Grateful Dead

April continues to roll on strongly in the history of the Grateful Dead's recordings. We have a great variety of music this week, spanning 20 years, 1969 to 1989.

In April, 1969, the band embarked on a post-Fillmore West 1969 tour of the Midwest and eastern states, one of the consistently great tours in Grateful Dead history. A couple of official releases have been drawn from this tour, specifically Dick's Picks Vol. 26 from 4/26 and 27/69 and Download Series Vol. 12, from 4/17/69. There was plenty of other good music played on the tour, though, including this jam of That's It For The Other One>Sitting On Top Of The World>I'm A King Bee from 4/18/69 in Lafayette, IN, and this beautiful Dupree's Diamond Blues>Mountains Of The Moon from 4/22/69 in Boston.

Jumping ahead to 1972, we take you to Denmark, to one of only two shows the band ever played in that country, on 4/16/72. This is a typical Europe '72 second set jam, which is to say long, inspired and very interesting, consisting of Truckin'>Jam>Me and My Uncle>The Other One.

As we're always interested in bringing you unique song combinations, from 4/22/77 in Philadelphia is this Dancing In The Street>Got My Mojo Workin'>Dancing In The Street. This show, of course, is the first night of the five week tour that would run through 5/28/77, and would include 4/30/77, 5/5/77, 5/7/77, 5/8/77, 5/9/77, 5/19/77, 5/21/77, 5/22/77, and a whole lot of other tremendous concerts. Without a doubt one of the best, and most-loved, tours in the Grateful Dead's history, immortalized on Dick's Picks Vol. 3, Dick's Picks Vol. 29 and Download Series Vol. 1.

In 1978, the band would continue its April tour with shows in Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Lexington, and from those shows we have some great segments. The Pittsburgh show on 4/18/78 featured this tight Lazy Lightning>Supplication (MP3 13.58MB), as well as another unique sequence, Scarlet Begonias>Dancing In The Street. And from Columbus on 4/19/78, a couple of first-set highlights included this Bertha>Good Lovin' opener and this mid-set Passenger. From 4/21/78 in Lexington, KY, we are pleased to present this first-set closing jam of It's All Over Now, Brown-Eyed Women, The Music Never Stopped, all of which are played exceptionally well.

In 1979, Brent's first show is the well-known 4/22/79 show at San Jose's Spartan Stadium. The previous day, 4/21/79, however, the band would perform a short soundcheck, which could be considered Brent's first ever “live” performances with the band, and which included this segment of Shakedown Street>Jam, with the Jam hinting at some very interesting themes. Brent sure did fit in from the start.

And speaking of the Brent-era, we have this excellent second-set opener of Sugaree>Samson and Delilah from 4/19/83 in Orono, ME, drawn from the Beta PCM digital masters. Although not quite as long as the Sugaree from later in the year in Lake Placid, this version does clock in at a bit over 17 minutes. And from a year later, the first set of the 4/16/84 show in Rochester, NY, closed with a nice Jerry twofer, West L.A. Fadeaway>Might As Well, and from another cool place, Niagara Falls, NY, we have this outstanding pre-Drums segment of Take A Step Back>Help On the Way>Slipknot!>Franklin's Tower>Women Are Smarter>Eyes Of The World. Both of these segments were drawn from the cassette masters. And jumping ahead another two years, from the Berkeley Community Theatre shows, we have a couple of very unique segments, specifically from 4/18/86, My Baby Left Me>That's Alright Mama and from the show-opener on 4/22/86, Box Of Rain>Visions Of Johanna, with the former being the Bay Area return of Phil's masterpiece, and the latter being the final version until its resurrection in 1995.

Lastly this week, we have a nice Scarlet Begonias>Fire On The Mountain from 4/16/89 in Milwaukee, drawn from the VHS PCM digital master.

Be sure to check in next week, when we'll have some cool music from the vault for you to hear. And, as always, feel free to write with any questions, comments, suggestions or requests.

David Lemieux
vault [at] dead.net