![]() They set up audio equipment in the King’s Chamber, which is a room near the top of the Great Pyramid, to form an echo chamber that would allow the band – with the help of the “ancient gods,” that is – to levitate the grand structure on cue.īand member Jerry Garcia. Perhaps attempting to harness the energy of the lunar eclipse, the band believed that the third concert was the night they’d be able to levitate the Great Pyramid. Therefore, it made sense that many of the fans decided to sneak in liquid LSD to take during the last concert, which coincided with a full lunar eclipse. The use of psychedelic drugs like lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly referred to as LSD, was common among the hippie community to which The Grateful Dead’s fandom belonged. The pyramids are like the obvious number one choice because no matter what anyone thinks they might be, there is definitely some kind of mojo about the pyramids,” said bassist Phil Lesh in The Grateful Dead Reader. You know, power that’s been preserved from the ancient world. “I was one of the first people in the band who was on the trip of playing at places of power. The proceeds from the ticket sales were donated to Egypt’s Department of Antiquities, an apt choice considering the band’s fascination with ancient artifacts. The band was accompanied by Nubian Oud player Hamza El Din and other Nubian musicians for a few songs, which turned into a cross-cultural jamming session fusing Egyptian folklore music with American rock tunes. The first night was also attended by at-the-time first lady Jehan Sadat, who sadly died earlier this year. They were accompanied by, as music photographer Adrian Boot puts it, “a bunch of bemused Bedouins and their goats.” The concert is said to have been attended by around a thousand people these included many devoted The Grateful Dead fans who could afford the long plane ride to Cairo. Put simply, the band members were not in peak form. Bassist John Kahn fell down the stairs of the recording truck and had to take a lot of pain medications. To make matters worse, Kreutzmann cracked a bone in his wrist when he fell off a horse and ended up having to play the drums with only one arm. The piano tuning technician also backed out at the last minute, so the piano was out of tune for all three performances. However, the band members persevered and worked with the material available from the second and third concerts to create their album. The recording gear made the first night’s recording sound odd, with distorted and missing vocals, therefore rendering the entire first night’s work useless. To start off, an equipment truck ended up getting stuck in the sand and had to be dragged by camels. Set to record the album Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 and perform three consecutive nights of shows, the band members continued to encounter one logistical hurdle after another. The band’s trip to Egypt can be described in many ways, but “smooth” isn’t one of them. “Egypt instantly became the biggest, baddest, and most legendary field trip that we took during our entire 30 years as a band,” The Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann explained in his book titled Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs. The American rock group claimed that they were not there just to perform they were there to record an album, “harness the ancient energy” of the location, and “levitate” the Great Pyramid off the ground.Īlthough they weren’t able to levitate the Great Pyramid, the trip proved to be a memorable one for the band members, fans, and locals alike. Many international artists have performed by the pyramids of Giza over the years, but their experiences cannot be compared to that of The Grateful Dead in September 1978. Photo capturing the progress of the lunar eclipse.
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