Not sure which one of the Dead threads I read where the first two Road Trips were available with bonus discs from Dead.net, but thanks. Ordered both and the bonus discs came as well. The first Road Trips from Fall 1979 is really good, as I am just starting to get used to (and into) Brent’s playing and nice to hear the band kicking on all cylinders. I agree with a post a few pages back, another release from the late December 1979 run would be welcomed
Been playing the November '77 shows again in preparation for the arrival of 11/6/77. I'm lukewarm on 11/5/77, still. I remember hoping at the time of release that a better recording would lift this show out of mediocrity but that sadly hasn't really happened. I definitely prefer the filler bits from 11/2/77, which more often than not is how filler bits go on these things. 11/4/77 is another story. This one is a cut above, and the better show overall. The band is in-synch, and I would swear that Let it Grow wanted to go into Lightning during the jam. They certainly should have. And I still contend after all these years of listening that the presence of Cold Rain & Snow in a set list is indicative of a special night for Jerry. This is no exception. Great second set and a great show. Someday 11/1/77 will get its deserved release. That one's the best of this early November bunch.
This morning I began with Winterland 11/11/1973, China>Rider, then Half Step through to the end (Big River Dark Star Eyes China Doll UJB Sugar Mag JBG). The 11/11/73 Dark Star is interesting, it's getting rarer for them to play it straight with a 37- minute Dark Star in one piece like this. It is a magnificent rendition (in my t0p 5, as I've often stated). I was thinking a little bit about the USB/Archtop mini-argument about this one. It is indeed not a version I'd expect Archtop to rate as highly as I do, as nothing much happens in it! By this I mean there are only two movements (not counting Verse>Space and MLB). The first movement is pretty much generic Dark Star, that stately A minor stuff that defines the song. But as Gary Gilmore likes to say, it's all about the execution....Garcia is magnificent, and so is everyone else, really. Top-quality stuff. The second movement (after the Space following the verse) is some faster, jazzy stuff that is again not untypical, but is again rendered with élan. So there's not a ton of things to say about it, but this morning's listen did not dislodge it from my top 5--au contraire, it delivered what it needed to deliver, as usual. I listened to some of 6/10/73 which is really good but probably overrated. Today it was only Dark Star-> He's Gone-> Wharf Rat-> Truckin', Sugar Magnolia. The bridge of Wharf Rat is a train wreck! And, speaking of train wrecks, I next spun Dick 15 (9/3/77)....Estimated>Eyes Samson He's Gone Not Fade Away Truckin'. I have never rated this Truckin', it gets a lot of love for being the first post-hiatus version, but they can't remember how to play the coda. But today I liked it better than I ever have, previously; I realized that it has a lot of energy and enthusiasm and this makes up for the sloppy playing to an extent. That'll do, pigs! Not bad, anyway.
There are lots of good pre-coma 80s shows. There are also lots of shows where it sounds like the set is just a meaningless distraction before the next dragon chasing session. Also shows that are a little of both. I can behind sloppy if I get the vibe that the band is having some fun up there. What I don't need is indifferent nodding Jerry in total don't give a crap mode. There are some shows in this period where I get the impression that Jerry is actively resentful of the audience, almost as though he knows how bad the band is playing and gets irritable that the audience was cheering and excited as though the show was pure divinity. Shows like these you can almost hear how impatient he is to get off stage and slip into his dragon bubble, which is less than inspiring. That said on the whole I am a fan of the Brent years, warts and all. 15 years ago I was all about 72-74 to the exclusion of everything else, and maybe I just burnt those years out, but I have a lot of fun with the Brent years and for the last couple of years, that is where I have been spending most of my time.
9/3/77 is more about the Half-Step & Peggy than just about everything else. They are my favorite performances of those tunes.
72-74 is my wheelhouse, but the Brent years have a lot to offer if you have the patience for them. It's just that you need someone to point you to the good stuff. For me, much of the best stuff in the early '80s happened in the first set, when energy was high. Second sets would often go nowhere after the "coffee" break. Meanwhile, Fall '79 pre-drums jams are among the finest the band ever played on a consistent basis.
NFA has never held much ground with me outside of the GDTRFB medley, possibly because GDTRFB may be my absolute favorite GD song.
I still say Donna's scream at the end of the first verse of NFA from 9/3/77 is the highlight of the show.
