3/24/70: pirates world, dania, FL.
periodically the dead ventured out to play isolated shows in distant parts. florida was no exception, and included appearances at the miami pop festival and the big rock pow wow—both of which i have previously delved into in this blog. deadlists shows a ticket for two different march dates, which raises a mystery, but for purposes of this post i'll accept this show as occuring on the 24th. the recording is also unusual for the month in being in wide stereo (the other tapes in circulation have mostly been in mono).
no matter what the date, the grateful dead did spend some time that week sitting around the hotel pool. and they did more than sitting. they wrote truckin,' one of their most iconic songs with robert hunter (who had joined the band for the brief tour). the story is that hunter had come to the conclusion that the dead needed a road song, and that he needed to see the road to write the song. hunter had been working on the lyrics for a few months, inspired by the band's bust in new orleans. their guitars were within grabbing distance, so garcia, lesh, and weir set music to the song in about a half-hour. a nifty morsel of GD history.
the tape cuts in during a rushed, but well played morning dew. weir says, "at the risk of being repetitious, we're gonna do another song in the same key," and they go with mama tried. good lovin' is the best of the month; it has a short drum solo, then garcia jams with the drums for a while before the others return. weir & lesh assume leadership while jerry takes a breather. this section is unique, with weir blasting away on rhythm before garcia comes back in a torrent, pushing the ensemble to a firey climax. a few cuts later-including a rousing electric don't ease me in-it's time for the big medley.
this dark star is notable for being entirely instrumental. a tapecut wipes out the first verse, and the lads bail out before the second stanza. it's also a fast, streamlined version, making it easy to hear how the band contemporaneously inhabits the music. the intro jam is brisk and focused; it soon cuts off, and the tape picks up again deep in the post-verse space. they soon reveal a few hints of melody, a jam rapidly materializes, and the music soars, unconstrained, in a stream of fecund, transportive motifs. garcia keeps pushing the group onward, his guitar lines cascading through the dark star riff, before slowing the tempo and trying out a new jam. but lesh is in a hurry to move on, and before they can return to the verse, he starts pounding out the other one intro riff. this is a very fast version, and they speed right through it, before garcia jumps straight into st. stephen. the take is raw and concise, with a hot guitar tone from jerry. in time, the drums beat out the introduction to a chunky not fade away—without much jamming—before they segue effortlessly into lovelight, with pigpen working his usual rap. lovelight would seem like the natural closer, but cowboy weir abruptly takes it into me & my uncle, and the show ends there.
https://archive.org/details/gd70-03-24.sbd.miller.32054.sbeok.flacf
