The Grateful Dead Movie
Released 6/1/77
Live Concert/
Documentary/Animated Film - 131 min
"
There is nothing in the world like a Grateful Dead concert" - fameous Deadhead saying
This was the Dead´s attempt to capture the Grateful Dead experience on film at a time when the band was about to go on hiatus. Shot with 5 cameras the free flowing docmentary mixes hallucinatory animation (think primitive psychedelic music videos) with live concert footage from a run at the
Winterland in
San Francisco in October 1974 and interviews with the band, associates and
Deadheads.
songs included in the film shot at the winterland concerts:
U.S. Blues
One More Saturday Night
Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad
Truckin'
Eyes of the World
Sugar Magnolia > Sunshine Daydream
Playing in the Band
Stella Blue
Casey Jones
Dark Star > Morning Dew
Johnny B. Goode
Not a masterpiece the film is fun to watch especially while under the inflence. Nevertheless it is one of the more interesting rock and roll documentaries I have seen up their with the Talking Heads film Stop Making Sense and Phish´s Bittersweet Motel. If you never had the opportunity to see the Dead perform this film captures them before Jerry hit the heroin and more than 20 years before they had their only top-10 hit Touch of Grey.
IMHO it´s a classic stoner film for Deadheads this is obvious, but if you never saw a Deadshow then this might just give you a taste of what it was all about.
Songs included during the animated clips (studio tracks)
U.S.Blues
Beat It On Down The Line
Truckin'
The Wheel
Saint Stephen
Ripple
The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
It Must Have Been The Roses
Personnel:
Jerry Garcia - lead guitar, vocals, Captain Trips
Bob Weir - guitar, vocals
Phil Lesh - bass, vocals
Keith Godchaux - keyboards, vocals
Donna Jean Godchaux - vocals
Bill Kreutzmann - drums
Mickey Hart - percussion
Gary Gutierrez - animation
Leon Gast & Jerry Garcia - directors
Eddie Washington - producer