The Grateful Dead

[Shug]

Are you on Spotify? Would love to be able to share those 2 playlists

Nope, just good old fashioned cassettes and CDs.  I could burn it for ya, though.  Be happy to do so.

[Lammycat]

Now the can of worms have been opened....

That entire show is available, I've watched a good chunk of it, but never made it to that. Wow.

Supposedly video'ed by Duke students. Not bad for the early-ish technology available at the time.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Is the whole show like that, or does ol' Jer just get all jiggy and whatnot for Useless Blues?

[worldrecordplayer]

Is the whole show like that, or does ol' Jer just get all jiggy and whatnot for Useless Blues?

I don't remember, which leads me to think he must have gotten all jiggy and whatnot for U.S. Blues. But I do remember the entire show being high energy, a keeper.

[calvino]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_zD1_J5eYs

 

Above is that 4-12-78 show - it's a pretty good one. The U.S Blues is a blast.

[Skian]

If you haven't seen this (U.S. Blues 4.12.78 Duke) you MUST:

 

Thank you! Thank you! That was great! Nice way to end Jerry week.

[Vacant Horizon]

I'm not crazy about much of anything past '82, if I'm honest about it. I was always more a Jerry head than a Bobby head, and once the Persian (and the smokes!) really started to take him down, it pains me to hear his singing. My sweet spot for the Dead runs from about '70-'77 or so. Right now I've got some stuff from '73 & '74 that I've never heard before in the iTunes queue, and I'm looking forward to it.

Don't get me wrong, I love what some of the other guys in the band pulled off in the '80s, especially Brent and Bob, but listening to a full show from the latter years is not something I will do often. 

 

Okay, I see where you're coming from.  I too had a hard time with Garcia's voice from 83 on.  When exactly did it change?  He seemed to age 20 years from 81-82.  I remember wondering how anyone could listen to him sing when i started listening to late 80s shows.  It's an acquired taste.  I loved all of Brent's stuff.  

 

Mr. Heartbreak, your attitude is refreshing, to tell you the truth.  I need to give up being a completist and trying to listen to stuff I just don't like from my favorite bands.  You seem to be able to do that.  BTW, I saw you mention you went to Americanarama in Atlanta.  Do you live there?

[Vacant Horizon]

If you haven't seen this (U.S. Blues 4.12.78 Duke) you MUST:

 

Would've been cool if Garcia looked straight at Keith when he sang, "I'm gonna steel your wife!".

[The Inside of Outside]

I'm not crazy about much of anything past '82, if I'm honest about it. I was always more a Jerry head than a Bobby head, and once the Persian (and the smokes!) really started to take him down, it pains me to hear his singing. My sweet spot for the Dead runs from about '70-'77 or so. Right now I've got some stuff from '73 & '74 that I've never heard before in the iTunes queue, and I'm looking forward to it.

Don't get me wrong, I love what some of the other guys in the band pulled off in the '80s, especially Brent and Bob, but listening to a full show from the latter years is not something I will do often. 

I understand this. I was not, nor am, a big follower of the Dead. I like many of their songs, and cannot think of many that I do not like. I was way underwhelmed with the only time I saw them live, in 1986. The energy was ok, the music was ok, Jerry's playing was ok. But not amazing, by any stretch. And I think I was expecting more. I look at footage from the 70s, and there appears to be a different energy and a different level of playing from what I remember of the show I attended. I realize this was only a sample of one show, but their playing that night did not do it for me.

[mountain bed]

If you haven't seen this (U.S. Blues 4.12.78 Duke) you MUST:

 

I have watched hundreds of hours of Garcia on film and I have NEVER, EVER seen him that animated. I mean, watch the 3rd (encore) set from 12/31/87 with the Nevilles and you will see him having a total blast, dancing and rocking back and forth, but this one just totally blows that one away! Thanks again for posting this one up, LC. 

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Okay, I see where you're coming from. I too had a hard time with Garcia's voice from 83 on. When exactly did it change? He seemed to age 20 years from 81-82. I remember wondering how anyone could listen to him sing when i started listening to late 80s shows. It's an acquired taste. I loved all of Brent's stuff.

 

Mr. Heartbreak, your attitude is refreshing, to tell you the truth. I need to give up being a completist and trying to listen to stuff I just don't like from my favorite bands. You seem to be able to do that. BTW, I saw you mention you went to Americanarama in Atlanta. Do you live there?

