DAVE'S PICKS VOL. 41: BALTIMORE CIVIC CENTER, BALTIMORE, MD 5/26/77

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January 19, 2022 - 10:51am

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Dead Admin

Joined:
April 28, 2021

You can listen to Grateful Dead records over and over again and never understand the attraction they have for certain people until you attend one of their concerts. Sometime during the Dead's usual five-hour set, it will all click: Jerry Garcia's Indian bead string of notes on the guitar, the ozone ooze of the vocal harmonies, the shifting, shuffling rhythm of bassist Phil Lesh and drummer Bill Kreutzmann, and the distant echo of the oldest of American folk music. - Columbia Flier

"Certain people" will know that we're coming in hot with one that's got all these things and more, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 41: BALTIMORE CIVIC CENTER, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, 5/26/77. Yes, there's still plenty of spectacular May '77 to go around. Nearly chosen for Dave's Picks Vol. 1, 5/26/77 delivers three-fold. There's one count for the energy - all the precision of the Spring tour conjuring up the raw power of the Fall tour that was to come. There's another for the setlist which featured beloved songs from WORKINGMAN'S DEAD and soon-to-be favorites from the freshly recorded TERRAPIN STATION. And a third for its element of surprise (or shall we say surprises) from an astonishingly peak 15-minute "Sugaree" to new delights ("Sunrise," "Passenger," "Jack-A-Roe') to a rare first-set finale of "Bertha" to the second set's "Terrapin>Estimated>Eyes," traveling leaps and bounds towards the improvisational journey that is a nearly 17-minute "Not Fade Away."

Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 41: BALTIMORE CIVIC CENTER, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, 5/26/77 was recorded by Betty Cantor-Jackson and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. Grab a copy while you can.

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January 23, 2022 - 4:20pm

#1251

proudfoot

Joined:
August 2, 2020

Trivia

"yours truly on public saxophone"

Who said that, and where were they?

Answer correctly and win a smile
January 23, 2022 - 3:02pm

#1252

Crow Told Me

Joined:
October 15, 2020

That was Rich

Wow, great story, Rich! Really nicely written. I could almost smell the back seat burning.

Pretty sure I was at 7.13.84 along with Proudfoot. We used to call those early summer shows at the Greek the High Holy Days. I still wonder why there has never been a Greek box. Tape quality issues, maybe? I sure remember those shows fondly.

I think maybe that particular show was the one where we decided to get a room at this motel on University Ave maybe a mile from the Greek. Which was convenient cos we were none of us in especially good shape for driving after the show. We had like six of us staying in a one bed motel room. We couldn't really sleep, for various reasons, but fortunately a party started up in the parking lot. The whole hotel was filled with Heads, evidently, because some guy started playing tapes out of his van, that night, but instead of complaining everybody just started hanging out in the parking lot, passing around beers and whatnot. I still remember this one couple, they might've been the owners/managers, they were older, the guy was wearing turban, and they were watching us all with wide eyed amazement, wondering who the hell were these crazy people and what was that music?
January 23, 2022 - 2:02pm

#1253

nitecat

Joined:
November 1, 2010

Third Listen - Dave's 40

Ok I gave this Dave's release a third listen over the last few days. I really like it. I think Spring 90 was more together and energized, but Summer 90 is pretty damn good. I'm finding I like the second day, 7/19 a little better. It has a Foolish Heart, one of my favs, and some really great guitar work by Jerry throughout. The jam after Playin is really cool, as is the jam out of Uncle John's. I found myself playing those jams a few extra times, they were so good. Jerry sings with passion on all the ballads, even if his voice isn't as sweet as it used to be. The crowd singing the NFA chant at the end gave me shivers, and reminded me how much I loved to see the band with a crowd of deadheads. With such excellent playing, I even look forward to hearing the US Blues encore when we get it in a couple weeks. No shipping notice for me yet.
January 23, 2022 - 12:34pm

#1254

PT Barnum

Joined:
December 2, 2009

gr8 story Rich

had an olds delta 98 that was as big as that biscayne, that back seat was literally a couch on wheels.
January 23, 2022 - 12:24pm

#1255

proudfoot

Joined:
August 2, 2020

And now

I think I heard Airto on 4 22 79

Probably cant be released

Hot show. Ignore the sfb review in the compendium.
January 23, 2022 - 12:21pm

#1256

proudfoot

Joined:
August 2, 2020

The Great Trek To The Greek

1984
Drove from LA to Bay Area on 7 13 84

Mike's 69 Ford LTD

big ol' thang

AC didnt work

But it got us there and back
January 23, 2022 - 11:29am

#1257

icecrmcnkd

Joined:
October 20, 2015

Good story Rich

Detroit Land Yachts.

