Just another night of misinformation by Ol' NOAC. As always, take everything you read with a grain of salt (or a tablespoon).
I wouldn't put Veneta even in the top 20 Dark Stars of 1972. Maybe #25 of the year or so. Anyway, for those who like reading scholarly musicological stuff, this dissertation has a whole chapter discussing the Dark Star>El Paso segue, followed by a chapter on the 9/27/72 segue to Cumberland Blues with special emphasis on Phil: Melvin Backstrom, The Grateful Dead and Their World - digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=150706 (page 144) And for even more academic stuff, this chapter has a minute-by-minute account of the Veneta Dark Star, with a couple pages on the segue to El Paso - the author has a different interpretation of this segue than how it's usually heard: Richard Pettengill, "Performing Collective Improvisation" (page 42)
Not so far. You have to purchase the boxset even though the common belief is that the other albums are all the same masters as the “Complete Studio” set that you, like nearly everyone else who is interested, has probably already purchased.
Now a CD release of the new mix to Steal Your Face would be a nice and reasonable album to release this Fall. Which means per Dead.Net, we will never see it.
One small detail you left out regarding 1973: Eyes of the World. Right from the get-go, Eyes becomes the key fulcrum to many improvisational sequences in 1973, and the go-to song out of both Dark Star and The Other One.
What we now know as Playing In The Band is two songs glued together: the first is the anthemic "song" part with lyrics, the second part is what was originally The Main Ten, which is the "jam" portion of the tune. Someone with more musical knowledge can explain the key changes, etc., yet only the Grateful Dead could make something this seemingly clunky work so well.
18 June 1974- Louisville. What else can one listen to today? Listen for Jerry quoting My Old Kentucky Home during Beat It On Down The Line. Among other things.
1973 specs according to dead lists. dark star played 20 times other one played 22 times eyes of the world played 49 times he's gone played 25 times playing in the band played 51 times
That's a fair point, especially earlier in the year, and it does show up out of Truckin' a few times too. But they also play it frequently as something like Eyes>China Doll rather than as part of a longer series. Starting in September WRS is in there too as a variable.
I said 18 last night for Dark Star - I believe 19 is correct. Deadbase lists 19 versions,and there is also a 'Dark Star Jam' on 11-30, which probably is the 20th listed by Deadlists. But they have Dark Star>MLB Jam>Dark Star from 10-25 listed and counted as two, so I make it 19.
It's the same riff, but the song part is in D major while the jam is usually in D minor. (In some versions, especially in the 80's, they would stay in major for a while at the start of the jam.)
I had a flashback this morning! 12 April 1983- Driving from Albany to Binghamton to see the boys at Broome County Arena (a very psychedelic night), traversing I-88 across the bucolic hills and pastures of Upstate NY. Listening to 18 June 1974 on the ride. Just. Exactly. Perfect.
You can write a PhD thesis on the Grateful Dead these days. Fan-freaking-tastic. And McGill, too, that's not a bad place to be at all. The cool thing about the 'Main ten' theme, is that although its in D, it doesn't include the third of the scale, the tone that makes a chord minor or major, so you can take it out in the major key for a while as they do in the 80s, or go straight to the minor as they do in the 70s, though the minor key of the jam is part of its weird appeal, IMO.
Latest 72-74 Dave's Picks listen: 8/31/74. It's a shame that it takes 9 songs for the sound to get dialed in; I assume Kidd had other pressing responsibilities that night. Eyes, WRS, and Truckin>Jams>Wharf Rat are all excellent to my ears, though.
Random thought of the day. I was listening to the 1976 show from the 30 Trips box yesterday. During Not Fade Away, Jerry teases China Cat a couple of times, but I also heard pretty clearly what sounded like Throwing Stones (the "shipping powders back and forth.... part). Obviously NFA and Throwing Stones have similar rhythms (I saw the GD do that combo too many times), but this is distinct.
In light of all the '91 talk, or just a case of cosmic coincidence, I'm worked my way though 6/6/91 at Deer Creek last week, but only just now have a chance to chime in. The set one highlights were "TLEO", which featured a surprisingly nice, extended bit of interplay between Bruce and Vince. I was really sucked into that. And the lovely more than ten-minute "Row Jimmy" was really nice, too bad a terrible "Wang Dang Doodle" was the meat of that sandwich. It was rough, with Vince (I think - maybe someone out there can confirm) adding some really high in the mix almost metallic clanging sound that ruined an already not great song. The second set is really nice too, opening with a pretty solid for the year "China > Rider", though it's the run from "Estimated > Uncle John's > jam into Drums" that really stood out to me. Back out of a really long "Space" into a teasingly brief "The Wheel", though we get an always appreciated "Watchtower" and a lovely "Stella Blue" to make up for it. The "Lovelight" closer and "Box" encore send us out into the night. In other news, I filled a long time gap in my catalog, picked up Rockin' the Rhein for $7 over the weekend. Sadly no bonus disc, but that was a great find to me.
