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    clayv
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    Pacific Northwest ’73-’74: The Complete Recordings Boxed Set

    WHAT'S INSIDE:
    6 Complete Shows On 19 Discs
    • 6/22/73 P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C.
    • 6/24/73 Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
    • 6/26/73 Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA
    • 5/17/74 P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C.
    • 5/19/74 Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
    • 5/21/74 Hec Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
    Mastered in HDCD from the original master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering
    Masters transferred and restored by Plangent Processes
    Original Art by First Nations Artist Roy Henry Vickers
    Photos by Richie Pechner
    Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 15,000

    Includes an immediate digital download of "Eyes Of The World (P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada 5/17/74)"

    "We were in the Pacific Northwest...between somewhere in Washington and some other where in Oregon. The road took us to the lip on a ridge, from where we could see around us for many miles in all directions … It was breathtaking to behold, but as we watched, we had a firm realization that we were witnessing something even more beautiful than our eyes could ever take in … Life causes life. Heaven and Earth dance in this way endlessly, and their child is the forest. And so there we were, epiphanously watching that grandest and most glorious dance of life—of which we are just a tiny part—awed by a magnificence without beginning, without end..."

    Bob Weir, “Sell Headwaters—Everyone Wins,” San Francisco Chronicle

    The Pacific Northwest offers up a rich feast of land, sky, and water. It is ripe with influences, abundant with symbols, deep and spirited. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the Grateful Dead played some of their most inspired shows on these fertile grounds. It does, however, sometimes take a breath for the elements to re-align years later. It seems for us, they finally have and we are able to present not just a glimpse of the band's extraordinary exploratory tour through the region, but a two-tour bounty as the PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS.

    For PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS, we've paired two short runs made up of six previously unreleased shows - P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C. (6/22/73); Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (6/24/73); Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA (6/26/73); P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada (5/17/74); Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (5/19/74); and Hec Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (5/21/74). Each show has been mastered in HDCD from the original master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. The transfers from the masters were transferred and restored by Plangent Processes, further ensuring that this is the best, most authentic that these shows have ever sounded.

    PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS comes in an ornate box created by Canada’s preeminent First Nations artist Roy Henry Vickers (more on this tremendous artist soon). To complement the music, the set also includes a 64-page book with an in-depth essay by Grateful Dead scholar Nicholas G. Meriwether and photos by Richie Pechner.

    Due September 7th, this release is limited to 15,000 individually numbered copies and available exclusively from dead.net. You'll want to grab a copy while you can and sit back, relax, and enjoy all the exclusive content we'll be rolling out over the next few weeks.

    Looking for something a little more byte-sized? The collection will also be available for HD digital download in FLAC and ALAC, exclusively at dead.net, on release day. You can pre-order it now too.

    Get it while you can.

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  • Vguy72
    Joined:
    Hold on hendrixfreak....
    ....I need to make some more popcorn and mescaline.
  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    Noon-ish is not the best time to catch a full-blown show.....
    My memory has clearly telescoped events, because I almost think I remember rolling over in my sleeping bag and, for breakfast, snorting a pile of 'chocolate' mescaline off one of those mini-cereal boxes. I definitely took some blotter. But even if we'd 'slept in,' it must of been 10-ish or something. Surely we'd had some water and a snack, probably provided by a merciful neighbor. We were still 15 and we looked like what we were: goddamm-near children! Ah, so I was saying, we dropped acid and snorted mescaline and fired up the pipe with Numero Uno and, hey, is that freakin' Jerry on stage? Wait, Bobby. Phil. Bill. The piano guy. Jer kept dipping his cigarette into a brass ashtray and, when he re-lit it, it flared up. I didn't hit the blow til '75 but later, I thought, freebase. I hope someone can clarify this, but I think I recall the band starting just a bit after NOON(!). As far as I was concerned at the time, they fucking rocked the place for hours. I do recall, as I often feel, feeling goofy about a camera while tripping. But I managed to snap off three shots, of which two survive, which catch the three guitarists blasting away on Playing in the Band, then turning towards each other to converse more intimately, finally arriving in a tight circle and sending tides of sound across the crowd. I think this was the time I experienced Phil's bass as physical, purple pulses in my chest and the realization that vibrations, rather than corporeal reality, were at the heart of existence. I clearly remember the gospel treatment at the end of He's Gone and at the end of Sugar Mag, Weir thrust his arm skyward for stop time, ran back to his amps, downed the rest of a Heineken and raced back to the mic for the coda. Still, I was 15, down front at one of the biggest gatherings of humans in history. I did look back over the crowd, but, as usual, there wasn't much profit in looking back. Not with the Grateful Dead killing it in front of me.
  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    The Soundcheck
    The Allmans rocked big time. They'd slayed us at RFK after the Dead when, exhausted and dehydrated, we had retreated to the shaded overhang of RFK and been simply psychedelically rolled over by the ABB. They smoked the Dead that day. Back to the Soundcheck. I got up and hiked around the scene while it was still afternoon. A very loose scene with lots of elbow room, cool air, breathing. I returned to our space, easily located, for The Band. It was nearly sunset when the Grateful Dead took the stage. We had all the room we needed. I started the soundcheck boogie-ing upright, shakin it to the rock 'n roll. I had snorted some mescaline and taken maybe a half tab of the blotter. Everyone knew this was unprecedented in GD history. Here we were, groovin' on a cool pine forest evening, high but not pressed and our favorite band was blasting away on the finest sound system we'd ever heard. I do not recall individual songs, just the transition between comprehensible songs and jams that had us smiling for reasons we knew not. [Beautiful Jam from So Many Roads is blasting in the background as I write these words.] I do clearly recall the feeling of complete ease as I nestled down into my sleeping bag, head on cool gallon jug, looking up at the band just jamming away. We rode it out after the band departed and the next thing we knew, it was morning and the crowd was bustling, hustling, and by noon it was show time all over again.
  • icecrmcnkd
    Joined:
    Hendrixfreak
    I hope you are writing these in a word processing program and saving them.You probably should combine your memories and pictures and put it out on the internets where it will hopefully be forever preserved. Maybe upload the final version to the archive someday.
  • Trainwrecked
    Joined:
    5/9/77
    Any headphone listeners out there? Or maybe you don't need them. I find the bass on this GSTL recording overwhelming. Bertha and Help On the Way are good places to start. I don't get the same thing with the SB I have if this show. I think Jeff Norman boosted it somehow. Anyone else notice it? Garyfarseer - what kind of medicine?
  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    The greatest missed show on Earth
    Long story shrunk to size... We had to get home on 10 June 1973 because we were exhausted, dehydrated, broke, without tickets, food, water, anything, so we thumbed back and tried to blend into humanity. I was 15. I lived with my parents, of course, and they needed to see some evidence that I was alive. They never even said a word about my setting out for a multi=day excursion in jeans and a t-shirt. We just did it. We heard the 10 June show was smokin' and we were pissed. We were NOT going to be caught short like that again. No effin' way. So when the news broke of a show with all three of the greatest rock bands of that time -- the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers and The Band -- we were on it like white on rice. Tickets cost $10.50? We had 'em. And we'd just seen the Allmans at Madison Square Garden in, May? I smuggled in a bong. A young cop caught me. An older cop said, "Let him go. It's a bong. Don't worry about it." Jesus, this whole law enforcement thing was confusing! But my view was broadening... Late July 1973. The older brother of a hot schoolmate of ours was driving to Watkins Glen. We signed on. Me, Mark L, David W, and a few others. We brought our backpacks. We had a little food. A shit-ton of Numero Uno. No alcohol. I had a sheet of blotter. Someone's adept use of the map enabled us to skirt around the worst of the traffic and we actually accessed the grounds in fine fashion, probably 12 hrs ahead of the hoo-ska-boo that eventually developed. The van's inhabitants split into units and we never saw our driver-host again, until a week later, just before the 31 July - 1 August shows back at Roosevelt Stadium. (Biggies, waiting for release...) So we hike over to the "gate," passing food trucks that specialized in big scoops of weed. We snickered, fully equipped. We were still 15. We entered the gates around midday and for some reason no one took my ticket, so I immediately doubled back to the chain link fence and passed my whole ticket to a have-not. Instinct, communal instinct. Later, my parents said that friends of theirs in Europe had seen footage that included my entrance into the concert site. The stage was perhaps 2/3 of a mile away. As we walked down the gently sloping hill towards the stage it was obvious we were a bit early. In earlier shows we were leery of getting too close because of the physical crush, the volume and the collective high that sometimes ... got a bit hairy. But fresh off missing 10 June, we marched down and claimed a beautiful space about 20 yards from the stage, just a bit left of center. On our way, we'd grabbed a few one-gallon water jugs that were set out free by Bill Graham in response to the scene at RFK in DC 6 weeks earlier. I found myself high on mescaline, laying on my sleeping bag with my head resting on a cool one-gallon jug of potable water and passing a doobie when the crowd sputtered and roared. It was late afternoon and the Allman Brothers had just taken the stage.
  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    RFK, June 1973
    Throughout the fall of 1972 and through the winter-spring of 1973 I had ingested numerous psychedelics, including the wonderful agent known as mescaline and naturally a few substantial doses of the Lady Herself. At one point, with my buddy Moose, we were sitting atop a van-sized boulder in a 2,000 acre wooded preserve near home and we focused on the visual margin between the rock beneath us and the ground in the background and felt that we had lifted the boulder upon which we sat perhaps several inches into the air, then lowered it again to its natural resting place. But I digress... June 1973 and me and David W are hitching to RFK in DC about 200 miles away for the 9-10 June 1973 shows. It's summer. So obviously we go in t-shirts, jeans, sneakers, with a ticket and few single dollars/dead presidents in my pocket. Next to the sheet of oval 4-way blotter. A little smokum in the sock, in case we got stopped. Look, we're 15, okay? 16 was months away. We were just up for adventure, loud rock 'n roll and, um, a closer look at the scene. I remember that some of the serious traveling hippies with LSD-dead eyes were there selling pipes, but also passing them around. We had long hair but we were little kids! These folks looked 50 but were probably 20, i.e., impossibly old, grizzled and of unknown origin. But no one actually bothered us, nor was there any attention. Everyone treated us as adults. So we slept on the ground on the grassy parts outside the stadium that night. No water, no food, no equipment. The next day, temperatures climbed towards 100. We were smoking a joint by the grate that blocked one entrance and a black cop motioned us over. We approached cautiously. "Hand me some of that, will you?" he asked. "WHAAAT???" was our initial reaction, having already experienced the pleasure of being cuffed and harassed by the cops for having a beer in the park. Turned out, cops can be cool, too. We burned two with the cat and we bid each other a good day. He was clearly amused by the scene, but in a groovy way. This was 1973 and racism and violence over the Vietnam War made longhairs outcasts, just like minorities of every stripe, then and now. Short story long, me and David split a 4-way and the Dead played that afternoon, opening for the ABB that night. The lines for water were long. We survived on The Lady, a little water and some "Numero Uno" substance we thought was hash but turned out to be opium. Worked for us that day, though, the heat was excruciating and I'm sure a lot of folks needed help in the heat. I got up close for Chinacat at the end of the first set. I was mesmerized. Bobby played a Gibson SG, which in my mind meant "bass guitar." Phil was playing a big possibly semi-hollowbody bass that said to my untutored eyes, "rhythm guitar." But I was already a huge Phil fan (being a Jer fan was too obvious) and this had me confused. At some point some idiot hurled a lit M-80 onto the stage (June 9, right? obviously in close proximity to July 4??) and it rolled up to Jer. In that day, he had a stage mannerism of sort of shuffling in place and I saw him move his right foot forward in perfect time and using the tip of his cowboy boot sent the live M-80 back out over the crowd. I don't even recall hearing it explode. The music was pretty loud.
  • icecrmcnkd
    Joined:
    Nice warmup HF
    Patiently waiting for the grand finale....
  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    Backstory and launch....
    The briefest of backstories: Six years old in 1964, persuaded my mom to buy me a Beatles LP at the checkout counter of the local discount store. Played it on monaural phonograph with one 12" speaker output. Rocked as child. 13 years old in 1970, convince mom to drive me and a friend to a Chambers Bros concert. We dug the music but were too young for 'action.' 15 years old, summer of '72, catch The Byrds and New York Rock 'n Roll Ensemble at college outside Saugerties NY where The Band rec'd Big Pink five years earlier. We drove by Big Pink. (Still Pink.) We were 15. (An older brother was actually driving...) Since 1971, been spinning American Beauty and Skull & Roses LPs on the same phonograph as in 1964, only now it's in the basement where our ping-pong table and hang-out couch are located. 19 Sept 1972, I jump in a car full of older heads with an ounce of hash in my pocket, 33 days after my 15th birthday, and we proceed to the Roosevelt Stadium in lovely Jersey City, New Jersey, and catch my first Grateful Dead show. I had already been 'experienced,' but did not drop at this show; too chaotic, large crowd, determined to survive and catch my ride home. I listened for familiar songs, jams, anything -- nothing! Everything was different. Records, shme-cords. This scene was crazy. Maybe 10,000 people screamin' high groovin', freakin', dancin', gyratin', handing you things you knew best to pass along... I was alone in the giant crowd with the music louder but sweeter than anything I'd ever heard before. The music rocked, I just couldn't grab onto a big Jerry jabbin' guitar riff that would remind me of Skull & Roses. Obviously, this was no American Beauty. As Jer once said, recording in a studio is like building a ship in a bottle. Playing live is like being on the ocean in an open rowboat. And that's kinda how I felt -- out there, surfin', knew I'd have to get home ... 3 hours into the show, I do remember saying to myself, "Well, all righty then, damn good show, YOU CAN STOP PLAYING ANYTIME, I'M GOOD. GOTTA GET SOME REST... MUST SNAG RIDE HOME..." Part II, coming ...
  • icecrmcnkd
    Joined:
    Thanks dmcvt
    The photos of the stage show how high it was. Need safety railings to keep the musicians from falling off.
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6 years 7 months

Pacific Northwest ’73-’74: The Complete Recordings Boxed Set

WHAT'S INSIDE:
6 Complete Shows On 19 Discs
• 6/22/73 P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C.
• 6/24/73 Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
• 6/26/73 Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA
• 5/17/74 P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C.
• 5/19/74 Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
• 5/21/74 Hec Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Mastered in HDCD from the original master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering
Masters transferred and restored by Plangent Processes
Original Art by First Nations Artist Roy Henry Vickers
Photos by Richie Pechner
Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 15,000

Includes an immediate digital download of "Eyes Of The World (P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada 5/17/74)"

"We were in the Pacific Northwest...between somewhere in Washington and some other where in Oregon. The road took us to the lip on a ridge, from where we could see around us for many miles in all directions … It was breathtaking to behold, but as we watched, we had a firm realization that we were witnessing something even more beautiful than our eyes could ever take in … Life causes life. Heaven and Earth dance in this way endlessly, and their child is the forest. And so there we were, epiphanously watching that grandest and most glorious dance of life—of which we are just a tiny part—awed by a magnificence without beginning, without end..."

Bob Weir, “Sell Headwaters—Everyone Wins,” San Francisco Chronicle

The Pacific Northwest offers up a rich feast of land, sky, and water. It is ripe with influences, abundant with symbols, deep and spirited. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the Grateful Dead played some of their most inspired shows on these fertile grounds. It does, however, sometimes take a breath for the elements to re-align years later. It seems for us, they finally have and we are able to present not just a glimpse of the band's extraordinary exploratory tour through the region, but a two-tour bounty as the PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS.

For PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS, we've paired two short runs made up of six previously unreleased shows - P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C. (6/22/73); Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (6/24/73); Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA (6/26/73); P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada (5/17/74); Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (5/19/74); and Hec Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (5/21/74). Each show has been mastered in HDCD from the original master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. The transfers from the masters were transferred and restored by Plangent Processes, further ensuring that this is the best, most authentic that these shows have ever sounded.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS comes in an ornate box created by Canada’s preeminent First Nations artist Roy Henry Vickers (more on this tremendous artist soon). To complement the music, the set also includes a 64-page book with an in-depth essay by Grateful Dead scholar Nicholas G. Meriwether and photos by Richie Pechner.

Due September 7th, this release is limited to 15,000 individually numbered copies and available exclusively from dead.net. You'll want to grab a copy while you can and sit back, relax, and enjoy all the exclusive content we'll be rolling out over the next few weeks.

Looking for something a little more byte-sized? The collection will also be available for HD digital download in FLAC and ALAC, exclusively at dead.net, on release day. You can pre-order it now too.

Get it while you can.

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If you remove Veneta 8/27/72 and Houston 11/18/72 from contention, is there a better Playing in the Band than Berkeley 8/25/72? Pick my face up off of the floor.
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17 years 4 months
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Hendixfreak and ? Aaaaaa I think Dmcvt?Throw us some luv bra’s! Hendrixfreak if you have summer 73 tales, since where getting 73 shows soon....I bet most would dig it, even if they have heard before?
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13 years 4 months
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He said, "I gotta go, but my friends can stick around." The last public words I believe he spoke. What a great song. The lyrics (for me at least) have a profound meaning. I think the meaning of the song is the best we can do is often just below the mark where it needs to be for our lives to be alright. But we do the best we can nonetheless. What other choice do we have. http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/106061/
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9 years 7 months
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Dick Latvala said 11-18-72 and 5-26-93 where the two best Playing In the Bands. You mentioned the former and I attended the latter (and it was amazing), so that's a pretty good place to start. I'll have to give the Dave's #24 version another spin. A few other PITB's of note: 6-8-74 - A melty day in Oakland 8-6-74 - 40 minute Playin'->Scarlet->Playin' 5-21-74 - Got an epic one coming with the Pacific NW box! 7-29-88 - Crazy version at Laguna Seca - Included on the So Many Roads compilation
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12 years 10 months
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Playin>Drums>Dark Star>Morning Dew>Playin this amazing sequence opened the 2nd set on 11/18/72 one word- AMAZING!!!!!!!!
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17 years 4 months
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....I hear there's a really, really good one from Portland in this upcoming box. There was a great one in Monterey '88. I missed that Friday show. The talk of the lot the following day was that Playin'.
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15 years 6 months
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8/27/72 has to be the grandaddy of them all for all it's acid and sunshine soaked greatness. 5/26/72 was the night the song was truly born 4/22/77 is really fun as it might be the last first set blow out stand alone Playin', and the jam is fast, spacy and tight with a hint of the Tiger Finally, the Playin' reprise from 5/19/77 is something totally to behold. Powerful. Personally, Playins from 72-74 are some of my favorite jams from the bands entire career. With that being said, I feel like the song never really found it's groove, post hiatus. Sure there were some epic jams, but I always preferred the versions that stood alone and didn't drift off into something else. When they'd start sneaking back towards the finale and then finally explode--that is always a huge payoff for me.
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16 years 9 months
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As I listened to the sounboard shows i was stunned by the consistency of the playing in these two little tours, for "small" songs and jams.I expect to find a place for this box in the library between the Europe 72 tour and Get shown the light, not less.Yes here are any of the best PITBand, and some good versions of the new songs from Mars Hotel. I feel sad about misssing the 30 trips Boxset wich was then out of Budget...Now one more good reason for September. Don't miss this one if you can afford!
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16 years 2 months
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It's still fun to discuss the Summer Jam '73 event/happening at Watkins Glen New York here on this page, but here is another site for those interested in another opinion: www.glenphotos.com/summerjam/ Unfortunately, the GD's portion of the main event falls a little flat for The-Powers-That-Be and many others, so it maybe a long time until it is officially released. However, the unannounced (but scheduled by the event organizers) soundcheck mini-show on 7/27 was up-to-par.
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The best playing is 11-18-72. This is the stuff legends are made of. This ( and I’ve said this before) is why Jerry Garcia is the greatest musician of them all. “He’s the very spirit personified of whatever is muddy river country at it’s core and screams up into the spheres. He really had no equal” (Bob Dylan at Jerry’s eulogy)
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Jim that’s a great why to describe the weight. I totally agree, what a great song. RIP Brent.
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8 years 3 months
