2019 Grateful Dead Tournament - Best Meltdown Ever!

I am happy to announce the next GD Tournament in 2019 where we will all help identify the best Meltdown ever! This should be a very fun tournament because meltdowns were brief and exciting, and it shouldn't take a considerable amount of time listening and evaluating the matchups.

What is a meltdown? Well it has proven to be somewhat difficult to define. Meltdowns are loosely similar to Tiger jams, which are not particular, repeated melodic riffs but rather a vehicle to explore the most explosive experimental music the band has ever played. These are distinct jams that despite their seemingly formless natures, have all band members culminating their energy into a frenzied explosion of chaos. They usually have a relatively easy start and end time...but on occasion finding appropriate start times can be difficult. Another great definition came from our esteemed member @US Blues

Each of the matchups contain brief, short musical bursts lasting 2-4 minutes. So this excluded songs like Feedback, Space, and Seastones.

There are four regions:
August West (AW)
Cowboy Neal (CN)
Jack and Jill (JJ)
Sweet Jane (SJ)

The task is simple. Each match is identified by a code like AW-1, CN-3, etc. Please identify the winner of each matchup by writing "Winner of AW-1" or "Winner of CN-3". I'll keep track of the winners and post regular updated brackets.

Remember that we are evaluating the meltdown, not the song it was within, or the set or concert! I imagine some meltdowns might not be all that good despite it occuring within a fantastic concert, and vice versa.

I'll post all the brackets individually and everybody have fun!

Lastly, thank you everybody for helping identify the meltdown snippets as well.

 

Well I was starting off with AW-1 (4/8/72 vs 7/21/74) and this is gonna be hard! Haven't decided yet. There are some real nice bits from Jerry in 7/21. Oh boy!

 

This looks great. Thanks for setting it up.
I have to dig up the above shows and get these snippets loaded up and ready to go.
May the meltdowns begin!

 

How long do we have? I can't start until Thursday...

 

I dunno. Maybe 10-14 days for round 1. Whatever it takes within reason to get results! I'm totally flexible.

 

My winner of CN-4 is 12/19/73 - TOO.

11/25/79 is very nice. It's particularly nice that it occurred in 1979 after a time that most real meltdowns ceased to exist. But it didn't really stand a chance against 12/19. That is probably the quintessential meltdown of all time. Dick got it right when he released it as Dicks Picks Vol. 1. The boys just go into bonkers. December 1973 was a special month. I predict 12/19 is going to go very far in this tourney!

 

Okay, I'm in. I have a couple of questions, though.

1-Why won't it let me put my profile pic in? I go to the profile page and there's no add image option
2-I get that we're supposed to pick a winner in each matchup in all 4 brackets, right?
3-How do we fill out the bracket? Just type it out in a post?

 

Hey Birdstrike. I know ya from SDN. Re: your questions...
1. You have to be established as a member to post a picture. It takes something like 10 posts or 50 "likes". We "like" each other all the time. Should happen quickly. Happened to me in about a week.
2. Its the first round now....so pick the winners for each matchup (CN-1, CN-2, SJ-1, SJ-2). Subsequent rounds like round 2, 3 will be in the coming weeks.
3. just respond and make a post. See what I posted above? I picked a winner in the Cowboy Neal bracket (CN-4). You don't have to do it all at once. I tried to pick some other ones and it's hard. Couldn't decide!

This was a previous tournament
Grateful Dead 2018 Peggy-O Funiculi Funicula Four Tournament

and welcome!

 

The first round consists of 16 "games," we'll need a good 2 weeks to get through these Meltdowns. I'm gonna propose that the finish date for these 16 games is 3 July 2019, start a new round for the 4th.

 

I'm good with that. Although I'm on vacation until July 6th or so. So maybe a few days after July 4th, like the 6th

 

Wait, you started a tourney and now you announce you're going on vacation?! You must work for the Dead or something.

 

I'm confused. AW-2 has the 8/6/74 The Other One (6:45-8:20) as a competitor so I went to Relisten, found that segment and it's just a fairly conventional statement of The Other One. There's nothing loud, frenzied or chaotic about it. What is the source of the time stamps?

 

Hmm
Interesting 8/6/74 is a DP release, but they didn't release TOO. I happen to have this show in its entirety on my computer, and the entire length of the TOO is 10:16. So it's 6:45 - 8:20 on my computer....

I had a feeling this might happen with a few shows.

On Relisten I pulled up source #1, which for me is an AUD by Neil Merin. That TOO is 10:25, and there is a little mini loud, frenzied chaotic element during the time stamp above. But I look at other sources and there are TOOs that are chopped up into two tracks, one was > 13 minutes.

For what it's worth I think 8/6/74 has a Tiger like jam / breakdown, albeit brief (unlike some of the 72 versions....) maybe it won't go that far. It happens to be up again a kind of weak opponent 7/27/74 PITB.

 

When I access 8/6/74 on Relisten, the first source I get (thrice now) is a Kevin Tobin SBD with TOO at 13:36. But it's complicated. There are three Kevin Tobin SBDs with Spanish Jam-->TOO with the following times:

1. Spanish Jam (3:43)--> TOO (13:36);
2. Spanish Jam (13:37)--> TOO (6:13); and
3. Spanish Jam (3:44)--> TOO (13:37).

Relisten is like that. It's basically an alternative way of accessing the Internet Archive (and far superior as a searching tool, IMO), but there's no apparent rhyme nor reason for which versions come out on top (or there wasn't and now there might be, or maybe there isn't, just to make that clear as mud).

 

Maybe do bi-monthly? End round 1 on June 31....gives people a little time to listen and cogitate about their selections.

Editosted this before noticing other suggestions. Thread owner should make the call based on his workload.

 

Here’s another thing...if the time stamps are off a little bit, you can just listen to the entire song and you’ll eventually hear the meltdown. It won’t be hard to find.

 

As an aside, I just met a lady whose brother was a roadie for the Dead for 30 years, and is still alive.
I asked her if he has some great stories. She said, "Yes, but I can't ever understand what the hell he's saying. He's still perma-baked and lives on the same pig farm in Northern California where he met them."

Lol

Now to picking my meltdowns...

 

My winners of AW rd 1


Aw 1 = Dark Star (by a mile!)

AW 2 = The Other One (close call)

AW 3 = PITB (both excellent, PITB might go far)

AW 4 = Blues For Allah (insane)

 

That is not an adequate solution.

 

Depends on how one defines "adequate."

 

A tournament is very time consuming, if I have to listen to 7-hour tracks to find the meltdown I don't think I'm up to it. Also, and just as importantly, hearing the whole thing in context will skew the voting in a different direction. There's an argument that that is meet, but I think hearing them out of context is in keeping with the spirit of the thing.

 

I shall bravely endeavor to participate despite the mountainous molehills identified by Bz's scholarly analysis. Kidding. Seriously though, bonus points for employment of "meet" in its archaic adjective form!

Amazing effort doc, not just w/ subject matter organization but graphic presentation as well - you've set the bar high!

 

Shouldn’t a Grateful Dead meltdown thread include Brent Mydland’s 4/21/86 “Maybe You Know How I Feel?”

 

Fascinating !

I have no idea what you're talking about

 

Or an AUD recording that captures me standing next to the taper during "I Will Take You Home"...