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Showing posts with label 1981. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1981. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

1981 March 9 - Madison Square Garden


GRATEFUL DEAD
Monday, March 9, 1981
Madison Square Garden - New York, NY
Audience Recording
 
The maturation process for a Deadhead tape collector is a very interesting thing indeed. Whether it's in the way one slowly develops an ear to "hear" a year from just a few seconds of a song, or gains the ability to call a tune long before it starts based off of random between-song noodling happening on stage; with more listening comes the perception of subtleties and nuances which can elude other less experienced ears.

One subtle nuance that sticks with me from the time long before I was a seasoned listener myself is that of being able to discern a "really on" show from one that might be considered "normal." "On" refers to that level of play which goes decidedly over the top from what we might consider a regular Grateful Dead performance. It's different than a "good show." It's actually more about a certain extra layer of sparkle, for lack of a better explanation.

This nuance sticks out for me because I distinctly remember having no clue how to discern the "really on" attribute at all. And I recall not caring. I recall feeling like every new tape that passed through my mail box was "really on" as far as I was concerned. In this, my ignorance truly was bliss.

And then I heard 03/09/81.

Shows from the 80's tend to blur together. Maybe this makes it somehow easier for certain performances to stand out -- I'm not sure. Regardless, one song in to 03/09/81 and it becomes abundantly clear that Jerry is on. I suppose recognizing this takes at least having heard enough shows to create a frame of reference, but during his solo in Feel Like A Stranger, when his amplifier tubes are being pushed to the edge of destruction -- an over saturated and piercing tone -- Jerry explodes like a plume of liquid starlight. It's not a long passage, but it's more than enough to make anyone within an ear's distance cock an eyebrow and smile. And this quality proceeds to infuse the entire night's performance. There's something about Garcia all night. He is really on.

Before diving into the show, it's also worth noting that this Barry Glassberg audience recording is quite certainly one of the very best audio documents around. Clear from the first notes, this recording oozes with the power to whisk you directly out of your everyday existence, and land you squarely in the sweetest spot imaginable at a 1981 Dead show.

Set 1: Feel Like A Stranger, Althea > C. C. Rider, Ramble On Rose > El Paso, Deep Elem Blues, Beat It On Down The Line, Bird Song, Minglewood Blues
Set 2: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider> Samson & Delilah, Ship Of Fools, Estimated Prophet > Uncle John's Band > Drums > Space > Other One > Stella Blue > Good Lovin' E: U. S. Blues

Highlights tumble over each other throughout the show. Almost no song goes untouched by Garcia's clearly overreaching endeavors. Beyond the riveting Stranger to open the first set, Bird Song contains wonders both great and small. There are lines in Jerry's solo that pierce the air; repeating phrases that echo down miles of mental canyons, forcing the song's dynamics to pull in every extreme. Then there are passages spun into endlessly intricate tapestries with threads as thin as hair; gossamer strands of coiling moonlight. This is a version not to be missed.

A fine China>Rider opens the second set, and within the transition is a deliciously long intro jam to I Know You Rider. It finds Jerry repeatedly allowing himself an extra set of measures, unwilling to step off into the song itself. This forces us to become more and more lost in the moment, and the intoxicating nature of the second set is only just starting. The Rider bounding directly into Samson & Delilah is a nice added delight.

The music expanding out of Estimated Prophet sounds like a slowed down China>Rider groove that slowly undulates, breathing whispers and mysteries. The 7/8 time signature quickly evaporates and every note becomes syncopated upon the last. Soon we are on slow rolling hills with each musician following his own lazy path. Subtly, Garcia massages a key change and the jam slips into Comes A Time territory bringing with it a familiar and joyous opening of the heart. Garcia's notes sing, and we are smiling forever, deliciously lost with the band.

