Best Local Review Ever of a Grateful Dead Show for Dick's Picks 36, 1972-09-21

Unlike most local reporters, Philadelphia reporters look like they "got" the Dead. case in point the Philadelphia Daily News report by Jonathan Takiff of the Dick's Picks 36 show at the Spectrum on September 21, 1972 (here).

"No rock band in the world flies so high and so brilliantly as the Grateful Dead"
"There is no waste, no sense of repetition, or easy compromise."   I am going to check out more of your writing, Mr. Takiff.

EDIT: Found you, May 28, 2020

Just read all the whole thing now please (below).  Thank you newspapers.com for adding the Philly papers, more to come

set 1 (from wikipedia)

"Promised Land" (Chuck Berry) – 3:50
"Bird Song" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter) – 13:40
"El Paso" (Marty Robbins) – 5:06
"China Cat Sunflower" > (Garcia, Hunter) – 5:28
"I Know You Rider" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 6:49
"Black-Throated Wind" (Bob Weir, John Barlow) – 6:47
"Big Railroad Blues" (Noah Lewis, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 4:02
"Jack Straw" (Weir, Hunter) – 4:52
"Loser" (Garcia, Hunter) – 7:12
"Big River" (Johnny Cash) – 4:42
"Ramble On Rose" (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:34
"Cumberland Blues" (Garcia, Phil Lesh, Hunter) – 7:40
"Playing in the Band" (Weir, Mickey Hart, Hunter) – 16:47

set 2

"He's Gone" (Garcia, Hunter) – 14:18
"Truckin'" (Garcia, Lesh, Weir, Hunter) – 11:51
"Black Peter" (Garcia, Hunter) – 9:39
"Mexicali Blues" (Weir, Barlow) – 3:26
"Dark Star" > (Garcia, Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Lesh, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Weir, Hunter) – 37:08
"Morning Dew" (Bonnie Dobson, Tim Rose) – 12:10
"Beat It On Down the Line" (Jesse Fuller) – 3:34
"Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" (Garcia, Hunter) – 10:02
"Sugar Magnolia" (Weir, Hunter) – 8:30
"Friend of the Devil" (Garcia, Dawson, Hunter) – 3:37
"Not Fade Away" > (Buddy Holly, Norman Petty) – 5:57
"Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad" > (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 7:26
"Not Fade Away" reprise (Hardin, Petty) – 3:31
"One More Saturday Night" (Weir) – 4:56






The Grateful Dead played 101 shows in Pennsylvania according to Deadbase 11, and more than half (53) were at the Spectrum.  This was only the second show there, and the first since the Quaker City Rock Festival on 12-6-1968 and the best show ever at the Spectrum with the Dark Star>Morning Dew couplet.

12-1-68 Philly Inquirer

Politics and the Dead circa 1972   click article to read

Best Review Ever of a Grateful Dead Show

Jonathan was still writing about the Dead as late as 1995 (click on to read in big type)

Nobel Prize Winner Bob Dylan Rocks with The Grateful Dead, 1987

I saw my old pal Bobby Z last Friday night open for the Stones at Coachella. I felt a little surge at the show whenever he played a song the Grateful Dead used to cover like "Desolation Row".

I first saw Bob at the famous Boston Music Hall Rolling Thunder Review late show, November 21, 1975, but I did love the July 24, 1987 show with the Dead.

Wow, a Nobel Prize Winner.  In his honor today, here is the 1987 Dylan and Dead tour, all six shows in its entirety.   The list is from the awesome deadlists.com. The six shows are here

