Neil Young's Postponed Concert and a Look Back at 1989
Description
"A Day on the Green: Celebrating 35 Years Since the Legendary Concert"
Larry Mishkin highlights a significant Grateful Dead concert from May 27, 1989, at Oakland Alameda County Stadium, part of an AIDS benefit organized by Bill Graham. The event featured artists like Tracy Chapman, John Fogerty, Los Lobos, Joe Satriani, and the Grateful Dead. Larry delves into Fogerty's set, backed by Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, sharing insights and historical context. He also touches on the canceled Neil Young concert due to illness, expressing disappointment and hope for rescheduling. The episode mixes personal anecdotes, music history, and current events in the music world.
Grateful Dead
May 27, 1989
Oakland Alameda County Stadium
Oakland, CA
A Day On The Green: Aids Benefit Concert:
- Tracy Chapman
an American singer-songwriter, widely known for her hit singles "Fast Car" from her debut album “Tracy Chapman” (1988) and "Give Me One Reason" from her fourth album which on that day was still a few years awat, “New Beginning” (1995). Fast Car has enjoyed a resurgence thanks to Country star, Luke Combs, who’s cover version went platinum in 2023 and by September that year was a No 1 country hit making Chapman the first black woman with a sole songwriting credit at No. 1 on the Country charts.
John Fogerty
Of Credence Clearwater Revival fame
- Los Lobos
- Joe Satriani
an American rock guitarist, composer, and songwriter. Early in his career he worked as a guitar instructor, with many of his former students achieving fame, including Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan, and Alex Skolnick. Satriani went on to have a successful solo music career, starting in the mid-1980s. He is a 15-time Grammy Award nominee and has sold over ten million albums, making him the bestselling instrumental rock guitarist of all time.[3]
In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for his first solo tour.[4] Satriani briefly toured with Deep Purple, joining shortly after another departure of Ritchie Blackmore from the band in November 1993.[5] He has worked with a range of guitarists during the G3 tour, which he founded in 1995.
Tower of Power, and, last but not least Dead
INTRO: Althea
Track #3
From the Go To Heaven album (April, 1980), Garcia and Hunter masterpiece. Always a Jerry favorite and loved by Deadheads everywhere, this was the third song of the show following the Touch of Grey opener (of course) and Greatest Story. Great guitar work, lovely vocals, this song really launches the show and gets everyone in the groove.
Played 273 times
First: August 4, 1979 at Oakland Civic Auditorium, Oakland, CA, USA
Last: July 8, 1995 at Soldier Field, Chicago
The weather for the Day On The Green concert was perfect. Bill Graham, apparently, had an exclusive arrangement with some greater power, so that it never, ever rained when he was having a major outdoor show, and his deal remained in place for the May '89 AIDS Benefit. Another oddity about the AIDS Benefit was that there were no less than five opening acts for the Grateful Dead, which I think was some kind of record for a Bay Area Grateful Dead show. To see that whole event would mean at least 12 hours in the sun, just to wipe yourself out for what we all really wanted to see at the very end.
It seems shocking today that a Benefit concert for a terrible disease would be seen as a progressive political act, but such was the Reagan 80s. At least in San Francisco, efforts to prevent AIDS and provide care for those suffering from it had finally expanded beyond the gay community into the general culture. Nonetheless it was still significant when major rock bands headlined a large benefit concert in the Bay Area's biggest venue. Concern for AIDS had finally reached parity with Amnesty International and the Rain Forest, which was a welcome thing. The Coliseum benefit was the largest of several events around the Bay Area, all organized by Bill Graham Presents, and meant to raise awareness as well as money.
Originally the Oakland show was supposed to have joint headliners, with both the Grateful Dead and Huey Lewis and The News. A few weeks before the show, however, Huey Lewis had to drop out of the show. Rather sheepishly, his management publicly conceded that the stadium show was cutting into ticket sales for Lewis around Northern California, and they couldn't afford to work for what was effectively nothing.
The Dead, of course, had no such concerns. At a press conference, Jerry Garcia graciously said that Huey had to listen to his management, it was part of the business. Huey Lewis And The News were the biggest act in the Bay Area at the time with respect to record sales, and yet the Dead outdrew them by several multiples. The Dead were no longer an aging hippie band who hadn't broken up--they were the biggest draw in town.
By 1989, the Dead were huger than ever, thanks to "Touch Of Grey" – which the Dead opened with - and the Coliseum show was an opportunity for a lot of people who had always wanted to see the Dead but hadn't been been able to get tickets. Frost and Shoreline shows sold out pretty rapidly, so regular rock fans who wanted to see the Dead were out of luck. Thus the crowd was very Dead-positive, with plenty of Deadheads, but far less like the insular club of Deadhead veterans that were characteristic of Bay Area shows at the time.
There were many fascinating aspects to this event, but in retrospect the most fascinating was that former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty was second on the bill, and it was known before the show that Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir would be part of his backing group.
Creedence had been hugely, titanically popular, but Fogerty had been in a bitter dispute with his record company since the mid-70s, and as a result had refused to play any of his great Creedence songs in concert. By 1989, however, although Fogerty's ire towards Fantasy Records had not subsided, for various reasons he had come to terms with his old songs, so it was widely known that not only would Garcia and Weir be backing Fogerty, but that they would be playing Creedence classics as well. Everything pointed towards an event of historic proportions.
There is a You Tube video of the entire Fogerty set that I encourage you to view.
Fogerty had a unique status in the Bay Area at the time, and everyone was reminded of that when word was unofficially "leaked", I believe through Joel Selvin's Chronicle column, that not only would Garcia and Weir back Fogerty, but that Fogerty would be playing old Creedence songs.
John Fogerty hit the stage in the late afternoon, last up before the Grateful Dead. His band, previously announced, was
John Fogerty-lead guitar, vocals
Jerry Garcia-guitar
Bob Weir-guitar
Randy Jackson-bass
Steve Jordan-drums
Jackson and Jordan were well-known and well regarded as session players. Randy Jackson was a working member of Santana's band at the time, among many other gigs. Today, of course, Jackson is best known as a judge for the TV show American Idol, but that was far in his future. Jordan had played the Bay Area recently, on the 1988 tour with Keith Richards, whose album he had co-produced. Fogerty played 11 songs in about 45 minutes.
Born On The Bayou
Green River
Down On The Corner
Rock And Roll Girl
Centerfield
Proud Mary
Mid
United States
