The Grateful Dead

[NoJ]

Second set, I recall dancing in the back of the stadium and someone passed out nearby. The sound of that guys skull hitting the pavement remains in my memory to this day.

[calvino]

It was full Dark Star - well a full one for 94. 1st verse at least.

 

Barring a tease in 91 or 92 - it was the only Dark Star performance that I saw.

[jw harding]

Full pause after Way to Go Home, then right into the Dark Star theme. Never took into too far out there, sticking to the song for about 10 minutes. First verse. I was 3rd row in front of Jerry. The place went berserk when they went into it. Will never forget that. 

[calvino]

The first night I had tickets in upper level  towards the side - perfect sight lines to watch the drummers do their thing,

[NoJ]

Interesting.....maybe I had too much too fast that night.

[jw harding]

That feeling when you realize 23 years later that you actually did see a Dark Star...

 

I think we've all been there.

[NoJ]

I am a little excited about that right now.

[NoJ]

Turns out I saw another Dark Star on 6 22 91 but there weren't any lyrics. My memory recalls it being a tease at best.

[calvino]

Turns out I saw another Dark Star on 6 22 91 but there weren't any lyrics. My memory recalls it being a tease at best.

 

That's the tease I was talking about, too.

[jw harding]

That's the tease I was talking about, too.

I think they play pretty much the entire melody of the song, then riff on it for several more minutes. Instrumental version, but more than a tease. Great show.

[calvino]

Yeah - most labeled it as 'Dark Star Jam' (6.22.91) on the Archive. 

 

I would say the show was my 2nd favorite show that I saw - 7/19/89 being the 1st.

[calvino]

Getting back to the 3.16.94 - we did chant 'turn it up' after the 1st or 2nd song, correct?  I think this run was Cutler's first shows doing the front of house sound.

[jw harding]

Yes, sound was terrible for those shows. Rumors were that Healy got canned. Seemed like a big mistake at the time.

[Shug]

Yeah, I remember in 94 after Healy was fired the sound levels at Dead shows were RIDICULOUSLY quiet.  I mean they never played all that loud at all the shows I saw, but it got absurdly soft around that time.  Seems to me their personnel decisions in the 90s were not about finding the most qualified person for the job (Bralove, Welnick, Cutler running house sound, Jerry's switch away from Irwin guitars to that horrible acoustic-y electric guitar sound on LIghtning Bolt made by amateur luthier Stephen Cripe)

[Vacant Horizon]

I do remember the sound being a bit soft. For two seconds, I thought Jerry was playing Lay Me Down...alas, it was High Times.  Still good to hear. 

 

It is crazy thinking about a show that is 23 years ago. Damn how time flies. Had so much energy then. So much tenacity to get to any Dead/Phish related show I could. Was lucky enough that my spring break in  94 coincided directly with tour. The last few years, I found Fall and Spring to definitely be better tours. Not sure about the West coast runs though.

 

Regarding Dark Star, I remember that whole section of Deadbase that described the differences between DS tease, jam etc. Too funny!

[worldrecordplayer]

Jerry's switch away from Irwin guitars to that horrible acoustic-y electric guitar sound on LIghtning Bolt made by amateur luthier Stephen Cripe)

 

I absolutely hated Garcia's post-Irwin guitars. Could never understand why he was playing them. I think they weighed less and that made it easier for him, but the sound was terrible. No bite.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Er, by the way...I use to skip Mountains of the Moon, a few of Jerry tunes I do that. Sorry, Mr Heartbreak!

Heresy, sir.

Nah, I'm just kidding. We all like licorice here, but not for the same reasons. Heh.

[jw harding]

A couple things about Mtns. of the Moon:

 

Hunter rewrote some lyrics, which were loaded in the teleprompter those last few years, but alas Jerry never brought it back.

 

Here is feast of solitude
A fiddler grim and tall
Plays to dancing kings and wives
Assembled in the hall
Of lost, long, lonely times
Fairy Sibil flying
All along the all along
the Mountains of the Moon

 

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/agdl/moon.html

 

I liked the slow, trippy versions Phil did with the quintet. Not necessarily better, but different. Glad he brought the song back, tho I don't think Phil changed the lyrics either.

[mountain bed]

Listened to a show last night (Rosemont 4.13.88, mostly because I wanted to re-visit the Sugar Mags, Bertha 2nd set opener) and when we got to the 3rd tune of 1st set, here comes "Franklin's". Great tune, of course, man did this one sound off: too fast and too slow at the same time, if that's even possible.

 

When the first notes struck, my wife was getting on one of those stationary bikes and commented something like" "Great, a peddling song!" It was some awkward peddling, to say the least.

That show is definitely one of those "looks great on paper, but.." shows.

 

I was there, went away very disappointed - that's about the time I became jaded. Of course that could change in a tour or two (Summer '89!).

 

The Dew at that 4/13 show had the loudest crowd roar I ever heard at a show - the place just exploded at the peak.

[mountain bed]

Been back into a major Dead-listening binge, especially in the car.

 

It occurred to me to ask: are there any Dead tunes you guys aren't too crazy about that would shock others to know?

 

I'm not talking about low-hanging fruit like Picasso Moon (and now someone will post, "I love Picasso Moon!"), I mean Dead classics that you just take for granted everyone loves.

 

I'm a much bigger Jerry fanatic than Bobby fan, so I won't even pick on ol' Bob. Here are three well-loved Jerry songs that, frankly, don't even make it into my Dead top 40.

