Thread guide List of releases By Release Date One from the Vault (1975-08-13 San Francisco, released 1991-04-15) Infrared Roses (1989-1990, released 1991-11-01) Two from the Vault (1968-08-24 San Francisco, released May 1992) Dick’s Picks Volume 1 (1973-12-19 Tampa, released 1991-10-31) Dick’s Picks Volume 2 (1971-10-31 Columbus, released March 1995) Grayfolded (1968-1993, released 1994 and 1995) Hundred Year Hall (1972-04-26, released 1995-09-26) Dick’s Picks Volume 3 (1977-05-22 Pembroke Pines, released 1995-11-07) Dick’s Picks Volume 4 (1970-02-13, 14 New York, released 1996-02-23) Dick’s Picks Volume 5 (1979-12-26 Oakland, released 1996-05-30) By Concert Date Various (released 1994 and 1995 on Grayfolded) 1968-08-24 Los Angeles (released 1992-05 on Two from the Vault) 1970-02-13, 14 New York (released 1996-02-23 on Dick's Picks 4) 1971-10-31 Columbus (released 1995-03 on Dick's Picks 2) 1972-04-26 Frankfurt (released 1995-09-26 on Hundred Year Hall) 1973-12-19 Tampa (released 1993-10-31 on Dick's Picks 1) 1975-08-13 San Francisco (released 1991-04-15 on One from the Vault) 1977-05-22 Pembroke Pines (released 1995-11-07 on Dick's Picks 3) 1979-12-26 Oakland (released 1996-05-30 on Dick's Picks 5) 1989, 1990 (released 1991-11-01 on Infrared Roses) This week: 1990-03-24 Albany (mostly) (released 1996-08-29 on Dozin' at the Knick) Next week: 1983-10-14 Hartford (released 1996-10-07 on Dick's Picks 6)
Dozin' at the Knick Recording date: March 24-26, 1990 Recording location: Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, New York Release date: October 1996 Engineered by: John Cutler and Jeffrey Normal Disc 1 (March 26 except where noted) "Hell in a Bucket" (Barlow, Mydland, Weir) – 6:08 "Dupree's Diamond Blues" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:36 "Just a Little Light" (Barlow, Mydland) – 4:45 "Walkin' Blues" (Johnson, arr. Weir) – 6:11 (March 24) "Jack-A-Roe" (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 4:14 (March 25) "Never Trust A Woman" (Mydland) – 7:06 (March 25) "When I Paint My Masterpiece" (Dylan) – 5:02 (March 25) "Row Jimmy" (Hunter, Garcia) – 10:26 "Blow Away" (Barlow, Mydland) – 11:14 Disc 2 (March 24) "Playing in the Band" > (Hunter, Hart, Weir) – 10:08 "Uncle John's Band" > (Hunter, Garcia) – 10:01 "Lady with a Fan" > (Hunter, Garcia) – 6:35 "Terrapin Station" > (Hunter, Garcia) – 6:45 "Mud Love Buddy Jam" > (Grateful Dead) – 7:53 "Drums" > (Hart, Kreutzmann) – 9:41 "Space" > (Garcia, Lesh, Weir) – 9:39 Disc 3 (March 24 except where noted) "Space" > (Garcia, Lesh, Weir) – 1:03 "The Wheel" > (Hunter, Garcia) – 4:45 "All Along the Watchtower" > (Dylan) – 7:45 "Stella Blue" > (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:32 "Not Fade Away" (Holly, Petty) – 7:24 "And We Bid You Goodnight" (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 2:21 "Space" > (Garcia, Lesh, Mydland, Weir) – 1:31 (March 25) "I Will Take You Home" > (Mydland) – 4:17 (March 25) "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad" > (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 6:59 (March 25) "Black Peter" > (Hunter, Garcia) – 9:08 (March 25) "Around and Around" (Berry) – 5:57 (March 25) "Brokedown Palace" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:20 (March 26) Containing highlights from three days from the magnificent 1990 spring tour, including the complete March 24 second set and encore, Dozin' at the Knick is an interesting release from the famous spring 1990 tour. It comes close to representing a complete show. The first disc presents a well-sequenced collection of first-set songs from all three nights. At the time of its release it was great to have this (Without a Net was the only other official release documenting this era), but in retrospect, it’s a little puzzling why the complete first set from March 24 wasn’t included instead of the three-night mix. They probably didn’t want to replicate material already released on Without a Net (although One More Saturday Night was the only song that would have been duplicated), and they certainly weren’t anticipating the huge box sets to come. In any case, they did a good job putting together a solid imaginary first set with a good representation of Brent; the first disc is a fun listen. But there’s no excuse for leaving off one of the all-time great versions of Loser! The core of this release is the March 24 second set. Playing in the Band kicks things off, starting in typical late-Brent-era fashion. After the vocals it takes that sideways-leap that the best sets do. We’re hearing the band exploring here - I sometimes describe this sound as floaty.The beginning of Uncle John’s Band is a little loose, but it quickly pulls together, and the magic is happening. The transition into Terrapin is abrupt, but again the band settles down into a very enjoyable rendition. (We’ll discuss another Terrapin from this tour in just a few weeks.) An unexpected (and lovely and energetic) Mind Left Body Jam leads us into Drums>Space. It’s a wild Drums with lots of effects, the kind into which a listener can sink. Space turns into a deep The Wheel and then a blasting Watchtower, two superior songs and fine performances. Stella Blue is captivating. Not Fade Away is fairly typical, and we end the show walking in Jerusalem just like John, a perfect ending to this epic show. The post-Space from the following night is out of place, and I didn’t listen to it even when there was very little available from that era. After what we’ve just heard, filler is superfluous. I like Brent, but I Will Take You Home isn’t the greatest song to appear out of Space. This whole section feels tacked-on (although Brokedown Palace from two nights hence is always welcome). Artwork consists of a thin booklet with a few photos mostly of the lot scene (the middle spread of the arena with the band members looks like a bad photoshop job by today’s standards). The front cover is an interesting painting; it looks like Jerry is being eaten by plants. I’m not sure how great that was so soon after his passing. While it’s been overtaken by subsequent releases, this was a great companion to Without a Net. That second set is worthy of numerous listens, and although it won’t be at the top of my Dead recommendations, I’m very glad this release is in my collection. Beyond the release: These days I listen to March 24 as a complete show, which is also how I listen to the other two nights for this run; the 1990 box sets made this possible even without trading or downloading. Unfortunately it means that the first set is a frankenset, assembled from four different releases. Let the Good Times Roll, Help On the Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower, Loser and Tennessee Jed come from the Spring 1990 box set; Desolation Row comes from Postcards of the Hanging; One More Saturday Night from Without a Net; only Walkin’ Blues comes from Dozin’. Each of these releases sounds slightly different, so the result is far from seamless. Did I mention that Loser? I won’t often talk about what’s missing from a release, but that stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. From here on out, with the exception of compilation releases, it’s mostly complete (or nearly so) shows in the archival releases.
Another great write-up as usual. I got this one at release and by this point in time I was all in with the Dead on any new releases or Dick's Picks orders. The first CD didn't (and still doesn't) do much for me. The 3 Brent songs were too much for me, and the rest of the songs on this disc have never really been among my favorites. The Hell opener is enjoyable but after that I guess the Dupree's and Masterpiece are the highlights for me. Not a set I spend much time with and even listening to it twice the last couple of days didn't do anything to change my mind. I wasn't familiar with these shows at the time, but I certainly remember the outrage on usenet and dead.net when the track sequence was announced and "Loser" was nowhere to be found. Certainly would've improved my impression of CD1 if it were there! CD2 on the other hand is one of my all time favorite sequences of live Grateful Dead. I think this is one of the better later era Playin jams where the band is really locked in, the midi sounds work and then they do a nice flip to Uncle John's Band, and again the energy carries through with Jerry playing some really sweet licks. Like Al mentioned the segue to Terrapin is a little awkward but man they make up for it. Jerry's in great voice and I think gets all the lyrics right. Love the jam before the "Since the storyteller..." verse. The jam out of Terrapin is pretty cool as well and again the midi sounds totally work here for me, and then it leads into the "Mud Love Buddy Jam" which I never get tired of hearing this particular version. As I was listening to this set the other day, it really struck me how much Jerry and Brent are out front in this entire sequence and really feeding off each other. So sad how things would end up a few months later for Brent (and a few years later for Jerry). When I started ripping CDs to hard drive/iPod, I re-stitched the Playing->MLBJ as one track so it could only be listened to in whole. CD3 ends up a slight letdown after that, but this was probably my first "Wheel". I generally love the Dylan covers, but the Dead's "Watchtower" is not really one of them. The highlights for the rest of this disc remain the Jerry tunes for me. One of the few Dead releases that I don't listen to in whole. CD2>>>>>>>>>>CD3>>>CD1 I think this was the first Dead release to feature the HDCD mastering/encoding?
Dozin’ at the Knick (1996) When this came out, I was almost exclusively a 60’s and 70’s Head and really hadn’t explored anything from this era beyond Without a Net. As such, it was my first real introduction to Spring '90 and a landmark release for me. These days, the completist in me wishes 3/24 had been put out in its entirety, since the first set is no slouch either and it's a little perplexing/infuriating that it wasn't released in full form in either of the Spring '90 boxes. At least we still have the entire second set, which is of course a monster, the heart of this release and remains among my favorite stretches of music from this tour. As for the rest…well, upon further review, it’s a little patchy. Notes and highlights: Really interesting to listen to this directly following DiP 5 and to hear the evolution in Brent's sound. The Rhodes is long gone, but he's added a whole array of interesting and bright-sounding synths that he puts to mostly good use. I personally prefer his leaner approach at the beginning of his tenure and wish he would dial it back a bit at times, but he still does some great stuff here, especially in the spacier and jammier passages. The production on this is great – it’s clear as a bell and really pops. This is the first time I've listened to disc one in over 20 years. It's set up like a first set and is pretty hit or miss, owing mostly to the three Brent songs (!?). I have fortunately never heard an actual first set with three Brent songs. Nevertheless, the chosen cuts do feature some great elements. Rockin’ Bucket opener followed by the only Dupree’s from ’90 with a fun mutron solo and Brent adding a lot of color. There are some genuinely filthy Hammond runs in Never Trust a Woman, a bad song I normally skip in shows. I always loved how Jerry sings the high harmony alone on Masterpiece and his twangy tone in the solo is just one of my favorite sounds. They do cool things with Row Jimmy in this era, and this is a nice version. Then there are the misses: Walkin’ Blues is redundant, since it’s on Without a Net. The fast electric Jack-a-Roe never did it for me (the 3/24 Loser would have been a better Jerry number), and Just a Little Light has some seriously cringe-y lyrics, even if it's one of Brent’s better songs. Blow Away is a representative set closer and works better on 3/26, when I haven’t already heard him sing two songs. But at this point I do believe I've had enough for one disc. At least Jerry's into it in the outro. The second disc is still among my favorite single discs of Dead. Just an awesome pre-D/S sequence to start the second set on 3/24: an inspired Playin' with interesting Jerry and Phil explorations with Brent and Bob adding a lot to the spacey canvas. Nice unrushed transition into a gem of an Uncle John's that goes a little jarringly