When the Grateful Dead Engaged Long Beach

In November 1972, the Grateful Dead made their debut three-night stand at the Long Beach Arena, seven years after forming in Palo Alto, California. The band evolved from the folk-based Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions and members of the Wildwood Boys into the Warlocks, and finally into the Grateful Dead. The original line-up consisted of Jerry Garcia on lead guitar and vocals, Bob Weir on rhythm guitar and vocals, Phil Lesh on bass and vocals, Bill Kreutzmann on drums, and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan on keyboards, harmonica and vocals.

With the exception of 27-year-old Pigpen, who died in 1973, the remaining founding members stayed with the band until Garcia’s death in 1995. In September 1967, drummer Mickey Hart joined the act. With the passing of Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir on Jan. 10, 2026, only drummer Bill Kreutzmann survives the first four line-up.

Fans of the Grateful Dead are unlike fans of other rock, folk or blues bands, following them faithfully, recording, then carefully cataloguing and sharing every moment of every one of their over 2,000 concerts and in many cases, becoming life-long “Dead Heads.”

A 1972 arena concert-goer admitted he was “confused about all the bare feet and mellow dead heads. Everyone is dancing like a chicken! They all know each other and they know the lyrics and they all know the chicken dance. By the end of the set, when I figured the concert had ended, I was completely perplexed as to how everyone knew all the songs and I had never heard even one ever before on the radio. It was a cult of a different feather. And I was a pigeon.”

The first Grateful Dead show was in San Jose on Dec. 4, 1965, at one of Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests. Owsley Stanley, the “Acid King” whose LSD supplied the Acid Tests and who, in early 1966, became the band’s financial backer, renting them a house on the fringes of Watts, Los Angeles, and buying them sound equipment. “We were living solely off of Owsley’s good graces at that time,” said Garcia. “His trip was he wanted to design equipment for us, and we were going to have to be in sort of a lab situation for him to do it.”

Their first 45, the Chuck Berry-influenced “Don’t Ease Me In” was on the tiny Bay Area Scorpio label in July 1966. Few were pressed, fewer now exist.

Then came a major label signing, Warner Brothers Records issued their eponymously titled LP in April 1967, charting in Boston, Eugene and San Bernardino. From that LP, their first charting single, “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)” hit the Bay Area top 30 on April 1. The LP was notable for using the cover art work of Mantra-Rock Dance promotional poster advertising a major Jan. 29, 1967 Dead show at the Avalon Ballroom by the San Francisco Hare Krishna temple with Hare Krishna founder Bhaktivedanta Swami, poet Allen Ginsberg, bands Moby Grape and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, donating proceeds to the temple.

The 1971 “American Beauty” LP featured two important Dead songs, “Sugar Magnolia” and “Truckin’”, getting plays on underground KPPC-FM in Pasadena. Released as singles, “Truckin’” charted on Nov. 27, 1971 and “Sugar Magnolia” on Feb. 3, 1973. A third Dead fan fave, Jerry Garcia’s “Sugaree” hit the Billboard Hot 100 in April 13, 1972, Garcia’s only charting single.

Following the Grateful Dead’s “Europe ‘72” tour, Pigpen’s health meant he could no longer tour with the band. His final concert was on June 17, 1972 at the Hollywood Bowl, dying on March 8, 1973, of complications from liver damage.

After their “Europe ‘72” LP charted in November on alternative FM, KNAC in Long Beach, the Dead made their first appearance at the Long Beach Arena on Nov. 15, 1972 performing Chuck Berry’s “The Promised Land” as well as Dead fan favorites, “Sugaree,” “Truckin’,” “Dark Star” and “Sugar Magnolia.”

On Dec. 12, 13 and 14, 1980 they returned to the Long Beach Arena, performing the next year on August 27 and 28, 1981. Recordings from these concerts circulated freely, fueling an expanding underground tape and vinyl economy. While artists such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen pursued legal action against bootleggers, the Grateful Dead took a different approach, tacitly allowing the marketplace of unofficial recordings to thrive.

On Nov. 16 and 17, 1985 the band returned to the Long Beach Arena.

After the top ten chart success of their single, “Touch Of Grey” in August 1987, they appeared on Nov. 13, 14 and 15 at the Long Beach Arena, again performing their starting point, “Don’t Ease Me In.” The final documented show at the arena was on December 10 and 11, 1988 showcasing three Dylan songs: “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” “Queen Jane Approximately” and “Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn).”

In 2015, Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann, and Hart marked the band’s 50th anniversary in a series of concerts in Santa Clara, California, and Chicago that were billed as their last performances together.