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

July 25, 1987

The Dead Overpowered Dylan
The Musical Minds Didn't Quite Meet
JOEL SELVIN
The irony of Bob Dylan needing the Grateful Dead to attain any kind of current relevance could not have been lost on the crowd of more than 50,000 that attended the joint performance last night at the Oakland Coliseum.
Dylan had already been elevated into rock's pantheon when the Dead were still knocking out LSD-laced inventions on Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" to small crowds around the Bay Area 20 years ago.
Today, the band stands on the brink of the first Top 10 album in its career, while Dylan hasn't seen the upper reaches of the best-selling charts in years.
It was the Dead's audience that showed up at the Oakland baseball park last night, a special event for Deadheads, an extravagant convocation to watch the great singer-songwriter sup at the Dead's own festive table.
Dylan certainly looked odd, standing amid the familiar figures of the Dead: guitarist Bob Weir sporting short pants and Jerry Garcia wearing his inevitable flannel shirt.
The intended meeting of the musical minds never really took place, as the Dead swathed Dylan classics in a thick but subdued, blues-based attack that easily swallowed Dylan's offhand, reedy vocal presence.
Drawing heavily from his most prolific period, Dylan teamed the power of the Dead to "Blonde on Blonde" and "Highway 61"-era gems like a steaming rockabilly rendition of "Maggie's Farm," a bristling "Highway 61," with Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia spiking the sound with slashing bottleneck lines, and a pounding "Memphis Blues Again," the band driving home the song's potent chorus with big, sweeping riffs.
Garcia burnished the edges of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" with rippling pedal steel guitar and fired up the instrumental sections of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" with his long, ruminating solos.
Dylan snarled and whined against the raging band, but never appeared fully at ease in front of the powerhouse sound of the six-man band. The two drummers, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzman, relentlessly drove the group, with bassist Phil Lesh pinning the sound with imaginative loping lines. Garcia and Weir, who both joined Dylan for vocal harmonies on choruses, kept chords crashing and chiming behind the vocals.
Dylan wisely deployed some of his strongest material, saving the obscure and mundane for another time, bringing the 70-minute joint concert to a climax with a slow, elegaic "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," followed by a three-song encore of the Dead's "Touch of Grey," the current hit from the band's new album, and Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" and "Tangled Up in Blue."
After four joint appearances last summer, when Dylan toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as his backup band, Dylan and the Dead decided to try a more fully realized collaboration on a six-date stadium tour this summer.
Dylan even joined the Dead at the band's San Rafael studio for two weeks of rehearsal before this tour
- neither Dylan or the Dead are known for scrupulous rehearsals - compiling a songbook of more than 60 selections, running through each number once or, at the most, twice.
Although the Dead generally construct a concert program as the band goes along, for this tour Dylan and the Dead met each evening before a concert to put together a written set list.
The Dead opened last night's show with two more than hourlong sets of the group's own music, a light and playful first half followed by a second segment where the band finally dug into a series of songs to drive the group's portion of the show to a close with a rollicking "Bertha" and practically thunderous "Sugar Magnolia."
Typical of the Dead's renowned perversity, during the group's own portion of the show the band performed only one song from its new album, "In the Dark," which already looks like a cinch to become the first legitimate hit record in the band's more-than-20-year career.
Clearly, the more than 50,000 fans attending the concert were Deadheads out to witness a historic coupling of their heroes with Dylan, who couldn't have sold half the number of tickets without the Dead.
While Dylan is still riding on his own past accomplishments, the Dead has probably never been hotter than the band currently finds itself, something that is the cause of no small amusement to the members of the band.
But the Dead has never rested on laurels. The adventurous spirit the group has always displayed undoubtedly led the Dead to undertake this dubious collaboration, a challenge the band couldn't fail, a summit meeting the group would not miss.


Venue Sullivan Stadium
Location Foxboro, MA
Date 7/4/87 - Saturday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Touch Of Grey [5:53] ; Hell In A Bucket [5:44] ; West L.A. Fadeaway [6:57] ; Tons Of Steel [4:48] ; Little Red Rooster [8:18] ; Box Of Rain [4:46] ; Althea [6:50] ; Uncle John's Band [6:46] > Playing In The Band [8:54] > Drums [6:23] > Space [5:#14] > Truckin' [6:41] > The Other One [3:22] > Wharf Rat [7:40] > Throwing Stones [8:59]
Two The Times They Are A-Changin' [4:27] ; Man Of Peace [4:18] ; I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (1) [4:46] ; John Brown [5:57] ; I Want You [3:56] ; Ballad Of A Thin Man [5:08] ; Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again [5:14] ; Queen Jane Approximately [5:08] ; Chimes Of Freedom [5:54] ; Slow Train [4:28] ; Joey [9:15] ; All Along The Watchtower [4:13]
Encore Knockin' On Heaven's Door [6:29]
Comments (1)Jerry on pedal steel.

