Watch Grateful Dead Perform ‘Playing In The Band’ At Winterland In 1974
Check out the footage that was featured in ‘The Grateful Dead Movie’ as well as the full +30-minute version.
By Scott Bernstein May 5, 2022 • 9:48 am PDT
The Grateful Dead‘s performance of “Playing In The Band” from an October 16, 1974 concert in San Francisco is the week’s installment of the All The Years Live video series. Filmed at Winterland, the footage is featured in The Grateful Dead Movie.
The Grateful Dead Movie documents the band’s five-night run at Winterland that spanned October 16 – 20, 1974. The concerts marked the end of an era for the Dead as they came before a hiatus from touring that would continue until June 1976. Directed by Jerry Garcia and released in 1977, the 132-minute film mixed live concert footage with an animated vignette, interviews with band members and footage of the community of Deadheads that formed around the group.
“By the end of the Europe ’72 tour, ‘Playing In The Band’ had stretched out to close to 20 minutes, where it would remain (and much longer many nights) for the next two+ years, through the end of 1974,” wrote GD archivist David Lemieux in a note accompanying the video. “This is the version that appeared in the Grateful Dead Movie and was included in its uncut entirety on the CD soundtrack to the Movie, released on 2004.”
See the portion of the song shared today on YouTube by the Grateful Dead along with a fan-made visual featuring the full +30-minute “Playing In The Band” performed on October 16, 1974 below:
