12-31-1978 – It’s All Over Now

The Closing of Winterland is a four-CD live album by the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert performed on December 31, 1978. The concert was also released as a two-disc DVD. The title derives from the fact that it was the last concert in San Francisco’s Winterland Arena, which was shut down shortly thereafter. The Dead celebrated the closing as an approximately five-hour-long party (complete with breakfast with the audience at dawn) and invited some guests including guitarist John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Ken Kesey as well as actor Dan Aykroyd who provided the midnight countdown. It was certified Double Platinum by the RIAA on December 15, 2003 under the category of longform video, selling 200,000 units. The New Riders of the Purple Sage and Blues Brothers opened the show.

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“When the Grateful Dead started playing this song in September 1976, it instantly became a very welcome addition to Dead first sets. Made famous more than a decade earlier by the Rolling Stones, the Dead, in typical Dead fashion, made it their own, similar to what they’d do with another Rolling Stones classic track in 1990, The Last Time. The Dead had a strong talent for selecting covers songs that fit their style and musical sensibilities, and although they always stayed true to the originals, they were unmistakably the Grateful Dead.” – David Lemieux

YouTube Channel: Grateful Dead

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