30 Days of Dead
It's a Dead Head's most wonderful time of the year! Welcome to another 30 days of unreleased Grateful Dead tracks from the vault, one for every day of the month, selected by archivist and producer David Lemieux. The tracks are yours, 100% free gua-ran-teed, but the real fun is taking part in the challenge for the chance to win some sweet swag from the Dead.
Those of you who know what to do, feel free to skip right on ahead. For those of you who need a refresher, here's the drill:
You know your Ables from your Bakers from your C's, but can your finely tuned ears differentiate the cosmic "comeback" tour from a spacey 70s show? Each day we'll post a song from one of the Dead's coveted shows. Will it be from that magical night at Madison Square Garden in '93 or from way back when they were just starting to warm it up at Winterland? Is that Pigpen's harmonica we hear? Brent on keys? If you think you know, lob your answer in and you just might find yourself taking home our daily prize of a 2025 Grateful Dead wall calendar or the grand prize – a copy of limited, numbered, FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL '78 boxed set!
You and me bound to spend some time
wonderin' what to choose
Goes to show, you don't ever know
Watch each card you play and play it slow
Wow, well that was the hardest search ever, but now I'm jumping up & down!
So, I never actually found it. But I knew the time frame right away and listened to every date around it. The closest I could find was 2/27/1970. I wasn't focusing on Jerry's solo as much as others mentioned, but I zeroed in on the intro notes as well as Jerry's voice dropping down at the very end. 2/27/70 was SO close, but not exact. I couldn't find a match, but I saw that the setlist for 2/28/70 had every song available to hear on Archive, except for Casey. In the end, nothing else made sense so I chose 2/28 which I never actually heard. So....it was just my best sleuthed-out guess!
I hope others will say if they ever actually found the song to listen to, and how & where they found it. Cuz I was stumped on that end. Many thanks.
Now onward....today should be a breeze!
When I had no shows to pick, I picked the one I could not hear.
& today the pendulum swings...
The universe works in strange ways...
Woke up this morning singing Casey Jones in my head, had breakfast, went out for a long walk, checked 30Dod and - whoa!
Unfortunately, my connection with the universe did not extend to any particular insight as to the source of this fine version. So I'm taking a flyer - going with the time period, similar versions, and my gut.
Maybe tomorrow those sages who found it can let the rest of us mere mortals on to their secret.
Now, where's that Lady in Red?...
Was Renamed to PARAMOUNT THEATER after 1989
It was later renamed to The Theater at Madison Square Garden
It's been fun listening to the song evolve over time, but I need to go to sleep. Early start tomorrow. Best of luck to y'all.