Grateful Dead

Strider - soft spot in my heart for the last show of the run on 2/21. i was working in Ootah (pronounciation courtesy of a Zuni colleague) when Jerry died, and when i landed there "for good" next summer i was gifted with a sweet audience of Set II. I love that version of Foolish Heart - a favorite - Jerry's solo is sublime, same glorious energy that i experienced during Foolish Heart in Seattle May '95. and the return of Visions must of been "mind blown" for some (the one on 7/8/95 had me in tears.) Looks to have been a great first set- how can you lose with that Salt Lake City opener?! Broken Arrow and So Many Roads. This show was an excellent choice for the 30 trips box.

looking forward to 2/23/71 later today - that will be a first time listen.

stay safe everyone and enjoy the music. onward!

Started out the day with a lil 2/23/93.. pretty neat.
Ornette Coleman guesting.
I didn't do the whole show, kicked it off with Lazy River Road.
Sounds like Bolo and his Krewe were there :)

Gonna dust off 2/23/71 after this dip into '93 winds down.

Ahhh... what a trip!

Hey Bob t. I do have a digital copy of this bonus disc from a kind soul on this site. The physical copy remains elusive. The release with the bonus disc sells for $300 -400 on the secondary market, way too much for this kid. Love the digital copy and that 46 minute Dark Star is wild.

Deadvikes if you don't have the 12/6/73 Cleveland Bonus disc, try to hunt that down. It was from the Denver shows.... Good call for 6/9/76!!! Bob t

Another great show and I agree OB, it does sound a little more laid back than at least 2/18/71. Wish they didn't drop Easy Wind, always loved it.

How does 6/9/76 Boston Music Hall sound? The last road trips release 4.5.

I just read an interesting write up from Blair Jackson regarding the Road Trips series and why it started. I am guessing many of you know this already, but he stated they started the compilation concept due to very poor sales of the last couple of Dick's Picks and the Dead shows being available on the archive.
They were trying to keep the price low, with two CDs and a bonus disc. They were surprised how much the fans hated this concept and eventually they moved back to full shows.
There is some great music in almost all of these releases and I know I am still busy trying to get my hands on these and all the bonus CDs.

Stay well out there.

Past two days smorgasbord, 2/20/71. Thoroughly enjoyed on its Saturday 50th anniversary of being there. So I added 2/20/95 Salt Lake City, from my last Grateful Dead shows. Yesterday listened to 2/21/71 50th anniversary of being there and followed up with my very last Grateful Dead concert,2/21/95.
Real interesting contrast and pleasantly surprised how good that Salt Lake City run was. Easy Wind from 2/21/71 sounded like somewhere halfway in the middle from bebop and shy of hip hop with Pigpen witty word play.

Interesting that in that book of interviews with Jerry by Charles Reich, "A Signpost To New Space", Jerry indicates that he doesn't recognise psychedelic music as being a category in it own right. He quotes Phil, on page 83, as saying " Acid rock is music you listen to when you are high on acid". In which case, 1971 would be just as psychedelic as 1969 if you had taken some before listening.
Personally, not having tripped for decades, I would say that certain records - like "Anthem of the Sun" reactivate sensations for me, while others - like "Skull and Roses", don't. In terms of years, 1968 does it and 1971 doesn't. Still good, though.

....life sometimes gets in the way.
Happy Birthday to Vince. 🍻

2/21
Overall, Relaxed, but in a good way..

The question with these 71 shows for some of us less initiated is; why? Why no more jams, short country or country like songs, etc....why did they stop doing what the proverbial “I” liked (think early 69).
Why, because it’s actually what they need and wanted to do! Lesson here perhaps is to not compare too much between different “dead’s”, but consider what dead THEY were at or after, at that time? The tunes, the length, the tone and style, the AUTHENTICITY they seemed to continually be after with most different styles, sometimes completely so.
So the trap is to not compare styles, or apples to oranges, but rather concentrating on how well they assimulated and perfected the style du jour! Of course it all ended up gumbo style, flavoring the whole.
What ever their current focus, identity or style, without being over the top, they would throw themselves totally into, while always maintaining just a bit of the “old” former styles, until it was time to go furthur, and try something else. That trying to avoid the whole closed in thing JG speaks of...think how much they, especially JG, would delve/deep dive into some of these styles;
Blues
Psychedelic
Folk, Americana
Jazz, free form, just to name a few...and now shoot em up, straight ahead Bakersfield country bar rock. Yee haw pass me a longneck and let’s get rocking!

