Grateful Dead @ Woodstock 8-16-69 • Mama Tried

[MB64]

For a great audio version of this tune, check out the Grateful Dead's May 1977 performance at Barton Hall, Cornell University. Find it on deadpod. A first-rate show, with a top-notch Mama Tried.

[SStoge21]

It rained that day and everyone was getting shocked but hey what a "shocking" experience, right?

[snmthecloser]

PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE HAG!!

[cunnidvd]

priceless history. thanks for posting.

[getoffwelfare]

i love how people who watch this video and love the dead often refer to books they read and give us information most of has heard over and over again. just sayin...i love it.

[gorethem]

Great video. I favorited it. Thanks for putting it up on here.

[eslmc]

Sounds alright to me?! They could have put this in just to represent.

Just sayin'

[journeybear]

I see at imdb.com: "Woodstock: The Lost Performances" (1990) with a dozen acts (but not them), "Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock" (1999) (no Dead, of course), and the delightful "Taking Woodstock" (2009), a great back story but no concert footage. So far, no "Woodstock II." Don't hold your breath!

Funny - there were two albums, "Woodstock" and "Woodstock II," but it seems some indelible performances from the movie by Sly and Janis didn't make the cut there either. And no Dead, of course ;-).

[1greypilgrim]

At :50 Jerry's like "Hey, man, I'm getting zapped or something, hey what the hell was that? Is that my mind or the rain rrrrrrr?"

[NeuferP]

First off I love The Grateful Dead. I like this Woodstock performance although I have seen better. Pick,any band and put them in the same *moment* the Dead were at Woodstock, who would give their most inspired performance? So what if they didn't get in the movie! Nobody can deny the great spirit of The Grateful Dead. Generous, humble and good time crazy. Keep tryin' mama!

[journeybear]

@NeuferP The reason they "didn't get in the movie" was they refused to be included. They had a terrible time - getting dosed, getting shocked - and hated their performance. Is the movie incomplete because of their absence? Yes. Could there have been even one song good enough to make it into the movie? I'd like to think so, but it's not my call, nor anyone else's. I'll abide by their decision.

[NeuferP]

@journeybear I hear you journeybear. The band declined the movie, yep. Maybe there'll be a sequel movie LOL.

[jwalsh671]

I'm impressed! I've heard nothing positive about the Dead's performance at Woodstock, but this was solid!

[lafermetagueule]

The Dead's performance of Mama Tried is a classic (but not the Woodstock version, like everything at Woodstock). But just doing it at Woodstock was classic enough.

[davidsliltruck]

Never really liked the dead much but after hearing this it changed my mind,they done a excellent version of haggards song.

[TrueSchmoo]

regardless of what went wrong for the dead at this show this is a great version of the song, and jerry smiling right before he starts to sing the chorus is enough to make me watch this over and over.

nothin' left to do but smile, smile, smile.

[togaroc345]

and the stage almost blew over. they had to climb up and cut holes in the tapestry, to keep it from acting like a sail. it was moving the stage.

[truegangsteroflove]

Given the circumstances, this has to be one of their greatest performances. I can't imagine what it must have been like, playing in the rain with no ground, getting shocked. They didn't quit.

[UglyToontown]

they may have sucked but nobody noticed. they were all too wasted to give a shit.

[rennyminou]

The rewiring for the Dead caused some real and dangerous problems. They could have shocked to death.

[PinkFloydrulez]

@rennyminou heh, just imagine if the dead legacy ended in 69... damn.

[PinkFloydrulez]

@rennyminou heh, just imagine if the dead legacy ended in 69... damn.

[BluezBro604]

@LittlewillieJr me tooooo

[Danazawa]

From what I have seen, it seems that The Dead's Woodstock performance wasn't the total trainwreck the legend would have us believe.

[ClueSign]

I agree -- I've seen dozens of far worse GD shows! But I think they wanted to blow everyone away. And all the technical probs due to rain contributed to the bands' feeling of having 'blown the big game.'

[bodhimeister]

a few songs of the Dead at Woodstock are on the new Woodstock DVD. Not great, but not terrible.

[superkindonmymind]

what axe is jerry playin?  some sg

[tommenright]

I think it's the same SG he played on Live/Dead

[bitcheznhos]

this sounds fine, everyone says the dead sucked at woodstock, i would like to hear more

[elkbeard]

i guess in some songs Jerry and Bob would get shocked everytime they touched their guitars.

[mercyless00]

grateful dead acctully only played like two songs because of the weather. Jerry acctualy go shocked by his guitar a couple times

[mercyless00]

its not that they sucked its that because of the weather their guitars were shockinh them because of weather

[bitcheznhos]

that is very shocking to hear

[DrewAnti1960]

this sounds real good

[gotglasses]

The Dead's performance sucked - they were as stoned as the crowd and unhappy on a wet stage for almost two hours. Woodstock was remarkable for the efforts of hundreds of local people who made great sacrifices to provide the support necessary to avoid a disaster from the crowd - these people have never been thanked properly. So - thank you for the food, water, electricity, garbage removal, etc. without which the whole show would have been a disaster.

[prophetdude2]

I actually kinda like this song though.

[6Gypsy6Raquel6]

Another example of a band destroying a great song

[elrotteno]

you should go bash your shit somewhere else, better yet...take your gypsy-self and find a fire to sit in. okay, thanks.