Venue JFK Stadium
Location Philadelphia, PA
Date 7/10/87 - Friday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Iko Iko [6:17] ; Jack Straw [5:52] ; Sugaree [8:26] ; New Minglewood Blues (1) [7:16] ; Althea [6:38] ; My Brother Esau [4:44] ; Mexican Hat Dance Tuning ; When Push Comes To Shove [4:42] ; Cassidy [6:22] ; China Cat Sunflower [5:18] > I Know You Rider [5:12] ; Looks Like Rain [8:16] ; Terrapin Station [10:42] > Drums [8:20] > Space [5:27] > I Need A Miracle [5:31] > Black Peter [7:52] > Around And Around [4:22] > One More Saturday Night (2) [4:00#]
Two Tangled Up In Blue [5:04] ; I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (3) [4:22] ; Man Of Peace [4:10] ; The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest [5:08] ; John Brown [5:31] ; Simple Twist Of Fate [5:26] ; Ballad Of A Thin Man [5:05] ; Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again [5:35] ; Chimes Of Freedom (4) [5:15] ; Queen Jane Approximately (4) (5) [0:45] ; Gotta Serve Somebody [4:19] ; Joey [9:20] ; All Along The Watchtower [4:32]
Encore Touch Of Grey (6) [6:12]
Comments (1)Philly fillies/T right here in Philly (2)Last @20 secs. cut from timed copy. (3)Jerry on pedal steel. (4)Timed from audience tape. (5) False start; ends after the "That you're tired of yourself and all your creations" line. (6)w/o Bob Dylan

Venue Giants Stadium
Location East Rutherford, NJ
Date 7/12/87 - Sunday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Hell In A Bucket [5:49] ; West L.A. Fadeaway [6:46] ; Greatest Story Ever Told (1) [4:04] ; Loser [6:15] ; Tons Of Steel [4:51] ; Take A Step Back Tuning ; Ramble On Rose [6:19] ; When I Paint My Masterpiece [4:33] ; When Push Comes To Shove [4:34] ; The Promised Land [3:53] > Bertha [6:45]
Two Morning Dew [9:21] ; Playing In The Band [9:09] > Drums [7:31] > Space [5:01] > The Other One [4:36] > Stella Blue [7:34] > Throwing Stones [9:12] > Not Fade Away [6:35]
Three Slow Train [4:01] ; Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again [6:03] ; Tomorrow Is A Long Time [4:42] ; Highway 61 Revisited [4:12] ; It's All Over Now, Baby Blue [5:40] ; Ballad Of A Thin Man [4:42] ; John Brown [5:02] ; The Wicked Messenger [3:31] ; Queen Jane Approximately [3:45] ; Chimes Of Freedom [7:25] ; Joey [9:05] ; All Along The Watchtower [4:50] ; The Times They Are A-Changin' [4:24]
Encore Touch Of Grey [6:01] > Knockin' On Heaven's Door [6:02]
Comments (1)Bob:"We're gonna do an older tune." before Greatest Story.

