Garcia said “We were great for seconds on end.” I was lucky to see Jerry play for about 1,000,000 seconds exactly. Thanks for your 1,000,000 views here . Dave Davis wrote this blog for 500 posts and 5 years from 2015 to 2019. Contact me at twitter @gratefulseconds

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Jerry Garcia: The Maine Man


Big news below, in May 1978, Jerry Garcia revealed to a reporter for the Burlington Free Press Sun that he had never been to vermont before but "once spent a summer in Maine."  

That is so cool and beyond belief for this kid from Maine, but I do not recall seeing Jerry in the 1950's or so down by the lake (I wasn't born until 1959)


Burlington Free Press, May 14, 1978 Interview with Garcia


Jerry must have liked Maine as The Grateful Dead eneded up playing 16 shows in 6 places in state. I saw four of these; shows #2 through #5, all in 1979 and 1980 prior to my move to California. 

1. Bangor Municipal Auditorium, April 22, 1971
Not The Best April 1971 show
2. Portland Cumberland County Civic Center May 13, 1979
First Maine Scarlet/Fire and Take A Step Back
3. Augusta Civic Center September 2, 1979
Remarkable Terrapin>Let It Grow
4. Portland Cumberland County Civic Center May 11, 1980
Second set start of Scarlet>Fire, Stranger>Terrapin>Playng
5. Lewiston State Fairgrounds September 6, 1980
6. Portland Cumberland County Civic Center September 17, 1982
7. Orono, University of Maine Alfond Arena April 19, 1983
Post Drums Spanish Jam>Truckin
8. Portland Cumberland County Civic Center October 18, 1983
Might As Well, China>Rider
9. Augusta Civic Center October 11, 1984
Beginning of First Open Jaw Multinight Playing in the Band
10.Augusta Civic Center October 12, 1984
11. Portland Cumberland County Civic Center March 31, 1985
12. Portland Cumberland County Civic Center April 1, 1985
13. Portland Cumberland County Civic Center March 27, 1986
14. Portland Cumberland County Civic Center March 28, 1986
15. Oxford Plains Speedway July 2, 1988
Ends Set One with All the New Tunes
16. Oxford Plains Speedway July 3, 1988
30 Trips






















Monday, August 29, 2016

Sitting: A Rare Second-Set Jam Vehicle 1969 & 1971



I really love Sitting On Top Of The World.  The Dead played it a number of times between 1966 and 1972, but where it shined was as a second set jam highlight, which only occured a handful of times.

I recall when first hearing several Fall 1971 shows during Keith's first tour, the bliss that I felt out of the shows in New York, St Louis and Chicago when Sitting On Top Of The World magically appeared out of Dark Star and The Other One in somewhat similar space to the Cowboy Spot of the era (hmmm, another topic to explore soon).  

I just for the first time heard the China Cat>Sitting which you can hear at the top of the page.


Here's the songs

Second Set Sitting Jam Pieces

Fillmore West, June 5, 1969
[1:15:12] ; China Cat Sunflower [2:44] > Jam [1:47] > Sittin On Top Of The World [3:29] > Dark Star [21:11] > St. Stephen [5:53] > The Eleven [12:56] > Turn On Your Love Light [26:40]

Thelma Theater, December 11, 1969
Next Time You See Me [4:44] > Sittin In Top Of The World [3:27]

Chicago, October 21, 1971 (Keith's second show)
Dark Star (1) [15:09] > Sittin' On Top Of The World [3:16] > Dark Star [2:03] > Me And Bobby McGee [5:56]

New York Felt Forum, December 5, 1971
 Dark Star Jam [8:27] > Me And My Uncle [2:31] > Dark Star Jam [12:23] > Sittin' On Top Of The World [4:16]

St Louis Fox, December 10. 1971
Truckin' [7:59] > Drums [3:26] > The Other One [13:35] > Sittin' On Top Of The World [2:53] > The Other One [6:02] > Not Fade Away [6:01] > Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad [6:18] > Not Fade Away [1:00#]



There were four standalone versions of Sitting in 1972, one at the Academy of Music, followed by 5-18 in Munich and 5-23 and 5-25 in London.  Interesting that both 5-18 and 5-23 were Dark Star>Morning Dew shows.  Then it disappeared

A later attempt, circa 1989 to bring Sitting back into the rotation







Friday, August 26, 2016

Standing on the Moon in Miami: October 25, 1989


With a new LP to promote (bands still did that in 1989), the reviews were mostly positive as the Dead  Fall Tour caravan moved from Hampton (Warlocks!), NJ, Philly and Charlotte down to the sunshine state.   You can listen to one of the new tunes Standing On The Moon in Miama by clicking above.






As usual, the Dead played Dark Star one of the nights in Miami, but the Wednesday show seems underrated.
Hell In A Bucket [5:51] ; Sugaree [10:10] ; Just A Little Light [4:48] ; Friend Of The Devil [7:56] ; Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again [8:38] ; Cold Rain And Snow [6:18] ; Picasso Moon [6:27] ; Deal [8:57]
Two Playing In The Band [10:07] > Uncle John's Band [12:01] > Playing In The Band Reprise [5:55] ; Standing On The Moon [8:05] > Truckin' [7:47] > Jam [1:30] > Drums [8:17] > Space [9:54] > Gimme Some Lovin' [4:59] > Wharf Rat [10:11] > Sugar Magnolia [8:20] 
Encore U.S. Blues [5:13]  deadlists timing


Links to the Charlie Miller FLAC plus. And here's a local review, compare to the LP review above and you see the growing important of Mr. Mydland "primed to perform"













Wednesday, August 24, 2016

John Barlow, Please Correct Choate to Andover

My very first popular post on this blog was my sneaking out of an Andover dorm to see the Grateful Dead piece 18 months ago:
http://gratefulseconds.blogspot.com/2015/02/sneaking-out-of-andover-dorm-to-see.html
I know my student body president Ed Hill was doing the same thing as well as Lundy, Saint Stephen Clinkenbeard , Grey and so many others.

My pal Roger Selverstone pointed to me today this interview  from the St Paul school alumni magazine with John Perry Barlow, where Barlow, gasp, confuses Andover with Choate

https://mediafiles01.myschoolcdn.com/ftpimages/36/misc/misc_129605.pdf


Good thing, my pal Ed Hill is on the case.  Yes, we love Barlow and we are so happy he is doing better. But Andover is the King of Prep School Deadhead  and must always remain this way.  Everyone I know who actually knows Barlow, like my brother Ralph, Ed Hill, Liza's friend from prep school who worked at his ranch, and the rest give you a pass John, but school spirit makes me write this.  I know its in a St Paul pub, but make the correction. :)


October 1973, The Seven


They had a new label and a new record album that might set you back $3.54. And for about five bucks, you might hear Dark Star, or Truckin>The Other One along with most of the LP.

Thanks to Dudley Dead over at https://archive.org/post/1062442/dudley-dead-inspired-october-1973-piece, I've being thinking more and more of 1973 (as well as the new SirMick releases , especially 11-1-73 :)

The year was 1973, the season was Fall, you were in the midwest and you were among the luckiest Grateful Dead fans ever.  Over these seven shows, you would see three Dark Stars, including the Dark Star>Morning Dew in show 1, two Playing sandwiches, Here Comes Sunshine and China>Riders, an Eyes>Stella blue encore, a couple of Truckin>The Other Ones>plus, and much more. I think you should take them all and listen to them over the next week.

Here is the most remarkable review I ever read in a college newspaper by Dani Ruby in the Daily Illini on November 3, 1973

On the road with the Grateful Dead

 By Dani Ruby .

Maybe your friends have told you ; maybe youve seen it pasted across a car bumper . Maybe you ve found out for yourself by now . There is Nothing Like a Grateful Dead Concert . Not . at least , if you are thinking in terms of the other concerts you have attended-. The . Dead do not put on a show . More accurately , a show simply happens when they are in town . When you attend a Grateful Dead concert , you experience an already complete phenomenon . In fact , if you are willing , you can become a functioning part of it , a living , quivering piece of the Grateful Dead . ; To say that the Grateful Dead is a state of

mind is certainly not the whole truth , but it is a part of the truth . Or to say , as I have heard it said , that the Grateful Dead simply is the truth is too ambiguous , but again it is a significant statement . What I am trying to indicate is that the Dead mystique is a very real and important trend . Growing numbers of young people are designating themselves Dead Heads , and an increasing volume of print is being devoted to defining the phenomenon . And as I join the cast of writers that have tried to get the . Dead down in newsprint , I find that it is nearly impossible to understand , and harder yet , to describe what it is about them that is so compelling .

Yet this is exactly what I propose to do . The only way that I can even attempt it is to give a piecemeal , perhaps impressionistic , account of my experience over the past week . Last Saturday I went to Indianapolis for a Dead concert , and I caught two more in St . Louis Monday and Tuesday . I met a lot of people both backstage and in the audiences , and it is these people who tell the story . This article doesnt purport to be a ny thing other than my own experience . That is all that I can honestly write . So take it with a grain of salt , or swallow it whole if you like . I am an unabashed Dead Head . * * # The story begins arbitrarily . A new album , Wake of the Flood , the first release on the newly-formed Grateful Dead Records , was available in Champaign October 15 . The next day I carried it with me all over campus . . Gala stops by the DI office to complain about a humor article that made light of astrology . I have never laid eyes on this crazy woman before , but 1 find myself sympathizing with her argument . She notices the Dead album in my clutches and * exclaims , Ooooo , the Grateful Dead are witches . None that sees them fails to succumb to them . Succumb , Isay , is not the precise term .

But Gala , you were perceptive . They do have a serious effect on people . A lot of folks have been struck very deeply by them . If only I Had the lyrics to the new album , maybe I could explicate it . It does seem that it leads in a particular direction ; it almost tells a story . The trouble is that they are not definite . Like all poetry , the language that they use is myth and symbol . ~ No matter how synchronized the lyrics seem , they must remain ambivalent . Flash ahead to St . Louis . Jerry , it seems to me that the Dead are striving to lead us somewhere . The funny , round head , hidden from the nose down by the coarse black beard , is nodding

vigorously . I am . sitting with the man who has been called the spokesman for a generation—my generation . Well , what I want to know is , to be blunt ,... where ? The head-shaking stops and two T-shirted shoulders raire in a shrug . 1 don t know . I don V know , any more than you . Taken as a whole the Dead lyrics do seem to be concerned with several recurrent themes . Gambling and gamblers play an essential role in the Grateful Dead world . ( Jack Straw , Me and My Uncle , The Loser ) . Traveling or running is another persistent motif ( Truckin , Beat It on Down the Line , Friend of the Devil ) . Always death and the changes it brings are major concerns ( He s Gone , Black Peter , Cassidy ) , Also the apocolyptical imagery is strong . Throughout the songs one is struck repeatedly by the thought that a terrible moment is coming , and that it will be followed by arrival in a new age of fertility and beauty . Perhaps Ripple is a thesis statement .

Let it be known , there is a fountain , that was not made , by the hands of men ; There is a road , no simple highway , between the dawn and the dark of night . And if you go , none may follow . That path was made for your steps alone . These varying motifs are part of what defines th ! Grateful Dead experience . They are motifs that also run very deeply through our own collective experience , both as humans and as Americans . Me and My Uncle , a song not composed by the Dead , rs an excellent example of the way that they utilize myth and symbol . Set in the Old Wild West , the song tells of a gambler who helps his uncle cheat some other cowboys at poker . Then after the two of them ride off , he kills the older man ; and rides to Mexico with the gold . The song rings true to us now because we can feel this kind-of trend in our own lives and memories . The Wild West was a point in time and space that remains important to our present national character .

Flash to St . Louis . On Tuesday afternoon I am ¦ standing beneath the great arch , the Gateway to the West . Next to the many-styled St . Louis skyline it seems anachronistic . And yet I feel a great thrill to be standing on the banks of the Mississippi , another powerful American symbol , and looking westward , where a fortune could be made and last in one day . West , where you couldn t trust your blood brother . The god forsaken promised land . And all symbolized by a river and a manmade monument .

Not only lyrics work in terms of symbol . Everything about the Grateful Dead is designed to give the audience free opportunity to make their own associations . The name Grateful Dead is a perfect example . It is pregnant with possible meaning ; it is anything but explicit . Each person must make his own associations , and each person does so in his unconscious mind . The name was culled initially from a collection of ballads by the original ethno-musicologist , Francis Child . The Grateful Dead was one of ten categories of songs , and the songs under this heading were about ghosts who returned from the grave to conduct unfinished business . Altogether , a . thoroughly mythical matter . • ¦ - . In the Dead Book : A Social History of the

Grateful Dead , Hank Harrison takes us back to the day in Phil Lesh s house in Pah Alto when Jerry Garcia first ran across the words in a 1912 Oxford Dictionary . His eyes fell upon the words Grateful Dead , The : There was a long silence ... What do you think of this one Phit . THE GRATEFUL DEADVPhil fell off his seat in giddy rails of laughter ; it had the right ring , something for everybody , an infinite array of association ; Egyptian , Gothic , Mystic . That is precise . An infinite array . The artwork oif the album covers , the lighting in concert , the musical forms . But the amazing thing is that the multitude associations all seem to fit together in some kind of complicated pattern . My friend Peggy is a design major who is amazed by the coordination of the visual effect . Ask him , she said when she heard that Id be talking to Garcia , if there is some person who is in charge of all the design . Perhaps an agency or studio . No , Jerry said , there is no overall director . Everyone just does his job , and it generally comes out Synchronized . That is the beautiful thing .

The Grateful Dead is a family that includes not only band members , but business people , sound and light people , the art people , and perhaps the audiences . Backstage the atmosphere is totally relaxed . Two long tables accomodate all the food and drink that will be consumed . The people all mill around , taking care of their jobs and talking to each other . In three days I hardly saw anything that might be called anger , or bitterness , or even bad disposition . - Not that there is no enthusiasm backstage . By the end of the second night in St . Louis , when the band had started to crank up to their closing tunes and it was clear that everything had come off well , the people got into a partying mood that pnatched the sincerity , if not the frenzy , of the audience . All around the people crowded into the spots where they could get a view of The band between the piles of amplifiers and speakers . I positioned myself to watch Jerry as he played a new riff to Goin Downthe Road Feeling Bad , and found myself dancing with Kathleen , a girl from Sky-High Productions , the group that staged the show . I m so happy , she said , squeezing my arm .

Shift to Indianapolis . I arrive early , but have two tickets to sell . It is raining hard at the Indiana State Fairgrounds , andby the time I ve reached the door of the Coliseum , I am thoroughly wet . It is soon apparent that there are many more people with extra tickets than thpse with none . So pacing and shivering , and accosting likely buyers , I recall my friend Ed . One day he had hitched out of central Iowa in the midst of a blizzard at two o clock hoping to make a seven oclock Dead concert in Chicago . And he didnt have a ticket . Nobody thought that he would make it , but he returned with a ticket stub , and claiming that we had missed an amazing concert . * Finally I sold one ticket and decided to take the loss on the other one . I entered the Coliseum just as the Dead swung into Promised Land , an old Chuck Berry tune . It is a good opening number for them , because while it s up-tempo rock-and-roll , it doesnt

have the driving , repeatable refrain thati marks their closers . In any case the audience is loosened up a little . There are rto reserved seats . In fact , oni the padded floor , there are no seats at all . The I floor is packed tight at the stage end , so I find i a place farther back . For the most part I will ; be moving around anyway . The Dead pause for a lengthy moment , ; presumably to decide on a song and an arrangement . The audience is impatient and ! around me I hear some early criticism . \ Finally they sway into a Garcia number , Sugaree . V Later they will play a series of i three songs for nearly an hour without a stop , i And all together they will play 24 songs in the i course of a four-and-a-half hour show . Sugaree was worth the wait . Jerry appears : to be in top form tonight , fast and innovative . His leads in the . breaks seem new and ex-i citing . There is no question of the Dead equalling the excellence of their albums . Live \ they generate a higher livel . of technique and i excitement .

Next is the Bob Weir standard , Mexicali Blues . On piano Kieth Godschaux keeps up the boogie-woogie rhythm . From the audience all that is visible of Godschaux is a tangle of flowing red hair hunched over the > keyboard . When the lighting changes the < reflection off the Steinway makes the hair glow . Weir may be a little tired . This is already the end of their second week on tour in the i Midwest , their sixth city . But Bobbys characteristic mannerisms are still intact . With a little shake of his head his hair falls back away from * his eyes . He emits a quiet whoop at the end of a verse , and lifts his right leg off the stage to give emphasis to a particular chord . Mexicali Blues is seemingly sung by a man contemplating his own depravity . Is there anything-a man dont stand to lose , When the devil wants to take it all away ?

Like most questions that the Dead pose , this one is never answered . Instead , Jerry immediately falls into the slow descending run that begins the Loser . It is the first slow , soul-searching song of tjhe evening , and , in a way , it answers the previous tune . All that I am asking for is ten gold dollars And I can pajryou back with one good hand . Garcia s wierd controlled voice is convincing . I can close my eyes and picture the desperate gambler who has lost every , cent he ever owned over a card table , but is still itching for that inside straight that will make him rich . I got no chance of losing this time . . No , I got no chance of losing this time . To my right a tall skinny girl in a long green dress is swaying slightly to the easy rhythm . She passes me a bottle of wine . She appears to be the prototypical Dead Head . I can see that Garcia s melancholy lead is affecting her desperatel y ^ And the wailing guitar pitches are bounding around the inside walls of my head too . b When the song is over we begin to talk . Her name is Mariah .

