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Grateful Dead Video 09/15/1978

Gizah Sound and Light Theater, Cairo, Egypt
SHNID 172503
Source Summary
xanbo release of Zane Kesey's vhs > ?? > DVD - no audio upgrade
Show Type: Pro-shot and single camera shots of Egypt Generation (if known): Low
Media Type: DVD5 Media Count: 1
Upgrade ?: NO
shnid= None
Misc Link(s): LosslessLegs Page
Entered by Kevin Tobin Videos
Checksums VIDEO_TS.md5
Disc Counts 0 / 0
Media Size Compressed: 3.79 GB (4066840879 bytes)
Uncompressed: 3.79 GB (4066840879 bytes)
Date Circulated
Date Added
11/21/2005
07/16/2025
Downloads Download Text | Download Zip
Other Sources
SHNID 172502 "To Egypt with Love" - audio upgrade by BHP...
SHNID 172504 Notehead release of another copy of Zane...
Grateful Dead
Gizah Sound and Light Theater
Gizah, Egypt
September 14-16, 1978

This footage is from Ken Kesey's archive. He appears in
some shots with the boom pole. Camera operator is unknown.
No other info is available on the source at this time.
Footage from all three nights was used for this compilation
and assembled in a random fashion.

Released by Zane Kesey on VHS. THANK YOU!

VHS > DVD-R by Robbe Smith (robbe on phishhook.com)
and his brother. No other info available at this time.


VIDEO: A- TO B-
AUDIO: B- TO C+

PRETTY RARE I THINK.....PLEASE DONT SELL
DVD-R Part 1:
01. 00:00 Anubian Folk Song w/ Hamza El-Din
02. 01:56 Ollin Arageed w/ Hamza El-Din
03. 05:03 The Grateful Dead take the stage
04. 12:10 One More Saturday Night (9-16)
05. 16:10 Paul Krasner interviews Lawrence of Winterland
06. 16:44 Truckin' (9-14 or 9-16)
07. 18:41 site seeing
08. 20:25 Paul Krasner interviews Bob Nichols
09. 21:54 Bertha >
10. 29:14 Good Lovin' (9-16)
11. 36:48 Ollin Arageed
12. 37:37 Paul Krasner interviews Blaze part 1
13. 38:45 Iko Iko (9-16)
14. 44:17 Paul Krasner interviews Blaze part 2
15. 44:47 Truckin' (9-14 or 9-16)
16. 49:40 Estimated Prophet (9-15)
17. 50:58 Paul Krasner interviews Bill Kreutzman part 1
18. 53:54 I Need a Miracle (9-16)
19. 55:13 inside the pyramids part 1

DVD-R Part 2:
01. 00:00 inside the pyramids part 2
02. 03:46 I Need a Miracle > It's All Over Now (intro)
03. 07:29 Jack Straw (9-15)
04. 13:22 Paul Krasner interviews Bill Kreutzman part 2
05. 13:56 Truckin' (9-14 or 9-16)
06. 14:38 Grateful Dead flag gets planted on pyramid
07. 15:51 Fire On the Mountain (9-14)
08. 20:24 Ken Kesey discussion
09. 20:55 Row Jimmy
10. 32:15 Terrapin Station
11. 33:29 'Bonus' 60's footage
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text found from LL notes:
I have quite a bit of info to add regarding the this movie. I dug up a letter I received from Gary Biddle a few years ago. This is his movie. The letter accompanied some movie outtakes he sent me on VHS. (I'd like to send this to someone who can transfer it and make it available.)  The bulk of his letter describes how this film came to be.

I thought you might get more out of this tape [of the outtakes] if I give some background information. I was hanging out at Kesey's place in the summer of '78 when word first came around that the Dead were going to do some shows at the Great Pyramid in Egypt. I had recently purchased some videotaping equipment with the notion of doing some documentary work. I had the first Sony color camera for consumer use and a 3/4 inch recording deck. The deck was the type used by news crews but the single-tube camera was pretty primitive. You really needed a three-tube camera for broadcast quality. Besides being limited by my equipment, I had never used the stuff. When Kesey suggested that I should bring my equipment to Egypt to record the events, I explained the problems--marginal camera, no experience, really needed at least two cameras and crews. His attitude was, "So what? Let's do it!" And so we did.

