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The mailman just brought me Dave’s #25, the incredible Binghamton 11-6-77. I’ve had this show in one form or another forever. Always one of my favorite first sets, and my absolute favorite Jack Straw. I’m sure everyone here has spent time with this show. So glad to have it with the full HDCD Rhino treatment. Sounds great.

 

 

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I haven't got mine yet so I'll hope for Monday. It's a classic show from the period.

 

A couple of things about Binghampton: The shows there were uniformly excellent, always one of the best from each tour and (oddly enough) every time they played there they did a song off of Aoxomoxoa.

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The mailman just brought me Dave’s #25, the incredible Binghamton 11-6-77. I’ve had this show in one form or another forever. Always one of my favorite first sets, and my absolute favorite Jack Straw. I’m sure everyone here has spent time with this show. So glad to have it with the full HDCD Rhino treatment. Sounds great.

 

That show was the first tape I ever got ( a long time ago ...).  I should track this down and see how it holds up for me.

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Regarding Dave's #25 11/6/77. Good show and worth a few listens. Amazing the drop off from the Spring, when they sounded so tight. Now they sound a bit unhinged, on the verge of falling apart, which is not entirely bad, but kind of surprising. It works well on an explosive Truckin. Not sure about Jack Straw being among the best ever, but it is good. Probably prefer the restrained early versions or the over the top Garcia pyrotechnic versions of the last several years, but that's just me. 

 

But just surprising how much different they sound compared to the Spring. Mickey's injury and loss of his drum "coach," Garcia and (and the rest of the band's) decent into the abyss. What else could've contributed to the change?

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With regards to the 'verge of falling apart' during the 11/6/77 show- I read that they partook in various substances/drink between sets, which is why the 1st set was a bit more tighter than the 2nd.

 

It was the last show of the tour - so I guess they were enjoying themselves.

 

At times, I like the 'loosness' of the Fall 77 shows. 

 

It depends on my mood on which I prefer. 

 

Who was Mickey's "coach"?

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I'm not sure who Mickey's drum coach was, but Terrapin producer Keith Olson made him get one (as he couldn't stay in time), and he was on the road with them in Spring 77. Then Mickey broke his wrist shortly after the tour.

Are you thinking of Billy breaking his wrist in fall '78? He played with a cast on his arm for a spell...

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 Then Mickey broke his wrist shortly after the tour.

Ah. I forgot about this:

 

"In the predawn hours of June 20th, while the band was back home in Marin County during a break, Hart left a local club show and lost control of his car. He crashed through a guardrail, and only a tree on the side of the road prevented the car from falling into a ravine. Hart emerged with a broken collarbone, smashed ribs and a broken arm. "I opened my eyes [in the hospital] and Jerry was there: 'You look like shit!'" he says.

Hart recuperated, thanks to almost two months of rehab, but the incident was a sign that there were more troubles ahead. Stuck in an unhappy marriage, Lesh began relying increasingly on alcohol for what he called "the slightly numb, detached feeling"; by the fall, he'd put on 30 pounds thanks to the beers he would start downing for breakfast. Drummer Bill Kreutzmann's second marriage was falling apart, and Weir had, the year before, parted ways with his longtime love, Frankie Weir (they weren't married, but she took his last name anyway)."

 

From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-grateful-deads-greatest-year-20130626

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That looseness in late 77 bore the way too loose 1978...

 

I think vitamin H was the lead culprit.

Yes, too loose in 78. Heard an Other One from a 78 Dicks Picks recently that was phenomenal, with Garcia going nuts, but barely holding it together. Listened to some of that Red Rocks 78 box set over the weekend, same.

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1978 began to sound "drunk" if that is possible or psychedelically sloppy. It began to come apart at the seems. For a lot of the Garcia's music to work there needs to be a certain amount of structure or alignment or tightness with the band (sometimes not much but a little bit is always necessary). In 1978 that tightness was really waning and the music suffered. I think 1978 is the worst year from the 70s...(folllowed by .... 76? or maybe june 1976...or maybe january through september of 1971?)...

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1978 began to sound "drunk" if that is possible or psychedelically sloppy. It began to come apart at the seems. For a lot of the Garcia's music to work there needs to be a certain amount of structure or alignment or tightness with the band (sometimes not much but a little bit is always necessary). In 1978 that tightness was really waning and the music suffered. I think 1978 is the worst year from the 70s...(folllowed by .... 76? or maybe june 1976...or maybe january through september of 1971?)...

 

This is obviously a subjective exercise so all have our favorite and least favorite shows/time periods/band configurations/tours etc. Personally, i think there were some stellar shows during 1978 and think 2 of the best of the 209 I saw between 1977 and 1995 were 4/15/78 William & Mary College and 11/14/78 Boston Music Hall. I also really like the two from July at Red Rocks and many think the Madison show on 2/3/78 among their very best.  12/31/78 I consider to be another stellar show and the video of 4/12/78 is priceless. For me at least the 93-95 period were clearly the weakest and also not a big fan of the shows i saw in 86. Tapes from 76 can sound a bit sterile as many in such clean soundboard quality and clearly overtaken by '77. 

