Just to check, is Operator being put into the “never played” category or “rarely played” category? It should go into the latter as I believe there are a couple of performances from acoustic sets in ‘70 that circulate.
Studio France, but give me one of those early 78 live versions and I'll take Sunrise. This answer is based almost entirely on what Garcia does on the song in question.
I remember listening to "Rain" recently on Cats, and I was Donna-fied. I think I said something here somewhere. That's solo Jer, though, not GD.
IWT for the Believe It Or Not debut at Alpine Valley (6/23/88). I’ve always liked that song; I used to listen to it fairly often because I had a tape of that show.
My parents old house is about 10-15 minutes from the Palace. Saw many events there over the years. Crazy that it’s being torn down.
The lack of tapes for some of those songs makes me wonder how rare they really were. Like was Clementine only really played on that one tour, or is it that the handful of tapes we have from March-June of 68 were just nights where they didn't play it? There's about 50 shows with no tape between 2-2-68 and when it turns up again in the Aoxomoxoa sessions. Also, when in 67 did they break it out? Cream Puff War is a similar story, something like 50 unrecorded shows between its first known appearance and its last (and we are much less sure of those, they could have played it for 3-4 months or more before and after and we still wouldn't know.) I guess it would still count as kind of rare, in the grand scheme, but it's entirely possible that they actually played Cream Puff War 50-100 times and Clementine 25-50 times, and we would have no idea.
What can I say, Champagne Boot? Get the book. Also fritz7784‘s Robert Hunter quote covers it pretty well, too. It isn’t an entirely pretty picture of Garcia, who is also the hero or anti-hero of the book. There is a lot of junkie pride in the book, too. But there’s also a good deal of honesty in the book. I think it’s that latter part that bothered the people who knew Jerry the most. Oh, one other thing, the name dropping is incredible and almost as interesting as the band themselves, and not just the usual Kesey and Owsley, though they’re in it all over the place too. The stories in it as the band crosses paths with people are amazing, and not things I’ve read in any other book. From Owsley to Janice, to Otis Redding, to Chip Monk, to Sam Cutler, to the Stones (Tragedy! Altamont!), to Stephen Stills, to The Who, in particular Keith Moon and a bit of Pete too, to Kennedy kids and many more, it’s an incredible journey, but it ends in addiction. Like I said, I’m sure part of the reason the band and those around them didn’t love the book is it’s not an entirely pretty picture. But it’s a wild ride.
Having read a lot of the GD books out there over the last 2-3 years, while Scully certainly embellishes for effect at times, most of what he writes rings true, and his version of events and sketches of character are not radically different from what you find in most of the other books. (e.g the incident where the crew starts looting a brothel in Germany I think was also in Kreutzmann's book, etc.) It was the first GD book I read, and I wouldn't say it's the best, but having just read it again a month or so ago, I'd say it's pretty great and still worth the time. It's definitely a contender for the most engaging style among GD books. Signpost to New Space still remains my most essential GD reading, but it's not exactly a history of the band. I'd maybe put Conversations with the Dead second. I don't think the band is necessarily well-served with an overarching history, they all tend to skew heavily towards 1965-75, I like the interviews because many of them were conducted in later years, and they had so many in and around the band who were able to provide fascinating material. Even the 'fourth-stringers' like Ned Lagin or Sam Cutler are fantastic interviews.
