In September, 1978, musical worlds collided when renowned Egyptian oud player Hamza El Din, along with the Nubian Youth Choir, joined the Grateful Dead onstage during all three concerts they performed at the foot of the Pyramids of Egypt. The collaboration resulted in the hypnotic, polyrhythmic tune “Ollin Arageed,” written by Hamza himself. It was a true meeting of two completely divergent, yet totally complementary, musical styles. After the Egypt concerts, the Dead returned to America as triumphant, world-travelling heroes, and at the final two of their five night return engagement at Winterland, Hamza joined the band onstage to introduce the song to the American masses. Over the next seven years, Hamza would perform “Ollin Arageed” with the Grateful Dead live four more times, with the final collaboration in March, 1985.
Fast forward to 2004. We were searching through the vault for bonus material to feature on the reissue of “Shakedown Street” to be included in the Beyond Description boxed set, when we came across a studio session reel with a remarkable item at the end of it. It was a rehearsal recorded on August 11, 1978 at the Grateful Dead's Front Street studio, featuring Hamza on oud, Mickey Hart on the tar, and Jerry Garcia on acoustic guitar. They were working out the arrangement for Ollin Arageed. In addition to a good, short version of the tune, they also proceeded to play an interesting, Middle Eastern-inspired song. And now, for the first time, those recordings are available to Dead Heads. It is truly our pleasure to be able to share these two studio rehearsal tracks with you in celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the “From Egypt With Love” concerts.
Display on homepage featured list
Off
Feature type
dead comment
keep em commin
this is what it is all about thanks very much.loaves and fishes,dont give up dont ever give up!
Thank whoever did this!!
A big thank you to whoever found this and made it available to us!!! You made my day!!!
suggestion
For those of us who bought the Egypt cds/dvd, should be given links to download these. I gave up listening to streaming audio long ago; it is not worth the time sitting at a computer. Greg SC
what an unexpected treat.
what an unexpected treat. like if you came downstairs one morning and there's FRESH HOT FREAKIN' KRISPy KREMES!!!!
Crosby & Nash
I caught the Crosby & Nash concert at Westbury Music Fair In LI last week, and highly recommend it if they are in your town.Peace.
Download
Thank you for these tracks. I was very excited to find these in my email today. I thought they were a download. I agree with Greg SC that they should have been a download for those who ordered the Egypt package, like with road trips vol. 1 and the free Jack a Roe. .
Thank You David!
Thanks David for posting these rare tracks! Listening to Hamza with Jerry gives me goosebumps! What a treat! Happy Halloween and don't forget to vote!
How Wonderfull
These are the kind of things we are all waiting for! Are there any more out there?
Please keep diggin!
Brian from Austin
Listening pressure
As I tell the computor to politely play these gemsI wonder what the Socialites of gone days gone by would think
Then it hits me, like the slap of hot kiss from a flying fist
Belligerent no accounts can't hear me!
Thanx to all for all
The desert stars are bright tonight,
What fatal flowers ofdarkness spring from
seeds of light
AWESOME!!!!!! Great find.
AWESOME!!!!!! Great find. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Ollin Arageed
Thanks for the music!
By the way, were there any other massive Americans at Red Rocks on August 31st, 1978 when the camels strolled through?
Greg
This is SO cool...
I'd never heard this stuff...EXCELLENT!!! Wish there were hours more...
Peace lovae and Sarvastivardins upon th eIndra's Jeweled Net.
one loveone life
one interconnected dream
rare tracks
Thanks to all who keep their lamps trimmed and burnin' so we can continue to enjoy what the Dead have left for us!!
I like, but would have been nice...
I wish they would have included this rare beauty on the Egypt release, would have made it alot less disappointing, thanks for posting it.
Great but...
Great stuff but it is really hard to carry my computer around with me so I can get into a great space and really enjoy.
"So, we thought we would commemorate the anniversary of the "From Egypt with Love" shows by sharing these rare and unreleased tracks with you, gratis."
Just seems like a little false advertising to me.
Get Real!
I must be missing something. This here is something that was found in the vault and made available for listening for FREE....And yet some of you still feel the need to complain!!!!
Where is all this entitlement coming from? These tracks probably were not usable for a release because of whatever reasons,( Length, legality, quality, room on Cd.. etc) So in an effort to get the music out there, or get the music to the MOST AMOUNT OF PEOPLE POSSIBLE WITHOUT CHARGE, the powers that be offer these tracks here. How the fuck can folks complain?
You know what? Sunsets are beautiful too. I still have to go some place to watch them. They can't all be in the comfort of my living room. I usually have to put in a litttle effort to see good ones. Sometimes there's clouds and you can't see even them. We're lucky to have sunsets at all. Enjoy the ones you can see.
Seeing these complaints make me angry. The tunes could never have seen the light of day. Take them for what they are...a few nice nuggets of music. You can't buy or own everything. Quit your bitching!
Thanks again for the music!
Free Music
I honestly think that no money should be charged for Dead music at this stage, especially digital music, apart from the covering of costs, which may be covered by advertising etc. This is from someone who has spent lots of money over 30 years on Dead output. Instead of a memory all I see left is crass commercialism.
Dermot
Should Paul, Ringo, Yoko and the Harrison Estate give away Beatles music for free, too? And how about Bob Dylan? And how much of your property should you be required to give away for free?
I think the Dead have been more than generous with us all along. While it may be easy to lose sight of the fact that they have an inherent right to their intellectual property because they have been so generous, I don't think that posture rises to a permanent waiver of their rights.
Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.
Rehearsal Tracks
Thanks for the special treat, it's always a surprise when such rare tracks are found and shared for all to enjoy, Thanks again and keep these rare tracks coming!
Hamza El-Din rehersal tracks for Egypt gig
It's great to hear these little gems of music shining brightly through the years!For those of you who wished that the second track never ended, you should check-out "Water Wheel" by Hamza El-Din on the Nonsuch label. I've got it on vynil - I don'y know if it's available on CD. A further record of his is "Eclipse" on the Pacific Arts label. I think this is available on CD. This one has Olin Agareed on it. There is quite a bit of Hamza on YouTube as well.
He opened for the Dead on nights one and three, and played in the middle of the show on night two as I recall. At one point he was singing and playing the oud to a setting of his of one of the prayer-hymns from the Egyptian Book of the Dead (The Book of the Coming Forth by Day). Fantastic
If all his sets were recorded, along with his and Micky's (and then one by one the rest of the Dead) oOin Agareed's, I would certainly buy the whole shebang!
Keep on keeping on
Jackadiamonds
Streamed up and pissed
"Don't you push me, baby, 'cause I'm moanin' low."
Once again I'm hosed. I'm one of those pesky rural Deadheads who CANNOT get high speed Internet, so, consequently, can't listen to streaming anything, let alone these tracks which I really wanted to hear, having just purchased the album/CD/DVD or whatever the fuck we're calling the music these days. How about cutting us a huss and making it available for download? I can't see why anyone would be upset about that, being that you're not issuing the music anyway, right? Thanks for the present I can't open..........ever. Skypilot Gordy
The Water Wheel
Jackadiamonds beat me to it. The second track is indeed the title track from Hamza El-Din's CD "The Water Wheel," where it is performed solo by Hamza on oud. It is available on CD on the Nonesuch label as part of their "Explorer Series." The CD # is 79702-2. If you like Hamza's stuff, this CD is a must-have.
Sean K.
78 at Red Rocks
I was going to go, but had to work at Storage Tech. You remember - Greg? There were three shows.
12 30 1978
i have the second set to this show with hamza el din incredible and listen to it often was at pauley pavilion ucla.
Band