12-15-71: hill auditorium, ann arbor, MI.

the period from october through december of 1971 was, for many years, the best documented run in the grateful dead's history. the fall tour produced 15 live broadcasts of complete concerts across the country. the shows, airing on local radio stations, provided burgeoning tapers with a rich supply of high quality tapes that featured the addition of pianist keith godchaux and a rollicking new sound and direction for the band. if you're looking for a singular recording from late 1971 that is telling of the new direction the dead were heading, the second performance of the two night stand at the 4100 seat U of michigan's hill auditorium is a worthy candidate. pigpen is back in the fold nestled behind his trusty B3 organ, and his faithful rendering of old roots songs (and newly penned numbers like mr. charlie) fit right in with the dead's new sound. pig's two month hiatus has allowed keith some time to meld with the band, and his playing on this evening in ann arbor sounds as though he's been performing with them for years.

before venturing into this performance though, there's a backstory about the FM radio aspect of the tour that needs to get unpacked a bit. by 1971, the grateful dead had accumulated a fair amount of leverage with their label, warner brothers records. they had back to back hit albums, steadily rising concert receipts, and had also garnered a good deal of press with the live dead LP. just prior to the fall run of shows, the band told warners that they wanted to release another double live album. the band had been considering the idea of a new live album since late 1970. in preparation, they taped shows during the spring tour which included two performances at the manhattan center, the april run at the fillmore east, and a benefit gig for yogi bhajan at winterland in march. by september, they had 9 shows worth of live material for the album, a cover (a version of a stanley mouse skeleton-and-roses poster from 1966), and a proposal for a nifty title: "skullfuck." joe smith and warner brothers were completely against such a title, claiming that stores-including one of their biggest distributors sears & roebuck-would never stock an album bearing that name. warners said they were happy to release the live double set with one caveat: the album was to be renamed the "grateful dead." the dead said they would meet warner's request, provided that they give them something in return. the trade off was perfect, and came in the form of joe smith doling out $100,000 for live radio broadcasts as part of the promotional budget. as for the album, it was released that october to very positive reviews. it would go on to become the band's first gold record, but that's a tale for another time.

the hill auditorium soundboard tape cuts in at the end of sam cutler's band introductions. after some cursory tuning and a small helping of amusing stage chatter, the show kicks off with bertha. the boys are completely on fire from the first note with jerry and keith both prominent in the mix. me & bobby mcgee is next and features a faultless coupling of bobby's vocals and jerome's resonant guitar licks. the remainder of the first set is as compelling and all of the tunes are performed tightly, despite the fact that many are still in their developing form. of note are the china cat > i know you rider pairing-that includes an excellent layered jam during the bridge, a goddamn gorgeous brokedown palace, and an early 6 1/2 minute take on playing in the band that foreshadows the exploratory directions the song will take on in the months ahead, when the main ten thematic undercurrent will no longer be left unrestrained.

the second frame opens with a brilliant dark star that exceeds the relative obscurity of its character and reputation. the music starts off quietly with a ten minute intro jam that flows intuitively. lesh soon finds a groove and the others closely follow him, seizing on the slightest hint to change direction and explore a new theme. in time, jerry leads the ensemble into a quiet space and then pushes them into a jam that builds to a loud, penetrating climax. the momentum gradually unwinds and drops into a rhythm that appears like it's heading for the other one. garcia has different ideas though and, in an instant, switches to the dark star theme. after the opening verse, a quiet, unadorned space opens up. phil soon begins to assault the auditorium crowd with some booming riffs that pave the way for two atonal jams, before devolving into a deep abyss. jerry emerges from the void and begins to play with a new idea, while kreutzmann, weir, lesh, and godchaux piece together an odd, lounge-style instrumental. once the band has eased into this new thematic fold, they play it at length, until it slowly dissipates and transforms into a more vigorous, driving jam. and, just like that, garcia vaults right into a honky-tonk deal, that is both insistent and a textbook vehicle for the boys to strut their rock n' roll chops. the show charges along bringing pigpen into the spotlight with a romp through turn on your lovelight. tonight's take on the bobby bland r&b number includes a very unique embedded king bee/mannish boy section, before transitioning back to lovelight proper. this rare late '71 lovelight-in which pig is back in form-is a real pleasure.

the cross-country FM extravaganza of 1971 was, like many things grateful dead, a hip idea that was way ahead of its time. there were nights when the dead and the new riders dominated the airwaves for 4-5 hours. if live radio broadcasts had become the norm before the release of every dead album, fans and tapers would have eaten that up. unfortunately, this was not to be. by the time their next long player-the much celebrated europe '72-hit the shelves, the band was moving on from warners. the experiment was over. even so, it was a unique idea that surely reaped benefits for the dead for many years.

culled from bob mathew's 7 inch 1/4 track recording and remastered by charlie miller, this tape is really something. dig in. https://archive.org/details/gd1971-12-15.149966.sbd.mr.miller.flac16

11-12-71: san antonio civic auditorium w/nrps

in the fall of 1971 the dead and long time touring partners the new riders of the purple sage hit the road again for a few months. gone were the 6 hour shows the two bands collaborated on the year before. jerry no longer played pedal steel with the opening act, replaced by session man and former great speckled bird member, buddy cage. the dead also had a lineup change of their own in keith godchaux. an accomplished keyboardist who recorded with the likes of dave mason and james & the good brothers, keith brought his honed skills to the band playing both piano and hammond organ. on a somber note, the dead were performing without pigpen who was home sick with doctor's orders to stop touring indefinitely because of a rare case of biliary cirrhosis.

the basic set structure of 1970 (less nrps) would become the general concert structure for the grateful dead forevermore, with first sets built around shorter, more basic tunes, and second sets being more exploratory in nature. beginning in the spring '71 tour, the other one became a regular second frame piece for extended jamming and mining the otherwordly. in an interview with charles reich from the book signpost to a new space (da capo press, 1972), garcia shared that nineteen seventy-one found the band more excited about exploring the other one than they were about dark star. jerry was really jazzed about the directions the song could go in as it opened up and became spacier. keith's addition to the ensemble is palpable during these extended voyages; he brings new elements to the mix and it's obvious that his style of playing is an inspiration to the others, resulting in a richer, fuller sound and expanding the ideas they could collectively pursue.

a prime example of an other one from the fall tour was played during a late november concert in san antonio. the boys always seemed to bring a little extra to their texas gigs, and this set II fragment--culled from dick latvala's dat of the master reel vault source--is no exception. the recording captures the band during a period of great energy, change, and maturation; the mix on the tape has a wide dynamic range and shows the beginnings of the monumental europe '72 sound in developement.

the cryptical suite from this evening is quite remarkable and contains an array of complex, thematic jams. after the customary vocal intro and a 2 1/2 minute drum interlude from kreutzmann, the quintet launches headlong into the other one. garcia's playing is at once fierce with a tangible immediacy. lesh's bass oscillates across the wavelengths of jerry's guitar and the percussive cadence of keith's staccato piano runs coupled with bill's wily timekeeping create a rhythmic balance teetering on the edge of instability. weir keeps things ever interesting inverting chords and subtly filling the soundscape with rich, melodic shades, moving with seamless transition between the current jam and other spatial motifs. garcia soon heads in a different direction and the band veers into a spacey exploration that drifts into emptiness. out of this minimalist space comes a new, beautifully layered jam that builds to an absolutely feral pitch before cowboy bob belts out the first verse. from here, things evolve into another jam that ebbs and flows with psychedelic abandon, before winding down and drifting into a delicate and soulful cryptical reprise. and, as the dead often do, they keep things surprising by promptly diving full-speed ahead into a blistering big railroad blues. it's as unexpected a combo as i've ever heard the group roll out.

transfered by the esteemed c. miller and edited/mastered by sirmick, this soundboard source fragment is about as good as it gets for '71 dead.
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-11-12.142439.partial.sbd.easton.miller.sirmick.flac1644/gd1971-11-12t01.flac

the spirit of '76

6/29/76: auditorium theatre, chicago, IL.

mangrove valley has been up and running for over 4 years now and not once have i ventured to write about a grateful dead show played later than 1975. the reasoning behind this choice is not based solely on the huge stockpile of incredible pre-retirement tapes to explore and deconstruct on the archive, it’s also largely informed by a simple personal fact: i’m a full-on early years dead freak. despite my adoration of the noisy, unhinged experimental stuff of old, i’ve certainly hedged towards the later seventies by including three of the four 1975 dates, with detailed posts/links to the largely instrumental SNACK benefit concert, the bob fried memorial boogie at winterland featuring jerry garcia & friends, and the excellent bob menke field-recording from lindley meadows. my only omission is the great american music hall performance, which has been more than well-documented and digitized for posterity in the one from the vault release. as an aside, i even included a brief post about the alan bershaw transfer of bob gurman’s studio reel that documents the first of the blues for allah practice sessions at bob weir’s mill valley home.

