the Cramps and you know, uh, the ramones I was still a little young for it, so.

Speaker 1

So my era was more like bad brains and and oh yeah, them too dead can dead kennedys and sort of dead kennedys and dks.

Speaker 2

Sure yeah, flipper uh germs love that stuff yeah, yeah and yeah. And I got to say I used to drive cab for many years in Boston and New York City and one of my favorite passengers in my New York years overall was Joey Ramone.

Speaker 2

Picked him up late one night drove him around for about almost an hour and I'll spare the. You know all the details, but you know he ended up rapping with me. He had a big guy with him I don't know if it was a bodyguard or a personal assistant, but we were driving around the East village, the West village, and we would make all these stops at these newsstands you know, in New York they have these 24 hour newsstands and the other guy would get out, come back five, ten minutes later with some magazines and comic books. I guess Joey was a comic book fan so I'd be sitting in the car with Joey and my brother happened to be in a seminal New York band in the 70s called Mink DeVille, who were the house band at CBGD's for a period in 76-77 and my brother was with them in 77 for about a year. I don't know if you've heard of Mink DeVille fronted by a guy named Willie DeVille, great singer sounds vaguely familiar, but not real familiar.

Speaker 2

No but that would have been like.

Speaker 1

Talking Heads are playing there Bad.

Speaker 2

Boys is playing there came out of that same scene, the same scene as the Talking heads and ramones and television and uh and uh, blondie, uh, yeah, so it was that same scene. But will mcdonald was a little more r&b, a little more 50s, early 60s style r&b. Um, great singer, he's no longer with us, unfortunately. He he passed away about. I think it's about 15 years ago now, but I mentioned that to Joe. And he goes oh man, man. I meant to feel sure you know. And he said what else are you into? I said, well, you know I'm a big deadhead, you know, really, like the dead he goes. Oh the dead. You know, I saw them at the Fillmore. I saw them at the Fillmore and you know they were really cool. I liked them. That's all I got out of it. But you know, to hear that coming out of Jody Ramone was pretty cool. You wouldn't expect, but you know, he's a New Yorker.

Speaker 2

He grew up, you know, as a teenager in the late 60s, 70s and I'm sure he went to a bunch of shows at the Fillmore.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I'm sure, yeah, yeah, I'm sure, yeah. What's the best show? What stands out as the most fun time best show you saw.

Speaker 2

That has to be Lewiston, maine, september 6th 1980.

Speaker 2

It was the last show of that tour, that summer tour, and it was an outdoor show, probably, I'm guessing, 20, 25 000 people at the main state fairgrounds and for some reason I've seen them in maine a few times after that. They always put on great shows in maine. I don't get it, but this show you know I was recording. I was right beside the soundboard, I I dropped some acid, I had a really nice trip but made one of the best recordings of my dead taping career and it was a long show. You know, typically in those days a dead show was about two 90 minute cassettes. This was closer to three. You know two and a half it was on three cassettes, it was like two and a half cassettes thereabouts and that's widely circulated and widely thought of as a great show for those of us that were there. But if you listen to it.

Speaker 2

The second set was monstrous, you know. I'm sure it's up there at archive and it's out there. I don't think they had a good enough board recording to release it officially. I think there were some screw-ups or something along the line. But I again, I have my recording and I was right there at the soundboard with my mics.

Speaker 2

You know, 12 feet up in the air and great sound, despite you know my mental state at the time. And it was also LaVon Helm was on the bill and Roy Buchanan, great, great guitarist yeah, he's a great guitarist.

Speaker 1

Yeah so.

Speaker 2

I was. That was a really nice show. This, I think, when it all boils down to it, that was my favorite show.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

One time I finagled to get full access backstage. It was a freshman, freshman in college, living in a dormitory and these two very lovely young women knew you know they were the type of people that got backstage passes all the time and they said oh, you know, you're going to the show, we're not going, but we know some names that they're always on the list. So I went with my girlfriend at the time and it was at a weird place. It was in a town called Billerica, massachusetts, which is about 20 miles north of Boston, small town, suburban town. They were playing in what was essentially the town's skating rink, so a cinder block building. It was put on by the University of Lowell, so a cinder block building. It was put on by the University of Lowell, who didn't have a facility at the time. So that's why it was held there.

Speaker 2

And we went there and got there early, went to the side of the building where they were checking people for passes, got to hear the sound check, which is neat, and as I got closer in line to the guy with the clipboard I could see over his shoulder at the clipboard and I didn't see any of the names that my friends had given me. But I did see somebody else's name and I said, yeah, I'm Joe Schmo. And he said, oh, you got a friend. And I said, yeah, her. And he said, okay, come on in. And it was full access backstage and didn't ask for an ID or anything. All these years later, I feel kind of guilty that that person maybe showed up and didn't get in, and I'm sorry, if you're listening, I'm sorry but, perhaps they had ID and showed it and got in.

