At least it's a start . . . .

And it's not a BAD concert . . . .

BTW--is there a link for this?

Sorry I forgot that. I'll give a few.

Spincds brief blurb

rec.music.gdead

Steve Hoffman forum link

I already have the show. For a NYE show pretty good (and GRRREAT if you were there I'm sure), but I don't see myself buying this one. Bring on da Winterland '73 box boys! (Gawd I hope that wasn't some intern's web-pretend project.)

12-31-76 looks a good release, easily programmed to include (for starters) about 85+ minutes of Bertha, They Love Each Other, Playing in the Band, Wharf Rat, Scarlet Bs, Help-Slip, and the Dew. We all gotta buy it, to keep 'em coming. '76 releases can pretty much only surprise on the upside. Check out the feedback on the Oakland shows from October. Regarding '76, I offer this snotty opinion: Reflections may be the only studio record after Mars Hotel that I would recommend. I love it, among our all-time favorite getaway tapes to play in the car driving long hours after a screaming show.

Some nice covers for those few Pigpen fans. . . .

http://www.wulfware.de/covers/Index3/GD690613.htm

http://www.wulfware.de/covers/Index3/GD690614.htm

Nice shows too. 6/13 Fresno has some electric piano from Pig! 6/14 is like a triple decker Turn on your Love Light sammich!

What PigPen fans? This is a Vince board. Go on home, your mama's calling you.

Snotty opinion seconded. "Mission in the Rain"?

Okay Mom, I'm coming. I was just hanging out with the Welnick boys. You know they never get into trouble. . . .

I like it. I like "Cats Under the Stars" a LOT too.

Reuben and Cherise!!!!

Yes, and one of my favorite seventies Garcia tunes, "Gomorrah." You can take the Bible out of the Belt, but you can't take memories of the Bible belt out of this boy. . . .

Palm Sunday

Oh yes. . . so beautiful. . . and I don't just mean Donna!

Apparently Jerry just put so much into that album and I think was mystified it got so little talk and play. I doubt he ever put as much into an album again!

Yes. he felt that it was the best thing he had done as a solo artist. Certainly better than Run for the Money--I mean Roses.

It brings out the sweet side of Jerry. 1978--probably keith's last studio stand as well.

This thread has been dormant too long!

I've been listening to a lot of Pigpen-fronted material lately as I go through 1969 (and also compilation cdrs from Orchid Doctor Records)

This is just the medicine for me. I realy love the material and how the band prodded and poked and just boogied along with it. I'm hoping for more official material of this nature!

Which 69 shows have especially grabbed you, Lon?

Alright here's a short list. . . .

January shows at the Avalon
That whacky Hilton benefit gig on March 15
The April shows at the Ark in Boston
The June 14 Monterey
The great July 7 Atlanta show
Yes, I like the August 16 Woodstock. . . it was a thrill to finally hear it and I dig it
The two Family Dog nights of November 1 and 2

Thanks, Lon. All those shows at the Zephyr site stare at me like a poverty of riches. There are so many, and I only have time to try to digest a small subset (in addition to the Dick's Picks which I am accumulating one by one). I have downloaded the Ark shows, but haven't heard any of those others. I will give them a listen.

That's understandable about the overwhelming. I got over the overwhelming burning all the audience shows on archive of the years up through 1975, and then all the shows on gdlive of the same time frame. So I'm over it, and tackling speedingarrow year by year. . . in a few days I'll be done with 1969.

Check out the Mickey and the Hartbeats shows too of 1969. Interesting stuff. . . different from the regular Dead of the time.

You go Lon. Be sure to check out the DS>Dew on DP 36.

I have been coming back to 1980-81 for a week or two, I like the Sept 80 download series, excellent, emotive JG vocals throughout. I need to find that Nassau '80 release on arista. The Spring and Sept tours in 1980 were both really strong, and a brief, red hot 4 show tour of the Southeast around Thanksgiving remains below everybody's radar. Great playing on the Gainesville and Atlanta shows, don't miss.

If anybody can recommend a good alternative to Media Player, I would be grateful. I can't figure out how to burn tracks (*.wav to CD) without the annoying two seconds in between. Free suggestions are preferred. Thanks, Dan

Yeah, man!!!!! Add the Chicago show from which the Phil Zone Viola Lee comes--the one where Owsley plays "What's Become of the Baby" over the feedback (4-26--I think it still streams on SugarMegs?--4-25 is on Zephyr). And the April Avalons . . . . . . and the . . . . . . . . . .

