The Deadcast returns to the Fillmore East and digs into the unusual story behind the Dead’s 1st archival live album, History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear’s Choice), produced by former LSD alchemist Owsley Stanley & released as a tribute to Pigpen just after his death.
Bear’s Choice 50 supplementary notes
by Jesse Jarnow
It was no secret that the Fillmore East was one of the Grateful Dead’s favorite places to perform, where they recorded the bulk of their 1971 live album, Skull and Roses. We talked about the venue extensively during two episodes of our third season, and return in our newest to discuss History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear’s Choice), the Dead’s very first official archival album, released as a tribute to Pigpen just after his death in 1973.
Armed with the Fillmore East’s original blueprints, a music named Keith Mueller has used architectural modeling software to create a virtual walk-through of the venue with overlaid historical photos. The February 1970 shows at the Fillmore East were the Dead’s first real meeting with the Allman Brothers Band and the beginning of a deep musical friendship. The Owsley Stanley Foundation released all of Bear’s surviving tapes of the Allmans’ sets.
Thanks to our magic friend David Gans, we are able to feature audio of the late Owsley Stanley himself, the full transcript of which can be read in David’s wonderful book Conversations With the Dead. We featured some bits of bear during our Bear Drops: LA ‘66 episode from 2021, which goes along with our initial Bear Drops: What’s With the Bear(s)? from 2020.
As the Dead’s first archival album, it was the first chance for the band to showcase their acoustic repertoire, drawn from traditional and popular wellsprings, and the mysterious aquifer beneath. Several Mudcat threads delve into the songs origins, including “Been All Around this World” and “Dark Hollow.”
For reasons that are still unclear, there is black-and-white Portapak video of several performances from the Dead’s February 14th, 1970 show, including “Dark Star,” as well as two songs featured on Bear’s Choice – the Garcia/Weir duo of “Been All Around This World” and Pigpen singing “Hard To Handle.”
“Hard To Handle”
“Been All Around This World”
Comment
again, thanks
Please keep up this awesomely cool body of work. The level of obsessive detail, fascinating digressions, interludes, rabbit holes, humor and good cheer, etc., is right up my street.
bear's choice night at the fillmore east 02-1970
my friend tom and i were there, that night. the experience was amazing. that was the first time i heard "hard to handle", but all the music was great.
many years later, i realized that the version i had listened to so many times on "bear's choice" was from that concert. i found bear's email address on his website and told him how glad i was, and how much i appreciated his work. he responded, and we had a brief conversation online.
my friend tom and i were there, that night. the experience was amazing. that was the first time i heard "hard to handle", but all the music was great.
many years later, i realized that the version i had listened to so many times on "bear's choice" was from that concert. i found bear's email address on his website and told him how glad i was, and how much i appreciated his work. he responded, and we had a brief conversation online.
Please keep up this awesomely cool body of work. The level of obsessive detail, fascinating digressions, interludes, rabbit holes, humor and good cheer, etc., is right up my street.