I’m not familiar with the Biscayne but in the mid-80’s my friend had a 67 or 68 Oldsmobile Luxury Sedan that could easily fit 8 teenagers comfortably.
January 23, 2022 - 11:25am

#1258

Vguy72

Joined:
June 29, 2007

Awesome story Rich....

....slow burn lol.
January 23, 2022 - 10:52am

#1259

Rich McManus

Joined:
January 23, 2022

Remembering Baltimore '77

Burnin' the Seats of the Biscayne
or
Leavin' Town a Quart Fuller
by Rich McManus

The trip to Baltimore from the District of Columbia is virtually a straight run up the neck of a guitar--almost as invariant as a string. You get on I-95, point the car north and let about 30 minutes go by.

My brother Tom was the wheelman for the ride up to catch the Dead at Baltimore Civic Center. He was then in his first year of law school and, with proceeds earned from pumping gas, had bought a 1962 Chevy Biscayne, which is basically a living room on tires.

The bench seats, front and back, were full of guys. There was a cassette player, but it was one of those $89 models plugged into the cigarette lighter, with speaker wires trailing into the rear of the car where they attached to tinny speakers free to wander the car's rear deck as the vehicle pitched and rolled up the highway. At several points, the speaker wire was spliced by hand; once in awhile someone had to reconnect errant strands.

The tape for the ride up had to be one I had just scored in Chapel Hill, where a kid named Ivan Spector had allowed me to dub cassettes from his reels. He had permitted me to copy an April 1977 WNEW radio performance including a song I had called "Inspiration," and another I labeled "California."

So we had recent Dead to enjoy as we rolled up 95 on May 26, 1977. Somewhere along the way, a pipe was filled and passed across the expanses of the Biscayne interior. Hand to hand, to mouth, and front to back, crossways, frontways and oops, it fell into the crease in the back seat.

"A prophet on the burning shore..." Ten minutes after the pipe had made its rounds, reports of the scent of smoke reached the driver. Some in the back seat complained of warm bottoms. But there was no smoke or visible flame, just a persistent odor of burning leaves.

Tom pulled the Biscayne into a gravel lot near the Civic Center and we all hopped out, more curious now about the source of the smell than about the impending concert. We pulled the rear bench out, flipped it upside down and discovered an ever-expanding black circle in the straw matting that formed the interior of the seat: the thing was on fire, albeit a slow burn. The only thing with which to douse the sleepy blaze was cold beer. It seemed a shame to spend beer on the little fire, but that's what we did, then reloaded the bench in the car.

On the walk up the ramps inside the Civic Center, I wondered if such a secret fire would outwit our attempts to extinguish it. Would there be just ashes when the show was through?

We were in the balcony, on the left side as you faced the stage. Jerry was on the far side. All I really remember from that night is Bobby chastising the crowd for arriving late to the show, and Jerry grinning broadly as he rocked back and forth playing, the music rising out of him and his bandmates. They seemed like happy spectators at a circus they had called forth.

The pipe came with us on the trip inside. There was a girl sitting by herself in the row in front of us. The custom in those days was to pass what you had around. I leaned over to interrupt her concentration on the show, but she declined. She couldn't take her eyes off the stage.

Walking out after the show, I was convinced I'd just seen the best Dead show of my life. Which is exactly what I thought after leaving perhaps a dozen previous shows. "How can they play any better than that?" we wondered, worn out, giddy.

"Roll on up, gonna roll back down." One of the guys in our group, Dan, was from Baltimore. He knew of a corner bar nearby where the bartender would fill any container you had with beer, call a price, and you could walk out the door.

From somewhere within the acreage that is the trunk of the Biscayne, Tom produced an empty glass Tropicana jar. He disappeared into the corner bar, which on that May night was wide open, not even a screen on it, and emerged moments later with a frothing jug that the barman guessed was worth around $2.50.

