Grateful Dead

For Fightin' And Complainin', Lord We Should Be Having Fun!
- Bob Weir 12/31/71

Ahoy Matey's!

Did I hear something about 1970 going on today?

Happy Birthday David Lemieux!
You young pup you... Gotcha by almost 5 months ;)

I fell down a new release & 30 Days of the Dead wormhole... coming through the other side today with some lingering 1971 playing in the background.

Caught bits of 11/7/71 yesterday, the good bits! That's a tasty Dark Star.
2/18/71 is sounding Awesome.
3/26/87 & 3/27/87 are representing Spring '87 Tour in the official release canon.
All and all, the energy and the excitement is there. And most present, the 1987 Spring Tour Roar!!!
(Note: These are probably the best recordings from that tour, due to Healy's UltraMatrix experiment going on this year. My guess would be the official release are as good as they're going to sound. So you get what you get and you don't throw a fit, as we used to say to my daughter.)
And 30 Days of the Dead has been fun, I'm 8 for 8, isn't that great?!?!

11/3/20 threw me off and after spending too much time figuring out which version of Good Time Blues I was hearing, I've been playing catch up all week on my GD time allotment.
Plus I've been learning some cool CSS stuff, and let's not forget there's been an historic election.
So there's all my excuses for not regaling you all with my colorful commentary this week, but I was here in spirit.

By the way yesterday's 30 DOTD show 7/25/74.. that Dark Star!!! Love it!
I don't think we've done that one yet, we should make that a pick one of these Days.

OB: Sounds like we've been in the '71 space time continuum together. Not too many jams in the early months of that year, 3/18/71 Caution is worth seeking out for sure, and then the only thing coming to mind is 4/29/71, which is legend.

The jams really start to pick up once Keith joins the band, prior to that, they're crafting new songs and giving those the once over twice. If there's some jammy jams that you all know of in the early months of '71, let us know. But from what I recall, they're all pretty short. November '71 was sounding good yesterday, and this 12/31/71 I stumbled into is like the best NYE show I've listened to all day ;)

November 8th 1970? Ironically that's kind of the last big jammy month from what we have before the early 1971 saloon Dead begins to take shape. The December 1970 stuff really sounds like a prelude to early 1971.

Looking forward to those November Capitol Theatre stories Strider.
I want to hear all about it. The scene, the color of the curtains, who did the light show, what cartoons they played during intermission, all the deets!!

Alright, good to see you're all still rockin' the tunes.

I listened to 11/8/70 this morning on relisten including NRPS. I highly recommend it for a listen on this half century mark. I wrote down impressions and thoughts and mined memories. Will just say that for now.

Winterland 73, November 9, 10,11..... How should we honor this run???? Bob t

The song selection is all over the map. It reminds me of Dylan and the Band at Big Pink. Was there with Kirk and Judy. We sat in pretty good balcony seats. Of a few bands and nine Dead shows I went to at the Capitol Theater 11/8/70 was my only time sitting in the balcony. The big-O -Otis was there, liked the balcony the best.
Started listening 5am. The acoustic set was fantastic opening with Dire Wolf and then slow version I Know You Rider.Was gettin jiggy during Rosalie Mcfall and operator .
NRPS set with Jerry and Mickey was standard 1970. Garcia’s pedal steel guitar was always so sweet . Any NRPS recordings are worth hearing.
The Dead’s electric set was also spectacular. Morning Dew opener wow! Only time Mystery Train was played, First Around and Around . Truckin has an interesting fall 1970 unique jam sounding Chicago Blues back into slow shuffle, killer. Baby Blue was one of the best versions I’ve ever heard from the Dead. First verse only.Dark Star with spectacular post 1st verse jam, space/feed back. The Celtic art work and plaster work on the Capitol walls glowed purple . The Dead did not have a light show at the Capitol like at the Fillmore. February 71 were only slides for the ESP experiment. The band was in top form November 8th, at the same time David Lemeiux was being born. Auspicious.
I was way impressed with the quality of the audience tape. Not the highest quality audio but the historical aspect of that particular night and set list.
I count my lucky stars to have been 16 fifty years ago and lived 15 miles from the Capitol Theater.

