A Night at the Family Dog 1970 (The Grateful Dead / Jefferson Airplane / Santana)

Description

Filmed on location at the Family Dog Ballroom in San Francisco in September, 1970, the show captures the heyday and diversity of the San Francisco sound with three of the most well known bands to emerge from the scene: Santana, who would release their second album at the end of 1970; The Grateful Dead, including original band member Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, who were making a name for themselves with their jam-filled performances; and Jefferson Airplane, who were at the time the biggest of the bands from the area.

San Francisco was an area of artistic creation during the mid-to-late 60's. Whether it was art, poetry or music, the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco was the place for like-minded individuals to explore and create. Noted jazz columnist Ralph J. Gleason took note of the exploding rock music scene and produced several television specials and documentaries spotlighting the music emerging from San Francisco. A Night At The Family Dog is one part of a two-part series (the other is Go Ride The Music) that aired on The National Educational Television Network in 1970.

The audio for this program has been extrapolated up to Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound mixes from their original mono source! This show has never sounded or looked so good!

Track Listing:
Santana
-Incident At Neshabur
-Soul Sacrifice
The Grateful Dead
-Hard To Handle
-China Cat Sunflower
-I Know You Rider
Jefferson Airplane
-The Ballad of You And Me And Pooneil
-Eskimo Blue Day
A Super Jam
-All Star jam with members of all 3 bands!

Customer Reviews:

the dead at the dog.......2007-09-09

This is a little piece of history captured for our viewing pleasure...
It only makes you wish there were more old vintage performances available
on dvd... Cheers to eaglevision for keeping the past alive and relevent..

Excellent time capsule.......2007-09-04

this is an approx. 1-hour color videotape, 16-track recorded snapshot of February 1970 performances by these three bands at The Family Dog in San Francisco. Originally produced at the time for public television broadcast; see the review entitled "Amazing Performances" for details ... also disagree w/ "It's Not the 60's" review comment: Grateful Dead were still to break new musical ground from 1970-74 esp. after 1971 when Keith Godchaux joined on piano, as was Santana with even more jazz-oriented 1972-74 albums and lineups (powerhouse drumming from Michael Shrieve here).

for 58 minutes you'll be transported to a time and place in music which can't come back - savor it.

A night at the family dog.......2007-09-01

Glad to see they rereleased this dvd.Performances are great ,the music is right on,but it could have been a lot longer.Buy this dvd to see the great PIG PEN with the DEAD.Priceless.

SAN FRANCISCO'S FINEST HOUR.......2007-09-01

Beyond the film quality which is 1970's average at best, this DVD is Rock essential. Santana, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, the light show and hippie dancers is short in length, but still worth every penny. SANTANA - Carlos Santana in recent years admitted the original band was his best. They follow the Woodstock performance here playing two instrumetals proving they were no one hit wonders. "Abraxas" was not out yet, so it was still a work in progress. The musicianship is better than Woodstock, though not the fire. Gregg Rolie, "Chepito" and the rest made this more of a group than in the later years when the guitar hero was backed by... "Who's He Got This Year"? THE GRATEFUL DEAD - Why was this band never the same after Ron "Pigpen" McKernan died? He was the group's premier showstopper. Jerry Garcia was the leader, "Pigpen" the spark plug. He lets it all go on the R&B "Hard To Handle" lifting the room to peak level. The jam on "China Cat" is just a notch bellow "Europe 72". Still doggone good. The drummers sizzle. JEFFERSON AIRPLANE - Jack Casady's blistering bass solo alone on "The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil" is something to watch and hear. The guy is wired. Grace Slick, vocals and Jorma Kaukonen, guitar are in sync on "Eskimo Blue Day" even though after the song, it's apparent Slick is loaded. This was a great 60's band that splintered later into three parts. The Airplane is better here than at Woodstock and Monterey. THE ALLSTAR JAM is good only for watching. Carlos, Jerry and Jorma seem to respect each other too much rather than trying to top each other. Which band steals the show? It's a three way tie, all having shining moments that will never again will be dupliated. Now that "A Night At The Family Dog" is finally available, I hope next to follow will be the "Fillmore: Last Days" movie on DVD.

I WANT MORE.......2007-08-30

Musically this dvd is 5 star material, If it were a cd this would be a 5 star review. Problem being the brevity and editing. This dvd is much too short (about one hour). The editing flaws include slo-mo shots of a chick hippie-dancing in a sheer dress w/out a bra (even as I type this I feel wrong complaining) the problem is it'll be during peak jams where I would rather see Jerry or Santana's hands or even facial expressions than borderline soft-core porn. The material is great though, Pigpen on video alone is worth the price. It's obvious the cameraman got into the "special punch" that night and just shot whatever the hell he felt like tripping on. For completionists.

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