5-18-68: santa clara county fairgrounds.

if you want to hear what the grateful dead sounded like six months prior to the release of live dead and the lauded 1969 line-up, this jorma kaukonen field tape is a telling record of the band’s hard-driving, opulently psychedelic 1968 soundscape. with two-thirds of the ’68 shows lost and many of the surviving documents being incomplete, this one is a real find. a caveat regarding the sound quality: the onstage microphone set-up swims quite a bit, has a number of drop-outs, and contains almost no up front vocals in the mix. despite these obvious liabilities, the music is breathtaking from start to finish. in fact, if pressed to produce a recording that perfectly documents the raging power of the grateful dead’s nineteen sixty-eight feverish, improvisatory gestalt, i strongly believe that the santa clara performance should always be in the conversation.

the american music journalist greil marcus was in attendance for the dead’s matinee outing. he remembers tom “big daddy” donahue introducing the band, announcing that their new album would be out that week, and suggesting that the dead might play some numbers from it during their set. marcus wrote: “jerry garcia smiled benignly to himself. he said they'd do 'alligator' and they did, for about forty minutes. that was their set and it blew the place wide open.”

listening to the swelling, monstrous, and brutal groove of this performance, i’d have to agree.
https://archive.org/details/gd1968-05-18.aud.jorma.gmb.sbeok.94591.flac16

8-6-71: hollywood palladium, los angeles, CA. w/ the new riders of the purple sage.

one of the best-known audience tapes from the early seventies, this rob bertrando field recording is really something. the tape, produced with a sony 770 portable 7-inch reel deck and two battery-powered ECM-22 condenser mikes, is close to perfect with soundboard quality instrument separation and a good balance of crowd noise. bertrando was one of the original grateful dead tapers who, along with relix-founders les kippel and jerry moore, worked their cunning magic in the days when recording shows demanded coming up with wily methods for getting one’s gear into concert venues. this is long before tapers’ sections were the norm at dead shows, and stories abound about the band’s sound and road crews putting the stops to every recording operation they witnessed. cords were cut, tape decks smashed, and tapes were often confiscated. it’s amazing that bootlegs like this palladium gig ever got made in the first place.

the show roars out of the gate with a fiery bertha, and the high-octane atmosphere continues throughout the performance. stellar takes on new and old tunes litter the first set, including a tight mr. charlie, a blistering cumberland blues, a fine brokedown palace with competent harmonies, and a damn pretty run through loser. the highlight of the opening frame is the tremendous hard to handle. a featured track on the fallout from the phil zone compilation, this hard to handle has long been considered in grateful dead circles as one of the best they ever played. the solo section on this evening is absolutely ablaze with power; the raw energy of this rendition is palpable, and the reflection back from the frenzied palladium audience perfectly captures the symbiotic relationship between the band and the crowd in a way that is elemental to the grateful dead’s live affect.

the second set opens with one of the last pre-vacation period takes on saint stephen. the stand alone version is full of swagger and doesn’t disappoint. a respectable truckin’ is next, replete with some downright acrobatic guitar work from garcia. from here, a quick drum solo bridges the way to the jewel of set 2—a fabulous, opulently textured other one. it’s a classic '71 version, filled with dark, ruminating jams and crackling verve—exactly what we’ve come to expect when listening to performances during this peak transitional period. me & my uncle appears midway through the song, a combination that would occur a number of times during the fall and winter tours. tonight’s take has a little something extra in the chamber and the segue is nearly perfect. after the cowboy weir interval, a free-form jam ensues and advances-with great instrumental fervor-to the final verse. the show concludes with a few rockers, a superb morning dew, and a 24-minute lovelight finale, packed with some beautiful blues-soaked riffs from jerry and plenty of righteous mckernan rap.

many early field recordings suffered greatly from being made too close to the stage. that certainly wasn’t the case with this tape. almost every note from each instrument is audible and the inflection of the band’s voices are evenly modulated. the quality of the sound recording and the sheer intensity of the performance makes this a show for the ages. warning: repeated listenings are conducive to a condition of heightened jubilance.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-08-06.aud.bertrando.yerys.129.sbeok.shnf

as an added bonus, here's a link to bertrando tape of the previous evening's performance, which ain't no slouch either. the sound quality on this recording is almost as good and well worth checking out. https://archive.org/details/gd71-08-05.aud.cotsman.9768.sbeok.shnf/gd71-08-05d1t02.shn

and i'd be remiss if i didn't include a link to the opening set by nrps, featuring jerry on pedal steel. it is the perfect compliment to the dead's performance and gives you a nice window into what a night with the grateful dead felt like in 1971. https://archive.org/details/nrps1971-08-06aud.shnf/nrps1971-08-06d2t01.shn