Speaker 1

But I remember the head, the large yeah, good one.

Speaker 2

As we're still outside, this whole contingent of hell's angels pulls up on their rides through the crowd. So we're, my friend and I, were floating backstage and, uh, it was really hot, it was may of 79. And you know, we availed ourselves of the buffet tables backstage and didn't push ourselves, you know, to try to meet the guys, but could smell the good weed coming from the curtained off area. My friend and I were standing in the doorway, garage doorway, and we hear this voice saying man, it's really hot in here. And we look over and it's Billy Crudson and he just starts chatting with us. You know he was like, oh, do you like the show?

Speaker 2

And then I remember meeting this I don't want to say elderly woman, but an older woman and we said, oh, are you enjoying the show? He said, oh, yeah, my son's a big deadhead and he had tickets but he couldn't make it. So he said, mom, why don't you go? So she came and she said I really liked it, but they didn't play my favorite song. We said what's that? She said, oh, Eyes of the World. We said, oh, that's a second set song.

Speaker 2

So stick around, maybe, around, maybe they'll play it, and sure enough, they did play it I didn't see her after that. So I didn't know if she enjoyed it, but I ended up like kind of walking on to the stage well, the back of the stage and I was sitting on one of the anvil cases for you know, 10 minutes or so. It didn't sound so good there, but hey, it was cool.

Speaker 2

But I was you know, maybe 20 feet from Garcia behind him and you know we were floating around between backstage and, you know, front of the stage in the audience, you know, because it sounds better. So backstage isn't all that great except for the coolness of it and the experience.

Speaker 1

And the free food?

Speaker 2

Yeah, exactly, and the next day was a big outdoor show at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, with Patty Smith opening up the Patty Smith Group and Roy Ayers. But also, you know, some years later I was a personal assistant to a formerly famous rock star. His words, mind you, not mine.

Speaker 1

But have you ever heard?

Speaker 2

of Al Cooper. Yes, cooper with a K, not.

Speaker 1

Alice Cooper yeah, he played with Bloomfield.

Speaker 2

The Blues Project. Yeah well, there was a Super Session album with Mike Bloomfield.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that's what I'm familiar with him from and some other things I know he's done some other stuff oh a shitload of other things.

Speaker 2

You know the Blues Project, bob Dylan's organ player on Highway 61, revisited Blonde Eye. Blonde a bunch of other records Played with Hendrix, the Stones, the who he was the stage manager of the. Monterey Pop Festival. Oh wow, the who, uh, he was the stage manager of the monterey pop festival. Uh, oh, wow and uh oh, discovered leonard skinner, signed them to his label and produced their first three records produced neil's laugh, grin the tubes.

Speaker 1

So he's got his fingerprint. As you're saying these things, I'm like, oh yeah, I guess I did sort of know that it's like ringing some bells. Look him up, you'd be amazed at what this guy's.

Speaker 2

You know what he's been involved with but he lives in the boston area and, uh, circumstances came up, he needed a personal assistant and uh, a friend of mine had the gig prior to me and he recommended me to him when he was moving on and I was with him for about a year and a half and it was really cool, it's basically just hanging out at his house you know, four or five days a week running errands, bringing him to gigs and rehearsals and listening to his stories.

Day With George Harrison

Speaker 2

You know of which he's got a bunch, if you ever could find the book, his book Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards. Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards. Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards. It's a great look at the rock and roll world, you know, from the perspective of somebody who was in there deeply it's fascinating it might be out of print, but if you're ever in a used bookstore and come across it, it's a real good read.

Speaker 2

In fact, one of the more interesting stories he told me was in 1980 he was living in London and he's a night owl, you know. He sleeps like four hours a night.

Speaker 2

So he was up at about four in the morning or three in the morning when the news broke that John Lennon had been shot and killed and he was I was due to record with George Harrison the next day. To record with George Harrison the next day. So he was going to be driving down to his George's estate with Herbie Flowers, I believe, great bass player obsession man mostly. And you know they touch base in the morning and say, well, what do you think? Do you think we should still go through with it? And they agreed that it would probably be good for George to, you know, be with people and make some music and get his mind off of things.

Speaker 2

So they did. They drove down there, spent the day drinking wine and playing, making music, until George said oh boys, it's become a bit sour, it's time to call it quits. But that's you know. Amazing that he spent the day with you know, a beetle the day after John was killed. Amazing that he spent the day with a beetle the day after John was killed.

Speaker 1

Paul, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate you being on and you told some great stories today. So, yeah, thanks a lot for being here.

Speaker 2

You're welcome, Will. Thank you for having me.

Contributor

Will

Host