My favorite "Weather Report Suite". And that Dark Star>Morning Dew... well, you'll find out tomorrow.
I caught the opening of Help>Slipknot>Franklin on Sirius this morning, which was the worst kind of tease (I then was at the gym where they were playing an awful local FM station). I fixed it by listening to One from the Vault with two listens of that trio. This afternoon has been Disc 3 of the Movie Soundtrack since everyone has been talking it up lately.
Bunch of acoustic stuff from RT 3.3 5/15/70 including a great Black Peter among other gems. Much better sound than Dick's Picks 5/2/70. Now the bonus material from 5/14/70 starting with an electric New Speedway Boogie I love that they went from Kirkwood, Missouri on 5/14 to NYC and played a legendary 4 hour show the next night. And they did all kinds of travel like this all of 1970.
I love 1970! However, I must point that 5/15/70 is actually two three-set shows (including NRPS), and who knows how long it was from start to finish, probably more than twice 4 hours
Best single disc Live/Dead purchase one can make? There, I fixed it for you. (in case that's too precious, what I mean is Live/Dead takes that title for me.) I can't really quibble though, DP2 is great, not only the music, but also as a memento of a simpler time, when an archivist's pick could be a one-disc partial-show release available in record stores, without fanfare or seabirds.
I burned it from the Archive when that was still legal, and once listened to it end to end, including NRPS, it was more than 6 hours, but that doesn't include whatever wasn't on the archive - time between sets, various break etc. in real time. It's 5 CDs, pretty much full up to 80 minutes, but there are also some cuts in the tapes, Candyman, St. Stephen, a couple of the NRPS songs. I cherish that show now as my intro to NRPS as well as for the GD segments. The only questionable moment is Minglewood from the early show.
Decided to pop this one on tonight and it is really hitting the spot! Of course the SQ is far inferior to the Boston show that just came out, but the Cumberland Blues that starts the show jumps out of the gate crackling and crisp, and Here Comes Sunshine isn't bad either. I think I'm in a '73 mood so far this year. At least until Dave's Picks 22 comes out that is...
DiP vol. 8, hadn't heard "Cold Jordan" in a while. Now a semi-old school "The Other One." It chugs like a train just about coming off the track.
Loved the restrained 19-1/2 minute Dark Star from 5/15/70 much more than my first listen. Extreme focus and then an Archtoppable sequence that commences right about 13:10 up through the tension filled Feelin' Groovy. It's as close to a Tighten Up as I've heard a Groovy sound. Amazing that these restrained and measured improvisational methods were created by the GOGD. I think the first rock band to ever stop playing like they do here after the first verse. Then they take whatever time they want to find a direction.
Long Strange Trip Soundtrack (Amazon Exclusive) 29.98 Release Date May 26, 2017 (No tracklist on Amazon yet but available for preorder)
"Each of the next five nights [after 10/30] rips Ithaca. But the 11/4-6 shows are difficult to choose between." - Dick Now playing CD 2 (November 2) Estimated Prophet > St. Stephen > Truckin' > Around and Around
Hey! Minglewood in the early show is tops! Actually, the whole early show is where it's at in my opinion.
I listened again, Weir's singing was not quite as off as I remembered it, but it's really loud, especially compared to the instruments. My favorite part is the late show - In the GD acoustic set, the Casey Jones, Silver Threads and Black Peter, the NRPS song selection is much more extensive, and the Bobby Ace segment is a nice twist on Mama Tried and Me and My Uncle, plus Saw Mill! I'm increasingly fascinated with Garcia's Steel playing, the NRPS sets on the archive for this date are a good intro to it, warts and all. The second electric set has plenty of good moments, considering it was probably 430 AM when they began Dark Star, I will forgive them if its not quite as expansive as other 1970 versions. I don't know if the Late show was the first 'complete show' GD tape I got, but it was certainly the first from 1970, full of tunes (the aforementioned Silver Threads, which I recognized from my mom's Linda Ronstadt records, Hard to Handle, the Gospel numbers,) I didn't even know they did, and live versions of old standbys like Cumberland Blues, Dire Wolf, (with a great example of Garcia's 'pedal steel on guitar' soloing,) etc. It's impossible at this point to separate out the sentimental value from the actual tape (which is still pretty good to great all around in spite of any quibbling, including the Early Show.) Then on top of that it was my first exposure to NRPS 10+ years later when I found it on the archive. The stage banter on the acoustic set from the early show is especially hilarious.
No dude, Phil and Friends, especially in the early aughts, especially when he was playing with Kimmock and Molo. P+F blows Dead and co away.
IWT! And not too dissimilar vantage point from 22nd row Phil side. The best Dew I ever saw and definitely a contender for best overall post-Space I caught. Friday night at MSG relatively soon after Jerry's coma and the crowd and band were as electric as a thunderstruck mic at Woodstock...
I am fairly sure I watched PCU in a motel room somewhere between Atlanta and Chapel Hill on the night off between Dead shows on Spring Tour '93. We watched it because of the George Clinton/P-Funk appearance. I'm pretty sure we also watched a bad Christopher Walken movie the same night, in which he uttered the only-immortal-among-my-tour-friends lines, "I'm sick and tired of pulling scum suckers off of slime f*&#ers and calling it justice!" And also "life, love, the whole salami." We got a lot of mileage off of those quotes...
Bobby Ace, from Bobby Ace and the cards off the bottom of the deck. The Bobby Ace segment from Harpur College is also top-notch.