8/21/72: berkeley community theatre, berkeley, CA.

in the summer of 1972 the grateful dead embarked on a small west coast tour, including a four night engagement at the berkeley community theater. the entire series of berkeley performances—14,000 tickets—was sold out by the end of the second day the seats went on sale. there was no special advertising campaign, just the usual announcements in the standard bill graham adverts.

what could have been dismissed as a pedestrian monday night opener, cannot largely due to the remarkable second set dark star. this is not to say that the initial set isn’t also loaded with riches...a few high points include a bold take on the newly-penned he’s gone, a rousing china > rider, a playing in the band dripping with psychedelic adornment, and an absolutely gorgeous stand-alone stella blue. listening to the first frame it’s evident that the band is loose and happy to be playing a run of shows on their home turf. there’s plenty of space between songs, noodling about, and even a few words from phil on the topic of vegetables.

bobby ace and the cards from the bottom of the deck kick off the second set with rocking versions of greatest story ever told and ramble on rose. after a bit of cursory tuning, we arrive at the highlight of the night. this dark star begins with 9 minutes of improvisatory motoring before garcia sings the only verse. off into the deep unknown we go. the ensemble gathers steam, drops into a dissonant fold, and then enters into some full-on jazz chaos. the jamming is fierce and the group mills and spits, weaving back and forth between rapture and the dark abyss. in time, keith takes a piano solo and jerry valiantly attempts to usher the boys towards morning dew. they won’t have it and fall back into a jazzy improvisation piloted by godchaux’s keyboard scat. this interlude soon begins to resemble the beginning of any number of weir’s cowboy numbers, finally slowing down to segue into el paso. subsequently, garcia and lesh nudge the dark star theme again before jerome nods at deal. the version is slow, honey-drenched and unconfined.

as the dust clears, the boys tune up a bit while bobby, the consummate joker, throws his hat into the ring for nomination as mayor (with jerry prompting, “of freemont!”). they’re far from finished though, and jump headlong into a roaring sugar magnolia followed by stirring takes on mississippi half-step and uncle john’s band. the boys send the crowd home with a fiery one more saturday night. they did this three more evenings before heading to oregon to play a benefit for a local dairy farm, but that’s another story for another time.

culled from betty cantor-jackson’s 10-inch ½ track master reels, this recording will burn off your little ears. https://archive.org/details/gd1972-08-21.139581.sbd.miller.sirmick.flac16

8/21/69: green lake theatre, seattle, WA.

NO SHOW: UNGRATEFUL CLAMOR DIDN'T RAISE THE DEAD

the performance was originally scheduled for the previous night. the seattle times reported that “…from 6 to 7 p.m. the musicians assembled their amplification equipment on stage, sawed wood to place under the many huge speakers, fooled with the p.a. system, and tore down a sagging, ripped sheet that apparently had been intended as a backdrop. someone was blowing bubbles. another played a harmonica. at 7 p.m. someone yelled, "are ya gonna play, or not?" the cry was taken up by the audience. some cherry bombs exploded in the water. finally some rain fell—a few drops proved the highlight of the evening.” in true grateful dead fashion, the band took the night of august 20 on the road for a surprise appearance at a place called el roach on ballard ave. unfortunately, no tapes of the impromptu event can be found.

and so, on the evening of august 21, 1969, the dead, nrps, and sanpaku played in front of a moat in what proved to be the last gig at the aqua theatre. this is the first co-billing with the new riders, featuring garcia on pedal steel for anyone interested in that little snippet of dead lore. also of note is that the guest flautist who joins the band on a few numbers is none other than sanpaku's gary larkey, and not the esteemed charles lloyd as was erroneously reported in other accounts. the boys serve up casey jones as the opener. it’s slow, swampy and just messy enough to get your attention. the first taped version of easy wind is next on the docket; mckernan’s bravado is turned way up, and the band alternates between rolling blues grooves. a few more highlights from the early portion of the set include a flawless execution of bonnie dobson's morning dew, a fantastic high time that both showcases garcia's confident singing and the full-band harmonies that are really starting to come together, and an unusual new minglewood blues > china cat sunflower > doin’ that rag combination that features a fabulous transition jam peppered with larkey’s flute/scatting embellishments.

