Grateful Dead

Since we've all been in deep Egypt Mode the last couple of months preparing the new Rhino release Rocking the Cradle: Grateful Dead, Egypt '78 (which you can learn more about and order here), we thought it would be cool for the new Road Trips (that's Vol. 1, No. 4 for those of you keeping score at home) to be a companion to that release, compiled from the band's famous October 1978 "From Egypt With Love" shows at Winterland in San Francisco, just a month after their return from the desert.

Here's the deal: The group was feeling totally jazzed when they got back from Egypt, and Bill Graham, who had been on the trip abroad as a spectator, rather than as promoter, wanted to give the band's hometown fans a taste of the Egypt experience by hosting a series of five shows at Winterland that would include a slide show depicting the group's amazing adventures in Cairo and beyond. As it turned out, the Dead Heads got more than that, too: At two of the concerts, their good friend Hamza El Din (a Nubian musician living in the Bay Area) reprised the Egyptian song he'd sung at the Sound & Light Theater in Gizah—called "Ollin Arageed"—which had been a jumping–off point for some fascinating cross-cultural explorations between the Dead and a host of native singers and percussionists. It proved to be magical at Winterland, too, as the crowd joined in clapping the song's unusual and hypnotic beat. War's exceptional harmonica player, Lee Oskar, dropped by the last two nights of the run, and the final concert brought a surprise appearance by ex-Quicksilver guitarist John Cipollina.

This new Road Trips was culled from the the last two concerts of the series, October 21 and 22, 1978. There's plenty to dig here, including a really dynamic extended take on the aforementioned "Ollin Arageed" which eventually lands at "Deal" (of all songs!); a stunning sequence featuring "Got My Mojo Working">"The Other One">"Stella Blue"; a generous and free-flowing "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain"; and a "Not Fade Away" > "Goin' Down the Road" combo that's sparked by the presence of Mr. Cipollina and his vampire bat Gibson SG, and which goes into some very interesting jamming spaces between songs.

To order Road Trips Vol. 1, No. 4 click here.