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

Sunday, December 16, 2018

The Last Of The First-Set Playin' In The Band, 1976-1989

The last one is up here.


You know you love these.
The shows where the Grateful Dead closed set one with a monster Playin' in the Band.
But, the band only did this 75 times, almost entirely in the one drummer 1972-1974 era.

1972 17 times (first time 3-27-1972)
1973 37 times
1974 13 times  (last one on 10-16-74)
67 times in 198 shows or about one out of three.

After this, they continued this lovely set closer into 1976 and 1977, but stopped on April 22, 1977 in Philadelphia. This was exactly one day before I started my eight show 1977 attendance.
Fuck my luck. I'm still waiting for my set-one closing Playin' in the Band.

Only half of the last eight were standalone. Groovy 76-77 Dead had to add enhancements

06-14-76  (I saw 6/12 missed by one show)  The Wheel opened set two
06-19-76  Help>Slip>Franklin>Music opened the same set, can you imagine?

07-14-76  Playin>The Wheel>Playin, about now you makes plans to move to SF
09-24-76  Playin>Supplication>Playin (why not in New England guys?)
12-31-76  Short 7 song set; to make room for Midnight

02-26-77  Playin>The Wheel>Playin, opened the year with Terrapin debut, Estimated debut also



03-19-77  Terrapin>Playin>Samson>Playin (why am not in California yet?)
04-22-77  Last standalone  ( I saw 4/23 missed by one show) listen above

According to Deadbase 50, there were 600 shows where Playin In the Band was played
This includes 582 plus 18 Playin' reprises which makes it the song most played at Grateful Dead concerts.  Sugar Magnolia at 594 and The Other One at 583 follow closely for those keeping score.
Interestingly,  Jerry songs do not top the list since he had more songs than Bobby.

At 177 of the 600 shows, Playin was performed in the first set.

However the 1975 vacation, the Dead only played Playin in the first set 13 more times.  In my 80 shows, I never saw this occur. I Never Saw Such a Beast as the First Set Playin' in the Band

The last five after 1977, five opened the show

06-08-80  Opened in Boulder, 15th anniversary tour, Uncle's John>Playin'>Uncle John's.
09-15-82  Open, Cap Center, encored with first Touch, opened with Playin>Crazy Fingers>Rooster
09-21-82  Open, MSG gets its taste, Playin>Crazy Fingers>Me & My Uncle>Big River
12-27-86  Open, Kaiser hears Playin>Bertha
07-02-89  Open, Foxboro gets Playin>Crazy Fingers><Wang Dang Doodle

There is also this weir night 3-28-1989 in Hot "lanta
with Samson And Delilah; Ship Of Fools; Playing In The Band > Foolish Heart > Drums > Space > Gimme Some Lovin' > Wharf Rat > Throwing Stones > Not Fade Away

The last complete Playing in the Band all wrapped up into one, but that one is set two and a story for another day







# of First Set Playin by Year

1971   49
1972   64
1973   37
1974   13
1976    5
1977    3
1980    1
1982    2
1986    1
1989    1


No comments: