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| 998 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, in August 2009. This is the building that housed The Big Beat, site of the December 1965 Acid Test. |
Grateful Dead Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Stanford Landmark Guide
The So Many Roads Grateful Dead Conference on November 5-8, 2014 will be a celebration of the history and legacy of the Grateful Dead. The Conference is jointly hosted by San Jose State University and the University of California at Santa Cruz. Although the two universities are separated by the Santa Cruz Mountains, they are less than 25 miles apart. While the Grateful Dead are rightly recognized worldwide as a San Francisco band, the counties south of San Francisco played a huge part in Dead history as well.
Grateful Dead fans who visit the Bay Area don't always realize how near they often are to various sites where the Grateful Dead or its members performed, or at least plotted world domination. In honor of the So Many Roads conference, I am going to rectify this by writing posts that identify important sites in Grateful Dead history in geographic areas. I began this series with a post about the Grateful Dead's history in Santa Cruz County. I have recently completed a similar post about San Jose and the South Bay, and this post will be about landmarks in Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Stanford University.
The "South Bay" Versus "The Peninsula"
The county just south of San Francisco is San Mateo County, running along San Francisco Bay from South San Francisco to Menlo Park. Just South of the Menlo Park line, Santa Clara County runs from Palo Alto to San Jose to Gilroy and beyond. Back in the 60s and 70s, and perhaps still, residents of most of the towns in San Mateo County along the Bay refer to their region as "The Peninsula." San Jose and some of its nearby suburban towns, like Santa Clara and Cupertino, were referred to as "The South Bay." Palo Alto residents, however, despite being part of Santa Clara County, generally thought of themselves as part of "The Peninsula." Palo Alto does have an outlet on San Francisco Bay, but the primary reason that Palo Alto assigned itself to the Peninsula and not the South Bay was snobbery towards San Jose.
Palo Alto was invented out of thin air by railroad magnate Leland Stanford in 1875, who needed a town to host his planned University. He offered to let the town of Mayfield be the host, on the condition that they close their saloons (Mayfield was situated on what is now California Avenue in Palo Alto). Mayfield refused. So Stanford and his partner Timothy Hopkins bought up all the land between Menlo Park and Mayfield, and built up the town of Palo Alto. The no-saloons rule was written into the Palo Alto city charter.
Downtown Palo Alto generally thrived until the 1950s. By 1950, Stanford University, land-rich but cash poor, needed to do something to generate income, and developed the Stanford Shopping Center just across El Camino Real. The stores in Downtown Palo Alto steadily declined for the next 40 years. In the 1960s, the area was the province of funky bohemians like Jerry Garcia and his friends, since rents were cheap. There were some restaurants that served beer, but still no bars. At the same time, Menlo Park provided an equally cheap, if unheralded, alternative, while Stanford University provided at least the faint whiff of bohemian life as well.
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| An ad for The Big Beat from the San Mateo Times, June 24, 1966. |
One of the principal events in the founding of the Grateful Dead was Ken Kesey's Acid Test at the Big Beat Club in Palo Alto on December 18, 1965 (I do not subscribe to the timeline that locates the Big Beat event on December 11). Tom Wolfe wrote about it in Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and among many other remarkable events it was where Owsley Stanley introduced manager Rock Scully to the Grateful Dead, and where Hugh Romney--known today as Wavy Gravy--first got on the bus, too. However, the location or even the nature of The Big Beat club remained shrouded in mystery. As a Palo Alto native, I found it odd that such a seminal location had gotten lost in the mists of time. A search of the regular sources (Dennis McNally, Rock Scully, etc) did not reveal the location, and indeed there were many contradictions. I have been in email contact with people who attended the event, and they themselves could not recall the exact location of The Big Beat.
Determined newspaper research finally revealed the location of The Big Beat (the article and ad above are from the June 24, 1966 edition of the San Mateo Times). I was even more startled to go to the actual site and discover that the building at 998 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, pictured above in my photo (from August 7, 2009), apparently remained intact. While the well-kept building was vacant, it still looked very much like the 1960s pizza parlor and dance club where the Dead played an acid test.
