The recent chatter about the Here Comes Sunshine and Dark Star sent me to the archive for a listen. Cleveland Public Hall is about 20 minutes away from where I live. Having completely missed its existence as a place for incredible shows, I’ve only been there for workish conferences in modern times. There’s something I love about this version of They Love Each Other. Couldn’t tell you what, but it connects with me more than other versions that I’ve heard. You know why you’re here, though: The Here Comes Sunshine is, as described previously, all kinds of jammy goodness. I’ll freely acknowledge that I haven’t listened extensively, but this Dark Star materializes from nothingness more than others that I’ve heard. They’re tuning, they’re noodling, and then, at some point, it becomes apparent that Dark Star has arrived. It’s mellow for a while. Phil is prominent, which is something I really love, in no small part because of his tone. Then, I’d say about a quarter of the way in, different sorts of things start to happen. Words won’t do. Or, maybe they will, and @SJR nailed it.
Thanks. That's really useful. Shame about the lack of artwork / track list. How can you be confident you get everything? Is it all zipped up into 1 file, or multiple zips? Sorry, more questions! It's a lot of money involved.
I’ve only bought a couple of downloads from them, but IIRC it came as a single zip file and the metadata and cover art (but no booklet) came embedded in the music files. As for making sure you got everything, you’d just have to double check the downloaded files against the track list.
We were on the exact same train there, woof, especially after Knick 90 being so on fire as well. When people rate 91 above 90 these head to heads are why I can't agree. Also 9/20/90 is so f'ing great, found some cool similarities between that and 3/9/81. Which one better? Dunno. MSG 3/9/81 Set One Feel Like A Stranger Althea C C Rider Ramble On Rose El Paso Deep Elem Blues Beat It On Down The Line Bird Song New Minglewood Blues Set Two China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider > Samson And Delilah Ship Of Fools Estimated Prophet > Uncle John's Band > Drums > Space > The Other One > Stella Blue > Good Lovin' Encore U.S. Blues MSG 9/20/90 Set One Feel Like A Stranger Althea It's All Over Now Ramble On Rose El Paso Brown Eyed Women Greatest Story Ever Told U.S. Blues Set Two Truckin' > China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider > Man Smart, Woman Smarter > Drums > Space > Dark Star > Playing Reprise > Dark Star > Throwing Stones > Touch Of Grey Encore Turn On Your Lovelight
Reading between the lines, I would agree w/ your assessment, maybe the complete Bear reels/recordings will “be shown the light,” someone has to have the complete set of this run, but would it surprise us if just Bear plugged in for part of a night and got what he got………..don’t feel bad about this assessment, for as many excellent recordings captured by the GD sound team it was bound to happen, just stinks that it happens going into the hiatus. Another well known more recent “jamband” has significant issues with their tapes in the vault w/ certain tours. It is happy 12/6/73, I never put much thought into the idea that this DS could be/actual “tuning > JAM > DS vs. DS.” Thank you for those that opened my mind to the “tuning > jam > DS” idea via SHF.
I go with the idea that Dark Star is always happening, so tuning is really entering the Dark Star space, and if a 20 minute jam precedes the introductory riff or main riff, well, that's the point in which they entered from. It would be interesting to have had one show where they stay in the Dark Star space for hours and every so often it returns to the song and the lyrics are all repeated over the course of the show. Grayfolded is sort of that idea, put to an album.
No. The shows were not well recorded, yet Jeff Norman made magic happen in his mix of the Movie Soundtrack. Yes it is very ambient to allow the spatial dimensionality captured on the recording of some tracks, mostly the drums, to bring the sound of the band together into a coherent whole in the space of Winterland. The question is this: can the entire 5-day run be properly mixed for a box set? The second question is: will this actually happen? Certainly it should.
Goggling 'Phil Lesh Mission Control' turned up this crazy story: How Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh’s Alembic ‘Mission Control’ pioneered the concept of the boutique bass | Guitar World Apparently the bass was modified by a GD roadie (probably Parrish, sez I,) sat for years in a storage room at Front Street, ended up in a defaulted storage locker, thence to a vintage guitar dealer, who fixed it up a bit and sold to its current owner, who contacted the builder, Rick Turner, to restore it. It's not exactly like buying a loincloth at your local goodwill and finding out it belonged to Jesus Christ, but not quite unlike that either...
Another issue with Winterland 74 is how much of the multitracks survived. I think they have two-tracks of all of it but it may be awkward editing them in.
I was there, and remember Huey coming out. I vaguely recall this being better than the previous show, but it still was pretty unexciting compared to any of the MSG or Spectrum shows I’d caught in September that year. This run was the only time I saw them do Stander on the Mountain and Valley Road. The former didn’t leave much of an impression, but I think Valley Road worked pretty well as a short-lived addition to the repertoire.
Huey also sat in with them for a few songs in Eugene on 8/21/93. He’s a good harmonica player, and I thought his contributions were solid although not something to get too excited about.
I was at 3/23/91 and would easily rank 12/3/90 lower based on memory. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to recordings of either show, though.
I’ve never heard it, but supposedly a combination of band jet lag and Jerry eating a huge hash ball did not help them that night.
Sadly, despite all protestations on the contrary, said heart had indeed stopped beating and it was a grisly reminder of the futile fight against death for all present.
Not disagreeing at all. It's what I want, too. I'd pay a lot for it. It's just that TPTB seem unwilling to redo or upgrade previously released GD live material, apart from anniversary editions of their original canon. If we get anything else from 10/74, I'd say it's more likely in the form of an expanded SYF than a complete set of all five shows.
I heard Dave mention a couple of times that there are “a couple of 50th anniversaries” coming up in 2023, so I’m assuming that means we will get a 50th anniversary Bears Choice?