Grateful Dead’s Fillmore Auditorium 7/3/66 Arrives From Rhino

Photo: Courtesy of Rhino / Grateful Dead

Seven months after changing its name from the Warlocks, the Grateful Dead was a scuffling, unsigned band searching for an identity when it played Bill Graham’s Independence Ball on July 3, 1966. That show—making its vinyl debut exactly 60 years later—captures the transformative energy of a band moving almost too fast to catch.

Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA (7/3/66) arrives July 3 from Rhino.com on 2CDs. A 3LP-set will be available exclusively from Dead.net, limited to 6,600 copies and featuring a custom etching on the final side. The live album will also be available digitally to stream and download. The original performance was recorded by Owsley "Bear" Stanley and produced by Grateful Dead Legacy Manager and Archivist Dave Lemieux. Mastered by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering with speed correction and tape restoration by Plangent Processes. Pre-Order Here.

While the Dead's archive is legendary for its depth, complete high-fidelity documents of the band's first year are rare. The July 3 recording—which debuted in 2015 as part of the 50th-anniversary boxed set 30 Trips Around the Sun—stands as a primary exception. It captures the group in the midst of a radical mutation, a charged R&B dance band already moving toward new musical terrain in the star-spangled ether of the Independence Ball. At the time, the band featured Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Bob Weir.

The performance includes the earliest known live recordings of several songs, including rare originals like "Tastebud," "You Don't Have To Ask," and "Cardboard Cowboy." These tracks, along with a cover of Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Gangster Of Love," would largely vanish from the band's repertoire by the end of the summer.

One of the staples that would survive, "Cold Rain and Snow," possesses a raw urgency that wouldn't settle into its more familiar, laid-back arrangement for several years. That recording is available digitally today. Of the track, Grateful Dead Archivist David Lemieux said "One of the Grateful Dead's longest-tenured songs in their repertoire, Cold Rain & Snow was around from 1965 to 1995, played every year of the Dead's performing career aside from 1968 and 1975. This was played when it was still in its peppier arrangement." Listen Now.

"The Grateful Dead are a profoundly young band on the recording of the Independence Ball," writes Jesse Jarnow (co-host Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast, author of Heads) in the album's liner notes. "There's a round of applause after every song, but rarely cheers. It's only been 14 months since the Warlocks made their live debut, and they sound it—sometimes raw, but always thrilling. And, honestly, maybe a little jittery, too... As alien as they sound from the present, the miracle of the Dead tapes from 1966 is that they're not from alternate timelines at all, but realities that manifested into ours for the briefest of flashes."

Also today, the new episodic social series A Beginner's Guide To The Grateful Dead Live continues with a five-song playlist from Chris Benchetler. The legendary freeskier is the creative force behind Fire on the Mountain, the award-winning 2019 action sports film narrated by Bill Walton and set to the music of the Grateful Dead.

Benchetler joins a growing list of notable Dead Heads helping newcomers navigate the band's vast live catalog through this series. The playlists serve as the perfect entry point for the curious, as guests share some of the performances that helped get them on the bus. https://www.dead.net/beginners-guide

Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA (7/3/66)

3LP Track Listing

LP One

Side One
"Nobody's Fault But Mine"
"Dancing In The Street"
"I Know You Rider"
"He Was A Friend Of Mine"
"Next Time You See Me"

Side Two
"Viola Lee Blues"
"Big Boss Man"
"Sitting On Top Of The World"
"Keep Rolling By"

LP Two

Side One
"New, New Minglewood Blues"
"Cold Rain And Snow"
"Tastebud"
"Beat It On Down The Line"

Side Two
"Cream Puff War"
"Don't Mess Up A Good Thing"
"The Monster (Cardboard Cowboy)"
"Gangster Of Love"

LP Three

Side One
"You Don't Have To Ask"
"In The Midnight Hour"

Side Two
Etching