| The Closing of Winterland | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | December 16, 2003 | |||
| Recorded | December 31, 1978 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock, jam | |||
| Length | 250:12 | |||
| Label | Rhino Records | |||
| Producer | Jeffrey Norman David Lemieux | |||
| Grateful Dead chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| The Music Box | [2] |
| PopMatters |   [3] |
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.[4] 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.[5] The New Riders of the Purple Sage and Blues Brothers opened the show.
Pre-ordered DVD sets included the bonus CD "New Year's Eves at Winterland". It contains an additional nine tracks recorded on New Year's Eve in 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1977.[6]
- ^ Planer, Lindsay. "The Closing of Winterland: December 31, 1978". AllMusic. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
- ^ Metzger, John. The Closing of Winterland, The Music Box, January 2004
- ^ Beaudoin, Jedd (September 12, 2012). "The Dead in All Their Glory: Grateful Dead: The Closing of Winterland, PopMatters. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ Selvin, Joel (October 23, 2003). "It was 1978, the Night They Closed Old Winterland Down — and the Grateful Dead's All-Night Show Lives On in Memories, Flashbacks — and Now a DVD", San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ "RIAA Gold & Platinum database-Closing of Winterland". Retrieved March 1, 2009.
- ^ Bonus CD contained in preorder sets (The Grateful Dead Family Discography)