Listening to Dick’s 19 for the first time over the past few days, and I really liked the “Dark Star”>”Morning Dew.” I’m not anything close to a huge “Dark Star” expert or anything, so my opinion may not be worth much, but I was engaged throughout, and that’s not always the case. There’s a lot of sloppy singing in this show — even on songs you couldn’t conceivably call “under-rehearsed” — but I’m pleased that I’m finally able to listen past that. And that said, the singing on the rather slow “Dark Star” is A+. I’m embarking on a tour of the 10/19/73 thru 12/19/73 official releases — other than the Winterland box and the Denver RT set, it’s all new to me — but I do declare this is a fine, fine start.
My adventure through ‘73 has stalled after the Spring tour. I suspect the next box will be either May, Summer, September or Fall ‘73 and I would like to keep it fresh and listen to official sources. Though I may just have to just go ahead anyway. The Fall ‘73 tour may be my favorite GD tour.
Recently got back from an Irish Breakfast at my former local, The Thirsty Scholar in Somerville, MA. The good wife went to do grocery shopping for tomorrow and I figured why not the Dark Star from 4/8/72 from Steppin' Out? I just finished laying some carpet treads on our stairway so our dog can be with us without risking breaking his neck and all that's left for today is to see if the young Celtics can show some intestinal fortitude tonight and keep up their spotless home record this postseason.
I thought about holding out, but my gut tells me I’m not likely to tire of Fall ‘73, particularly if I’m only listening to the official stuff. The Winterland box knocked me out when I bought it last year.
That one is listed as Dark Star>MLB Jam>Morning Dew in Deadbase, so I overlooked it when I scanned the list to find the other DS>Dews. So it looks like its one of the two then?
Grateful Celt! Steal Your Pass! ("Havlicek stole the ball!" (1965) "There's a steal by Bird!" (1987))
Agree with this completely, Fall ‘89 was my first encounter with Phish as well. The GD frat boy scene was already in place at least by ‘87 and some of them eventually found the Phish scene, but Phish’s early fans weren’t frat boys and fit in well with the older type GD fan.
I’m just rolling back into town so have much catching up to do, and apologies if it’s been mentioned recently, but our Peggy-O semifinals are neck and neck like these NBA finals; so get your scores in this holiday Sunday night and make a difference. Grateful Dead 2018 Peggy-O Funiculi Funicula Four Tournament
Fwiw, I first saw Phish in Columbus, OH 1994 and was surprised by the clean cut crowd (that is how I was too, granted). From my next shows 1996 onwards the crowds seemed more like younger Deadheads.
I guess the ratio may be more as expected taking into account solo shows...? Another observation about Dead guitars (so to speak), I hadn't previously seen (or couldn't remember seeing) any confirmed photos of the group from October '71 onwards with Bob playing a Les Paul Custom. All the photos I had seen were supposedly from eariler in the year (mostly the Summer I think). There is that image in the Dave's 22 packaging somewhere (under the CD trays, I think) that shows him playing a Custom but as I recall @davmar77 (sorry if it wasn't you) said that he was at one or more of the Felt Forum shows and that Bob wasn't on a Custom them. I assumed that the photo came from earlier in the year. Anyway, I noticed in one the newspaper clippings displayed on the Dave's 3 packaging, there is a photo of Jerry, Bob, Phil and Bill supposedly from 21 October '71 (it is referred to as being from the Thursday, although the caption is slightly ambiguous). In it Bob has his Custom (and Jerry the Alligator). So, for anyone who cares...there you go. He was still using it in October. There is definitely a snappier sound to some of his playing around this time, compared with '72 but it's easy to think that after learning he was on a different guitar. Unlike with Jerry, I actually find it quite hard to distinguish Bob's guitar tones in the earlier days, such was his unique style and touch. It all usually sounds like an archtop Gibson to me (except very early on of course).
High Time set list: Bertha Big Railroad Blues Ramble On Rose Playing in the Band Eyes of the World Loser Viola Lee Blues Pretty ****ing great 65-70 minutes Viola Lee Blues slayed - shortish but 10-11 minutes of absolute fire
Someone let me know when guys who haven’t listened to Phish in 20 years are done criticizing them and we get back to discussing the Grateful Dead
I haven’t listened to much Phish period (I have Billy Breathes and A Live One somewhere in my collection of CDs or CD-Rs), and can’t say I’ve ever gotten the bug to go down that road. On the other hand, on the way home from dinner (about 20-25 minutes) I put Scar>Fire on from 2/5/78. About 10 minutes from the house, the wife asked/commented “we’re still going to be listening to this song when we get home, aren’t we?” There was five minutes left on Fire when we pulled into the driveway
9/7 was the wolf debut with the dead. The actual debut was 2 days earlier with Saunders on the hells angels cruise in NYC.
High Time 2nd Set: Cryptical Envelopment> TOO> I Know You Rider Loose Lucy Bird Song New Speedway Boogie> TOO> Cryptical Reprise Encore: High Time (1 verse)> U.S. Blues Fantastic with highlights being both portions of TOO being spectacular along with New Speedway Boogie going into a feedback drenched awe-inspiring jam morphing into TOO. Birdsong also great. Wow
Wow, 3/21/90's Estimated. What a great, great show! Such a clean tone from Jerry. And the band is in the groove like it's a matter of survival.
It's been far too long since I've played 1974 Grateful Dead. To rectify this, I just threw in disc 1 of DiP31, which is a compilation of highlights from both nights in Philly (8/4 and 8/5/74). The jazz fusion stuff they were doing at this time is no easy task for the musical brain to digest, but it's well worth the effort. Keith's Rhodes sounds great. Billy is FLOWING. I just checked the inflation calculator and $6 in 1974 has the same buying power as $30 in spring 2018 money. Still a great deal. I'd pay a lot more than $30 to see wall-of-sound Grateful Dead if a time machine existed! At least we have the recordings!
