3-22-69: the rose palace, pasadena, CA. with the paul butterfield band and jethro tull.

in march of '69 the grateful dead were primarily focused on finishing the aoxomoxoa album at pacific recording in san mateo. that being so, their performances were confined to easy weekend trips, which allowed them to make a little cash while still hanging around town to work on the record. this rose palace gig represents one of the few owsley recorded soundboards from march. jethro tull, on their first american tour, serves as the opener. they were a tremendous live band and must have given the crowd something tasty to chew on. the dead played second, which accounts for the shorter set. paul butterfield was a bigger name outside of the bay area, so he headlined the show.

although it's not complete, this bear tape is essential listening for fans of this period. the sound quality—despite being tracked in the concrete cavernous space of the now defunct pasadena club—is pretty sweet, with nice instrument separation. according to an observant attendee at the show, owsley was in experimental high gear on this night. he had three portable tektronix scopes far stage left, beyond garcia's double stack of fender twins, and was mixing live stereo.

the tape begins a few bars into good morning little school girl. tonight's take on the sonny boy williamson tune is dynamic, uptempo, and loaded with unrestrained discord. "that was da blues in A," weir declares, followed by a request to turn up one of the stage mics "on account i'm gonna be using it pretty soon, you know how it is." and with that, the lads launch into dark star. although this one clocks in at a mere 15 minutes, it is fully played, packed with thematic jams, peaks, and provisional weirdness. the drop into st. stephen is near perfect and it's clear the septet are really plugged into a groove. unfortunately, as is ofttimes the case with older bear boards, the tape cuts and we're plummeted into the final 4 ½ minutes of the eleven. the jamming is fierce and layered, 11 beats to the bar. the odd meter persists before an edgy b-flat drop signals a transition, and lovelight roars in like a five-alarm fire. all drums and jerry's guitar. pig marshals the vocal acrobatics, and the band is let loose to roam. then poof, it fades out at 12 minutes.

the dead played over 140 shows in 1969, and one hundred of these were committed to soundboard tape. this passadena gig isn't the crown jewel of the year's boards, but it is worth a visit or two. the dark star keeps me coming back, just for the sheer brilliance of the nuanced performance. magical? uh huh. and isn't that what makes us want to listen and relisten to live recordings of this band? sure as shit, it is.

https://archive.org/details/gd69-03-22.sbd.cotsman.8994.sbeok.shnf

9/20/68: berkeley community theater. ali akbar college of music benefit w/ace of cups, steve miller band, tabla master shankar ghosh, and vince delgado.

in 1968 mickey hart was studying at ali akbar college with the hindustani classical musician, pandit shankar ghosh. mickey would work on a number of compositions with shankar which included rhythmic cycles of 4, 6, 16, 5 & 7, teachings he would take to bill kreutzmann and add to the pair's repertoire. the influence of classical indian drumming on the dead's percussion breaks-including the improvisational rhythm devils segment folded into many second sets-can be traced to their early exposure to ali akbar khan, and to indian tabla players like alla rakha and zakir hussain. mickey would inlist rakha and hussain on his first solo album, rolling thunder. hart's second long player would join zakir, vince delgado, jordan amarantha, aushim chaudhuri, and a handful of other accomplished drummers as the diga rhythm band. in fact, one could easily speculate that the origins of diga are directly yoked to this fall of '68 berkeley performance.

the partial owsley soundboard tape cuts into a rough and tumble good morning little schoolgirl, which has an unusually raw feel—more akin to alligator. the revved-up number ends in a wash of feedback and some amusing mckernan howls. the banter that follows is hilarious. issues with the onstage mics prompt weir to inquire "what's happening?" there's no immediate reply. more microphone chatter ensues. "it's coming to life," rails garcia. "the first shock is free," he continues. in time, bear clears up the audio delivery matter and the band goes with st. stephen. the song has matured since its spring debut in st. louis, and tonight's version is compact and highly spirited. by the midpoint of the song it appears that the owsley kool-aid is starting to kick in as evidenced in jerry cracking up, and weir starting the wrong verse and singing over a laughing garcia—classic grateful dead shenanigans. consistent with the general practice, st. stephen jams into the eleven. tonight's take is short and layered with dense instrumentation.

