I have finally scored a copy of Dick's Picks 15 (September 3, 1977) and my first impressions are very similar to those when I listened back then to DiP 18. Sleepy first disc ending with moderately animated Music Never Stopped, some relatively low-energy action on the second (Estimated Prophet->Eyes of the World->Samson & Delilah) and the explosive third disc peaking on a great great great rendition of Not Fade Away. There's some really tasty playing going on here, but it requires certain patience and appropriate mood from me. However, I seriously start to suspect that the community ratings are somewhat skewed towards the shows ending with a bang. I skipped DaP 25 (because it sounded lethargic to me) and have not come around to listen to DiP 10 yet, but I found a nicely priced copy of Dave's Picks 15 (April 22, 1978). Volcanic like those aforementioned Nov '77-Jan '78 shows it definitely isn't, but there are quite a few strong moments scattered across its three discs. Funnily the action slow-downs do not bother me here; I even dig the Eastern-flavoured drums solo and unorthodox slide guitar in Not Fade Away! Even though DiP 15 features more spectacular highlights and more intricate playing throughout, I am more drawn to DaP 15. Sometimes I do not understand myself... Now that I have gone as far as April '78, July 1978 looks like the next logical step forward...
Before you move on to July, it is imperative that you absorb the entire April 1978 Tour. You'll thank me later.
I could never quite get to do all that shorthand slang s**t with the song titles. At least not out loud. Too preppy for me, or something. Or too preppy student, anyway. I prefer to take my pretensions to the Instructor level, for maximum insufferability. Good lord, I heard someone refer to "St. Stephen" as "the Steve" once. And "Scar>Fire", the very idea...
I listened again this afternoon, and as Jerry begins to introduce the idea Phil starts playing big chords on Big Brown, such that the band reverts to deep space for a time before Bobby slips in the cowboy tune. So yes, more Phil than Bobby, yet Phil just wanted to keep jamming, which is his nature.
Sadly I never saw them at Frost or Kaiser (although I did see JGB at Kaiser in’90). I did make it to the Greek run. I’ve made my piece with Shoreline - the methane and lawn that moved under your feet (because it was on landfill) are long gone. These days I try to get seats whenever I can but in the gD days I was often on the lawn or dancing outside the entryway to the seats. 8/16/91 I was in the center in the 100s, but also my friend and I were in between some GD family member and her daughter who were arguing about the daughter’s makeup or something, which made for a weird but kind of funny night.
Anyone have recommendations for sleeves for Dave's Picks and Road Trips (preferably with bonus disc)/E72 releases? Thanks!
Whether or not one is a fan of Bobby's cowboy tune, the fact that they went into that tune instead of Morning Dew does little to diminish the mind-blowing majesty of the Dark Star that preceeded it.
...and without any odd processing of the lower frequencies. Sorry to open up that can of worms again, but...
I've got to say that I don't see/hear/get the alleged majesty of the Veneta Dark Star. I put it barely in my top 20; so, quite good but not quite great.
What makes it great is that we have video of them performing, of Jerry staring a hole into the corona of the setting sun on a hot Oregon day. Just like that Peggy-O from Duke - seeing the performance adds so much to our subjective experience of the music. That said, the Veneta Dark Star is still a finer piece of music than any other band ever performed, and the Peggy-O from Duke faired quite well in the recent tourney, so all is well.
In my book, a top twenty Dark Star is not just good, it's great. GREAT. But, your point is well-taken, it's not the "best" (silly Headyversions ) version, or even a top ten version. It is really great though. I mean, they performed Dark Star more than 200 times in their career, which means that if Veneta is in the top 20 (top 10%) it's top shelf stuff.
One of these days i'm making a CDr mix of nothing but "Dark Stars" culled from my collection. My head just might explode trying to decide which ones make the 8hr time limit cut and that is precisely why i'm still mulling.
I find the music and lyrics of PITB to be very awkward and chintzy yet the song managed to become a platform for much of the band's greatest improvisation. I'll take it. Dave's 20 disc 2 disc 2 disc 2 disc 2. That's all you need to know. That and I agree about the Bird Song - I recall Dave L praising it (of course) but I don't think it goes anywhere or does anything. Not in the way a Bird Song should anyway.
The Day Between... ...and now a slice of this... Dark Star>Bird Song a good way to wrap up the weekend.
Brad Paisley is OK, but it bums me out to think of Phil listening to a lot of 'new country.' They did, though pranksters that they are, they break the cycle on only the 5th show back from Europe (7-22-72.) Also they would occasionally do two Other Ones in a row (even in Europe on 5-13 and 5-16.) After 7-22, there are only 5 shows of the 51 in the remainder of the year (3 in October and 2 in November,) that don't have either Dark Star or the Other One. (10-2, 10-17, 10-30, 11-18 and 11-24.) Perhaps they were setting the stage for 73, where Dark Star only shows up 18 times in 71 shows. 73 is weird, except for the occasional Dark Star, for much of the year they build the main jam on some variant of He's Gone>Truckin>(Other One and/or Nobody's Fault (jam))>Wharf Rat/Stella Blue>(etc.), even in back to back shows. Maybe the horn shows just got them into the habit, and then later in the fall they start to use Playin in the Band as the jam vehicle more. In my head, 73 is more wide-open jamming, but they really use the same structures to get it going from night to night. I have no idea why I find this sort of thing fascinating, but there it is.
My favourite Dark Star of '71, notwithanding the amazing version from Halloween. I can't say why - the Halloween one has more going for it. I think I just enjoy the calm slinkiness of the Yale Bowl version. I'm sure this has been asked and answered several times to I apologise in advance - is there any way to get the Steal Your Face hi-res without buying all the other albums?
I'm a big fan of the final Fillmore East version, 4/28/71. It's the one on disc 3 of the Ladies and Gentleman... 4CD collection. It's short (< 14 minutes), but has a magical vibe and harkens back to the '69 versions a bit due to the presence of Tom Constanten's organ in the mix.
I like the "song" part of "Playing in the Band". I think that it's incredible that they could write such a catchy country-rock song around a tricky 10/4 (or is it 5/4) jam they had in their pocket (The Main Ten). The fact that they turned it into a major jam vehicle is not surprising, but that doesn't diminish the uniqueness of "The Pump Song" (it's original name) at all - for me at least.
I listened to 4-8-71 the other day and it also reminded me very much of some of the early 69 versions. This makes sense as Ned Lagin would have been playing the Constanten role, though you can't hear him on the Soundboard tapes. Meantime, I don't know why I bother reading the reviews on the Archive. One of them said the Kiel Auditorium 10-29-73 show was an off night, whereas I think its been a typically excellent 73 jam. Truckin leads into an odd jam that's almost in Dark Star territory (with Keith even playing what sounds like a few bars around 16:20 (kind of like Hornsby in June of 91.) Then drums leads to an Other One that dissolves into a deliciously weird space after the verse, only to probe around in some major key territory before coming full circle back to verse 2. It's not the most high-energy show, but there's lots of intricate playing.
