Cornell '77: The Book...and Funiculì, Funiculà

[John A]

I just finished the hard cover book that was included in the box set. One might question how the show can merit a full book’s worth of treatment, and indeed the author Peter Connors muses on this in the prologue. But there’s plenty of ancillary history about the band and the various people interviewed to give the narrative context.  Overall I guess it works. It’s a decent quick read.

A fun anecdote from the book is what happened at the end of the sound check and highlights how loose the band was feeling that day. Apparently the Cornell Concert Commission staff was all assembled during sound check and the band was curious about the Cornell students so they were called up on stage and asked questions about the school and their lives as students. Then Garcia asked if they had any musical requests. One student requested Funiculi Funicula.  This was a completely off the wall request, likely made tongue in cheek.  The song was written in 1880 and commemorated the completion of a cable car on Mount Vesuvius in Italy.  Garcia was impressed by the suggestion, the band had a good laugh, and they were able to work something up. Then, two weeks later at Pembroke Pines, it showed up for the first time in front of an audience before the first set opened.  Now that’s some arcane Dead history!

[helpfrankslip]

On 5/25/2017 at 8:03 AM, John A said:

I just finished the hard cover book that was included in the box set. One might question how the show can merit a full book’s worth of treatment, and indeed the author Peter Connors muses on this in the prologue. But there’s plenty of ancillary history about the band and the various people interviewed to give the narrative context.  Overall I guess it works. It’s a decent quick read.

A fun anecdote from the book is what happened at the end of the sound check and highlights how loose the band was feeling that day. Apparently the Cornell Concert Commission staff was all assembled during sound check and the band was curious about the Cornell students so they were called up on stage and asked questions about the school and their lives as students. Then Garcia asked if they had any musical requests. One student requested Funiculi Funicula.  This was a completely off the wall request, likely made tongue in cheek.  The song was written in 1880 and commemorated the completion of a cable car on Mount Vesuvius in Italy.  Garcia was impressed by the suggestion, the band had a good laugh, and they were able to work something up. Then, two weeks later at Pembroke Pines, it showed up for the first time in front of an audience before the first set opened.  Now that’s some arcane Dead history!

Quite a few times throughout the 80's usually during a kind of warm up they would play some of it best i heard was msg 88 i think, Cornell in a way is like Woodstock as in tens of thousands or more claimed to be there