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Showing posts with label SBDs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SBDs. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

1973 March 24 - The Spectrum

 

GRATEFUL DEAD
Saturday, March 24, 1973
The Spectrum - Philadelphia, PA
Soundboard Recording


So we established early on that I set up the Grateful Dead Listening Guide playing the character of an old hippie guy living across the street from you. One day a couple of years ago you and he struck up a conversation, and soon you found yourself invited over to the old guy's basement where you were seated in the sweet spot between artfully spaced stereo speakers as he began pulling tapes off the wall, filling your ears with stories, enchantments and mysteries deep and vast.

Judging from your repeated return visits, everything has gone very well. You continually enjoy an endless parade of music-magic, and the old hippie finds tremendous pleasure in learning more about his own spiritual connection to the music through this sharing and the reflected joy it clearly produces in your welcoming eyes and ears.

By this point we've share a great deal of music and it sometimes becomes a slight struggle for the old hippie to pick the next tape. This time, rather than trying to outdo myself by producing a completely hidden gem, I've decided to go back to one of the very first shows I ever received from the year 1973.

March 24th 1973 is well circulated, and I wore my own tape thin way back when my grand total of 1973 shows was about 2. Perhaps because of this, the show never really struck me as something to recommend to you here. Perhaps I felt somehow that the show's magic wasn't unique enough. Maybe I thought that it was too commonplace a tape. No matter the reason, it didn't help that I hadn't listened to the show in a very, very long time. That all changed on a whim when I pulled the show back out.

Revisiting it now, I'm struck with the realization that this show I so easily let myself forget over the years possesses a heaping helping of that which I treasure most about 1973 Grateful Dead jamming – a certain nimble jazzy Ferris wheel sound that I often only find deep in the summer of this fine year. It's no wonder that this, as one of my very first tapes, cemented my lifelong connection to the Dead, and to 1973 in particular.

Set 1: Bertha, Beat It On Down The Line, Don't Ease Me In, The Race Is On, Cumberland Blues, Box Of Rain, Row Jimmy, Jack Straw, They Love Each Other, Mexicali Blues, Tennessee Jed, Looks Like Rain, Wave That Flag, El Paso, Here Comes Sunshine, Me & Bobby McGee, Loser, Playin' In The Band
Set 2: Promised Land, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Big River, Stella Blue, Me & My Uncle, He's Gone > Truckin' > Spanish Jam > Space > Dark Star > Sing Me Back Home > Sugar Magnolia E: Johnny B. Goode

The pleasures of this show are not only waiting deep in the second set. We are treated to a lovely first set and quite an extended Playin' In The Band to wrap it up. Psychedelics explode on the scene as if they've been held back to the bursting point. The music swirls. Colors bleed. Jerry casts out leads that tip toe deftly over rolling river rapids, often taking a path up over tree tops and then incredibly threading between blades of grass. Late in the jam we find Garcia taking a break while the rest of the band continues to churn with a kaleidoscoping display of yellow-orange embers dancing through burning logs. Jerry returns and adds searing white and fuchsia flames to the mix as the song returns to close the first set.

China>Riders in March 1973 are noteworthy for often delivering an unprecedented amount of energy and momentum, and the one here on March 24th wastes little time living up to the reputation. The transition jam flies. The band locks into a shuffle with Garcia streaming sunbeams, and the familiar four-chord jam, while not being as heavily pronounced as in other versions, does not disappoint as we transition into I Know You Rider. With solo sections that burst with that joyful effervescence that defines the Dead in so many ways, we can't help but smile throughout the entire song.

Of course it's the shows extended jam in the second set that places this show on a pedestal, and for good reason. Out of Truckin' the band lets the music settle into a meadow of grass where wind barely whispers. Jerry delicately lofts out the opening lines of Dark Star, yet no one takes the reins with him. Instead, the entire band slips effortlessly into a rolling jazzy 1973 jam that typifies the year completely. This jam is as reminiscent of the big '73 Watkins Jam as nearly anything else on record in this year or otherwise. The tempo flies as Garcia unleashes long staccato runs that reflect and echo upon themselves leaving trails in the air, cutting a dewy mist with ripples of energy. The purity of the Grateful Dead's musical soul is stretched into the sky, pulling us into a rapturous dance erasing all physical barriers. In this music we feel the Grateful Dead resonate far more deeply within us than words may express.

A small guitar break finds Billy and Phil bebopping out a Drum and Bass solo. The rest of the band returns and picks up right where it left off. We are lost, fuse and reflected within the invisible fabric that beats in the empty space of atoms. Soon a Spanish Jam appears and is quickly vaporized into caverns, light years deep. Great drops of sound randomly take shape and gather together with invisible gravities. Orbits shimmer. Waves rise and fall. Slowly a subtle symphony takes shape. Singing stars and slowly bowed strings rise into harmonies, and the sky fills with a thousand sunsets. An ocean-sized crescendo, as delicate as an evening breeze through trees fills the infinity all around. Dark Star appears.

While it can easily be touted as the shortest Dark Star on record (at only about four and a half minutes), all fairness points to Garcia tipping the Dark Star hand some twenty-two minutes prior as the jam first took form. But we aren't here to quibble over the length of the song. The music flutters like slow rolling redwood tree-sized velvet drapes stretched for a hundred miles around us. And we are eventually left in awe as the band transitions liquidly into Sing Me Back Home. Here the gospel overtones conjure up that familiar feeling of sitting around a campfire, as a story is told. When Garcia hits his solo, notes blossom streaming flower pedals all around. He somehow conjures every ounce of the sound system's power into delicate footsteps that leave no trace in the sand. Grace, as simply delivered as ever.

A classic Dead tape to be sure. Worth the listen even if its been sitting on a shelf for a quarter century or more.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

1971 December 15 - Ann Arbor

Bob Weir August 15, 1971
GRATEFUL DEAD
Wednesday, December 15th, 1971
Hill Auditorium – Ann Arbor, MI
Soundboard Recording

When taking a broad stroke look at 1971 and 1972 one generally sees some stark differences. Jumping from a late April 71 show to one from the same time of the year in 1972 reveals a band that seems to have evolved far more than twelve months might allow.

A pivotal shift occurred in October 1971 when Keith Godchaux was added to the lineup, reshaping the band's rhythm section and inspiring play at all levels. Keith quickly fit right in, and as 1971 neared its close, the beast we would come to fully face in 1972 was already starting to take form. December 1971 shows have the distinct sound of metamorphosis to them.

The show on December 15th, 1971 beautifully showcases this transition for us, and contains a Dark Star that exceeds the relative obscurity of its reputation.

Set 1: Bertha, Me & Bobby McGee, Mr. Charlie, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Beat It On Down The Line, It Hurts Me Too, Cumberland Blues, Jack Straw, You Win Again, Run Rudolph Run, Playin' In The Band, Brown Eyed Women, Mexicali Blues, Big Railroad Blues, Brokedown Palace, El Paso, Casey Jones
Set 2: Dark Star > Deal, Sugar Magnolia, Turn On Your Lovelight > King Bee > I'm A Man > Turn On Your Lovelight, E: One More Saturday Night

Keith Godchaux 1971The first set is packed to the rafters with classic 1971 Grateful Dead energy. Then, tucked right in the middle, a six and a half minute rendition of Playin' In The Band captures the dawning of what would eventually arrive in the months ahead. The song's jamming sees the band exploring a distinctly new direction. It's as if the band intends Playin' to stay in the format of a single, but the song's "Main Ten" thematic undercurrent will no longer be denied. The blossoming of this undercurrent is ripe with a sense of new territory for the band's improvisational talents. It really feels like the song could go on for 20 minutes but is reeled in only because the band thinks that's what is supposed to happen.

But it's the set two opening Dark Star which deserves most of our attention. It begins in a familiar sea of gentle bobbing and floating on tiny fractal waves. A caressing of melodic lines dance and twirl effortlessly, like a symphony of leaves falling from a tree. Soon the tempo drops away and a vast plain opens up where random coils of music fill spaces separated by compelling emptiness. The mood goes introspective, as dusk and moonlight pervade the scene before us. Quietly a storm brews, and sinister blood-red fire (so indicative of 1971) flashes and distorts our surroundings into a frenzy approaching madness.

But there is something more happening here. Clearly the addition of Keith to the lineup has triggered the sprouting of the powers which would find complete release in 1972 itself. The band's ability to intricately intermingle this dark and dangerous energy with their hallmark sense of triumphant, joyful expression is breathtaking here. It produces a complexity and wildness that goes beyond their already well developed psychedelic jamming style. We feel our hearts swell, while at the same time the fear of being lost to the fire never fully abates. These two extremes cycloning together encapsulate much of what the future state of the Grateful Dead would sound like. From some familiar corner of our awareness, Dark Star returns and the first verse is sung.

Jerry Garcia October 26, 1971Afterwards, the music deconstructs more perfectly than could be hoped. Sound trickles down to a murmur leaving an immeasurable expanse of physical space around us, much like we had visited a thousand years earlier in the song. The dark brooding toys with the joyful again, and infinitely intricate ripples of sound dance in cosmic unison. From within this space a slow jam is born. Bobby finds a chord progression that is part Spanish Jam, part Weather Report Suite Prelude, and the entire band picks it up with him.

Garcia proceeds to roll out solos that soar with impossible grace and fire, somehow encompassing that amazing balance of light and dark we've been experiencing this whole time. In many ways this displays the elemental muse jam which expressed itself through the band so often in 1972. There is more discovery here; more willingness to experiment rather than ride the wave. And this willingness to push sends the band to higher and higher levels of musical creativity. Eventually we are completely swept out of any ability to hold ourselves separate from the music around us. Reaching for rapturous heights, the music pierces the soul and fills the universe all at once.

I'll admit, the abrupt segue into Deal is not welcome what-so-ever. Yet, by bringing the real world crashing back into view, it provides a certain rush of adrenaline. Almost instantaneously we are strutting with the band as they deliver the song with a certain bluesy guts that is infectious. Deal ends, and we feel almost lost in the silence afterward; a vacuum completely devoid of musical adventuring.

The show charges along bringing Pigpen into the spotlight with a Lovelight > King Bee > I'm A Man > Lovelight. Tasty transitions weave a very unique Lovelight sandwich. This set closer, and the well crafted and delivered first set, serve to bookend a truly exceptional Dark Star that might more often get overlooked when one goes hunting for magical moments in the history of Grateful Dead recordings. Don't miss it.

12/15/71 SBD etree source info
12/15/71 SBD Stream

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

1977 May 9 - Buffalo, NY

Jerry Garcia early 1977

GRATEFUL DEAD
Monday, May 9th, 1977
War Memorial Auditorium - Buffalo, New York
Audience & Soundboard Recordings

Immediately after what would later become arguably their most famous show of all time, the Grateful Dead just rolled right along. On the very next night they were simply playing the next stop on the Spring 77 tour in Buffalo, New York. For them, the events of the previous night were very likely to have passed relatively unnoticed. It was just what happened yesterday. A good show, no doubt. But the earth didn't shift on its axis. That said, when you go back and review the musical events of that May 1977 tour, you can appreciate that the band had set its own bar pretty high in early 77 and was coasting completely in the zone at this time. What felt commonplace in the moment clearly became the stuff of legends as the years wore on.

Set 1: Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower, Cassidy, Brown Eyed Women, Mexicali Blues, Tennessee Jed, Big River, Peggy-O, Sunrise, The Music Never Stopped
Set 2: Bertha, Good Lovin', Ship of Fools, Estimated Prophet > The Other One > Drums > Not Fade Away > Comes A Time > Sugar Magnolia E: Uncle John's Band


This show opens up with a Help>Slip>Frank that is spun directly from the cloth of the night before. And it's almost no wonder that something like this is what comes directly out of the gate the night after Barton Hall. It's as if the massive energy of the previous night's second set needed further release. It finds it in spades here.

Slipknot comes on like a surging thunderstorm hurdling towards us over a mountain range in the distance. For a time, the music is awash in hazy, cloudy mist. Slowly elements and energy begin to take form and before long potent eruptions and gales lash at us from every direction. The show is getting off to one of those starts where you feel we may have dropped into the start of the second set rather than the first. Things are just too intense. The music approaches its climax as great fists of power knock us off balance. Eventually the band gels into the song's head again and they smolder through the structured final section. We are dropped directly into a Franklin's Tower that is about to nearly lay waste to everything that just came before it.

Bill Kreutzmann - March 20, 1977It is in Franklin's that we find that effervescent full dimension of the Grateful Dead appearing. And leading the charge is Mr. Jerome Garcia, as on fire as he ever was in 1977. As you will have already noticed, the audience recording featured here is quite fine. We feel the hall, but are up front enough to experience the vocals in extreme clarity. It's a perfect setting for a musical experience of the highest order.

Garcia proceeds to blow lyrics in nearly every verse. And somehow, as deadheads are often ones to notice, these slip-ups seem to propel Jerry's soloing into the stratosphere. He is crisp, he is clean, and the band is in lock step behind him. And Keith is playing the organ instead of piano here – a truly rare and amazingly satisfying treat to be sure. It takes a verse or two, but eventually Garcia and the boys stretch out into an inferno of classic Grateful Dead rock. The performance engraves itself in the book of 1977, and you can feel every nuisance from each musician. The music is palpably loud, streaming out and over your head. It's exploding sunshine into a sea of joy beyond measure as Jerry continues to climb and climb. He approaches shredding without giving in, and the entire band is catapulted into the sky. Amazingly the show has only just begun.

The rest of the set continues as textbook 1977. There's no mistaking that certain blend of energy and enjoyment that the band was emitting at this time. Because of this, much of the set is dappled with highlights. One worth calling to your attention is Big River. I've said it before, Big River may be one of the most overlooked tunes in the entire songbook of the Grateful Dead. Jerry must have looked forward to this song more than most as he would almost always lay down solos that went beyond expectation. This night is no exception, and deserves a good listen. By the time he goes around for the third and fourth laps in his last solo, Jerry has fire flying out of every pore of his being.

The first set closes with The Music Never Stopped. Friends, there is little I can do to suitably set the stage. Accolades are rightly lofted upon this version by many a tape collector. The crescendo is so fierce that you can't help but marvel at what it was like to be there with the band back in 1977; to be in the presence of something so ferocious. And it also goes a long way to supporting the fact that the night before isn't so much more special or unique. Considering all the songs at the Dead's fingertips, it took far more than one night to allow them to express them all. Tonight, on May 9th, we are clearly experiencing an extension of the previous night. It's just one long ride in May 77. Enjoy.

Jerry Garcia 1977Second set highlights do not fail to match the fireworks of the first. Estimated Prophet coils out with snaky and mysterious tendrils. They curve and caress their way through the crowd painting a rich watercolor of stained glass rivers. These waters seep into everything, infusing the experience with the psychedelic unknown – like tipping over a precipice that leads into a great sea of kaleidoscoping fog. After spinning entirely away from Estimated, a subtle jam finds itself launching an Other One that packs infinite intricacy and detail. There are endless featherings of reflection and echoing tremors that peel off of every corner of the music. These rushing rapids send our hearts spinning, completely at a loss to find solid ground. We come out in a wide open terrain where Drums impossibly liquefies the earth beneath us.

This transitions into Not Fade Away and again the music comes to tower over us, performing an endlessly intricate weaving of streaming lights and textures. There's too much music to be coming out of just one band here. Everything is playing off of everything else, and the occasionally whispered reminders of Not Fade Away come and go, teasing us with a knowing smile. Then a segue born upon night mist leads us into Comes A Time.

The juxtaposition of Comes A Time against everything that preceded it demonstrates yet another layer of the Grateful Dead's magic. We are in church again, at complete peace. Every cell of every body sings this prayer together. It's as if we've known it our entire lives. The connections between audience and band are unmistakable, and we expand into another moment that we both wish would never end and goes on forever at the same time.

Comes A Time jams. There is nothing quite comparable to the exit jam section of Comes A Time in 1976-1977. They are a breed unto themselves. Here on 5/9/77 we are spun out into such gorgeous emotional expression that one can barely hold back tears. Things become indescribably beautiful. These are the moments that define the love many of us have for this band.

Sugar Magnolia ends the set with a bang, and then we get treated to an Uncle John's Band encore that closes the evening right back in the happiest of places. We glow with the music. We sing with the band. They proceed to stoke the wild fire embers again as they let the song's 7/8 section blossom into rainbow moons and cascading stars. Sensationally this encore crackles and shines, closing a show that could only have happened in that mythical year of 1977.

05/09/77 AUD etree source info
05/09/77 AUD download

05/09/77 SBD etree source info
05/09/77 SBD Stream

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

1972 August 24 - Berkeley Community Theatre

Grateful Dead 1972

GRATEFUL DEAD
Thursday, August 24, 1972
Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA
Soundboard Recording

“Good time music by good time people”
Bill Graham introduction, 8/24/72

Once again I find myself overwhelmed by the way the Grateful Dead sounded so completely at the top of their game in 1972. In a year that saw a more subtle evolution than its predecessor, there is no doubt that 1972 demonstrated an amazing metamorphosis bridging 1971 to 1973. When one considers ’71 against ’73 they stand nearly as distinct as day to night. And while it is clear that there were many miles between these two years, 1972 showcases an amazing consistency throughout. End to end it’s a constant roller coaster ride through both the Americana Rock and wild psychedelic adventurism that were both completely the Grateful Dead.

Grateful Dead Newsletter 1972Tucked into the summer of ’72 are the August shows. Historically speaking, August contains one of the most famously heralded shows of all time (08/27/72 Veneta, OR) and what was long one of the most completely missing dates in all collections (08/25/72 Berkeley, CA). Woven into that soap opera are a bunch of other shows that can sometimes bleed into each other. And while the 08/27 show is a classic (someday I’ll review it, I’m sure), when I consider you coming over to my house to explore August 1972, my hand is going to grab the show from 08/24/72 every time.

You don’t need to hang around Grateful Dead tapes very long before you realize very little convincing is needed when it comes to listening to a 1972 show. So, allow me to highlight just a few obviously key elements and then step over to the stereo to turn the volume up too loud for us to talk to each other and hit the play button.

Set 1: Promised Land, Sugaree, Jack Straw, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Me & My Uncle, Bird Song, Beat It On Down The Line, Tennessee Jed, Playin’ In The Band, Casey Jones
Set 2: Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo, Mexicali Blues, Brown Eyed Women, Truckin, Dark Star > Morning Dew, Sugar Magnolia, Ramble On Rose, Greatest Story Ever Told, Sing Me Back Home, One More Saturday Night E: Uncle John’s Band


mandelbrot set fractalIn the ever flip-flopping of shows from Dark Star to Other One in these early-mid ‘70’s years, this August 24, 1972 show flops to Dark Star, and also manages to capture a Bird Song, China>Rider, Uncle John’s Band, and the obligatory flip-flop defying Playin’ In The Band. It makes for ideal pastures as far as I’m concerned. And in listening to the more exploratory expanses of this fine show I am continually brought to the state of mind where my eyes can no longer perceive the physical space around me. The vivid imagery which floods my vision while my eyes are closed tight suffuses everything continually. And in that vision where light burns around shadows and perspective swims in a sea of joy, I am repeatedly exposed to a musical journey which seems to travel through a landscape constructed of a Mandelbrot set fractal.

Whether it’s within the Playin’ jam, or the amazing Dark Star, or even the insanely tight weave of the final Uncle John’s Band segment, I am forever feeling things move through either the vast open empty spaces of the fractal pattern, or cascading wildly through the forever repeating and coiling tendrils hidden deep in the details. These extremes are synched to the beautiful dynamics that the band is utilizing – something not always ascribed to 1972. Here on 8/24 the Dead are all at once fully at ease and wickedly electrified at the same time – something that manages to describe their essence through this period very well. And yet this show provides ample breathing room which only heightens the entire musical experience.

Phil Lesh 1972So let this show play for you and enjoy every moment. In particular be mindful of the way this Playin’ works the extremes. Relish the amazing Dark Star as it catches the quintessential 1972 groove, then flies into complete oblivion, only to return to the groove before drifting into a near complete stillness where it’s Phil who ushers in the luscious Morning Dew which follows. And then stick around for the Uncle John’s Band. It’s a stand out fabulous version which is elevated beyond description as Phil rapid-fires notes through the final crescendo section – a jaw dropping finale to another fabulous show from 1972.

Now let’s hit the volume knob and get this started.

08/24/72 SBD etree source info
08/24/72 SBD Stream

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

1977 February 26 - Swing Auditorium

Grateful Dead 07/27/1977

GRATEFUL DEAD
Saturday, February 26, 1977
Swing Auditorium – San Bernardino, CA
Soundboard Recording

There was a wonderfully harmless war started in the online Grateful Dead community throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. It came down to people having to choose allegiance to the year 1976 or 1977. ‘77 fans found it abundantly easy to laugh at and ridicule the Dead’s output from 1976 as tired, slow, limp, and utterly outshone by the following year, while ‘76 fans (or perhaps more accurately phrased, people who didn’t find 1977 to be the year above all other years) stood fast on the merits of 1976’s often overlooked psychedelic wonderland of creativity and inspiration which could make 1977 seem somewhat too organized and contrived. Just in writing that last sentence I can feel the ire of both camps rising to defend the motherland. And if I haven’t already made it abundantly clear in my writings, I was a banner waving member of the 1976 crowd.

And while I spent my heavy trading years obsessively collecting everything I could ever find from the Dead’s entire output of the 70’s, 1977 was never part of that blind obsession. While I can call to mind the merits of nearly every stop on the calendar in 1973, 74, 75, 76, and 78, such is not the case with 1977. Oh, I know my way around that year. I know that I gravitate to the feel of the spring and summer shows more than those from the fall and winter. But I don’t bleed the details of 1977 like I do the other years.

Jerry Garcia 10/11/1977Flash forward to today, and I can freely admit that 1977 is like a new flower opening up before me. It represents new discoveries for me tucked within an era to which I’m already intimately in tune; and what a glorious hidden jewel to be able to discover after all this time.

I went in to revisit this 02/26/77 Swing Auditorium show remembering that it was good, and little else. What followed was a heart opening ride into a sensational Grateful Dead show which towers with perfected Grateful Dead energy and groove throughout. Beyond the clear set list highlights, the show is filled with songs I’d normally pass over, yet everything from this show shines and delivers a full cup of the Dead’s most potent elixir.

Set 1: Terrapin Station, New Minglewood Blues, They Love Each Other, Estimated Prophet, Sugaree, Mama Tried, Deal, Playin' In The Band > The Wheel > Playin' In The Band

Set 2: Samson And Delilah, Tennessee Jed, The Music Never Stopped, Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower, Promised land, Eyes Of The World > Dancin' In The Streets > Around & Around, E: US Blues


The opening Terrapin (its debut) ushers in the fact that 1977 was going to bring with it an entirely new level of Grateful Dead musical exploration. It’s a mind-blowing thought to consider what it must have been like to attend this show and have this be the opening event. An instant classic to be sure, the Dead waste no effort on trying to figure this tune out from the stage. It fires at near full strength immediately, and by the end we’ve been thrust into the wild pulsing heart of the band right in the show’s opening number. The band rides this wave into a sublime first set of song delivery. 1977 is getting off to a magical start. Minglewood, They Love Each Other, Sugaree, the Estimated Prophet debut – really everything in the first set is terrific. It just feels utterly wonderful.

