11 Jan 1979 is a great show, overlooked due to the previous night being the last GD show which featured Dark Star and St. Stephen. The Jack Straw from the 11th features the famous verse by Bobby: We used to play for Acid, now we play for Clive... A reference to their (then) new record deal with Clive Davis at Arista Records.
The Clive line is also in the 11/24/78 show mentioned recently. In the video you can see Jerry and Phil smiling after it.
I was listening to the dead channel on satellite radio in my car and heard an absolutely killer Darkstar > Eyes > Stella Blue from what must have been 1973. The pre-first verse of DS was particularly wonderful. Now I'm going to have to track down and listen to the multiple options to figure out what it was. First up: 12/06/73 – I'm loving the fender rhodes work on this DS. Edit: Yup, this is the one I heard in the car. The whole pre-phil breakdown of Dark Star is amazing.
Show of the Day: 11 November 1973. Top 5 Dark Star, and the transition to Eyes of the World will bring tears of joy to any Dead freak. The rest of the show is rather fine, too.
Another notable bit - in the jam after Truckin' Jerry wants to start Eyes but Keith doesn't yet, so they have a couple minutes of duo improv before the song starts.
Back to Dick's 36 - rumbling through maybe the best Ramble on Rose followed by maybe the best Cumberland and then the second set starts with a very very fine He’s Gone.... Saving the awesome Playing for later (Plus NO fake fuzz bass)
I put this on now. It's the Jerry's playing at the transition into MLB that I remember scaring the crap out of me. Looking forward to digging in. What are your other top 5 Dark Stars?
FYI... Miller dropped an all-digital copy of the first half of Set II 7.13.84 at the usual locations. By far the best source available. Outstanding...even if it’s just 1 disc...
I had that one on a CD with no labeling. I looked up the sequence in Deadbase and narrowed it down to a couple of shows, but it turns out it was the infamous 12-6-73. Easily a top 5 for me. It establishes a pole of what Dark Star could be (maybe 3-24-73 is the opposite pole?)
I give it Top 10 status, but it can't supplant 9/19/70, 3/23/72, 4/8/72, 4/24/72 nor 9/21/72 in my Top 5.
I was going to propose a "rule" that on pages 1965-1995 of this thread, we only discuss events from the year corresponding to the page we were on. Then I realized how silly that was and we hammered through 1965-1968 so quickly that I got caught in a time warp. Or something.
You and I need to sit down over some liquid refreshments (and I'm not talking alcohol) and review some Dark Stars.
Now finished the NFA>GDTRFB>NFA from Dick's 36 Saving the Dark Star>Dew for last Is it OK to listen to these classic shows out of order?!?! Or am I just a bad person for doing so and skipping Mexicali Blues almost every time?!?!
Not at all. Grayfolded inspired Phil & Friends setlists by revealing that one need only play the good songs at a show. And if that means leaving out Mexicali Blues, then so be it!