I ve just been in Mexico for four months . Havent seen the Dead since June . Are you from Indianapolis ? No 3 Philly . I just got here today to visit some friends , and they had already bought me a ticket . Four days on a bus from Guatemala . And I ve got to head East again in the morning . It is Weir s turn . He sings Black Throated Wind , a slow tune about a hitchiker on an interstate in the wind and rushing traffic . Towards the end of the tune ,. Donna Godschaux comes out on stage , her ^ first appearance . Phil Lesh doubles over his enormous bass in a playful bow ^ as she crosses in front of him . Donnais very pregnant ( Six months . We re expecting the babyjn January some time . , and the crowd applauds her appearance . In white maternity dress she seems more than a little out of place op stage . She makes a self-mocking effort at dancing , but is obviously burdened .

But when they reach the chorus , and her throaty voice joins Weir s it is clear that she is still strong . Bob and Donna make a vocal team that is every bit as perfected as Tammy Wynette and George Jones or Merje Haggard

and Bonnie Owens . Donna has been staging with the Dead for slightly more than a year now . Her voice was the perfect addition , filling out the upper end of the harmonies . And I m out of money now , Mariah says . But thats really not a problem . I m only happy that I got to this concert .. It makes that bus ride worthwhile . Have you ever ridden on a Mexican bus ? I cant say that I have . Dont , unless youre headed to a Dead concert , but even then you should get an early start . Mexicans have no sense of urgency . Next the Dead swung into an up-tempo

country tune , that is not on record , but must have been called They Love Each Other . Through the mist of the colored light on stage I could make out the silk-screened Grateful Dead design on the backdrop . It is Grim Reaper , facing away from the cloudy , turbulent waters—asking to be followed The design was not there to promote Wake of the Flood : it was there because it belonged there . Just as my hand had found Marian s waistline , just as she turned to face me , a young Hoosier kid intervened . Do you think theyll play Casey Jones . Could be , I smiled , but probably nearer to the end of the concert .

. Oh , well how bout Sugar Magnolia ? I split to look for our photographers , first making sure that my new-found Dead Head would not change places . I was worried that I-was mising my story . I wanted interviews arranged , I wanted people to take me aside and explain things to me , and I wanted the photographers to get the pictures that they wanted . . ? . Earlier Rock Scully , black-bearded ; energetic road manager for the Dead , had taken me aside . Everything is pretty loose and youll be with us for three days . If you stay cool youll get whatever you want . Now I was unsure as I talked with a similarly uptight college journalist from Indiana . My counterpart said , Rock told me I would get an interview with Garcia . But I dont like the looks of it . We were thinking we might crash their hotel tonight—if there s a party or something . The set culminated with a nice China Cat Sunflower and I Know You Rider with an

unexceptional transition . The transition , in fact , was a disappointment , because the shifts from one tune to another are one of the hallmarks of the Grateful Dead genius . They require the utmost ability from each of the band members , Garcia can be incredible as he transforms one melody line into another , but without Weir flashing through his practiced chord changes , without Kreutzman breaking down and rebuilding the rhythmic structure , without everyone s careful and insightful support , the change would never come off smoothy . It was hard to tell why it missed Saturday night . Maybe it came off too smoothly , like not enough chances were taken . The excitement failed - to build for I Know . You Rider , a driving , bass-pedaled .. traditional tune . After the four-part harmony conclusion . Weir announced the usual short break .

Flash to St . Louis . After the first concert in St . Louis I went with some friends of mine from Iowa to a motel room in some suburb or another . Four of us , registered as two , end the heat couldnt be turned off so we turned the air-conditioner on . And the TV . Allnight movies , and memories , and visions . After a thankfully short flick about an acting police dog , a Western came on . A cowboy gunman was hired to find a prospector s brother who was lost in Mexico . But I fell asleep on the floor before he ever crossed the Rio Grande . The second set began with Jerry and Bob again alternating songs . They came out determined and they were extremely tight . The crowd perked up again and rocked through Bertha , Bobby McGee , and Tennessee Jed . Then they led into an ap ^ parent river medly with Playing in the Band . Playing in the Band is , perhaps their tightest song musically . The com-: plicated interplay of themes is finally supported by a rousing lyrical vocal that sounds almost self-congatulatory . It is a tune to celebrate by . This version was shortened and they went right into Mississippi Halfstep

Uptown Toodeloo , which is about a boy whose father left him on the day he was born It ends with a slow but pretty refrain . Across the Rio-Grandio , A-cross the lazy river . Apparently the kid has split himself , in search of his father , and thereby , his identity Without pausing they flashed into Big River , a fast tumultuous song that unfortunately has never been released on record , although they have been playing it for at least two years . Finally they spaced out the rock and roll beat and somehow , amazingly returned to . Playing in the Band . The Mississippi , the Rio Grande . Rivers are another significant Dead image . Possibly the reason lies in the nature of the waterways . Perhaps its because they lead somewhere . In St . Louis Jerry was talking about the future . I dont know . We roll like a river . We just ride out the course , and if we are headed in a particular direction , then its irreversible anyway . , - Another flask to St . Louis . Outside Keil Auditorium in a park Tuesday waiting for the final show . All around people are accumulating . Most of those that show up at noon for a seven o clock are genuine Dead Heads . A carload from Tennessee with the license plate JED share our bottle of wine , and a guy from Long Island showed up with a tape of Monday night s concert A handsome ^ young , but decidely down-and-out man stopped by . I just signed with a barge to New Orleans , but . they won t advance me any cash . You got some change for a meal ? I suggested that he pawn his watch , but he fold me it had been a present fromliis ma . Later I was sorry that I hadn t bought him a bowl of chili .

