They were wrassilin' 'gators in the swamps of southern Georgia and northern Florida on the way to their final two gigs of '73 of course!
the fall 1979 road trips vol 1 # 1 has a really trippy 22 minute "playing in the band" from 11/6/79. I have to say this is maybe my favorite version of the song
That is a great compilation with an excellent flow and superb performances. Sound quality wise though, there is mild cassette-itis, plus it runs noticeably slow in pitch. This doesn't bother me too much because as long as the band was in tune with each other, it still sounds "in tune" to me. The slower-than-reality pitch is noticeable in the vocal timbres though. Their voices sound a tad deeper than they should. Not a big deal though.
5/10/72 is another show where the two-track is on the Archive. You can hear "He's Gone" without any of the overdubs for the album.
4-12-70 - finally resolved some computer issues that were messing with my ability to access the Archive, so back onto my various marathons. I'm thinking of starting up 83 as I listened to the first show of that year recently, and it's got a good rep around these parts. There are a couple of times during this set where I went 'oh yeah, you could tell they were amped up because Miles was in the house,' and others where they were just off. Still a very solid effort typical of 1970 - Dancin in the Streets and Viola Lee Blues are the highlights (Dancin features on Fallout from the Phil Zone.) It's a Man's World, which seems to have debuted a few days earlier, is a bit of train wreck initially, though Garcia's slithery guitar solo is on point. The band comes in a bar early on the chord change in the first instrumental section of Viola Lee, which closes out the show, but there's a typical rave up and and all-too brief crash into feedback at the end. It's still curious to me that all 4 sets of Miles Davis circulate, but not the GD. Columbia supposedly only recorded one night, and the rest was done by Bill Graham. Maybe he just didn't record the GD...?...
I would hamper a guess that if they exist they are hid away somewhere in Graham’s or Columbia’s vault. Being outside the usual sources, that might be why they don’t circulate.
I think all those shows are also available at archive.org in both 16 bit and 24 bit (all the same recordings)
My guess is that the Miles record released in Japan (Black Beauty) was a two-track Graham or Fillmore crew recording that somehow got into CBS's hands. Although that doesn't help with the question of why no tapes from most of the Dead sets have surfaced.
Jerry, at least, flew back to San Francisco where he guested on telecaster with the New Riders at Winterland
We know he owned one, I wonder is that it? (or one he borrowed for that gig?) Supposedly he broke it out in the studio on Workingman's Dead.
Excuse me, I have a bone to pick with you fine people. Why has nobody told me about 4/13/83? This Scarlet-->Fire is transcendent. Haven't even made it to the Estimated-->Eyes yet. AND there's a Dew out of Space?????? I strongly urge everyone to give the Seamons matrix a listen right away. It's mandatory.
I've jumped ahead a little bit, but listening to the 12/30/78 show from that same venue. It gets overshadowed by the following night's Winterland extravaganza, but this is a great show in and of itself. The first set is 12 songs long and runs over ninety minutes! All of the songs in it are pretty well, despite a few minor flubs here and there, though my ears didn't really perk up until "Jed" (sorry warewolf!) and the really hot "Minglewood". But it's the second set, again long - over two hours, that is making me want to bust out the warewolf caps lock. I mean, things start really well with a run of "Miracle > Bertha > Good Lovin", which is enough to get anyone primed for a killer set, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The "Scarlet > Fire" is good for the era, not exceptional, but I do really like the really minimal, tentative start. Things really get shaking with "PITB" which is short, but my eyes are still twirling for how they drop out of it and right into "Shakedown". Killer! We move into a really nice drums too, but that gets ever better when Hamza el-Din stops by for the best version of "Ollin Arrageed" ever in my book. Love this run. A brief "Space" moves us into "St. Stephen", which Jerry unfortunately botches but not enough to kill my vibe.
Sorry to harp on this but I've moved onto the Estimated-->Eyes and the transition jam/intro to Eyes has to be the most unique and interesting ones I've heard the boys do. Jerry is playing some super cool repetitive notes for the first 30 seconds or so until he drops into the standard opening chords....wild!
Holy Santa Claus Biscuit Pajamas! (sorry, I can't do it like the master) This Eyes (starts at 40:30) is fantastic! Who's the guy in the Aloha shirt playing sax?
Stuart Bogie apparently. Per Wiki: "Originally from Evanston, Illinois, Bogie became a staple in the Brooklyn music scene"
Bogie is a member of Antibalas, too --- who are well worth searching out - they put on a heck of a show ( Fela Kuti type of music)
Princeton area: PREX just acquired an impressive GD collection, including a lot of Dave's w/bonus discs... No mail order. If you're in the area and you have a wish list, this might be for you.
