7/31/71: yale bowl, new haven, CT.

for years the only way to listen to this show was via a marty weinberg audience recording. weinberg showed up at yale with 6 hours' worth of 5-inch reels in his pack, and recorded the whole affair at 7 ½ speed on his trusty Uher 4000L portable. in 2008, a vault release (as part of the road trips series) featured outtakes from the performance. part of weinberg’s tape was used to patch a flip in the dark star, which sounded quite good in context. three years ago, as it often does in grateful dead land, the soundboard finally reared its head.

the concert opens with a standout version of truckin,’ deftly played and loaded with clout. next, the boys break out a pair of first-timers. the sugaree is perfectly succinct; garcia’s tone is bright, with just the right amount of distortion and sustain. mr charlie is at its filthy best. pig’s raucous vocals and jerry’s badass, gun slinging guitar take this one over the top. the set continues in standard ’71 fashion with a rollicking mama tried, an extended version of big railroad blues, and an early, heavier, jam-free version of playing in the band. surprisingly, the moment the weir-barlow number ends, the lads launch right into dark star. a first set rarity, this one is a real doozy.

the piece begins with the quintet immediately plunging into the depths of the music—in the first few minutes they flirt with several ideas without settling on anything. as they begin the verse riff, garcia changes his mind and they wander off again on a little side-trip into the void, suspending the momentum to hew something else. in time, lesh nudges the theme once more and they drop into the first verse at the 10 minute mark. from here the ensemble gathers steam, forcefully pushing their way into the abyss. the space is menacing, and the jam that ensues is turbulent, eerie and raging. at this juncture, jerry is so energized that he sounds as if he might burst, but the band manages to channel their focus into a new melodic jam that slowly settles down, out of which the dark star theme returns. the musicians groove on the theme, introduce another quieter jam, and then garcia decides to abort the second verse, signaling the others to stop, and they blast right into birdsong instead. this is the first time the hunter-garcia tune is connected to another song, and the only time they ever joined it to dark star. the arrangement on this day is delivered confidently with a real rocked-out feel throughout. the pairing is certainly the apogee of the show and, unquestionably, rates as one of the most interesting improvisational excursions of the year.

the second set of the dead's ivy league visit is packed with the same vitality and ragged festivity as their first 100 minutes on the bandstand. along with a hefty supply of stage banter, a few highlights include a solid bertha, a fantastically charged china cat > know you rider with a unique bridge jam, a restrained, lilting sing me back home, the customary not fade away > goin’ down the road > not fade away, replete with tight, zesty rhythms (and a short, final foray into the short-lived youngbloods inspired darkness jam), and a heartfelt uncle john’s band > johnny b. goode double encore.

recorded by rex jackson and digitally transferred by mr. charlie miller, this afternoon in new haven is worthy of repeated listenings. hitch your ears to it and see for yourself. https://archive.org/details/gd1971-07-31.132730.sbd.miller.flac16/gd71-07-31d2t10.flac

8/14/71: berkeley community theatre, berkeley, CA. this pristine soundboard recording is loaded to the gills with great music. the performance, missing from the dead’s vaults, made it’s way onto the archive in april of 1997 when the brother of former GD staffer, bonnie parker, discovered a few rich sounding cassette tapes in a box of miscellaneous belongings he inherited from his sister after her untimely passing. the word is that the tapes were a gift to bonnie from jerry garcia. a damn nice office perk, to say the least.

much has been written about how the band loved playing in berkeley, and this night proves this in spades. everything the lads touch sparkles with energy from the opening bertha, to the johnny b. goode > uncle john’s double encore. stage banter abounds and phil’s bass is prominent in the mix—two aspects of 1971 grateful dead i’ve always adored. the first set is typical for the period; the tunes are presented with authority, including compact early versions of sugaree and playing in the band. other highlights include a lilting brokedown palace that is close to perfect. the three pig pen numbers are delivered with confidence and power, including a full-speed-ahead hard to handle that sizzles with mckernan verve.

