Summer Jam at Watkins Glen

Encyclopedia : S : SU : SUM : Summer Jam at Watkins Glen

The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, also sometimes referred to as the Watkins Glen Festival, was a 1973 rock festival which received the Guinness Book of World Records entry for "Largest audience at a pop festival." An estimated 600,000 rock fans came to the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway outside of Watkins Glen, New York on July 28, 1973, to see The Allman Brothers Band, The Band, and The Grateful Dead perform.

The concert was produced by Shelly Finkel and Jim Koplik, two promoters who previously organized a successful Grateful Dead concert at Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1972. Similar to the 1969 Woodstock Festival, an enormous traffic jam created chaos for those who attempted to make it to the concert site. 150,000 tickets were sold for 10 US-Dollar per ticket but for all the other people it was a free concert. The crowd was so huge that the largest part of the audience was not able to see the stage. 12 huge sound amplifiers were installed courtesy of legendary promoter Bill Graham.

Although the concert was scheduled to start on July 28th, thousands of music fans were already at the concert site on the 27th. Robbie Robertson of the Band requested to do a soundcheck, but was perplexed that so many people were sitting in front of the stage. Bill Graham allowed the soundcheck with the crowd of people in front, and the Band ran through a few numbers to the delight of the audience. The Allman Brothers Band did their soundcheck next, playing "One Way Out" and "Ramblin' Man". The Grateful Dead's legendary soundcheck turned into a two set marathon, featuring their familiar tunes such as "Sugaree", "Tennessee Jed" and "Wharf Rat". They also performed a unique jam that was eventually included on their retrospective CD box set So Many Roads (1965-1995).

On July 28, the day of the concert, 600,000 music fans had arrived in Watkins Glen. The Grateful Dead performed first, playing two long sets. They opened with "Bertha" and played many hits such as "Box Of Rain", "Jack Straw", "Playing in the Band", "China Cat Sunflower" and "Eyes of the World".

The Band followed the Dead with one 2 hour set. However, their set was cut in half by a drenching thunderstorm, in a scene again reminiscent of Woodstock. During the storm, keyboardist Garth Hudson performed his signature organ improvisation "Genetic Method" until the rain let up.

Finally, the Allman Brothers Band performed for 3 hours. Their performance included "Wasted Words", "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed", "Statesboro Blues", "Les Brers in A Minor" and "Whipping Post."

Following the Allmans' second set, there was an hour encore jam featuring musicians from all three bands. The jam featured spirited renditions of "Not Fade Away", "Mountain Jam", and "Johnny B. Goode".

Although there were no reports of violence at Watkins Glen, the day was marred by the death of Willard Smith, 35, a skydiver from Syracuse, New York. Smith, who dove from an airplane, was carrying flares. One of the flares ignited his body suit, and he was engulfed in flames. Smith's body was eventually found in the woods near the concert site.

Discography

The Band - Live at Watkins Glen (Audio-CD, released 1995). This release is mostly comprised of studio takes with overdubbed audience sounds.
The Grateful Dead - Watkins Glen, NY, July 28, 1973 (4 CD-Box)
Watkins Glen (6 CD-Box with The Band, The Grateful Dead, and The Allman Brothers Band)

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.