, „ I Photo by John Roach ) When the Dead started into Hes Gone I found Mariah again . You ve returned , she said . We shared an orange , and she told me about the UFO that she had seen at the Dead concert in Washington D . C . last June . It just settled down over the Stadium and took in the concert for about a half hour , irwas during Dark Star . Later Michael , from Iowa , would tell me about a dream his brother had had . He was at a Dead concert and a UFO camejlown . The Dead unzipped their skins , revealing that they were actually fish people . Then , they disappeared , and the flying saucer flew off , beeping a horn as it left . Later yet I repeated the dream to Jerry , and he laughed saying that it was a conceivable eventuality . He s Gone became Truckin became The Other One . It was a beautiful sequence that was . equalled in intensity by aSimilar

series Monday night . The second time the > started right into Truckin , and finished with The Other One and Wharf Rat . Both nights these sequences provided the highlight of the concert . I left Mariah at the close of The Other One . It was a sorrowful parting that was more than a little ridiculous considering we had met less than three hours previously . Her head was ringing with Dead images just as mine was . And though wed never met before , and arent likely to again , we both felt like we knew each other well by the end . There was something magical about the way our lives had crossed . During Sugar Magnolia I worked my way backstage . In the lobby I passed a young kid wearing _ a Leon Russell shirt . Sugar Magnolia closed with its usual double ending . The Coliseum went dark and Weir mumbled his thanks to the audience . Immediately the entire audience lit up matches and clamored for more music .

Casey Jones , Saturday Night , Johnny B ; Goode . The entire crowd was screaming out their favorite rockers . But the Dead did a surprising thing . They stepped back up on stage and played Uncle John s Band , a slower , moresubtle song with symbolic lyrics revolving around a musical image . They even jammed on the melody for a while before finishing-up . Altogether it was a low-key , but interesting ending . In St . Louis I asked Jerry about it , and as usual his answer was enigmatic .

We ve finished with wierder things than Uncle John s Band before . It s simply a matter of playing what is right at the moment . And that is mainly determined by what s happening on stage . In other words , we just do what we want to . Surely you must cater to the audience to a slight degree at least . Why , for instance , do you close so often with Casey Jones ? We hope that the audience will like what happens naturally , but it all starts on stage . Sure a lot of people come only to hear Casey Jones , but there are others that come only for Dark Star . We play what seems right at the moment . All the decisions are made on stage . The second night in St . Louis they did play Dark Star , a song that is considered by many to be their most complex and interesting . Like most of their spacy jams the

success of Dark Star depends both on innovative individual work as well as group dynamics . Garcia s guitar is outright exciting as it produces ominous , foreboding tones . • Kreutzman s drumming is perfect both in accompaniment , and as a lead instrument . Lesh , Weir , and . Garcia all turn inward and face Kreutzman during the crucial segments . The stage is crossed by white spots that seem to create stark contrasts on stage . The four in -the center of the stage seem suspended . Kreutzmans face particularly appears to have been moulded from clay . The mustache is almost , too tidy . , \ Sitting on the floor about twenty rows back , I am looking up at the immense ceiling . It is a pale blue shade , stirring up within me visions of the infinite . The sky . The night . The abyss . If a UFO had access to this space , surely this is the appropriate time for it to appear . The Dead move right into Stella Blue

from Dark Star : The lights turn blue with a tinge of red from a side spot . Garcia plays through the understated chord changes , and the yearning melancholy of the song captures the audience . And for my part , I seem to be arriving at an understanding . The music is magical . I would be perfectly content to float forever underneath the expansive ceiling . No external force could move me to break the beauty of the moment . Not hunger , not fatigue , not even an itch on my ankle . The very air is magic . It is the medium that transmits this music to my ears . I can see it . I can see colored specks of Grateful Dead air . If I had some kind of sealable container . I would scoop up a quantity of it . 1 would take it home and set it oh my dresser . Dust off those rusty strings just one more time Gonna made em shine . Or maybe I could fill a gas cannister full of

it so that I could breathe it in whenever I chose , to . So that all the spaces in my head would be filled with vibrant Dead air . I guess that would make me a bona-fide Dead Head . Maybe all Dead Heads live and breathe in Dead air . Maybe its simply a matter of wanting to . Yes , I can visualize Mariah riding north on a Mexican bus , alive in a Dead world :- The shift from Stella Blue to Eyes of the World is amazing . Eyes is built on a Latin bossa-nov _ a progression . I cant even remember how it was accomplished , except again the lights strike me . Red and purple flow together in an explosive blend . And traces of the resfof the spectrum . The whole scene is self-contained , complete . Only it is a fragile totality—like a soap bubble . It could pop in a second or fade in an hour . I am insecure about it like I am about a pleasant dream that I can feel escaping .

Finally the sound dies , leaving only Weir s guitar . He is fingerpicking through the Old English Prelude to Weather Report Suite . Suite is the perfect conclusion to this hour and a quarter of continuous music . By itself it is almost a musical odyssey , but placed at the end of a series it completes the cycle . In Part II of Suite the tune changes to a lyrical Mexican theme , and ends finally with the loud assertion that , I am , I am , I am . It is the snake biting his own tail . It is the great mandala . It is the picture , the symbol for that which is whole . This is the point . The Grateful . Dead have been developing a collective personality over

the last ten years . They have undergone multiple changes and experiences since that day in Palo Alto when Jerry hit upon the name .. The Trips Festivals with Kesey s Pranksters , the busts , the deaths , the ripoffs . They havesuffered and they have succeeded . They have been vilified as false prophets , and honored as signposts to a new age . This much is certain . The Grateful Dead are the only remaining remnant of the visionaries who migrated to San Francisco in the last half of thejsixties . They are the last of the bands that arose in those optimistic days . And long , after every sensible commentator has declared the era to be dead , the Dead are Only now acheiving full recognition .

