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The 30 trips Alligator from The Shrine in 67 is one of my favorite 30 trips moments, yet somehow I never fully engaged on the Caution. Probably my favorite Gator, not counting the one under the seats between rows Double EE & FF at the Academy of Music. I probably play the ladies and gentlemen version the most. I think it's time I hunted down that whole Fillmore East run in good quality. I have some of it, like the 26th with its Dark Star.

And with regard to the Dead Hand in Hamburg anniversary today, I don't know where I was getting off not mentioning Big Boss Man. Probably my favorite short Pigpen Song from the tour. Hindsight is 50/50, but I think it would have been cool if pigpen have played a few less good Lovins, and mixed in some smokestack lightning and good morning little school girls. Not to mention an alligator or two.

Jimbo, love the reference to The Blues Brothers. I just watched they're warm up set for the closing of winterland on YouTube. Lightning in a bottle. Also came across a picture of Donna sitting with Belushi. Good Times. Let's get that Wayback machine and get directly involved.

Anybody get a shipping notice for Dave's Picks 30 yet?

My absolute favorite moment from 30 trips.. and as I have written here several times, I blew out the speakers in my car on that one. For me, it was an epiphany moment.. I was left wordless and slack jawed.

Nitecat.. except for the last song, your last five was entirely GD. Glad I am not the only one.

Let the good times roll.. great topics on all things music.. We play both kinds.. Country and Western (aka Grateful Dead and everything else).

Man. that caution. Wowwow stuff.

Edit: Or perhaps it was The Other One where I blew my speakers.. no bother, that entire show was pure mayhem and simply wonderful (especially played very loud). Plus.. I blew out the rear speakers and dialed it back just so it was as loud as it could be without blowing out he fronts. What a great night and that show set the mood for the road trip. I think I was driving to visit my dad in the hospital if memory serves, six hours each way = 4 shows total. Blown speaker worthy? yes. It certainly eased the pain.

Godflesh Merciless

10/6/80 just wasnt happening :(

Jimbo & Oroborous - great 1983 / mid-80s commentary. You guys had me flipping through 30 Trips '83 and DP 6 today on the way to the food store. The live Touch Of Grey led me to the great studio version, which I hadn't put on in quite some time. Nice memories.

Alvarhanso - thanks for the Cautions, I'll check those out this week. Also glad I'm not the only one to notice how similar the BTW and JS intros are.

Bobby T - great call on the TC Dark Star from the Fillmore East. I love 1971 Dark Stars, and TC brings his trademark organ part to this one. It's followed by my all time favorite St. Stephen (Bobby is exceptional on the outro jam). I like putting The Eleven from Two From the Vault after that Dark Star / St. Stephen combo. The drums go together almost seamlessly on the transition. I can't wait for that whole Fillmore run to be released. I really enjoy Ladies & Gentlemen, but I don't have great soundboards of the entire run.

Nitecat - "I repeated the best stuff twice" - great quote, and the reason it's taking me so long to get through the E72 steamer trunk.

My favorite is the one from the Shrine 11/10/67. When I got the 30 Trips Box that was my immediate favorite show and has remained so with subsequent listening. The opening clang of Viola Lee sold me, but that Alligator> Caution cemented it. The Greek show from the next year has a great one, too, if brief (funny that we can describe an 11 minute song as brief), and goes into what is probably my favorite Feedback. Maybe it's just the stage announcer's blown mind that gets me on that. The one from Thelma DaP 10 12/10/69 is a good one. For some reason, as fantastically as they play through the Fillmore West shows, the 2 they played that run never blew me away. The bonus disc one is pretty damn fantastic, but you already mentioned that one KF.

Funny you mention the BTW/JStraw intros; they used to get me every damn time, and still do occasionally. Odd how they had two intros so close together, especially given that Bob would sometimes apologize for playing another song in the the same key as the previous one "at the risk of being repetitive". Ironically, few people would likely have even noticed, though I'm sure playing BTW and JStraw back to back would have been confusing.

Three more days, though I may be counting chickens early, no shipping notice as yet...

DP 5 12/26/79: Great show, I was at this run of five nights at the Oakland Auditorium.
Spring 1990 4/2/90: I'm almost done listening to these two boxes for the third time. What a tour!
E72 4/26/72: T>Drums>TOO>Comes a Time> SM !! I've been listening show by show to the trunk for a few months now, so I didn't jump on the anniversary train and go back. The box that keeps on giving.
DP 31 8/4,5,6/74: This collection took several evenings, I repeated the best stuff twice. Wow that 8/6 'filler' Eyes, Playin>Scarlet>Playin, UJB is a keeper.
The Rascals Complete Singles collection: These guys dominated the airwaves in the late 60's-awesome songs and playing. People got to be free!

Tom Constanten joining in on Dark Star>St Stphen>NFA>GDTRFB>NFA...... Good Hard to Handle, Cryptical>Drums>Other One>Wharf Rat... Overshadowed by the next night, and the prior night you had the Beach Boys. (I am a big fan of Pet Sounds)

Speaking of special guests, hard to top the Bangles 10/18/88 New Orleans joining on the encore of Aiko and Heaven's Door!!! Another rainy day in Rhode Island.... Bob t

Nice review of what it was like seeing The Dead in the mid 80's. There was so little coverage of the band in those years, in England, that I thought they'd split up ! Then in 1987 I saw a bootleg tape for sale in a music paper of a show from that year, and started digging around. And here I am.

L.M.G.; be well brother, may the four winds be with you!

Jim, astute analysis as usual. 83 was such a transitional year in many ways, some I don’t think many folks realize.
Yes JG was starting to really show signs of “health” issues. Musically, it seamed like they were starting to get a little looser, perhaps a little weirder? So because of both variables there was inconsistency. But we liked that go for broke vibe, and occasionally stumble and falling added to the excitement. That’s what I don’t like about 77, it’s too dam tidy, it’s too professional, too clean, I know that sounds nuts, but too me that’s not what the dead were about....don’t get me wrong, I totally get why many consider this the Dead at their best.
So Brent had meshed for four years at this point, so compared to say 80 or 81 where songs are more short and tight, it seamed to me like they were melting around the edges more.
They also were going through huge technical changes that I think factor in way more than most would think about.
Phil was using the new Modulus 6 string and new gear, Weir had new stuff, most importantly they now were using the mighty Ultra Sound Meyers PA and monitors full time.This was awesome but it was definetly a process getting a handle on all this. I think this is why 83 sometimes sounds so funky...they hadn’t used it all enough to 1) collect enough acoustical data from the different venues and 2) totally learned/adjusted technique for this ridiculous, amazing new system/technology. Add to that the whole cassette master thing, and well, yea, sometimes it’s not so hot. On the flip side there are also some awesome matrix tapes from this year....but as Jim says it’s all over the place in 83.
They also were starting to use the new vari lights full time this year too, and they had switched sides on stage only a year earlier...so much was going on that year, like many of the transitional years, and it showed, for good or for ill.
Hell, one could argue the whole long trip was a constant transition, with of course certain times being more pronounced I.e., personnel changes, but a whole new P.A. system and monitors cannot be overlooked!
Like you state, this process seamed to continue, both the good changes and the ahem, bad, through 84 and into 85.
I recall also feeling like the whole scene was changing too. Like it was all getting bigger and better, but crazy and almost out of control, like that train jumping the tracks....to me 85 was when it sorta peaked. All that process that started in full back in 83 seemed to come to fruition. They were breaking out more psychedelic stuff, and getting weirder. Anyone who was on that 85 summer tour hopefully can relate?
We went from super laid back scene at10k hockey rinks and half empty sheds to the madness of 2 around the clock days at Toga, then Hershey and Merriweather. Too much of everything was just enough! By 86 they started playing more stadiums, and it all just kept growing. The band, us, the scene, it was nuts, but like all things of hubris and excess it went too far. Throw in a hit record and crowds of uninitiated and by 87 it was over. Not the whole deal but that little wave ala HST in fear in loathing., that to me peaked in 85.
Yes they could be sloppy and sometimes Jer sounds pretty ruff, but didn’t they always when they were going for it, trying to find the edge? More HST; “you don’t really know the edge unless you go over”....
And yes we all got too big, and perhaps sometimes outta hand, but wasn’t that part of it? “Too much of everything...”, I don’t know what I’m going for, but I’m gonna go for it for sure”....
All I’m saying is it was a great time to be in your twenties, on the road, and high with the Dead!
Until it wasn’t, but luckily they played through it and came out the other side even stronger and better as we all know how great 89 through 90, 91? perhaps into 92? was.
Sorry to ramble, just in a mood this AM and Jim’s post brought out the old member berries and nostalgia of perhaps the greatest time in my life, sniff, sniff 😢 ok enough, Onward!

Mr Heartbreak, I'm pleased you picked up on that reference. Indeed, he deserves better than his ex bandmates have given him in the Press. I was sure Mind-Ledt-Body would get it!

I'm on to 4/29/72.

The opening Playing in the Band only has a four minute jam section. I know it took them some time to build up the jam on this one, but I guess I didn't realize how short the actual jam sections are. Well, the last few on the tour stretch out a bit longer. Then of course by '74, they went on for a half hour regularly, and Kreutzmann couldn't remember which huge jam song he was in the middle of (Long Strange Trip quote).

I've decided I like they 1972 Sugarees best, even if 5/28/77 is my favorite (19 minute, huge solo); but generally speaking, '72 is the year for me on this one. Short and sweet. I think that's the theme on most early Grateful Dead songs for me. In 71 & 72, everybody was still playing guitars that I liked, and all the right backup vocalists we're involved at the right times.

First UJB of the tour on this show. That's balls. Nine shows in before they play UJB. Then they only played it four more times in Europe. In hindsight I guess they always played this tune sparingly.

First He's Gone to feature the middle 8 / winds don't blow so strange verse. I think I'll always enjoy Rockin the Rhein's performance the best, even without the middle 8. My dog has no nose... in any event, I think it took them until summer to really get that part well oiled. Right around Berkeley.

Starting with the Dusseldorf show on 4/24, they changed up the intro to Black-Throated Wind, from a little drum roll thingy to a guitar strum thingy that sounds almost identical to Jack Straw. When I first got into the Dead, I couldn't tell the difference until Jerry either went into the BTW riff or the Jack Straw improv fill. And I used to think, man, how do they keep from getting mixed up when they're playing it live? The answer is they didn't. This is the one they mixed up. Jerry plays the Jack Straw fill and Bobby sings the BTW verse. Jerry doesn't play the BTW riff until the second verse. I always get a kick out of this, thinking they probably figured nobody would ever notice. Little did they know their legend would overtake their anonymity.

And of course it's Dark Star night. Lots of cacophony on this one - Probably not one of my favorites. They hit the Feeling Groovey riff early, but leave it behind pretty quickly. They hit the main Dark Star theme at the halfway mark. Jerry throws in a little Caution riffing somewhere around 23 minutes. Keith is audible at times. How I would love to interview every last one of them while listening to these ancient Dark Stars.

Caution does eventually appear for one of only five appearances, if my memory serves me. I'm trying to think if these are the only ones to feature Keith, before Pigpen died. In any case, I like the piano and organ duo, despite Keith's being mixed low or not at all. I lean towards the Europe 72 Cautions, but I admit I don't know the early ones nearly as well. Except for the 30 minute romp from the FW bonus disc. Any great Cautions you guys want to throw them away, I'll be sure to listen to them soon. Thank you. Bomp>Bomp>BOMMMB!

China Rider - always welcome in a set list. They didn't play it quite as long on the Europe 72 tour, but it was about as tight as can be, and the Rider vocals we're stunning every time.