The set closes with a Playin’ > Wheel > Playin’ that funnels the entire set’s wildly energetic magic into a concentrated psychedelic ride. Playin’ In The Band creates a slow churning boil like a lava lamp under high heat. The ground shifts and buckles and bows in all directions until there comes an eruption into a galaxy imploding wormhole which transports the entire auditorium out of the physical plane. Out beyond the stars images flicker and glow. Sound passes in ceaseless ripples of energy riding the drummers’ beat, while great mountains and rivers of energy swell and recede on Garcia’s phase shifting distortion and Phil’s slow popping bubbles of starlight.

Jerry decides to move into The Wheel, and it happens without the drummers first locking onto the standard Wheel rhythm pattern. The transition is fabulous (great transitions being something of a hallmark for 1977), and The Wheel come on riding all the psychedelic energy of the Playin’ before it. A lovely and twisted exit jam follows and the outer space landscape of the Playin’ jam slowly fades back into view spreading our depth perception out beyond planets and stars which gently bob and turn around us.

Donna Jean Godchaux 05/21/1977Set two rockets out of the gate with a fine Samson And Delilah and a Tennessee Jed containing a Garcia solo that leaves you wide-eyed and smiling from ear to ear. The Music Never Stopped follows and it spirals ever-upward to a high-stepping crescendo.

We then reach Help > Slip > Franklin’s, and the Slipknot opens us back up to the misty magic we enjoyed in Playin’ In The Band. The music is a swirling blanket of distant clouds, corkscrewed hallways and shimmering fractal glass. At times overpowering enough to sweep your breath away yet mysterious enough to leave you unaware of your need for breath at all, the jam rolls in on itself as it reflects the glowing patters in every cell of your body. The tides rise and fall in random patters eventually bringing us back to the jam’s theme and on into Franklin’s Tower.

Franklin’s kicks off with its infectious uplifting energy. We are immediately locked into a dance around the most precious hearth of Grateful Dead music – the place where everything is simply infused with joy and pleasure. The solos stretch out and return to verse as our attention to time dissipates. To a degree this Franklin’s Tower is made more enjoyable by the absence of any triumphant explosion or peak. It rides a buoyant stream ever onward with the occasional parting of mountain tops revealing a blazing sun above pulsing and dancing along with our hearts and feet.

After a curiously placed mid-set two Promised Land, we reenter this joyous bond with the band in Eyes Of The World. Again we are treated to a flowing output of music that doesn’t attempt to dazzle us with acrobatic feats, yet locks in just the same keeping the gaze of our heart transfixed on the music’s soul-reaching expression. We are treated to a nice Phil solo that sounds grafted right out of 1973, and then we roll right into Dancin’ In The Streets.

Dancin’ turns up the disco funk dial to ten and Jerry springboards his solos into the sky. He’s fully cranking on his auto-filter wha-wha pedal and the music cooks along. From here the show powers through its finale with Around & Around and the US Blues encore.

1977 exudes a certain glorious level of Grateful Dead energy and psychedelic adventurism. It’s nearly impossible to go wrong anywhere you step. And it started out of the gate on the right foot with the very first show of the year.

This is a fabulous quality soundboard recording with titanic Phil throughout.

02/26/77 SBD etree source info
02/26/77 SBD Stream

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

1976 June 14 - Beacon Theater

Grateful F\Dead - Oakland 1976

GRATEFUL DEAD
Monday, June 14, 1976
Beacon Theater – New York, NY
Soundboard Recording

Just as picking a show from the early 80’s can present a daunting task when it comes to knowing which way to turn first, June 1976 is like a microcosm of the same problem. The Grateful Dead played a lot of shows marking the inaugural run in the band’s return to the road as a touring act in '76. It seems that nearly the entire month of June has always circulated in good quality, and the shows can sort of bleed together. Way back when we all had to build our tape collections through trade, a large portion of June ’76 was among the easiest music to find because the band had done so many FM simulcasts. This meant that soundboard quality recordings were being seeded, potentially by the hundreds, night after night, up and down the East Coast. Interestingly, certain shows from this run (Chicago Auditorium Theater) remained lost in the fog even from an audience tape perspective while the surrounding dates were easy pickings.

I’ve mentioned before how it seems that this overabundance of easy to find music from June contributes to the bad rap 1976 gets in general – so much material from, arguably, the low point of the year. And while I’ll be the first person to tell you that the music only continued to get better and better as 1976 rolled along, there is plenty to enjoy even as the band was shaking the rust off from its near 20 month hiatus. In fact, the highpoints among this historical “snoozer portion” of the year become that much more special precisely because one generally expects very little from June ’76.

I made early mention of one of my favorite Dead shows in general which happens to come from this time frame - the long time under-circulating masterpiece from June 9, 1976 - and here now is another show that has always managed to poke its colorful petals up over the rest of the June ’76 flower garden in my mind: June 14th from the Beacon Theater.

The show packs great energy, both from the band and audience (clear even on the soundboard), and the first set plays like an archival sample of everything good going on in 1976. In typical early 1976 fashion, nothing explodes (though Might As Well – often miss-documented as “Mighty Swell” – does fly over the top), but the entire set is a worthy listen. And it all rounds out with a memorable Playin’ In The Band.

Jerry Garcia 1976This Playin’ presents a wonderful balance of every direction the song could flow in 1976. Still a staple feature of Dead shows, 1976 saw Playin’ begin to more fully explore different rotation slots in the set lists beyond its hallmark set one closing role. It also started to traverse distinctly different temperaments as if reflecting the changing mood of the band – some would flow out in silky smooth oceans of psychedelic waves, while others could find their ways into jagged and treacherous terrains that boiled with fire and hail. 06/14’s Playin sits in the traditional set one closing spot, and seems to explore and taste both extremes of expression.

With sound quality on the soundboard source that rivals nearly all other tapes, when the band slides into the Payin’ jam everything is about as close to perfection as we could wish. With a terrific balanced mix of instruments, the sense of this six piece band as a true ensemble comes shining through on this tape. Everything weaves together as the band continues to pick up steam. There’s a lovely flow oozing in and out like one’s breath as they roll along. Eventually things quiet to a whisper and we find Playin’ set at the precipice that might have easily led to a roaring Tiger Jam two years earlier, but here in 1976 it hints more at Blues For Allah. The intensity builds again as if we have just passed though the eye of a hurricane, and we are slowly swept back into the fantastic stitch work of an intricate tapestry. Not long after, the drummers tip over an edge into pure rolling thunder – the beat has been consumed and the entire band begins to tremble and fracture leaving us both on dizzying heights and staring up at more impassable mountains of dark foreboding rock. Before a completely blinding meltdown can ensue, the band reappears and another phase of the jam takes form. The drummers come back to the beat while we were lost in some phrasing by Garcia, and soon there is the sense of all the instruments fitting together like massive planet sized gears of reflecting kaleidoscope glass. It’s as if the music can’t take a wrong turn. Each member zeroes in on a simple phrase of their own and they begin to repeat them into each other like the inner workings of a watch. This is one of the most subtle explorations of the band’s pure creative musical force, made somehow more precious by its delicate and fleeting nature. Capping off the jam section of a nearly twenty minute Playin’ In The Band, we find that we’ve travelled many diverse miles all while we otherwise thought we were just listening to another Dead show.