after another pigpen-sung number and a fine run through sittin’ on top of the world, we arrive at the finale of the extended green lake set. the last thirty minutes of the performance-an ultra-compact that’s it for the other one > dark star > cosmic charlie-are really something. the dark star is the shortest of the era, clocking in at less than 7 minutes with both verses. despite its brief, fleeting nature, it still packs a voltaic punch. the real news though is that the slow take on cosmic charlie is finally working, complete with assured vocals and tight playing.

taped by owsley with a fine digital transfer from j. cotsman, this set is a vital 1969 recording that shouldn’t be missed.

https://archive.org/details/gd69-08-21.sbd.cotsman.13850.sbeok.shnf

11/8/70: capitol theatre, port chester, NY.

nineteen-seventy has a vast aggregate of audience tapes, possibly more than any other year in the band’s history. in october '70 the dead stopped playing regular acoustic sets, focusing their energy on electric music, though the new riders continued to tour with them. the lone exception is the capitol theatre run in november, where the band played their last official acoustic set of the decade (unless you count the impromptu gig-billed as the bob weir band-at loyola college’s rambler room in the fall of 1978). the dead always had an infinity for the port chester club and it’s audiences. between 1970 and 1971 the band played the theater 18 times, placing it thick in the pantheon of dead venue lore.

a few year’s back, i wrote about a brilliant audience recording that ken and judy lee made during one of the dead’s june of ‘70 capitol theatre appearances. i raved about the special quality of sound they were able to capture on their field recording, most notably during the dark star suite. a year later, ken lee replied to my post with a few kind words, a funny antidote or two about the scene, a bit about recording the gigs, and eventually directed me-with much exuberance-to the evening of 11/8/70. i followed his recommendation and was, not to mince words, completely bowled over. listening to the tape, i found myself scratching my head and wondering how this performance had ever made it past my 1970 radar. i’ve since thoroughly listened to all 4 nights of the november stand. every recording is notable, although the final night is the standout show because of it’s unusual setlist and superlative second set jam.

dire wolf kicks off the wooden music, followed by a long, spiritual i know you rider. after dark hollow, weir is compelled to tell the crowd, "you realize we're all missing godzilla vs. king kong on TV-it's really good, we saw the opening scene-i didn't get to see king kong, but that godzilla, he was one motherfucker...." a few cowboy tunes later, the audience begins calling for pigpen. in due time, we’re treated to the last live performance of operator. the acoustic portion of the evening ends with two more american beauty numbers, the last wake up little suzie, and a sterling uncle john’s band.

following a strong 12-song outing from nrps w/jerome on pedal steel, the good ol’ electric grateful dead return to the stage. the opening morning dew is played and sung beautifully. after a straight-ahead me & my uncle, things really begin to get interesting when jerry leads the unit through the only versions of mystery train and my babe they ever played. the segue between the two tunes is so seamless that you’d swear they’d been performing the combo for years. the first around and around is next; bobby screams his lungs out and the band rocks it like you’ve never heard. keeping the party mood flowing, weir leads the sextet through a smoking excursion into the gary bonds 1960 hit, new orleans. it’s an ideal high energy tune for weir and it’s a shame the band only performed it one time, because it would have fit perfectly with bobby’s repertoire. new orleans transitions effortlessly into the rollicking mckernan-sung searchin,’ followed by spirited takes on it’s all over now baby blue, casey jones, and truckin.’

the electric set continues with a striking reading of dark star. after a confident exploratory opening passage, mickey nimbly plays the dark star theme on the glockenspiel as a prelude to the first verse. the band soon nudges their way into feedback. a bird call and laughter emerge from the crowd, followed by a few screams, a gong, cymbals, and more feedback. and then, with the greatest of ease, the band elegantly drops into the final recitation of the main ten. a remarkable melodic theme jam emerges from the 10-beat riff; in time, lesh and kreutzmann shift the tempo and garcia is happy to follow, steering the outfit into an excellent version of dancin’ in the streets. if all this music wasn’t enough to satisfy the capitol crowd, the band drives this behemoth of a show home with a rocking not fade away > goin’ down the road > not fade away > good lovin.’

