Grateful Dead

[liebzz]

Thanks! I had 5/26 in the hopper and ready to go but I might go for another in addition. I so far got through the epic acoustic set in Binghamton and was in the middle of the main show when my Spotify account acted up, presumably hitting a dead spot (pun intended). I haven’t downloaded these because my downloads have mostly reached capacity. I am about to start Casey Jones on my way home.

[super nintendo chalmers]

4/16/72 (Aarhus)

Played at an on-campus cafeteria/canteen at Aarhus University called Stakladen, the tables and chairs were cleared away as best they could, leaving room for what appears to have been no more than 700 students. he final disc opens with 'Truckin'' which turns out to be not as note-worthy through the verses, followed with a bit of sloppiness afterwards. Considering they've played this every night of the tour, I would have expected some sort of larger fanfare or better synergy. The track quickly dissipates into a Phil-led jam with the balance of the band in tow. Immediately different than most post-'Truckin'' jams up to here, you can sense some real magic is about to unfold, and what happens next is what makes this show so special. Jerry hints at 'The Other One' for a moment, but pulls back….drums and keys disappear…..a simple pattern develops between Jerry, Bobby, and Phil….Billy chimes in very quietly, Keith begins to reintroduce himself as Billy adds more toms to the mix. Popping deep chords, Phil continues to lead the jam….Pig makes himself known on organ, and Jerry cues 'The Other One' for a second time quickly shelving the idea while moving into a new direction. Billy and Keith are excellent here as they add delicate color to what might be considered one of the first full-on Phil/Jerry space jams – as the intensity of the jam elevates, the band jumps in perfectly matching the sinister mood that Garcia and Lesh are portraying. Highs and lows are met ……again, Jerry concedes while playing an almost perfect note for note compliment to Phil who has now taken full ownership of this space. The unusual and welcomed bass rumblings dominate leaving Jer and Keith as the only ones left in the game. Phil digs deep to a monster level and Garcia is along for the ride - scary beautiful. Jerry's brighter tones contrast against Phil's spiraling madness as the notes must have been bouncing off the walls of the tiny venue like crazy. This passage sounds more like something from Summer 1974 – awesome musical foreshadowing. The last few minutes of this spontaneous and incredible burst transcend a 'Dark Star' or an 'Other One' - this is jam personified, and quite possibly the best improvisational piece of the entire Europe '72 tour - amazing and polarizing.

I want to go to there... Thanks!

And an added bonus is I think this show was one of the new E72s not to have SBD release until the massive box set.

[liebzz]

Dick’s Picks Vol. 8 - Harpur College, Binghamton, NY 5/2/70

Every time I have listened to one of their shows on this journey I have come away thinking that one was the one I would probably listen to on repeat when this thing is over. On each of those, I was wrong, and I knew it from the first song on this show. The acoustic set to start the show is truly wonderful and each version of those songs seemed like the best so far. The pessimist in me thought that this was a nice change of pace and that I’d probably get a decent but overrated second half of the show - but again I was way off base. Them at second set is killer and even blows away the tremendous first set. The run from Casey Jones all the way through the end was non-stop amazement, building up to a Viola Lee Blues that was just astounding. I honestly had no idea they were THAT great live. No wonder people spent their life savings following these dudes around.

Set 1 (acoustic): Don’t Ease Me In, I Know You Rider, Friend of the Devil, Dire Wolf, Beat It On Down the Line, Black Peter, Candyman, Cumberland Blues, Deep Elem Blues, Cold Jordan, Uncle John’s Band

Set 2: St. Stephen (sadly missing the first part), Cryptically Envelopment>Drums>The Other One>Crypitcal Envelopment>Cosmic Charlie, Casey Jones, Good Lovin’, It’s a Man’s World, Dancing in the Street, Morning Dew, Viola Lee Blues, We Bid You Goodnight

Up Next: American Beauty

[i got bugs]

That show has the best versions of ujb, fotd, and morning dew

[i got bugs]

I never play the real famous hits on the juke but sometimes ill play those versions n people are always like i never heard a version this good

[knee tunes]

I never play the real famous hits on the juke but sometimes ill play those versions n people are always like i never heard a version this good

Where'd you see the dead, bugs?

[i got bugs]

I never play the real famous hits on the juke but sometimes ill play those versions n people are always like i never heard a version this good

Where'd you see the dead, bugs?

Never.. i mean I wish.. i started getting into them way after jerry died

Now I saw DnC and like all the tribute bands a ton of times but never the original band

Theres a small venue near me called penns peak.. dark star plays there 2x a year (night before Thanksgiving n early may).. 2 of the best nights of the year..

[super nintendo chalmers]

The Dead is funny to play on the jukebox, as most of the live releases are on the digital ones. Get enough pops in me and I'll turn your bar into a Dead Night with 5 bucks for 90 minutes of music. The Without a Net Help Slip Frank is good cause its all one track. I also like the Egypt Shakedown, and the Atlanta 77 Sugaree.

Its a hefty set when done right and the crowd is receptive lol.

[i got bugs]

The Dead is funny to play on the jukebox, as most of the live releases are on the digital ones. Get enough pops in me and I'll turn your bar into a Dead Night with 5 bucks for 90 minutes of music. The Without a Net Help Slip Frank is good cause its all one track. I also like the Egypt Shakedown, and the Atlanta 77 Sugaree.

Its a hefty set when done right and the crowd is receptive lol.

I got a standing o after help slip tower once.. not in a good way.. they were playing music I couldn't understand for like 2 hours straight so whatever

My dart team is composed of deadheads so its usually live dead on the juke a lot.. the bartenders love us for it haha.. theres a couple other teams comprised of deadheads n when we play each other its like you're at a show

[liebzz]

American Beauty - as I ran this afternoon through peak heat on what was really not so bad a day in terms of temperature, but definitely a northeast summer day, I listened to this and thought that this album, more than any other I have heard in quite a while, personified this season. Whether it was the more laid back feel of Box of Rain, Sugar Magnolia, and Ripple, the bluegrassy Friend of the Devil, the ultimate road trip in Truckin’, or the almost quiet intensity of some of the lesser known tracks, it felt like the right album for the season. The album is really a wonderful and my favorite of theirs so far - a personification or everything I thought the Dead was walking in. Here, I don’t get the feeling that they were hitting the studio to lay the tracks that would become the bones of live exploration- they just came up with 10 great songs and put them together well - into a classic and essential album.

Up Next: Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses)

[liebzz]

Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses) - for a band that basically invented or at the least perfected the jam band, this is an interesting release in large part because most of the songs are quick and to the point. That’s of course not to say that it was bad in any way - in fact out of those quick bursts (for them anyway) come some cool covers, nice tight versions of Bertha, Mama Tried,Big Railroad Blues, Me & My Uncle, and Big Boss Man. Of course at the end of the day the extended songs were where it was at for me - The Other One, Wharf Ray, and Not Fade Away were all really great. This I think is really great for anyone who wants a way in to the live recordings without committing fully yet to the whole long form instrumental interplay.

[Hatfield]

American Beauty - as I ran this afternoon through peak heat on what was really not so bad a day in terms of temperature, but definitely a northeast summer day, I listened to this and thought that this album, more than any other I have heard in quite a while, personified this season. Whether it was the more laid back feel of Box of Rain, Sugar Magnolia, and Ripple, the bluegrassy Friend of the Devil, the ultimate road trip in Truckin’, or the almost quiet intensity of some of the lesser known tracks, it felt like the right album for the season. The album is really a wonderful and my favorite of theirs so far - a personification or everything I thought the Dead was walking in. Here, I don’t get the feeling that they were hitting the studio to lay the tracks that would become the bones of live exploration- they just came up with 10 great songs and put them together well - into a classic and essential album.

Up Next: Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses)

I read that Crosby had an influence on Jerry's willingness to go the direction that led to Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. I was raised to dislike and distrust the Dead. When I heard American Beauty for the first time I got the sneaking suspicion that I'd been lied to out of ignorance.

[Kevin Davis]

You can make a good argument for Wake of the Flood, but I think American Beauty is really the last Dead studio album that feels like a self-contained thing with a purpose and vision, as opposed to just the latest batch of songs being developed for the live set and documented for posterity. There are some good studio recordings throughout the '70's, but in my opinion they peak in 1970. From here on out the live stuff is where it's at.

[liebzz]

I always thought the Grateful Dead studio work could mostly be contained to a greatest hits because it was all in the live setting. And I didn’t get into the live stuff because I felt overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start. I am glad I am doing this because I think I too was lied to (the adage was you needed to be stoned to enjoy it).

American Beauty is a great studio album, and would undoubtedly go on that amorphous list of greatest albums I got to hear doing these journeys. Workingman’s Dead is also up there as well.

[i got bugs]

Listen to Jerry's studio album just called garcia.. and weirs ace

[liebzz]

Listen to Jerry's studio album just called garcia.. and weirs ace

Perhaps when this main journey and the hours and hours of listening to that are done.

I will note it will be a while until I get to the next studio album. The next exploration at the least will be one show from ‘71, and at least 2 marathon shows from ‘72 - I may improvise and add a few things noted here but we’ll be chillin’ in the live lounge for a bit.

[super nintendo chalmers]

Take the detour for the first solo garcia record. Its crucial. And beautiful.

[liebzz]

Duly noted. Garcia added to the list, will go for it after the ‘71 show but before the ‘72 shows.

The motion was made and seconded so I got to be down for it.

[Kevin Davis]

I always thought the Grateful Dead studio work could mostly be contained to a greatest hits because it was all in the live setting. And I didn’t get into the live stuff because I felt overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start. I am glad I am doing this because I think I too was lied to (the adage was you needed to be stoned to enjoy it).

American Beauty is a great studio album, and would undoubtedly go on that amorphous list of greatest albums I got to hear doing these journeys. Workingman’s Dead is also up there as well.

Yeah, it's weird, my most chemically altered years were probably when I struggled with the Dead the most -- along with Phish (who I've never really warmed to), they were omnipresent at my high school, but most of their stuff didn't really register with me until later in life after I'd gotten into jazz and really developed a taste for improvisation-based music. It didn't help that, at that time (1997-99), a lot of archival things that are out now hadn't been released yet -- the Dick's Picks series was still in its relative infancy, so the live albums that got passed around a lot in my circles, inevitably under the guise of giving the listener "the true Dead experience" that the studio albums just couldn't give you, were Dead Set, Without a Net and Dozin' at the Knick, all of which are okay enough but don't represent their peak years and isn't the stuff I ever would have built my fandom around. I enjoyed a few scattered things here and there, and thought American Beauty was good, but it wasn't until probably 2006 that I started listening to them seriously again, and then finally discovering Live/Dead a couple years after that (no idea why that took so long) where I really felt like I "got it."

I've still never heard any of their solo albums, though I do have a nice JGB live album from '77.

[Hatfield]

I always thought the Grateful Dead studio work could mostly be contained to a greatest hits because it was all in the live setting. And I didn’t get into the live stuff because I felt overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start. I am glad I am doing this because I think I too was lied to (the adage was you needed to be stoned to enjoy it).

American Beauty is a great studio album, and would undoubtedly go on that amorphous list of greatest albums I got to hear doing these journeys. Workingman’s Dead is also up there as well.

Yeah, it's weird, my most chemically altered years were probably when I struggled with the Dead the most -- along with Phish (who I've never really warmed to), they were omnipresent at my high school, but most of their stuff didn't really register with me until later in life after I'd gotten into jazz and really developed a taste for improvisation-based music. It didn't help that, at that time (1997-99), a lot of archival things that are out now hadn't been released yet -- the Dick's Picks series was still in its relative infancy, so the live albums that got passed around a lot in my circles, inevitably under the guise of giving the listener "the true Dead experience" that the studio albums just couldn't give you, were Dead Set, Without a Net and Dozin' at the Knick, all of which are okay enough but don't represent their peak years and isn't the stuff I ever would have built my fandom around. I enjoyed a few scattered things here and there, and thought American Beauty was good, but it wasn't until probably 2006 that I started listening to them seriously again, and then finally discovering Live/Dead a couple years after that (no idea why that took so long) where I really felt like I "got it."

I've still never heard any of their solo albums, though I do have a nice JGB live album from '77.

Garcia and Cats Under the Stars get regular spins.