8-21-71: mickey's barn, novato, CA, featuring members of the grateful dead, nrps, quicksilver messenger service, and a few other lithe collaborators including: david crosby, barry melton, robbie stokes, and ned lagin.

in august of '71, the new riders of the purple sage were putting the final touches on their first recording for columbia records. that same month, the band-with jerry garcia on pedal steel-performed a live outdoor set at mickey hart's ranch. the performance was recorded for a KQED-tv public television program, and promoted as "a day in the country." hart's novato ranch was certainly not a concert venue, so the performance wasn't made available to the general public. more appropriately, lawn chairs and blankets were spread about in front of the barn and the grateful dead family & friends served as the audience. it remains a mystery as to what became of the channel 9 footage of the event, except for a very brief snippet of louisiana lady on the riders offical archive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtQmsKK6Ptk

following the nrps tv outing, a number of musicians on site gathered for a spontaneous jam session. nedbase-the definitive list of ned lagin's performances with the dead-includes a short entry about the novato jam, including ned's take on who was in attendance, the instrumentation, and the general vibe, which he referred to as a "...very high day for everyone." also noted is that phil lesh made a soundboard recording of the improvised set, afterwhich he and ned listened to all the recordings together. lesh made reel-to-reel and cassette copies for himself and for ned. phil's writing on the tape box lists: stokes, garcia, lagin, hart, lesh, crosby, cippolina, and freiberg, as well as some recording information.

the partial soundboard tape we have runs a little more than 100 minutes, and contains four tracks. the music begins with the last 2 minutes of the other one jam. it's moody and ned's piano is prominant with a staccato feel. this jam-albeit much too brief-neatly segues into a fairly unadorned version of the wall song. the cut is over a half hour long and is primarily a jam on the main theme with occasional drops into the verses, which are mostly instrumental. crosby and garcia scat through the beginning of the tune, and eventually sing parts of the third verse. at the 20-minute mark, the tempo kicks up a bit and they abandon the theme for a different groove for about 8 minutes, then return to the tune for the final 5 minutes of the jam. as soon as the playing ends, jerry announces "i gotta go play" (20 miles away at the inn of the beginning where nrps was performing later that night) and that's all we have of garcia.

the second jam starts off with an organ in the mix, and piano is added a bit later. it's a mid-tempo jam that builds to a more robust tempo as the piece progresses. john cipollina's guitar and bigsby tailpiece vibrato bar is prominent in the mix, with his unique finger-picking style and trademark quiver. the jam eventually dwindles out, stopping just short of 18 minutes. from here, the rotating ensemble dives into the third cut on the tape, a jam lagin affectionately dubbed "blooz." it's a real beauty, and there's not a moment's respite from an abundance of solid, straight-a-head jamming. we hear ned's organ, phil's bass, and what appears to be 3 guitars adroitly weaving in and out of each other; they all attack the jam and cippolina provides plenty of bite & distorted tone courtesy of his maestro fuzzbox.

the last jam is a bouncy mid-tempo affair with three or four (or more) guitarists, two basses, a piano, and an organ (apparently labeled "R&R Jam" on lagin's tape). the nedbase post indicates that by this time in the session most of the other instruments were out of tune with the piano and organ. i'd have to concur, although we don't have to endure much as the tape cuts after 5 minutes.

the novato day in the country is another recording in a long list of collaborative sets with jerry garcia. much like the hartbeats shows in 1968-69 that included the likes of jack casady, elvin bishop, spencer dryden, and howard wales, this backstage barn jam at hart's ranch brings together a rich aggregate of players and styles. listening to the musical experimentation and virtuosity of the all-star cast in this loose, aleatory format and setting is a real gas. it makes me wonder how many other spontaneous jams from this era were committed to soundboard reels. that said, here's to hoping there's some pro video and bob matthews audio of jerry garcia and the nrps, playing outdoors on the sunny saturday of august 21, 1971, waiting patiently in tape boxes for us. until then, we'll have to live with what's on the archive.

http://spiritcats.com/nl_aditc_ok.mp3

5-24-70: hollywood festival, ted askey’s lower pig farm, staffordshire, england.