what makes this night even more special is the set 2 appearance of MIT-trained biologist and electric keyboard specialist, ned lagin. lagin is most well known in grateful dead circles for his seastones work with phil lesh, not to mention a handful of way out bio-music intermission performances during the wall of sound era. lagin also sat in on a few other documented 1970-71 shows on both coasts, most notably the 2/18/71 gig at the capitol theatre when he accompanied the band for dark star, wharf rat, and candyman on the clavichord.

in a 2001 interview with david gans, lagin was chatting about his time with the dead and shared a tidbit about the august 14th berkeley gig: “when the band got into the truckin’ into the other one jam, pigpen waved me over to the organ and got up so i could sit in.” the outcome, as rapturous as the great bodhisattva departure, is one that would surely satisfy a good number of the ancient sages. the enlightened quintet throws down the lotus sutra of other one suites, beginning with one of the most engaging and powerful introductions, followed by a deep, polyrhythmic bridge jam, and an extremely tight climax. listening to the interplay amongst the musicians, it’s clear that the band was inspired by lagin’s presence, his inventive contributions and, most likely, some other radiant, guiding narrative.

recorded by betty cantor-jackson, with a digital transfer from the esteemed mr bill guarneri, this is a show that’ll set you straight. https://archive.org/details/gd1971-08-14.sbd.130871.MrBill.flac16

the following night's performance ain't half bad either: https://archive.org/details/gd1971-08-15.sbd.130890.MrBill.flac16

6/10/73: robert f. kennedy memorial stadium, washington, DC.

in the summer of 1973, the dead joined the allman brothers for two memorable performances in the 45,000 seat multi-purpose arena, two miles due east of the u.s. capitol building. doug sahm and wet willie opened the festivities on saturday and sunday, respectively.

the shows used the dead’s prototype wall of sound with a stereo PA system with JBL speakers inside Alembic cabinets, plus a stereo auxiliary PA. on the second night, the dead played a powerful, lengthy—4 ½ hour—set that included extended takes on birdsong and playing in the band, a lovely eyes of the world > stella blue pairing, and a dark star suite that surely sent many of the psychedelic rangers in attendance into a state of supreme delectation. toward the end of the evening, allman’s guitarist dickey betts joined the band for a few tunes, including a scorching run through the arthur big boy crudup tune, that’s alright mama.

president richard nixon chose not to attend either night.

https://archive.org/details/gd1973-06-10.sbd.miller.89640.sbeok.flac16

4/16/72: aarhus university, denmark.

midway through their european vacation, the dead venture to the tiny college town of stakladen and play one of the most unusual shows of the fabled tour. reviewers often point to the london, frankfurt, or paris dates when highlighting the notable outings of the europe run, and rightly so. for some reason, the aarhus gig often goes unmentioned. looking at the setlist one might assume that this is just another typical grateful dead show from 1972. upon close listening though, it reveals itself as one of the most unique performances of this era.

the first set is standard ’72 fare with a solid sugaree, a few robust cowboy tunes, an extremely beautiful early take on black throated wind, and a playing in the band that is just starting to take off. the meat of this show, is found in the set 2 jams. the second frame begins with a smoking good lovin’ with all the necessary pigpen raps. a few tunes later, the weirdness really kicks in. truckin’ is arguably the best of the tour, plump full of brilliant garcia solos. the reprise jam is goddamn remarkable and the train soon becomes completely unhitched before the ensemble somehow finds it within themselves to latch onto the other one theme. this version of the other one contains an atypical structure, with a number of quiet passages and is played largely without drums. me and my uncle provides an excellent bridge before the lads dive back into the other one proper, though lacking the second verse. the end result is nearly forty minutes of unexpected twists and turns, intriguing dead ends, and a satiable helping of inspired improvisation. a rocking not fade away > goin’ down the road feeling bad > not fade away closes out the set in good ol' grateful dead fashion, with the crowd in a frenzy and no room for an encore.

recorded by betty cantor-jackson, this one is a winner from top to bottom. unfortunately, the first set on all the archived recordings is a bit muddy and suffers from numerous cuts. i’ve linked the best sounding cassette source here, via uli teute and hanno bunjes. the second set transfer from mr. charlie miller is of much better quality. of course, i’ve been listening to the exceptional jeffery norman remastered version culled from the original 16 track recording. i suggest that you take it out for a spin and see for yourself. i’m guessing you’ll b-line it to the itunes store and download this nordic beauty posthaste.