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Cool video Jim. I agree that's a good way to interpret the song. It's a deep, opaque song that could mean a lot of things to different people. Think about this. The Weight was the last song Brent played before he died of a drug overdose. Furthermore, he sang the verse about Carmen and the devil, walking side by side. It's Carmen who says to the narrator "I gotta go, but my friend can stick around." That's 'friend', singular, referring to the devil. What does the devil represent? Temptation, of course. Temptation, symbolized by the devil, is part of The Weight that we all bear as we go along about our lives. It always sticks around. So the man closes a show singing a verse about the ever present burden of temptation which weighs upon us. Then dies of an overdose 3 days later. William Faulkner couldn't have made up a more symbolic ending to a story.
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7 years
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I’m in....stories and pictures of 73...please and thank you!
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10 years 4 months
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Hey now hendrixfreak. I do recall your Watkins Glen post a while back (and let's not start counting growth rings)! I haven't figured out how to search for years-ago posts, so would love to read yours again. I promise to save it this time. dmcvt's post last week is what got me started on this. dmcvt mentioned his planned anniversary look back at the Summer Jam in Racecourse, NY. That was JOO-LY!!!? 27 & 28, 1973... Can't wait for his tale and hopefully for an h-freak reprise.
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Yes, the recordings in 1971, certainly on these Summer shows, sound very raw compared to the recordings made in 1972. The recordings are a perfect match of songs and material. Another great version from this summer run is the Lovelight from 8/4/71 on the Road Trips bonus disc. Less of the country inflections prevalent in the Europe 1972 versions, or the extemporaneous versions from 1970-but with enough energy to light up a city.
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Ha.. There's quite a few lurkers here and people that read these posts that haven't even set up an account so never post. If someone can recall an event that happened 45 years ago, they have every right to retell the tale. I wish my memories were so good.. Growth rings.. yes, if it were an oak or maple tree, it would be bigger than a house and towering high amount the other trees in the forest by now.
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17 years 4 months
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....when I saw two male lions having sex with each other out in the open. I thought to myself, "Have they no pride?"
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14 years 9 months
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such a loss thanks for the audio/video JimMD makes a middle-aged man get teary-eyed, even after 28 years, over a man I never met. stay away from hard drugs, kids. they'll FUCK you UP.
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14 years 9 months
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"I wouldn't know where to begin" 9/18/74 4/22/77 8/27/72 2/9/73 12/28/79 on and on too many to list
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17 years 3 months
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Great choices for best Playin's. I would add: 5/4/77 "Playin > Comes a Time > Playin" would be in my Top 5 Playin's, inseparable as it is from my favorite version of Comes a Time. The transition into Comes a Time is as good as any transition they ever did. Jerry's solos (especially the second one) in Comes a Time... oh. And the Playin is melodic, but also explores some deep scary space before letting you settle gently into the loving arms of Comes a Time. EDIT - It was so good they skipped the encore. Even the Dead couldn't follow this, ha.
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10 years 8 months
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Thanks for the invite to spew, particularly from the 'real' Oroboros, who is a master at the intact-memory, how-it-went-down-those-many-years-ago road tales. I'm tied up in a work project right now, but by Friday, the 45th anniversary of the Glen soundcheck, I'll post the pics -- just two left now, from the 1st set ending Playing in the Band on 7-28 -- and provide my backstory to the show. Still quite, um, vivid. That'll give me a chance to vape, crack open an IPA and tell a few tales at leisure. Then I'll be forced to spend the weekend at a two-nighter with Derek & Susan at the Rocks and it 'looks like rain.' We'll handle it.
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16 years 7 months
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Looking through all those nostalgic black and whites, it struck me: Where are all the fat people! Seriously, look at all the slim and trim shirtless people in those pictures! Is it that folks were that much more active back then or not inclined to gorge and be lazy? Maybe it is just the average age of folks in the pics being that much younger. Lord knows when I was touring and going to festivals I had a lot less to haul around on my waist!
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16 years 11 months
