In 1983, the Grateful Dead made a decision that altered the remainder of their 30-year career from 1965 to 1995. The band, then in their ’80s lineup consisting of Jerry Garcia (lead guitar, vocals), Bob Weir (rhythm guitar, vocals), Phil Lesh (bass, vocals), Brent Mydland (keyboards, vocals), Bill Kreutzmann (drums), and Mickey Hart (drums), had hit a wall after 16 years of making studio albums (both band and solo) that didn’t sell. The band’s calling card had always been their draw as a live act, and by now, they also had enough undeniable demographic research showing their biggest fans generated a lot of repeat business, seeing the band two or more times on the same tour.

In March 1983, the band founded Grateful Dead Ticket Sales, a direct mail-order operation run by the band’s staff in San Rafael, CA. Not only could fans now buy tickets for out-of-town shows (a tough feat before the internet was common) from GDTS, the band also formalized their touring schedule to include three East Coast tours every year (almost always in March/April, June/July, and September/October) and regularly updated the East and West Coast Grateful Dead Hotline numbers with breaking news and mail order instructions. Tours were also generally routed so that consecutive cities on a tour were no more than a day’s drive apart.

One early beneficiary of the new business practice was the city of Richmond, VA, and its downtown venue, the 13,500-capacity Richmond Coliseum. The Old Dominion State had previously held scattered Grateful Dead shows throughout the 1970s, and by 1985, its coastal city of Hampton had established itself and the much-loved Hampton Coliseum as a perennial spring tour location, so marking Richmond as a stop on Grateful Dead fall tours was a wise tactical move. By 1985 Richmond’s population had grown to nearly 650,000, and as the state’s capital, it was centrally located for all of Virginia’s 5.7 million residents. Plus, it was near the Washington, D.C./Baltimore metro area (2–3 hours), the North Carolina metro areas Raleigh/Durham (2.5 hours) and Charlotte (4 hours), and Philadelphia, PA (4.5 hours).

However, Richmond Coliseum would only ever host four Grateful Dead shows over three years, with single shows in 1983 and 1984, and a two-night run in 1985. The opening night in 1985 was an era classic that was the first 1985 show to receive an official release (Dick’s Picks Vol. 21, in 2001), but on that same night, there’d be Deadhead-induced trouble outside the venue that helped ensure the band’s third visit to Richmond Coliseum was their last.

And over those three years, there would be just one song that made an appearance in the Dead’s show each year—the controversial “Keep Your Day Job”.

OCTOBER 8th, 1983 – WELCOME TO FALL TOUR

Richmond Coliseum’s first Grateful Dead show launched the band’s 1983 fall tour. As was often the case with the Grateful Dead, the first show after a break found the band in a loose, experimental mood, with Mydland trying out some unusual keyboard effects on the opening “Feel Like A Stranger”. A few songs later, new-ish songs “West L.A. Fadeaway” and “Hell In A Bucket” preceded a lively “Deal” that closed the set on a high note.

The second set started with another new-ish song, “Keep Your Day Job”, one of the most unpopular songs among fans in the Grateful Dead’s 30-year history. Debuted in August 1982 and co-written by Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter, the song’s music bed wasn’t that far away from the existing “U.S. Blues”, but Hunter’s well-intentioned lyrics about working, paychecks, and financial responsibility landed poorly with Deadheads seeking escape from the real world.

After Deadheads’ consistently negative reactions to six more performances that year, the song had seemingly been dropped. However, nine months later, it reappeared, and on this evening Garcia played it in the coveted second-set leadoff slot. The revived version even extended the mid-song solo to give Garcia and the band a chance to stretch out a bit, but people still weren’t feeling it. The song stubbornly remained in the rotation anyway, and moving forward, it was almost always played as an encore.

“Playing in the Band” returned the show to more popular ground, as did the ensuing “Crazy Fingers”, still a welcome surprise after its revival the year before. A hypnotic “Drums” segment inspired Garcia to wander out from the wings to play along, and once Weir joined him a couple of minutes later, the drummers took a break to allow the traditional free-form “Space” segment to unfold.