"Took a whole pail of water..." The seats were mercifully cool as we whisked down 95, passing the glass from mouth to mouth. The dirty little six-banger under the hood was purring that night, past exits and overpasses and open spaces that are no longer there. It would be almost 20 years before we learned that people taped the show that evening, and would share that show (thanks Rick Wurster and Tom Melvin!) with whomever showed an interest.

Back then, it was as likely as your pants suddenly bursting into flames that the world's greatest rock and roll band would roll all over the world for 30 years, amaze everyone, and preserve performances--for that broad bench seat that is the future--that burn, unextinguishable, like a secret fire.
January 23, 2022 - 10:39am

#1260

1stshow70878

Joined:
September 11, 2014

Blues Interpreters

Not my favorite interpreter but a Muddy & Wolf Joe Bonamassa at Red Rocks show is on PBS next Saturday. Probably an old one recycled for begging. I find him difficult to watch but there's no denying the skill of the once child prodigy. Virtually all the true blues legends have said speed doesn't equal soul, starting with the "British invasion" blues interpreters. But influencers they are and thankfully many of us did trace back the true roots eventually. Give me a Stevie Ray any day.
Cheers

John Perry Barlow

John Perry Barlow

Forums

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You can listen to Grateful Dead records over and over again and never understand the attraction they have for certain people until you attend one of their concerts. Sometime during the Dead's usual five-hour set, it will all click: Jerry Garcia's Indian bead string of notes on the guitar, the ozone ooze of the vocal harmonies, the shifting, shuffling rhythm of bassist Phil Lesh and drummer Bill Kreutzmann, and the distant echo of the oldest of American folk music. - Columbia Flier

"Certain people" will know that we're coming in hot with one that's got all these things and more, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 41: BALTIMORE CIVIC CENTER, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, 5/26/77. Yes, there's still plenty of spectacular May '77 to go around. Nearly chosen for Dave's Picks Vol. 1, 5/26/77 delivers three-fold. There's one count for the energy - all the precision of the Spring tour conjuring up the raw power of the Fall tour that was to come. There's another for the setlist which featured beloved songs from WORKINGMAN'S DEAD and soon-to-be favorites from the freshly recorded TERRAPIN STATION. And a third for its element of surprise (or shall we say surprises) from an astonishingly peak 15-minute "Sugaree" to new delights ("Sunrise," "Passenger," "Jack-A-Roe') to a rare first-set finale of "Bertha" to the second set's "Terrapin>Estimated>Eyes," traveling leaps and bounds towards the improvisational journey that is a nearly 17-minute "Not Fade Away."

Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 41: BALTIMORE CIVIC CENTER, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, 5/26/77 was recorded by Betty Cantor-Jackson and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. Grab a copy while you can.

Nappy/ 1969 Northern Calif. Folk Rock Festival

Nappy, my brother didn't go to that festival, his friends went to it. That trip you took in 1969 to that festival, must have been a blast.

Pink Floyd Crackers

This a a 2-cd set of Hollywood Bowl 9/22/72
Dark Side-Disc1
Careful, Echoes, Saucerful, Set The Controls-Disc 2.
I’ll have to track this down, looks good.
Listening to Billy Cobham Live Ayajala ‘78
The Magic Band tour Chicago 3/4/78.
Getting ready to cue up Dave’s 21-Boston Garden 4/2/73…getting ready in advance of ‘74 show, coming soon(I hope).

Music is the Best!!

DSOTM @ The Hollywood Bowl...

I really wanted to go this show but...
1) I was living off the road in between San Luis Obispo & Morro Bay working for the Cal Forestry
2) I was a bit put off by the "commercial success" that allowed the band to play the Bowl (stupid, I know)...I had seen
the previous two tours, Atom Heart Mother & Echoes at the much smaller Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
3) Because of work I had to make a decision of seeing the PF gig or seeing GD do two nights at
the Hollywood Palladium two weeks prior to the PF Bowl gig...a no brainer...

Hey Nappy, PF question for ya

Since you mention seeing them on the AHM and Meddle tours, and thus being quite familiar with Floyd before they hit that mainstream success with DSOTM, I wonder if you recall what your initial impressions of DSOTM were. Gilmour in Classic Albums famously says he wishes he had the experience of being a music fan in 1973 hearing the album for the first time, since they had played most of the album for a year before it came out, then recording and re-recording them, then mixing, he feels he missed out. Especially interested in your take (and anyone else of that awesome era who remembers Floyd pre-DSOTM) on that evolution following Saucerful, AHM, Meddle, and Obscured.

I have a decent collection of Floyd liberated boots from my days downloading from dimeadozen and Trader's Den, etc., pretty sure Hollywood Bowl was in there. I tried to get as many versions of Echoes as I could find. Loved that they brought it back for Wish You Were Here tour, plus Raving and Drooling and You Gotta Be Crazy, the pre-Animals Sheep and Dogs.

Pre - post Dark Side Floyd

I didn't see Pink Floyd until 1975, when they played a large outdoor festival at Knebworth. But I started buying their
albums in 1972. The first one I got was the budget compilation " Relics" followed by "Meddle" and then "Umagumma". I loved these albums at the time, and they sat alongside albums of what has since become known as "space rock" - Hawkwind, Gong, Faust - the amazing Wolf City" by Amon Duul 2.

My brother got Dark Side of the Moon almost as soon as it was available, and.....it was clearly a great album, but it didn't actually have the qualities I liked most about their earlier albums. It seemed like they had gone mainstream, in a way. Before Dark Side, they were very much a "head" band, and were seen, as I remember it, being quite avant- garde. Great spaced out epics like "Saucerful of Secrets" "Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun" and Echoes". With Dark Side they seemed to become more of a straights band, singing about the grimness of modern life.

They were nowhere near as much fun live as Hawkwind in the mid 70's. I can remember seeing Floyd live in 1977, in a huge air hangar - this was shortly after "Animals" had come out. Everybody was squatting awkwardly on the concrete for hours on end, and when the Floyd finally fired up, someone stood up. The bloke squatting next to me angrily shouted at them to sit down-and then turned to me and said "The Floyd deserve to be listened to." This was why punk happened.

Thanks, Dave!

That's sort of what I was thinking would be a fairly typical response to what does seem to be a much more mainstream direction. Which is also why Echoes being the direct antecedent to Dark Side is so interesting, since one is an extremely exploratory song, the other an album of musical and lyrical coherence, but still retains aspects of Echoes. Also, quite funny how a lot of Floyd fans in the decades since are largely fans of DSOTM-The Wall, maybe even Division Bell, and quite a lot seem to passionately hate the more adventurous stuff. But then, maybe not so funny at all, since Deadhead camps exist where the Era Wars are real and ugly.

Love Pink Floyd

My favorite band up until I attended my first Dead show.

Animals is my favorite album but the first CD I ever bought was Saucerful of Secrets in 1987.

Saw the trio in 87 and twice in 94, second night was complete DSOTM for Set2, same setlist as on the Pulse video.
Saw Waters 4 times, 2007,10,12,17.

Hey Oro...

First, an apology for my addled memories...the choice between going to the Hollywood Bowl for PF or the Hollywood Palladium two weeks earlier for the GD was based purely on the fact that I'd rather see GD...DSOTM wasn't even released until 6 months or so after the Bowl gig... touring with unheard music was pretty ballsy...the Mother Heart Atom show was great with a small orchestra and choir accompanying the band...it started with "Astronomy Domine" and it just got crazier then that...during the floating wisps intro to "Careful With That Ax Eugene" a guy sitting in the orchestra pit, stood up with his hands over his ears yelling "STOP"...his friends tried to calm him but it didn't seem to help...Waters walked over to the edge of the stage, kneeled down and talked to the guy who finally calmed down enough to be escorted out by one of his friends to the lobby...crazy....I have a pretty decent for the time bootleg of this show and you can hear a disturbance but it's not clear enough to know what's going on...2nd set was "Atom heart Mother" with the "Interstellar Overdrive" for the encore...we went home very happy....for "Meddle" my memories aren't quite there...I remember "One Of These Days" as played but set lists I've seen don't show it...The ones I've seen only list one set but that can't be right...I do remember that as we waited in line it hailed on us which was pretty funny....earlier in the year I had taken a pretty nasty fall and broke my left arm and I had to be off from work for three weeks before I could go back to light duty...I went home to LA and because of being ther with my arm in a cast I saw The Stones at The Long Beach Arena & Pigpen's last show at The Hollywood Bowl...also at that time was when my picture was taken with Muddy Waters in the lobby of The Ash Grove as we were both there to see Johnny Shines play...'72 was a good year, broken arm and all!

