06/01/67 Tompkins Square Park, New York, NY

Time sure does fly. Seems like only yesterday that my friends and I went 
off to Tompkins Sq Park in the East Village to see this band from SF called
the Grateful Dead, making their first east coast appearance, a freebie with
a local band you may've heard of, the Fugs. After all these years, I still
know 3 other people who I still see that were there, and we saw our last show
together at shoreline last june.

I don't remember a damn thing they played, nor do any of my friends. Once
again, I'll grovel (on my belly if need be) for a tape of that show, 
which seems to be non existant.

A few things... Anybody walking through the park today may wonder *where*
they played, as the bandshell is long gone. It was at the Southendof the park
(7th st) towards the east, nearer ave B. If you ever go there, you'll figure
its exact location.  At that point in time, smoking banana peels was the thing 
to do ;-) and you had people rolling banana peels, cigarettes and joints and 
smoking whatever out in the open, taunting the cops who wouldn't bust 
anybody because they didn't know just who was smoking what. First time I 
ever smoked a joint in the open and asked a cop looking at me if he wanted a
toke.

The Electric Circus was getting ready to open on St Marks Place

Across the street from the park on Avenue A was the Peace Eye bookstore,
run by Ed Sanders of the Fugs Also on the block was the offices of the 
East Village Other, the local Underground Newspaper. At the Northwest
end of the park and a few doors up were the Psychedelicatessin (sp) and
a few doors from that the Cave, a neat basement club.

Weir was still a teenager.

The New York Times did a front page story on the show and the scene the 
follwing day, and if there was a kickoff event to New Yorks version of 
the Summer Of Love, this was it, although none of us knew it at the time.
The Dead by the way if I remember right, got only a brief (one sentence)
mention.

Throughout the summer, you could catch some dynamite music at the bandshell
on most Fridays.

A few days later, I paid to see my first Dead show, at the cafe Au Go Go
on Bleeker St, a basement club that only held a couple hundred and was 
quite cozy. The Dead played there a few other times, the last in 1969.
You got to sit in a seat at a table and have waitresses hustle you for a
non alcholic drink. during that first run, upstairs at the Garrick 
Theater,you could catch the Mothers of Invention and 2 blocks away at the 
Players theater you could catch the Fugs doing their thing. If you timed 
it right, you could catch all these acts in one evening for under $15.

Wondering just where does the time go.......

Walter Karmazyn