[seawardbnd]

Ouch! Nice comeback elrotteno. Only one problem, this does suck. Let me guess, you got a pint of Cherry Garcia for last year's 16th birthday and now you're an official Dead Head. I expect a tie die t-shirt and a 60's era VW van are on the horizon. Merle Haggard was the man and he is owed an apology over this one. Anybody who's honest and has a pair of ears should be able to figure that one out.

[elrotteno]

eh i'm not that big of a fan of cherry garcia, i prefer their "halfbaked" pint though. also, my most bad ass dead shirt isn't even tie die. as for another one, it's a vw jetta...i gave up on aircooled vw's a few years ago. but anyways, nice try on giving it a shot on how my life is, you're really good.

[schwarav]

@seawardbnd

wow you're a tool. I everything that reads your drivel is owed an apology

[phileesarah]

Woodstock was a east coast gig w/ frisco bands... go figure !

[MarcoEsquand0las]

this was really the only good song from the dead's entire woodstock set

[smoovegittar]

You could see Jerry's annoyance - but I thoroughly enjoyed this!

[MattHatter]

Bottom line: The new DVD box set DID NOT need all 30+ minutes of The Dead's "Turn On Your Love Light" jam. Probably the worst jam I've ever heard from the band, and that's not just my opinion, the band themselves have agreed on that for years. This however, is very good and would've been just fine on the bonus DVD. "Dark Star" will be on the audio box set that's coming out August 18th.

[stsancho]

If anyone is interested in trading a copy of your Amazon Woodstock bonus disc for a copy of my Target Woodstock bonus disc let me know. The target b.d. contains 1) Canned Heat:Woodstock Boogie. 2) The Who:Sparks. 3) Jimi Hendrix:Spanish Castle Magic. Also 4 exclusive featurettes. My only condition is that it must be a burned copy from a PC i.e. containing menus and chapters. Not recorded off a stand alone dvd recorder.

[Billyjk72]

You guys should check out the new Woodstock DVD - It has "Mama Tried" (Amazon version) and "Turn On Your Lovelight" (Just about the full version - it's missing a little piece where Pigpen's vocal doesn't work. It's about 37 Minutes +.

Excellent quality too sound and film wise (Great color).

[mbh64]

fricken love these guys....so happy to see this footage..finally!  forever a deadhead

[johnlennon1994]

jerry admitted that woodstock was one of their worst shows, him and bob were getting shocked the whole time

[hodadsmusic]

Is this the only available footage from them at Woodstock? I have never seen anything else.

[bcpietsch]

idiot-the dead rarely played a bad show maybe 1 out of every 30 or so---if you saw 32 in a row you are cursed with bad karma and not blessed to be a disciple....alas,,,next life or thousand and maybe you will hear Jer like us lucky folks did-the only Messiah i ever saw live..

[twochaudio]

The dead I seen them bomb on a wed, and 8 years later on a good fri, and joan biaz come to sing 2or 3 songs The night draged on and on ,,,,you better be smoking something at those shows

[folkrockm14]

they were just fine at woodstock

[martclarke0]

I've heard the Deads bootleg from Woodstock (yes they played) it's quite good but not as good as most Dead shows are.

[Geniebeanie1]

I went to woodstock. They were getting shocked as they played. They were beyond feeling too much at the time. The stage they were on was falling apart.  The rain was horrible. Somehow I fell in love with teh Dead. It was the start of over 30 years

of seeing shows when I could and I perfer Dick's Picks and live show tapes over their

albums. I will always love the Dead.

[xiz90]

Only me or does someone else got a hard time understanding Greatful Deads status? Nothing wrong with them, but compared to everything else on woodstock 69 i think it's kinda "nah, i'll go skinnydippin!".

[Zaimk]

maybe something to do with the fact there instruments were rigged wrong so they were getting shocked the whole time lol.

[jimmycrescent101]

you sort of have to be a deadhead to get it. those that love the dead love them more than any other could ever be loved, and those that don't... well, they don't get it. but woodstock was one of their worst performances, compared to some great performances by other musical legends.

[folkrockm14]

they said they were so bad, thats actually pretty good.that was a beautiful scene

[BigBossMan983]

They never made it on to any of the released videos it is nice to see here

[wildmthyme]

Why bum on the garrbo comment?

I thought they didn't play in woodstock too...

[garrrbo]

i thought the dead never made it onto the stage at woodstock?

[rocknrolla81]

they never made it at Altamont.

[garrrbo]

Altamont?

[rocknrolla81]

Altamont Speedway Free Festival was an infamous rock concert held on December 6, 1969. Its all documented on the dvd The Rolling Stones Gimmie Shelter. One hell of a show and dvd. They show a clip of Jerry garcia and how the Dead didnt make it on.

[martclarke0]

Yeah but they never played at Altamont. Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane got smashed in the face and the Dead refused to play.

[1gannuscio]

Didn't Bobby almost get electrocuted during the Woodstock show?

[haylex95]

MAN Woodstock was such a disastrous performance.

[MyRealNameIsJeff]

are you dumb, THEY said it's disasterous, but it's actually quite good

[haylex95]

I didn't mean that it sounded bad, Its just that lots of things went wrong.

[MotheredANiMaL]

Hippies.. But hey, It was fucking amazing..