Grateful Dead Retrospective 1985: Flyers, Sixers & Spring Tour Deliver An Undefeated Week At The Philadelphia Spectrum

PRE-GAME COVERAGE

The Grateful Dead spent much of their career playing in arenas across the United States whose primary tenant was a local professional sports team (or two). Deadheads who were also sports fans could end up seeing different kinds of fun on consecutive nights when the band played a venue on the night before or after a local team hosted a home game. It happened hundreds of times over the band’s career, and sometimes the shows intersected with big moments from the sports teams. One of the most memorable occurrences took place 40 years ago this week in April 1985 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA when the Dead’s final three shows of their 1985 spring tour intersected with remarkable games by the venue’s professional sports teams, the Flyers and 76ers, both of whom were wrapping up championship-caliber regular seasons.

THE VENUE AND THE SCHEDULE

The Spectrum was a multi-purpose arena at the intersection of Broad and Pattison that was part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. Opened in 1967 with a capacity of 18,000, it was the home of the National Basketball Association’s Philadelphia 76ers and the National Hockey League’s  Philadelphia Flyers, along with each team’s fiercely vocal and (at times) abnormally critical fans. Despite its size, the arena had a surprisingly compact feel that accentuated the energy of its crowds—any player on a visiting sports team would have no problem recalling how intense the Spectrum atmosphere could become. The Spectrum also hosted over a thousand concerts before it was closed in 2009 and demolished in 2010, and the Grateful Dead racked up 53 shows there between 1968 and 1995. It was an arrangement that worked well for everyone, as Philadelphia’s boisterous East Coast crowds frequently prompted the Dead to rock a little harder inside the Spectrum.  In April 1985 the band completed their spring tour with three nights at the Spectrum, which fell during a seven-day stretch containing the conclusion of the NHL’s regular season and the final week of the NBA’s regular season, when both the Flyers and the 76ers cemented championship-contender status:

Thursday 4/4 –  Flyers vs. New York Islanders
Friday 4/5 –  76ers vs. Chicago Bulls
Saturday 4/6 –  Grateful Dead
Sunday 4/7 –  Grateful Dead
Monday 4/8 –  Grateful Dead
Tuesday 4/9 –  76ers vs. Boston Celtics
Wednesday 4/10 – Flyers vs. New York Rangers (Playoffs, Round 1, Game 1)

It’s safe to say there was an abundance of energy in the Spectrum during this week.

STARTING LINEUPS

In 1974 and 1975 the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers battered their way to consecutive Stanley Cup championships. Known as the “Broad Street Bullies,” they were one of the most violent teams in league history. Over the following decade, the team had remained both a championship contender and a physically punishing presence on the ice. It made them the NHL’s most detested team outside Philadelphia, a distinction worn proudly by both the Flyers organization and its fans. Center Bobby Clarke was the captain of those 1974 and 1975 Cup teams, but in 1985 he was wrapping up a successful first year as the team’s General Manager. Coached by martinet Mike Keenan and led by young captain Dave Poulin, wingers Tim Kerr, Bryan Propp, Murray Craven, and Ilkka Sinisalo, defensemen Mark Howe and Brad McCrimmon, and goaltender Pelle Lindbergh, the Flyers scored and brawled their way to a league-best 53-20-7 record.

The NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers were also at a high point, having won the NBA Championship in 1983, with a 12-1 postseason record, led by league and NBA Finals MVP Moses Malone and Julius “Dr. J.” Erving. Unlike the Flyers, the 76ers were a popular team nationally, in part because of Dr. J’s iconic status, but also because they weren’t the Boston Celtics or the Los Angeles Lakers. However, the 76ers’ title defense in 1984 ended prematurely when they were upset in the first round by the New Jersey Nets, and the team could only watch as the Celtics beat the Lakers in the Finals. The stinging early exit fueled the current season, when a lineup coached by Billy Cunningham that that included Erving, Malone, Andrew Toney, Maurice “Mo” Cheeks, Bobby Jones, and rookie Charles Barkley racked up a 58-24 regular season record, good for second in the Atlantic Division behind the Celtics and good for fourth overall in the league.

The Grateful Dead’s “’80s lineup” of Jerry Garcia (lead guitar, vocals), Bob Weir (rhythm guitar, vocals), Phil Lesh (bass, vocals), Brent Mydland (keyboards, vocals), Mickey Hart (drums), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums) were just months away from celebrating 20 years as a band. This iteration of the group lasted from April 1979 to July 1990, the longest of any lineup during a 30-year career that lasted from 1965 to 1995. By this point, the Grateful Dead had shifted away from making new studio albums in favor of becoming a touring act that encouraged repeat business (i.e., fans seeing multiple shows on the same tour), and they’d accomplished this by launching their own mail order ticket service, Grateful Dead Ticket Sales, in 1983. Now Deadheads could easily find out about and buy tickets for any of the 80 or so shows the band played nationwide each year, no small thing in a pre-internet, pre-cell phone age where things like tour dates and ticket access for shows outside one’s own metropolitan area were not easily obtainable.

GAMES AND GIGS

APRIL 4th – Flyers vs. New York Islanders

On April 4th the Flyers treated their fans to a 3-0 shutout victory over the vehemently despised New York Islanders, then just two years removed from winning four straight Stanley Cup championships, the first of which came in 1980 when they defeated the Flyers in the Cup Finals. Tim Kerr, Ed Hospodar, and Todd Bergen scored the Flyers’ goals, while goalie Pelle Lindbergh made 34 saves for the shutout win. The game also featured four of the six brothers from the NHL’s famous Sutter family, who played in the NHL in the 1970s and 1980s: Duane and Brent Sutter each skated for the Islanders, while Rich and Ron Sutter skated for the Flyers. One away game later, the Flyers wrapped their regular season with a league-best 53-20-7 record and drew the reviled New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs.

APRIL 5th – 76ers vs. Chicago Bulls

The night before the Grateful Dead arrived (and probably as some of the Deadheads camping in the Sports Complex parking lots began to pitch their tents), the 76ers increased their season record to 56-21 by delivering a 116-113 win over the visiting Chicago Bulls. Moses Malone scored 27 points to lead the Sixers, who also got 19 points from Julius Erving, 17 from Bobby Jones and 16 from Barkley. However, the futures of both the NBA and Nike, Inc. were also on display that night. The Sixers had held on for the narrow win despite 40 points from Bulls rookie sensation Michael Jordan, whose brand-new Air Jordan 1 sneakers had been released for sale to the public just four days earlier. Jordan went on to lead the Bulls to six NBA Championships in the 1990s, and in 2024 Nike released the 39th version of Air Jordans, whose royalties have generated most of Jordan’s $3.2 billion net worth.

APRIL 6th – Grateful Dead, Night 1

We’re neck deep in Philadelphia lore at this point, and right about now is a pretty good time to cue up the opening bars of Bill Conti’s iconic theme from the 1976 movie Rocky in your head.

Touring musicians, especially singers, are sometimes going to have difficult nights when illness strikes, and the opening night at the Spectrum would prove to be a painfully tough evening for Jerry Garcia. While his guitar playing was in fine form all night, the crowd could hear the first sign of trouble in his pained backing vocals during the show’s opening number, “Feel Like A Stranger”. And from then on, there was nowhere to hide as Garcia began singing “They Love Each Other”—he was clearly ill and his vocals were shot, even to the most casual listener. He’d quickly resort to growling his vocals just to get through the song, and he’d continue this approach through “Dupree’s Diamond Blues”, “Big Railroad Blues”, and set-closer “Don’t Ease Me In”.

Listening back now, it’s a little surprising that Garcia continued singing, instead of relinquishing vocal duties to the rest of the band—he’d done so before during three shows in January 1978 when he developed a case of laryngitis at the beginning of a tour. But Garcia gamely continued growling his lead vocals through the first half of the second set, beginning with “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider”, the latter of which contained the “northbound train” lyric that was especially tough to deliver. But his playing remained very much on point and the band was in good, strong, rocking form as the night’s musical peaks took place, during the improvisation in “Playing in the Band” and the ensuing “Uncle John’s Band”.

Finally, during the frontline musicians’ offstage break during “Drums”, Garcia finally cut himself some slack, and for the rest of the night he’d be a smoking lead guitarist who croaked out backing vocals during a run of Weir-sung songs: “The Other One” >” Throwing Stones” > “Not Fade Away” and a “One More Saturday Night” encore. Like Rocky Balboa in that first fight against Apollo Creed, he fought bravely through 15 proverbial rounds, and this show remains a shining example of how difficult a vocalist’s night can be when “the show must go on.”

Grateful Dead – The Spectrum – Philadelphia, PA – 4/6/85

APRIL 7th – Grateful Dead, Night 2

After what was probably 16 hours of bed rest for Garcia and perhaps a bit of help from the best doctors in the Philadelphia area, the band was right back at it for an Easter Sunday show. Whatever people were able to do for Garcia offstage worked—his voice had improved from the previous night to the point where he didn’t actually have to growl his vocals. They’d remain sandpaper-rough throughout the final two shows of the tour, but that would be enough, and this middle night of the Spectrum run would become a “but-for” classic.

The first set was an unusually short one—only six songs—but it was rollicking and eventful. After Phil spoke to the crowd to check his microphone, he and Mydland led off with the garage-style cover of The Beatles’ “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road”, one of only seven versions the band ever played. Garcia tackled “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” next before Weir countered with Ma Rainey’s “C.C. Rider”. Garcia next ushered in the first bigger jam of the night with a fluid “Bird Song”, and by its conclusion, it was clear that they were already having a good night. Weir then dusted off the first version of “Dancing in the Street” in five months (now back in the band’s ’60s-era rock arrangement) before Garcia knocked out “Deal” to close the set.

Garcia was clearly itching to take on his vocal fight for another set, so the second set opened with him blurting out the funky “Shakedown Street”, a song that could have been written for Philly, South Philly, or even the Spectrum itself. Since it was Sunday, Weir followed with the biblically themed rocker “Samson and Delilah” before Garcia made another surprising and welcome choice—the Grateful Dead’s second-ever version of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me” since the band’s earliest days in 1965. It’d been dusted off for the first time in almost 20 years two shows earlier in Providence, and this one really hit the mark. Garcia continued playing the song in 1985 but it strangely dropped out of the rotation by the end of the year, a mystifying decision given the response by fans and how well it suited Garcia and his style.

Following “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” and the “Drums” and “Space” segments, the set’s closing run of songs consisted of five of the band’s best: Lesh and Mydland teamed up to sing the Spencer Davis Group‘s “Gimme Some Lovin’”, which would highlight Mydland’s Hammond B3 skills every time it was played, the band’s signature song, “Truckin’”, the rarely-played “Smokestack Lightning”, and then a pair of show-stoppers with Garcia’s take on Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew” before Weir’s “Sugar Magnolia”. Following a quick encore of “Keep Your Day Job”, Weir called time on the proceedings with a, “Good night and thank you, Jesus!”

Grateful Dead – The Spectrum – Philadelphia, PA – 4/7/85

Grateful Dead – The Spectrum – Philadelphia, PA – 4/7/85

APRIL 8th – Grateful Dead, Night 3

The third and final show of the run boasted one of the band’s most unique and entertaining first sets from this era, and this time it was clear that song choices were being made to help Garcia and his voice get through the show. The unusual and distinctive set of song choices also made it fun for the rest of the band, who were clearly having a good time of it.

Mydland got the crowd into the sporting spirit during the opening tuning by playing the “Charge!” fanfare on his organ, and then the Dead would do one of the things they did best when they felt like it—become “the world’s greatest garage band” in front of 15,000 people and knock out largely unrehearsed covers of songs they liked when they all were learning to play. Three consecutive covers kicked it off, with Weir’s version of Wilson Pickett’s “Midnight Hour” preceding Garcia’s performances of Rufus Thomas’ “Walkin’ The Dog” and Don & Dewey’s “Big Boy Pete”, each of which were comfortably within Garcia’s available vocal range. (How many other bands on the planet can get away with opening an arena show with three covers?)

It remained interesting from there, too. Weir’s “Me & My Uncle” was surprisingly paired with “Cumberland Blues” before Weir’s newest first-set blues number, a medley of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Meet Me In The Bottom” and Howlin’ Wolf’s “I Ain’t Superstitious”. Garcia followed with one of his best, “Althea”, before Mydland’s bouncy “Tons Of Steel” and a rare “Supplication Jam” gave Garcia two songs to rest his voice before he sang the set-closing “Might As Well”, on which he came as close to nailing that tricky vocal bridge as he possibly could have, given his illness.

All good things come to an end, though, and the Grateful Dead’s final set of the run and the tour sent Deadheads home happy. Garcia dished out one final garage-band-inspired surprise by opening the second set with their grooving version of The Beatles’ “Revolution”, which had made a half-dozen surprise appearances as an encore since 1983. While John Lennon had The Beatles in mind when he wrote the song, its loose arrangement and shrugs of lyrical optimism would make the song ideally suited for the Grateful Dead. It was the first time the band played “Revolution” outside the encore slot, and it was one of only 11 total performances of the song.

The remainder of the set stuck to more familiar fare, performed with a final-round burst of energy. “Newer” songs “Hell In a Bucket” and “Touch of Grey” followed, with each song still two years away from appearing as the leadoff tracks on 1987’s In The Dark LP. The time-honored pairing of Weir’s “Estimated Prophet” and Garcia’s “Eyes of the World” preceded a “Drums” segment that featured a crowd clap-along while the largest drums in Hart and Kreutzmann’s onstage array got a heavy workout before the ensuing “Space”. The closing run of the second set contained the show’s sole ballad, Garcia’s “Stella Blue”, surrounded by three rocking covers: the traditional “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad”, Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around”, and Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Turn On Your Love Light”, with the latter’s mid-song jam containing a bit more sparkle than usual. Garcia closed out the run with a gentle “Brokedown Palace” encore to end the night and the tour.

Grateful Dead – The Spectrum – Philadelphia, PA – 4/8/85

Grateful Dead – The Spectrum – Philadelphia, PA – 4/8/85

April 9th: 76ers vs. Boston Celtics

By the time the Grateful Dead and their crew were arriving home to their Bay Area residences after a long cross-country flight, the Spectrum was opening its doors for the 76ers to host their fiercest rival, the defending NBA Champion Boston Celtics. The Sixers would improve their season record to 57-22 with a 113-104 victory and deliver the all-important pre-playoffs “message” to the Celtics, whose roster included future hall-of-famers Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, and Dennis Johnson. Moses Malone led the Sixers’ scoring with 22 points, while six other Sixers scored in double figures to secure the win and display the team’s depth. The Celtics were led by forward Scott Wedman’s 24 points, while McHale put up 23 and Bird and Parish logged 18 points each.

April 10th: Flyers vs. New York Rangers (Playoffs, Round 1, Game 1)

In the opening round of the NHL playoffs, the Flyers drew the New York Rangers, a Patrick Division rival for whom no love was lost and no quarter given. The overmatched Rangers had qualified for the playoffs despite their 26-44-10 record, but they hung tough throughout a physical contest that generated 28 penalty minutes between the teams. With just 26 seconds left in the third period, Rangers forward Anders Herberg stunned the home crowd by scoring to tie it up at 4-4 and force the game into sudden-death overtime. But the Flyers prevailed when defenseman Mark Howe (son of NHL legend Gordie Howe) fired the game-winning shot past Rangers goalie Glen Hanlon eight minutes into the first overtime period, with assists going to Rick Tocchet and Ron Sutter. Goalie Pelle Lindbergh made 27 saves to get the win, which not only gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series, it also gave the Flyers and 76ers a combined 4-0 record at the Spectrum over the previous week.

POST-GAME WRAP-UPS

But for the Edmonton Oilers, the Philadelphia Flyers would have won their first Stanley Cup in a decade. In the opening three rounds of the NHL playoffs, the Flyers eliminated the Rangers 3-0, the Islanders 4-1, and the Quebec Nordiques 4-2. But they’d prove to be no match for Edmonton, as the defending Cup champions eliminated the Flyers 4-1 to win the second of five Stanley Cups in seven years. The Oilers were at the absolute peak of their powers, and this year’s team would become the NHL’s equivalent of the Grateful Dead’s Cornell ’77 show. As part of the NHL’s Centennial Celebration in 2017, the 1984–’85 Oilers won a fan vote as the greatest NHL team ever, with the roster containing seven future NHL Hall-of-Famers: Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey, Kevin Lowe, and Grant Fuhr. (Daaaaamn.)

But for the Boston Celtics, the 76ers would have made it back to the NBA Finals. The Sixers carried a full head of steam into the NBA playoffs with a 3-1 opening series win over the Washington Bullets and a 4-0 series sweep over the Milwaukee Bucks. But the Celtics dismantled them in the Eastern Conference Finals 4-1, going up 2-0 in Boston and winning game three at the Spectrum so convincingly that the home fans booed their own team off the court. The Celtics, for their part, went on to lose in the NBA Finals 4-2 to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics addressed the shortcoming by signing a certain Bill Walton (a noted Deadhead) as a free agent, and as the team’s “sixth man,” Walton helped put the Celtics over the top in the teams’ 1986 Finals rematch.

But for Jerry Garcia’s illness-infused voice, the Grateful Dead’s 1985 run at the Philadelphia Spectrum would go down as one of the best three-night runs of the mid-’80s era, with the middle night being the standout performance. The band returned to California after the show and played two-night stands at Orange County’s Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre and Stanford University’s Frost Amphitheatre in Palo Alto later in April, before kicking off their 20th anniversary celebrations in June with three shows at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre.

EXTRA INNINGS

Phillies fans and baseball fans, we didn’t forget about you. Just across the parking lot of South Philadelphia Sports Complex at Veterans’ Stadium on April 9th, it was Opening Day of Major League Baseball’s 109th season. The Phillies, led by third baseman future Hall-of-Famer Mike Schmidt and managed by John Felske, began their 103rd season with a three-game home stand against the Atlanta Braves.

The Phillies’ season got off to a disappointing start with a 6-0 shutout loss. They didn’t fare much better over the next two games either, losing 6-3 and 8-3 to give the visiting Braves the series sweep. Pitchers Rick Mahler, Zane Smith, and Dave Smith all recorded wins for the Braves, while future Hall-of-Famer Steve Carlton, 1983 National League Cy Young winner John Denny, and Larry Andersen absorbed losses for the Phillies. It was an ominous sign, and the Phillies would get off to a 2-8 start from which they never truly recovered.

But for the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates, the Phillies would have finished last in the National League East in 1985. The Phillies compiled a record of 75-87, their first losing season since 1974, but the Pittsburgh Pirates’ dreadful 57-104 season (and the related Pittsburgh drug trials) ensured that at least their cross-state rivals finished far below them. But there’s no crying in baseball, and in 1986 the Phillies rebounded as Mike Schmidt won his third National League MVP Season while the team finished second in the NL East behind the season’s World Series champion, the New York Mets.