recorded with a sony TC124s and sony cardioid mics spaced at 20 feet apart (with shielded cables along the edge of the balcony), this tape is truly one of the finest grateful dead audience recordings of the era. sadly, none of these november port chester shows exist in the dead’s vault. lucky for us, ken and judy’s field documents are alive and well, digitized and preserved on the archive. do yourself a favor and strap on a good pair of headphones and crank this beauty up. i promise that you’ll thank me for the suggestion. https://archive.org/details/gd1970-11-08.aud.lee.pcrp.26975.shnf

10/9/72: winterland arena, san franciso, CA. road crew benefit w/nrps.

nineteen seventy-two is chocked full of so many stellar performances that one can literally queue up any show on the archive and find something to really chew on. i’ve highlighted a good number of dates over the past three years in this blog, including two march academy of music gigs, some personal favorites from the europe run, a handful of unheralded december dates, and the smoldering new year’s closer from the winterland ballroom.

sandwiched in between a 12-show east coast hitch and a 10-night run in the northern midwest, the band made time for a single hometown performance in the form of an october road crew benefit at winterland. the dead were no strangers to benefits of course. beginning with the mid sixties san francisco mime troupe benefit shows, the band subtly pursued opportunities to aid various groups and causes. some of the more famous of these fundraisers were performances for the hell’s angels, the black panthers, yogi bhajan’s sufi choir, the american indians, and the springfield creamery field trip in veneta, OR. this evening’s concert raised in the neighborhood of $10,000 to reportedly help the dead’s roadies buy a house. what other band comes to mind for playing benefits so that their road crew might buy a home?

as was the case on the first and last california shows of the year, the new riders opened the festivities, followed by a more typically generous two sets from jerome and company. the first set is notable for the live debut of box of rain, which featured phil lesh in his first lead vocal for the band. other highlights of the set include nice renditions of black throated wind and friend of the devil, a well-jammed china > rider, an exquisite sugaree, and a fiery, 20-minute version of playing in the band, reminiscent of some of the more interesting takes on the tune performed during the european tour.

the second frame begins with an oddity: a brief blues jam featuring a clearly inebriated grace slick, messily adlibbing in front of the bemused band. fortunately for us, her appearance is short. the music recommences with a warm he’s gone, complete with the recently introduced vocal coda. a blistering run through johnny cash’s big river follows with some lightning picking from garcia alongside keith’s remarkable piano work. a few songs later-including a fledgling mississippi half step-we arrive at the real meat of the set via a superb truckin’ > other one > wharf rat combination. the phil and billy duet at the end of truckin’ is terrific, highlighting both musician’s extraordinary fluidity and their uncanny ability to switch tempos and styles. tonight’s take on the other one is jazzy and succinct, clocking in at a mere 10 minutes; it doesn’t pack the untethered punch that many of the ’72 versions exemplify, but is quite satisfying none the less. the wharf rat is pure early seventies august west, with that brilliant garcia bridge that moves the time signature into waltz time and back to the A-major march which perfectly translates the pathos of the narrator’s experience.

the night closes out with a strong sugar magnolia and an energized fragment of casey jones. overall, this is an exceptionally well-played show, clearly reflecting the many miles the band had logged on the road over the previous months. recorded by bear, mastered and retracked by bill guarneri, this night at winterland is worthy of a few listens. you be the judge. https://archive.org/details/gd1972-10-09.sbd.130494.MrBill.flac16

3-28-69: student center, modesto junior college, modesto, CA.

this often overlooked show from the spring of ‘69 is an absolute barn burner. taped during the period when the dead were holed up in pacific recording for the aoxomoxoa sessions, this performance is everything i love about 1969 grateful dead: weird, loud, messy, and packed with dynamic instrumental jams.

the night opens with a bad-ass good morning little schoolgirl; the band is already playing when the tape starts rolling, but that doesn't kill the vibe at all. following some turn up the monitors requests for old bear, the septet launches into dark star. one month removed from the first full-blown dark star at the filmore west (that would be mixed for live/dead), this evening’s version is a sonic adventure of radical proportions. after the first verse, things fall apart and dissolve, only to be recombined into something-and nothing-else. form is completely abandoned and, as was the case for many dark star jams of this era, the music comes to serve as a psychedelic litmus test for the audience—at once holy, disturbing, and utterly mesmeric. and then, with the greatest of ease, the lads depart the transitive nightfall of diamonds and drop into an absolutely raunchy saint stephen > eleven combination that keeps the whole freak show moving along at a searing pace. next, a haunting, perfectly rendered death don’t have no mercy comes forth. the band’s take on the reverend jesse davis tune is sublime, including two extremely fiery instrumental breaks. in due course, pig asserts control again to lead the boys through a balling lovelight.