Sun flakes settle, and murmurings echo quietly around us. The music is thinking, pondering its next direction. Like a slowly drawn curtain, Uncle John's Band is revealed. Always a perfect choice, we are swept in, spinning on the trails of Jerry's lightly arching melodies. When we sail into the final section of the song, his solo is a mix of staccato swirls and bursting bird calls. Edges sharpen and Garcia's tone fluctuates between ice and honey. The jam takes on the pure Grateful Dead voice, defying song identification. We are resting close to the music's soul here, and invisibly we pass into Drums & Space.

Treated to a post Space Other One, things can hardly get any more satisfying. As is often the case, the band demands surrender across treacherous terrain. Boulders and lighting, ancient masks and imploding planets -- the rush of sensory overload tips us over the edge. Hopeless to define a myriad of images that pass in great thousand year gusts, we merge with the music completely.

Edges give way, and miraculously we emerge out of the second verse into a gleaming, towering hall of trees lit from within. The music swirls delicately between branches nearly unseen. Jerry's voice appears leading us through a delicate and touching Stella Blue. Once again, the band exudes a tenderness that elevates the musical experience beyond mere Rock ‘n Roll.

Once hearing this show, it might be easier for you to put your finger on nuances that separate the different levels of Grateful Dead performances. This show is a lesson in hearing the energy within the music, and recognizing it in other places forever afterward.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

1981 August 14 - Seattle Center

Grateful Dead September 11, 1981

GRATEFUL DEAD
Friday, August 14, 1981
Seattle Center Memorial Coliseum – Seattle, WA
Audience Recording

Ooo. There's nothing not to like here. We have a lovely enough recording of a show that out shines its relative obscurity by many miles. Even in a year (1981) that is famous for portraying the enormous lift in the band's playing energy which is so well associated with the early 80's, this performance pushes even those boundaries. This show is played hard and fast, often feeling more intense and edgy than others you may hear. But this is not in any way at the cost of including several extremely satisfying explorations into pure luscious and spontaneous creativity.

Set 1: New Minglewood Blues, Sugaree, On The Road Again, Peggy-O > Beat It On Down The Line, Brown Eyed Women > Little Red Rooster, Don't Ease Me In > Looks Like Rain, Bertha > Promised Land
Set 2: Might As Well > Samson And Delilah, Ship Of Fools, Playin' In The Band > China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider > Drums > Space > Playin' In The Band > Wharf Rat > I Need A Miracle > Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad > Johnny B. Goode E: It's All Over Now, Baby Blue


Jerry Garcia New Years Eve 1980-81The show wastes little time before striking gold. Sugaree is sublime. Jerry's soloing spans the slow and soulful expressions of a melancholy bird's song to the rapid fire staccato whirlpools of exploding firecracker fractals. Beneath him, the band slips the cycle of the downbeat in all directions. Phil sends the music into almost unrecognizable terrain as Billy and Mickey accent Garcia's notes causing our internal beat counter to become blissfully disoriented.

But this is only a prelude to the adventures in the second set. After a rocket fueled opening Might As Well > Samson And Delilah we get a lovely Ship Of Fools followed by the show's main event. The Playin' jam is alive with the extra sharp energy of the entire evening. The swirling circles and endlessly curving and careening waves eventually fracture into shards of crackling light as the music takes on a strobe light flickering, rapidly rushing in and out of our visual field. From here the jam ends far too soon. But it is not without its own rewards. For only the second time in the band's history, they segue from Playin' In The Band into China Cat Sunflower. And this China Cat is played faster than I can easily conceive that I've ever heard it played before or after.

Garcia leads the way in and it seems to be going too fast for Bobby ever to pull off his portion of the song's signature riff. But he does it, and about as perfectly as you could ever ask for it to be done. This entire version of the song exceeds all descriptions I've ever given early 80's China>Riders and their ability to come on like a psychedelic carnival of sound and color. The song moves so fast it spouts diamonds and liquid ribbons into the air only to see them trail deeply into the distance as the wind rushes past like the song is speeding down an open highway. Notes fly off like flickering tongues of flame licking into the air. As the band hits the climax of the jam we're pulled light years ahead of ourselves, trapped in the grip of a manic typhoon of speeding music. I Know You Rider does not let up one bit, but somehow in its traditional underpinnings we find some relief from the rushing insanity. That is, until Garcia starts playing his leads again and the world spirals and bleeds endlessly into itself, launching us into a broad smile-infused dance where we lose all care or concern over our inability to find any footing. This is high Grateful Dead drama and there's no better place to be lost.

From I Know You Rider, they hint momentarily at returning to Playin' In The Band but this ends up speeding into a loosely structures space jam before reaching Drums (special tip of the hat to my friend David Minches who digitized this audience master tape and his well executed splicing of an unavoidable tape flip at the head of this jam). The music charges down broad circular paths before exiting our vision leaving the rush of Drums before us.

Bob Weir September 13, 1981There is a long played Space which drips and pools, shimmers and evaporates, smolders and sings its way back toward the Playin' Reprise. As Playin' ends, the band takes another unexpected turn into Wharf Rat (this only the 6th out of 10 times the two have been paired as such, and the first time in over 3 years). It's rare enough to be a complete surprise to anyone listening, newbie or old school trader.

And it doesn't end there. Another transition that was logged only ten times in the band's career is Wharf Rat into I Need A Miracle. Rare enough to look nearly absurd on paper, but matching the theme of the evening where everything seems driven by an overwhelming sense of explosive energy, Wharf Rat finds its tempo unexpectedly quickening and its intensity building as the band pulls off a nearly unthinkable, yet brilliantly played transition into Miracle.

Quintessentially putting the icing on the cake, I Need A Miracle > Goin' Down The Road (these only paired together 8 times ever) caps off the second set, somehow raising the bar even higher with intensity and vigor. The slide into GDTRFB finds the music edging into a collapse of key and tempo, yet without the band missing a step. It's an Americana flag rippling shower of electric folk psychedelia as the band powers along without squandering the chance to extend the solos and elevate the crowd to a frenzy of joy. We are brought back to earth (just barely) with the set closing Johnny B Goode.

And then, as if in fitting style to the band's obvious foray into unexpected terrain all evening, they encore with the first It's All Over Now, Baby Blue played since 1974 (only the 3rd time since 1970), ushering in the return of this song to the line up as something of a staple in the encore spot.

Good grief, do you need any more cajoling? If you haven't started downloading this show yet, there's really nothing left to do.

Smile, smile, smile…

08/14/81 AUD etree source info
08/14/81 AUD Download

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

1981 February 26 - Uptown Theater

Jerry Garcia 1981
GRATEFUL DEAD
Thursday, February 26, 1981
Uptown Theater – Chicago, IL
Audience & Soundboard Recordings


Let’s go back to the Uptown Theater in Chicago. The band played a total of 17 shows at this venue from 1978 to 1981. Early on, we visited the first run from May ’78. Now we will visit the last, from February ’81. Consistent with the sentiment that there was never a bad show played at the Uptown, the Dead’s final stand at the Uptown proves the point yet again. And, while there is little trouble bumping your ears into any of the music from this three year span at the Uptown today, it was not always the case. The Uptown runs were generally not on lists, and with minor exceptions, lurked just out of circulatory sight for most of the years leading up to the great high-speed Internet explosion.

Uptown Theater Grateful Dead Poster February 1981This final stand from Feb 26th to 28th ranks as some of the best of the entire 17 show catalog. I feel a particular affinity to the first show of this run, in large part due to the musical highlights, but also because it was one of the more cherished rarities on my, or any tape list. This show just wasn’t around much at all. It’s this element that influences my desire to share it with you first over the other two nights of the run. There’s a ton of good music throughout. But 02/26/81 is somehow extra special.

