Page 146 New Year’s Shows

New Year’s Eve

1977 was the year they got Jerry Durham to be the New Year’s Baby. Jim Haney, the other babe, loved to drop his drawers, but he’s not allowed to anymore. The crew kept trying to get Durham to drop his- yelling at him and offering him hundred dollar bills, but he wouldn’t do it. Bill Graham practiced three months for the stunt of the motorcycle on the wire. It was dangerous, as many of his new Year’s Eve extravaganzas have been over the years. Mostly dressed as Father Time, since 1976 he’s flown in over the audience on a joint, a motorcycle, dressed as an eagle, on a mirrored ball; come out of a truck dressed as a butterfly; rode in on a giant skull, a giant mushroom, a globe, a lightning bolt, on the Golden Gate Bridge and an hourglass.

I have no idea what lies in the future for the Grateful Dead. We’re constantly trying to find something new and really worth doing. And it’s hard to do. It’s hard to figure out a whole new approach to presenting music. We plan to just let things happen. That’s the one way I know of. If you try to make it happen, you can make anything happen, if you try hard enough, but you may be wrong. If it happens on its own accord, chances are it will be right. – Bob Weir

Look Ma, no hands!!! Bill Graham plays Father Time putting his life on a wire for the band.

Photo Credits: Stanley – Snooky Flowers, others – Ed Perlstein