12/10/72: winterland arena, san francisco, CA.

after a 2 week vacation from touring, the dead rolled into winterland for a 3-night hitch filled with the same vigor and energy that made the november ‘72 gigs so legendary. the first night of the run is my favorite, even with the sound issues and tape cuts. despite the mix changes, the recording is ultimately quite satisfying and chock-full of great ensemble playing and rich improvisation. garcia completely dominates the concert with blistering solos throughout, and the barnstorming tones of his stratocaster highlight every tune.

the soundboard recording is missing a good deal of the first set. even so, the three songs we have are more than enough to wet our appetite. bertha is revved up from the start, and jerry’s solo is ferocious. the playing in the band that follows is absolutely immense. like many of the ’72 versions of the song, it is a vehicle for boundless expression, chaos, & feedback. as the boys descend into the jam on this night, jerry is already in deep space and wastes no time digging in even deeper. about half-way through, he enters a quiet wah-wah section, which builds into a tempestuous sound explosion and then dissipates. in time, the band slowly forges their way back to the reprise, with jerry’s keening notes swirling around the sonic landscape like an atonal cloche. casey jones closes out the first set, deftly returning the audience to planet earth.

set 2 begins in standard 1972 fashion and includes a stirring early take on stella blue, which regrettably gets chopped off at the end solo. things start to heat up again with china cat sunflower > know you rider, which features a bold and inventive transition sequence. the oft-paired truckin' > the other one occupies the next 45 minutes of the set; as you might expect, the jam out of truckin' is absolutely fierce, with jerry spitting out notes at a furious pace. the entry into the other one is a bit restrained but quickly grows into a more energetic jam. garcia’s guitar phrasing is splendid at the opening of the first verse and soon morphs into a burst of feedback and unhinged freeform improvisation; the cyclical jam that follows is both haunting and unnerving. garcia continues to explore various melodies, eventually dropping into a quiet formless jam that the other musicians mine for a while. from here, an eyes-style chordal theme emerges and serves as the framework for additional themes. the result is astounding and is one of those moments that makes listening to this band so goddamned gratifying. a few rockers round out the set, including a fine uncle john's band encore with some tasty, laid-back solos from jerome.

listening to this performance from start to finish, one can’t help but gain a greater respect for jerry’s unique ability to steer the grateful dead ship into uncharted territory. the way he attacks the entire performance is not atypical of many 1972 shows, it’s just that on this night he dials it up a few more notches in his relentless introduction of new, inchoate ideas within the context of what the band is playing. it’s a wonderful example of the dead’s ability to make format out of chaos. plug in some good headphones and see for yourself. https://archive.org/details/gd72-12-10.sbd.gorinsky.5801.sbeok.shnf/gd1972-12-10d1t02.shn