so, what made me want to stray from my longstanding focus on gigs played prior to the 1 ½ year hiatus from touring? the answer arrived via the united states postal service in late march in the form of the new june 1976 box set. listening to the five shows and fifteen discs that make up this fine compilation has given me a whole new appreciation for the comeback year with its small concert halls and revamped sound system. my curiosity was fired after communing with the boston, new york city, and passaic dates contained within the neatly packaged set, and i promptly dove into the archive for a more discerning listen to the 1976 canon. a few shows into my foraging, i landed on the final performance of the 4-night run at the old auditorium theatre in chicago. but before i gush about the 6/29 performance, let me set the table with a few details about the dead's reentry into the touring fold.

much has been written about what promoted the philosophical shift that transitioned the dead from the big stadium wall of sound touring machine to a band that opted for smaller venues and a compact dual PA system. garcia summed it up nicely when he told local san francisco tv host, father john riley, in an interview the same month the band announced its return: “we felt that [we] reached the end of a certain level, that cul-de-sac, in terms of a rock ‘n roll group. what we call the mega-gig, the huge stadium, we played in those…[and] we felt that it was a dead end. it got to be totally controlled, airplane to motel, motel to gig, heavy security, nobody near the stage. what’s worse, it’s reflected in [how] those very large places deal with people, that cattle prod methodology. lots of cops, lots of frisk lines, lots of tightness. what we wanted to do was definitely not that. so it became a question of what we wanted to do?” 

what they did was unprecedented for a rock band at that time. in a radical new attempt at direct marketing, the dead announced it's first 18 shows of the bicentennial via Dead Heads with instructions about how to mail order tickets. the notice included the following language: "we don't want to pack around the equipment necessary to do ultralarge productions. in plain fact, we don't want to play giant gigs at all-so we're going back into smaller places, keep promotion way down and give you first crack at tickets." and that's how it went down. the shows were announced and the fans rabidly ate up the tickets and prepared for the revamped grateful dead, that featured the return of second drummer mickey hart after a half-decade absence. to make things-as bobby ace often liked to espouse-"exactly right," the group situated themselves at san francisco's orpheum theatre for a final round of technical rehearsals at the end of may. and to spice things up a tad more before embarking on their east coast run, they added a july 2nd tour closing show at jersey city's roosevelt stadium. the stage was set.

the culminating concert of the brief june tour finds the band in extremely solid form and demonstrates in spades the stripped-down, retooled, reinvented version of the good old grateful dead. the first set kicks of with a rare tennessee jed opener that sets the tone for the evening. jerome belts out the lyrics and rips through a few very satisfying solos. two weir-sung numbers and a sweet, lilting take on peggy-o later, the band rolls out their last live performance of the JGB staple, mission in the rain. tonight's take is downright stirring. of note, donna godchaux's backing vocals on the hunter-garcia tune are gorgeous; she has fully integrated into the band by now and her time performing with jerry's side projects has really helped her smooth out her delivery and work with the monitors during live shows. a bit further into the first frame, the band delivers a barrelhouse version of the weir-barlow combo lazy lightning > supplication. the first two cuts from the recently released kingfish LP get an extended treatment, with some nice ensemble jamming on the backend. a long and tasty row jimmy is next, with just the right amount of slide work from jerome, followed by a music never stopped > might as well 1-2 punch that must have had a good number of folks feverishly spinning in the aisles. 

the second set opens with the weir-led arrangement of reverend gary davis's sampson and delilah. this is a new tune for the band and will be a regular part of their repertoire and be played countless times over the next 20 years. this early take is a bit rough, but satisfying all the same. candyman is next. written in 1970, the song has been in obscurity for most of the years since, but now it comes into new focus and character. garcia's fill passages are delicate and transportive and, much like his ethereal pedal steel solo on american beauty, communicates the blues. after a rather lengthy bit of tuning up, the band beyond description plunges headlong into the centerpiece of set two. playing in the band has certainly been a vehicle for exploration and inventive jams since the europe '72 tour, and tonight's take is no exception. this version starts out rather innocently and quickly drops into a rich, jazzy improvisation. this initial jam soon digresses into a more dissonant soundscape; a few different grooves ensue with various members trading melody figures under jerry's extended leads. soon a new jam emerges, the drummers shift their rhythmic pattern, and the band slides effortlessly into the wheel. released on jerry's solo record in 1972, this tune doesn't get its live debut until this tour. this is their fourth performance and it's already beginning to take shape. about five minutes into the song the dead, as they often do, take a detour. garcia starts hinting at the other one, and this soon turns into a fast-paced jam with a driving piano riff by keith. the dance continues for a few more minutes before dropping into an open, free-form space that the band seems happy to mine for a while. in time, the incohesive becomes a connected, familiar groove and the group finds their way back to playing in the band. the retooled st. stephen is next, complete with a rocked out not fade away in place of the william tell bridge. and if that wasn't enough, there's still room for an upbeat one more saturday night and a funky u.s. blues encore.

recorded by betty cantor-jackson and mastered by scott clugston, this performance is aces from top to bottom. plug in some headphones and see for yourself. i'm guessing you'll dig it as much as i have.

https://archive.org/details/gd1976-06-29.139633.sbd.betty.gastwirt.miller.clugston.flac16/Gd76-06-29T01Tuning.flac

    

2/1/70: the warehouse, new orleans, LA. w/fleetwood mac

heralded as “bread for the dead,” this show was essentially the dead’s bust fund benefit for themselves. after some wacky tape-opening chatter, the stage announcer says: “and here’s the group that made this afternoon all possible…” (lesh: “the new orleans police department!”), and they launch into a torrid version of beat it on down the line. china cat sunflower > i know you rider is next up; the mix is guitar-heavy and messy, but it levels out just before the customary three-part a capella vocal harmony. a few new ones from the soon-to-be-released workingman’s dead follow—black peter and cumberland blues. both songs are well played and sound remarkably tight despite the fact that they’d just been folded into the band’s repertoire. the middle portion of the show is pretty standard without any real standouts. good lovin’ cuts just as the jam is heading back into pig’s vocals and dire wolf is still in its catchy folk tune phase.

the boys really dig in for back half of the performance. the cryptical suite is superb and typical of the era. the opening verse segues into an extremely long (11 minute) drum break, followed by a seething take on the other one. a reel flip neatly cuts the vocals, resulting in a mostly instrumental version. the ensemble playing is absolutely fierce, and garcia sounds like he’s about to blow up. fleetwood mac’s peter green joins the band on guitar as they drop into 39-minutes of turn on your lovelight to close out the show. green’s presence is felt immediately as he bends and blends notes on his ’59 honey-burst les paul, deftly navigating the tempo changes that make the song such a delight. his contribution clearly inspires the band and the evening’s take is a very long, jammed out version that surely stands out as one of the most colorful lovelights of the year. https://archive.org/details/gd1970-02-01.126275.sbd.lee-smith.flac16

12-19-69: fillmore auditorium, san francisco, CA. w/osceola, rhythm dukes, jef jaisun, and lightyear.

this performance is highly significant in grateful dead history in that it is the first to feature an acoustic set. by all accounts, it appears that this evening’s wooden music was necessitated because of some significant technical problems. it was enough of a hit though that they rolled it out the next week in dallas, and then again numerous times in 1970 (with and without the new riders).

the tape opens with a few comments by jerry on the topic of a missing bass player. he shares that phil “...is stuck somewhere, but he is on his way and will be here in some short time and we’ll be able to play loud and all that…in the meantime, me and bobby ace are going to regale you with some old favorites.” these early acoustic takes on monkey & the engineer, little sadie, and been all around this world come off quite nicely, similar to how they’d sound on bear’s choice. the one wild card is the vern stovall/bobby george song, long black limousine. weir, in fine voice, gets a chance to step it up on the tune, and garcia’s backing vocals are a perfect compliment. although the band played the song beautifully, they shelved it before realizing its full potential. the final performance–at the fillmore east–came just five months after this evening’s debut.

in due time, the full band is assembled and gets down to business with the electric portion of the show. it kicks off with an absolutely smoking mason’s children. from here, the lads settle into the usual late ’69 song selection with a solid black peter, a vibrant hard to handle, a rocking cumberland blues, and a funky take on good lovin’. the show concludes with a stirring other one suite that segues nicely into uncle john's band, followed by a well-jammed lovelight that spirals into a bold climax, which certainly must have left the crowd exhausted and satisfied. without question, this owsley tape is worthy of your full attention.
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-12-19.sbd.clugston.5584.sbeok.shnf/gd69-12-19d1t01.shn