Huh. I have heard some of those from 1982 and on, but maybe my mid-80s listening has always been somehow skewed to the better stuff due to whatever factors were curating it (a variety--what circulated, what was recommended, etc.) I've heard a fair amount of stuff from 81-85 and I always think of it as a great period for the band. 84 has a bad rep and I have to admit there's a lot I have not heard, but most of the stuff I have heard from 84 is great, and my first show was in 84 (10-18 at Brendan Byrne) and it holds up on tape. I remember seeing the band then and Garcia just dominated everything with his lead guitar from beginning to end. Check out BRR, a perfect example: ://archive.org/details/gd84-10-18.nak.miller.17273.sbeok.shnf/gd84-10-18d1t04.shn Of course that isn't some of his best playing exactly, he's just having a blast playing bluesy Chuck Berry-type runs and going on and on. When I made it to my next show it was July 9 1989 (which I regret to this day, I was just a druggy teenager who didn't have any friends into the band until 1989 when they all started to get into it, and I had a hard time getting back--I even accidentally went to the Meadowlands the night after they played once in 1988-another pre-internet disaster!). The band sounded good--they were gearing up to start sounding a lot better in a few months!--but Garcia no longer dominated everything in the same way, his playing was often a little quieter and more subtle, almost like the difference between 69-71 and 72-74 again with the "more subtle" part. He was still the central instrumentalist and most songs revolved around his leads, and sometimes he really blasted it to hell, but at the 84 show, and on many tapes from the period, it seemed like every song was a Garcia shred fest. I mean, if you listen to 84-85 when he's on (again, most of the stuff I've heard, if I warewolfed those years maybe I'd see what you guys are saying), he is a really loud, aggressive player, much like he was in 1969, and he had a lot more technique than he did in 1969, so it's hard for me to see how he had deteriorated. Overall he's better in 1974 than 1984, but there are things he could do that he couldn't, or didn't, in 1974 at the same time. And there are songs that he really expanded and made into showcases (although of course there's still more genuine ensemble playing than just about any other rock band), like Deal or Jack Straw. So--I must have missed a lot of crappy tapes, and the only way I'd come around to your guys way of thinking is I guess if I listened to a lot of bad nights, which there's little incentive to do. It is for sure that they seemed to have a much higher ratio of killer to filler in 72-74, maybe that's where I agree but I focus on the highlights from all those years when I think of his playing, so I've always thought of him as a really loud, rocking, dominant player in the mid-80s. [if anyone is reading this without seeing Kdub's post, I clipped the last few lines in which he says he is nevertheless a fan of these years to make it clear what I am responding to]
Yes they are great on that show. In fact I'm going to listen to them now that you reminded me. My faves: Half Step 4/8/1978 Peggy-0 4/16/1978
Post-space definitely gets monotonous at times; the good shows have a good second set pre-space, I'd say, however...
That NFA is outstanding. Having said that, I can't imagine many people who aren't already full-blown Deadheads liking it.
I put this one-disc compilation of Peggy's together about 15 years ago: http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/asxcards/gd_PrettyPeggyOsVol1.html I never did get around to a volume 2, which I am certain would include many performances from 1978.
After listening to the fine second set from 12/28/79 (RT 3.1) with a great PITB spaced out jam as the pinnacle, I’m back into my most recent obsession with E72 jams giving the Truckin’>TOO from 5/13/72 a second spin. Now THIS is Jerry at his absolute peak. I can’t say he was ever better than here even at his greatest in 73 or 74. Maybe it’s the sound but no guitar I’ve ever heard *sounds* better than this even on my 2007 Hyundai stock stereo. Maybe Mary Halvorson live from 7 feet away As far as these big jams they all move independently of each other. Hard to equate one TOO with another or one Dark Star with another. My highest praise.
This gets posted here occasionally so you may already be hip to it, but here's another great one with the added factor that we can see it:
Cool, I don't think I've ever heard 6/15/90 but watched the first set of 6/16 on View from the Vault III last night. The Shoreline show from that general era that you also really should check out is 6/19/1989. An under the radar gem.
Keep in mind that when I say "it's as clean as it gets," I mean of the available copies, this one sounds best (there isn't really a huge amount of difference among the available versions). There aren't any great recordings of this show to my knowledge.
Listening to Archtop's recommended version of 6/18/83. I think I've only heard the Jim Wise recording previously, but this one is doing the trick today.
Yes I never heard a very good one, and I'm pretty sure this is the one I used to have as I remember CM dropping one around 2010 and getting it. I just want as good as it gets, I know that isn't great.
Still listening to 6/18/83, I'd forgotten how different these early versions of Hell in a Bucket sounded.
I don't think I ever listened to the first set before. When Jerry gets turned up a couple bars in to the Bertha solo and blasts out a raunchy mini-masterwork I have to think "this is good." I just realized that the more of this I listen to the better Morning Dew will sound when I get to it.