The Wheel opens set two, to the clear shock and delight of the crowd. The song came out on Garcia’s first solo LP in 1972 yet never made it into the live show line up until 1976. Here, the band is fully enjoying themselves (there’s even a nice “Woo!” let out along the way as they become clearly locked into the slow pulsing arch of the songs melodic runs). The solo section paints a majestic picture with Garcia dancing on tiptoe from star to star. It’s short lived, but no less enjoyable for it, as the song comes to a close just as we’re ready for it to go on forever.

There follows some fun stage chatter as no one seems to know what to play next, eventually seeing the band land on Samson & Delilah, followed by a tasteful High Time, and The Music Never Stopped.

With Crazy Fingers, we head into the meat of the second set. Always good for casting a subtly gentle, yet psychedelically mysterious mood, we find ourselves casually ambling through a misty evening as our peripheral vision seems to flicker with unseen light sources. The song trails off into the end portion improvisation and the slow turning galaxy wagon wheels are back. The tides shift, and just as we feel the arrival of a Spanish Jam, Bobby provides a distinctive tease into the Dancin’ that will follow. Gently the jam subsides leaving the drummers to assemble the backbone of Dancin’ In The Streets.

Grateful Dead 1976Dancin’ was a tune that matured over the years after its return in 1976, and the ’76 breed is often one that merits little attention. Truly the versions in the following year become epic. Here, however, we are gifted with some of Garcia’s most delicious solo work of the entire evening. When they launch into the jam, Jerry’s phrasing becomes that of a 1950’s jazz saxophone player (insert your favorite’s name here). The way he holds back, and then blows out phrases flying up and down the fret board provides us with the Jerry we are all so thankful for. His tasteful note selection, filling the syncopated spaces between the beats, brings nothing but smiles to your face. All in all, it’s an understated Dancin’, as most were in 1976. But it’s worth everything to ride with Jerry through the solo section.

Cosmic Charlie, another song seeing its revival in 1976, comes next and is delivered perfectly. Vocally, the song just takes you in and works its magic. And as the pulsing backbeat that bore The Wheel at the start of the set returns to ricochet and echo its way through this song too, we’re firmly locked into the hypnotic trance of the Grateful Dead.

Then the set caps off with the wonderful highlight of Help>Slip>Franklin, containing an improvisational masterpiece during Slipknot which firmly locks this entire show into its spot as one I’m always happy to return to and explore. Here, as the 1976 tour was getting started, this song trio was well rehearsed and sounding very much like the Blues For Allah album version while allowing the band plenty of space to work each rendition into its own unique direction, and all the while finding Garcia able to forget the correct ordering of the lyrics in Franklin’s Tower.

Help On The Way overflows with heartfelt and emotional vocal delivery by Jerry, and rides ever so sweetly through the extended solo section. The tempo is locked in the pocket, and everything shimmers and gleams as they roll into the last verse, and then deftly navigate the intricate path which leads to Slipknot. This jam is representational of a new direction for the Dead. Nothing they were doing in their first ten years sounded quite like this at all. And the music finds its way into a lovely expanse of long flowing phrases atop Bobby’s wide volume swells. A deeply explorative jam finds the musicians listening to and playing off of each other. For a long while we are buoyed in a borderless ocean of the jam’s theme, lost in a timeless space of coolly dark comfort.

Soon much of the jam drops away, leaving Garcia playing off of the drummer’s light accents. Slowly Phil works back in, layering his own solo efforts while Jerry’s notes fly past like meteor showers. Eventually the rest of the band assembles again, and off of Bobby’s seemingly forced change of direction inspired by Phil’s own thumping, the band slips into the heavenly realm of absolute bliss and musical satori that forces chills to electrically snake across your face and down into your heart. We are cast into a pure musical presence which sucks all attention into its own focused midst. There is nothing else in the universe at all. This short (painfully fleeting) passage calls back to the inspirational brilliance found deep within 1970 Dark Stars – joyful expression of exquisite musical passion. Experiencing this music when you can offer it your open heart is a healing event. Our souls filled to bursting, the inspiration fades and the band returns to the coolly dark and mysterious interplay we were comfortably enjoying moments ago. We ride the twisting river toward Frankin’s Tower and arrive in the song’s own uplifting energy and simplicity.

Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile.

06/14/76 SBD etree source

Thursday, April 30, 2009

1971 July 02 - Fillmore West

Jerry Garcia 1971
GRATEFUL DEAD
NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE
Friday, July 2, 1971
Fillmore West – San Francisco, CA
Soundboard (FM) Recording

There’s something wonderfully enjoyable about great 1971 Dead shows. The band was so comfortable by now that its entire concert experience could be equally appealing for its lovely folk-rock good times song delivery, as well as for the band’s ability to reach the psychedelic seas. Coming out of 1970 after releasing both Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, two albums that completely reshaped the way everyone had to think about this band, the Dead’s persona had evolved a long way from being the poster child from 710 Ashbury and the Summer of Love.

Grateful Dead - March 1971The Dead rolled into their featured night during the closing run of Bill Graham’s Fillmore West as a well polished (as much as being the Grateful Dead would allow them to be polished) cosmic country rocking titan. Steeped deeply into the nearly two year period where they toured with the New Riders of the Purple Sage as their opening act (really more of an extension of the Grateful Dead family than another band, with Jerry Garcia playing pedal steel in the Riders), the Dead’s concerts from 1971 exude happiness more than anything else during this period. It’s an odd overarching accolade to bestow, especially while the band was probably more multidimensional in 1971 than most people think – pure folk-tinged timelessness, raw bluesy Pigpen-driven swagger, and the ever present psychedelic power. But through all of this, the band simply sounds content and comfortable. It was a good time to be the Grateful Dead.

07/02/71 offers a perfect slice of the Grateful Dead pie, or perhaps an entire pie, since we have the complete evening’s performance to enjoy from a collection of recordings made off of the FM-Broadcasts of the show. Having things complete, there is an uncompromising need to begin one’s enjoyment of 07/02/71 with the New Riders’ opening set. As much as the Dead were masters of their game by 1971, the Riders were completely hitting their stride here, and this date offers a fantastic example of how wonderful the New Riders of the Purple Sage were.

This was one of the first New Riders tapes I ever got in a trade, and it came as a gift, just something included with a number of other shows from a trading partner. I wore the tape out. The reference Bill Graham makes in his introduction to the Riders being one of the things that makes Marin County as sunny as it is seems to suffuse their set completely. Having personally collected pretty much every available note in circulation from this band, I can attest that the Rider’s set on 07/02/71 is spun from pure gold. Not only is Garcia completely on fire with his steel playing, but the band is just completely in synch from start to finish. John “Marmaduke” Dawson’s vocal drip like honey, and the band epitomizes their own special brand of psychedelic country rock. As you go from song to song, and hear the crowd going more and more bananas in appreciation, you quickly come to find how this band’s music was a critical feature of the Dead’s entire output over 1970 and 1971. The evening with the Grateful Dead starts here.

Jerry Garcia with New Riders Of The Purple Sage - March 1971The Riders cap their set off with an encore of The Band’s song, The Weight, and if you could take only one NRPS performance to a desert island, it may as well be this rendition (which, by the way, can be heard featured in the bonus material on the re-mastered release of their debut album). Garcia’s solo will teach you never to miss another opportunity to listen to the Riders again. As Dawson continues to deliver the verses after the solo, you find that you are cradled in a little meadow of golden streaming sunlight. Dust specs sparkle like tiny glass prisms. There’s no place else to be. And the Dead have not even taken the stage.