The show blasts right out of the gate with Feel Like A Stranger, and the stage is set for a good time. The song flows out with its funk-disco snaking heart, and Garcia is immediately locked into the groove. It’s a bit easier to experience in the AUD, since the SBD finds this jam as a period of level setting – all worth it, as this SBD ends up sounding “just exactly perfect” when it’s all said and done.

The Bird Song on this night is spectacular. The solo section is propelled into a whirlwind of melting colors and throbbing suns. Music, direction, and downbeat are all consumed in an avalanche of flames, interlocked in a fractal weave. The music overwhelms here, contradicting any “first set” assumptions we might have brought with us out of the 70’s. We have been unexpectedly thrust into a peak moment of psychedelia, where even as we shut our eyes against the madness, the visions of endlessly turning patterns glowing with lights from within consume our full attention. There is no backing away here. Jerry soars, arching over the music bed with solar flare intensity. He finds lines that arch over head for a million miles. Rolling on and on, the jam absolutely outdoes all expectation. There is so much packed in here that when the actual song returns it feels far too soon. We’re left feeling utterly spent, and only four songs into the show.

The rest of the first set delivers more and more of the crackling energy which drove Bird Song to such gripping heights, rounding out with a Music Never Stopped that consumes the entire theater in its swirling and twirling patterns. The mid song drop into Garcia’s solo feels like riding the tightly wound strands of a braided rope made of light. Deeper and deeper, tighter and tighter, the coils spin in on themselves. Then the shift back to the main song theme is quickly overrun in a blazing fire of sound – colossal, shimmering, cart wheeling, impossible angling music, all capped by some massive Phil bombs in a thunderous finale. This is a prime example of how the band was hitting sensational heights of energy in the early 80's, rivaling those of the prior decade.

Jerry Garcia under stage 1981Returning for set two, the band opens with China>Rider. Slowly growing, the transition solo eventually finds its way into the lightning crackle of energy that threw sparks all over the first set. Garcia winds his lead lines into great turning wheels which storm the summit, drawing the entire band with him. We land on the other side, loping along into I Know You Rider, with that familiar Dead groove born out of the acoustic-folk leanings which we generally attribute to 1970-1971, but truly can trace all the way back to the band’s very dawn. This music is a pure embodiment of the Grateful Dead. They played into countless musical styles, but this was truly their own. As we find so often at Dead shows, there’s a timelessness to the music here. Despite every indication that we are listening to an early 80’s show, this music reflects and projects itself through more than the linear time stream in which we hear it play out. It draws energy from this expansion, and the ride is fantastic.

The focal point of this second set is the improvisational jam out of He’s Gone. These He’s Gone jams came to be fairly expected from 1979 on, always a showcase for the band’s creativity. On 2/26/81, right at the eleven minute mark, the band streams out in nearly Dark Star like grace – a sea of starlight slowly undulating underfoot, with forever expanding ripples set off by each step we take into this ocean. The jam takes form, leaning at once toward Other One, and then backing away. Garcia is wrapped up in a triumphant march of emotion, casting one soaring line after another, most of them tagged with their own embedded echoing of phrase after phrase. Again Other One comes roaring in, and the music swells with energy. Then, as if emerging from a dark forest, the music opens onto a musical plain with hills receding over one another for as far as the eye can see. Gently, the power of the empty spaces between the music takes on its own energy. Quickly, the multi-colored pinwheel pervades our visual field again, and the music shifts into a romping Aiko Aiko/Not Fade Away cadence which eventually gives way into Drums.

The post Drums portion of the set continues to entertain with more deep weaving solos and high energy output, capping off another fabulous night at the Uptown Theater on the northside of Chicago, just about a 20 minute walk from where I was growing up. I missed this show (a fistful of years before I understood the band was something more than the unappealing country rock-ness I heard while listening to the songs Sugar Magnolia and Casey Jones on the radio). I do distinctly remember walking the halls of Lane Tech as a freshman, eying a bunch of people in Dead concert shirts (probably just after this run) and completely scratching my head as to why on earth anyone would dig these guys. Ahh.. youth.

The show is available in both a beautifully clear soundboard, and a well recorded audience tape - thanks, Barry Glassberg, for coming to town for this run.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

1981 August 28 - Long Beach Arena

Grateful Dead Greek Theatre 1981

GRATEFUL DEAD
Friday, August 28, 1981
Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA
Audience Recording

I had been trading for a long while before I was really able to appreciate stuff from the 80’s. There’s no doubt that my musical muse is kindled most by what the Dead was doing in 1973 and 1974. Early on I just wasn't clicking with the Dead that I heard from past the 1978 mark, and to a degree I had to force shows from the 80’s on myself knowing that I needed a well rounded list for trading. Generally I leaned on the friends I had made in trading to help point me to the gems that were lurking in the often hard to navigate world of 80’s Dead. The fact is, there are a lot of shows in the 80’s, most of them are around on tape, and, many of them sound darn good. This was even the case before the golden age of downloadable Dead shows was upon us. Coupled with the fact that the 80’s feature a number of less than glorious performances, it made (and makes) it rather difficult to know which way to turn.

Jerry Garcia - June 11, 1981One of the shows I first came in contact with after deciding that there must be something special that I just had not heard yet, came to me from a long time trading partner, Paul Landgraf. We would do large tape and/or CD trades, and we had gotten so comfortable with each other’s tastes that easily half of each trade would be free form – we would just tell the other to fill out the trade with stuff we thought the other would enjoy. For a time, I asked Paul to help me gain an appreciation for the early 80’s. He did a very good job of it. One of the shows in the first batch he sent me was Long Beach, 08/28/81. It was a door (ear) opening experience for me. I couldn’t believe that so much pleasure could be lurking in a date I’d never even heard of, from a year that I thought paled to everything in the mid 70’s. How foolish I was…

When I started this blog in February, the audience recording of this show was not circulating digitally at all. Paul had sent me a CD copy of his cassettes (1st or 2nd gen as I recall) some 7 or 8 years ago. Given my desire to hook readers up with the ability to hear (if not also download) the shows I recommend, this posed quite a problem, and I resigned myself to not being able to review the show on these pages. Recently, the efforts of the Mouth Of The Beast team released this master tape in all its glory, and thus I have been blessed with the ability to write about and share the wonderful recording.

Grateful Dead 1981The first set feels somewhat standard as it gets its legs. The band starts gelling more in the Me & My Uncle>Big River, and Jerry's leads begin to sparkle. The set one closing Let It Grow>China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider is a classic 1981 showcase of the band’s tightly wound, intricate, blistering, swirling, imploding exploding juicy jamming. You’ll get a workout trying to keep up with things here. The China>Rider sizzles. Jerry’s solos bubble in a frenzied cauldron of roiling boiling pinwheels. While he is obviously taking solos, the band reaches a terrific sense of communal playing, more often appearing as a complete mosaic of music rather than a backing band behind Garcia. It is this musical cohesion that often typifies what was great about the early 80's shows.

Set two follows and delivers one glorious pleasure after another. The opening Shakedown Street has a fabulous jam that finds its way into a pocket of repeating phrases that set the band down a side path for a brief period. It’s just enough to allow them to go far enough astray from the standard Shakedown theme that you can’t help but relish how outside of the box they have gotten. Jerry begins firing triplets out into the air like a magician working his wand over a delighted audience of onlookers. The crowd loves it. You can feel the smiles in the crowd and on the stage.

The Lost Sailor>Saint Of Circumstance appears like an eagle descending into the arena. There is a certain rapt attention that comes over the proceedings as the band works their power deeper into the crowd, as if everyone is forced to breath just a bit more deeply. This Bobby song duo had its heyday in the early 80’s, and there’s really little else like it. Its tight arrangements left small openings for any real exploratory jamming. However, the small pockets it did allow are sensationally delivered on this night. You can feel the energy ratchet up in the Lost Sailor as Jerry and the band go through what qualifies as the solo section getting louder and more intense all the while. The Saint Of Circumstance is clean and full of fire as well.