Dan:
Download RealPlayer and choose the option to avoid the gap. On MP3, you will always have a split second gap--but that ain't bad.

That Atlanta show you refer to--the last one I went to. It was at the fabulous Fox--Atlanta's premier place for music. Initimate, beautiful, great sound.

Will you always have the gap w/MP3s?? I thought Apple just released a new version of Itunes that addressed that problem.

Dan are you burning TAO or DAO??? If you are burning cds TAO will cause those two second gaps.

11-30-80, a smoker. I was down in the "front row" (the orch pit was empty) across from Brent, he was dishing some swirl that evening, try that SB > FOTM, a killer.

Yes, DP 36. . . great stuff.

But . . . I stop at '78. I have tried and tried and tried. .. I just don't get into Brent, either his playing or singing. Maybe one day. . . not bloody likely.

Yeah, I remember seeing you there.

Isn't the Fox a great place for music? I never did care for the Omni.

I would probably be a lot more interested in the Brent years if there weren't so many great Keith shows available.

I think that one of the most overlooked element in analyzing the Dead by period or style is the keyboardists. The proto-dead (65-68) is fueled by Pig's often minimalist organ work, a style that often lent itself more to psychedelia than blues. Constanten's work was definately trippy--kind of a churchlike sound that helped float the guitarists along; not a lead so much as a color fill. Still, nice, and it fit the early Dark Star format. Keith--well, now you're into a major change. Obviously jazzier, and the switch is from organ to acoustic piano. The man could play several styles, which was perfect, as the Dead were playing all sorts of stuff. His only negative side was, of course, Donna. The 72-74 Keith-dead and the 76-78 Keith-dead are also different as he changed his textures to meet the new format. Brent--well, Brent seemed to me to be more pop oriented, more into the melody than the previous keyboardists. Like Lon, I just don't like that sound. Sorry!
Bruce added a beauty and texture to the melodics of the tunes and jams. Vince---beats me.

But if you slice up their career, it seems to fall into segments which are governed by the given keyboardists.

I agree w/ most of what you wrote. However, I think Pig's keyboard style was better suited for the blues and not psychedelic explorations. He would just play that little riff on Dark Star over and over and over( and....) TC opened them up to the true possiblities of lengthly, improvised jams. I loved Keith the best but he had a more serious failing than his wife - his heroin addiction. The last 12 months he was w/ the band were brutal for the most part. I basically stopped collecting shows after '77 in large part to the Keith's nodding off behind the keyboard. But in 72 - 74 he was just playing pure gold.

Agreed.

What I meant by Pig's psychedelia can be heard on songs like Viola Lee Blues--the really early workouts aroud 1966. That wild 60's organ riffing. And it is very pronouced on the early stuff. If you listen to old psychedellic bands like Country Joe and the Fish (listen to David Cohen on "Section 43", "Bass Strings"), you'll get that same sort of mysterious sound on their longer tunes. I guess that why they called it the San Francisco Sound. Of course on songs like "Empty Pages," you just want to cry with him. Either waya, that "Dark Star" riff was just plain annoying.

Yes, Keith's downfall was heroin--that and his insecurities (like Brent). By mid 78, he was a stone around the band's neck.

Are there any good Dylan/Dead shows? The ones I've heard are not too good. Any recommendations of what I should try?

One of the things I love about Keith is his big ears. He was always tuned in completely to where the Jerry and band was going, and pushed them on in very complimentary and subtle ways. I haven't heard that many Brent shows. In what I have heard, however, he strikes me as doing mostly his own thing and challenging the band to adjust to him. I also didn't find what he does to be all that interesting.

But part of my preference might be subjective. My last live Dead show was Winterland: 12/31/78.

Interesting, too, how Jerry used him in the JGB quite often.

As for me, I got off the bus on 12-06-73, Cleveland Public Hall, with a 45 minute Dark Star that scared the f'''ck out of me.

Just seemed to drift away at that point into all that "free" jazz. Coltrane, the AEC, especially Roscoe Mitchell. I guess that by that time, the Dead were playing arenas and the initmacy was fading for me. Probably my loss.


Also---the release of "Steal Your Face" made me think the band really sucked by then.

Vintage Piggers:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz1okjsw560

I just heard 12-06-73 for the first time last month: an absolute killer! 12-06, 11-11, and 12-02 are making a case with me that late 73 might have been the Dead's absolute peak.

And now for some snappy breakfast reading:

http://www.gratefuldeadmusic.com/

This be the new Rhino/Dead page with all sorts of useless stuff and sales pitches. Stay tuned. . . .

Ah yes, the Playboy After Hours resurfaces.

Not enough Ron on camera, but at least someone was caught dancing!

Steal your face was also the one one that had me giving up on the Dead, also seeing the coke fueled shows at the Ally Pally in North London as documented on a less than stellar Dicks Pick. And so the love affair came to an end, as of course they all do eventually...

I tend to agree. Fall of '73 is my favorite period. Hell the whole frickin' year is tremendous.

Look down a few clips for Hard to Handle--check Pig's shirt--and New Speedway Boogie, etc.


Jerry looks so stoned on the HtoH as he picks up the lead and searches for the sound.

Oh cool, I'll watch those when I can later.

Based on your enthusiasm, I gave this a listen over the weekend. Pretty spectacular, indeed! I had never heard a Brent show quite like this one.

Looks like I am going to have to give post-78 a bit more attention.

As much as I admire the post '73 years as having moments of excellent playing, I, too, could never get behind Brent. Like Dan, I was at that show; but unlike Dan, I was highly disappointed. Go to Heaven had just been released (if memory serves me well); I didn't like it all that much--except Althea. Mind you, I hadn't seen the band in seven years to boot. I went out of curiosity and because the fabulous Fox Theater is such a great venue--a restored histrorical theater--gorgeous. I think it holds only a few thousand people.

Anyway, I had heard about the acoustic sets and hoped they would do one here. No such luck. They opened with Feel Like a Stranger--uggh. Disco Dead. I couldn't get into it. Still, the other 4,999 people did, so it must have been me!

That was my last Dead show.

I wish I could have enjoyed it more.


Dan--was that you in the pit twirling?

Okay: confession. I downloaded the tape a few years ago (I like to have the shows I went to), and it does have some fine moments. Yes, that SB---FOTM is great.

In addition to SB - FOTM, I thought that some of the Jerry Garcia ballads came off very well that evening: Bird Song, Ship of Fools, It Must Have Been the Roses.

For me, virtually every Dead show has its share of dead moments. Feel Like a Stranger comes off no worse with me than most of the Bob Weir Tex Mex/Cowboy numbers that were played to death since 69. And Bob Weir's R&B numbers can really make me long for Pigpen.

Putting the breaks on for a moment.....

I bought the 1st GD box set (WB albums)and finally got around listening to Europe '72 this morning....and I noticed Cumberland Blues sounded a little fast. I FF to Sugar Magnolia (track 9) and this too sounded sped up- Weir sounded like he was on helium.....Jack Straw, He's Gone, etc.- same thing. Now I've been listening to Dick's Picks and other sources and I haven't listened to Europe '72 at least 10 years....so am I crazy?? Does this whole remastered CD sound weird and faster to anyone else?

No you're not crazy. The sped up the whole album when it was originally released. They also overdubbed a lot of parts.

Thanks Chalupa- you would think they would fix it and play it at the correct speed- it's been such a long time since I last heard it and I wasn't into the Dead as I am now. I'm with Orchiddr- let's see a Europe '72 box set!!

Interesting. Can't say as I've noticed the speed issue, but I've been listening to it since Fall of 1972!
You can find out what shows the basic tunes came from and compare. If I find the time (ha!), I will look in Dwork's book and see if I can list some of them.

Meanwhile, they are pretty much all available at speedingarrow.net, albeit in MP3.

Like it matters to my older ears, I've found many of them--some recently upgraded on shnflac.net, gdlive.com, bt.etree.org, and dimeadozen.org.

Are there any really bad shows from that run?

But I would still jump on a box set.

Speeding Arrow now requires one to register at the forum there before use. . . .

I threw residual precaution to the wind and registered this morning. Haven't had it "approved" and put in place yet.