Music News
Grateful Dead Exhibit Opening in NYC
Opening on March 5th at the New York Historical Society is the first large-scale Grateful Dead exhibit, featuring artifacts and mementos from the Grateful Dead archive.
The exhibit, which focuses on the band's special relationship to the Big Apple, will run through July 4th.
"The Grateful Dead first played New York in 1967 at the Cafe Au Go Go and Central Park and continued to play concerts in New York City every year from the late 1970s up until 1995,” said museum CEO Louise Mirrer.
Other items featured in the show include test pressings, album covers, backstage passes, guest lists, performance contract riders and band merchandise, as well as fan surveys, letters, and Dick Latvala’s (Grateful Dead tape archivist) own notebooks and original tape boxes.
Other notable pieces come in the form of budgets, sketches and equipment lists for the Wall of Sound, plus the marionette skeletons of Jerry Garcia, Bill Kruetzman, and Brent Mydland from the group's 1987 "Touch of Grey" video.
Most of the items were loaned from the Dead Archive, located in Santa Cruz, California, though some were offered up directly from the band and private collectors.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame volunteered Garcia's custom "Rosebud" guitar, which he played through the Nineties until his death.
Also on display at the exhibit are concert posters designed by Dennis Larkins, an artist whose concert poster became an iconic graphic for the band. "I never thought this would be the work [of mine] that would be showcased in a museum," said Larkin.
Meanwhile, Lesh echoed the sentiment. "Who knew we would ever be historic?”
Image used with permission by Getty Images.
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