San Antonio Road was in the far Southeast corner of Palo Alto, quite far from Stanford University and the bohemian downtown scene that had spawned Jerry Garcia, Joan Baez and others. In fact the location of the club, in a then-deserted industrial district near Highway 101, insured that most of the customers probably came from Mountain View, Los Altos and Sunnyvale as much as Palo Alto. The groups featured were local combos who played dance music, probably with a mixture of British Invasion, Surf and R&B (i.e. Motown) covers. The focus would have been on dancing and meeting members of the opposite sex, with beer and music for lubrication [Palo Alto geographical note: San Antonio Road is actually the frontage road off the larger San Antonio Avenue, and you have to access San Antonio Road from East Charleston].
Ironically enough, The Big Beat's lasting fame came the weekend before it opened, when Ken Kesey's crew rented the place for a party, and The Grateful Dead played at The Acid Test. Hard as it may seem to grasp today, LSD was perfectly legal, and people drank electrified kool-aid and raved the night away. The cops did not like Kesey's Pranksters, and when they found out about an event they hovered around, hoping to bust people for pot (then a serious felony), but LSD use itself was legal and open.
While it was startling to find The Big Beat intact after 46 years, I was fortunate to get there when I did: by the end of the Summer of 2011, the building had been torn down. Sic transit gloria psychedelia.
Downtown Palo Alto
This section of the post is organized as an East-to-West walking tour. The sites are close together since, rather unlike Jerry's day, it's difficult to drive and impossible to park in Downtown P.A. What is striking is to note how close together all these places were, an indication of how tightly knit the little scene really was.
Hamilton Street House, 436 Hamilton Ave near Waverley St, Palo Alto, CA 94301
After the Chateau's landlord stopped taking on new boarders in 1963, much of the crew moved to "The Hamilton Street House." It was a crumbling old Victorian at 436 Hamilton Avenue (not Street), near Waverley Street. Hunter, Nelson and many others in the crew lived there, and it became a regular hangout for Garcia and others (Garcia knew the house because former girlfriend Phoebe Grabuard had lived there). The house has long since been torn down. The Wells Fargo Bank at that location surely replaced it and many other buildings.
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| The site of the house on Gilman Street and Hamilton Avenue, behind the old Post Office, where Jerry Garcia, David Nelson and others first dropped acid in 1965, is now a parking lot. The Palo Alto Farmers Market is held there, with no apparent ill effects. |
In early 1965, Jerry, Sara and Heather Garcia lived on Bryant Court, next to Johnson Park and near downtown. But Nelson, Rick Shubb and others moved to another old house, which they refer to as "The Gilman Street House." This was where Garcia and others first took LSD. The house was behind the old Post Office, and it too has long since been torn down. It is now a parking lot, and the site of the Palo Alto Farmer's Market. The Warlocks were formed when Nelson and Shubb lived in the Gilman Street House.
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| The site of the "Waverley Street House" (probably 661 Waverley), where Jerry and Sara Garcia, Rick Shubb and others moved in late 1965, after the Gilman Street House, has long since been replaced by a condo development. |
When the Gilman Street House was no longer viable, Rick Shubb took a lease on a house on Waverley Street, near Forest Avenue. The address was probably 661 Waverley Street. I recall this house from 1969. It was massive and painted purple and it had at least two turrets rising on either side of the house (I asked my architect father if we could have turrets in our house, but he said "no"). It was quite a striking structure amidst the tiny downtown houses and modest commercial establishments.
Jerry and Sara Garcia were tenants in the Waverley Street House when the Warlocks started to play El Camino Real, and when the Grateful Dead were formed. Members of The New Delhi River Band, including David Nelson, lived a few blocks away on Channing Avenue. How much time the perpetually wandering Jerry actually spent at Waverley Street remains obscure, but the Waverley Street house was his residence in late '65/early '66, until the Dead moved to Los Angeles with Owsley.
