And IMO the greatest of them all: 10/18/83. I've posted the video before; it's easy to find. 77 and 78 versions seem to always smoke, and as an IWT I can definitely recommend 5/2/87 Frost. When they opened with it and nailed it, it was a portent of good things. But some of the hottest versions were not openers; that Frost show it was in the middle of the 1st set, towards the end. My first show it closed the 1st set and it blazed. I do love me some Jack Straw.
@Crispy Rob has it right, some smoking versions in 78. 4-16-78 was the first post-hiatus version I heard, and the solo just went on and on. He's a slight bit sloppy there, but he comes back and does this chordal bit in unison with Phil with a ripping Chuck Berry feel to it, which rocks pretty hard. I think you could make the argument that starting in 77 or so they became a 'jam band' in the first set. That is, a lot of the tunes that they really played 'straight' prior to '74 ended up with extended solo sections after they came back from hiatus, and eventually turned into monsters themselves, but were never the kind of portals to free improv that tunes like Playin in the Band or Truckin or Estimated Prophet became. I'm thinking particularly of Jack Straw, Brown Eyed Women, Sugaree, Deal, Cassidy (which did get pretty out there,) etc. So as rocking as those early versions of Jack Straw could get, they (as far as I've heard) always cram the final solo into 16 bars (4 repetitions) rather than letting it build up to that kind of blistering peak you see after 1974. I like the 78s because they tend to be a bit more succinct, but the 80s versions are good too. This video is quite poor, but still of interest as an historical document. Funny to watch Weir run back 5 steps between each verse of the last part. (Maybe he needed that space to really get a good sound out of his whammy bar?)
10/18/83 is indeed a great one, forgot about that. Not sure I've heard 5/2/87. Another big one, especially for the Phil bombs, is 7/2/88.
Oh yeah, great flashback. That interplay between Phil! & Jerry is just what was going on the prior night in Lake Placid, and demonstrates how Phil powered the band. October '83 was a great tour.
Yes, that is the only version they performed. Jerry teaches the band the song on-stage as the "tune-up," then they give it a whirl. How fortunate they performed it on a night when the show was being broadcast on the radio, making that one-off version famous among tape collectors since way back. @davmar77 That must have a been a remarkable night at the Felt Forum, got any tales to share?
As had I; when a show starts like that you pretty much have your life in order (at least for the next 2 1/2 hours). And 10/18/83 was a great, very fun show. My return to the bus proper after the unexpected epic SPAC show on 6/18/83 and a perfect appetizer for the two upcoming shows at the newly opened Centrum. Portland had an unusual vibe. We were on the floor about 30-40 feet back from the stage and there was this awareness of "personal space" that I never saw at another show, let alone any concert by any band. We just had our group of friends and plenty of room to coexist quite comfortably with the rest of the crowd.
There is an LP bootleg of part of 12/5/71 that has this song on it. It also has a few songs mis-named, perhaps they were quite new or hadn't been released on any album yet when this one came out. Or maybe the bootleggers were just too lazy to verify the song titles. For example, Jack Straw is called We Can Share on this LP. The cover of this album has Jerry in a cool embroidered skeleton jacket. Not sure if he wore it that night, but it's on the photo anyway. This is one of my favorite pictures of him in action:
That's a Nudie Suit, (or at least the jacket, looks like the pants are jeans)and no he didn't wear it that night. It was sometime in late 72, the entire band got them. Weir looks the part in his: Phil's is fairly understated, befitting the typical bass player, though maybe not him:
i thought it was a very good show. from the recordings i've heard the i think other nights were a little better. also, back then, unless you knew someone who followed shows or had attended and told you, we didn't know that pigpen hadn't been on the first part of the tour. the radio shows from earlier in the tour hadn't gotten around yet so we wouldn't have known from those. he wasn't doing as many songs yet since he'd only been back a few days and was probably settling in but it was always good to see him.
I can't remember hearing a bad "Jack Straw" (except maybe that late '81 version from Dave's Picks where Jerry gets mixed up in the song structure, but even that is fascinating).
Even though I love Garcia's playing in later versions when they extended the song, I feel like Jack Straw suffered from having two drummers. It felt much less majestic and more leaden.
Oh man the Houseboat Tapes shows are some of my favorites!!! Those are in my go-to list for when I feel like 1971.
I'll check out some 78 Straws and compare. Yea, in general though I compared a lot and 71 vs. 72, 73, 74... it's like 1971 is the Dead doing the Stones or something. Just legit "rock"!
One of my favorite things about Jack Straw is how it starts so chill and organically builds into a rocking beast. But it's such a smooth growth you don't even realize that it's happening. Next thing you know you are rocking out.
Just listened to the 1981 Boulder Straw. For Jerry coming in at the wrong place with a solo, the guys managed to cover it pretty good I thought. Really, if Bobby hadn't fumbled some lyrics afterwards, you almost wouldn't realize anything was wrong. Pretty cool, imo.
Just listened to the Straw from 4/22/78 for the first time. From 4:45 or so onwards, it gets so hot you could say it melts the sun itself. Woah man.
On Lossless Legs there are some new AUD sources of vintage shows including 5/5/77. Listening to it now on the Archive Jerry's guitar is louder than I remember it being on the SBD. Unfortunately it misses the first three songs (including "Sugaree").
I'm in the middle of 7/5/78 from the box. First set is up & down - not as good as either 7/1 or 7/3. Maybe I'm being influenced by the fade in to Sugaree and/or Bobby's annoying slide playing. He is so great playing his typical rhythm guitar that I wonder why he turned to slide playing without seemingly having any idea what he was doing. I know set 2 is very strong with a great Estimated>Eyes.
Just hit 5/3/86 again to see if my opinion on Scar>Fire has changed again. Yes it has. First I thought it sucked. Then I thought it ruled. Now I think it mostly sucks again. Ok, sucks isnt the right word. Let's go with "not so great". Now im on that MONSTROUS 33 minutes Scar>Fire from 10/14/94 to redeem it all.
There's an acoustic version somewhere with just Weir and Wasserman, I believe, from 85? 86? That was pretty awesome
I think the outtakes on Go to Heaven are better than some of the material that made the original album.
