So, that Dark Star from Wembley Empire Pool, London, 08/04/72 is a bit good, isn’t it? Then Sugar Magnolia > Caution > One More Saturday Night . . .
A few weeks back I mentioned I hadn't heard much 80s Dead, let alone the opus Althea. @jewelsnbinoculars recommended I check out the audience tape of Madison Square Garden 1981-03-09, and I've finally gotten around to it now. Wow, great sounding tape - can't imagine it could get much better than this. Bit of a noise floor, but all the instrumentation is clear and present to my ears. Awesome performance too. I'm beginning to get a bit of a taste for different styles of different years, having spent a lot of time in the first half of the 70s, there is something distinctly different about these performances that I can't quite put my finger on yet. Maybe there's a little less rhythmic complexity? Anyway, thanks for the recommendation!
That makes me think. As a newb I'd love to get recommendations on the best '80s audience recordings to check out. Part of my problem with the '80s (not including the official multitrack releases) has been the dreadful quality of the soundboards from that era. Any suggestions are welcome.
Look for stuff between 1980-1983 by Barry Glassberg and Jim Wise, those dudes have a plethora of great audience recordings from those years. Spring shows in 80/81, May is good month in both of those years, then summer and fall of 82, and finally June, September and October of 1983 are great places to start. Again, I’d recommend 3/9/81 as a great example of the brilliant audience work by Barry Glassberg, follow the spring tour of that year with his recordings.
Bob Wagner is another great taper from that era, he and Jim Wise both have a tape of Alligator Alley 11/29/1980 available on archive, it’s a great early 80s show.
2 March 1981- Cleveland. Recorded by the venerable Dr. Bob Wagner. 23 Nov 1978- Cap Center. Recorded by Dame Joani Walker. Fabulous show. (I know it's from '78, just give it a listen and ignore the people who think late '78 is not up to par. I won't name any names, but y'all know who you are.) 10 May 1980- Hartfod. Recorded by the great Jim Wise. Second set drips with glory: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider; Feel Like A Stranger > Comes A Time > Estimated Prophet > He's Gone > Uncle John's Band > Space > Drums > Space > Not Fade Away > Sugar Magnolia Encore: Alabama Getaway > One More Saturday Night
8 April 1972- Empire Pool. Dark Star > Sugar Mags... Got on this one early, or since it's now the 8th on the Olde Sod, perhaps it's all just exactly perfect.
Disc 1 First set: "Greatest Story Ever Told" (Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Robert Hunter) – 5:24[a] "Sugaree" (Jerry Garcia, Hunter) – 7:08 "Chinatown Shuffle" (Ron "Pigpen" McKernan) – 3:02 "Me and My Uncle" (John Phillips) – 3:38 [*]"China Cat Sunflower" (Garcia, Hunter) > – 5:33 [*]"I Know You Rider" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 5:14 [*]"Big Boss Man" (Al Smith, Luther Dixon) – 4:38[c] [*]"Black-Throated Wind" (Weir, John Perry Barlow) – 5:55 [*]"Loser" (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:55 [*]"Mr. Charlie" (McKernan, Hunter) – 4:56 [*]"Beat It On Down the Line" (Jesse Fuller) – 3:58 [*]"Tennessee Jed" (Garcia, Hunter) – 7:02 Disc 2 "Playing in the Band" (Weir, Hart, Hunter) – 10:04 Second set: "Truckin'" (Garcia, Phil Lesh, Weir, Hunter) > – 10:53[d] "Drums" (Bill Kreutzmann) > – 2:39[d] "The Other One" (Weir, Kreutzmann) > – 19:36[d] "El Paso" (Marty Robbins) > – 4:44[d] "The Other One" (Weir, Kreutzmann) > – 8:20[d] "Wharf Rat" (Garcia, Hunter) – 10:58[d] Disc 3 "Ramble On Rose" (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:21 "Sugar Magnolia" (Weir, Hunter) – 7:56 "Not Fade Away" (Norman Petty, Charles Hardin) > – 4:19 [*]"Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) > – 6:08 [*]"Not Fade Away" (Petty, Hardin) – 3:42 Encore "One More Saturday Night" (Weir) – 4:36 I'm a day behind some folks here but today was my first ever complete listen to 4/7/72 since it's not one of the individual volumes I picked up. I'm going to be jumping between 71 and 72 for the month of April starting today and all during work (from home) hours. This was a very good start. I don't really listen to many first sets any more but there's three Pigpen tunes so I couldn't pass it up. Or 2.9 Pigpen tunes as it turned out. The big jam isn't all that compared to later but it isn't bad except for El Paso getting shoved in there which...ehh. Donna's first European wail is a good one, and disc 3 rocks. 3 hours well spent. Tomorrow will be 4/8/71 with one of only 2 Dark Stars played during April 1971 and then back to Wembley for at least some highlights.