after 22 uncut minutes of mckernan magic, jerry chimes out “we’re gonna knock off for a little while and drink some coke and stuff like that and then we’ll be back to play a while, shortly…” a minute later he retorts “as long as everybody’s up you might as well stay up…there’s only 15 minutes more so we’re gonna play instead of taking a break.” and then, as the dead so often do, 15 minutes turns into a half hour of music in the form of a titanic cryptical suite. it’s a powerhouse version that doesn’t break new ground but, who cares, it’s good ol’ 1969 fucking grateful dead.
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-03-28.140994.sbd.bear.lubar.dalton.miller.clugston.flac1644/Gd69-03-28T08Tuning_banter.flac

9-11-74: alexandra palace, london.

1974 was surely a high watermark year for the dead. for starters, the wall of sound introduced concert goers to the largest, technologically innovative public address system ever built. in addition to the force and extravagance of the PA, much of the tour added halftime entertainment in the form of ned lagin and phil lesh, and their experimental modular-synth seastones performances. like many ardent dead fans, i’m a real admirer of the collaborations between ned and the band, although the seastones outings surely aren’t everyone’s cup of ayahuasca.

the ’74 tour wasn’t all roses though. assembling, disassembling, and hauling around 75 tons of amps, speakers, subwoofers and tweeters was a lot of work, and it really took a toll on the grateful dead family. in addition, there was a general dissatisfaction with playing larger and more impersonal venues, ongoing squabbles and inflexibility among the band members, and a growing dependence on cocaine to keep the locomotive moving.

seven months and 24 shows after the touring debut of the completed wall of sound at the cow palace, the band embarked on a brief tour of europe. the first stop was the famed alexandra palace in london. the third ally pally show of the 3-night stopover is rife with compelling music, including more pure improvisational offerings than any singular dead performance. in a 2001 KPFA interview with david gans, lagin shared that the stress and burden of the ’74 tour came to a head on this evening in the united kingdom. according to various sources, the band huddled together and agreed to lay down their coke spoons and participate in a bit of lysergic purification to reset the levels. dick latvala was as much a fan of LSD as he was of listening to and archiving the dead’s music, so it’s surprising that his pick documenting this london run (vol. 7) completely ignored the towering highlight from the show’s second set. without question, it is hands down one of the most outside jamming adventures of the year.

the first frame begins with a well-played scarlet begonias to set the pace. the next standout is sugaree, filled with elegant contrasts that soar above the song’s trying narrative. the remainder of the set is loose and articulate, with a punchy mexicali blues, a sweet jack straw with jerry’s little daredevil fills under bob’s vocal lines, and a sweet row jimmy with some downright superb ensemble work. the playing in the band set closer is first rate; the group pushes and pulls the hunter-weir song, gradually building to a delicious apex before garcia deftly stages the reprise at the twenty-minute mark.

set 2 opens with seastones. the beginning music sounds like ned alone, liberally sending synth waves spiraling outward into the great hall. shortly afterward, billy, jerry, and finally bobby join ned and phil on stage and effortlessly begin to add to the lush mix. in due time, lagin abandons his synthesizers and moves to his rhodes piano. the group mind is at work now, and the resulting music is difficult to describe—tangibly psychedelic, with deep tribal grooves. in time, jerome picks up the pace and the jam moves in concentric arcs before dropping into a drumless space, followed by more annular jamming. eventually, eyes of the world appears on the sonic horizon; the transition to the song is slow, and it’s a real gas how it takes them a full 7-minutes to get their collaborative space together and begin the tune for real. the ensemble works through the eyes and all of its subtle changes, with ned adding some acrobatic keyboard lines alongside keith’s sterling piano work. and then, as they are often inclined to do, they find their way to another nameless jam for 10 more minutes, before winding down with wharf rat.

phil announces a short break to break down ned’s equipment, in anticipation of the band returning for a cursory final half hour of closing music. the first couple of numbers are fairly hot and spirited, but by the time they land on sugar magnolia, it’s very clear they’re completely spent. given the absolute leviathan and expansive performance on this evening, that should go without saying. https://archive.org/details/gd1974-09-11.132458.mtx.GEMS-BCE.flac16/gd74-09-11s2t04.flac

