My first show. Hitchhiked up from Ithaca the night before. First ride took us to a party in a random farmhouse. Second ride to the outskirts of town. Third ride with some menacing speed dealers who needed someone who knew the way and we said we did but there were some tense moments. Get to the stadia around midnight. Umm. Didn’t occur to us to bring, like, blankets or sleeping bags. A weird cold night with some scary acid dealers from Brooklyn who had an extra blanket. Big news was that GSET had been ‘busted out’ recently. No idea what we did before the gates opened next afternoon. At some point we had rolled an entire bag of weed and a pack of rolling papers into the largest spliff I’ve seen outside a Cheech and Chong movie. Totally didn’t burn, but we reconfigured. Eventually the Good Rats came out and did whatever they did. I remember them chucking rubber rats into the audience and at some point there was a guy from one of the FM stations running around in an eight foot tall moose costume. Still daylight when I got my first look at Jerry and the crew. I believe Brent came as a surprise to me. By now, my memory is hazy, but there are decent tapes. Opening Mississippi > Franklin’s is sprightly, Jer comes out swinging. The long, loose Scarlet Fire is worth a listen, Jerry busts a string so the jam goes a little sideways. I really like the raw Wharf Rat as well. Overall there’s a reason this show doesn’t get talked about much, but we all gotta start somewhere. Epic ride home in a quintessential VW tour bus operated by some serious burnouts. Walls in the back were covered with odd tour detritus, stickers and handbills and a whole fossilised pizza from Red Rocks or some damn place. Reading this back over, it sounds like a scurvy trip and I guess it was. Nice to have been young, oblivious and rubbery enough to spend a night sleeping on a sidewalk.
The saying "don't judge a book by its cover" was created for this pressing of McNally's book. Awful, awful cover. Luckily the contents are super.
Wild story. Beyond young, oblivious and rubbery, being resilient enough to soldier through anything in your path is what made that work. May we someday tilt a few back and share stories. My ride to SPAC in 1983 was rather eventful, but I have no interest in posting it online. Sorry folks.
My pick. Featuring Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Butch Trucks, Berry Oakley, Peter Green and Arthur Lee.
Good morning gumby question. Road Trips - I assume the official downloads of the individual Trips and the Complete Road Trips contain no bonus disc material (mine do not anyway). Were they ever released in any higher resolution than 24 bit 44.1 kHz? Terrific stuff and of course all fit on a usb for the car!
Apologies yes they are 16 bit only. I just remember reading about a high resolution download of the trips but they may have meant cd quality as opposed to mp3.
Like the space between the notes, some times it’s the stories that don’t get told that fascinate the most… that said, great story BZ, indeed
26 May 1972- The Strand Lyceum. Wizard kicked Betty out of the recording truck because Albert gave her a right talking to. Wizard later had to leave the truck to fix a bad microphone and 'lost control' when the band went into Morning Dew. A phenomenal show from top-to-bottom. 26 May 1973- Kezar. Not until I get the official release.
Given there'll soon be a third stellar show released from May 26, can we lay claim to it being on the podium of the pound-for-pound best dates on the Dead calendar?
I haven't gone shopping for them but I would expect the first ~12 Picks or so to be relatively easy/cheap to find. Those came out before consumer CD-Rs became popular, and I think they sold a lot more copies than later volumes as a result.
I didn't care for that book. Kind of dry and went on forever. I enjoyed Jackson's Garcia bio much better tbh.
WOW such weird timing. It is my last day at my current job and I only have a 4.5 hour day. I was trying to think of what to play and thought Lyceum 5/26/72 is a classic. I will do that. I didn't even realize it actually WAS May 26! LOL
No dude I actually was thinking of it before I saw your post and then I was like oh thats so weird that US Blues is listening to the same show today and that is what made me realize the date LOL. It was total fate.
So I am nearly finished Kreutzmann's book. I gotta say I really enjoyed it! After reading some reviews I was expecting a lot more hedonistic a-holeishness. But he comes across as a genuine salt of the earth type and a really nice dude. Not the best writing, but a real fun read and I find him quite funny and entertaining. Glad I didn't believe the reviews. Gained a ton of respect for him honestly. Some really interesting opinions.