2019 Grateful Dead Tournament - Best Meltdown Ever!

I’m planning to hit this in earnest tomorrow for what it’s worth.

 

My Winners:
AW5 - 7-21-74 PITB. I thought the other was too linear/jam like

AW6 - 6-8-74 PITB love the horn like tone and drums used well here. BFA was great as well

CN5 - 6-26-73 TOO I find I like the ’73 more often than not and the ’72s seem to rely on speed and scrubbing pretty similarly to the point they are less my thing

CN6 - 12-19-73 TOO love Jerry’s tone and the sci-fi reverby sounds, becoming a favorite

JJ5 - 12-18-73 DS this one builds nicely and has a lot of variety

JJ6 - 9-10-74 TOO not too thrilled with either of these two

SJ5 - 12-2-73 PITB a little dull and focused on the annoying but TOO was a little too drum/jam/linear which throws me off apparently when doing this

SJ6 - 5-11-72 DS More epic, a ’72 MD I can get behind.

 

JJ-5 - 05/21/74 Playing In The Band
JJ-6 - 09/10/74 Dark Star Jam

SJ-5 - 06/18/74 The Other One
SJ-6 - 05/11/72 Dark Star

 

Happy Birthday, Jerry!


To celebrate Jerry's B-day, drink mightily from your favorite beverage, severely chillax and listen to the music play: 05/22/1977


8/1/42-8/9/95 R.I.P.

 

When we closing and totaling for round 2?

 

I myself could use the rest of the week easily.

 

yeah i will be able to give this some time in the next couple of days.

 

While looking and listening for early meltdowns, I found one, a good one, in an unlikely place.

Road Trips Vol 2 - 2/14/68, Viola Lee Blues. Give all of it a listen, last 4 minutes or so there is a take off and set down....man, it's very good too.

The VLB is on that disk, but is taken from the 1/20/68 Eureka, WA show

 

How much more time do we need?

It's a terrible week for work for me. I'm working all the time, somebody needed coverage as she is pregnant and about to deliver (how dare she do that!). Plus my listening environment has totally changed because I got kicked out of the office in favor of my kids now having their own rooms, and now I have to listen in the kitchen. Makes everything harder.

 

OK I'm gonna wrap up this round in the next few days. I want to see if I can do it before I see JRAD this Sat!

 

(AW-5 - I think I voted on this before)
AW-6: PITB 6/8/74 much more varied melt

CN-5 - 11/3/72 DS - the 6/26/73 I really like...its like a proto-melt of the Dec 1973 versions. The 11/3/72 DS has more energy.
CN-6 - 12/19/73 DS - the opponent is really a classic quick melt. But this one is timeless I can see why Latvala was quick to release this.

JJ-5 - 5/21/74 PITB - both are good. 12/18/73 is actually quite pretty at the end. Like a pretty melt. It gets lost after the 12/19/73 version
JJ-6 - 12/8/73 TOO - this one gets pretty at the end too. Not a classic power melt. But the boys were too high on drugs to make any sense of their Europe 74 tour

SJ-5 - 6/18/74 TOO just the bomb man!
SJ-6 - 5/11/72 DS very special. very creepy. I wanted 11/23/73 to win because it's great. But it can't stand up.

I'm going to compile the results shortly.

 

Last night I was wondering about this tourney and I found this thread and saw that @wharf rat doc has been swamped lately, so I decided to let it go and give a wide berth. Good to see some movement. No pressure, man. Bread is more important than melt (excepting fondues, of course).

 

2/23/74 never advanced. It's 12-2-73 vs 6-18-74. What you got?
It may not make a difference though....lemme compile the rest of the results

 

Did you two get a chance to vote? I've tallied the results (there are no ties, thank god). I can wait, what do you want to do?

 

Screw 'em. They've had more than enough time to post.

 

I couldn't get my space together for this round. Hopefully I'll pick up again in the next round. Thanks!

 

You East Coast people!

 

06/18/74, copied wrong line as I cut and pasted from my notes, thanks!

 

Type AAA, baby.

 

Sweet. Ok. I just finished a night shift. I'm going to bed, then I'll put everything together today unless I'm a putz and forget. Good times

 

12/2/73 Boston Music Hall Playin in the Band would probably get my vote.

 

Round 3 is Underway!

 

Individual matchups with links. Just like last time.


The final round of the August West division features two MAMMOTH meltdowns from 1974. These guys managed to beat some timeless classics from 10/19/73 Dark Star, 3/23/75 Blues For Allah, and the famous Dark Star from 4/8/72. Winning 6-3 and 9-1, it wasn't really even close.

AW-7
7/21/74 - PITB (12:00 - 14:30, 2m 30sec)
archive.org/details/gd1974-07-21.ecm22p.bertrando.89033.flac24/gd1974-07-21.motb.0056.s3t05.flac?start=720
VS
6/8/74 - PITB (14:00 - 16:30, 2m 30sec)
archive.org/details/gd1974-06-08.135277.mtx.dusborne.flac16/gd74-06-08s2t04.flac?start=840

 

Cowboy Neal would be very happy with these finalists. He is rolling in his grave to the beauty of Seattle 73 and yet another 1974 Dark Star. Both were close wins and beat some heavy competition from 11/13/72, 5/18/72 and 11/25/79!!!!

CN-7
6/26/73 - TOO (3:00 - 8:00, 5m, 0sec)
archive.org/details/gd1973-06-26.mtx.seamons.100024.sbeok.flac16/gd73-06-26d3t07.flac?start=180
VS
5/14/74 - DS (19:00 - 20:50, 1m 50sec)
archive.org/details/gd1974-05-14.sbd.miller.114462.flac16/gd74-05-14d3t02.flac?start=1140

 

In simple commentary, I'd put the 4/8/72 Dark Star ahead of all of this. But that is not the point of this tourney. Glad to see it evolve as it has. Great job, Mr. @wharf rat doc.