Grateful Dead

Edit: I did see late last night that a You Tube version has a mislabeled / "mis-dated" Family Dog February date up masquerading as 2/28. That threw me off too...

Hi, 2/27/1970 is not mislabeled in the Archive - that version of Casey Jones on 2/27 in the Archive is different from yesterday's answer. The guitar solos, while similar in the first couple notes, are different (as is the wait time/tuning after the end with that laugh, comment, tuning a string etc...). Like others, I nailed it down to the Jan-Feb 1970 era where there's no Bobby solo and they jump right into a Jerry solo that has different beginning phrasing from the recorded version and most live versions after mid 1970. Jerry starts it like a "tightrope walker getting his balance" a bit in these early 1970 versions. But the 2/27 version is different on the solo in that he goes up to some higher pitch notes after a similar bit of phrasing he was doing in Jan-Feb. The answer from yesterday's version, the "missing Casey" from 2/28 tapes, has him stay in the same range of notes for a bit longer.

A streaming version of 2/28/1970 with Casey Jones actually on it just does not show up on the usual sources. I tried to find a 2/28/1970 elsewhere and could not after I found out about the "missing" Casey Jones on some reported tapes. I thought I found one but again that guitar solo did not match. I wonder where it is....

Basically did process of elimination yesterday. Knew it was February 70 because I didn’t hear TC’s organ, but by Port Chester in March the guitar solo had disappeared. Having heard all samples that didn’t match (including a YouTube video of the 3/1 version that doesn’t circulate) and the 2/28 version on YouTube being a mismarked 2/27, I had to guess it was the one version that I didn’t hear, and darned if I wasn’t right. Today is a 50/50 shot if you determine the era and know that one of the songs took a long hiatus.

Haha right before bed, I decided to give it one last shot and searched alternative sources for any shows in Feb/Mar ‘70. I was convinced it was in there somewhere. Found the 2/28 show and thought, this sounds pretty close. Punched in the answer and went to bed without even listening to the whole thing! I should buy a lotto ticket today.

As I said last night, yesterday’s search was one of the most challenging ever. For me, I suspected all along that 2/28/70 was the answer. There was a similar versions in late ‘69, but TC’s keyboard crossed it off the list. And then there were the other versions missing from the web as well as the (really) bad audience tapes. I was able to eliminate many of them because they were set openers or closers or they repeated the chorus five times instead of four and added “you know.” I had listened to crowd from the Capitol Theatre shows in November 1970 and had eliminated them because they were just too ruckus. The crowd noise from 2/28 seemed to match. I searched off and on all day and was prepared to guess 2/28 anyway. But I did one last search for “Grateful Dead 2/28/70 Casey jones” and the link to the Tapers Section popped up with a handful of songs from that night ending with the Casey Jones. It was obviously the same source as it synced up perfectly. Dave likes to throw us a curve ball every now and then. I still remember the Crème Puff War from ‘66 and the RR Blues from ‘72 that were not on the web. Some years are easier than others, but the joy is always in the search.

My head has been circulating for the past few hours looking for this rare track.......without success. We're all winners today for this grate and special gift David has bestowed upon us. "Ha Ha" and "WooHoo" indeed!