The Grateful Dead Performs ‘Bertha’ On New Year’s Eve 1987: Pro-Shot Video

The Grateful Dead‘s rousing “Bertha” from New Year’s Eve 1987 is this week’s installment of the All The Years Live video series. Filmed on December 31, 1987 at Oakland Coliseum Arena in Oakland, the footage originally aired as part of a live pay-per-view broadcast and was included on the band’s Ticket To New Year’s concert film.

“Bertha” served as the opener of the Dead’s New Year’s Eve 1987 concert. The band was joined by a number of guests later in the evening including The Neville Brothers, David Nelson and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Additionally, impresario Bill Graham rode around the venue as 1988 began on a float designed to look like the Golden Gate Bridge.

Jerry Garcia penned “Bertha” with longtime writing partner Robert Hunter. “One of the Grateful Dead’s most consistently played songs from 1971 to 1995, this was one of the handful of songs for which the Dead never recorded a studio version, with the live version that opens Skull & Roses being the definitive version,” wrote GD archivist David Lemieux in a note accompanying the video.