Grateful Dead 1972-10-18

The (Fabulous) Fox Theatre, St. Louis
SBD recording can be streamed on archive.org
(The most interesting part of this post is the part about the 2nd set ;)

I recently read a great review of this show at the Grateful Dead Listening Guide (a highly recommended blog), and figured it was about time I gave it a listen myself. Or gave it another listen - I have lost track of exactly which shows I've heard and which I've not, since I have 300+ GD shows in FLAC format, and maybe just as many on audio cd. At one point I was working on a system to keep track of just which shows I'd heard as well as personal comments for each show, but I kinda gave up on that and figured that at one point or another I'll have heard them all and remember roughly the outstanding ones. And then there's this blog, where I can write and publish my thoughts about individual shows and other music topics.

Anyhow, let's get on to the show! Bertha kickstarts the evening, a slightly laidback version, which I think is nice. After Me and my uncle Phil strums some deep notes, which makes Bobby remark that "those happy sounds are just Phil exorcising the evil spirits from the amplifiers." :) Don't Ease Me In follows, a song which always makes me think of Primal Dead. The show continues with Mexicali Blues, Brown Eyed Women and Beat It On Down The Line, and in my ears they're all well done with nothing to complain about, yet there's nothing to write home about so far. BIODTL has a 14 beat intro and after those 14 beats the entire band stumbles before they pull it together.

As one could expect in '72, the first jam excursion comes in a mid-1st-set Bird Song. I've loved this song since I first heard it covered by the Norwegian band The International Tussler Society (that was before I got to know the Dead). Focused soloing from Garcia, some really dynamic drumming and the rest of the band in a jazzy mood makes this a good version, but maybe not spectacular. (It must be noted that I didn't pay attention to it all of the time - multitasking is something I try to avoid, but tonight it happened). After the second chorus there is another improv section, with some great interplay between Garcia and Weir!

Big River is next, and it's one of very few Dead covers I find somewhat boring. This one, however, has some very cool Philness, a kind of funky, smooth-rolling bass playing, which makes it slightly more interesting. The two next songs, Loser and Jack Straw are two of my (many) favorite Dead tunes, and they're both beautifully executed. Loser still has "Sweet Suzie" intact (after 1972, Garcia usually sang "Last fair deal in the country" without the ", Sweet Suzie" tag at the end of that line). Jack Straw is tight and enthusiastic.

Big Railroad Blues is a song which occasionally pops into my mind, but it's rare that I choose to listen to it. This version is, as usual, jumping along the tracks, another enthusiastic performance. El Paso is great as always, preceded by a "Merry-Go-Round (?) tuning". Personall I dig the story and even more I dig Garcias great background playing.

Well, now comes the real beef of this show. They finish the 1st set with a China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider which, of course, is great.

And then, and now I listen in anticipation, the 2nd set. Playin' In The Band -> Drums -> Dark Star -> Morning Dew -> Playin' In The Band - now that's what I call a mighty fine sequence of music! As one expects they drop into the jam after the second chorus, and Weir holds it up while Garcia turns on his Mutron and starts some delicate, soft soloing. He sounds like a lion lying back there, moving in slowly, locating the exact point of attack. And Weir walking around, holding up the structure. 5 minutes into Playin' they're moving towards each other, with Phil & Billy providing the ever-changing structures around them. They slow down slightly, but very quickly find themselves taking off again, then taking it down slightly again, and back into the high gear. It's funky and textured, and hey, there's Keith as well! Ah, I love to hear how they all synch up to each other, how extremely well it all fits! I'm once again convinced that this band had a collective conciousness, they must've had, I don't know how else to explain it. At about 13 minutes into it, something happens, they're moving towards something now, the flavor is different. Soon the drums take over, and I know that Dark Star is coming.

My god. Dark Star. Is there anything better than a Dark Star? I don't think so. At least not musically. The intro comes perfectly and goes straight into a familiar-sounding territory built upon Weir and Garcia's beautiful interplay. It stays there, and eventually goes into a smooth, jazzy and somewhat sad landscape, with Garcia making some wailing sounds with his guitar which sounds almost like a pedal steel. They move out of this, and back again. It's wonderful. After 6 minutes they drop into a hollow, dark place, and I'm curious at how they'll get out of this. They wander around for a while, and then Phil leads the way out into what is probably the first verse of this star, approx. 10 minutes into it. I can feel the energy while listening now, it's groovy, it's good, it flows smoothly and yes, here's the first verse. It never ceases to amaze me, how they can flawlessly weave together the few constant elements of this song with such amazing improvisation! Wow!