Then, at the end of the show, Garcia started the probably-agreed-upon choice of “Sugar Magnolia” as the set-closer. But after the band played through the song’s introduction for over a minute, Weir changed his mind and steered the band into “Good Lovin’”, which contained a vocal vamp with an unusually dark and angry feel. And with curfew approaching, the band remained onstage and knocked out a hurried “U.S. Blues” encore that beat the deadline and underscored the show’s energetic vibe.


[Audio: Jonathan Aizen]

OCTOBER 6th, 1984 – LET’S GO CRAZY

Richmond Coliseum hosted the second show of the 1984 fall tour. The first set’s standouts included “Dire Wolf”, “Cassidy”, “Tennessee Jed” and “Looks Like Rain.” The second set, though, was an underrated, improv-heavy affair that has flown under the radar for years, featuring generous improvisation and a repertoire staple providing the show’s unexpected highlight. This was also a show where Garcia’s playing was particularly dialed in, which was not always a given during the “dirty ’80s” era from 1983 to 1986 when poor health and substance abuse sometimes affected his performances.

Related: Grateful Dead Retrospective 1985: From AstroWorld To Starlight [Audio]

“Scarlet Begonias” > “Fire on the Mountain” and “Playing in the Band” combined for 36 minutes of sustained and exploratory music before Garcia slowed things down for “China Doll”, which preceded another five full minutes of spaced-out jamming before Hart’s and Kreutzmann’s booming “Drums” segment. When Garcia wasn’t able to join his bandmates onstage for the beginning of “Space”, Weir, Lesh, and Mydland sculpted a bubbling jam that moved along nicely.

After a few minutes, Garcia and the drummers returned and joined in for a few minutes before diving into Weir’s new-ish song “Throwing Stones”. The song maintained the set’s momentum, and its coda cleverly transitioned into the traditional “Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad”. It was an above-average version from the start, but Garcia’s radiant guitar solo and the band’s over-the-top vocal surges during the closing choruses brought the house down. The song had been a staple of the Grateful Dead’s repertoire since its introduction in 1970, and they’d crank out almost 300 versions over 25 years, but this version stood out and provided the set-closing “One More Saturday Night” with a hard act to follow.

“Keep Your Day Job” was the encore, and it had a bit more punch than usual. However, by now its appearance as a show-closer would prompt a hardcore contingent of Deadheads to start making their way out of the venue as the song played.

This show remains a stealth candidate for official release due to the second set’s ongoing exploration and energy.


[Audio: Jonathan Aizen]

NOVEMBER 1st, 1985 – THE RAGGED LEGEND

In 1985, Richmond Coliseum’s role on the Dead’s fall tour expanded to two sold-out shows. The opening night would turn out to be one of the most notable shows of the Dirty ’80s era, for both good and bad reasons. First, the bad: the tour’s routing didn’t include any shows between Virginia and New York, and the Richmond shows were on Friday and Saturday nights, so lots of people traveled to the shows without tickets, figuring they could get them in the lot.

When first-night tickets didn’t materialize for many people, a horde of frustrated Deadheads took matters into their own hands and organized a large-scale gatecrash of the Coliseum. While about 300 ticketless people entered the show successfully, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, venue security and law enforcement physically repelled hundreds of others, and there would be immediate and long-term consequences.

Onstage, the Dead got the first show off to a rousing start with upbeat versions of the recently revived “Dancing In The Streets” and “Cold Rain & Snow”, and the late-set version of “Jack Straw” was the set’s highlight. The second set started normally enough with a strong version of “Samson & Delilah”, but that was one of the only “normal” moments from one of the strangest sets of the decade.

Suddenly, it was as if the vibe from the mellowest of Jerry Garcia Band sets was imported into a Dead show through delivery of five straight slower songs—three ballads, a blues cover, and a deliberate progressive rocker. First up was Workingman’s Dead‘s “High Time”, enjoying a 1985 resurgence, followed by the deliberate “He’s Gone” and its segue into Weir’s take on Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful”. Seemingly oblivious to the ongoing slow pace, Garcia then delivered another ballad, “Comes A Time”, which segued into Weir’s intricate “Lost Sailor”.

On paper, it looks like it all could’ve been positively soporific, but talk to anyone who was there and they’ll tell you it was spellbinding. And while there’s a cadre of Deadheads who declare this to be their favorite Dead show of 1985, there are others who consider it an overrated, unfocused mess.

The weirdness didn’t stop there. For the first time since 1980, the “Drums” and “Space” segments separated “Lost Sailor” from its traditional partner, “Saint Of Circumstance”, which was the first upbeat song in almost an hour. From there, it was straight into “Gimme Some Lovin”, which was a complete train wreck until the vocals arrived, and the song never quite found its usual groove. Somewhat predictably, Garcia followed with another ballad, an effective take on Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me” in one of its final performances. The set closed with one of the band’s finest versions of Them’s “Gloria”, with Weir delivering several excellent vocal improv moments amid an explosive, garage-band vibe.

After all that? Garcia chose “Keep Your Day Job” as the encore, making it the only song that was played during each of the Dead’s three annual visits to Richmond Coliseum.


[Audio: Jonathan Aizen]

NOVEMBER 2nd, 1985 — DON’T YOU (FORGET ABOUT ME)

It shouldn’t have surprised anyone that Richmond’s state and local law enforcement really, really didn’t like the idea of a bunch of hippies gatecrashing a rock show on their watch, and they’d ensure Deadheads knew it in no uncertain terms. By the time the tour left town, over 200 people had been arrested in the arena’s vicinity, mostly on drug charges, according to local newspaper reports.

Deadheads with less patience for the band’s messier nights might actually prefer this show over the previous night’s creeping classic. The band is in good form from the opening “Bertha” and “Greatest Story Ever Told”, but before Garcia can start “Dupree’s Diamond Blues”, someone set off an M-80 firecracker, leading Weir to hold a fan vote on whether or not people wanted fireworks to be thrown around (the “no” vote won resoundingly). Later, Garcia’s focused, sharp version of “Candyman” led to the set’s closer and highlight, a driving version of Weir’s “Let It Grow”.

“Iko Iko” launched the second set, with Garcia giving extra effort during the closing choruses, and its hard ending would be the only pause in the set. A faster, jaunty version of “Estimated Prophet” commenced 70 consecutive minutes of music, and the song’s outro closing jam maintained a nice, even consistency. Eventually, the players made their way to “Uncle John’s Band”, with another colorful, thick jam whose themes were seemingly inspired by the preceding “Estimated”, before Garcia relaxed the pace with “China Doll”.

Following the “Drums” and “Space” segments, Garcia opted for his epic reading of Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew” to the delight of the crowd. Lesh was the star of this version, ramping up loud bass lines during the mid-song break and closing surge, before the set finished with Weir’s “Throwing Stones” and Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Turn On Your Lovelight”, and although it was Saturday, the expected “One More Saturday Night” encore didn’t happen. Instead, Garcia eased through Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”, which turned out to be more accurate than anyone realized at the time.


[Audio: Jonathan Aizen]

WHEN MONDAY COMES GOTTA RUN

The Grateful Dead loaded out and traveled north to their next shows in Worcester, MA, and eventually, the long-term repercussions of the gatecrash arrived. The two 1985 shows served as the Grateful Dead’s last visit to Richmond. Statewide, aside from two shows at Roanoke’s Civic Center during the band’s 1987 summer tour, Hampton Coliseum would host every other Dead show in Virginia, from March 1986 to March 1992.

The days of “Keep Your Day Job” were also numbered. The Grateful Dead only played the song five more times after the 1985 Richmond shows, with the final performance coming to close the first set on April 4th, 1986, in Hartford, CT. As for why it went away, Robert Hunter addressed it in his 1990 lyric compendium A Box Of Rain. “This song was dropped from the Grateful Dead repertoire at the request of fans. Seriously.”

Below, revisit a selection of other recent editions of our Grateful Dead Retrospective series: