Come On See The Show
On 30 January 1970, the Grateful Dead were in New Orleans to play two shows with Fleetwood Mac and The Flock. The Flock, led by Jerry Goodman on violin, are barely remembered now but were a name on the circuit at the time. The shows were to open a new venue called The Warehouse.
Word on the streets was that NO was not welcoming to hippies, and the Dead had been tipped off by Jefferson Airplane that there would probably be a drug bust. The tip helpfully gave the name of the lawyers Airplane had used when they were busted not long previously.
The show passed off without incident and most of the band went back to the Royal Sonesta Hotel, at 300 Bourbon Street to party. Tom Constanten and Pigpen were elsewhere and Jerry Garcia was out with friends. The Royal Sonesta was the same hotel the Airplane had been in when they were busted.
At the hotel, the police, who already had a warrant, reckoned they could smell marijuana smoke drifting under a room door and started a raid. On Saturday 31 January, between the hours of 3.45 and 4.50 local, officers made a number of arrests including Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann. Also arrested was one Summer Wind, a ‘spiritual advisor’ to the band–in reality Micky Hart, percussionist, and a number of locals. Garcia came back later, and tells his story thus:
In the confusion afterwards, Weir somehow managed to handcuff a cop to a chair.
Garcia, Jerome J.
The band were eventually released on bail and play that night’s gig plus an added night with Fleetwood Mac to raise funds. Eventually, most charges were dropped, supposedly after Warner Brothers paid a bribe donated $50,000 to District Attorney Garrison’s re-election campaign.
The band has always insisted they were set up, as Rolling Stone reported at the time.
The bust had a number of consequences. One was that, amongst those arrested, was Owsley Stanley, described in the Times-Picayune as the ‘King of Acid’. Since this was a breach of the conditions of his parole in California, it took him back to jail, depriving the Dead of a key soundboard taper of shows and also their principal source of pure acid. Another was that the bust added to financial pressures on the band and they resolved to cut their next albums–Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty–quickly. Both albums are revered as classics in their studio output. The raid also led to a couple of verses in one of their more famous songs, appearing later in the year on American Beauty: Truckin’
Sittin’ and starin’ out of the hotel window
Got a tip they’re gonna kick the door in again
I’d like to get some sleep before I travel
But if you got a warrant, I guess you’re gonna come inBusted, down on Bourbon Street
Set up, like a bowlin’ pin
Knocked down, it gets to wearin’ thin
They just won’t let you be
Credit to Alison Fenserstock for the images
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