SECTION FOUR

SM

COLUMN SIX, FEBRUARY 1, 1996
(Copyright © 1996 The Blacklisted Journalist)

GRATEFUL DEAD REPORT


As of January, 1996, the Grateful Dead organization is still functioning and Grateful Dead historian/press agent Dennis McNally is still receiving a paycheck.

"We're planning an amphitheater tour in late June or July of 1996 which we semi-jokingly call 'Ship of Fools.'" Dennis told me. "The tour will include Mickey Hart's band, Mystery Box; Bobby Weir's band, Ratdog; maybe Bruce Hornsby and most likely a fourth band, plus all the parking lot craziness which, hopefully, we'll bring in a fairly organized way into the concourse of amphitheaters, giving everyone a taste of the Grateful Dead or whatever, and that's for the summer. Also, Mickey, Billy and Bobby are all committed to playing with the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas in June at the American Music Festival. They'll jam off a piece by Henry Cowell, the American composer and do a John Cage piece. In addition, Mickey's been working on an album for years called Mystery Box and it will probably come out in May. Bobby's been working on a Broadway-type musical about Satchel Paige, the legendary African American who has been called the best baseball pitcher who ever lived. The play will probably open in Philadelphia in October. Bobby is working on it with Taj Mahal, David Murray and Michael Nash, who's from the Bay Area. Billy's scuba-diving in Hawaii Vince is working on Ratdog. Phil is working in the studio to see what there is in our old tapes and also to see what we have on video. We taped all our amphitheater shows the last five summers and we've got to edit all that tape. We also have a Grateful Dead album coming out in May or April that we'll call 'Dick's Pick 4.' Dick Latvala is our archivist and the album was recorded at the Fillmore East on the weekend of February 13, 1970, when we played with the Allman Brothers, who were recording their live album at the time."  ##

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