Grateful Dead 1981From here the band goes into a pre-drums Wheel which is the focal point of the set. Soundman Dan Healy makes the already psychedelic tune even more so by applying all sorts of delayed echo effects to the opening section. This is not by any means distracting. In fact, it shows him to be a perfectly balanced finger on the hand that is the entire band. The jam out of the song blossoms into a quick paced romp featuring more of the tightly wound, multi-instrument interplay that has already graced the show. This jam evades labeling very nicely. It really encapsulates the voice of the band from 1981 - the band is playing in their current "pocket." It’s a long jam, and satisfies on all levels. From it, the band debuts Brent’s Never Trust A Women, which then melts back into a second jam. This one is more a Jerry solo over drums followed by a Brent solo over drums.

Out of a mildly intense Space that hints a few times at returning to The Wheel, the band finds itself in a Spanish Jam which is always a neat treat, as it didn’t come around all that often. Truckin’ is next. It’s nicely done, with Bobby flubbed lyrics and all (Give him a break. He’d only had a few hundred times to practice the song before this night). The playing out of Truckin’ relaxes into a sweetly slippery jam that darts around like a kite on the wind before settling into Wharf Rat, and the show rounds out with a standard Sugar Magnolia followed by US Blues which had become a fixture in the encore slot.

This tape is a great slice of 1981, delivering on many levels, worthy of a listen. Highly under circulating, it’s one of those needles you almost didn’t know was in the haystack at all.


Wednesday, March 5, 2008

1981 September 26 - War Memorial Auditorium

Jerry Garcia 1981GRATEFUL DEAD
Saturday, September 26, 1981
War Memorial Auditorium - Buffalo, NY
Audience Recording

All of the early 80’s years can be difficult to wade through if you’re trying to get a first taste or two from this period of the Dead’s live concert history. Not only are there many low points to match the many high points, but nearly everything is out there on tape in one form or another, let alone multiple versions of more shows than not. There are plenty of hidden treasures lurking from this era, and also many “classics” in their own right.

When it comes to 1981, it might have been one of the more consistently hot years from this period. There is a lot of really great stuff packed into ’81. As a first suggestion, I can’t help but point to one of the classics, 9/26/81. The overall feeling of this show is one of having a really really good time. The band and audience seem locked in together from the first notes. There’s an intimacy to this night caught on tape. You can’t help but feel the bond.

The first set crackles with nice energy, but it’s the second set that flies off the charts. Dan Healy (the Dead’s soundman) recorded the second set himself from the soundboard, and this is the recording featured here.

Phil Lesh - Greek Theatre 1981Playin’ In The Band stretches out in lovely wide arcs. Jerry’s solo seems to gain momentum as it goes along, lending a sense of increasing speed to the jam fueled by an ever growing level of intensity. There's a lot of great stuff to find listening to this jam. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, it turns into Bertha. This is a wonderful surprise, especially to anyone not familiar with this era. It’s a great version, and the crowd is loving it. Mind the Phil bombs!

From Bertha, we land in Estimated Prophet. The post jam out of the song is just about perfect. You can easily lose yourself in the psychedelically loping nature of this song's backbone. And, when Jerry’s lead lines begin to swing in and out of view like a planet orbiting around your head, it just couldn’t feel more perfect. The Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad that follows bursts with energy much like the earlier Bertha. Things are going very well.

Morning Dew. The song is timeless. It almost doesn’t matter which one you hear, you are always nestled close to the heart of the band when they play this song. This evening's version is no exception. The song seems to speak the heart –felt language of the Grateful Dead every time it's played. It slips effortlessly back into Playin’, which bookends the second set masterfully.

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