as the eleven winds down the dead's amps are partitioned and two risers are rolled on stage between hart and kreutzmann. perched atop are shankar gosh and vince delgado. over the next 26 minutes, the four men perform a number of fixed compositions, taking a rhythmic journey through many talas cylces. composed by ali akbar khan for this occasion, the playing is hypnotic and riveting. there is nothing plodding or sloppy about it; this is a perceptive interplay between four astute percussionists who are listening and collaborating with each other. the energy is high and there is an alternating push of rhythmic patterns that contradict the tala and melodic structures that continually circle back to the fundamental scheme. at the end of the piece, the drumming becomes very quiet and the players begin to chant 'taketa, taketa,' before exploding into a final, powerful theka.

of all the 1968 grateful dead performances committed to tape, this owsley recorded fragment is one of the most unconventional sets you'll find. i know that a half hour of drums isn't everybody's thing, but where else in the dead's history can one find a percussive break with such distinguished guests in tow? the berkeley crowd's vibrant applause seems to readily acknowledge the exceptionalness of the event. and one can only imagine that the vedic sage-musician narada might have been smiling down in reverence and admiration, as well.

https://archive.org/details/gd1968-09-20.sbd.miller.115682.flac16

12-7-68: bellarmine college, louisville, KY.

1968 soundboards are few and far between, with over two-thirds of the shows unaccounted for. the first few months of the year are pretty well represented as the band was taping shows for anthem of the sun. after this, the spring and early summer is essentially a black hole for dead tapes until owsley re-upped as their soundman in june. the remainder of the year, though, is rather spotty, and it seems that many of bear’s tapes have disappeared. a couple of nice audience tapes fill the gaps but, unfortunately, there were very few people making field recordings in 1968. aside from the renowned mickey & the hartbeats matrix shows and some interesting garcia jam sessions, there's only a handful of tapes from the fall, and even less from the winter dates.

december 7 is notable in that it is the first archived performance with tom constanten. it's also the dead's first outing to kentucky (and the only time the band would ever play a gig at bellarmine college). you might ask what were the grateful dead doing at a small catholic college in louisville? well, the most reasonable motivation is they needed a stopover at the end of their fall midwest tour, and the 2600 seat knight's hall venue neatly fit the bill. either that, or the boys were dying to visit the repository for all of thomas merton's manuscripts.

the owsley tape opens with an abbreviated take on the dark star > st. stephen > the eleven sequence. the music flows with hints of free percussion & harmonics. TC's organ gyrates in the mix before the second dark star verse, st stephen is concise and energized, but the eleven derails due to a bad onstage echo. as the crew works out the technical issues, weir expounds: “nobody knows where present time is,” directly followed by a sedated promoter who provides stoned crowd control: “the curfew’s been cancelled, the kids are all in bed.” the tape cuts back in for the final four minutes of death don't have no mercy, which is fierce and can only make us wonder what the front end of the tune sounded like. jerry follows with a few words for the audience: "thanks, alot. we're gonna play a bunch more, we're not finished at all...and also you know you don't have to pay strict attention to us, we don't do very much that's funny. and if you want, you can dance. it feels good to dance. after a while you'll be pretty used to us." and with that, we're greeted with an adventurous 29 minutes of that's it for the other one > new potato caboose. the other one middle jam is really starting to catch and the energy is palpable. the cryptical reprise winds down delicately and the segue into new potato is seamless; tonight's take on the bobby peterson/phil lesh-composed tune is a bit more sloppy than in august, but it still evinces all of the anthem of the sun qualities with its intricate harmonies, rapid changes in tempo and meter, and instrumental weirdness.

