I didn’t really become a Deadhead until college. I think I had a copy of their greatest hits package Skeletons From the Closet in high school, but I didn’t love it, and it didn’t make me seek out any of their other albums. I realize now that the Grateful Dead didn’t really have anything to do with that album. It was put out by Warner Brothers after the band had left the label (to make their own, Grateful Dead Records). I haven’t listened to it in years but I remember it being a disjointed affair. I did love “Rosemary” which is generally considered one of their lesser efforts.
In college, I had a buddy who was a Deadhead and he had a handful of bootleg tapes. I thought that was the coolest thing ever, and wished I knew how to get something like that. I dug the music too. I also dug his studio copies of Terrapin Station and In The Dark. That led me to American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead and I was hooked.
Somewhere thereafter I bought a copy of the recently released live album Hundred Year Hall. At this point, I’d only heard the Grateful Dead live through my friend’s bootlegs. These were unknown generation copies of copies on cassette tape. We listened through his crappy car speakers while driving around Montgomery, Alabama.
I didn’t know much about the Dead’s storied live career. I knew nothing about their fabled tour of Europe in 1972. I bought Hundred Year Hall because it was well stocked at the store (pretty sure I got it in the mall) and the cover art looked cool.
I instantly loved it. The show opens with Bertha a song I’d never heard before but that immediately became a favorite. It starts off with a bang and just moves (really had to move). It has such a fun little danceable groove and that great sing-along snippet of a chorus (“Bertha Don’tcha Come Around Here Anymore”). On this version, there is a great little mini-jam in the middle.
It’s perfect. It sets the tone for the whole show. It stuck with me, that Bertha opener. Every now and again there will be a discussion on some message board talking about your perfect Grateful Dead show. I think there is even a website where you can create one. I always open my show with Bertha.
As best I can tell it was written in towards the end of 1970. There is a David and the Dorks rehearsal recording that is generally dated as 12/15/70 and contains the song. But it didn’t make its official live debut until 02/18/71 in Port Chester, NY. That show also saw the live debuts of Loser, Johnny B. Goode, Greatest Story Ever Told, and Wharf Rat. It was also Mickey Hart’s last performance with the Dead until 10/20/74.
And it was one of the ESP shows where the band displayed some pictures at the concert and asked the audience to send that picture psychically to someone located many miles away. That person was supposed to receive the message and redraw the picture. Results were varied.
The song remained in their repertoire for the rest of the band’s existence According to setlists.net they played it 394 times. It never really left the setlists, as they played it multiple times a year.
I’m not really a lyrics guy so I’d never much paid attention to what the song was about. Rumor had it the song was named after a large fan located inside the Grateful Dead’s office. The fan was named Bertha and it used to chase folks around the room. According to this report it was actually the fan that was named after the song, not the other way around. That article is a fascinating read all around filled with an interesting take on what the song actually means.
So, I thought it would be fun to collect and share every time the Dead opened with Bertha. Truth be told I thought it would be maybe a dozen times or so. But like I said, the Dead really liked playing Bertha and they opened with it a lot – 159 times if my data is correct. All but a couple of these shows exist on tape.
Somewhere in the middle of this process, I realized what a ridiculous undertaking it was, but it was too late to stop then. I don’t think I’ll ever take on such a large project again.
What I do love about this project is that it is a really great sampling of the Grateful Dead’s entire career. Nearly every year is represented. Obviously, their early psychedelic years are missing as they didn’t start performing Bertha until 1971 but most everything else is here.
I wish I had some sort of overarching theory about Bertha. I wish I could say that I’d listened to every show and without fail when they opened with Bertha the show was a banger. I’m sure that isn’t true. There are probably more than a few duds in this mix. But I hope you enjoy it.
As this was such a large project the likelihood of error is big. I won’t promise that every show where they opened with Bertha is here as I might have missed something. If there is a problem with a download or a link please do let me know.
1971.02.18 – Port Chester, NY
1971.03.24 – San Francisco, CA
1971.04.04 – New York, NY
1971.04.06 – New York, NY
1971.04.22 – Bangor, ME
1971.04.26 – New York, NY
1971.05.30 – San Franciso, CA
1971.07.02 – San Francisco, CA
1971.08.05 – Hollywood, CA
1971.08.06 – Hollywood, CA
1971.08.14 – Berkeley, CA
1971.08.26 – New York, NY
1971.10.19 – Minneapolis, MN
1971.10.23 – Detroit, MI
1971.10.26 – Rochester, NY
1971.10.30 – Cincinnati, OH
1971.10.31 – Columbus, OH
1971.11.06 – San Francisco, CA
1971.11.11- Atlanta, GA
1971.11.14 – Fort Worth, TX
1971.11.20 – Los Angeles
1971.12.02 – Boston, MA
1971.12.05 – New York, NY
1971.12.10 – St. Louis, MO
1971.12.15 – Ann Arbor, MI
1972.03.05 – San Francisco, CA
1972.03.21 – New York, NY
1972.03.27 – New York, NY
1972.04.08 – London, England
1972.04.14 – Copenhagen, Denmark
1972.04.21 – Bremen, Germany
1972.04.26 – Frankfurt, Germany
1972.05.03 – Paris, France
1972.05.10 – Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1972.05.13 – Lille, France
1972.05.16 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg
1972.07.18 – Jersey City, NJ
1972.07.22 – Seattle, WA
1972.08.20 – San Jose, CA
1972.08.22 – Berkeley, CA
1972.09.10 – Hollywood, CA
1972.09.16 – Boston, MA
1972.09.19 – Jersey City, NJ
1972.10.18 – St. Louis, MO
1972.10.21 – Nashville, TN – Setlists show it opened with Bertha but the only recordings I could find were second set only
1972.10.27 – Columbus, OH
1972.10.30 – Detroit, MI
1972.11.19 – Houston, TX
1973.02.24 – Iowa City, IA – Only have four tracks from first set,
does not include Bertha
1973.03.21 – Utica, NY
1973.03.24 – Philadelphia, PA
1973.05.20 – Santa Barbara, CA
1973.06.22 – Vancouver, Canada
1973.06.29 – Universal City, CA
1973.07.28 – Watkins Glen, NY
1973.09.08 – Uniondale, NY
1973.09.12 – Williamsburg, VA
1973.10.25 – Madison, WI
1973.11.10 – San Francisco, CA
1973.11.23 – El Paso, TX
1973.12.06 – Cleveland, OH
1974.05.14 – Missoula, MT
1974.06.16 – Des Moines, IA
1974.07.19 – Fresno, CA
1974.07.27 – Roanoke, VA
1974.08.04 – Philadelphia, PA
1974.08.06 – Jersey City, NJ
1974.09.09 – London, England
1974.09.14 – Munich, Germany
1974.09.21 – Paris, France
1974.10.16 – San Francisco, CA
1976.09.25 – Landover, MD
1976.10.01 – Indianapolis, IN
1977.03.19 – San Francisco, CA
1977.04.26 – Passaic, NJ
1977.05.07 – Boston, MA
1977.05.12 – Chicago, IL
1977.05.15 – St. Louis, MO
1977.05.21 – Lakeland, FL
1977.05.28 – Hartford, CT
1977.06.07 – San Francisco, CA
1977.10.15 – Dallas, TX
1977.11.04 – Hamilton, NY
1977.12.27 – San Francisco, CA
1978.01.10 – Los Angels, CA
1978.01.15 – Fresno, CA
1978.02.05 – Cedar Falls, IA
1978.04.06 – Tampa, FL
1978.04.11 – Atlanta, GA
1978.04.19 – Columbus, OH
1978.04.22 – Nashville, TN
1978.06.04 – Goleta, CA
1978.07.01 – Kansas City, MO
1978.07.08 – Morrison, CO
1978.09.16 – Giza, Egypt
1980.12.14 – Long Beach, CA
1981.12.02 – Champlain, IL
1981.12.07 – Des Moines, IA
1981.12.28 – Oakland, CA
1982.02.19 – San Diego, CA
1982.04.18 – Hartford, CT
1982.05.21 – Berkeley, CA
1982.07.17 – Ventura, CA
1982.08.06 – St. Paul, MN
1982.08.28 – Veneta, OR
1982.09.17 – Portland, ME
1982.12.27 – Oakland, CA
1983.03.30 – San Francisco, CA
1983.04.09 – Hampton, VA
1983.06.18 – Saratoga Springs, NY
1983.08.26 – Portland, OR
1983.06.27 – Poplar Creek, IL
1983.08.26 – Portland, OR
1983.09.04 – Salt Lake City, UT
1983.09.13 – Austin, TX
1983.10.20 – Worcester, MA
1983.12.30 – San Francisco, CA
1984.04.06 – Las Vegas, NV
1984.04.19 – Philadelphia, PA
1984.04.24 – New Haven, CT
1984.06.29 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH
1984.07.13 – Berkeley, CA
1984.10.05 – Charlotte, NC
1984.10.20 – Syracuse, NY
1985.03.09 – Berkeley, CA
1985.03.24 – Springfield, MA
1985.04.01 – Portland, ME
1985.09.02 – Oklahoma City, OK
1985.11.02 – Richmond, VA
1986.05.10 – Palo Alto, CA
1987.09.11 – Landover, MD
1987.12.31 – Oakland, CA
1988.03.30 – East Rutherford, NJ
1989.03.30 – Greensboro, NC
1989.07.04 – Orchard Park, NY
1989.07.15 – Noblesville, IN
1989.08.04 – Sacramento, CA
1989.09.30 – Mountain View, CA
1989.12.30 – Oakland, CA
1990.06.10 – Sacramento, CA
1990.10.22 – Frankfurt, Germany
1990.12.30 – Oakland, CA
1991.02.19 – Oakland, CA
1991.03.28 – Uniondale, NY
1991.05.03 – Sacramento, CA
1991.10.28 – Oakland, CA
1992.02.22 – Oakland, CA
1992.06.11 – Albany, NY
1992.06.25 – Chicago, IL
1993.05.23 – Sacramento, CA
1993.12.19 – Oakland, CA
1994.06.17 – Eugene, OR
1994.12.08 – Oakland, CA
1995.02.20 – Salt Lake City, UT
1995.06.04 – Mountain View, CA
Very cool.
Phenomenal project Mat. ‘Bertha’ is my all-time favourite GD song. I spend a lot of time making single cd compilations of GD gigs (mainly the shorter songs), and ‘Bertha’ is always my starting point.
Looks like a trip to the shop for another stack of blank discs required!
It is a great little song. One of my favorite non-jammy songs they ever did. You still burn shows to disc? You truly are old school 🙂
Thanks Mat, was able to find an upgrade in there.
Happy to help.
Back in the late 80s it took me a long time to accept CDs! When people were ditching their vinyl, I kept mine… eg American Beauty.
I hear that. I kept my VHS tapes a really long time. Still have some, actually even though I’ve upgraded to DVD and then Blu-ray. I still have a bunch of CDs in storage, but I have happily moved to FLAC for my listening.
Matt,
Thanks for this,Bertha is one my favs.grabbed a couple of shows that i was missing.
Well, this is pretty amazing! I am not a Dead fan, but this is the type of thing to give me an entry point that could make me one. Great write-up too.
I will dig in to some of these and see if I can get the Dead hook. :)
Yes, i it turned out to be a really nice collection of shows from throughout there career. If I was a better man I’d make you a compilation of Dead songs to give you an ear ful.
Your generosity is already legendary – you’ve gone plenty here! Thank you … it will be fun to pick up some random shows from the list to see what grabs me.
This post was originally done on my old blog. The reason the links don’t work is that they are pointing towards the old blog still and those posts have been deleted. However you should be able to find those posts on this new blog. Best way to do that is just search for the date. But search for it in this style (MM/DD/YY).
I fixed a few of the links just now but I don’t have time to do them all. When the holidays are over I’ll try to remember to go back and fix them all.