Raceway Park
Much is documented in Grateful Dead history about this show so I won't repeat what is available. I still may have some news clippings to add later.
A memorable part of the show came during the Halfstep jam - during the relaxed part of that jam, a big bloody red sunset hovered in the sky to the right side of the stage, over the freight cars that had been assembled in a circle to form an outer barrier for the field. Every time since then when I listen to that section, [7-10 minutes into Halfstep], I can re-envision that bloody sunset.
The show was arranged at the end of the summer after the fans expressed disappointment in the inability to get tickets to the Palladium shows and other shows on the Spring leg that year. So a half million or so were able to come see this show. People may have forgotten who else played that day so I put them in the title of the post as well as the GD. Its hard to overstate how much country rock was the big thing at the time. Marshall Tucker, NRPS, Charlie Daniels Band, Outlaws, Skynrd, all of which focused in that genre, joining the existing ranks of rock bands like the Dead, the Allmans and Little Feat which were more broad-based but had focused in on country flavors in their cooking. And of course having NRPS on a bill with the Dead was a longstanding tradition by then.
Going to the bathroom in the back of the field area was an interesting experience, wading through the mud. And it was a long walk back to the car afterwards... the first part of which we had the Terrapin encore accompanying us...
We had driven down from Long Island early in the morning. My friend picked me up before dawn and mentioned that he wasn't feeling too well.... but he was the only one of us who was already 17 and had one of those handy things called a drivers license... He got really ill and let's just say he didn't enjoy the show too much. He declined our offers to take him to the infirmary during the show, and just as we had planned to do, we camped-out in the field where we parked after the show and slept the night. We learned after the fact that our driver friend had an appendicitis attack during the show. He did ok and got us home like a trooper the next day, and we visited him in the hospital we learned how serious this was and how it could have ended much worse for him.
One of the guys with us had his Mother tape the show as it played live over FM radio. (Not an insignificant thing, as several tape flips and changes were involved in getting it on cassette in real time.) The tape became a classic in my collection for years. It was much later I learned about the pre-FM soundboard, which Dick Latvala spoke of early on as something that had to come out, and of course he released it as Dick’s Picks # 15.
Right: Dicks Picks #15 - Dick wrote to us from the great beyond and included this photo of Englishtown 9/3/1977.