The way continues and oh boy, listen to Jerry at 14 minutes into the star and let the melody that folows caress your spine. Breathtaking skin-tingling beauty in my ears.

At around 21 minutes, Phil has his moment of delicate, fat bass soloing, something I really dig! And after a couple of minutes he starts a rockin' riff! Supercool, and Bob & Jerry are still waiting, while Billy joins in for a Drum & Bass session which rocks like waves upon a shore. Jerry smoothly joins the fun, complementing Phil's soloing. After that we get the 4-chord jam which has been labeled a.o. "Feelin' Groovy" and which later became prominent in the transition from China Cat Sunflower to I Know You Rider.

And not much later. Oh, wow. Out of nowhere comes the intro to Morning Dew. Ah. Isn't it one of the most beautiful songs ever? I have never heard Bonnie Dobson's original version, but I can't really imagine any version of this song being better than the Dead did it. Period. Garcia's sweet voice and heartfelt empathy is more than perfect for this song, and coupled with the rest of the band's just as sweet playing, this one's a winner every time! This October evening is no exception. It floats and swirls wonderfully, truly a song that's born to soar the sky! Yet again the interplay is perfect and you can really hear Jerry singing from his heart, Keith adding even more sweetness at the just exactly appropriate points. "I guess it doesn't matter..." sings Garcia, sweetly, and then they slowly start the build up. They take their time, there's no rush. And oh! Just when you anticipate the ultimate climax - what happens? I don't know if this was planned or what, but hey!! There's no "I GUESS IT DOESN'T MATTER AAAAANYYYWAAYYYYYY!" - no, they smoothly jump into - yes! - a jam that leads them back into the starting point - Playin' In The Band! Whoa! Well, I knew it, because I've read other reviews of this show, but still! If I'm not mistaken it's a unique event.

Well, after this 1 hour jam trip, I certainly understand their need to do some "regular" songs, and there's really no need to go out on another far out journey at this point. They continue the 2nd set with a very funky and jumpy Deal, a song I really like. The Promised Land is quite boring in my ears, as I've grown tired of it. Next up is, luckily, one of the most beautiful songs ever to grace this earth: Brokedown Palace. And I really have no words for this song. It's so beautiful, there's nothing to do but listen to it. Live, it's not quite the same as on American Beauty, but it's still wonderful and heartfelt, with great harmonies and beautiful playing. Garcia delivers a beautiful solo, before the greatest part of the song.

Fare you well, fare you well, I love you more than words can tell

They end the evening on an up-beat feeling with One More Saturday Night and Casey Jones.

I'm left with one thought which, as so many times before, seems to sum it all up:

...listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul

The Arrow

(Yeah, long time, no blog, sorry about that!)

When I was a kid, I used to think of a song as a song. Period. A song was a fixed entity, and it was supposed to be identical every time. In retrospect I can't really understand why I thought like that, maybe it's because kids want/need things in their life to be stable and predictable? Well, "why" doesn't really matter that much. I don't know exactly when, but at some point I became aware of the fact that music was much more fluid than that - hey, jazz musicians are improvising - and that a band can include one song inside another! Or, similarly, instead of stopping to play when a song ends, why not improvise something on the spot which ties that song to the next one? I knew about this to a small extent for quite a while - e.g. Motorpsycho who in 1998 started doing the "Super/Wheel" which was in other words "Superstooge -> The Wheel". The "->" is an arrow, and means that the first song segues into the following. I would find out later, when I started collecting live recordings that Motorpsycho had done segues for years before that.

So. The Grateful Dead. I remember when I first got "Live/Dead" I listened to it a lot, but I could never understand where one track ended and the other began! Of course I was a "newbie", but still. Most songs were obvious if you just listened to the lyrics, but e.g. the "St. Stephen -> The Eleven" - that was incredible. Where did one end and the other begin?

This changed my view on songs and music quite fundamentaly, especially when I started listening to Grateful Dead a lot. The wild twists and turns and improvisations that band pulled off are more often than not too good to believe.

So far I've identified 3 (or 4) main kinds of segues/transitions. Or, that is slightly unprecise. Let me elaborate:

1. When a song's normal parts/sections are finished, the band continues to play, and improvises their way into the next song. (A variant on this is when a song finished normally and the next one immediately starts, without anything inbetween. This is a lot less exciting.)
   
2. Before a song is completely finished, the band jams their way into another song, and when that one finishes the band jams their way back into the previous song. This rule may be used recursively, so that the sequence contains 3 songs or more. The Grateful Dead did this a lot, Motorpsycho has done it (not too often, but it has happened, in varying degrees), Phish has done it (many times, probably) and another good example is the Disco Biscuits, e.g. this one. This kind of segueing is often called a "sandwhich". It can be both symmetric and asymmetric. Here is another wild example: The ending of Disco Biscuits 2002-07-26. Quite something! This also demonstrates a variation: the band starts a song, but jams into something else, and when they pause, it seems they have forgotten about what they originally started. But then, after a while, they jam out of a song later in the show, and into the originally unfinished song, so they can finish it.
   
3. This is less common, but happens every now and then: A song is for some reason not finished during a gig (mainly because the band gets carried away and jams into something else and forgets all about it) - and then they finish it the next day! I don't know what term to put on this - a trans-performance segue? Of course, this can be seen as a variation on the above. Notably, Motorpsycho did this during the spring 2006 tour: on April 30 they ended the show with a unfinished version of "Hogwash", but the next day in Berlin they spontaneously finish it (it wasn't on the setlist that night, it just came out of the end-jam in "Bonny Lee") - see Alex' superb Motorpsycho blog for details. Another good example, tied to the previous point, is again the Disco Biscuits. Several of the songs started in the above mentioned example (2002-07-26) were left unfinished that night, but they finished them the next night (2002-07-27). (Note: I haven't actually heard these two DB shows, but I've heard other shows by them, and I trust the comments and setlists for these two shows.) Grateful Dead also did this, but I can't remember any dates from the top of my head.

It could also be noted that both Ratdog and Phil & Friends have become masters of playing shows where the songs intertwine and one or more songs becomes the "frame" for a show, much like the literary device where the author lets one story be the frame for a multitude of sub-stories. A good example is "Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer, where a lot of characters are assembled together and they haven't got much to do to pass the time but tell each other stories.

So, here are, from the top of my head, some of my favorite segues so far (but hey, there's a lot I haven't heard!):

• Grateful Dead 1972-04-08: Dark Star -> Sugar Magnolia In addition to being a scaringly good Dark Star, the transition into Sugar Magnolia is simply put the definition of smooth. It's incredible. Too incredible to be true. It's hair-raising every time. Every baby's ass envies this one. It's totally incomprehensible! Go listen, and melt. (Btw, 1972-04-14 has a similar sequence of "Dark Star -> Sugar Magnolia", which is just as good as -04-08.)
  
• Grateful Dead 1977-05-19: Playin' In The Band -> Uncle John's Band AKA How To Do Uncle John From Behind. I believe this is the only time they did this: They jam from Playin' into the ending of Uncle John's Band, and then they continue with the song from the beginning as normal. But the jam and the transition into UJB is phenomenal. Man oh man. I think this is the only time they "entered UJB from the behind".
  
• Grateful Dead 1972-01-02: Good Lovin' -> China Cat Sunflower -> Good Lovin' I believe this is another one-time-only, but the transition from Good Lovin' into China Cat is superb, with a great example of the entire band turning around on the spot, and some really beautiful interplay between Garcia and Weir!
• Grateful Dead 1974-03-23: Playin' in the Band -> Uncle John's Band -> Morning Dew -> Uncle John's Band -> Playin' in the Band I mean - come on!
  Look at that sequence! They only did that a few times, and this one is totally over the edge. As someone on a forum somewhere once remarked: "This one wrote the textbook on 'How To Do Transitions Between Songs'!" - I remember one time I had a really bad hangover, and I put this one in my discman and went for a walk. Seriously, I was immediately cured!
• Motorpsycho 2006-05-14: Triggerman -> Manmower -> Triggerman OH yeah. They really did that.
  
• Grateful Dead, Fall 1971, The Other One -> Cowboy song -> The Other One In this context, "Cowboy song" means "Me and My Uncle", or "El Paso", or "Me and Bobby McGee", and "The Other One" could also be "Dark Star", depending on the jamming vehicle of choice a particular night, but usually it was TOO.
• Grateful Dead 1972-05-25: Uncle John's Band -> Wharf Rat -> Dark Star -> Sugar Magnolia A quite unusual sequence, but super-smooth segues! The transitions are beautifully seamless, and it's both a huge listening pleasure and a good way to show off what this band was capable of!
• Grateful Dead 1973-02-19: He's Gone -> Truckin' -> The Other One -> Eyes Of The World -> China Doll This is one of my favorite pieces of GD music ever. "Eyes" & "China Doll" are picture perfect, and all the jamming and transitions inbetween these songs (there's a lot more than it seems!) is just gorgeous!
  
• Motorpsycho 1993-09-18: 21st Century Schizoid Girl -> Giftland -> Blueberry Daydream -> Free Your Mind Wow, this shows off MP's ability to do strange things. Especially the Giftland -> Blueberry segue is cool, mainly 'cause they play a long & heavy version of Blueberry Daydream instead of the normal quiet acoustic version.
• Motorpsycho 2006-04-22: The Wheel -> Plan #1 I was there. OK, so maybe the segue wasn't an amazing pull-off, they just made sure they were in the right key and triggered the Matt Burt sample, but holy c-rap! After that huge and powerful "The Wheel", which was the first I ever experience live, I got another huge first - "Plan #1"! I'd never experienced it live before. This combo is one of the greatest things i've experienced in live music, even thought the sound at the venue was crap. I swear, I was trembling and shaking and had tears in my eyes during this. Wow-o-wow!

Ya, okay. That was some of the best segues I could think of from the top of my head. I'll probably continue this subject later, I definitely need to include some Phish in that list, but for now this'll do.

Later!

Grateful Dead 1985-11-02 (set 2) & more

I've heard the 1985-11-02 show (set 2 mostly) several times, and tonight I watched it (set 2 only) on DVD (audience shot, available at www.thetradersden.org ) and felt like writing this piece. This post will be a little serious as well, so bear with me...

For a very long time I was very reluctant to listening to any of the GD's 80s output. One thing was the fact that it was their 60s & 70s shows that got me hooked. Another was my somewhat strange feeling that the 80s was a dark, strange period of GD, a sort of wasteland, something I can't quite describe. I knew that Garcia's health was bad especially mid-80s, so that was one reason. And I felt drawn towards this great depth of mystery and darkness, but I wanted to wait. I don't remember exactly when or how, but at some point it struck me: Yes. Now. The 80s. It felt just right. I must have been a heavy period of my life, with my mind in the darkness and things in general being difficult. Anyhow, all I remember is that my first encounter with this was very much as expected! The darkness and sadness, and at times brilliant beauty, was there. Just exactly right. And sometimes they fuck up things so bad it's a shame, but usually Garcia manages to pull out all his powers and deliver something truely wonderful filled with truth and beauty, even during this dark age.

1985-11-02 is no exception. I would want to "dedicate" this review to a friend of mine who commited suicide last November, a little more than 20 years after this show.

Set 2 starts with "Iko Iko", a nice and inspired version, although Garcia's voice is kinda shot. Next comes an "Estimated Prophet", wher Weir is certainly in the mood, jumping around and waving his hands in the air. Garcia starts to get his fingers going here, and they jump into a very nice, jammed out "Uncle John's Band". After the last chorus Garcia hints at "Playin' in the band", but quite quickly draws everything down to the minor scale, and hey! A great, and unusual transition into the perfect song. And so damn good executed. Yes, it's the omnipotent "China Doll". And what a version! Garcia suddenly sings good. Really. And his solos are true perfection, pure haunting beauty! This is art imitating life, I suspect. "China Doll" during the mid-80s was something spectacular, and can't really be compared to the 70s-versions. OK, and here's the suicide-link. The working title of this song was "The Suicide Song", according to Robert Hunter (I believe). Reading the lyrics, it's not hard to understand at least that the song is about death.