billy kreutzmann is absent for the second frame. “one of our drummers, uh, broke down,” jerry explains. mickey adeptly covers his portion of the battery. the set begins with the only version of rosemary the dead would ever play to a live audience. it is an extremely quiet recording and you'll have to crank up the volume to really hear it. despite the levels, it's completely worth your full aural presence—a delicate, sensitive performance. he was a friend of mine is next and, unfortunately, is cut off right in the chorus. pig gets in the mix after this with a fine rendition of it hurts me too. his harp work is subtle and blends flawlessly with the rich tone of jerry's guitar. the set closes with an audience-requested morning dew, followed by a short, but sweet we bid you goodnight. “you’ve just been victimized by the grateful dead,” barbs garcia.

this one-off performance at bellarmine U captures the band in one of their most pivotal years for stage improvisation. both sets are loaded with boundary pushing compositions and the septet is in full experimental mode, ready to push many of their showcase songs to their fullest extent. despite the drops, cuts, gouges, and warts, i'm more than happy to be a victim of this late '68 recording.

https://archive.org/details/gd1968-12-07.sbd.miller.88674.sbeok.flac16

2/19/73: international amphitheatre, chicago, IL.

a few short weeks after the unveiling of the wall of sound at stanford’s maples pavilion and a revelatory performance at madison's dane county coliseum, the dead headed east to play 3 chicago shows with the new riders of the purple sage. the first of these was held at the long-standing indoor arena on the city’s west side, home to a burgeoning wrestling scene, classic car shows, and the world hockey association’s chicago cougars. prior to this, the amphitheatre was noted for being the site of the 1957 elvis presley concerts where the king donned his now legendary gold lamé suit for the first time.

we only have 80-minutes from the single set performance, but it’s hot, hot, hot. in fact, the quality and energy is so damn conspicuous that dick latvala wrote "i have only found a cassette of bear's that had a very stunning, if not shocking, jam...that simply has to be heard to understand how good things can get!" latvala was shamelessly partial to february of ’73, often espousing that the shows that month contained possibly the best music the dead played the whole year. that’s debatable, but this chicago fragment is surely a solid contender.

what becomes immediately obvious to discerning listeners is how present phil is in the mix. the tape begins with a jaunty he’s gone, and the harmonic tone of big brown is ever present. lesh is eager to push the band further in and, he eventually does, propelling them to dive full-on into truckin.' tonight's take is spirited with classic grateful dead rhythms and instrumentation, including a lush outro jam. but it’s during the other one where the bassist fully takes charge, driving the ensemble into parts unknown. the first jam flows smoothly, and then explosively, before trickling into silence. jerry, bob, and keith step back a bit to let phil and billy take a fast paced duet; phil's bass work is completely unkempt and kreutzmann deftly colors in the spaces with subtle, sinuous kit work. a short drum solo and some garcia noodling later, lesh sounds the big intro to the other one. the verse comes quickly and then another heated exploratory jam ensues. a subtle passage follows before a tape flip drops us into the opening notes of eyes of the world. jerry finds the pulse that is the perfect tempo for transitioning from the other one. after the funky vamp over Emaj7 introduction, garcia and company spend the next 20 minutes exploring variations on the theme and the underlying rhythms within the E- and A-major tonality. the third version of eyes is exquisite and the 7/8 section is already fully formed. lesh continues to play across the bar lines, building tension with polyrhythmic combinations and conflicting metres. and, as he has all evening, he finds a way to seize the jam and lead the musicians into what will become the classic end of eyes riff (although it’s clear that they are still trying to figure out what to do with the outro bit). tonight, they simply pass into another transitional phase, and then quiet down for a slow segue into a stirring reading of china doll.

a raucous sugar magnolia and an even more raucous casey jones rounds off the performance. it is a fitting end to an extremely well-played set. based on the power and inventiveness of this performance, i’m guessing there were more than a few contented hoosiers pouring out of the old international amphitheater on this winter night in chi-town.

https://archive.org/details/gd1973-02-19.set2.sbd.miller.83023.flac16

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