As a band they are more together musically than ever before . As a business unit they are beginning to come into their own . And as a family with a common dream they have never been so large nor as tightly knit . Carl Jung introduced the term individuation to a non-grateful world . He meant that every person must go through the life cycle and eventually arrive at an identity . Individuation is the process of becoming oneself . The Grateful Dead have individuated as a band , and now their lyrical , musical , and visual symbolism indicates that they have arrived at their identity . Naturally that identity is not something that can be stated in

precise language . I asked Jerry if he could try to put his finger on it . No . I dont even try anymore . If it can be done at all , then its up to the writers to try . We just are what we are , and we are very happy about it . I will say this . For us there is no Grateful Dead . I mean , we cant go to a Grateful Dead concert . Its only something that we are collectively . Its not enough to say that it is art . It is , but its more than that too . After Weather Report Suite the . concert ends quickly . Goin Down the Road , Johnny B . Goode in fast succession , and One More Saturday Night as an encore . The crowd is reluctant to let them go , and so ami . .

The thought crosses my mind—they are playing in Evanston Thursday . But my return ride to Champaign is waiting . My Grateful Dead trip is temporarily over . Flash ahead to the eventual perpetual Grateful Dead concert . Mariah is by my side . Michael , Peggy , even-Gala arc kern . Jerry , Bob , Phil , Keith and Donna mv . •? ir , tr-tion of moving on . Casey Jones is no i • zrh \ trr e . . Come hear Uncle John s Band Play into the tide . _ ¦ - ¦ Come with me or go alone , He s come to take kis children home .

GARCIA . LESH ft WEIR AT INDIANAPOLIS Truckinin three part harmony

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There were seven shows that started perhaps the best 27 show tour in Grateful Dead.  The first of the 7 in Oklahoma City and the last of the 27 in Florida were both Dick's Picks.  We will get to December with November first. But for today, just see the Midwestwen world of the Dead at their peak ib October, 1973 as they start to experiment with Playing In The Band splits In Omaha and Indianapolis. following the once only in St Louis in 1972.  See http://gratefulseconds.blogspot.com/2015/10/complete-list-of-my-playing-in-band.html for full details.

Listen to all seven shows here.  
See the setlists below, per deadlists http://www.deadlists.com/default.asp



Venue Oklahoma City Fairgrounds Arena
Location Oklahoma City, OK
Date 10/19/73 - Friday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Promised Land ; Sugaree ; Mexicali Blues ; Tennessee Jed ; Looks Like Rain ; Don't Ease Me In ; Jack Straw ; They Love Each Other ; El Paso ; Row Jimmy ; Playing In The Band [17:00]
Two China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider ; Me And My Uncle ; Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo ; Big River [4:50] ; Dark Star [27:04] > Mind Left Body Jam > Morning Dew [8:#12] ; Sugar Magnolia [9:24]
Encore Eyes Of The World > Stella Blue ; Johnny B. Goode


Venue Omaha Civic Auditorium
Location Omaha, NE
Date 10/21/73 - Sunday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Here Comes Sunshine ; Beat It On Down The Line ; Loser ; Black Throated Wind ; They Love Each Other ; Cumberland Blues ; El Paso ; You Ain't Woman Enough ; Weather Report Suite Prelude > Weather Report Suite Part 1 > Let It Grow
Two Playing In The Band [10:19] > Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo [7:47] > Big River [4:56] > Playing In The Band [9:57] ; He's Gone [13:25] > Truckin' [6:55#] > Wharf Rat > Sugar Magnolia [9:23] > Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad [9:17] > One More Saturday Night [4:52]


Venue Metropolitan Sports Center
Location Bloomington, MN
Date 10/23/73 - Tuesday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One The Promised Land ; Sugaree ; Mexicali Blues ; They Love Each Other ; Me And Bobby McGee ; Deal ; Black Throated Wind ; Brown Eyed Women ; Beat It On Down The Line ; Brokedown Palace ; Jack Straw ; China Cat Sunflower [6:01] > Jam [1:37] > I Know You Rider [5:20] ; Around And Around
Two Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo ; Big River ; Row Jimmy ; Me And My Uncle ; Ramble On Rose ; El Paso ; Loose Lucy ; Truckin' [7:31] > Nobody's Fault But Mine Jam [2:51] > The Other One [10:24] > Drums [2:02] > Jam [11:45] > Weather Report Suite Prelude [2:43] > Weather Report Suite Part 1 [2:56] > Let It Grow [9:57] ; Sugar Magnolia [8:50] ; Casey Jones [2:03] ; One More Saturday Night [4:46]
Encore

Venue Dane County Coliseum
Location Madison, WI
Date 10/25/73 - Thursday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Bertha [6:03] ; Big River [4:57] ; Here Comes Sunshine [10:42] ; Black Throated Wind [6:32] They Love Each Other [5:54] ; Mexicali Blues [3:29] ; Tennessee Jed ; Looks Like Rain ; Deal ; El Paso [3:54] ; Row Jimmy [#8:28] Playing In The Band [16:01]
Two China Cat Sunflower [8:09] > I Know You Rider [5:06] ; Me And My Uncle [2:42] ; Dark Star [22:45] > Mind Left Body Jam > Dark Star Jam > Eyes Of The World [14:#02] > Stella Blue [8:08] ; Weather Report Suite Prelude [1:15] > Weather Report Suite Part 1 [4:11] > Let It Grow [10:09] ; Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad [8:#02] > One More Saturday Night [3:26#]
Encore Uncle John's Band

Venue State Fair Coliseum
Location Indianapolis, IN
Date 10/27/73 - Saturday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One The Promised Land [#2:45] ; Sugaree [7:20] ; Mexicali Blues [3:14] ; Loser [6:05] ; Black Throated Wind [6:28] ; They Love Each Other [5:23] ; Jack Straw [4:29] ; Ramble On Rose [5:#34] ; El Paso [4:01] ; Brown Eyed Women [4:#37] ; Greatest Story Ever Told [4:39] ; Loose Lucy [6:54] ; Beat It On Down The Line [3:13] ; China Cat Sunflower [7:32] > I Know You Rider [4:57]
Two Me And My Uncle [2:43] > Bertha [5:26] ; Me And Bobby McGee [5:21] ; Tennessee Jed [7:31] ; Playing In The Band [10:20] > Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo [7:35] > Big River [4:#17] > Playing In The Band [8:38] ; He's Gone > Truckin' > Nobody's Fault But Mine Jam > Wharf Rat > Stella Blue ; Sugar Magnolia
Encore Uncle John's Band