After that they jam a little bit and Garcia once more hints at "Playin'", but they decide not to, and the drummers get to do their thing. This of course leads into "Space", out of which comes a powerful "Morning Dew". This song never disappoints, does it? At least Garcia's voice is even better now than before, and he sings with a lot of emotion, as well as playing the guitar magnificently and very inspired. All in all, a great "Morning Dew", although not the best one I've heard. After the final climax, not surprisingly, they dive straight into "Throwing Stones". This one nicely segues into a "Lovelight" which of course isn't the same as a 60s-Pigpen-Lovelight, but you gotta give it to Weir for trying. He does really do a good job, no doubt. And he's very theatrical on stage, doing lots of cool moves :)

The "Baby Blue" encore is also nice. Personally, speaking of GD doing Dylan covers, among many I love the few performances of "She belongs to me" they did in 1985.

My favorite Grateful Dead songs

OK, here's an impossible task: list your favorite Grateful Dead songs!

Here's mine:
(I omit the obvious ones - Dark Star, The Other One & Playin' In The Band.)

1. China Doll
2. Terrapin Station
3. Scarlet Begonias > Fire on the Mountain
4. Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower
5. Eyes of the World
6. Weather Report Suite
7. Althea

uh, crap. This is impossible! I think only the first 2 are correct. The rest should all be on a shared third place! And yes, a lot more songs should be there! This is just a tentative list.

The Grateful Dead anno 1977 (and some more)

I can't help but ask - what in the world was this band doing in 1977? I mean - how is it possibly to play such majestic, perfect music? Any song the Grateful Dead played in 1977 seems to be able to raise the dead, create world peace & cure cancer - to say the least! OK, my enthusiasm is enormous, but - listen! How can one, if one has heard this, a sufficient amount of times, not agree that it's the best thing ever? The complexity & the emotions, the synchronicity, a band shock full of creativity & synchronized like an atomic clock! And the most beautiful songs EVER!

Hell yeah, I've come to love every era of the Grateful Dead, be it the psychedelia of '69 or the haunting ghostly darkness of the mid-80s or the bursts of genuine brilliance that were more or less present in 88-95. But: 1977. How can anything beat this? Ah yes, everything is just as fantastic - 1972 Dark Star, 1973 Eyes of the World, 1984 China Doll, ...

Ah, it's impossible to say what is better... Just enjoy it all! :)

Grateful Dead 1977-04-23

OK, the "Help on the way > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower" on this one is stupendous. Slipknot alone, 9 full minutes of it, can bring tears to your eyes! The GD Taping Compendium comments that it's particularly long for 1977. It sure is a perfect giant, shock full of confidence, truth & beauty! In the end they pull of the transition roll into "Franklin's Tower" - and my god!!! What a raging, fire breathing, insane creature that has taken place in the Tower this night!

"If you get confused, listen to the music play!" INDEED!

Grateful Dead 1973-09-11

Quick review:
Tremendous "Looks like rain"! Also good: "The race is on" & "Loser", to name a few. The 14-minute "China > Rider" ain't too shabby either! ;)
Very, very cool "Playin' in the band" with some great jazz-funk-thing and a bit of wonderful interplay between Garcia & Keith, in addition to Garcia's ever-incredible solos! Set 2 features "Let Me Sing Your Blues Away" through "Let It Grow" with Joe Ellis on trumpet and Martin Fierro on saxophone, a new experience for me, as I haven't heard these "horned" fall '73 shows before. Gotta love it though, great solos in "Let It Grow". The "Dark Star" shines majestically and ends up with Phil doing some wonderful noisy soloing, which leads them directly into the always-welcome sweet and tender beauty of "Morning Dew".

Grateful Dead 1977-10-29

Kickstart/first highlight: "Might As Well", "Jack Straw" (very good!)
Second highlight: "Loser" - hear Jerry milking that guitar!!! And put your gold money where your love is, baby.
Third: "Ramble on Rose" - blistering, sparkling, bouncing!
The best part of the first set: "Let it grow"

Set 2 kicks inn with a very nicely paced, unrushed "Bertha" jumping around, right into "Good Lovin'"

Grateful Dead 1973-02-22

This recording is only partial, but luckily it's got most of set 1, and the juciest looking parts of set 2, all in quite splendid soundboard audio. You can stream it here: http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=12064

First set starts with a quite standard "Promised Land". After follows a very smoking version of the always welcome "They Love Each Other", still very upbeat, in contrast to the slower versions they played later in their career. "El Paso" is nice as well, but nothing spectacular. I didn't give much attention to "Bird Song", but it was anyway the first real (but short) jam-out of this show, nice and jazzy! Next up comes more fun with "Mexicali Blues" & "Deal", both well-played and all good. "Looks Like Rain" is almost always good, and for this version I made notice of the sweet interplay between Garcia's guitar & Weir's ad lib vocaling close to the end of the song. Sweet! After that we got "Tennessee Jed", a song I don't care much about really, but this one is good, with a thick carpet of Phil underneath it. "Box of Rain" comes next. Wonderful, with Donna doing lovely backup vocals (I like Donna!) and Jerry's guitar rolling along perfectly.

After that the first set comes to an end with a 17-minute treatment of "Playin' in the Band":
It starts tight and fine, and after the second (?) chorus they slide into the jam as expected. Garcia puts on some wah-wah-ish effect and turns the PITB-theme upside down & inside out, before he moves out into a more free form space, while Phil & Kreutzmann keeps it all together, Billy being very very jazzy behind the drums and Phil grooving along, and Garcia gets wilder, he teases "The Tiger" but falls back into jazzy jamming freely based over the PITB-theme. Phil is moving all over the frets, high and low, now, while Garcia has gotten an idea and started something else, free improvisation, yeah, free your mind and your ass (or: fingers) will follow, - it's Garcia who dominates, and Phil laying down a very very good foundation with Billy out there keeping it all wildly together somehow- damn, that drummer is good! - now they're moving out into a more open space, there's a lot going on here, but it's good, ... Garcia starts freaking out, the band takes it down to a low, but fast groove, and kick off! Everyone follows everyone and Garcia goes blues-psych-jazz! Ah, just sit back and enjoy! We're only about 10-11 minutes into it...

Set 2: They start with straight versions of "US Blues" & "Me & My Uncle". Then comes the real goodness.
"Dark Star" starts very laidback and lovely, kinda slow, with that incredible -73 jazz all the while, dipping into the blues here and there, she is walking, slow and fast, a little sad, thoughtful, conclusions appear and disappear, she enters a groove and dissolves into jazzy laidbackness, and very, very gently moves into the first theme and then goes into a detour, the first verse doesn't come as expected! But the pieces fall smoothly together after a little while, and the first verse is masterfully delivered. Shall we go? Yes, let's see where this goes, where the road takes us this time. Ah, out into space and dissonance, the strangeness. Let's explore the unknown territories we always seek. Come on. Everyone leads and everyone follows. We don't care if we get lost; we'll find our way back somehow. "Relax man, everything's gonna be allright!" as Garcia said during an acoustic set in 1970. On the recording you can really hear him smiling when he says it! OK, the dark star, she moves into space still, further, down, in slow motion. Phil lays his carpet down deep. Garcia is way out, and then he starts something really wild, it goes up and away, what is this? A rocket? A crazy carousel? The madness is complete, the melt-down quick and whoa! Garcia holds the controls and the ship dives straight into the Eyes of the World, the sweet safety, the home world, the wonderfulness of those early -73 "Eyes"... Oh yes. Mmmmm... It reminds me of an all-time favorite of mine (maybe not so strange): 3 days earlier - February 19, 1973. It's in that vein, it's truly great, yeah. Just go listen. I can't say much more. It's really great. Really. In a wild, jazzy, tight way. Listening to this is 16 minutes of your life well spent.

Eventually they collapse into the perfect beauty of "China Doll", and it's a really nice version, not the all time best, but check out the short but terribly sweet guitar playing just before the "Take up your china doll" line. It's a slow and well-behaved version, they don't rush it, the details are being taken care of and the occasional improvised lick here and there.