Subject: Bill Graham tribute

San Francisco memorialized the passing of an era on Sunday, November 3,
1991, with a six hour free concert at the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park
in memory of Bill Graham.  I heard crowd estimates from 150000 to 300000,
it was assuredly a lot of people, yet a remarkably mellow and wonderful event;
gigantic balloons, hoards of hippies of all ages, great rock and roll,
perfect weather, what more could you ask for?

At 10 AM, the Dirty Dozen Blues Band circled the Polo Fields on a truck,
playing Dixieland in the style of a New Orleans wake.
Bobby McFerrin opened with the National Anthem, in homage to Jimi Hendryx.
Jackson Browne played a couple songs, followed by Joe Satriani and friends.
Aaron Neville sang a magical "Ave Maria", with Evelyn Cisneros of the
SF Ballet dancing to choreography by Michael Smuin for the occasion.

Carlos Santana turned up the heat with the most empassioned set of the day,
with Los Lobos joining in for a wonderful cover of the Dead's "Bertha".
A brief bit of comic relief by Robin Williams preceded a short but heartfelt
appearance by Journey.  Tracy Chapman sang two magnetic, chilling songs.

The magic of the 60's was reincarnated in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young,
looking and sounding great.  They performed a lengthy set starting with
"Teach Your Children Well" and including "Wooden Ships" and Neil Young's
"Long May You Run".

When The Grateful Dead started to play, a two-engine plane made repeated low
passes over the Polo Fields, bombing the crowd with multicolored carnations;
I've never seen anything like the sight of the flowers dropping to the crowd,
slowly, slowly, scattering with the wind.  John Fogerty sat in for several
old Creedence tunes, including "Bad Moon Rising" and a splendid
"Rolling on the River".  Neil Young joined the Dead to sing "Forever Young",
with Jerry Garcia's piercing bridges one of the highlights of the day for me.

But the single moment which brought chills to my spine was when Joan Baez
closed with "Amazing Grace", first by herself, then with harmony by
Kris Kristofferson and Graham Nash, leading the audience in
responsive singing.  For me and I think for innumerable others of my
generation, it was a moment out of time, a bridge back across the last
25 years, and not incidentally across the generations before.  A flash
from the past, a wonderful day, we shall not see its like again.