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1978 began to sound "drunk" if that is possible or psychedelically sloppy. It began to come apart at the seems. For a lot of the Garcia's music to work there needs to be a certain amount of structure or alignment or tightness with the band (sometimes not much but a little bit is always necessary). In 1978 that tightness was really waning and the music suffered. I think 1978 is the worst year from the 70s...(folllowed by .... 76? or maybe june 1976...or maybe january through september of 1971?)...

This descriptive '78 sound (and there is plenty of material from '78 to enjoy) is not helped by the strung-out and almost comical contributions from Keith. There are shows where all he does, literally, is mimic Garcia's notes for most of the show. It's brutal to try and separate him out of the mix to try and appreciate what would otherwise be decent listens.

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This is obviously a subjective exercise so all have our favorite and least favorite shows/time periods/band configurations/tours etc. Personally, i think there were some stellar shows during 1978 and think 2 of the best of the 209 I saw between 1977 and 1995 were 4/15/78 William & Mary College and 11/14/78 Boston Music Hall. I also really like the two from July at Red Rocks and many think the Madison show on 2/3/78 among their very best.  12/31/78 I consider to be another stellar show and the video of 4/12/78 is priceless. For me at least the 93-95 period were clearly the weakest and also not a big fan of the shows i saw in 86. Tapes from 76 can sound a bit sterile as many in such clean soundboard quality and clearly overtaken by '77. 

Love the Half-step opener from W&M, as well as the Passenger that follows.

 

The Boston Music Hall show is a high-tempo show. Love the noodling in the Bertha jam! Cool you got to go to both.

 

And yeah, the Cameroon/Duke video , second set in particular, is insane (cue final notes of U.S. Blues, for but one example).

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1978 began to sound "drunk" if that is possible or psychedelically sloppy. It began to come apart at the seems. For a lot of the Garcia's music to work there needs to be a certain amount of structure or alignment or tightness with the band (sometimes not much but a little bit is always necessary). In 1978 that tightness was really waning and the music suffered. I think 1978 is the worst year from the 70s...(folllowed by .... 76? or maybe june 1976...or maybe january through september of 1971?)...

 

This is obviously a subjective exercise so all have our favorite and least favorite shows/time periods/band configurations/tours etc. Personally, i think there were some stellar shows during 1978 and think 2 of the best of the 209 I saw between 1977 and 1995 were 4/15/78 William & Mary College and 11/14/78 Boston Music Hall. I also really like the two from July at Red Rocks and many think the Madison show on 2/3/78 among their very best.  12/31/78 I consider to be another stellar show and the video of 4/12/78 is priceless. For me at least the 93-95 period were clearly the weakest and also not a big fan of the shows i saw in 86. Tapes from 76 can sound a bit sterile as many in such clean soundboard quality and clearly overtaken by '77. 

 

Agree with these thoughts on 78 and 76. 78 had great highs, but pretty rough at times too. The 12/31/78 show is a great example. The first 2 sets are kind of a mess, with the exception being Fire. But the 3rd set is peak Dead. The 7/8/78 Red Rocks show is of course a classic. The Other One I previously mentioned is from Dicks Picks 18, 2/5/78. Garcia's energy is off the charts, but the train is about to go off the tracks, the band is not all on the same page, which makes it all the more thrilling.

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totally agree that 78 had some great / amazing shows. I based my overly global opinion on the year as a whole. The CMH shows with If I had the world to give were amazing...

 

It just to me seemed that the band was mainly interested in "ya!!!! jamm!!!!" too much. I like that as well but not every song...

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i'm thinking that one of the bestest gifts the GD give us must be when the tapes came loose and the cassettes were faithfully distributed amongst the fans, and the tapers soundboard rip, and the gifts from the vault and the Sharing and the Quality and theBootyBounty of Shows nowadays is the fact that we can all speak so feverishly about eras, decades, tours, and beloved shows.

 

I agree with ya. Most of the time. Some of the time. But not all of the time.

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Probably my least favorite period of the 70s is that 15 months between Mickey's accident and Egypt. There's a very heavy, "subtlety of a jackhammer" approach that just rubs me in the wrong way for some reason. Don't get me wrong - they bring the goods, for the most part, but there's a heavy foot  on the drums from that period. Once they returned from Egypt things get much less rock and roll and more jazzy and clean. Jan. '79 begins to hint at what is to come - and by Fall '79 it's a new approach entirely, in my opinion.

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Probably my least favorite period of the 70s is that 15 months between Mickey's accident and Egypt. There's a very heavy, "subtlety of a jackhammer" approach that just rubs me in the wrong way for some reason. Don't get me wrong - they bring the goods, for the most part, but there's a heavy foot  on the drums from that period. Once they returned from Egypt things get much less rock and roll and more jazzy and clean. Jan. '79 begins to hint at what is to come - and by Fall '79 it's a new approach entirely, in my opinion.

Definitely. And, of course, the departure of the Godchaux's in Feb and the arrival of Brent in April being the key factor. The fall shows from '79 are stellar: the S. Yarmouth shows, New Haven (probably my favorite "Passenger"), Buffalo (amazing "Jack Straw" ends 1st set, amazing Dancing-> Franklin's opens 2nd set), Brent tunes starting to enter repertoire ("Easy to Love You" in August). Ollin Arageed is still in the mix, etc.

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