Venue Kiel Auditorium
Location St. Louis, MO
Date 10/29/73 - Monday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Cold Rain And Snow ; Beat It On Down The Line ; Brown Eyed Women ; Mexicali Blues ; Don't Ease Me In ; Black Throated Wind ; Tennessee Jed ; The Race Is On ; Row Jimmy ; El Paso ; Eyes Of The World > China Doll ; Around And Around
Two The Promised Land [#2:50] > Bertha [6:08] > Greatest Story Ever Told [4:10] ; Dead Air [0:06] % Loser [4:55] % Dead Air [0:09] ; Big River [5:25] ; Dead Air [2:35] ; Brokedown Palace [5:49] ; Dead Air [0:05] % Dead Air [0:10] ; Truckin' [7:09] > Jam [9:20] ; Drums [2:26] > The Other One [22:33] > Wharf Rat [10:25] > Sugar Magnolia [8:41]
Encore Casey Jones

Venue Kiel Auditorium
Location St. Louis, MO
Date 10/30/73 - Tuesday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Here Comes Sunshine ; Me And My Uncle ; Ramble On Rose ; Looks Like Rain ; Deal ; Mexicali Blues ; They Love Each Other ; El Paso ; Row Jimmy ; Jack Straw ; China Cat Sunflower [8:50] > I Know You Rider [5:02] ; Playing In The Band [20:23]
Two Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo [7:47] ; Big River [4:32] ; Dark Star [26:56] > Stella Blue [7:29] > Eyes Of The World [17:46] > Weather Report Suite Prelude [1:38] > Weather Report Suite Part 1 [4:40] > Let It Grow [9:10] ; Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad [8:25] > Johnny B. Goode
Encore One More Saturday Night






Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Get Better, TC



Just heard that TC is recovering from a broken neck.  Get Better TC!

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/tom-constanten-broken-neck/


Cliff Hucker started this thread, which I exerpt now and play foer you
https://archive.org/post/272365/tom-constantens-contribution-to-the-grateful-dead

On this day in history in '69, the Grateful Dead performed what is undeniably one of the greatest Dark Stars, not just for 1969, but of all time.

Over thirty minutes in length, this rendition is particularly beautiful from start to finish, filled with some dynamic theme explorations, shimmering percussion work, and an extraordinary "Tighten up" segment. It just might be Tom Constanten's finest hour in the Grateful Dead...   The show is here

Monday, August 22, 2016

The Perfect Show, Berkeley, August 24, 1972





I have only been familiar with this show since October, 2009, but to me, this is The Perfect Show.
Well, all of 1972 is off the charts, but this little show at Phil's high school in the Berkeley Community Theater is simple Perfect.  It's interesting that the next time on August 25 might have been the Just Exactly Perfect Show, however it's missing much of what I expect is the best part of the show. And of course the trip up to Oregon followed. :)

For some reason, when I listen to this night, it just feels right, it feels perfect to me. It's the playing, it's the singing. it's the rare Dark Star>Morning Dew (more on that soon!). It's everything. It's perfect.