 

1) Tennessee Jed - I know, it's such a fun song, right? I wonder how many times I've heard this and wanted to hit the Skip button. Actually, I have hit the skip button a few times. I've just heard it way too much, and let's face it, it's a pretty silly song.

 

2) Deal - "Oh my God, Mike, WTF," you are saying. But the thing is, Deal suffered from too much repetition at the end of the song when played live. "Don't ya let that deal go down" over and over and over, oftentimes, at a loud, off-key, overly fast pace. Not to mention, in later years, Jerry would just shred on this song...which is ridiculous. I'd argue that Deal devolved, not evolved, over the years. I know, now you hate me. It's fine.

 

3) Dark Star - Well, look, wasn't this the first thing Hunter ever wrote and gave to Jerry? It's good, sure, but it's not exactly his high water mark for lyrics. Those of you who bitch about Looks Like Rain having cringeworthy lyrics, try "transitive nightfall of diamonds" on for size. And they even named an album Nightfall of Diamonds. I like the song, I like some versions of it a lot...but when it dissolves into a 75-minute amorphous space jam, I lose interest.

 

Okay, enough of that. And now, to balance it out, here are three tunes I just love out of all proportion to their probable merits.

 

1) Mountains of the Moon - Why, oh, why did they play this for such a short time? I just downloaded the Hugh Hefner party version recently, because I didn't have it in my iTunes. I could listen to this song ten times in a row.

 

2) Black-Throated Wind - If you put together a worst-case scenario Bob setlist, it would be something like Around and Around>El Paso>Johnny B. Goode>Promised Land>Odessa>Looks Like Rain, or whatnot, right? Okay, so an ideal Bob list would be something like Truckin'>Black-Throated Wind>Sugar Magnolia>whatever else is great from Bob. Am I right?

 

3) Franklin's Tower - Okay, this one can get a little tepid at times, and at others, it's just overdone. But I really, really like this song, however repetitive it might get. I'm not sure it would make my top ten Dead tunes...but it might!

 

What about you guys? Go ahead, lay it on me!

I never really got all psyched up about much of the Aoxomoxoa material - Doin That Rag never really took off, it's a very clunky, cumbersome song. Cosmic Charlie? Hit or miss.

 

EDIT: Mexicali HAS to be on the list, too. I've heard some good ones, but..

[NoJ]

I listened to some of 3/16/94 last night, the DS specifically but a few other tunes too. Thinking back, I bought a ticket the day of the show from a scalper while on lunch. I had pretty much checked out of the GD scene by then but I couldn't resist the siren song. Went by myself, walked around the lot before hand with a 40 of Old Style. I was wearing an Irish cap and a pea coat. I got a lot of sideways looks from Jerrys kids that day. In the venue, I ran into a guy I knew who gave me a handful of mushrooms. Ended up partying with some rastafarians during the first set (High Time!!) and wandering around the venue during the second, digging the scene and dancing. I was pretty well buzzed up.

I had totally forgotten Jerry's new guitar tone. Ugh, not good. I think I wasn't counting the DS as legit because it wasn't the full song and frankly, it didn't go anywhere. But upon review, its good enough. I read somewhere that it was the 2nd to last DS ever played.

Oh yeah, I did like Vince's organ during DS.

[mountain bed]

Yessir!! The Alpine one on Downhill from Here. 

IWT. As were you, I bet.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

I never really got all psyched up about much of the Aoxomoxoa material - Doin That Rag never really took off, it's a very clunky, cumbersome song. Cosmic Charlie? Hit or miss.

 

EDIT: Mexicali HAS to be on the list, too. I've heard some good ones, but..

Agree about Doin' that Rag, but I'm a FANATIC about Chinacat...though I love the '72-'74 versions best, not the original. I actually like Chinacat and Mountains better than Dark Star, believe it or not. Even among Deadheads, I am weird.

[mountain bed]

Agree about Doin' that Rag, but I'm a FANATIC about Chinacat...though I love the '72-'74 versions best, not the original. I actually like Chinacat and Mountains better than Dark Star, believe it or not. Even among Deadheads, I am weird.

Oh I would definitely say China Cat, St. Stephen & MOTM are the best things on the record. China Cat is a masterpiece, one of the best things they ever did.

[i'm only sleeping]

China Cat is a masterpiece, one of the best things they ever did.

Yes!

 

Just appeared at the archive a small comp. of the great Chuck by gd;

 

https://archive.org/details/DeadPlayBerry/GD72-11-23D2t13.flac

 

 

1. Roll Over Beethoven (Doug Sahm & Friends [Garcia; Lesh; Kreutzmann] / 11-23-72)

    

2. The Promised Land (Grateful Dead/ 02-24-74) 

    

3. Let It Rock (JGB / 12-20-75)

    

4. Memphis, Tennessee (MMC UJC - 07/64) 

    

5. Johnny B. Goode (Grateful Dead/ 07-02-71)

    

6. Run Run Rudolph (Grateful Dead / 12-15-71)

    

7. Around And Around (Grateful Dead / 09-27-72)

    

8. Thirty Days (Grateful Dead / 12-12-73 [soundcheck])

    

9. You Never Can Tell (JGB / 11-06-91) 

    

10. School Days (Kingfish / 12-20-75)

     

11. Brown-Eyed Handsome Man (NRPS / 05-02-70)

     

12. Nadine (NRPS / 08-20-74)