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| You should always go to Peet's when you need coffee. If you go to the one on 436 University Avenue in Palo Alto, you'll be at the site of St. Michael's Alley, where Garcia and Hunter first cemented their friendship in 1961. |
Downtown Palo Alto's first true bohemian establishment was a coffee shop that served espresso, called St. Michael's Alley. Besides espresso, it also had folk music. It appealed to Lockheed engineers living in Palo Alto who wanted a bit of culture. All the bohemians hung out there, too, because you could nurse a 50-cent cup of coffee all night. When Jerry Garcia met Robert Hunter at the theater where Garcia did the lights (The Commedia Del'Arte, probably at Emerson and Hamilton), they went out the next night to St. Michael's Alley. Garcia, Hunter and Alan Trist raved until closing time, although they probably bought nothing.
Robert Hunter was a dishwasher at St. Michael's Alley at one point. The Warlocks actually auditioned for a gig there, but owner Vernon Gates thought they were terrible. There had been a pot bust in 1964, obviously a kind of police sting, and many of the Lockheed engineers could no longer go to St. Michael's Alley because they were afraid of losing their security clearances. The remaining patrons like Garcia and Hunter, obviously not afraid of losing their clearances, never actually bought much, and the coffee shop had to close in 1966. Gates re-opened St. Michael's Alley a few blocks away, at 800 Emerson Street (near Homer Avenue), in 1973, as one of downtown's first "nice" restaurants. He said that the patrons were the same people as before, but by this time, they had money. The new St. Michael's Alley occasionally had music, and Robert Hunter even played there once in 1980.
Today, the site of the original St. Michael's Alley at 436 University Avenue (at Kipling) is a Peet's Coffee. Peet's, of course, is the destination of all discerning coffee drinkers anyway, so stop off for a Triple Espresso and hang out, remembering that one night long ago when two bearded young guys spent the whole night there thinking about what the world might bring.
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| The rear of 534 Bryant Street in Palo Alto (in a parking lot facing Ramona Street). On New Year's Eve 1963, Bob Weir and Bob Matthews heard banjo music from the back of Dana Morgan Music, as Jerry Garcia idly picked away, wondering why his students weren't showing up. |
There were several music stores in downtown Palo Alto, serving student, amateur and professional musicians. Jerry Garcia gave guitar and banjo lessons at Dana Morgan Music, and Bob Weir gave lessons too, at 534 Bryant Street, between University and Hamilton Avenues. Dana Morgan's son was the first bassist of The Warlocks, and his presence insured that the band could borrow instruments and amplifiers from the store without actually paying for them. However, Dana Morgan Jr was not a particularly good bass player, so the Warlocks replaced him with another guy.
There was a back entrance to the Dana Morgan store, in an alley backed onto Ramona Street. Long after Dana Morgan Music had closed, the parking lot behind it had a painted sign for the back entrance that said "Dana Morgan Music," stenciled like a "No Parking Sign." This marked the spot on New Year's Eve 1963 when Bob Weir and Bob Matthews heard banjo music coming from the back of the store, and wondered who was playing. It was Jerry Garcia of course, wondering why his banjo students weren't showing up. Weir and Garcia's meeting, among many other things, led directly to this blog.
Dana Morgan himself was never that comfortable with his role in Grateful Dead history. Dana Morgan Jr seems to have died young, and that may have played a part. At some point, I forget when, Dana Morgan retired and the store closed. The site is now a Duxiana Luxury Bed Store.