Perspectives: Full Circle with the Dead

Extended stand in Berkeley should be a model for tours

The Grateful Dead
Among friends
A short time ago the Grateful Dead played a four-night engagement at the Berkeley Community Theater, a hall that seats 3500 when the orchestra pit is used.
The entire series of four performances -- 14,000 tickets -- was sold out by the end of the second day the tickets went on sale. There was no special advertising campaign, just the usual announcements in the standard Bill Graham ads.
No other group appeared with the Dead on the show and the music began early every night, at seven o'clock, and went on until 11 or 11:30 PM. The theater is part of a high school campus, and it is against various rules and regulations of the local and State Departments of Education to run after midnight.
The Berkeley Community Theater is not a dance hall. There is no flat, wide area on which to dance or crash. There are only regular auditorium/ theater seats and it was a reserved seat affair with numbered tickets and prices ranging from $3.50 to $5.50.
It was beautiful. Night after night the audiences were warm, friendly, appreciative and enthusiastic. Even the usual Bill Graham Quiz, in which he stands on stage and answers questions ("When is the Airplane coming? September 15 and 16 at Winterland. John Lennon? John Lennon is at Madison Square Garden Saturday night.") went down without heckling or antagonism.
The music was superb. The band played straight through each night with only a half-hour intermission long about mid-evening. Of course the Dead are unique and the affair would have been obvious as a Grateful Dead tribal stomp even to a deaf man. All you had to do was to look around backstage and see the women, babies and dogs and it couldn't have been anyone but the Dead.
However, what they did was not the kind of thing which is possible only for one special group. It is possible for a lot of groups and it should be noted and considered by the whole rock & roll world.
The standard rock show of today has evolved from two sources. The old original Fillmore dance concerts and the all-star touring show/ concerts of the Fifties. At the Fillmore, the concert was three groups: a lightweight, middleweight and a heavy, each playing about an hour and the show generally repeated twice an evening. A light show was standard right from the beginning. The Fifties concert/show with Paul Anka or Fats Domino would include half a dozen groups or singles each doing two or three songs (concluding with their hit) and then the star doing about an hour.
But earlier, in the Swing Era of the Thirties and Forties, the big bands drew crowds of thousands to dances with only the one group, themselves, on each show. Count Basie or Benny Goodman would play from eight or nine o'clock until 2 AM with only a ten or 15 minute break every hour or so. Occasionally -- and for a very special promotion -- another band would be added and it then became "A Battle of the Bands" with, say, Andy Kirk and Count Basie, or Benny Goodman and Count Basie in which each band alternated hour by hour from eight or nine o'clock until, sometimes, four AM. In those days you stood on the dance floor, you didn't sit or crash.
I have never known why it was necessary to sit or stand through two opening groups to hear the band you came for, except as a means of introducing new groups to an audience.
The whole concert style of Goodman, Ellington, Kenton and the rest which became standard operating procedure at the beginning of the Fifties and which set the matrix for the Fats Domino/ Paul Anka/ Bill Doggett touring shows which followed, was a combination of the status (ego) involved in playing a concert as opposed to a dance and a method of getting new locations to replace the dwindling dance halls. Also, dance halls could have only one ticket price and concerts could be scaled in various echelons for a bigger gross.
So now we have come full circle. The Grateful Dead can play four nights (and they obviously could have played a week) at a concert hall with absolute artistic and commercial success. Some of the patrons -- Graham estimated 20 percent -- were repeaters, buying tickets for every night. It reminded me of a big band playing the Roton Point Casino when I was in high school. We'd be there every night. Or Glen Island where we would make it three nights out of five, say.
There were other good things about the Dead's Berkeley series. Because it was for four nights and there was room enough for everybody (ticket swapping was common with Listeners' Personals on KSANFM acting as a bulletin board), there was none of the hysterical meat-market serum at any of the box offices. There was time enough for us all.
The Dead do not go in for any of the show biz nonsense you see with some Svengali-created groups in which costumes and lighting attempt to create the drama missing from the music. The Dead are very straight ahead in their presentation. To begin with, they are among friends and they know it. And of course it is axiomatic that, being among friends, there is nothing to live up to. Just be yourself.
Aside from the individual virtues of the group, they have mastered the ability to control dynamics to a more consistent degree than any other group I know of except the James Brown band. The Dead can come down to a whisper and still keep it moving, and this is one of the hardest things to do in group music. That they make it appear to be so effortless is a tribute to their ability. That, too, is hard to do, but as everyone knows who has become expert in any field, it's easy when you know how and the Dead sure do know how.
For me, Jerry Garcia was always one of the true original sounds in contemporary instrumental music. Like a very few others (B.B., Hendrix) it has always been possible to pick him out right away. In earlier days he was not a particularly impressive singer. But he has developed into one now. It was evident from the records that he was getting a lot better, but then in the studio it is possible to aid the voice in a way it can't be done in live performance, and now on the concert stage Jerry is a fine singer, again with a highly personal sound.
Phil Lesh (like Jack Casady) has always been a fascinating bassist precisely because he did not play the bass like other bass players but instead made it into a continual counter-melody to Garcia and the song. But Lesh has gotten even better and his bass playing takes over from time to time to become a uniquely dominant voice.
Bob Weir is the personification of the Dead's philosophy of "let it grow." Standing there beside one of the greatest guitarists of his time, Weir has grown. In other circumstances he might have been inhibited, but the Dead's ambience let him be, and he has become a fine singer and an excellent player. Bill Kreutzman has mellowed out over the years as a drummer and really swings his ass off. Keith Godchaux, who replaced the ailing Pig Pen, plays keyboard which gives an unusual pianistic sound now and Donna Godchaux sings an occasional song in a charming Southern-flavored voice.
All in all the week was pure joy. Now why don't the Band, the Who, Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, and the rest do the same thing? Must we always be prisoners of those amphitheaters?
RALPH GLEASON
(RS 118, September 28, 1972)

From the GD Newsletter August 1972, Guess Santa Barbara Bowl didnt happen :)
SET 1
The Promised Land
Sugaree
Jack Straw
China Cat Sunflower >
I Know You Rider
Me And My Uncle
Bird Song
Beat It On Down The Line
Tennessee Jed
Playing In The Band
Casey Jones
SET 2
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Mexicali Blues
Brown Eyed Women
Truckin'
Dark Star >
Morning Dew
Sugar Magnolia
Ramble On Rose
Greatest Story Ever Told
Sing Me Back Home
One More Saturday Night
ENCORE
Uncle John's Band







Review of August 21 show




You can see that many people above and below agree with me.

http://www.deadlistening.com/2009/10/1972-august-24-berkeley-community.html

https://dailydoseofdead.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/today-in-grateful-dead-history-august-24-1972-berkeley-community-theater-berkeley-ca/

http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2009/12/some-overlooked-shows-from-1972.html

http://liveforlivemusic.com/news/dark-star-orchestra-to-recreate-berkeley-1972-grateful-dead-show-blocks-away-from-original-concert/

http://cryptdev.blogspot.com/2012/08/grateful-dead-august-1972.html

http://headyversion.com/show/650/grateful-dead/1972-08-24/

https://www.gdao.org/items/show/251553

http://moderndeadhead.blogspot.com/2010/02/grateful-dead-berkeley-august-1972.html

https://archive.org/details/gd72-08-24.sbd.miller.18093.sbeok.shnf


Friday, August 12, 2016

The Dude Turns 20: My Last Keith/Donna Show Providence Civic Center January 18, 1979


My last Grateful Dead song as a teenager was Casey Jones in New Haven around midnight on January 17, 1979.    
And on my 20th birthday, I watched Keith and Donna play for the 23rd and last times as members of the Grateful Dead at the always fun Providence Civic Center.  It started awesome, got a bit rocky towards the end, but I will always love Keith and Donna.

This was a typical late-1978, early 1979, without those beautiful early Shakedown Streets, but this did include my first He's Gone>Truckin'>The Other One, and my only sans drums version as it continued into Wharf Rat and Around & Around to close the set.  Charlie Miller posted a version with a seemless second set, as he is app to do on shows with a certain regard. Grab it here or FLAC

This old-school 51 minutes plus medley is right out of the golden single drummer era 1972-1974
He's Gone>Truckin>The Other One>Wharf Rat>Around & Around, the only such, no break for drums or space, version I would ever see in my nearly one-million second career with the Grateful Dead.  If you press play, above or below, you will get these 3,000 seconds on the entry to my 20's.

This Truckin' features a nice vocal add-in by our friend Phil.  There has always been a great photo of this show, which I feature here now.  This was found here, and is a Jim Anderson (buy his work!)





The next time I would get a classic He's Gone>Truckin>The Other One, drums would preceed TOO, but the Dew would follow on September 11, 1981 at the Greek.


Nothing is gonna bring him back. Love you still Jerry.