Cold Rain &Snow opener, followed by a Bobby McGee; tight, but JG hits a few clams, though he has nice feel.
Loser: well played, already not like a new song, except JG solo, still searching for the sound there...
Easy Wind: prime grease, and though he flubs, he actually recovers nicely and improvs outta it. Nice solid, relaxed jam, no ones in a hurry, JGs on now, nothing stratospheric, just G.O. 71 GD!
Playing in the Band: progressing, Phil better every version? See now why they didn’t use any of these shows for Skull Fuck; probably wanted some of the new material on the live album but most of these just weren’t there yet compared to the versions they did use from April...
Luckily we get the multi-track snapshots of this historic little run anyways...Sure we’ll get more... : )
Bertha: progressing nicely. more of the nice relaxed energy versus forced. ....and then....damn tuning.
Eventually, the advent of tuners was a blessed event for them as well as us!
But in the mean time, ahem.
Nice if perhaps apprehensive electric version of Ripple with nice harmonies, including Phil, whom I haven’t noticed so much this run? You can feel the confidence build with the music and with the energy of the crowd.
Lied Cheated: : after perhaps stepping outta their comfort zone a tad, it’s back with some solid straight up, bacon, no chaser! Again that relaxed, confident, comfortable, we own this shit and thus are in no hurry vibe.
Same with another nice countrified Sugar Mag.
Greatest Story: still not fully entraining on this one. Not bad for a new tune though, but another example of the infancy of some of these tunes..
Interestingly, it seems like Garcia’s songs are a bit tighter and more formulated with the band then Bobs new songs...
Nice one 2 punch with rocking JBG to close the set. Rocking, but still that nice in control, what I’ve been calling relaxed vibe, not the frantic, slightly unsteadiness sometimes found

China Cat/Rider: Phun Phil messing with the intro! before they slid into by now an old regular, Really feeling like this version of the band is better served by one drummer. Just as I believe the psychedelic stuff was better with 2 drummers. Nice solid, familiar versions of these including nice Phil harmonies.
Bird Song: smooth and getting smoother by the version.Blows me away that this is only the fourth version!
And it’s got a Cumberland, a second set Cumberland!, though that wasn’t really a thing back then, but boy it’s just right for typing! More settled in/relaxed vibe.PROPER!
King Bee: please pass the napkins cuss there’s a grease hog buzzin’ around my brain! And just like that they tap back into the blues band of yore. And the folk band with, BIODTL by request? is another by now fun, old chestnut. It’s like they’ve done the heavy lifting by this point on a “Sunday” and are just having fun cruising now on some familiar, so easier terrain toward their day off?
RAT; well, maybe not just yet..though by this point it doesn’t sound new. Besides Bob being a little outta tune, it’s pretty damn tight! Another that blows me away knowing this is only the fourth version. Diggin the stand alone versions too.
Trucking: amusingly starts a little slow but they quickly bring up to the M.O. that is this evenings nice relaxed, smooth vibe. A band comfortable with who they are and where there going.
Cool to think several of these Working Mans/AB tunes aren’t really all that old on this night, but already sound like tight old classics.
HA! New York’s got the ways and means, but just won’t let you be, makes me think of ole Strider able to have the means to just hop on the subway, and no big deal head down to the Capitol, but almost gets jumped in the alley!
More of the nice “status quo” of many of the above, on Casey J., and of course got ta keep on moving on up and pushing’ on. Pig Fest!
Like y’all have had your drinks, appts.,soups and salads, but now it’s time for the main corse..the greasy BBQ simmered to fine perfection by this point in time! (I can see BTK drooling out there ; ) ready for some Cherry pie now!
And then, like a 80s brokedown to close a run on a Sunday, a nice UJB, unfortunately marred by the damn tuning issues. It must of been really frustrating to be so hampered, but such was life back then. Guess that’s downside of not hiding behind a wall of distortion like many other guitarist of the time.
When I first heard this show when released last year, I hadn’t heard any of these shows except the 19th. But now that we’re going in order, it fits in just right in the overall flow. Nice Sunday, relaxed, confident, feeling of achievement? Like we did what we had to do, now we get a day off, then 1,2, end of the run and onward.
I’d have a tough time picking wether I liked this one better than the 18th, but I liked it more than the 20, but not as much as the 19th? So far...
Like the band, I’m ready for a day off. Might not listen to any dead at all tomorrow to keep my reference inside this run, but allow a cleanse elsewhere...
But really looking forward to the last 2 on Tuesday and Wednesday as I’ve never heard either.
Until then amigos!

2 20 is ok, not stratospheric

2 23 71 is stratospheric