5/23/69: seminole indian village, hollywood, FL

here’s a few sets of music from 1969 that are really worth checking out. for two nights, the dead joined muddy waters, johnny winter, nrbq, and a handful of other bands at the big rock pow-wow music festival in west hollywood, florida. the first evening kicks off with the boys stumbling through a pig-pen led hard to handle that takes a few bars for them to find their groove. after that, though, the band fully delivers the goods, including a dark star suite that rivals many from this era.

the second date is even better. it opens with a unique and noteworthy version of lovelight (the closer from the previous gig), showcasing mckernan's bravado and blues vocals. this is followed by a continuous 35-minute thread of tunes that only the dead could pull off. the newish doin’ that rag flows into an absolutely gorgeous version of he was a friend of mine, before the boys push the bedlam button with a china cat > the eleven > death don’t have no mercy combo that must have shellacked more than a few psychedelic rangers in the audience. the final 25 minutes of the night—alligator et al.—puts the finishing touches on a truly superb good ‘ol grateful dead show. recorded by bear, these performances are sonic operas that may change the way you listen to the band from this day forward. or maybe not.

https://archive.org/details/gd69-05-23.sbd.kaplan.12223.sbeok.shnf https://archive.org/details/gd69-05-24.sbd.kpfa.16177.sbeok.shnf

11/15/71: austin municipal auditorium.

if I had to pick a show to highlight from the fall ’71 tour, this one is surely more than a worthy candidate. the fall of 1971 showed the thrilling impact of keith godchaux’s arrival on the dead’s ever-morphing sound. just his 16th gig with the band, this performance is certainly one of the strongest of that era. there are two wonderful pieces of improvisation that demonstrate the utter confidence with which the band was playing at this time, one for each set. the first, a stellar dark star suite, confidently prances forward from its unusual first-set location. about 12 minutes into it, with the band deeply ensconced in deep space, cowboy bob slips el paso into the foray. jerry doesn’t miss a beat, and subtly shifts directions away from the rich vein he was previously mining. after departing the wild west, a straight-ahead jam ensues until they launch into a chug-a-lugging casey jones to end a hot 35-minutes of music.

the second set jam comes in a somewhat strange spot—wedged in between not fade away and goin’ down the road, a transition that generally lasts 4 minutes or so. but this one stretches out for an exciting 15 minutes worth. the band goes in and out of several beautiful places, re-mining the aborted mood from dark star, and play without any concern for having to rush into anything. recorded by bob mathews and remastered by david gans, this set of music is what makes listening to the grateful dead such a unique pleasure. https://archive.org/details/gd1971-11-15.sbd.set2.jupille.7735.shnf

4/10/71: mayser center, franklin & marshall college, lancaster, PA. w/the new riders of the purple sage.

a few days after the 3-day dance marathon at the manhattan center in nyc, the dead and the nrps played a fine gig in pennsylvania dutch country. the show took place on the night before easter and a student, dressed as the easter bunny, hopped around onstage delivering candy to the band as a ploy to get a good seat-typical grateful dead show shenanigans. the riders and the dead played for about 4 hours, making the $4.50 student admission price a damn good bargain. of note, the good lovin’ is very hot. recorded by bob mathews, the sound-like the band this evening-is very crisp.

https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-10.sbd.willy.8674.sbeok.shnf

12/5/71: felt forum, new york, NY, w/NRPS

on march 8, 1971, new york city’s felt forum was home to what some folks claim to be the greatest fight of the century when muhammad ali lost a 15-round decision to smokin’ joe frazier. in the week leading up to the event, the dead and the new riders of the purple sage delivered a combination punch of their own, to the fans who were lucky enough to find their butts in one of the 3500 seats in madison square garden. of the four december dates, it is the second performance that really takes the cake. 12/5/71 finds the boys playing with a power and tenacity of a heavyweight bout; they come out swinging from the get-go with a rollicking bertha, and the intensity is well represented by the fact that the band is out of tune half way through the song. "i'll let you guys keep this," bobby announces afterward to no evident meaning but plenty of guitars being tuned. the rest of the first set is tight, including an outstanding version of elvis presley’s i washed my hands in muddy water, and a stirring early take on comes a time.

i’d be remiss if i failed to talk about the second set though, namely the dark star suite that’s completely void of any verses. the band gets so involved in the jamming they don't even bother with singing a word of either stanza. whenever you think one's coming, they head for a country song instead. the pre-FM soundboard-stemmed from merry prankster tree #6-is raw, echoey, muffled, and shaky...it is, in short, a goddamned mess. but it’s a beautiful mess, none the less. strap on your headphones and let yourself be won over by this one.

https://archive.org/details/gd71-12-05.prefm.miller.3391.sbeok.shnf

10/24/72: milwaukee performing arts center, milwaukee, WI.

just the second set for this gig, and there’s a sound drop-off before casey jones, but it doesn’t matter. this one’s about the beauty of the fall of 1972, and a band that is playing above and beyond everyone's expectations. in fact, they were so impeccably spot-on that you can blindly grab any of the autumn recordings and always come out with some of the best grateful dead moments ever. trust me, i’ve listened to almost everything from this tour. of note, the sequence of truckin > the other one is immense; the other one split with he's gone is guaranteed to grab you squarely by the cerebellum. recorded by bear and transferred by c. miller (from the david gans reel master source), this performance is very much a keeper.

https://archive.org/details/gd1972-10-24.sbd.miller.106018.flac16

6/24/70: capitol theatre, port chester, NY.

this exquisite audience recording by ken and judy lee documents one of the most brilliant nights in the club’s history. both the dead and the new riders are very much on their game, but it’s the electric dead that really takes the cake. of note, the dark star suite is something far above and beyond your standard wonderful dark stars of the early 1970’s.

the recording allows you to hear every pin drop, every air burst over the heads of fans (courtesy of boots pyrotechnic services) and, seemingly, every ripple of psychedelic energy fill the theatre to the rafters. after jerry finishes singing the first verse and the sound space starts to expand, a guy in the audience quietly mutters “oh, my god.” it’s one of those great moments that can only be captured on a field recording; a convergence of the transfixing magic of the music, and the fact that it’s being captured on tape and preserved for us to hear years later.

listening to this dark star it’s easy to see why people traveled the country, following the band for so many years. i’ve queued this beauty up countless times and it never fails to blow my mind. do yourself a favor and at least listen to the 50-minute sequence from mickey’s gong > i know you rider. you won’t regret taking the time to do so. june 24, 1970 is a god damn sound satori. no doubt, you may build a mental shrine for this recording after it’s over.

https://archive.org/details/gd1970-06-24.late.aud.harlan.9330.sbefail.shnf/gd70-06-24t09.shn

4/24/71: wallace wade stadium, duke university.

the dead play a relatively short gig-by their standards-sandwiched in between mountain, nrps (w/jerry on steel) and the beach boys. just three days later, on 4/27, the beach boys joined the dead onstage at the fillmore east during the dead's 5-day run there, and they played 6 songs together (including good vibrations, and i get around), making this joe college weekend at duke a rather historic event in that it’s the first (and only time) that brian wilson & co shared the same bill with the dead.

as for this performance, it’s a classic grateful dead show. the truckin' opener is a trainwreck ... bobby changes keys midway through, and jerry and phil are really straining to hit the harmony notes. cumberland blues false starts, with weir explaining that "all this fuckin' around has put our instruments out of tune." this doesn’t seem to phase the band or the crowd and, when they do settle into a groove, boy do they ever. check out the hard to handle, the downright nasty good lovin’, and the lovely garcia sung merl haggard tune, sing me back home. the mike lai source sounds absolutely fantastic, even better than my beloved, crusty old maxell urII high-bias cassette tape from back in the day.

https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-24.sbd.lai.2579.sbefail.shnf