I agree with the quality of the 11/8/70 audience tape, one recorded by Ken and Judy Lee. Ancient and historic. If you haven't read this, check it out. For most of 1970, if there was not tapers in the audience, the shows might as well not have happened....

http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2009/08/short-guide-to-1970-audience-tap…

Sort of like the 1970 Good Lovin' > La Bamba > Good Lovin'
If the tape didn't survive, we would not know it happened.

"11-11-70 is a wild, long show, with the first La Bamba in Good Lovin (I don't think they repeated this for 17 years!), and an hour-long series of jams with Jack Casady & Jorma Kaukonen; unfortunately the recording is pretty poor."

http://www.archive.org/details/gd70-11-11.aud.cotsman.17081.sbeok.shnf

Let's crank them out Bob t!

I just did the 9th a couple months ago.. did we do that one here?

I might skip it and do the 10th and 11th.

Yes, we did this one in the Spring. I think it was Bolo's pick. He was there! Where is Bolo?

Time to check in Bolo.

I am marching on with the full box run, because it is so damn good. First release with Plangent. I remember when Bolo started this in March, holy crap.

Stay well folks.

And Happy Birthday Dave L.

I will be joining you in the 50 club next month. Can't believe it.

Causing geopolitical mayhem no doubt. With elections over, perhaps we they will give him a day or two off.

What a great box set, in the top 3 of all time box sets. It's right there with Fillmore West and Europe 72. My brother went to 11/9/73, he had a great time.

Wow!

November 8, 1970 is one of the all time great shows, it also seems like a sign post of sorts.
Last 1970 Acoustic set (as far as we know)
The End of Primal Dead

Primal Dead... that's the stuff man. But it definitely came to an end as the band evolved. To me hearing this show and then looking at what we have on tape after this, this show feels like it's the last one where you just really didn't know where the music would take the band. It's raw and powerful and you can tell they're just feeling it and it's going places. After this, they still went places, but in my opinion with much more focus and control, this stuff here... this is just anything goes and nobody knows kinda Dead.
Primal Dead.

It's hard to say if any other shows in November or early December reach this level of improvisational freedom and continuity, but from what we have on tape. This is the last true example of that.
Again, this is all my opinion. But suffice to say, listen to this show in it's entirety before you die.

Love it!

And as for the recording, I'd always listened to the recordings that Ken Lee made from this run as well as the June Capitol run, but yesterday I stumbled on to the Marty Weinberg recording and I have to say, it's quite enjoyable.
Maybe better than Ken's? Not sure... but worth a listen.

Marty's Legendary status has outlived his tapes. Not that many exist, and even those that do, aren't typically the best versions in comparison, but this might be his best remaining recording.

And, here's what he had to say about this show -
In regards to the Capitol run 11/5 - 11/8 - "In many ways, those shows were the best… The audience was very sophisticated. At those shows…there wasn’t a lot of clapping at weird times. It was an older audience, and the people listened… I was sitting in the first few rows of the theater with a lot of people who were true believers, who went to a lot of shows, and who really understood the better shows… You had a group of people in the first twenty rows that knew a good show..."

For 11/8 Marty said - "It was a very magical show."
Nuff said.. he's right, it was and is a VERY magical show.

Strider, thanks for the inside insight. Man, I wish I coulda been there with you. The stuff you saw my friend, was the stuff to see!

Great blog posts about this show at deadessays.blogspot

If anyone has the Taper's Compendium Addendum please let me know, I'd really like to read the whole Marty Weinberg interview!

Alright, moving on to 11/9/73 you say?
Far out, based on my list, we haven't officially done that show, we did 11/10/73 on 4/27/20 and that may have been Bolo's first show... but maybe he can clear that up?

What say you Bolo?

Good stuff.