https://archive.org/details/gd72-04-16.sbd.pset1.hanno.19861.sbeok.shnf/gd72-04-16t05.shn

https://archive.org/details/gd72-04-16.sbd.miller.18103.sbeok.shnf/gd72-04-16d2t04.shn

5/14/70: meramec community college, kirkwood, MO. with nrps.

sandwiched in between an east village fundraiser for timothy leary and the renowned fillmore east show featured on the road trips series, the dead and nrps play an evening gig at the 2200 seat on-campus gymnasium, home to the midwest conference meramec archers. the show followed the typical structure for performances during this era—an acoustic set by the dead, followed by the new riders (w/ jerry sitting in on pedal steel), and an electric dead finale. the show was played while the band was recording the workingman’s LP, as evidenced by the tunes and the focus on the singing and harmonies throughout.

the night begins with a relaxed and confident acoustic set, that includes a rollicking don't ease me in, a lovely early take on friend of the devil, and a stirring deep elm blues with a punchy garcia lead and an alluringly thick groove. the entire electric segment of the evening is inspired and contains standout versions of high time, the first-ever live performance of attics of my life, and a very intense new speedway boogie, made possible by the absolutely blazing solo from jerome during the mid-song nobody’s fault jam. the set concludes with 30 minutes of st. stephen > not fade away > turn on your lovelight (with a sizable helping of ensemble jamming), and a quick take on the fred rich gospel tune, cold jordan, for an encore.

recorded by bob mathews, this one is a real top-notch 1970 recording. that said, an official release of this evening would put me (and more than a few others) in hog heaven. according to the former keeper of the vault, dick latvala, only reels 3, 4, and 5 of this concert made it into storage. when he was asked about the many missing/incomplete 1970 grateful dead shows, latvala replied with a sigh "that's how loose things were in the past. i'm sure there were plenty of times when someone says, 'put these in the truck,' and the guy puts them in the back...the truck takes off, and the tapes flew off into the highway. someone picks them up, puts them in storage, dies, and the tapes resurface...."

let’s hope the first two reels of this evening make themselves known so this fine show gets the remastering it justly deserves.

acoustic set:
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-05-14.sbd-acoustic.clugston.34165.sbeok.shnf

electric:
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-05-14.136645.s2.sbd.reelmaster.dat.sirmick.flac16/gd1970-05-14s2t14.flac

10/22/67: marijuana defense benefit, winterland arena, san francisco, CA.

if you’re looking for a good example of 1967 grateful dead, you need not look any further than this performance. recorded a month prior to the first studio session for anthem of the sun, it reveals a band teetering on the edge of the cosmos.

this coming july, we’ll be gifted a remastered version of this concert in the form of a bonus disc that will accompany the 50th anniversary reissue of anthem of the sun. the 2-cd set will include the original 1968 mix in all it’s primal, experimental splendor. add to this the first extant live recording featuring mickey as a member of the grateful dead and you’ve got a really special and historically relevant vault release. https://archive.org/details/gd1967-10-22.sbd.miller.116257.flac16

1/2/70: fillmore east, new york, NY.

the dead welcomed the 1970s with two nights at bill graham’s east village club, playing early and late shows on both friday and saturday night, which was the standard arrangement there.

the first night's performance is really something. the opening set contains some fine early takes on black peter and cumberland blues, with a smoking cryptical suite thrown in for good measure. the late set begins with four workingman’s numbers, including a lovely uncle john’s band > high time pairing. the harmonies are outstanding and the playing is intelligent and restrained. a few songs, a broken string, and a bit of tuning later, the lads launch into dark star; this evening's version is revelatory, transformative and, in my estimation, on par with any run through the hunter-garcia tune from this era (even with the ugly cut at the 30:10 mark). similar to the dark star they’ll perform a month later in the same venue, the musicianship and deep ensemble improvisatory processes are stunning. it's one of those sequences that makes listening to the grateful dead so goddamn satisfying. following this intergalactic masterpiece the band unwinds with 40 more minutes of music, including an outstanding lovelight with all the mckernan trimmings.

