Phil Lesh’s recollection of the Dead’s gig at the Chelsea Hotel
A few days ago, I pointed out that deadlists.com lists a Grateful Dead performance at the Chelsea Hotel on 8/10/67. [Check out the comments on my original post.]
In Searching for the Sound, Phil Lesh shared his recollection of that gig at the Chelsea:
The Diggers had decided to export their trip to swinging London but didn’t have the wherewithal to get there. Their chief honcho, Emmett Grogan, knew some people in New York and set up a sort of benefit on the roof of the Chelsea attended by such luminaries as Shirley Clarke, the theatrical director, and artist Andy Warhol, who entered looking like an ambulatory black hole. The idea was to hustle ticket money for Grogan and a couple of the other Diggers; hence the name “Trip Without A Ticket.” We played a few tunes, and even did a little vocal rap — “it’s the money, honey” — and to this day I don’t know if they ever got their tickets covered, or even got to London at all. It was kind of cool, playing on a rooftop in New York, but whatever energy we could muster fell flat on the floor, oozing over to Warhol’s feet where it disappeared into the singularity. Not a fun event; the New York vibe was asserting its darker side that night.