Venue Autzen Stadium - University of Oregon
Location Eugene, OR
Date 7/19/87 - Sunday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Iko Iko [8:25] ; Feel Like A Stranger [7:47] ; Franklin's Tower [9:27] ; New Minglewood Blues (1) [7:28] ; Peggy-O [6:12] ; Addams Family Tuning ; When I Paint My Masterpiece [4:05] ; West L.A. Fadeaway [7:15] ; Let It Grow [12:31]
Two Gimme Some Lovin' [5:20] > Playing In The Band [7:00] > He's Gone [11:12] > Spoonful [6:35] > Drums [6:41] > Space [7:00] > The Wheel [4:32] > Truckin' [6:32] > Wharf Rat [9:30] > Turn On Your Lovelight [5:35]
Three Maggie's Farm [3:56] ; Dead Man, Dead Man [4:49] ; Watching The River Flow [4:24] ; Simple Twist Of Fate [4:43] ; The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest [5:13] ; Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again [6:11] ; Heart Of Mine [4:08] ; It's All Over Now, Baby Blue [5:01] ; Rainy Day Women #12 And #35 [4:29] ; Queen Jane Approximately [6:15] ; Ballad Of A Thin Man [5:11] ; Highway 61 Revisited [4:44] ; Tangled Up In Blue [7:13]
Encore Touch Of Grey [6:27] > All Along The Watchtower [4:54]
Comments (1) Oregon fillies/T right here in Eugene now

Venue Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Stadium
Location Oakland, CA
Date 7/24/87 - Friday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Funiculi Funicula ; Tico Tico Tuning ; Jack Straw [5:44] > Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo [8:24] ; My Brother Esau [4:38] ; Friend Of The Devil [7:40] ; Me And My Uncle [3:00] > Big River [5:17] ; When Push Comes To Shove [4:31] ; Far From Me [4:07] ; Cassidy [6:37] > Deal [7:22]
Two Hell In A Bucket [5:27] > Scarlet Begonias [7:13] ; Playing In The Band [10:13] > Drums [6:57] > Space [4:#45] > Uncle John's Band [4:38#] > Dear Mr. Fantasy [#5:14] > I Need A Miracle [3:35] > Bertha [6:58] > Sugar Magnolia [9:01]
Three The Times They Are A-Changin' [5:23] ; Man Of Peace [4:30] ; Maggie's Farm [5:03] ; I'll Be Your Baby Tonight [4:30] ; I Want You [4:36] ; Highway 61 Revisited [4:25] ; It's All Over Now, Baby Blue [6:05] ; Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again [6:04] ; Ballad Of A Thin Man [5:41] ; Shelter From The Storm [4:47] ; Slow Train [4:56] ; Knockin' On Heaven's Door [8:52]
Encore Touch Of Grey [6:21] ; All Along The Watchtower [6:21]

Venue Anaheim Stadium
Location Anaheim, CA
Date 7/26/87 - Sunday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One Iko Iko [5:27] ; New Minglewood Blues (1) [7:10] ; Tons Of Steel [5:04] ; West L.A. Fadeaway [6:56] ; When I Paint My Masterpiece [3:31] ; Mexicali Blues [4:23] ; Bird Song [#8:17] > The Promised Land [4:03]
Two Shakedown Street [11:20] > Looks Like Rain [8:06] > Terrapin Station [11:20] > Drums [9:01] > Space [7:#22] > The Other One [4:45] > Stella Blue [7:04] > Throwing Stones [8:30] > Not Fade Away [7:47]
Three Mr. Tambourine Man [4:50] ; Dead Man, Dead Man [5:26] ; Maggie's Farm [4:39] ; Simple Twist Of Fate [5:44] ; Watching The River Flow [4:02] ; It's All Over Now, Baby Blue [6:07] ; Chimes Of Freedom [5:17] ; Queen Jane Approximately [3:51] ; Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again [6:54] ; Ballad Of A Thin Man [6:17] ; Rainy Day Women #12 And #35 [4:27] ; Gotta Serve Somebody [5:41] ; All Along The Watchtower [6:10]
Encore Touch Of Grey [6:13] ; Knockin' On Heaven's Door [6:20]

A Girl Has No Name and Dave's Near Arrest Outside the Spaceship, Hampton 1979-05-04

So a Girl Has No Name and Dave and Bob and Sam (a girl who has a name) went on a roadtrip in Bob's car on May 2.1979 from Maine to North Carolina to see six Dead Grateful Dead shows in seven nights. These just happen to be the 2nd to 8th show of Brent Mydland. Here's the 5-4 show