On the Weather Report Suite... The Playing and Here Comes Sunshine are awesome... Agree with Billy the Kid about this being top three box set release. I actually listen to this box the most... The Dark Star from the 11th is my go to Dark Star that has been released... Bob T

....got it for $79.99 I believe.
Kicked the can on the 1977 one. Then it skyrocketed in price.
I think I got the better of the two. I think 🤔
Time to spin 11.9.73 with Patriots/Jets in the background.

You definitely got the better of the two boxes, but in truth.. they are both awesome. I just don't reach for the '77 one nearly as often.

Agree with the number three box rating too. What a sweet little box.

I remember when it came out reading about complaints on the sound quality. I was like, whaaaaT? I guess you can see their points if you are comparing this to your favorite studio album, but this is late 1973 Grateful Dead, basically in the months leading up to Wall of Sound. It sounds farkin wonderful to me, and the music/performances, USDA Grade AAA+.

....let's spin that one!

I'd love to hear Betty discuss her method for selecting the cuts on Live/Dead.

Most epic Dark Star.

Betty you're the best!

...I was just slipping into the PITB from 10/19 when I came here and you bastards had to dangle the 73 Winterland box at me, Dooaahh! Most def top shelf box for this kid. Never listen to W77...hell haven’t listened to this in forever with all the other gazillion things I’ve picked up the last few years lol. Nice problem to have I know.
Don’t actually have either of those, since back then I wasn’t so into it (getting more stuff), didn’t have much disposable income, and my cousin was getting it all (some for free!) so I had access to the music....FF to now...Idiot! Even with all that I can’t believe I didn’t pick this one up seeing as how fall 73 has always been a top fav. 77 meh, good shit but not a personal go to so that one doesn’t bother me much, but Winterland 73.....sigh!
But hey, at least I have this awesome music, so off we go, starting with 11/9, my day by the way, and onward!
Live Dead for dessert!

...and the Berlin Wall came tumbling down this day in 1991.

Thanks for steering me in this direction thoroughly enjoying this; Big Playing, awesome HCSS, To Lay me down, WRS, Eyes, Stella, yee-gads forgot how great this one is...and now off to “electronic spiders” 😱

Working my way through it. 11/9 is so damn good. Love that first set closer Playing. To Lay Me Down, I agree Oroborous, is a highlight. Love the 73-73 versions of this tune.

Just finished the first set of 9/10 and it is smoking. I might need through Thursday to get through these three shows if Bob t gives it the green light.

This was the last box set before Rhino took over....

Dedicated to the memory of Don Pearson.

Awesome little Box!
Got it when it first came out and listened to it so extensively that I got a little bored and moved on to other releases, but still listened to it a few times a year.

Last night as I was playing the 9th, I did think to myself, “self, PNW Box might have better sound quality”.
No worries though because I like both Boxes and will keep listening to both.

What’s really awesome is that the official release collection is getting so big that there is always a lot to choose from, especially if you listen to all years.

Ok so the first time they ever split Playin was the famous 10/18/72 Fox theatre.. They go on and shelf that idea for a year, bring it back split in Omaha on 10/21/73, and again on 10/27/73 in Indy... Then in Evanston on 11/1/73 we get the Morning Dew>Playin>UJB>Playin... A week or so later we get this beautiful peace of musical magic!!! How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop... the world will never know!!! P.S. Deadvikes take all the time you want, to quote the Simpsons, "Eat all you want, take all you'll eat!" Bob t

Hey you guys that missed out on getting the 73 Winterland box put yourself in my place. I had tickets to all three shows and gave them away. I was in college at the time. The shows were Friday Saturday and Sunday night and I had a huge test on Monday so I gave them to a friend and stayed home and studied. Not a day goes by...

I did catch the San Diego show a couple days later though.

Not to worry, maybe they weren't as good if you were actually there.

That stings.

Still, a cool story, MH. It happened to a lot of us, but in most cases not for such a glorious run of shows.

They are some of my favorites...

Bob T: Nice synopsis!
PITB is my favorite subject.

The palindrome versions are a thing of beauty and I never get tired of hearing them.
I am noticing after revisiting 11/1/73 the other day, that I like it when Morning Dew gets it's final closing phrase, but I digress. That's the Dew not the Playin'.

I wonder what type of conversations happened within the band around the development of Playing In The Band as a jam vehicle.

Ironically we've listened to some of the key sign posts recently: 11/8/70 - final Main Ten, 2/18/71 first time played, 5/26/72 first break out of the 7/4 time. Definitely key in the development of this AWESOME song.

Then the shows you mentioned: the epic 10/18/72 split, return of the split on 10/21/73 & 10/27 and the 11/1/73 split. And yesterday, the first Palindrome. Just killer killer stuff.
(Shot out: I'm really digging 11/9/73 PITB, can't stop listening to it. It stands alone)

Playing In The Band RULES!

But today... It's all about the Dark Star :)

PS - MH ohhh that's a heartbreaker!

Playing
Truckin/Other One
Dark Star

They’re all awesome!

Mmmmmm........psychedelic jam.......

As great as 11/10 is, I think I really dug 11/9 more, and yes that playin is spectacular!
So did 11/9, 11/10, and Live Dead.....perhaps not a true DHBrewer hatrick, but you’d think I’d at least get the third star lol.
So today looking forward to the big finale and that awesome Dark Star!
Onward!

MH: can’t imagine having to live with that “choice” lol, Dooaahh stooopppiid education!

That is a bummer that you missed those shows MHammond, pretty sweet you saw the San Diego show, Iove that show.

I was thinking yesterday as I was listening to this wonderful 73 boxset, if I could pick one month to go back in time to see the Dead, it would be November 73.

Would love to hear about that San Diego show if you care to share?

Good work Oroborous, 11/9 and 11/10 in one day! I am still working on 11/10 today. Too much other stuff going on this week. I will get caught up.

Sometimes it's the words left unsaid that mean the most.

A few years after Winterland '73 a couple to a few mini me's appeared on the scene and are now perhaps as big a fans as their old man..

Pulling from memory of what was written years ago on these threads, they have seen several (many?) shows of varied configuration including an evening with DSO. Dad was getting texts of the songs and putting together the setlist and they collectively figured out the show. Low and behold they got a redux of 5/7/72 Bickershaw Festival, Wigan, certainly one of the great shows in GD history.

So maybe that weekend he invested in digesting and retaining information played a part in bringing another generation into the fold. Sometimes the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. I hope I didn't overreach in writing this.

Now, back to 10/10/73 (yes, I am day behind)

You are the master at putting lipstick on a pig. Yes staying home that weekend helped to solidify my relationship with my girlfriend who is now my wife and mother of my 2 children and all 4 of us are deadheads and have been to many shows together. All because I stayed home that weekend. I'm gonna go with that. Thanks.

I was living in the dorms at the time and a large group of us were going to concerts together at the Sports Arena all the time. Tons of great bands were touring at the time (Allman Brothers, Zappa, Traffic, Leon Russell etc...) and the dorm had 4 camps so to speak. West Coast Acid Rock (Dead), Classic Rock (Stones etc), Southern (Allmans), and the Bowie fans. The hype around the Dead at the time was nonexistent and the Sports Arena was configured to house about 2/3rds capacity but there was still plenty of room on the floor. The following account is not upheld by listening to this show from TTATS (the first set sounds pretty good) but these are my memories. The first set wasn't very good and by the start of the second set I had made my way down front and center and the mood was kind of ugly. One guy in particular kept yelling "Ace get your act together!" as the band tuned up for the second set. And the rest is history. They started with Truckin at what seemed like twice the volume of the first set and shut everybody up fast and I don't think they stopped playing until the end of the show including an Other One jam like no other. We all walked out of the Arena exhausted but with that big post Dead concert smile on our face. Later I started hearing Wake Of The Flood being played a lot in the dorm. A lot of converts made that night.

Sounds like you made the right choice, family wise .

Is your DX80 still working?
Mine died. Started skipping and crashing, and then actually started playing the music backwards. Software reinstalls didn’t fix it. I’ve been meaning to turn it on and let the battery run out and see if that does anything.