When the Dead do take the stage, sunshine explodes as they open up with Bertha, a song more at home here in its debut year than any other. Jerry has clearly drawn all the energy from the Rider’s set directly into his vocal delivery. And his solo absolutely sings over the equally charged energetic delivery from Bill Kreutzmann on drums. Perhaps it’s from being the opening track on the Dead’s live album, Skull & Roses from 1971, and that being one of the first GD records I bought as a youth, but to me Bertha embodies 1971 Grateful Dead beautifully. It’s like the bands calling card for this year. The joyfulness is unmistakable, and by the end of the song, when the instrument mix is completely dialed in, we can tell we are in for a wonderful sounding ride through a night with the Grateful Dead.

Me & Bobby McGee follows and the pervasive comfort and pleasure continues. We are less than ten minutes into this show, and we’re already wrapped into the Dead’s vibe completely. Also a song featured on the Dead’s ’71 live record, Garcia’s backing vocals have always struck me as so well thought out on this song. He’s not simply harmonizing. He’s threading his own melody line just under Weir’s.

Jerry Garcia - August 1971Following Bobby McGee, Pigpen steps up for Next Time You See Me (a song, by the way, that was mislabeled as “Lied & Cheated” on many an old Dead tape), and the Dead demonstrate that they still pack that throaty, bluesy strut and swagger that was such a primary force in their music early on. Pigpen blows fantastic harmonica, and the crowd can be heard exploding in appreciation of his talent. This is followed by a China > Rider which hammers everything home. Garcia’s guitar tone blazes into the air during the China Cat solos, and the segue and ensuing I Know You Rider find the band firmly settled into a dance with what is clearly, for them, one of their most cherished golden rings in 1971. All the sunshine energy and Americana-Folk-like groove that pervaded Bertha and Bobby McGee comes pouring out in the Dead’s improvisational expression. Here then, we lock in and find our hearts entwined with the music. This isn’t the deep soul rending psychedelic madness type of intoxication. Rather, it’s the equally intoxicating flip side of the same coin. Somehow, the Dead’s established ability to psychedelically pierce the heart allows them to guide the audience along into their own evolving heartfelt pleasure during I Know You Rider. We’re early in the show, and already the music has fully transformed the borders between everything around us. The joyfulness of it all has clearly soaked into everyone and everything.

The first set continues to deliver on this energy, including a wonderful Hard To Handle. This period of the year was a high watermark for Hard To Handles, containing freight train-like energy and power through the pounding solo section. This version is also worth noting for showcasing the amazing ability of the band to save itself after a mistimed vocal re-entry on the final verse. They right the ship so effortlessly it’s almost as if nothing went wrong. The set wraps up with a steamy and strutting Good Lovin’. Cascading out of the formal song into the rolling and swirling gutsy blues-tinged jam, it’s a wonderful ride into a sweet spot of early Dead jamming style that we would see completely disappear with the eventual loss of Pigpen. The music sweeps everything into a near tribal frenzy, and closes the set on a wonderful high.

Bob Weir 1971Set two opens with a rocking Sugar Magnolia, another song that was in prime form this year, and eventually we reach Cryptical Envelopment and Other One. It comes at us as if out of nowhere, a bit like 07/26/72’s Dark Star. There’s little hint that the band might veer down the psychedelic path at this point, and the somewhat unexpected turn adds to the enjoyment. While the mass of this show features that highly infectious “good old Grateful Dead” vibe – something altogether relaxing and smile producing – this Other One reveals the more sinister and snaky Grateful Dead that apparently has been waiting just out of view the whole time. This is a hold on to your seat ride that, even as it gets going, belies the true dangers lurking just around dark corners. We go in not sure that the bottom will ever really drop out on us, and what takes shape is more of a slow dissolve. The song just keeps pushing the envelope as it transitions liquidly from Other One theme to dripping feathery interplay, back to the theme again, and soon gets completely lost in a burning sea of stars, all before making it seamlessly into the first verse. Afterward, the music begins to bow and flex at odd angles as the intensity continues to build. Eventually it all swarms into madness, erupting in great plumes of molten color. Somehow the ground is found within the Other One theme breathing fire like a dragon. Fiercely, the song slams into the final verse, and eventually comes to rest beautifully in a mournful breeze without re-entering a Cryptical reprise at all.

The set closing segment begins with a Not Fade Away which storms in and shows off Garcia’s guitar work at its lyrical best. His solo arches high in the air, singing lovely lines while the rhythm section churns along. This provides a certain “pretty” layer not often found in Not Fade Away, and becomes a lovely bridge to an equally luscious Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad. 1971 was far and away the pinnacle year for Going Down The Road. The band had clearly found something of a sweet spot in this song, much like in that of I Know You Rider. The warm glow of tube amplification, Bill Kreutzmann’s impeccable ability to skim the beat along tiny wave crests, Jerry’s emotional story telling delivery of the lyrics – all of these things and more found a wonderful convergence in 1971. Without bringing the roof down, GDTRFB could nonetheless deliver a peak highlight to any show. Bookending it smoothly, Not Fade Away elevated this even more into a classic Grateful Dead pairing. 07/02/71’s version is fresh from the mold, delivering everything we could ever want. It’s that lovely marriage of Folk-Americana and country rocking rainbows that the Dead embodied so well in 1971.

Also not to be missed is the Johnny B Goode encore. Introduced by Jerry with, “Alright folks, here’s the one it’s all about,” this version does indeed bring the house down. The Dead surge with such power here that even this straight up rock-n-roll classic demonstrates that this band was cruising at the top of their game. Fantastic Summer ’71 Grateful Dead all around.

New Riders Of The Purple Sage:
Grateful Dead:

Sunday, January 25, 2009

1972 April 14 - Tivoli Theater

Grateful Dead Europe '72 LP cover
GRATEFUL DEAD
Friday, April 14, 1972
Tivoli Theater – Copenhagen, Denmark
Audience & Soundboard Recordings

I’ll admit it. The fact that I’ve allowed this blog to go on for nearly one year without having made a stop in the Europe ’72 tour is darn near reprehensible. It’s a fundamentally critical juncture in the band’s performance history, and a pivotal component required in anyone’s tape collection – criteria that the GDLG uses to guide the selection of most every post anyway. I suppose our coming to it now is some reflection into how my own personal hop scotching around my tape collection has played itself out over the last twelve months. One thing’s for sure: it’s good to be here now.

There’s so much fantastic music during this two month run, I have long sat staring at it not knowing where to go first for a review here. There is no denying that this tour marked a certain zenith in creative output by the Grateful Dead. You can hardly go wrong dipping your hand into this cookie jar. Dates from this tour are etched in my mind – shows burned in my brain for their incredible highlights, beautiful sound quality, incredible rarity (back when trading and building a tape collection over years meant something. Gosh, does anyone remember when 05/25/72 finally appeared?). Despite these memories, the entire tour comes to blend together into one enormous adventure. In certain circles there is the persistent rationale that the folks in control of the Dead’s musical archive should simply release an enormous box set containing every note of this tour from front to back. In much the same spirit that the entire Fillmore East run from 1969 was release as one box, here we have another case of sensational music supporting the logic in doing it again. Of course, th Europe ’72 box would be quite a few times larger than anything previously released. Maybe a subscription series would make more sense? Regardless, the Vault holds a vast amount of music from this tour, all deserving of official release notoriety.

Jerry Garcia May 1972I have always tended to gravitate to the April shows over the May dates for some reason. So, finally, I have decided to crack open this door and let the light pour in, starting with 04/14/72 at the Tivoli Theater in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Tivoli Theater show is sort of unique in that there is a Soundboard, FM-broadcast, *and* a respectable Audience recording in circulation. The show seemed to always circulate partially in so-so FM. Eventually the soundboard started circulating in okay quality sometime in the late 90’s, and around 2004 the AUD was put into wide circulation by Matt Vernon via a connection overseas. Matt included a note from the guy who sent him the tape in his info file:

“Here's another audience tape from the back of the closet. I believe I got it over 20 years ago from a guy in France I was traveling with. Sorry, no other info - anyway, hope you can use it.”

