Barton Hall 5/8/77 by Larry Reichman

Cover of the Grateful Dead book "Barton Hall 5/8/77"

Photo of Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead book "Barton Hall 5/8/77"

Photos from the Grateful Dead book "Barton Hall 5/8/77"

Psychedelic photo of Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead book "Barton Hall 5/8/77"

Back cover of the Grateful Dead book "Barton Hall 5/8/77"

Front cover of the Grateful Dead book "Barton Hall 5/8/77"

Self-Published 2017

"These are some of the best photos we've ever seen from 1977, and that they're from Cornell makes them even more special than simply their photographic and artistic excellence." David Lamieux, Forward to Barton Hall 5/8/77

In May 1977, Larry Reichman was nearing the end of his freshman year at Cornell, picking up freelance photography work for a small newspaper housed in the same off-campus building as WVBR, the campus radio station. By a lucky alignment of calendars, the Grateful Dead rolled into town during “Dead Week”, that sweet spot between the end of classes and the onset of finals.

Barton Hall 5/8/77 gathers Reichman’s photographs from the night of the most widely circulated, adored, debated and second-guessed Grateful Dead concert of all time, with most of these images published for the first time. With access to the venue hours before doors, Reichman captures the show’s prelude: the crew raising lights and wrestling the PA into place. You see Billy, Keith and Jerry making adjustments that will turn their machinery into music. Then the rising tide of humans: early entrants sprinting across the floor toward the lip of the stage to claim real estate that will come with the risk of being “horribly smashed” and “bug-eyed.”

The photographs appear in the order Reichman shot them, which gives readers a lived-in sense of time. First set is rendered through a standard 50mm lens, so the frames feel wide and generous, often holding the entire band at work with the stage presented as a complete organism. At set break, Reichman switches to a 135mm telephoto for closer detail. He notes that the longer exposure required by the lens sometimes lets motion bleed into the image: Donna swaying, Phil leaning into a note. A few shots blur enough to teeter toward the psychedelic, an effect Reichman doesn’t remember intending, but which somehow makes it feel even more like a Dead show.

"I dug out these negatives in late 2015, after being reminded by my friend Matt of the legendary status of this show."

Because many Heads know this show by heart, the book becomes more than memorabilia; it’s a fresh angle on familiar music, a companion to a night we’ve heard countless times. I loved it and it made me greedy. If one Cornell freshman with access and good instincts can deliver a document like this, I daydream about what else is out there: Iowa State, Virginia Tech, Alfred College, UC Santa Barbara, Harpur College. We all treasure the photographic canon (Blakesberg, Cohn, Marks, Marshall, McGee, Minkin, Simon), but even on official CD and LP releases, visuals are often limited to a snapshot or two per concert. Here, the larger format of a book and sheer number of images lets you actually sit with the band, the room and the moment.

For anyone who loves Grateful Dead photography, or anyone who hankers for Cornell, this slim volume, brought to life through a Kickstarter campaign, is an easy must-have.

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NOT FADE AWAY 5/8/77 Barton Hall, Itacha, NY

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