4-12-70: fillmore west, san francisco, CA.

the dead didn't play many shows in april 1970, and this run with the miles davis quintet serving as the opening act is clearly the highpoint. the downside of the 4-night stand is that, like many of the spring ’70 shows they taped, most of the reels were haphazardly lost or stolen. fortunately for us, a good deal of bear’s 7 inch half track reel master of the final night’s performance survived. harry ely’s fantastic stereo field recording fills in the gaps.

catching miles davis alongside the dead during this fillmore engagement must have been a total gas. davis’ appearance came close on the heels of the release of his groundbreaking double LP bitches brew, which represented another big artistic leap for the trumpeter. the band that he brought along comprising of chick corea on keys, bassist dave holland, soprano sax player steve grossman, drummer jack dejohnette, and percussionist airto moreira, was fully versed in this new music and stood the fillmore audiences on their ears. i’ve included youtube links of both the 4/11 and 4/12 performances here for evidence. trust me, they’ll blow your top.

the dead’s set opens with a lengthy and very laid-back version of good morning little schoolgirl, a tune they hadn’t dusted off since december of the previous year. after a bright and punchy casey jones, a slightly botched china > rider, and a rip roaring good lovin’, we’re treated to two mid set treats: the first electrified candyman, and a real slinky version of deep elem blues. two workingman cuts and the customary broken string announcement later, the band launches into the show’s centerpiece—dancin’ in the streets. the improvisational furry begins early; jerry and phil really play off of each other, hacking away at their strings with an energy that makes this excursion one of the more notable jams from 1970. without question, it rivals the tour de force they’ll lay down at harpur college a few weeks later.

the remainder of the evening is just as tasty. black peter and uncle john’s band are presented in fine form, with solid harmonies. it’s a man’s man’s man's world is also excellent; mckernan’s vocals are impassioned and garcia’s guitar work is slippery, and oh so funky. viola lee blues closes out the show, with pigpen back on organ. the sextet slides into the song with ease, their playing loose, but perfectly controlled. in due time the jamming is full-tilt, ablaze with what makes this tune so satisfying—a deliberate balance of rage and fervor. and like that, the retooled gus cannon jug band hit ends with a crash, followed by howls of gorgeous feedback.

miles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBlTjFf_eYE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4WXT_JgfTM&t=1637s

the dead end kids: https://archive.org/details/gd70-04-12.sbd.kaplan.3820.sbeok.shnf

12-29-68: miami pop festival, gulfstream park, hallandale, FL.

the last grateful dead performance of 1968 is a goddamn barnburner. they torch the place. the festival scene prevented the band from working through their usual trip, so everything is revved up to maximum speed, as you’ll hear immediately on the lovelight opener. pig is as riled up as a rabid hound and the septet storms through the first number like a band possessed. lesh introduces the next item on the bill “we once put this thing out as a single,” before the lads bore down into a shrieking 10-minute dark star that, unlike the lengthy jazzy peregrinations to come, is presented as a piece of slashing rock ‘n roll. from here, the mad unit skids into a rousing saint stephen, complete with the william tell bridge and a full-throttled bacchanalesque outro jam. the boys are warming up now and the eleven that follows hits you like a mattock in the skull. a drum solo airs things out for a moment, before an absolutely fervent other one > cryptical envelopment wells up and decimates everything in its path.

and then, a we bid you goodnight benediction because, unquestionably, it’s what’s needed. https://archive.org/details/gd1968-12-29.sbd.miller.80197.sbeok.flac16

5-10-72: het concertgebouw, amsterdam. 

11-8-69: fillmore auditorium, san francisco, CA.

much has been written about 1969 dead. it was a year packed with great performances, to say the least. discerning listeners point to a few essential tapes from the year, including the famed fillmore east dates w/janis joplin and her cosmic blues band, two remarkable evenings at the dream bowl, a number of fillmore west shows (highlighted by the late february and early march gigs that would grace the landmark double LP, live dead), three raging nights at the ark, two big rock pow wow shows at the seminole indian village in west hollywood FL, a handful of nights at the family dog and winterland arena and, of course, a much celebrated festival in bethel, NY. this list is far from being comprehensive.

a few years ago, i stumbled onto an essay by renowned taper jim wise about his relationship with dick latvala and a certain ’69 grateful dead recording. around the time the two met, latvala was pitching november 8, 1969 to john cutler and jeffery norman as the next dick’s picks release. the music was stunning, as was a flaw in the master recording—a continuous clicking sound throughout. dick left a 2-track recording he’d converted to DAT from bear’s 7-inch master reels with wise to see what he could do with the technical issues. wise went to work and was eventually able to remove the clicks from the right channel of the disc, resulting in the sound on the transfer you’ll hear on this archived recording. of course, the fidelity of the revamped sound was a hit with jeff norman too, as evidenced on dick’s 16.

the tape is an odyssey. it is considered by many dead historians as one of the finest early performances by the band. i heartily agree. the true journey of the show begins with an elegant dark star, masterfully played and underscored by deeply ruminative improvisations. after the first verse, the ensemble drifts off into space before garcia wanders into a fantastically potent jam. lesh, the consummate opportunist, intricately shapes the dark star jam into a new theme and soon begins to hint at the other one. the momentum is indomitable and the musical interplay sets the band at a tremendous energy level. the transition into the other one is sudden and arresting; several compelling jams occur before the first verse, adroitly led by phil’s maniacal bass and some absolutely sinister guitar work by jerome. in time lesh hints at a caution theme, but garcia has other plans and soars back into dark star. phil isn’t done though, and leads the group into a surprising instrumental take on uncle john’s band. the short jam is ineffably joyful, and the uptempo interpretation is a perfect bridge to the final verse of dark star.

the remainder of the set is equally as satisfying. the saint stephen that arises out of the dark star suite is played to perfection, with a particularly torrid final jam. the eleven is next, and it is one of the few times the band has played the dark star > saint stephen > eleven trilogy since the introduction of the new aoxomoxoa material into their repertoire that april. this evening’s take on the eleven is sterling, offering a swath of deep improvisational territories. in time, lesh again has his way and steers the outfit into caution. the playing soon becomes downright psychedelic—combined with an ideal portion of distortion—before mckernan brings the band back to earth with a long and detailed vocal discourse. and if there hasn’t been enough twists and surprises, a rare main ten jam is introduced, explored, and discarded for a scorching caution reprise. the evening concludes with an extended feedback and a bittersweet and slightly out of tune we bid you goodnight finale.

in a year of incredible peaks, this show is one of the exceptional outings. it embodies the essence of 1969 grateful dead—roaring, pulsing, nefarious, and sublime. it’s easy to see why mr. latvala was so in love with this tape. queue it up and see for yourself. my only counsel is that you dial the volume up to an unreasonable level to ensure maximum enjoyment. https://archive.org/details/gd1969-11-08.sbd.wise.17433.shnf/gd69-11-08d2t02.shn

5/3/69: winterland arena, san francisco, CA. the dead play a saturday night show with jefferson airplane and afro-cuban percussionist mongo santamaria.

bear recorded everything in 1969. there was always a tape being made. something that could be played back and critiqued. the music would run through the soundboard and into his trusty nagra reel-to-reel. not only that, but in '69 he frequently taped shows on reels and cassettes at the same time. for some odd reason though, a soundboard of this winterland date doesn’t seem to exist in the vault. fortunately for us, george jackson was perched on the lip of the stage near the keyboard position with a sony 770, 7 ½ ips quarter track and two condenser mics. the result won’t go down as the greatest 1969 show in history, but it surely can be counted as one of the best audience tapes ever.

the quality of this tape eclipses the performance. the opening he was a friend of mine is absolutely gorgeous, although somewhat uneven. the other one suite that follows is pure energy, and is not to be missed. san francisco’s samurai seven assault the crowd with a complexity of sound that is their gestalt—fluid meters, incessant innovation, and opulent noise. garcia’s endless inventive guitar drives the various themes; his playing is at once fiendish, manic, and furtive. the cryptical reprise is elegantly drawn out and striking. from here they drop seamlessly into a fine early take on doin’ that rag. the boys really nail it and, even with the tune's abrupt chord changes and pacing, sound like they’ve been playing the aoxomoxoa number for years.

there’s nothing to regret here aside from the fact that the tape runs out way too early in the show. despite its brevity, it is a must recording for any collection.

https://archive.org/details/gd1969-05-03.139575.pcm.miller.flac16