More..

Alvarhanso - in some respects, the era of Pink Floyd leading up to Dark Side seems to have gained currency in recent years. The Early Years 1965-1972 box set is a treasure trove. And those gigs Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets played a few years ago, focussing on those years, were brilliant-to me, anyway. A cover band for sure, but one with credibility and fire power. They opened with Interstellar Overdrive and Astronomy Domine. Top that.

To me, Pink Floyd had three eras. First the Syd Barrett one, swiftly followed by the experimental phase, when Rick Wright was more influential. Rick Wright was also hugely important in developing their sound when Syd was at the helm - a very underrated musician. Then the Dark Side and beyond years, which seemed to be dominated more by Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters.

Nappy - that gig where they played Careful With That Axe Eugene sounds good. They did do a few well known soundtracks for films-but that experimental phase always struck me as something that would have gone well with horror films. Something by Dario Argento, perhaps.

Era wars?

Alvarhanso-sorry to come back so quickly-but that phrase "era wars" always puzzles me a bit. I don't think there is a single band or artist I have liked where I have liked all their work. Most, if not all, of the ones I liked in the early 70's left me a bit cold as the decade progressed. A random sample - The Stones, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Hawkwind - yes, it is everyone! - personnel changed, style, approach, inspiration...they all seemed to follow a similar trajectory-rise, peak, decline. And maybe repeat the pattern. I never saw myself as a long term "fan" of any band, who needed to like everything they did. I have also never felt the slightest animosity to anyone who sees things differently-or who likes a different era of a specific band to me though. I am certainly not at war with anyone!
A lot of bands I have liked for decades - but there is a massive difference in quality - to me anyway- in the music they produced during that time.

Era wars just a joke...

Though it does get ugly around here from time to time, mainly third and fourth Dave's of the year announcements and box sets.

But glad to hear all the excellent tales of Pink Floyd earlier years. I dig that stuff a lot, and love that box set. Would have loved seeing them back then. Though I could totally understand somebody freaking out during Careful With That Axe.

Alvarhanso

Apologies for misreading. Pink Floyd also seemed to be the main band that people in England got into when they started smoking dope in the early 70s. They were so big by 1977, that John Lydon-nee Rotten, in one of his attempts to upset the masses, wore a Pink Floyd tee shirt with "I hate" scrawled on before the bands name. Nick Mason put a replica of this tee shirt on display at the Pink Floyd exhibition in London a few years ago.

And You Saw Hendrix?

So last week Sis tells me she saw a Dead show at Mammoth Gardens 4/24/70. Now she sent info about "another good show she saw", the Denver Pop Festival including 6/29/69 where she saw the final performance of The Jimmy Hendrix Experience. The festival was largely overshadowed by Woodstock two months later but was a Barry Fey three day gig for $15 with great lineups and setlists. Only four years removed from her "generation" but I had no idea Denver's scene was that good back then. Going to have to get some stories from her.
Cheers!
Edit: Listened to the aud. recording she sent with it. Interesting hour or so with the last song missing (Voodoo Child/Slight Return). Not Jimi's best, but he was blazing. Some bad stories about the teargas, etc. there at Mile High. Wasn't long after that a similar incident at a Red Rocks show with Jethro Tull got rock shows banned from that venue for many years. Times were tougher for hippies before I started going to shows, but I guess it happened to us as well when the scene just got too big later.

Era Wars

There are NO WARS!!!!!!
Dona nobis pacem

Dona nobis pacem

Amen to that. Always a worry when people feel the need to be at war with others who have different beliefs or ideas. I wouldn't want to be part of a society where everyone agrees with each other, and tries to shut down debates that question the status quo.

Dave's Pick 41

In the old days, when you paid to have something done, you were rewarded by getting it ON release date! Today was listed as release date! Not only did I NOT receive my new CD, it appears that you haven't even bothered to ship it yet! This total lack of concern for your long term supporters, is soon going to bite you in the A$$!

Baltimore '77

Starting this morning with some of Garcia's finest (LA Baker) and disc 3 of this gem! The band just kicked into Eyes and I must say, today is gonna be a good day!

Rock on, gang

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