The Closing of Winterland

The Closing of Winterland
Live album by Grateful Dead
Released December 16, 2003
Recorded December 31, 1978
Genre folk rock, jam
Label Rhino Records
Producer Jeffrey Norman
David Lemieux
Grateful Dead chronology

Dick's Picks Volume 30
(2003)		 The Closing of Winterland
(2003)		 Dick's Picks Volume 31
(2004)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
The Music Box [2]
PopMatters [3]

The Closing of Winterland is a four-CD live album of the Grateful Dead's New Year's Eve show 1978. The concert was also released as a two-disc DVD.[4] The title derives from the fact that it was the last concert in San Francisco's Winterland Arena, which was shut down shortly thereafter. The Dead celebrated the closing as an approximately five-hour-long party (complete with breakfast with the audience at dawn) and invited some guests including guitarist John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Ken Kesey as well as actor Dan Aykroyd who provided the midnight countdown. It was certified Double Platinum by the RIAA on December 15, 2003 under the category of longform video, selling 200,000 units.[5] The New Riders of the Purple Sage and Blues Brothers opened the show.

Preordered box sets included a bonus CD containing an additional nine tracks recorded on New Year's Eve in 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1977.[6]

Track listing

Disc one
First set:
  1. "Sugar Magnolia" > (Bob Weir, Robert Hunter) – 7:21
  2. "Scarlet Begonias" > (Jerry Garcia, Hunter) – 11:55
  3. "Fire on the Mountain" (Mickey Hart, Hunter) – 13:12
  4. "Me and My Uncle" (John Phillips) – 3:11
  5. "Big River" (Johnny Cash) – 7:05
  6. "Friend of the Devil" (Garcia, John Dawson, Hunter) – 10:48
  7. "It's All Over Now" (Bobby Womack, Shirley Womack) – 8:55
  8. "Stagger Lee" (Garcia, Hunter) – 8:03
  9. "From the Heart of Me" > (Donna Godchaux) – 3:49
  10. "Sunshine Daydream" (Weir, Hunter) – 3:15
Disc two
Second set:
  1. "Samson and Delilah" (traditional, arranged by Weir) – 9:17
  2. "Ramble On Rose" (Garcia, Hunter) – 9:35
  3. "I Need a Miracle" > (Weir, John Barlow) – 11:19
  4. "Terrapin Station" > (Garcia, Hunter) – 12:23
  5. "Playing in the Band" > (Weir, Hart, Hunter) – 13:06
Disc three
Second set, continued:
  1. "Rhythm Devils" > (Hart, Bill Kreutzmann) – 19:23
  2. "Not Fade Away" > (Norman Petty, Buddy Holly) – 19:34
  3. "Around and Around" (Chuck Berry) – 9:19
Disc four
Third set:
  1. "Dark Star" > (Garcia, Hart, Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Weir, Hunter) – 12:05
  2. "The Other One" > (Weir, Kreutzman) – 4:45
  3. "Dark Star" > (Garcia, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, Weir, Hunter) – 1:15
  4. "Wharf Rat" > (Garcia, Hunter) – 11:00
  5. "St. Stephen" > (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter) – 7:52
  6. "Good Lovin''" (Rudy Clark, Arthur Resnick) – 11:00
First encore:
  1. "Casey Jones" > (Garcia, Hunter) – 5:17
  2. "Johnny B. Goode" (Berry) – 4:42
Second encore:
  1. "And We Bid You Goodnight" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 1:30
Bonus disc
Recordings from other New Year's Eve concerts at Winterland:
  1. "Easy Wind" (Hunter) – 9:35 (December 31, 1970)
  2. "Jam" > (Grateful Dead) – 2:07 (December 31, 1971)
  3. "Black Peter" (Garcia, Hunter) – 8:42 (December 31, 1971)
  4. "Playing in the Band" (Weir, Hart, Hunter) – 18:26 (December 31, 1972)
  5. "Lazy Lightning" > (Weir, Barlow) – 3:36 (December 31, 1977)
  6. "Supplication" (Weir, Barlow) – 5:35 (December 31, 1977)
  7. "Sugar Magnolia" (Weir, Hunter) – 11:59 (December 31, 1977)
  8. "Scarlet Begonias" > (Garcia, Hunter) – 8:48 (December 31, 1977)
  9. "Fire on the Mountain" (Hart, Hunter) – 10:06 (December 31, 1977)

DVD

The DVD version of The Closing of Winterland contains the video of the New Year's Eve show, with stereo and 5.1 surround sound audio options. It also includes some related bonus material. According to the bonus DVD, the concert was recorded on 2-inch quad video, considered the best quality at the time, and also on 24-track audio tape.

Disc one
Disc two

Personnel

Grateful Dead
Additional musicians
Production

Notes

  1. ↑ Planer, Lindsay. The Closing of Winterland at Allmusic
  2. ↑ Metzger, John. The Closing of Winterland, The Music Box, January 2004
  3. ↑ Beaudoin, Jedd (September 12, 2012). "The Dead in All Their Glory: Grateful Dead: The Closing of Winterland, PopMatters. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
  4. ↑ Selvin, Joel (October 23, 2003). "It was 1978, the Night They Closed Old Winterland Down — and the Grateful Dead's All-Night Show Lives On in Memories, Flashbacks — and Now a DVD", San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
  5. ↑ "RIAA Gold & Platinum database-Closing of Winterland". Retrieved March 1, 2009.
  6. ↑ Bonus CD contained in preorder sets (The Grateful Dead Family Discography)