The Grateful Thread

Dallas, got a soft machine...

 

I was at both Centrum shows in both 10/83 and 10/84. My frat house was only a mile from the Centrum.

 

I saw one show each year, had to drive over from Albany. A mile away is very convenient, and good shows, too.

 

5/11:
Set 2 0.8% (about 13-14 cents)

5/13:
1% (about 16-17 cents)

5/16:
d1: .8% (about 13-14 cents)
d2: .6% (about 10 cents)

 

In case anyone is wondering, 6-18-94 might just be the best version of Corrina ever. This makes 2 good shows in a row up in Oregon, Garcia is really into it.

 

Nice to know. It's a bit surprising that the tapes recorded on the big Ampex MM100o 16-track machine wouldn't play back perfectly when they digitized them 35 or so years later. Maybe it has something to do with the European voltage that powered the unit on those nights?

 

Thanks for doing the research on this.

 

Thanks, all. She was great. Mostly outdoors during her youth in Austin, and exclusively indoors when we moved to Portland (the one in the PNW) in 2008 and everywhere since. The kidney disease started creeping in a few years ago, and she had about one health scare per year until this spring. The past four or five months have been rougher, but I was honestly pretty surprised when we brought her in on Thursday and her numbers were off-the-charts bad. She was so sweet, and the house feels different in her absence, as I suspect it will for a while. First pet in my life, and turned me into a total cat person. We have another, and I'm probably projecting, but she seems a little sad. The cat snuggles are in unusually high supply.

Anyway, I appreciate the kind words and thoughts. Y'all are good people. Back to your regularly scheduled Grateful Dead! I'll start Dave's 9 tonight. Among my favorite cover art!

 

The photographer really got a good picture of the U of Montana quad with all the students.

 

I’m about to go crash hard, but first I’m trying to decide what to listen to for a little bit beforehand. I was thinking initially to play a little Lester Young with Count Basie, but then I started thinking that it might be a little to zippy and that this might be a good time to break out the last ‘73 show from the PNW box for a brief first listen. Things are still a bit up in the air on this decision.

 

I'm sure I mentioned 9-11-74 in the PNW box thread, it's worth another mention here.

If you haven't heard the Seastones>Eyes of the World>Wharf Rat sequence, you should probably drop everything and go check it out right away. In the first set Scarlet Begonias (after the mix is agreed upon) and Playin in the Band are standouts.

Meanwhile the end of 6-18-94 - Space was a bit tame for 94, but the Last Time and Days Between form the core of a solid post-space sequence, in spite of a couple of words being lost in Days Between.

Not a bad follow up to the best Corinna ever. (I think Trey said @wavethatflag was at this show?)

 

I dig Keith's Moog-tones on the Fire on the Mountain intro on 4/25/77. This may be a "baby" Scarlet>Fire, but it's very enjoyable even in its infancy. The outro of "Fire" actually kind of rocks out!

There's something about this "Samson and Delilah" that is hitting me just right. Keith's tones, the tempo, Jerry's playing - it all comes together on this one. This is a top 5 version for me, at least on first impression. A surprise really, I wasn't expecting a standard song like this to be a highlight of the show.

Terrapin Station is on now. Keith's lines are excellent. In fact, this is one of the best '77 Keith Godchaux performances that I've heard. Perhaps one of the reasons that Dave picked this one?

 

Agreed with above (except for the striked out bit). Plus the U.S. Blues encore is an explosion of energy. That's a top ten US Blues for sure.

 

Help>Slipknot>Franklin
5/9/77

Of course, this show is better than Cornell.

 

I just love the 5/13/77 "The Other One". The band lays off little by little and Jerry stays playing by himself during a couple of delicate minutes. Exquisite.
May 1977 is such a marvelous release, and yet it took years for it to sell out. Fancy that.

 

Disc 2.
One of the best second sets the Dead ever played.

 

Edited for time.

Jack Straw
Sugaree
Promised Land
PITB>
China Cat>Rider
China Doll>
Playin' Jam>
Drums>
NFA>
Playin' reprise
Terrapin

plus

Estimated>Eyes>St. Stephen>Sugar Mags

All that in just a bit over 2 hours.

 

The China>Rider bustout. Oh what could have been, had they been playing those tunes all year long

 

And that was the only one for more than a year, I wonder if 78 would have ever had such a 'reputation' if they'd played that in that year too.

 

Of course, I do listen to Let it Grow without Dark Star and the mighty 5/14/78 version from the porch sag-inducer is currently blazing by. Jerry just doesn't want to stop. Keith does some interesting stuff starting at 9:49, so '78 wasn't a total loss for him. Just over 11 minutes in and another six to go...surely this is the finest LiG post-hiatus?

 

Since your comment stems from your discussion of Let it Grow emerging from Dark Star in April 72, I guess I should mention I've just heard the 'proto-Shakedown Street' jam in the middle of Playin' in the Band from 9-18-74 for the first time.

Also, I only listened to it twice, but I think the 74 version is my favorite arrangement of Friend of the Devil.

 

The 6/24/85 version from the porch sagger is pretty impressive. It has an aggressive edge, but is very well jammed out.

 

If we are on the topic of post-hiatus versions of "Let It Grow," I remember a crazed version from the first show of 1983, 3/25/83 in Arizona.

 

That's a pretty good one. Jerry's on.

 

not as long but the 10/11/77 Let it Grow from the October 77 RT is Burning Hot