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If you want to go into some deep jazzy 1974 space listen to the 30 minute Seastone Jam before the Eyes, Bill and Jerry are there early and the rest of the band joins, so its more a jam than just Phil and Ned... Ned sits in the entire second set which is Eyes into Wharf Rat with more jamming. One of the most unique Eyes of the World intro with Ned on his electric piano.. and Keith on the piano!!!
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I would love to see this boxed set released in SACD. This format is far more accessible. As we all are aware, there are very few options for HDCD rendering devices, and I worry this will only worsen in time, as it appears Microsoft is disallowing companies from including HDCD decoding in their devices.
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10 years 2 months
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Listening to the first five minutes of this takes me back. I bought it when it came out, round about 1975. Great sleeve notes, too-"My week beats your year".
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7 years 3 months
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To answer your question directly, if you take Houston 11-18-72 and Vanetta 8-27-72 off the table, no I can't think of a better Playing In The Band than 8-25-72 Dave's Picks 24. You inspired me to put that one on. It rocks and Jerry is super loud. I don't recall this getting talked about too much when it was released but it really is something else isn't it? I'm going to look at the other ones from that week. Dick's Picks 23 and 36 plus Waterbury from 30 Trips Around the Sun. bob t, I don't see Seastones or Eyes of the World on Dick's Picks 7. Where are you listening to that one? Anywhere I can download it?
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16 years 11 months
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I am listening to it on Internet Archive.... listen only they stopped the downloading back in 2000's... you can download audience only but you still can enjoy boards on your devices!!!! Just search 9/11/74 grateful dead and it should pop up!!!! bob t
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7 years 3 months
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I will check them out. I think Dave needs to get back to offering Bonus Discs for box sets. There is no motivation to preorder when there's half of the 15 thousand left still. People can just wait until the week of to order. Not that I would take that risk of missing out, but I think a lot more people would buy early. And I'd like a Bonus Disc :-) Watkins Glenn? I know the jam was already released on So Many Roads, but that's out of production now, so they could do it.
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17 years 5 months
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For me this also hard but some of my go-tos are: 8/25/72 (Phil driven!) 8/27/72 (With the Bird Song, China>Rider and Dark Star, just tremendous) 9/27/72 (also Phil driven jamming!) 5/21/74 ( It’s a monster!) 10/16/74 (It’s also a monster!) Really though this is not a comprehensive list, more just the ones I think a about when best of Playin’s are discussed. There are so many more, like for example in 1973... Plus several have mentioned 4/22/77 which is good and which is also the last 1st set Playin’. Playin’ is also one of the songs that can be a stand alone big jam or be the launching point of a 2nd set jam sequence. The Other One can be compared to this but Playin’ I think outlasted The Other One in terms maintaining the jam vehicle/catalyst. I know I keep referencing 1972 but someone else mentioned the 10/18/72 sow with the 2nd set sequence of Playin’ > Drums > Dark Star > Morning Dew > Playin’. I was made aware of this show only about a year ago. I think that sequence is kind of unique, especially for 1972. Yet it delivers because it has the 72' consistency and power we are all used to. Once we make the rounds of Dave’s Picks and other releases from various years (80s, 90s, etc...) I hope we can come back to this one. It’s a great show as it is but this jam sequence really elevates it to something special in my opinion. Certainly it is a great example of Playin’ being the jam vehicle/catalyst as it was to be for many years to come.
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13 years 4 months
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Wow.. I couldn't limit myself to a single page, hats off to you folks putting together comparisons and picks. I have been getting into the PITB/UJB combos lately. I think the topic came up a couple months ago on one of these threads. They played the Previously the Warlocks/Hampton from 10/9/89 on the radio the other day and it sounded simply wonderful. Set 2: Playin' In The Band Uncle John's Band Playin' Reprise Dark Star Drums Death Don't Have No Mercy Dear Mr. Fantasy Hey Jude Reprise Throwin' Stones Good Lovin' Attics Of My Life I listened to the Augusta combo within the last few weeks too. Fierce. I do like the old PITB's the best though, especially '72 but any from '72 through '74 can knock you off your feet. I can get lost in these versions for seemingly days on end. Still.. it could catch fire anytime from any year from '71 right up through the end. I put it right up there Dark Star and The Other One. One of the most powerful songs in their arsenal.
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10 years 2 months