4/7/72 is a great listen even if clearly overshadowed by the next night, which happens to feature one of the best Dark Stars of all time. Still, a great pace setter for a phenomenal tour. I'm re-listening to 9/22/93 for the first time in decades, a show I was at. Pretty darn good Help>Slip!>Franklin's to start, although the scripted part of the end of Slipknot! is muffed a bit, and I also never loved the faux-acoustic sound of Jerry's Lightning Bolt guitar, that I think was introduced about a month earlier, and although maybe more well suited to certain songs, is NOT well suited to this suite, which calls for more grit/gain and sustain, IMHO. Notwithstanding the flubs in that one section and guitar tone issues, it's a pretty hot version of one of my favorite sets of songs, and it sets a good tone for a show that gets even better when David Murray joins in on sax towards the end of the first set and for almost all of Set II. I was just out of college and had been spending some time as a ne'er do well in a lot of places throughout '93, but one of them was a few days in Manhattan sometime before this show at a high school friend's apartment, and one of his college buddies who was living with him was a huge David Murray fan, and had turned me onto Murray - we'd played a bunch of his albums over those days, along with, if I recall correctly, my introduction to Big Star as well. So, I was pretty excited when a few weeks later, Murray showed up with the Dead... no one else around me knew who the heck he was, but I think he introduced himself to them well enough. Three years later, Murray put out an album of mostly GD covers that is a fine listen: David Murray Octet – Dark Star [The Music Of The Grateful DeadⓇ] (1996, CD) He played the old Yoshi's on Claremont in Oakland (which was basically a sushi joint converted into a jazz club) back when that was released and I caught at least a couple nights of both early/late shows, if not the entire run (they never had stubs back then, so it's a bit foggy with the years, but if you showed up for the early show and the late show didn't sell out, you could usually get into the second show for free). Lots of fun. A couple highlights: (1) the trombone player completely deconstructed his horn piece-by-piece during Dark Star at one of the four shows, until he was down to mouthpiece only, and he made it work - that was fun; and (2) Fred Hopkins recognized me and a buddy in the parking lot pre-show after one or two shows and struck up a conversation and was the nicest and funniest guy. A monster bass player too. RIP.
Thanks! I sampled a little of that show last night before I went to bed. Wow, that is great stuff. Not only great playing, but the recording is excellent and captures how powerful the show was. Can't wait to hear the entire thing! Thanks! I'm looking forward to getting to these.
Be sure to stay current with April '78 as you go. 8 April 1971- Boston, features Ned Lagin playing keyboards during Dark Star. He was there by invitation and his presence during the Star was quite intentional. This tape was recently returned to the Vault, a "hum free" version of this show would be a key advancement in Western Civilization.
Just glancing through my collection: 9-6-80 Lewiston ME 11-30-80 Bob Wagner tape, of course. Much better "naked" than the matrix they released on DaP 8. 8-28-81 Long Beach (MOTB) 4-6-82 Philly - I seem to recall a good audience tape of this one. 7-27-82 Red Rocks 6-18-83 Saratoga, of course 9-10-83 & 9-11-83 Santa Fe There are a bunch of good shows from October 1984 on audience tapes. 3-28-86 Portland ME 6-22-86 Greek Theater 7-2-88 Oxford ME (watch out for your speakers on "Jack Straw") That otter get you going.
The April 84 shows recorded FOB with Schoeps MK41s are reference quality GD AUDs in my book - archive.org/details/gd1984-04-14.139327.fob.schoeps.mk41.oade.bryant.miller.clugston.flac1644 archive.org/details/gd1984-04-17.139329.fob.schoeps.mk41.oade.bryant.miller.clugston.flac1644 archive.org/details/gd1984-04-19.139331.fob.schoeps.mk41.oade.bryant.miller.clugston.flac1644
Grateful Dead TRACKLISTING Side A – Bertha, Me and My Uncle, Mr. Charlie, Sugaree / Side B - Black-Throated Wind, Chinatown Shuffle, China Cat Sunflower, I Know You Rider Side C - Beat It On Down The Line, He's Gone, Next Time You See Me / Side D - Playing In The Band, Tennessee Jed Side E - Good Lovin' / Side F - Sing Me Back Home, Casey Jones, Greatest Story Ever Told Side G - Ramble On Rose, Hurts Me Too, Truckin' / Side H - The Other One, Drums Side I - The Other One, Me And Bobby McGee, The Other One /Side J - Wharf Rat, Jack Straw, Sugar Magnolia Side K - Not Fade Away, Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad, Not Fade Away, One More Saturday Night / Side L - [Etching]
2/26/81 Uptown, Barry Glassberg 2/19-20/82 Golden Hall, Rango Keshavan 10/9-10/82 Frost, Rango Keshavan