I just saw this.

Actually live in Tampa but drove to Atlanta to catch Bobby w/ Wilco again. Was not disappointed.

The Dead had a great repertoire and amazing talent. Sadly, drugs played their part. The first time I knew something was wrong was 12/31/85. I listened to the show live on the radio, and during the Jerry tunes I was like, WTF? It had been a year since I had seen them and the decline was noticeable.

[dagwave]

had my Jerry party last night:

 

Set I:

 

Cats Down Under the Stars

Morning Dew

Eyes of the World

Fire on the Mountain

Candyman

Waiting for a Miracle

Friend of the Devil

 

Set II:

 

Shakedown Street

Half Step Mississippi Uptown

Lazy River Road

It's All Over Now (Baby Blue)

Scarlet Begonias

He's Gone

Bertha

Dear Prudence

 

 

note: crazy fingers on setlist (not played because:

then i passed out.

[jw harding]

A great late era performance that hopefully everyone can appreciate. Minor lyric flubs. Strong playing and singing. Nice song to listen to on Jerry's death day:

 

[Mr. Heartbreak]

"There's no way to measure his greatness or magnitude as a person or as a player. I don't think any eulogizing will do him justice. He was that great, much more than a superb musician, with an uncanny ear and dexterity. He's the very spirit personified of whatever is Muddy River country at its core and screams up into the spheres. He really had no equal. To me he wasn't only a musician and friend, he was more like a big brother who taught and showed me more than he'll ever know. There's a lot of spaces and advances between The Carter Family, Buddy Holly and, say, Ornette Coleman, a lot of universes, but he filled them all without being a member of any school. His playing was moody, awesome, sophisticated, hypnotic and subtle. There's no way to convey the loss. It just digs down really deep."

- Dylan.

[jw harding]

The Dylan quote is the best. Show that to anyone who would deny Garcia's genius. Some more nice words from one of America's greatest literary and cultural figures:

 

The Lives They Lived: Jerry Garcia;The False Notes He Never Played

By Ken Kesey
Published: December 31, 1995

HEY, JERRY -- What's happening? I caught your funeral. Weird. Big Steve was good. And Grisman. Sweet sounds. But what really stood out -- stands out -- is the thundering silence, the lack, the absence of that golden Garcia lead line, of that familiar slick lick with the up-twist at the end, that merry snake twining through the woodpile, flickering in and out of the loosely stacked chords . . . a wriggling mystery, bright and slick as fire . . . suddenly gone.

And the silence left in its wake was -- is -- positively earsplitting.

Now they want me to say something about the absence, Jer. Tell some backstage story, share some poignant reminiscence. But I have to tell you, man: I find myself considerably disinclined. I mean, why break such an eloquent silence?

I remember standing out in the pearly early dawn after the Muir Beach Acid Test, leaning on the top rail of a driftwood fence with you and Lesh and Babbs, watching the world light up, talking about our glorious futures. The gig had been semi-successful, and the air was full of exulted fantasies. Babbs whacks Phil on the back.

"Just like the big time, huh, Phil."

"It is! It is the big time! Why, we could cut a chart-busting record tomorrow!"

I was even more optimistic. "Hey, we taped tonight's show. We could release a record tomorrow."

"Yeah, right" -- holding up that digitally challenged hand the way you did when you wanted to call attention to the truth or the lack thereof -- "and a year from tomorrow be recording a 'Things Go Better With Coke' commercial."

You could be a sharp-tongued popper of balloons when you were so inclined, you know. You were the sworn enemy of hot air and commercials, however righteous the cause or lucrative the product. Nobody ever heard you use that microphone as a pulpit. No antiwar rants, no hymns to peace. No odes to the trees and All Things Organic. No ego deaths or born-againness. No devils denounced, no gurus glorified. No dogmatic howlings that I ever caught wind of. In fact, your steadfast denial of dogma was as close as you ever came to having a creed.

And to the very end, Old Timer, you were true to that creed. No commercials. No trendy spins. No bayings of belief. And if you did have any dogma, you surely kept it tied up under the back porch, where a smelly old hound belongs.