Charlotte Coliseum - May 3, 1979	no Charlie on Archive
Hampton Coliseum - May 4, 1979	https://archive.org/details/gd1979-05-04.sonyecm.walker-scotton-miller.89120.flac16
Baltimore Civic Center - May 5, 1979	https://archive.org/details/gd1979-05-05.sbd.miller.fishmanj-repitch.78748.flac16
Kirby Fieldhouse - May 7, 1979	no Charlie on Archive
Recreation Hall - May 8, 1979	no Charlie on Archive
Broome County Arena - May 9, 1979	https://archive.org/details/gd1979-05-09.nak700.rolfe.miller.99027.sbeok.flac16

This is the only show I ever saw at Hampton, and it was the first one the Dead ever played there.
Bobby ended up with 158 recordings on the archive (Bob's 158 Recordings on Archive), but I know he taped all of these tour shows as well, since we would listen to them every night of the Road Trip.

I recalled meeting famous taper Joani Walker at the Charlotte show the night before Her Charlotte  tape is here and Hampton here  and later meet her again in Berkeley at 1981 at a party Rick Sullivan and Randy were at.

Since we were road-tripping, we arrived in Hampton early. We notices the near-by wooded area (is it still there?)

A Girl Has No Name and I decided to go explore the woods and do what college bf and gf usually like to do.  Then we smoked a joint. While we did that, we noticed a sound in the woods, like someone stepping on a branch.  And stupidly, the 20 year old version of me had four joints in my pocket.  Suddenly, a Virginia State trooper appeared just a few feet from us.  This must have been the scarest moment of my life.  He said, "boy you need to get a room. This is Virginia son." And amazingly he told us to get out of there and go to the concert. Crazy.

At first, I was so happy to get out of that situation without being arrested. But, then I realized that this Trooper spent a good amount of time watching us before he came up to us.

This was the one and only time I had a near arrest at a Dead show.  Luckily, the band played a great show that was later released on record store day in 2014.

Anatomy Of A Dick's Picks: Pershing '73

Volume 28 of Dick's Picks is a masterpiece since it's from the magical year of 1973 (March 26 with some March 28 Salt Lake bonus). Let's take a look at the local POV from Nebraska on March 26.  There are some interesting tidbits, POVs, Monday Night in February in Nebraska, some weed, an interesting letter.  Here'e a nice recording of the show

Excitement 

The Promised Land ; Deal ; Mexicali Blues ; Loser ; Jack Straw ; Don't Ease Me In ; Box Of Rain ; China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider ; Looks Like Rain ; Loose Lucy ; Beer Barrel Polka ; Beat It On Down The Line ; Row Jimmy ; El Paso ; Big Railroad Blues ; Playing In The Band
Two They Love Each Other ; Big River ; Tennessee Jed ; Greatest Story Ever Told ; Dark Star [24:45] > Eyes Of The World [19:09] > Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo [7:14] ; Me And My Uncle [2:55] ; Not Fade Away [6:52] > Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad [7:46] > Not Fade Away [2:53]
Comments Most of this show released as part of Dick's Picks 28, 4/03. Missing from DP28 is Deal, Mexicali Blues, Loser, Box Of Rain, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Beat It On Down The Line, Row Jimmy and El Paso.

Add caption

Dead Too "Gloomy" Near Halloween: Taft Auditorium, October 30, 1971 FM Broadcast

Back in Cincinnati,  the local paper thinks the band's music "tendered to lumber and bear down".   Guess it would have been better to run to Columbus for the next time, which gave us Dick's Picks 2.
I agree that this show was not one of the barn burners from Keith's first tour, but still fun to have.

New Rider's setlist was Workingman's Blues / Superman / Down In The Boondocks / Cecilia / Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music) / Dirty Business / Truck Drivin' Man / Lochinvar / Hello Mary Lou / The Weight / Glendale Train / Lodi / Last Lonely Eagle / Louisiana Lady / Willie And The Hand Jive  (thanks to http://www.nrpsmusic.com/music/1971setlists.html#1030).

In the spirit of the review, you can hear some Riders by clicking up or below. :)

This later review was much better as per we like :)

From Same day LA Times 10-31-71