the two-day outdoor event was packed with a variety of local and national talent, which included the likes of traffic, ginger baker’s airforce, mungo jerry, the flaming groovies, tony joe white, a very young black sabbath, and jose feliciano. the dead performed a fine electric set despite the tiny stage, crowded press arena, and a PA and monitoring system that they weren't able to hear. no problem, the boys played full-tilt for three hours straight to the delight of the newcastle-under-lyme freaks and adventurous locals. the british press were unanimous in their positive appraisal of the dead’s showing at the festival: mac garry (in zigzag 13) said that they were "totally magnificent.” his description of jerry’s performance was compelling: “…the solid red gibson looked so flimsy in garcia's hands that it looked like it would break like balsa if he squeezed it—but it seemed like every time he touched it, beautiful, clear ringing notes poured out—and on me and my uncle he was just fucking fabulous.” dick lawson (‘what would be the answer to the answer then?,’ friends 12) completely gushed over the show, describing their set as "the most ecstatic exploratory music ever witnessed in england."

speaking to lawson prior to the festival, garcia said: "we're going through some transitions. our music is not what it was: it's continually changing. what we've been doing in the states lately is having 'an evening with the grateful dead.' we start off with acoustic music with bobby and me playing guitars, light drums, and very quiet electric bass. pigpen plays the organ. then we have a band we've been traveling with, the new riders of the purple sage, where i play pedal steel, not guitar, mickey plays drums, and three of our friends from the coast, musicians that we've known for a long time, are fronting the band. so we start off with acoustic music and then the new riders--it's like very snappy electric country-rock; it's kinda hard to describe--and then we come on with the electric dead, so it keeps us all really interesting, and it's six hours of this whole development thing. by the end of the night it's very high" (p. 11).

for a band in transition, the dead sure don’t disappoint the UK crowd. playing at fearsome volume they work their way through a number of extended jams, some new tunes from workingman’s, and a generous helping of pig pen tunes. some highlights include an outstanding china cat sunflower > i know you rider pairing, a powerful, attacking version of the other one that neatly segues into a rare live offering of attics of my life, a highly charged good lovin’ with plenty of mckernan trimmings, and a dark star rife with rhythmic exploration and noise that likely transported the crowd to the edge of a blissful perfection.

the dead’s first european jaunt was mostly successful and certainly gained them some new fans. although they weren’t at the top of the bill at the hollywood festival, many folks had come to hear them out of curiosity to see if they were all they were cracked up to be. ramrod and the crew worked tirelessly to improve the sound, and the set was recorded by the band’s resident sound man & chemist, stanley owsley. regrettably, the BBC tv crew who were set to film the show were unable to fully perform their duties due to a dose of bear’s finest. the footage they shot was completely unusable. a few privately shot standard 8 films do exist though, and they are brief and recorded without sound. the best available celluloid documentation of the may of '70 mini-tour are outtakes shot on 16mm, which were discovered in the preparation for the dvd release of the grateful dead movie. the footage from the hollywood fest is of exceptional quality and made the cut as bonus content on scorsese’s long strange trip documentary. there’s also footage of the band, robert hunter, and sam cutler arriving at heathrow airport which is a total gas, not to mention a wonderful historical document.

in 1971 garcia gave a rolling stone interview and commented about his disappointment regarding the dead’s showing at the festival: “i enjoyed going to england. i liked the english people, they seemed to enjoy us, but we didn't play for shit. we only got to play once, at a thing called the hollywood festival while we were there. so it was a drag; but i'd like to go and really spend some time playing and get to know some people. but it was really nice." well, we all know that jerry got to follow-up on his agenda in the autumn of ’72, but that’s a different story that’s had more than enough press. as for this concert in staffordshire, i must say that i disagree with jerome’s assessment of the gig being a poorly played affair. yes, it’s a bit ragged and out of tune at times, but it makes up for its shortcomings with sheer grit, flagrant noise, and unrestrained abandon. that said, may 24, 1970 is a tape that i’m happy to revisit for just the force and character of the performance alone. it represents a band playing at the edge of new possibilities and ideas, ideas that would mature over the course of the year where the group would grind out well over 100 live dates, record two rootsy studio masterpieces, and integrate acoustic music into most major-venue shows. pretty impressive.

digitized by michael getz with an update by simon philips, this recording is a bit of 1970s gold. give it a listen and make your own appraisal. you may even find yourself taking it out for a second spin.
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-05-24.135716.sbd.phillips.flac16

and please do yourself a favor and also check out these rare black & white and color outtakes from the 1970 europe excursion. you'll most likely dig 'em as much as me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpJUZn_G6og

2-19-69: celestial synapse at the fillmore west w/golden toad, don hamrick, don mccoy, and the writer activist stephen gaskin.

two weeks before the live/dead run, the band played one of their most unusual shows of 1969. billed as a "frontiers of science celestial synapse," the by invitation only event was undoubtedly one of the most colorful musical gatherings the fillmore ever saw. invites went out to people in the rock music field and a broad range of psychedelic tribes, including rancho olompali, a number of other communes, and the hells angels. the organizing body of the event was frontiers in science, an intentional community located at harbinger, a former hotsprings resort 100 miles north of san franciso. founded by donald james hamrick in 1967, the self-reliant community sought to be a center for learning, research/development, and exploration, in addition to carrying out hamrick's vision to establish order and unity on earth and to connect the physical and metaphysical aspects of science. a rolling stone article from april of that year began: "fifteen hundred invitations were sent out for the february 19 event, and although there was no other announcement, probably double that number attended. after a stirring oboe and bagpipe introduction by the golden toad, don hamrick of frontiers in science spoke for a few minutes in a gentle rural accent, addressing the crowd as the 'goodly company.''it is our hope,' he said, 'that this evening there will be an opening and a free interchange, so that something new may emerge. let the barriers fall, let there be a merging.'"

so what were the grateful dead doing offering their services for free at an event with pamphlets printed in a medieval irish script that referred to itself as a celestial synapse? to begin with, jerry garcia was always ready for a chance to jam. he also really dug science, existential philosophy, and the transformative nature of psychedelics, which made a scene like this right up his alley. garcia and hamrick were also both associated with a hip economist friend of jerry's, don mccoy. mccoy established the rancho olompali commune on a 700 acre parcel of land in novato, a location that, coincidentally, had served as the grateful dead's first north coast home for 6 weeks in 1966. after mccoy leased the estate and founded olampali, the dead returned frequently for spontaneous all-night jams.

and that is loosely what helped these forces coalesce on this evening at the fillmore. bob thomas, the piper for the golden toad summed up the happening "it's like one of the old ken kesey acid tests...only less hectic and confused." in addition to the grateful dead soundtrack, there were 3 simultaneous light shows, plenty of owsley magic, people happily shedding their clothes, and an abundance of flowers and incense--the epitome of a cosmic late sixties gathering. as for their performance, the dead played a flowing improvisatory set of new material that is said to have lasted 4 hours. unfortunately, we only have about one and a half hours of music here. it's a weird, anarchic recording, that starts off in poor quality with a sloppy lovelight > not fade away > lovelight; a muddy mix with some annoying buzzing from a bad electrical connection persists until midway through the first set. the tape continues to roll during the break and we're treated to some odd rapping from don mccoy, audience chanting led by stephen gaskin who gallantly blows on a conch shell in between OMs, and various heads babbling on the stage mics and/or jamming on the dead's percussion--a very strange and equally fascinating field recording.

the second set is a fantastic and ranging jam very much like one of the mickey & the heartbeats gigs. the music begins with a heavy, mournful vibe between weir and garcia, and the rest of the band joins one by one. pigpen's organ is finally audible and the mix has improved greatly from the start of the tape. lesh then ushers the jam into a dark, bluesy take on the main ten. their first run through the theme of what will soon become the playing in the band intro is very satisfying. this flows into a series of garcia-led jams that ebb and flow, with jerry eventially taking over. in time, garcia starts an other one jam which the band performs without lyrics, exploring different variations and rhythms. this, for me, is the highlight of the show and is stylistically much like versions of the other one you might hear from early '69--thunderous and brimming with intensity. the jam keeps getting more fervent until they pound out the mighty other one chords and then, in seeming exhaustion, quietly trickle to a stop.

to add a bit more intrigue to this already historically noteworthy gathering, is the fact that the tape has been mislabeled as the 6/19/68 carousel ballroom performance. before now, it was thought to have been a glimpse into what a mid-'68 dead show sounded like when free jams could go in any direction. the fudged date on the vault tape was apparently dick latvala's doing. as for the real june 19, 1968? it was the grateful dead's last show at the original carousel, a benefit gig for the black people's free store. no recording of that date is known to survive. fortunately for us the mystery has been solved, and the famous lost celestial synapse show has been unearthed in all it's chimerical glory.

recorded by bear, with a digital transfer from j. cotsman, this obscure relic is not to be missed. try it on for size. https://archive.org/details/gd68-06-19.sbd.cotsman.4511.sbeok.shnf

2-15-69: electric factory, philadelphia, PA w/paul pena

the dead's repertoire went through an immense change in 1969. at the beginning of the year the band was intent on playing the live/dead suite and anthem material at every show, with just a smattering of new tunes on the side. by june, they had introduced a bunch of new covers and had begun to turn more and more towards country music, with garcia inserting the pedal steel and weir assuming the role of western crooner. by the fall, the dead were covering a wide range of material in increasingly song-heavy, relaxed shows, with the live/dead set becoming rare even as the album was being released.

like many fans of this era, i've spent a good deal of time plumbing the early months of '69 on the archive. i really love this period with its mix of the psychedelic vestiges of 1968 and the magic and theatricality of the aoxomoxoa material. if you're also an admirer of this phase of the band's development, the second show of a two-night hitch at the old electric factory in downtown philly should be on your radar. the venue, a former tire warehouse, opened in 1968 and became a critical stop on 60's concert tours. originally called the electric factory and flea market, the 2500-capacity club was an integral part of the rock music circuit that included both fillmores, the boston tea party, and chicago's kinetic playground.

the opening act for the dead's two february gigs was paul pena who also opened for the mothers of invention at the factory earlier that week. pena was a soulful singer-songwriter who had an electric blues band he toured with at that time. he was losing his eyesight due to a genetic condition when he met the dead this weekend. in 1971, when he was completely blind, he moved to the bay area where he regularly opened shows for jerry and merl saunders at the keystone berkeley. garcia helped pena get a recording contract with fantasy records, played on a few tracks in the studio, and made sure that the berkeley provided him with regular paying gigs. pena's song jet airliner ended up being a huge hit for steve miller in 1977; he later was the subject of the documentary genghis blues, that recounts his journey to the russian republic of tuva to pursue his interest in the throat singing technique of the tuvan monks.

this evening's performance is nearly 3-hours long and the tape is a rare example of the relatively few recordings that exist from the electric factory in the 1960s. the show begins with a fine take on the newly penned doin' that rag. like many grateful dead songs, this tune is an homage to ragtime. jerry sings it in a way that reveals the ragtime that seemed to be inherent to his nature, much like the way his banjo playing and peidmont blues finger picking approach brought a syncopated rhythmic pattern to the way he played melody lines and solos on his electric guitar. the boys next roll out a potent, freewheeling cryptical suite followed by an absolutely remarkable take on morning dew. the set closing turn on your lovelight-although cut-is assertive and lavishly infused with archetypal explosive garcia blues.

from the second set comes some of the most affecting music of the year, a bold statement given the power of the february '69 run. after a fine acoustic dupree's diamond blues, mountains of the moon continues the wooden music and is played to perfection. garcia solos confidently on the acoustic before nimbly switching to his gibson, and the transition to dark star flows exquisitely. tonight's version is immense, and is the first dark star to crack 20 minutes. the band really digs in and the jamming is at once sonically brazen, while equallly lush, jazzy, and spacious. next up in the live/dead sequence is st. stephen; it's a solid performance and moves like clockwork into the eleven. and, just as the song is getting transcendent, the tape cuts into the second verse of death don't have no mercy. this is unfortunate, but it's a 1969 soundboard that captures the dead at the height of their pure psychedelic improvisational powers and i can live with the flaws. as luck would have it, we're promptly greeted with a down and dirty cosmic charlie that features a surprisingly assertive and worked out harmonic part by pigpen throughout.

the show could have easily ended here but in true grateful dead fashion, they still have a 47-minute alligator > caution > we bid you goodnight left in them. this last sequence is by no means a letdown. the alligator is raw and all mckernan; the post drums portion is wild with garcia and weir ripping out chords as fast as they can, before it ends in a kreutzmann/hart-led east indian style percussive vocal jam. the drummer's chant seques into an instrumental we bid you goodnight jam, that serves as a bridge into caution/feedback and a prelude to the beautiful set-closing acapella version.

recorded by bear with a transfer by d. winters, this is a tape that you'll want to return to for repeated listenings. the energy is high, and you can tell that the band is really on to something and knows it.

https://archive.org/details/gd69-02-15.sbd.winters.16664.sbeok.shnf

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