sourced from bear’s 7 ½ “ reel master and digitized by jim wise, this performance is a treasure from top to bottom. https://archive.org/details/gd1970-01-02.137375.sbd.wise.sirmick.sbeok.flac16/gd1970-01-02lt12.flac

>

3/20/71: university of Iowa fieldhouse w/the new riders of the purple sage.

the dead and the new riders roll into Iowa city on the frontend of a productive spring tour, with enough fire to char-broil all the maize in johnson county. the local folks hadn’t seen or heard anything this weird or transcendent since john freeman presented his combined film, light and sound "empathy generator" sculpture installation at the U of I art museum the previous year.

the sponsors—the committee for university entertainment—had asked for a sit-on-the-floor show. those in attendance had other ideas, and simply folded up their chairs and passed them off to the side of the venue to accommodate dancing. administrators at the school were upset by the lack of respect for fire regulations, not to mention reports of ripple drinking and marijuana use. in an interview with the Daily Iowan the following week, a member of the CUE, don pugsley, shared the following in response to a question about the administration’s take on the scene: “they were disturbed by that whole thing. they were worried about flying bottles. i don’t know what to say. i’ve never been to a concert where someone was hurt in a ripple bottle fight.”

from the truckin’ opener, this one really grabs you by the horns. in the spirit of 1971, the regular shoot-em-up saloon band gallops through two sets of solid rock ‘n roll tunes with jerome’s gibson adeptly leading the way. pig is fully in his element as well, delivering standup versions of hard to handle, next time you see me, good lovin,’ and lovelight. recorded by bob mathews and digitally transferred by steve barbella, this night in the hawkeye state is worthy of a listen or two.

https://archive.org/details/gd71-03-20.sbd.barbella.5582.sbeok.shnf/gd71-03-20d1t02.shn

5/6/70: kresge plaza, massachusetts institute of technology.

the dead play a free outdoor concert on the student union steps to honor a national day of student protests against the vietnam war. the performance was recorded from the soundboard by MIT radio station WTBS, which is gold as the grateful dead apparently don’t have the reels of this show in their vault.

peter kaye was the sole deadhead at MIT’s radio station in the spring of 1970. as he was watching the dead set up their gear, he asked dan healy if he could get a feed off his board. when healy agreed, kaye bent the arms of the technical staff at the station to help him run a telco line on the campus to the station where the head engineer, larry killgallen, recorded the show onto an Ampex 350. that winter, a bus full of folks from the Hog Farm broke down in boston. kaye befriended a few like-minded pranksters and, at some point during their stay, “lent” them the master tapes of the kresge gig. shortly thereafter, cassette tapes of the legendary free concert were being traded with abandon.

maybe it was the occasion, or possibly it was just due to the dismally cold weather, but the band does crank out an ample amount of energy on this one. the recording perfectly captures some of the impromptu rawness of the day. the opening dancing in the streets is just as good as the celebrated harpur college version--less polished, but more potent. the china cat sunflower > know you rider couplet is quite nice, and features some blistering jamming during the midsection. the highlight of the set, though, is the morning dew, with it’s subject serving as a timely comment on why everyone was gathered in cambridge that afternoon. next up, good lovin’ is fast and heavy and contains a vigorous bass and drums jam at the 7-minute mark. after a casey jones that suffers from a dropout on the tape, the performance concludes with an extended take on saint stephen > not fade away.

the following schedule of planned events in connection with the strike and protest of the indochina war appeared in the tech, MITs student newspaper on may 6, 1970:

STRIKE! FACULTY CANCELS CLASSES

6 am onward – leaflets and canvassing information will be available in the Student Center West Lounge for use in canvassing factories.

12 noon – Humanities Department Meeting.

12 noon – Meeting of interested MIT employees in Walker Memorial.

1 pm – mass meeting in Kresge.

2 pm – There will NOT be a free concert by the Grateful Dead today.

eventually the plastic tarps weren’t enough to protect the band from the nasty rainfall that grew progressively worse throughout the set. if you listen closely you can almost hear the musician’s fingers getting cold and stiff; the resolve is there, but jerry’s lines get increasingly more ragged and dissonant. bobby sums up the sentiments of the band: “it’s too fuckin’ cold to play.” based on the invention and creativity on display that day on the plaza, one can only imagine the setlist they would have generated under more favorable weather conditions.

https://archive.org/details/gd1970-05-06.sbd.gans-hall.95.shnf

in october of ‘74, the dead retired from performing after a five-night stand at winterland. the following january, they met at bobby ace weir’s mill valley recording studio to start laying down the tracks for what would become blues for allah. outtakes from these sessions have been available on the archive for some time. last year, a new studio reel emerged of remarkable quality and historical significance. labeled “the first day,” the recording contains what audio engineer/archivist allen bershaw believes to be the first 1975 grateful dead studio session.

in a late-seventies interview with jerry garcia, he shared: "we kind of made a ground rule for that record: ‘let's make a record where we get together every day and we don't bring anything in.’ …the whole idea was to get back to that band thing, where the band makes the main contribution to the evolution of the material. so we'd go into the studio and jam for a while, and then if something nice turned up we'd say, ‘well let's preserve this little hunk and work with it, see if we can't do something with it.’ and that's how we did most of the album."

this session documents the fertile period of exploration the band was engaged in during their “retirement.” in a larger sense, the dead’s choice of material for the album indicates that they were busily carving a unique path that no one expected. do yourself a favor and spend a bit of time with “the first day.” i’m fairly certain you’ll be more than pleased that you did.

https://archive.org/details/gd1975-01-00.137598.studio.thefirstday.bershaw.flac16

october 4/5, 1970: winterland arena, san francisco, CA. the dead play two nights with the airplane/hot tuna, quicksilver messenger service, and the new riders. the sunday night opener was a significant day in the history of media: the first live quadraphonic television broadcast. the technical set up had the sound piped from the stage out to wally heider's remote truck on the street, mixed on a 16-channel machine, and then returned into winterland where bob mathews mixed it to 4 and sent it out to radio- and TV-land. for those who weren’t lucky enough to have a ticket, the audio-visual compilation made home viewing a good second option. imagine a handful of folks gathering around a television, a big FM tuner, and a few other radios to settle down to four channels of grateful dead. not quite as happening as being at winterland, but more lifelike than stereo.

two archived recordings are available in an FM/soundboard format. the first, properly dated sunday 10/4/70, begins with one of the six live takes of till the morning comes. it comes off remarkably well and it’s a shame they didn’t play this one more often. the brokedown palace that follows is achingly beautiful. the remainder of the set is very good, chock-full of fine ensemble playing. of note, the second half of good lovin’ contains some of the fiercest coda jamming of the year. the second tape we have is mislabeled as the matrix 10/17/70, but is in fact a sampling of the sunday and monday performances. the quality of the mix on this recording is considerably better, with exquisite versions of candyman and dancing in the streets.

in the end, the experiment was more a novel happening than something the artists or organizers wanted to replicate. the shows themselves provided a fine example of the band’s transitioning sound from that of the adventurous and exploratory music contained on the 1969 LP live dead, to the distinctive americana of workingmans and american beauty, awash with bright harmonies and folk and country trimmings.

without further ado, the grateful quadrophonic dead. https://archive.org/details/gd1970-12-17.sbd.unk.87356.sbeok.flac16 https://archive.org/details/gd1970-10-04.sbd.cousinit.19985.sbeok.shnf

9/19/70: fillmore east, new york, NY.

the third night of this 4-show run is quite special, primarily because of the dark star suite. unfortunately the opening acoustic set is a very poor quality audience recording, distant and plagued by an extremely rowdy, hollering bunch of folks positioned around marty weinberg’s Uher 4000L mono reel-to-reel. the soundboard of this evening, however, is another story.

the portion of the soundboard we have contains one of the finest dark stars ever committed to tape. it made its debut on david gans' GD hour, courtesy of some reels that were gifted to him from alan mande who worked on the stage of the fillmore east in 1970. the story is that a few members of the crew recorded the set in the "E" shop under the stage. gans shared on the air that these were copies of the master reels, not the originals. to date, no one is sure who is in possession of the masters. in time they may surface and, if we're lucky, an official release of the entire september 17-20 stand will follow. for now, we’ll have to live with this stellar fragment.

https://archive.org/details/gd1970-09-19.mtx.chappell.SB14.31510.sbeok.flac16