And just like that, we saw a gem of an AUD come into circulation from Europe ’72 – a tour from which AUD tapes are painfully few and far between. I remember getting this show in the mail from Matt, quite completely out of the blue in 2004, a while after I had dropped out of the trading scene. Fantastic. All things considered, and taken with a hefty dose of caveats, this is a darn good recording. Note that it is by no means “high quality” in the way we have come to think of great recordings out of the early 70’s. There’s a ton of room ambience, boomy (yet wonderfully low) bass, and echoing vocals. It might be hard to appreciate if you haven’t previously raked all the horrendous 1970 AUD recordings over your ears, but this tape really shines, and if there happened not to be one note of this show circulating from the master SBD reels themselves, we could very easily view this tape as a treasured glimpse into a fabulous night with the Grateful Dead. All that said, today we can pick and choose how we want to get our ears around this show, including the inclusion of the gigantic set two jam as bonus material on the Golden Road box set release of the Europe ’72 album.

Consistently, the shows from Europe ’72 were hot from start to finish. The band seemed thrilled to be on the other side of the pond, and most shows were charged right out of the gate with strong energy and excitement. 04/14/72 was no exception. Everything from this tour has a charmed quality to it, and even the first sets are beautiful case studies in this wonderful vibe and energy.

Jerry Garcia 197204/14/72 is a show well worth enjoying from the beginning. The Bertha finds Jerry in fine form. Vocally, he drives the energy of the band sky high, and everything has an extra added punch. And something worth paying extra attention to here is the Playin’ In The Band. This song saw its own special growth spurt on this tour in particular. It left the states typically topping out at around ten minutes, and ended the tour out at about seventeen, never to shrink back again. The versions in Europe seem to have an exceptionally concentrated flavor to them, and you can hear the full grown monster coming into being the whole way through. 04/14’s version is a glowing example of this. It hurtles itself out into a spiraling, cascading storm of star light and electricity. Within the first minutes of the jam, the entire band trembles near the point of explosion, a wall of pulverizing energy. It then tears across terrain like a lava flow, forever leaving its mark on the evening – this will be no simple rock and roll show. In retrospect, we know the band is stretching its legs here, delivering a wickedly potent spoonful of extreme psychedelia. It permeates the blood, and continues to alter body chemistry, headed for a full flowering in set two.

Kicking off the second set, we are treated to another song that was maturing while in Europe: Truckin’. Here, we find the Truckin’ jam picking up where Playin’ left off. Jerry’s soloing is a wonderful ride atop the song’s up tempo march. Everything blends together with that wonderful growing psychedelic energy which the band would continue to expand upon, eventually using Truckin’ as a launch pad into huge second set jams time and time again in following years. Here, the tune remains a stand alone, wrapping back into a final chorus to finish off the song nicely.

It’s impossible not to bring up Looks Like Rain when discussing this show, as Jerry actually played his Pedal Steel for this evening’s rendition. Haunting, yearning, soulful. It’s hard not to wish Garcia had managed to use his Steel more often with the Dead. But, having played in a band myself, I can fully sympathize with how much of a pain it would have been to keep an instrument like the Pedal Steel in tow, set up, tuned, and ready on a nightly basis when it clearly wouldn’t be getting an extremely consistent work out. Regardless, it is wonderful to hear it here, and it sets the stage nicely for the next song.

Dark Star begins coiled a little more tightly than one would generally expect. While the phrasing is melodic and singing with a certain gentle lilt, the music is charged with energy – moving quickly from one idea to the next. Just after four minutes, riding along Garcia’s cantering phrases, the entire musical experience gels down at a deeper level, and begins to soar upward. Hypnotic sorcery pervades everything as the music begins to slip and turn liquidly into whirlpools of prism-hued misty clouds which sink, unabated, deeply into the listener’s lungs. Within mere breaths, the music has shed its reliance on time and individuality. Pure musical satori takes over, and there is an unmistakable sense that the music is creating itself. Gentle pockets of angel-like grace appear and recede over and over again, like the soft singing of dew drops on sleeping flower petals. This mystic symphony begins to spread out into fathomless reaches of space, as Jerry gently eases his volume knob up and down. A gorgeous section of give and take between Garcia, Weir and Lesh plays out wonderfully at our feet, followed by the drums re-entering the picture (we hardly knew that had left), and the Dark Star theme returns. Verse one appears seventeen minutes into the song.

As we begin to follow a dark wooded path that leads away from the verse, our tether to the ground is loosened slightly. It opens us up to the infusion of a quick paced jam that whisks us across miles of twisted terrain, bobbing and weaving between mountains and trees, under pebbles and leaves, across vast crystal clear lakes with moonlit beds seen fathoms below the surface. The jam turns into the “Feelin’ Groovy-ish” descending four chord jam that would turn up between China Cat Sunflower and I Know You Rider in the following years. It explodes from the heart with a pure white hot joy, singing a rapturous song of love before fragmenting beautifully into a million mirrored crystal droplets of light, all turning slowly in a twisted dance of orbits that grow ever-darker, tinged with red flame reflecting against wet rock. Piercing and groaning, the music defies form, until somehow, as if from a universe we left ages ago, Sugar Magnolia appears.

Garcia rides through the song with the same wha wha effect that he was using to dismantle time only seconds ago, and this lends fantastic connective tissue back into the Dark Star we left behind. After his first solo, he turns off the wha, and we are treated to the full blown ecstasy of Sugar Mag, a year or so before it completely formed into a heavy weight show closing rocker. Here, it still flies on its somehow sunshiny, country rockin’ smile that seemed to fade as the mid-70’s took form. Paired with Dark Star like this, we get two wonderful extremes of the Dead at their best. But, it ain’t even over, as Sugar Magnolia slips itself right into Good Lovin’ with Pigpen stepping up to the microphone.

Pigpen 04-26-72In a display that reminds us of one of the most painfully lost elements of the Grateful Dead after the passing of Pigpen, we get treated to the amazingly infectious psychedelic sweaty bluesy romp that always typified Good Lovin’ back in the day. Layer onto this another awesome Pigpen rap, and we have a hallmark Dead moment on hand, made even more precious by the fact that, come the band’s return to the states, this jewel in their repertoire crown would have to be removed with Pig’s declining health and exit from the group. It also must be noted that Bobby’s playing is absolutely incredible on this Good Lovin’. He gets into some phrases and tonal explosions that are not to be missed. The heat continues to rise as the band reaches into a burning energy of music typically associated with their play of 1970. And then we enter Caution.

Garcia’s guitar growls its way into the jam, and eventually begins firing off lines like a voodoo witch doctor casting spells. This is another elemental thematic undercurrent of the band at play. This late-era Caution makes it easy to tie together the bluegrass/psychedelic underpinnings that exist within Viola Lee Blues, Cumberland Blues, and Caution itself. As the song drives on, everything dissolves and reforms before our eyes. Pigpen improvises a brief Who Do You Love verse into the fray, and we are then assaulted by hurricane force winds as the music delivers crippling blows to the time signature, while Billy never lets go of the driving beat. And then there’s Pigpen again, rapping along while the band turns the corner effortlessly back into Good Lovin’, making for an excellent finish.

And there’s still more to come. To close things out there is a fantastic Not Fade Away > Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad > Not Fade Away with a tight little China Cat Sunflower jam tuck in there for good measure. Not Fade Away stomps along in its standard rocking fashion, eventually spreading its arms wide into the light shuffle that ushers in Goin’ Down The Road. Bobby offers up his China Cat lick, and Garcia chimes in on guitar with a lovely take on his own vocal line. It gloriously slides into Goin’ Down The Road, and nothing could feel better. Here we are steeped in the very essence of that Grateful Dead Americana Folkloric Psychedelic music that so epitomizes the band across the years. As the solo sections mount, Garcia absolutely beams with light and showering energy. Not Fade Away returns and the rafters shake as the set comes to a close. Bobby, steps to the mic and tries to introduce the encore, but can only manage a mumble. The band laughs and rocks out One More Saturday Night to end the night.

Whether you choose SBD or AUD (or both), you’re sure to enjoy this visit to Europe ’72.

04/14/72 AUD etree source info
04/14-72 AUD Download

04/14/72 SBD etree source info
04/14/72 SBD Stream








Friday, January 16, 2009

1977 March 19 - Winterland

Grateful Dead May 7, 1977

GRATEFUL DEAD
Saturday, March 19, 1977
Winterland Arena – San Francisco, CA
Soundboard Recording


In the long musical history of the Grateful Dead, 1977 is clearly the most famous year. It’s an odd thing, and I can’t really pin down the reason why – but in my case, that year never filled me with the desire to collect every single note of it. Where I did make it a mission to get absolutely every drop of years like 1973, 74, 76, and 78 in the 70's, there must have been something about 1977 that didn’t set off this same spark. It probably had to do, in part, with the ’77 shows I collected early on not scratching some sort of itch like other shows. And it might have been a little bit of my rooting for the underdogs of 1976 and 1978 – two years that have always suffered in popularity due to being in such close orbit to the behemoth of 1977. I kept finding great music (to my ear) in ’76 and ’78 hiding in shadows, and it focused my collecting skills to get more and more. For whatever reason(s), for me 1977 was never the bees knees that it was for so many other folks. Hey, one man certainly gathers what another man spills.

It’s interesting to me then, that there is a certain show from 1977 that I’ve always held up as being one of my all time favorites. After finding March 18th and 20th early on in my trading years, and not being completely knocked out (which is not to discount the wonderful stuff happening on both dates), the experience was altogether different when I eventually managed to find an AUD of March 19th, 1977. It was only in circulation as a multi-gen AUD at the time, and quite difficult to come by in my circles. I think I managed to get a copy of the master (taped by Rob Bertrando? I’d have to dig the tape out of a box somewhere to be sure). The AUD wasn’t perfect sounding despite good seating location (Winterland was sometimes that way), but it was enough to fully convey the power of this show. And it was only shortly after stumbling upon this AUD that the SBD made it into circulation. Ah, perfection…

Jerry Garcia Englishtown September 3, 1977The show quickly became a personal favorite, going against my general feelings about 1977. The performance brims with that certain energetic enthusiasm so easily associated with ‘77. The band is hot, smooth, focused, and bubbling right out of the gate. A slew of fun first set tunes is elevated by a sensational 40 plus minute set closing Terrapin > Playin’ > Samson > Playin’. Terrapin Station was about as new as new could be here, in the midst of the band auditioning it in different points of the show to see where it might find a final home. It’s a lovely early version. Then things catapult to the stars with Playin’ In The Band.

The Playin’ jam begins with Jerry buoyed atop soft undulating waves of sound slowly seeping out of the other instruments. Keith, in particular, is working some lovely magic out of his keys, drifting in and out of view. The entire passage pulls the listener’s ear down to the subtle layers of music below the fray. In fact, the fray is utterly missing here. It’s as if we’ve wandered into an undisturbed patch of forest glen, a knoll where dust, dew, and sunlight have slept for centuries. Slowly, our steps into this scene melt into the ground itself. We disturb nothing, dissolving into the musical landscape, bodies as much moss and mist as flesh and bone.

Energy grows like sun speckled breezes after dawn. Slowly there come more distinct shapes and patterns. Deep in the jam, Garcia explores his effects rack and begins digging into his distortions, compressions, and flanges, dipping into some of the tones that would later work their way into other songs. And then there come the great slow motion geysers of leads catching fire as if Jerry had been working dry tinder to the point where it ignites under his careful attention. These leads soar out of his hands and bloom into the air as fountains unencumbered by gravity. Laughing colors mushroom overhead. Jerry changes tone and sends another fountain out into the air. Soon it feels like we are sitting in a grove of these towering, slow moving sprays of music. These passages are riveting on the AUD tape, and luckily, the SBD tape manages to bring across the same sense of exploding light out of darkness, making for a wonderful listening adventure.

Jerry garcia December 4, 1977Under the cover of dark, the band builds the foundation of Sampson And Delilah, and with that they are off to the races. The version rocks mightily along, and even on the soundboard you can hear the frenzy of the crowd. The song transitions back to Playin’ in a nearly perfect transition. It’s hard to say if Jerry entered one measure too soon, or if Bobby and Donna blew it by tearing that old building down just one time too many. Regardless, the transition still scores close to an A+ on the pleasure factor, quickly sweeping everything back into the fairyland forest where sunlight caresses tree bark and dust specs alike into hundreds of colors. There are more passages where energy soars and the music spins. The Playin’ theme returns, but takes a sweet long time to fully mature back into the final stanzas of the song, bringing the set to a close.

Eyes Of The World opens set two and feels like a 9 out of 10 on the energy scale. It’s as if the band hasn’t skipped a beat coming out of set one. They spend the first few minutes delightfully exploring the song’s theme before Jerry steps to the mic. This is the late 70’s style Eyes. The tempo is much faster than it was back in ’73-’74, and here Garcia is fully loaded with the joyous energy that this tune would come to exude throughout the band’s career. It’s just one power packed, smile inducing ride after another. Garcia’s play embodies everything we think of when we say he was “soaring.” He is wingspan full, high in the sky, flying here. Eventually, the song rolls out into a gurgling pool of ripples and waves that churn in colored oils mixed with the spray of crystal waters. Pure Space elements begin to flood vision, dislodging our sense of stability. Phil’s bass throbs and groans. Jerry flips on the auto filter and we can hear Dancin’ In The Streets brewing.

Garcia’s soloing on Dancin’ is electrifying, as much the pure essence of this song that we generally associate with the ever-famous 05/08/77. He finds his way into wonderful riffs and melodic lines, each of which build over the other. It’s early in 1977, but already he has complete mastery of his “'77 Dancin’ sound,” and he uses it to push on and on into gorgeous pockets of themes and syncopated lines. His tone burns through the air, and ripples through the music. This is hallmark 1977 goodness. Eventually, things simmer down and Jerry turns a corner into Wharf Rat. It’s a good version which ends with Garcia sending spiraling lines out in a triumphant musical march landing at a total rest from which he twists directly into Franklin’s Tower.

Grateful Dead 1977While it would come to happen more often as the years went on, at this point, this was only the third time that Franklin’s showed up in a set list *not* coming out of Help>Slip. And it’s one fantastic version. The song is filled with one star exploding solo section after another, rocketing the energy into the heavens over and over again. Perhaps it is all fueled early on when Garcia blows the lyrics of a verse and comes back with an over delivered “If you get confused, listen to the music play!” that launches him into the first of many truly blistering solos. One after the other, he blasts over the top, only to outdo himself on the next one.

From Frankin’s we make it to Sugar Magnolia, and if you’re thirsting for a little bit of hard rockin’ Grateful Dead, look no further. It starts off feeling a little slow, but eventually delivers with devastating force to end the set. The show wraps up with a double encore of One More Saturday Night and Uncle John’s Band, a perfect end to one darn near perfect evening of Grateful Dead music.

Curiously, the AUD of this show is not currently in online digital circulation. But, I do recall being far more drawn to the SBD after it came around whenever I thought to return to this show for another listen. I think it will do nicely. Worth noting (and perhaps hunting down), there happens to be a Matrix (SBD/AUD blend) out there too.

03/19/77 SBD etree source info
03/19/77 SBD Stream

03/19/77 Matrix etree source info
03/19/77 Matrix Stream

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