13 February 1970- Fillmore East. Nuff said. 13 February 1980- JGB, Palace Theater, Albany, NY. My first JGB show. I hear there was very good purple barrel mescaline this night.
Not sure if this has been posted already, I may have missed it, but this link is going around on Twitter today. Jerry's isolated guitar track for 11/12/72. The link below is for a playlist that apparently has the whole show broken into individual songs. I don't have a way to listen to this at work, but I'll certainly check it out tonight. Jerry Garcia Isolated Guitar Track, 11-12-72 - YouTube
In spite of being a horrible Unbeliever of the worst kind, spiritual music still have the ability to move me. This was incredibly beautiful.
I went flipping through for some contextual clues; it's a bit jumbled - It'd have to be sometime after July - Jim Morrison's death is referenced in the book, but the New Riders are still looking for a pedal steel player (Garcia's last NRPS gig was 10-31-71.) Then when Garcia talks about Pig's illness, he says something like 'he's getting better, but for a while he was really sick,' which doesn't fit July 71, when Pig was still with the band. They also talk about the Garcia Wales album, which wiki says was released on November 1 So then I read the introduction, and it turns out the first interview was sometime in July, with Wenner and Reich, and then Reich went back alone a few weeks later (the Stoned Sunday Rap section,) and Wenner had another interview with Garcia 'a few months later.' So that might explain some stuff that makes more sense for mid-november rather than mid-july. The book has a publishing date of 1972. Also, I know I've posted it at least a couple of times, but it has the best quote ever about Dark Star: Reich: Well then if we wanted to talk about "Dark Star", could you say anything about where it comes from? Garcia: You gotta remember that you and I are talking about two different "Dark Stars." You're talking about the "Dark Star" which you have heard formalized on a record, and I'm talking about the "Dark Star" which I have heard in each performance as a completely improvised piece over a long period of time. So I have a long continuum of "Dark Stars" which range in character from each other to real different extremes. "Dark Star" has meant, while I'm playing it, almost as many things as I can sit here and imagine, so all I can do is talk about "Dark Star" as a playing experience. Reich: Well, yeah, talk about it a little. Garcia: I can't. It talks about itself. (p. 58)
Speaking of Dark Star, we were in the car on the way back from story time at the library - I had the radio on WESU which is the Wesleyan station, at very low volume, when I heard the intro to the studio version. I pumped it up, all excited 'no way, they never play this!' They played the full intro and even the first line of singing before it faded out and there was a voiceover. It turns out it was just the intro music for a science show about dark matter or black holes or somewise. Still very cool, but I'd rather have heard the tune myself. (it's probably from NPR or Pacifica or one of those, they typically play that programming in the daytime. )
6-24-70 at the Capitol Theatre, which for some reason became the unique segue capital of the universe (we already got Good Lovin>NFA>Good Lovin and He was a Friend>Viola Lee Blues>the Seven>Cumberland Blues back in March there.) (Port Chester is that kind of place) This one has Dark Star>Attics>Dark Star>Sugar Magnolia>Dark Star>St. Stephen>China Cat>I Know You Rider, which is not a far cry from what they've been doing with Dark Star all year. It's Attics instead of the post-verse silence/space, then the '1970 Dark Star' theme which morphs into 'Soulful Strut/tighten up,' then Sugar Magnolia takes the place of 'Feeling Groovy' (it's actually Garcia that ends the jam with a Weir tune this time...) and leads into the final verse. There's also NFA>Easy Wind to start the electric set, which is great. The transition could have been slightly smoother, but it's still cool. Weir in particular is on fire; he plays a serious lead on Easy Wind, I had to listen actively to be sure it wasn't Garcia. These AUDs from the Capitol sound really good, especially compared to others from the same time. The way these are posted on the archive is hard to piece together, though. I wonder, now that we seem to have a good handle on what tape belongs with what date, do they circulate in the 'usual places' with the early and late show fragments in the correct order? There doesn't seem to be a single one on the archive that has either all of the early show and all of the late show without some weirdness. (e.g early show acoustic set, both NRPS sets, late GD electric set, or electric early show plus partial acoustic late show etc.)
the famous usher was able to do a mike spread off the balcony so that explains why these sound as good as they do. little crowd noise and great pick up from the stage and p.a. for more unique segues check out the 11/70 shows.
So I don't know if this will be new to anyone, but this was just posted onto the YouTube very recently. Apparently it's "newly discovered" footage of Grisman and Garcia rehearsing in the early 1990s. I always take "rare, newly discovered" things with a grain of salt when posted on the internets, but I personally have never seen this before. It's quite wonderful!! Jerry in particular seems to be in great spirits throughout. I just love stuff like this. Anyone seen this before??
Yes, there's those and even in that first February 71 show you get Dark Star>Wharf Rat>Dark Star>Me and my Uncle, which kind of thing was not really common at the time. They didn't really play that much at the Capitol - its heyday was a bit shorter than a year, and yet it has this reputation as an iconic Grateful Dead venue (maybe this was amplified in my mind growing up right down the street, and certainly promoted by the current management.) I suppose it must have had a lot to do with those tapes, but I never knew until the archive days as the only Capitol tape I had was 2-18-71.
They took one channel from the available tape, so it's mainly just the guitars. That show was taped with just a partial instrument mix - only Jerry, Bob, Phil, and low vocals - which is interesting to listen to. (The other channel, not included in the youtube tracks, is mostly loud Phil!)
There was a discussion of the Signpost interview dates in these comments -- basically in July & October '71, with the interviews combined into one. 6/24/70 still seems to be scattered across several incomplete copies without one single Archive source combining all available sets. Kind of hard to believe, given the fame of this show! It has a lot to do with the excellent quality of the usher AUD tapes (compared to most 1970 AUDs); and even though the Dead only played there for a year they played over a dozen shows there, including many of the best shows of 1970 with some iconic performances; and the February 1971 run is very well-known, though the playing is generally not as good.
I almost can't believe that's actually the released take. I never paid any particular attention to the vocals on the studio version. But Jerry's really putting in an effort here. It reminds me of his work on the Compliments album. I also think it shows the influence of Keith & Donna turning him on to gospel.
Gotta' remember that Delaney & Bonnie were on the 1970 Festival Express Their gospel rock scene was enormous influence back then via Leon Russell, Derek Clapton, George Harrison, "Englishman"Joe Cocker, and The Rolling Exiles.
"We have a little bit of technical preparation, Mickey's gonna get his gongs together and we're going to do Dark Star. There'll be a moment or two of respectful silence while Mickey fiddles aimlessly about the stage." ~ Jerry's intro to the 24 June 1970 Dark Star
I too wondered the same. I did a little research some time ago and discovered compelling evidence that the substance was not mescaline as advertised, but LSD-25 at a low dose, 50-75mg. The argument is based on the fact that such a diminutive pill isn’t large enough to contain a effective dose of mescaline. I am not a chemist, but I tend to agree with the argument, citing the total disappearance of said Microdots.
