One of the prominent benefit concerts of the 1970s was the SNACK Benefit (Students Need Athletics, Culture and Kicks) legendary promoter Bill Graham staged on March 23, 1975, at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The event, which raised funds for Bay Area schools, began at 6 a.m. and presented an impressive lineup that included Santana, Joan Baez, Jerry Garcia & Friends (ostensibly the Grateful Dead), Tower of Power, Graham Central Station, Doobie Brothers and Eddie Palmieri.
The daylong concert also featured a set that was special for several reasons, chiefly because it was the first time folk rock legends Bob Dylan and Neil Young performed together.
Furthering the specialness of the singer-songwriter summit was that also onstage at Kezar Stadium were The Band members — Levon Helm on drums, Rick Danko on bass and Garth Hudson on keyboards. Rounding out the stellar one-time-only lineup was Tim Drummond on guitar and Ben Keith on pedal steel guitar – both members of Young’s backing band The Stray Gators.
Another special – if not altogether peculiar – component of the Dylan/Young/Band/Gators collaboration was the way they played Dylan’s now-classic song “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” Coming out of an absolutely outstandingly seamless segue from Young’s “Helpless,” the collective started playing the familiar “Knockin” melody, only to deliver drastically different lyrics when it came to the song’s sing-along chorus and verses.
“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was written by Dylan for the soundtrack to the 1973 feature film, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Dylan played it live for the first time on January 3, 1974. He played around 40 more times while touring with The Band backing him in January and February 1974.
Dylan’s next performance was at the SNACK Benefit in March 1975. Graham not only got Dylan to play his first show of 1975, but the set by the Grateful Dead marked the band’s first performance since October 1974 and was one of only a few played by the Dead in 1975. Dylan’s next official concert after SNACK was when he launched the landmark Rolling Thunder Revue tour in October 1975.
Among the estimated 60,000 people in attendance were MLB star Willie Mays, actor Marlon Brando, Olympic athlete Jesse Owens, NFL quarterback Frankie Albert and other luminaries of the era. According to the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation, “the event raised more than $200,000, enough to fund San Francisco after-school programs for an entire year.”
“We make our living from the youth of San Francisco,” Graham said at the time. “This is one of the ways we hope to thank them.”
For the momentous meeting of Bob Dylan and Neil Young, they did not sing the customary “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” lyrics. Instead, Dylan seemingly improvised the verses and led the assembled musicians in singing “Knock, knock, knockin’ at the dragon’s door” when they reached the chorus.
Not particularly known for his articulation onstage as his career progressed, it is not exactly clear what Dylan sang between the “dragon’s door” chorus. See if you can make out what he was singing during that landmark performance with Neil Young and members of The Band and The Stray Gators via a recording of the broadcast by San Francisco radio station K101-FM below:
