One of the shortest-lived iterations of the Grateful Dead was the band that existed December 1971 through March 1972. Jerry, Bob, Phil, Bill, Pigpen, and Keith formed a formidable version of the Dead that only played a few shows together before Donna Jean joined as vocalist, and before Pigpen would depart the stage for good in June 1972. What this sextet lacked in quantity of shows it made up for with creativeness, power, and inspiration.
When Pigpen rejoined the Dead on December 1, 1971, after a few months off during which Keith had joined as piano player, the band was now an unstoppably powerful live juggernaut it hadn’t been since the height of the Primal Dead era in late 1968-1969. Widely considered one of the best shows from the Pigpen-Keith era of the Grateful Dead, December 10, 1971 in St. Louis has it all: Pigpen singing lead on four songs including an 18-minute version of Good Lovin’ and a very rare performance of Run Rudolph Run; a deep dive into the Dead’s psychedelic recent past with a monster version of The Other One; plus plenty of the new material from earlier in 1971 like Bertha, Loser, Sugaree, and Playing In The Band.
They also hit upon much of the music that would appear the following year on Europe ‘72, such as Jack Straw, Tennessee Jed, Mr. Charlie, and One More Saturday Night. And no Dead show of this vintage would be complete without the “hits”: Truckin’, Sugar Magnolia, and Casey Jones all make appearances. This is truly one of the deepest, most dynamic, exciting, and accessible live shows in the entire Grateful Dead canon.
Great Enjoyable Show...Good Song Selection...
I Personally got on the Bus a bit ''Late''...1973 was when I first saw them, Thou I got Turned on to them with ''Live Dead''...(AKA Skull Fuck),..These are the Songs that were Played quite a bit back then , Glad for this Release..The Sound is Crisp. Clear and Ya' Gotta Love the Pig Pen Tunes...This one was a Long Time Coming...MUCHÍSIMAS GRACIAS
A 12/10/71 "Comparison"
I got around to listening to the new officially released Fox Theatre, St Louis, MO 12/10/71
I bought thru Amazon.
I already had an unofficial version which I used to enjoy until today, from the
"Grateful Dead '71 Dead" big yellow box of 21 discs sourced from FM radio broadcasts.
There is no comparison!
The new official release blows the unofficial recording out of the water! Simple as that.
However, I do like that extra track between Good Lovin' & Brokedown Palace, "Talking / Tuning" Haha!
A grateful thanks to all at Rhino who made it happen!
Where's Pigpen?
Just playing the St Louis show for the first time. Absolutely splendid in all respects, but I can hear Pigpen's organ is there on some of the tracks but really way down in the mix. Was this how it was on the original broadcast recording? His playing is much more to the fore in the Capitol Theater shows that come with the anniversary editions of Workingman's and American Beauty and it seems pretty damn good to me. He is also more prominent in the mix on Europe '72.
Any reason why we can hardly hear him here?
Lives up to expectations
Monster bass. Sorry-wrong page !I'm on Light Into Ashes, so I'll stop there.