The Grateful Thread

The Jan-February Winter 1978 tour reminds more of Fall 77 GD, than it does shows from April 78 or the summer tour.

Of course, I also see 1-22-78 as a singular Grateful Dead show. A universe unto itself.

 

‘70 is just plain ol’ fun. Listened to some more of the Jan 2, 70 and now checking out the little bit of Feb 2, 70 available on Relisten. From my limited knowledge of the official releases I can only think of 4 or 5 with shows from 70 (2 Dick’s; 2 Dave’s; and Bear’s Choice, which has more of the Feb ‘70 shows on DiP4). I have the 2 DiPs but not the others. This little bit of 2-2-70, which is on Dave’s 6, is sounding pretty darn good, too bad it’s only a small portion.

 

For me the January - February 1978 Tour has it's own feel. I believe that Jerry's bout of laryngitis at the beginning of the Tour is a big factor, because of how it thrust Bobby and Donna into the vocal spotlight, while Jerry had to give attention to just playing. The shows after Eugene in Chicago and the Upper Midwest also differ from the Cali shows in January, and feel "of a piece." All of this is, of course, my own personal hallucination. And you are free to join in the fun!

 

In April 1978 they started doing those long Drums segments every night.

 

Pretty sure that was Jerry's idea. For reasons.

 

I thought it was because the drummers got a bunch of equipment and a commission for Apocalypse Now in that or the reverse order and wanted to keep doing it from there.

 

That was in 1979, I think.

 

Oh, maybe it was the heron then.

 

Locked and loaded.

 

It has occured to me that Jerry liked the 20 minute break from playing guitar in those spring 78 sets. Although he was usually joining in the drumming.

 

Pretty much.

 

In 1979 Mickey added the Beast, the big drums hanging from the ring, and the Beam. In April '78 there was an increase in the percussion array over what had been onstage.

 

I do not recall ever seeing a heron onstage, there was an electronic parakeet in a cage towards the rear of stage left behind and to the side of Mickey. Occasionally one of the crew would turn it on during drums or space and we'd hear electronic chirping through the PA.

 

The China > Rider transition jam.

 

Awwww man, it needs a better name.

 

Depends on which jam you are talking about. The Bobby-led jam from about 4 minutes to 6 minutes doesn't really have a name, it's the China->Rider transition jam. If you're talking about the descending riff jam from about 7:30 to 8:45, that's commonly known as the "Feelin' Groovy Jam."
Grateful Dead Guide: The Dead's Early Thematic Jams

 

So, I have what I guess is a usability issue. Maybe one of you guys can help me out. I keep missing alerts because I sometimes miss that message that says There may be more posts after this. It's not bolded. Which is my point. That's the last message you will see from a very active thread, unless you are telepathic. Well, that's another issue. But is this a known thing and is there a solution or suggested workaround? I hope it's not just me.

 

Well, I'm not much of an ornithologist...

 

I know an ornithologist. He says it's for the birds.

 

Suggested workaround is to use the Watched Threads feature - it’s on the 2nd bar - it lists everything you haven’t read and are “watching” (ie ever commented on or clicked watch thread)

 

Ah yes! It all comes back to me now. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I second that emotion @scribbs . I use the Watched Threads page like my homepage here; makes it easy to keep up with the threads I’m actively following.

 

Whoa! That's revolutionary. I keep getting kicked off notifications for threads and forgetting them....when that happens with this thread, sometimes I wind up 5 pages behind.

 

Yeah, I recall a few other people commenting on the issue but nothing about what I should be looking at (I had been away from the site for quite some time).