Grateful Dead

Mornin’, rockers!!!

Pick Of The Day: Academy Of Music March 26 1972

Yes, I know this was briefly discussed recently, but I compose these things well in advance, so here we are……

Back in the day, in the crazy daze of tape trading, there were no commonly circulating soundboards of this run yet. It was rumored that they weren’t recorded, there was a flood in the vault, perhaps the building had been struck by lightning. Our audience recordings---much like the Port Chester 71 run----varied from borderline listenable to truly wretched. We dreamed of better quality………

Well, apparently, maybe they had been there after all, well guarded, well protected, top secret material. The official releases started in 2003----can you believe it’s been nearly twenty years already?---and were a revelation. While perhaps not up to the creamy scorching brilliance of the E72 tour, the entire AOM run is excellent in it’s own way, looser perhaps, but all worthy!

I always wondered what exactly was the AOM run? Open, paid rehearsals? A tune-up for the European tour? A week long musical party to pay for their fun across the pond?

The March 26 show was released in 2015, and while appearing “standard on paper” does have a good mix of grease, jamming, and rock and roll. What more could one expect of the Dead at that time? Absolutely worthy of a revisit!!

The past is the beginning of the beginning and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn……

Rock on!

Doc
Nothing leads so straight to futility as literary ambitions without systematic knowledge……

Thoughts Part I - Not sure if i ever listened to Set I, but Set II caught my attention many years ago. In part because of the obvious set list weirdness (thumbing through Deadbase) and as part of that set list weirdness the first Jack-a-Roe after the initial handful in Spring '77 (previous 6/7/77) (Jack-a-Roe can be my Cumberland) - its the only one in '78, before being brought back in rotation final month and a half of Godchaux era from 1/7 to 2/17/79. So, as Oro mentions, the word from Healy to a head was that Bob was "sick as a dog" (see IA), so not on stage beginning Set II but, trooper that he is, does make it back. Sounds like Jerry was going to open set with Shakedown but given circumstances slowly leans into what could easily be a jam out of Playing. Pretty freaking cool.

[Edit] - Thoughts Part 2 - What a unique and amazing Set II. Total "Wow". As Inspector Clue notes, despite an eyewitness account, Bobby is back on stage for Jack-a-Roe and rest of set. The intro and outro to World to Give are otherworldly haunting and gorgeous. In that way they remind me of the atmosphere of Days Between. I think Jerry struggles on some high end vocals, maybe that's why the song didn't last. On the outro Bob's not so much playing slide but making whale calls and it sounds fantastic and beautiful. Tough to have the board cut during the Playing reprise because that Reprise is a beauty but being in the audience from there on out its clear that its a big old party and the Around and Around is a full on swinging-from-the chandeliers closer. Maybe, just maybe, the end of Set II was in fact recorded at the board, we can only hope. Would love to have Set II released.

Many people discovered Chuck Berry through listening to The Dead. The Stones served the same function in England.

Wanted to hear that third IIHTWTG so I went to the Bertrando/Sacks that starts at the post-Supplication Jam which without it's connection was fairly hard to guess but it sounds like Jerry was just noodling and trying to get to Playin' already. Then Drums into more pre-Playin' then shuffles right into a good Jack-a-roe. Playin' starts for real and abruptly shifts to a bouncy and funky Shakedown and has the crowd clapping along in time. Slow shift to the IIHTWTG with an almost silent (confused or maybe just respectful?) crowd. Fairly different from the debut which was as-written-clean (was this ever on a studio album?) including Bob adding some slide that turns into whale song (Jim, the gift that keeps on giving, lol) while Jerry fans the ending. Tough song to sing with lots of chord changes. Maybe that's why it was dropped? Then Playin' reprise with Bob trying to go elsewhere, but settles nicely before the slam into Around & A.
Glad I got to hear this and thanks to Oro. Will try that 11-21-78 on your recommendation.
Cheers
Edit: Duh, of course! IIHTWTG was on the Shakedown album. There's a ut-oob of the Cleveland IIHTWTG with good sound but no video. Lots of interesting comments there. Lots of love for this song. One guy suggests this was a tough one to sing as it stretched Jerry's vocal range a bit. Same guy has a great detailed logical argument for why they dropped Cosmic Charlie, well reasoned. Another poster said this was their wedding song - cool! Another said it was a dedication from her hubby who has passed on. And a strange number of people said they liked/loved Bob's slide on this. No accounting for taste I guess. Oh and one said Bob had issues at start of second set which may explain some of that weirdness with the "Jams". (as Oro has already documented in his review a few posts back)
Doc, you know what happens when the going gets weird. If not see Hunter Thompson.

Miller 95660, it’s an SB, but it has flaws and several patches. I didn’t mess with the others…
11/21/78: went with Carpenter SB, recording overall better than 11/20, still has some patches.
11/21 is a hot show! Only hiccup I recall is Black Pete…hell did they ever play bad in Ra cha cha?
78 nuts will want to hear 11/21 and at least the Playin Sandwich from 11/20!

December 73. What a month!
Not sure about 1985 1st show. With no net, Deadbase etc, all we were focused on was trying to get to as many shows as practical, and hopefully later getting tapes of those shows. Never dreamed of the riches that have been mined since!
Years later when I did start to consider these things, besides shows we were at it was all about those magic last ten shows of 73, featuring just the guys.

3/24/71: I like 1971, but sorry, just did like 96% of 71 last year so not ready for rehash yet. I will say I really enjoyed this show though.
That JBG off of Skullfuck was the lightning bolt that changed me from interested, to whoa, I have got to see these guys!
It was April 78 and I was at my buddies. We listened to Skullfuck a lot sans not much else live Dead to listen to. Live Dead was still probably too weird for us to fully engage. Steal Your Money was cool, but it was all about S&R.
Being a Hendrix freak in HS, I was really into JBG, and I’d heard this version many times, but for whatever reason something happened that day and JBG just blew me away. I made him replay it over and over and from then on the scaled tipped and I started becoming more into the Dead then the other stuff.
The final straw was finally getting to see them in January. The rest as they say is history.

I wasn't able to find a good source for this show. What source did you listen to guys?

December 73. Another fine month Jim.

3/18/71 is a good show - least the first cd moves nicely through it's changes, and the song list and jams to come look promising.

Hey hey hey rockers!!

Pick Of The Day: Winterland March 24 1971 (Benefit for the Sufi Choir Of San Francisco)

Code Seminole, check 3 check 3 check 1, Red Dog over……………

The yang to the yin of March 3. The band may have started the month off low, but they ended high. Yes they may have forgotten an organ, but this fine and underrated show is much crunchier and more expansive than what came three weeks previously.

The Skull Album Johnny B Goode, so early in the first set. Top notch grease, especially the crispy Hard To Handle. A big jam sequence in the first set highlighted by an excellent Other One. How and why did they end the set with such a hard rockin’ Beat It On Down The line? Solid NFA suite to close set two, followed by a nice Uncle John’s Band encore.

I know not everybody digs 1971 shows, but this one is worth a listen, and would make a nice official release some day……..

Is it weird in here, or is it just me?

Rock on!

Doc
Where's your will to be weird?

Perhaps the hardest part was convincing Phil some of this stuff is too good to fret over sound imperfections.

I have to imagine giving Latvala reign of the vault was akin to giving a kid the key to the candy store. We have Dick to thank for most of what's out there that was not officially released (more important 30 years ago than today), but sometimes I wonder what things would be like if he wasn't as generous a head as he was. We would be enslaved, waiting for the next release. ...but imagine the elation of the great surprises that await....

Anyway.. super busy which puts me in lurking mode, I check in when I can. Sorry for that. My extra credit has been a bit of Dec 73. Such a long, long time to be gone and a short time to be there.

Big rain event here now.. a hard rain's gonna fall.

To 1985 - Dick Latvala starts work as the GD archivist.
It must have been an overwhelming task.
The new music format called compact disc is here.
He has his list started, likely from memory and his own tape collection.
What would we tell him is THE most important, or best, way to start the releases?
Assume it's all there in the vault and good enough to release, just to make it easier.
I'm ready back then as my wife just bought us our first CD player. Quite expensive and so are the CDs. $17.99 for a single when LPs are still under $10.00. I'm still a GD novitiate and have no clue having only attended seven shows ('78-'80).
Cheers
Oh, and is there a list (Dave L.?) of Dick's potentials that have not been released? Or is that now part of the Dave's list that Oro cites from time to time?
(Oro - I vote for the live GO since it's the one I know)

Edit: Only three of those If I Had The World To Give. First is the Aug. 30-31,1978 that I keep asking for. I'll check that out Oro. Was the Standing On The Moon of it's era.