I guess that's what I mean about a loud silence. Like Michelangelo said about sculpting, the statue exists inside the block of marble -- all you have to do is chip away the stone you don't need. You were always chipping away at the superficial.

It was the false notes you didn't play that kept that lead line so golden pure. It was the words you didn't sing. So this is what we are left with, Jerry: this golden silence. It rings on and on without any hint of letup. And I expect it will still be ringing years from now.

Because you're still not playing falsely. Because you're still not singing "Things Go Better With Coke."

Ever your friend, Keez

 

[mountain bed]

The Dylan quote is mind-blowing. For one of America's greatest icons to be so humbled in the presence of Garcia is just amazing.

[mountain bed]

Here's another:

 

"There's not a night goes by when I sing Panama Red that there isn't a spark of Jerry in that tune. Here was the guy who gave me the sense of what it was to do it on the highest level you could do it. Just a totally professional musician going for it all the time. Part of his legacy will be how the people who played with him live up to his highest musical ideals. That's something I feel very strongly about. I'm not going to play a note of music that doesn't have what Garcia would put behind it in his best way. He would be the guy to please."

 

-Peter Rowan

[jw harding]

The Rowan quote reminds me of the one time I saw the David Nelson Band, and how in many ways that was the closest I've come to the Jerry experience since he passed. Taking the folk music from their early days, putting a psychedelic stamp on it. They did a few Jerry tunes, as well as some of the songs he covered like Mississippi John Hurt tunes. Nelson was clearly influenced by Jerry, yet they came from the same era and were always so similar. While it was a tribute to Jerry, it was also a genuine expression of who Nelson was. They were both cut from the same cloth, and while Nelson may not have had the same charisma and talent Jerry had, or obtained the popular success, the depth of expression and the experience was equally profound.

 

Ragged but Right.

 

[Shug]

The Rowan quote reminds me of the one time I saw the David Nelson Band, and how in many ways that was the closest I've come to the Jerry experience since he passed. Taking the folk music from their early days, putting a psychedelic stamp on it. They did a few Jerry tunes, as well as some of the songs he covered like Mississippi John Hurt tunes. Nelson was clearly influenced by Jerry, yet they came from the same era and were always so similar. While it was a tribute to Jerry, it was also a genuine expression of who Nelson was. They were both cut from the same cloth, and while Nelson may not have had the same charisma and talent Jerry had, or obtained the popular success, the depth of expression and the experience was equally profound.

 

Ragged but Right.

 

Well put and very true. No band captures the spirit of what Jerry and The Dead were all about without really doing any cover versions like David Nelson Band.  Wish I got to see them more.  I should just go to one of their annual Hawaii tours.

[jw harding]

Regarding Days Between and Jerry's passing, this is really an excellent read:

 

http://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-days-between

[mountain bed]

I have seen the DNB around 20 times, and they are, hands down, my very favorite band on the planet when it comes to doing the Americana slash psychedelic thing (outside of the GD, of course). I've had the great fortune to meet, hang out with, and even have dinner with the band over the years. David Nelson is WAY up on my list of musical heroes - Jerry's best man at his first wedding, 'partner-in-crime' since the age of 15, Jerry's buddy who took LSD with him for their first time, etc. He's a fucking American treasure.

 

That original lineup: DN, Barry Sless, Mookie Siegel, Cowboy Billy Laymon, and Art "Deco" Steinhorn, was without peer. Recently there was an audio stream of the DNB for David;s 70th birthday, and it was just fantastic. Peter Rowan showed up, even Billy Laymon! Long live David Nelson!!!

[Analogman]

I wonder if we'll see anymore shows from 68 get (commercially) released?

 

Newport Pop Festival 1968

[mountain bed]

There's way too few full shows from '68 out there (as far as I know). Which is a shame - that year is fierce, just dripping with primordial psychedelic energy. There's probably a number of things from the Carousel, some Avalon stuff from the Fall. I would LOVE to get the Sky River Festival in HDCD (9/2/68). A favorite of mine.

 

Maybe an "Odds and Ends" thing would be something that could happen. I'd love to see some '67 too.

[Analogman]

I'll have to look that one up. I love the drums in The Eleven.

[calvino]

Same here, 68 would be great. 67 would be nice, too.

 

After one listen, the latest 78 release is okay. Need to listen to the 2nd set again.