We big welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll check out a relatively brief stretch of years in the Grateful Dead's history, 1977 to 1984.
Our first stop is in Passaic, NJ, for music from first of a three night at the Capital Theatre on 4/25/77, featuring Scarlet Begonias>Fire On The Mountain, Samson and Delilah. This is the third show on what's widely considered one of the best tours in the Dead's 30 years of performing. It's a very fine show, a little underrated due to the excellence of what would come a little later in the tour, but this one has some tremendous playing,
Our next stop is from about a year later, on 4/18/78 in Pittsburgh, where we have a quartet of songs from the first set, Beat It On Down The Line, Loser, El Paso, Tennessee Jed. This Spring Tour of 1978 was divided into two legs, 4/6 through 4/24, and 5/5 through 5/17, both stretches being very different from one another, but most really good-to-excellent.
Lastly this week is music from the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA on 4/14/84, a tour with some fine playing. The segments of the shows on this tour that opened the second sets featured some inventive sequences, including this Playing In The Band>Terrapin Station>Space>I Don't Need Love.
Be sure to join us here next week for more tunes from the vault. As always, we welcome and encourage you to write to us at the email address below.
David Lemieux
vault@dead.net