When Bear heard that Kesey and I were planning this movie, he got me in touch with his cousin, who had worked on an Emmy winning documentary the previous year. I talked to her and found that she didn't have any equipment of her own, but I encouraged her to come anyway and help out if she wanted. The two of us talked to Bear and agreed to pay his way over to Egypt if he brought his Nagra recorder so we could do a time-sync recording of the show.

Everyone met up in New York for the charter flight to Cairo. The flight was like a family reunion and much hilarity transpired. The flight crew got so freaked at the boisterous energy and open pot smoking that they took all the liquor off the plane when we landed in Paris. We took advantage of the duty-free shop to purchase champagne and cognac, which the French crew, knowing nothing of the events taking place during the Atlantic crossing, were happy to serve.

Arriving in Cairo, we quickly made our way through customs and took buses to our hotel, the Mena House. The Mena House is located about two hundred yards from the Great Pyramid and has the largest swimming pool in Egypt, which was nice because the daytime temperature exceeded 100 degrees F regularly during our stay.

A couple of problems came up almost immediately. First, Bear decided not to bring the Nagra because he was afraid that it would get confiscated by the customs authorities. He just wanted to enjoy the experience and not worry about working, and would rather pay for his own ticket. That was all right, since it was doubtful we were going to get to record the shows anyway. Then Bear's cousin sat down with Kesey and me and tried to get us to draw up a contract dividing the spoils from the ensuing video. Kesey told her that this was Gary's project, and he wanted no part of any contract. My feeling was that this would be a home movie for the participants and I had no intention to profit from it. Bear's cousin only had limited involvement from that point on.

We started doing some interviews with members of the entourage, with Kesey directing, Paul Krassner interviewing, and me handling the camera. Kesey decided one day that we should do a bus trip, so we chartered a bus and toured the antiquities at Sakkara and Ankara. Among those on the bus were Kesey and family, Krassner, Pranksters George Walker, Zonker, and Mountain Girl, and Billy K. Most of the band had stayed back in Marin to work on Shakedown Street. Billy came over with the charter, however, having broken his arm in a horseback riding accident the week before. One day we taped a tour inside the Great Pyramid with Kesey, Krassner, David Frieberg, Walker, and Bill Walton. We taped interviews sitting in the sarcophagus in the King's Chamber and did some chanting to take advantage of the amazing acoustics. We also climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid one day and taped Walker tying a Greatful Dead flag to a post showing where, prior to its destruction, the top of the pyramid had been. The crowd went wild that night when spotlights lit up the Great Pyramid and showed the Dead flag flying over it.

The day of the first show and it still wasn't clear if we had the OK to tape the shows. I met Jerry on the stage an hour before the show and he said he thought I definitely should tape them. I just hung on stage and danced the first show, but came prepared the next night to do some taping. Kidd Candalario was my budd, so I kind of hung by him and Parrish, on stage left next to Phil and Keith. Dan Healy set me up with a couple of microphones feeding off the stage monitors. I climbed up the speaker stand, which gave me a good view of the entire band, for the first set, and then shot from stage level for the second set. Unfortunately I was limited by my batteries to forty minutes a night of recording.

The third show, 9/16/78, took place during a total eclipse of the moon. It was very special night, and Bear made sure that I was in the proper state of mind to fully appreciate the wonders of dancing on stage with the Dead, in Egypt, right next to the Sphinx and the pyramids, during an eclipse of the moon. That night was a high point in my life. After the show I went off by myself and climbed the Red Pyramid and watched the full moon set on one side of the desert while the sun rose on the opposite side.

A couple of days later we returned to California and I got to work editing the tapes. I had about seven hours of raw material, which edited down to ninety minutes. I got together with the band members and gave them copies of the edited tape after we watched it. I ran into Zippy, their business manager, at one of the "From Egypt With Love" shows at Winterland in October and made a deal with him so he could try to include my material with other film they had shot after the Egypt shows on a boat trip down the Nile. The band wasn't happy with the way they had played and nothing ever came of it. The rights to the material reverted back to me and the tapes went into the vault, where they remain. If you've seen Backstage Pass, most of the Egypt material came from my tapes.

About a year ago I decided that people should get a chance to see the tape and put out an offer on DNC. My post was removed within twenty minutes and I was contacted by an old friend still connected with the band, who asked me not to circulate the tape because they had interest in doing something with it. So I'm still sitting on the ninety minute edited tape.


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