Grateful Dead May 1977 Spotify Playlist
By Andy Kahn May 8, 2021 • 1:59 pm PDT
On May 8, 1977, the Grateful Dead performed at Barton Hall on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The concert became revered among fans, seemingly capturing the legendary band at one of their career apexes.
Indeed, there’s little doubt the Dead were in peak form that night, and when listening to other shows from that historic month, you hear the same cranking-on-all-cylinders band featuring guitarists Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh, keyboardist Keith Godchaux, vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux and drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart. This edition of Saturday Stream, which falls on the anniversary of the famed Cornell ‘77 show, presents a Spotify Playlist featuring officially released recordings of the Grateful Dead performing live in May 1977.
While the majority of May 1977 Dead shows have been officially issued in limited edition physical formats over the years, not all have landed on streaming services. The playlist combines complete (or mostly complete) shows with a number of individual tracks shared on various compilations.
The collection begins with “Estimated Prophet” from May 4 at the Palladium in New York City followed by “Terrapin Station” and “Eyes Of The World” from the Boston Garden on May 7. The aforementioned complete Cornell concert comes next. The playlist continues with “Brown-Eyed Women” on May 9 at War Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York, “High Time” and “Jack-A-Roe” on May 17 at the University of Alabama Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and “Friend Of The Devil” and “It Must Have Been The Roses” from Atlanta’s Fox Theater on May 18.
The next night at the Fox in Atlanta on May 19 was released on Dick’s Picks Vol. 29, along with the May 21 concert at Lakeland Civic Center Arena in Lakeland, Florida. The May 22 Dead show at the Hollywood Sportatorium in Pembroke Pines, Florida, was partially released as Dick’s Picks Vol. 3.
Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead at Boston Garden – May 7, 1977
After those Dicks Picks volumes its “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” from May 25 at the Mosque in Richmond, Virginia followed by “High Time,” “Passenger” and The Music Never Stopped – Live at the Baltimore Civic Center from the May 26 show at the Baltimore Civic Center.
Fittingly, the playlist ends with the final show of the tour, held on May 28, 1977, at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut, officially released as To Terrapin. Stream the Grateful Dead May 1977 Spotify Playlist below:
