loading . . . Laughter, Love and Music, Bill Graham Memorial, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, 11-3-1991, Part 4: The Grateful Dead with John Fogerty Here's the fourth and last out of four volumes of the 1991 Bill Graham memorial concert, called "Laughter, Love and Music." This one mainly features the Grateful Dead. However, there's a section in the middle where John Fogerty sang four songs while backed by the Dead.
But there's more. Neil Young also showed up to sing lead vocals on a song, again backed by the Dead. He sang the Bob Dylan song "Forever Young." I believe the only other time he sang this song in concert was at the Bridge School Benefit that same year. Furthermore, John Popper of Blues Traveler played harmonica on one song. And for the concert finale, the Dead left the stage so Joan Baez could sing "Amazing Grace," with backing vocals by Graham Nash and Kris Kristofferson.
The Grateful Dead were extremely close to Bill Graham, from the very start of their career. He took control of the Fillmore in San Francisco in 1966, the first year of the band's existence. They would go on to play concerts managed and promoted by Graham probably hundreds of times.
In my write-up for Volume 1 of this concert, I mentioned a quote from Bob Weir of the Dead, who called Graham "the most important non-musician in music." Here also is a quote from band member Jerry Garcia: "Bill was our power guy, he's the guy that made rock and roll into an art-form. He loved dickering with agents and managers, that's what was fun for him. Bill himself was larger than life and an amazing guy. I've just missed the friend."
And here's a quote from band member Mickey Hart: "Bill always took great pride in everything he did. Whether it was The Fillmore or the Winterland, you could see him before the show, with his watches and his clipboard, making sure the chairs were right… He was a saloon keeper, he was a proprietor at the beginning – that's what his license said, 'saloon keeper.' He took great pride in bringing people into an environment, making them feel really great, then making sure they got safe. He was like a warrior promoter, and he really cared, he would sit up at night and dream this stuff. It wasn't like he just went to work and punched a clock; he was driven."
Typically, the Dead played whatever they wanted to play, without much thought about time limits or the specific circumstances of the concert. But for this concert, they came pretty close to playing an abbreviated "best of." They kept the overall length of their set short, compared to their usual standards of playing two or three hours, while skipping the usual long "Space" and "Drums" solos. And they played some of their best known songs. They even finished with "Touch of Grey," their sole Top Ten hit in the U.S. I'm not saying that was a good thing or a bad thing; I just think it's interesting.
The most memorable part about their set, however, had to be the songs sung by John Fogerty. In 1989, Fogerty sang a few songs backed by some members of the Dead, though it wasn't the full band. You can find that recording here:
https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/12/in-concert-against-aids-oakland_19.html
That collaboration probably led to this one two years later, where he was backed by all of the Dead. These two concerts turned out to be the only two times Fogerty and the Dead played on stage together. (There were no more opportunities after Jerry Garcia died four years later.) This was also only the fourth time he played any of his Creedence Clearwater Revival songs at a formal concert after a long hiatus. Due to a legal dispute with his record company, he didn't play them from 1972 until 1987. After this, he began playing them on a regular basis.
This album is an hour and 27 minutes long.
61 talk (David Graham)
62 Hell in a Bucket (Grateful Dead)
63 China Cat Sunflower (Grateful Dead)
64 I Know You Rider (Grateful Dead)
65 Wang Dang Doodle (Grateful Dead with John Popper)
66 talk (Grateful Dead)
67 Born on the Bayou (John Fogerty & the Grateful Dead)
68 Green River (John Fogerty & the Grateful Dead)
69 Bad Moon Rising (John Fogerty & the Grateful Dead)
70 talk (John Fogerty & the Grateful Dead)
71 Proud Mary (John Fogerty & the Grateful Dead)
72 Truckin' (Grateful Dead)
73 That's It for the Other One (Grateful Dead)
74 Wharf Rat (Grateful Dead)
75 Sunshine Daydream (Grateful Dead)
76 talk (Neil Young & the Grateful Dead)
77 Forever Young (Neil Young & the Grateful Dead)
78 Touch of Grey (Grateful Dead)
79 talk (Joan Baez)
80 Amazing Grace (Joan Baez with Graham Nash & Kris Kristofferson)
81 talk (David Graham)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/G1KUGAmb
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/S3aMhOemSjAIHE3/file
The cover image is from this exact concert. It shows John Fogerty in front, with Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead in back, with glasses and a beard. https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2026/05/laughter-love-and-music-bill-graham_33.html