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| The restored Stanford Theater in 2011, in far better shape than when Bob Weir and Kingfish played there on New Year's Eve 1974 (and again on September 13, 1975) |
The Stanford Theater was a downtown movie theater, opened in 1925. It was near Ramona Street, and not far from Dana Morgan Music. By 1974, the rundown old hall had a brief run as a concert venue. Bob Weir and Kingfish played there on New Year's Eve, 1974, and again on September 13, 1975. The theater has since been restored and converted back to its old use as The Stanford Theater
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| The New Riders of The Purple Sage are advertised for a Thursday night at The Poppycock in Palo Alto, at 135 University Avenue, in November 1969 |
The Poppycock had a critical role in Palo Alto rock history, though only a trivial one in Jerry Garcia history. A few doors East of the Tangent, on the corner of University and High Street, The Poppycock opened as a Fish and Chips joint in 1967 (this counted as exotic cuisine at the time). Since it could serve beer, and there were no bars, it was sort of a hippie hangout. The Poppycock soon became a miniature concert venue, and the groups that played The Matrix or The New Orleans House played The Poppycock as well. The New Riders Of The Purple Sage were booked there at least twice in November 1969 (although they may have canceled one those gigs).
The Poppycock became a jazz club called In Your Ear in 1971, and it burned down in 1972. The rebuilt structure has served a variety of commercial purposes since then.
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| The considerably remodeled site of The Tangent, on 117 University Avenue (at Alma Circle), as it appeared in 2011. At the time, it was s still a pleasant dive sports bar called Rudy's. |
The Tangent was a deli and pizza joint at the end of University Avenue, almost at Alma Street, and very near the train station. In January 1963, two bored doctors financed a "folk club" in a room above the deli. It was known as The Top Of The Tangent. The little room, seating perhaps 75, presented performers on Friday and Saturday nights. Wednesday was hoot night, and some of the better hoot participants got to open for the visiting acts on weekends. Bob Weir and some friends debuted on a hoot night (as The Uncalled Four). Remarkably, in the Summer of '65, The Warlocks played hoot night a few times, as they had nowhere else to play, and there was no actual prohibition to playing electric.
For many years, 117 University was a pleasant sort of dive sports bar called Rudy's, but it closed around 2013. Access to the actual Top Of The Tangent now appears to be through the doorway to 119 University Avenue, right next to 117, but clearly part of the same building. For some time, 119 University was headquarters of a company called MindTribe, which seems appropriate for the location. Continuing the theme, MindTribe seems to have moved to San Francisco after a few years.
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| No trace whatsoever remains of the dilapidated warehouses behind the Town And Country Village Shopping Center, where Homer's Warehouse was housed in a Quonset hut (it is now a hospital parking structure) |
Homer's Warehouse was an actual warehouse that had been turn into a sort of burgers-n-beer biker joint. Initially, in 1971, it was run almost illicitly, with the aged owner having no clue that bikers were hanging out in his warehouse (nor why the entertainment would be provided by some mysterious "Doobie Brothers"). By late 1972, the place had been taken over by local impresario Andrew Bernstein, once a banjo student of Jerry Garcia's, and the club was run on an almost business-like basis. With no other rock clubs in the South Bay, Homer's Warehouse booked all the bands that played at clubs like the Keystone Berkeley.
Both the Garcia-Saunders group and Old And In The Way played a number of shows at Homer's Warehouse in 1973. Old And In The Way played one of their very first shows at there, on March 8, 1973. On July 24, 1973, they also played a show that was broadcast on KZSU-fm, the 10-watt Stanford radio station, which has since circulated widely. Although KZSU only had a range of about 10 miles, the broadcast still served to give at least one local teenager--me--his first taste of actual bluegrass music. Eventually reality and regulation caught up with Homer's Warehouse, and the fondly remembered club was shut down by 1974 (for the whole story, and more, see Bernstein's book California Slim: The Music, The Magic and The Madness).
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| Bob Weir, Dave Torbert and Kingfish, sharing the bill with Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders, and performing at El Camino Park in Palo Alto on June 8, 1975. The Grateful Dead had played a Be-In at the park on June 24, 1967 (photo (c) David Gans) |
El Camino Park is Palo Alto's oldest park, first opened in 1914. It is between Alma Street and El Camino Real, on the Menlo Park/Palo Alto border. It is an easy walk from downtown, and just across the street from the Stanford Shopping Center. The park looks toward El Palo Alto, the tall tree that gives the city its name.
The Grateful Dead played a Be-In at El Camino Park, on July 2, 1967, soon after the Monterey Pop Festival. Also on the bill were The Anonymous Artists of America and the Sons Of Champlin. Some eyewitnesses recall different things, but that is par for the course for a Be-In (for some pictures of the event, see here). Palo Alto was pretty relaxed, and had several more free concerts in El Camino Park in 1967 and 1968 (you can read about the last one, on September 29, 1968, here--check out the pictures), but the Dead did not perform. On June 8, 1975, Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders and also Kingfish (with Bob Weir) performed at El Camino Park, albeit not for free, but there has not been a rock concert at the park since.
Due to underground construction related to the emergency water supply, El Camino Park will be closed until 2015.
Alta Mesa Cemetary, 695 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Pigpen's grave is at Alta Mesa Cemetary, just above Foothill Expressway. The location is Plot: Hillview Sec.Bb16 Lot 374.
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| David Nelson and Jerry Garcia performing with the New Riders of The Purple Sage at Peninsula School in Menlo Park, CA on May 19, 1970 (photo courtesy of and (c) Michael Parrish) |
Menlo Park
Palo
Alto residents and natives always make sure that as much of World History as possible
revolves around Palo Alto. At various times, we have had to invent
things like Google, Mapquest and the iPhone to insure that Palo Alto
remains the gravitational center of the universe. However, it is typical
Palo-centricity to give short shrift to any of the towns that surround
it. The
Grateful Dead are rightly pegged as a Palo Alto band, but much of their
critical early history took place in Menlo Park, the town next door.
Downtown Menlo Park is not far at all from Palo Alto, but Palo Altans
like to re-write history so that all the historical locations in Menlo
Park appear to have been in Palo Alto.
Veterans Administration Hospital, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Menlo Park got its start as an actual town when the United States joined World War 1. Since pastoral Menlo Park was similar to rural France, a huge American training facility was created in Menlo Park. As a byproduct, a hospital was created nearby. Over time, though the military outpost left soon after the war, the hospital was turned over to the Veterans Administration. It was at the Menlo Park VA where some of the earliest experiments on LSD were done, and where Ken Kesey and Robert Hunter were part of those experiments. The Menlo Park VA was also where Kesey was an intern, inspiring One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest.
The building is still a medical facility. I'm not aware of any ongoing experiments.
[update 2024] I have since learned that Kesey was employed at what is now the Palo Alto VA Medical Center at 3801 Miranda, near Gunn High School
Peninsula School, 925 Peninsula Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Peninsula School was a K-8
school founded in 1925 and by all indications is still going strong. It
was always a place for forward looking, free-thinking people, and by
the 1950s it was the private school of choice for the progressive,
ban-the-bomb, anti-McCarthy type parents who were common in the South
Bay and the Peninsula (if few other places). This isn't speculation on my part--my Mother
was offered a teaching job at Peninsula School in the early 1950s, thus
escaping Long Island and allowing her to marry my Father, leading
directly to (among other things) this blog.
In the 1960s, while Peninsula parents were somewhat older than the
Beatniks and proto-hippies who would make up the Grateful Dead, they
weren't scared of them. Students who attended the school included John
"Marmaduke" Dawson, writer Greil Marcus and me (albeit not at the same
time). When the New Riders played Peninsula, Dawson alluded to the fact
that Bob Weir had briefly attended the school as well (Weir apparently
attended many schools briefly). Dawson would have completed 8th grade
around 1961, and Weir's timing would have had to have been similar.
Given the tiny world of those of an open mind in the South Bay, its not
surprising that there were many connections between the Grateful Dead
and Peninsula school. Among the notable events:
- Sometime in 1961, Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter do their first paid performance, billed as "Jerry And Bob." They are paid $5.
- In June 1969, members of the Grateful Dead try out a version of what will become the New Riders of The Purple Sage. Exactly who performed remains a mystery
- In the Fall of 1969, the New Riders Of The Purple Sage do an afternoon gig at Peninsula, with Phil Lesh on bass (recalled by then-Peninsula student Steve Marcus). They played outside the main campus building.
- On May 19, 1970, the New Riders played another afternoon show at Peninsula. There are tremendous photographs of this show, by Michael Parrish.
- On May 28, 1971, the New Riders were booked for yet another outdoor show, on the afternoon before a Grateful Dead Winterland show. However, Garcia was very sick that night. The Winterland show was rescheduled, and the New Riders played Peninsula as quartet, without Garcia, on the porch of the main building.
Kesey's house, 9 Perry Avenue [Lane], Menlo Park, CA 94025
Tom Wolfe immortalized Ken Kesey's house on Perry Lane in his book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. According to no less of an authority than the Archivist at the Palo Alto Historical Association, Kesey's "Perry Lane" house was on the site of today's current Perry Avenue, at Vine Street and near Sand Hill Avenue. The actual address was 9 Perry Avenue, but the Pranksters called it "Perry Lane" because it sounded better to them. At the time, the area was in unincorporated San Mateo County, with a mailing address of Menlo Park (although it may have since been incorporated into Menlo Park proper). The houses that were associated with Kesey's activities have long since been torn down and replaced by newer structures, but the current Perry Avenue is the site of Perry Lane in Kesey mythology. For the complete story of what it was like to live next to Kesey, see the blog post here.
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| The backyard of "The Chataeu", 2100 Santa Cruz Avenue, sometime in the mid-70s |
In the early 60s, Jerry Garcia, David Nelson, Bob Hunter and many others lived in a rambling house near the Southern end of Santa Cruz Avenue called "The Chateau." The Chateau was located at the end of Santa Cruz Avenue (2100 Santa Cruz at Campo Bello Lane). It was a true hangout, with a dozen rooms and a party in all of them. Most stories about hanging out with Jerry in the old days generally refer to The Chateau. The Chateau was within easy walking distance of Kesey's pad, so the Chateua crowd regularly crashed their parties.
update: former resident Bob sends in some more pictures of the Chateau, circa early 70s
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| The front of 2100 Santa Cruz Avenue, formerly "The Chateau", in the early 1970s (photo by former resident Bob) |
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| The back of 2100 Santa Cruz Avenue, formerly "The Chateau", in the early 1970s (photo by former resident Bob) |
Kepler's Books, 825 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Roy Kepler founded his famous bookstore at 825 El Camino Real in 1955, and it was the first bookstore in the South Bay that allowed patrons to sit and read, drink coffee, hang out or play music, perfect for the budding bohemians who would become San Francisco's psychedelic rockers. All sorts of key events took place at Kepler's, such as David Nelson and Peter Albin (later in Big Brother) meeting Jerry Garcia for the first time, when Jerry was holding court in the back of Kepler's with a guitar. Jerry Garcia probably met his first wife (Sara Ruppenthal) here as well, though she was also from Palo Alto. Everybody in Palo Alto hung out at Kepler's, and did so well into the 70s.
Kepler's Books has since moved across the street (to 1010 El Camino Real). The site of the original store is currently a Leather Furniture Store.
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| Menlo Park, CA Girl Scout Troop 19 in 1970 or '71, no doubt commemorating the Warlocks' debut at Magoo's Pizza, at 639 Santa Cruz Avenue (I believe this was actually a Christmas Parade) |
In 1965, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Pigpen and many others had a jug band, but the band had almost no gigs other than poorly paying ones at Palo Alto's only folk club, The Tangent. Pigpen urged Garcia to form an electric blues band, and the Warlocks were born. However, there were no gigs to be had in Palo Alto. Thus the first Warlocks gig was in Menlo Park, at a pizza parlor in Menlo Park. After a lot of research, I have determined that Magoo's Pizza was at 639 Santa Cruz (at Doyle). It is currently a furniture store called Harvest.
The Warlocks first played Magoo's on Wednesday May 5, 1965, and they played every Wednesday in May. The club was packed with students from Menlo Atherton High School, along with some boys from the nearby Menlo School, thanks to shrewd campaigning by the group's first fans. However, despite the promising start to the young band, bassist Dana Morgan was not cutting it. Garcia's friend Phil Lesh saw the last Wednesday night gig (on May 26), and Garcia invited him to replace Morgan. (Various residents of The Gilman Street House helped teach Phil Lesh to play electric bass).
Menlo School, 50 Valparaiso Avenue, Atherton, CA 94027
In the Fall of 1965, The Warlocks played a dance at the Menlo School. The Menlo School was an all-boy prep school (running from 9th grade to the first two years of college) that was designed as a feeder school for Stanford. I have recently learned that Bob Weir briefly attended Menlo School. Many of the kids who went to Magoo's would have been Menlo Students, and the Menlo dance was probably a "Mixer" held in the Student Union building. The Mixer was primarily a chance for Menlo boys to meet actual girls, so memories of the bands that played may be sparse. I wrote about what we do know about this show elsewhere.
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| 1035 El Camino Real was the site of Guitars Unlimited (the Su Hong restaurant in this photo). |
Since Dana Morgan Jr had been fired from the Warlocks, the band was not welcome to use equipment from the store, nor were Garcia and Weir wanted as guitar instructors. Both Garcia and Weir got jobs at a music store called Guitars Unlimited on 1035 El Camino Real, right near Santa Cruz Avenue. Both of them brought their own guitar students with them, an attactive proposition even though Garcia in particular had what was perceived as a "menacing" demeanor. Of course, the band promptly borrowed equipment from Guitars Unlimited.
Throughout the balance of 1965, The Warlocks struggled with trying to make it like a normal South Bay band, mostly playing up and down the El Camino Real. Things started to change at the end of the year, however, as they began to play Kesey's Acid Tests. While the band played at the infamous Big Beat Acid Test in South Palo Alto, they still had not yet had a paying gig in Palo Alto. By 1966, things were developing at a rapid pace, and in February the newly-named Grateful Dead took off to Los Angeles with their patron Owsley Stanley, to help put on Acid Tests in Southern California. Of course, the band took all their equipment from Guitars Unlimited. Whether the band eventually paid for them is not clear. Still, it appears that Garcia had work on his equipment done at Guitars Unlimited as least as late as 1969. The site of Guitars Unlimited is currently the Su Hong restaurant.
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| An ad for The Underground hofbrau, at 925 El Camino (in the Apr 4 Stanford Daily) |
The story of Jerry Garcia and Menlo Park was not quite over, however. In April 1969, while on tour in Colorado, Garcia bought a pedal steel guitar. Looking for an opportunity to play the instrument, he discovered that old Los Altos pal John Dawson was performing his own songs at a Hofbrau in Menlo Park called The Underground, somewhere on El Camino Real in Menlo Park. Another old South Bay friend, David Nelson, without a band at the time, joined in playing electric guitar.
Dawson, Nelson and Garcia would go on to found the New Riders of The Purple Sage, although they would not be known by that name until August. The trio played most Wednesday nights at The Underground, however starting May 7 (probably May 14, May 21 and June 4 also, and possibly June 18). Their last gig at The Underground was probably June 25. It is a little-remarked fact that the first gigs of both the future Grateful Dead and the future New Riders took place within walking distance of each other in downtown Menlo Park.
update: it turns out the exact location of The Underground was 925 El Camino Real, right next to Kepler's.
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| An ad in the Stanford Daily for the Grateful Dead's performance at the Student Union on October 14, 1966. There were no concerts at the Student Union after this (the ad is from the Cryptical Developments blog) |
Back in the 1960s, although somewhat respectable, Stanford did not have nearly the intellectual cachet that it does today. The sprawling, sleepy campus was largely empty. Many of the wealthier students had cars, and so went to San Francisco to enjoy themselves. Still, campus institutions provided entertainment and distraction for the local residents who lived nearby.
Stanford Coffee House, 459 Lagunita Dr, Stanford, CA 94305
In the early 60s, there were few coffee houses in the Peninsula or South Bay, but one of them was at Stanford. It being a coffee shop and all, folk musicians played there. There is a famous photo of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter (on bass) earnestly playing at the Stanford Coffee House. I don't think musicians were really "booked" at the Coffee House, I think they just sort of got up and played, but this is a rare instance where we have photographic evidence that Dead members were there. The Coffee House has been part of numerous remodels over the years, and surely bears no resemblance to where Garcia and Hunter played in days gone by.
Tressider Memorial Union Deck, 459 Lagunita Dr, Stanford, CA 94305
The Tressider Memorial Union is the locus of the Stanford campus, and has always provided numerous student services as well as a cafeteria and coffee house. Around 1966, before Stanford University became very uneasy about rock music on campus, there were numerous rock concerts at Tressider. They were billed as "Tressider Memorial Deck" but whether this was at the front of the building or the rear is unclear. Some remarkable research posted in the Cryptical Developments blog (from whence I got the Stanford Daily ad above) included a fascinating anonymous Comment:
The TMU deck was a second story deck above the bowling alley that was originally in the lower space (now an exercise center and restaurants). Decades later they built a second story up there, at first a student computer center (pre-laptop days) and now offices and meeting rooms.However, the Dead definitely played there on October 14, 1966. This seems to have been the last concert at Tressider--hmm, could things have gotten out of hand?
Roscoe Maples Pavilion, 655 Campus Dr, Stanford, CA 94305
Maples Pavilion was completed in 1969, replacing the tiny arena nearby (now known as Old Pavilion). Maples had a capacity of 7,392, and it is still the school's primary basketball facility. Stanford has always had a very uneasy history of allowing its venues to be used for rock concerts. As a result, Maples has only been used occasionally for concerts, Ray Charles having been first in 1969. Nonetheless, the few shows at Maples have generally been pretty memorable. The Dead's sole appearance at Maples, on February 9, 1973, was memorable indeed, since they broke out 7 new songs that night. The floor was so springy that Keith Godchaux had difficulty playing his grand piano as it bounced up and down.
Frost Amphitheater, Galvez St at Campus Dr, Stanford, CA 94305
Frost Amphitheater was built in 1937. The terraced, grassy bowl, capacity 6900, remains one of the nicest venues in the Bay Area, or frankly anywhere. Although it was really too large for 60s rock, it was still used a few times up until 1967, when Stanford seems to have put a moratorium on rock concerts. In 1970, Stanford lifted the ban, and there were a series of rock concerts that escalated into some very ill-handled events in 1971, causing Stanford to ban rock groups again from Frost.
With some Stanford-only logic, jazz groups were ok at Frost, so Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders played Frost in 1971 (and the New Riders opened for Miles Davis in '72). Various promoters occasionally used Frost, and Bob Weir and Kingfish opened for Eric Clapton in 1975. After some fits and starts, Bill Graham managed to get access to Frost again in the 1980s, and that began a very memorable run of summer concerts at Frost from 1982 to 1989. However, by the end of the decade the Dead were simply too large for Frost, and Stanford itself did not need the concert revenue. To my knowledge, Frost is only used for campus events now.
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| Robert Hunter fronting Roadhog (Jim McPherson in the background) in Spring 1976, at a "Nooner" part at the Beta Pi Fraternity at Stanford University (photo courtesy of and (c) Bill Kn) |
The Beta Pi Fraternity established a tradition of afternoon parties known as "Nooners." Since the Beta Pi Fraternity is no longer active on the Stanford Campus, I can' say exactly where the house was. Robert Hunter seems to have played a Nooner twice, first with Roadhog in Spring 1976 and then with Comfort in Spring 1978. The person who sent me the picture from the 1976 event told me that when they requested permission to book Robert Hunter's band, they were told that the Grateful Dead were banned from the Stanford campus. That 1966 Tressider show is sounding more and more interesting.