Still works like a charm. Love it. Thanks for the rec.

That’s great.
I like that model because it has an optical out port and my stereo has optical in ports.

Been busy with November 73 and 77 anniversary listens (doing 77 in the car which takes longer, so just finished 11-4 today as I got home from work).

But anyway, my point.
Just realized that yesterday was the anniversary of 11-10-67.
Playing the digital file now, but also have the vinyl which I’m going to play this weekend.
To me the vinyl sounds way better on this release.

That is great, thanks for sharing. So interesting to hear about this show and the first set. Being there is always different than hearing the show later in life.
And how true that the Dead were not that big in 1973. What is great for you and a lot of us is that we were able to see them live. And how lucky we all are that they toured so much and recorded and kept almost all of their shows (cough cough with the exception of Warfield Radio City).

I do have a good Wake of Flood Album story, but I will save that for another day.

....Judas Priest has entered the chat.
But yeah MHammond12. Awesome story 👏

Meandering through archive now that Winterland anniversary is over, and I found an Owsley Audience copy of this show... Playing in the Band, Promised Land, Ramble on Rose, Me and Bobby Mcgee... and then Dark Star>Philo Stomp>Morning Dew... I never have given this a fair listen before.... I have been missing a lot!!!! The rest of the show if from a different source... Saw there is a board of 11/12/72 also from Soldiers and Sailors going to listen after this one.... Bob t

Bear sure knew how to record!

That Dark Star sequence rules.

11/12/72 has recording issues and is not all that if memory serves. LMK if it turns out that it is great, and I'll relisten.

But yeah 11/13 rules.

Not good... zero drums or piano, and vocals are distant... I tried a few songs and jumped around... 11/13/72 Bear's audience is awesome!!! Bob t

Cell phone battery is at 72%.

It's a sign. More 72 GD.

That's the Universe talking Jim!

For some reason 11/13/72 made me wander to 11/26/72, as I believe that Dark Star has a big Philo Stomp too, or at least a bass solo.

Anyhow.. Definitely a show worth exploring.
Bird Song, Box, Playing, Dark Star, Brokedown all kindsa good stuff and it's 72.

Just saying.. The Universe may be pointing to the San Antonio Civic Auditorium.

BTW: Speaking of the Universe. The Grateful Dead is currently in the record charts -
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/9483612/grateful…

Yes please. I'm down for San Anton'.

I'd like to recommend this particular aud for tomorrow's pick of the day. A great sounding '81 recording from Hartford.

https://archive.org/details/gd1981-03-14.nak700.glassberg.motb.84826.sb…

I mean.. Slow Dog ;)
Noodle.

Let's do it.
Circulating SBD is a little skeevy, but wth.

11/26/72 San Antonio Civic Auditorium here we come..

Show ends with Stella Blue, I Need Bertha's Good Lovin'.

Good call... Bob t

11/26/72, delayed approach. I do live in New Mexico. Or is it just a case of arrested development.

Than Never.

San Antonio 72 is worth the trip.

Man, they played some good shows that year.
(I know, duh.. but it's still amazing me just how good they were in '72 even after all these years. And that's why I love 1972)

Speaking of love... this ole bootleg could use some!
We got 3 sources available online currently.
I'm not a fan of shnid=127478 "restoration" from 2014, too much digital processing on that for my ears. I'll take the muffled hiss of the first 2.
Secondly the cleaned up version of Dark Star with patched reel flip in Me And Bobby Mcgee of shnid=123022 from 2013 is a must to have in addition to the original shnid=9248 from 2004.

Man I love digital collecting.

You don't have to make room or spend money on tapes, just collect the stuff you want organize it and listen to it and drift off into a wonderful blissful dreamy landscape of Dead.

Which I hope is where this Bird Song, Playing In The Band, Dark Star, Brokedown took / takes you all.
I gotta listen to all of those again today :)

Enjoy!

Okay, what is the pick today?

I did receive my AB release yesterday. Man those Port Chester shows are fun and the band was playing really well. Sound quality is A++