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Every one of the Europe 1972 Playing's are great. There's a real sense of something new being born, every time they take off in the jam. I love the way it just seems to explode in the middle. The 1973 versions are also great, but seem a bit calmer, somehow. I guess by then they knew it was a vehicle for exploration, and they got a bit more sophisticated about where they took it. I haven't played a 1974 version that recently, but from memory I would say that this approach continued and got even more refined as they headed off into an almost modern jazz like direction. Definitely up there with Dark Star and The Other One.
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6 years 6 months
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Jerry "erupts" in an unusual way at 4:30 on 4/14/72. I always pick this one if I am making a mix that I want to rock out on. I did not remember too much about 8/25/72 Playing, and I put it on and Awooooo that one will get you barking at the moon!
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11 years 7 months
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I had Watkins Glen anniversary happening July 27/28, maybe I am missing a month somewhere, could easily happen... will post that account this weekend, its not lengthy adventure, tho I decided I had to remove certain references so it was reduced by half :) kidding Will happily be celebrating it here in Vermont by heading up to Burlington tomorrow evening for an outdoor show with Phil & Friends on Lake Champlain waterfront Park. No Wild Turkey involved. Will note a very tasty show last Friday night, at The Hopkins Center, Dartmouth, Hanover New Hamster with Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings. Fifth row center after dinner at a local Tibetan restaurant. Gillian I knew from a few of her cds, was pretty much blown away by her partner Rawlings playing... great stuff... this was all acoustic with just a little PA reinforcement. Rawlins was pickin' his 1935 Epiphone Olympic which he found in an attic... beat up but Oh Boy did he make it sweet. Gillian played guitar, a little banjo and harmonica. Her singing was what had drawn me in years ago. Mod trad Appalachian folk plus plus if I had to tag it. Highly recommended, they are touring through the summer. and oh yeah, we just heard Jack and Jorma are coming this fall to a very cool acoustic space in central Vermont.
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10 years 4 months
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Thanks dmcvt... Meant JULY 27-28 (or maybe Julyn't). Corrected below. Looking forward!
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12 years 10 months
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5/6/788/4/79
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10 years 2 months
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That track you put on for hippychic has exactly the same introduction as "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths. In fact I assumed it was The Smiths at first.
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14 years 9 months
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cleaning my "dangerous" kitchen (ty2FZ) Bob Dylan sings "I'm in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues" cool
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16 years 11 months
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I always like it just for the fact that they played in Jamaica!!! Very reggae Scarlet>Fire that they started playing when the sun was rising. Did any one out there attend??? bob t
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17 years
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My favorite is almost certainly 12-2-73 in large part because of the Space>MLBJ that ensues. One of my very favorite shows ever. But there are tons of incredible Playin's from 72-74. From the "Brent and beyond" era i think the Playin' from Laguna Sececa '88 is far and away the best. YMMV.
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10 years 3 months
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I'll play. 12/1/73 Boston. There's an Uncle John's Band in between. Great stuff. Uncle Gary sent me that one. Uncle Gary is the coolest dude this side of the moon. I used to really be into the one from live at the Cow Palace New Year's 1976. I haven't listened to it in a while. I'll bet it's still good. 8/25/72 DaP 24 - now there's a scorcher. With the exception of August 27th 1972 and November 18th 1972, this might be in the running for best. Bobby is nice and loud too, and really keeps it rocking with his between the beat chops and slices. As someone mentioned, Phil drives this thing, and he has a heavy foot. And of course Jerry with his Aligator wah wah (just listen to him bust out at the end of the jam section into the Playing reprise). I'm also going to site a couple more post hiatus: DP 10 which is that December 77 winterland performance that has them doing the first China cat Rider since before Mickey came back. Also Dave's Picks 18. This one you don't want to miss as far as I'm concerned. Yeah it's mellow 76, but there's nothing wrong with that, no malware than a dark star or a bird song. Keith in Phil just leave this thing on incredibly with mesmerizing chords and notes and Billy Goats.
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