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3/1/70: family dog at the great highway, san francisco, CA.

the dead team up with commander cody and his lost planet airmen for 3 nights at one of chet helms’ rotating dancehall revues. the soundboard recording begins with a rare big boy pete (only four known versions from this period), recreating that rhythm & blues sound of the early 1960s. from here, the band rolls out a truly splendid take on morning dew; the jam smokes, and jerry’s singing is sweet and transformative. after noteworthy performances of hard to handle and me & my uncle, we arrive at the big jam sequence of the show. the cryptical suite is remarkable and is much more energized than the night before. they charge into it, although dogged by feedback, and the jam peaks, ebbs, and climbs again, before segueing into a thunderous Cryptical reprise which, in time, quiets down and transitions—with chiming harmonics—into a delicious black peter.

the remainder of the night is standard, top-notch 1970’s dead, and includes early arrangements of tunes from their soon-to-be-released workingman’s dead LP, tracked at pacific high recording studios just a few weeks prior. culled from bear’s 7” master reel recording, this set is really worth your full aural attention.

https://archive.org/details/gd1970-03-01.132769.sbd.master-reel.kaplan.flac16