Welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll cover a 17 year span of Grateful Dead music, 1972 to 1989, with music recorded in Northern California, Southern California and Rochester, NY.
We'll begin our trip with music recorded during a three night run at Winterland on 12/11/72, featuring Big River, Deal, Tomorrow is Forever, Sugar Magnolia, Casey Jones. These shows were originally scheduled to be a double bill with the Allman Bros. Band, but the November death of bass player and founding member Berry Oakley necessitated the Allmans cancelling their appearances. Of course, the ABB would return to action in 1973, playing a couple of major dates with the Dead in June and July, 1973.
Heading east for a show on 9/27/76 in Rochester, NY, we have the start of the show, featuring Promised Land, They Love Each Other, El Paso, Deal, Looks Like Rain. As we've mentioned before, this tour was not recorded by Betty, and was instead recorded by Dan Healy. The big difference is that Betty's recordings were mixed specifically for tape, for the listening experience after the show. The Healy recordings were the PA mix, i.e. the same sound that was heard in the hall, recorded directly from the soundboard feed. Nonetheless, the Healy recordings sound great, a credit to the excellence of his live mixes.
In 1989, the Grateful Dead performed six times at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, CA, in the Los Angeles area. In December, the final three shows were played, with 12/10/89 being the final Grateful Dead show at the Forum, site of a major Grateful Dead show in 1977 (a rare 1977 show for which there is no board tape). From 12/10/89, we have the final segment of music that the Grateful Dead ever performed at the Forum, The Wheel>I Need A Miracle>Stella Blue>Good Lovin'; It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.
Be sure to join us here next week for more tunes from the vault. As always, we encourage you to write to us at the email address below.
David Lemieux
vault@dead.net