into one of my favorite Terrapins ever. This is a flawless version that’s not as midi-heavy as others in ’90 (ie. 3/15), which keeps it a bit more grounded. Then the beautiful Mind Left Body jam (why rename this?) that emerges from the outro. Such a great pairing, and the jam is lovely: Jerry isn't going crazy here, but he's exploring enough with his tone (I don’t even mind when he goes midi near the end) and Brent and Bob both just add so much color and beauty. It's a full-band effort and I love it so much. It sounds like something dark is coming out of space, before they change course (and discs) into The Wheel, which is always welcome, even if it's pretty much always the same. Then they do indeed go into something darker with Watchtower. This isn't my favorite song -- I've heard it way too much over the years and I was always a little surprised that they chose to cover it at all. That said, Jerry absolutely destroys it. The tone he uses for his solos is so thick and heavy and he just rips it to pieces. It's f---ing awesome, I can't help myself. And out of that tornado comes one of the best latter-day Stellas ever. Grandpa Jerry singing this song will never not get me and this one is about as good as it gets. The short NFA is standard fare for this era, but it's not Around and Around or Sugar Mag, so there's that. And the gospeled-out Goodnight encore is, of course, perfect. The filler on disc 3 is a nice bonus I guess, but man…another lost Eagles B-Side, er, Brent tune. Anyway, GDTRFB is fun and the Black Peter (another great Old Jerry number) has some cool slide during the verses and a great outro solo. But then here comes Around (I've almost had accidents trying to skip this song), so that's annoying. At least the Brokedown from 3/26 to end things is a beautiful one. I loved a lot of Dozin' when it came out, and I still listen to Discs 2 and 3 for the 3/24 portions, since it is, confoundingly, still the only place you can find a professionally mastered version of that set. For that reason alone, this remains an essential release. There are other ways these days to get acquainted with Spring '90 and the other Dozin' shows, so it's not as essential for that as it was back in the day.
I seem to remember an interview/comment from David Gans that he was trying to get it on the "So Many Roads" box but ultimately got vetoed. Am I remembering that correctly?
I only got this release a few weeks ago, so I probably have a different perspective on it. This isn't a GD era I'm compelled to visit as often, so the compilation approach and complementary nature of this and Without a Net work well for me. One of the oddities of WaN is how little newer material it had. Dozin' fixes that on the first disc. Since I've never listened to the source shows, I guess I don't know what I'm missing! I'll have to check out that "Loser." The extra focus on Brent songs would have made more sense on WaN as a tribute so soon after his passing. This many years later, it seems more incongruous on Dozin'. Perhaps eventually I'll feel compelled to dive into the Spring 1990 box, but this does the job for me for now.
You are correct, that is Rip Van Winkle, not Jerry. The story of Rip Van Winkle takes place in the Hudson Valley of Upstate NY, which is where the Knick is located (Knickerbocker is an old Dutch name from the time of the initial Dutch settlement in what later became Albany,NY). I remember at the time the Dead powers that be saying they wanted to reflect this in the artwork.
I don’t actually have this release! Wait, wait . . . I listen to these shows via the Spring 1990 boxes. How the hell they left that Loser off of this release is a head-scratcher. My note—One of the all-time great Loser(s) in which Jerry goes off with a blistering, incendiary solo that just doesn’t seem to want to end.
"Diedrich Knickerbocker" also was a character/pen name created by Washington Irving for his book, A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle" were attributed to Diedrich, as well. Diedrich Knickerbocker - Wikipedia
Really needs to be corrected. You can frankenstein assemble the full show, but it's such a great show that is deserving of the recognition.
Although in all the recordings of that Loser I've heard, his guitar is mixed a little too low. No disputing the performance, though.
Everybody I knew in college had Dozin. Of course I didn’t care at the time as I really wasn’t into the Dead, but I remember seeing that thing everywhere. Props to the cover art, as they really captured how we all looked back then haha. Looking at it now, man the setlist on all three discs does not look like my cup of tea at all. Might be some exceptional sound, but doubtful I’ll ever give it the time.
I always wondered about the title of this release. Was "Dozin'" supposed to be a euphemism for "dosing"? Or did it have some other meaning in the Deadhead universe (which I was most definitely not a part of)? Regardless, I've always liked this album. I know it was drawn from three shows and that some of the inclusions (and exclusions!) were questionable, but I don't care. I think it's a solid release and plays well. I'll still prefer Without A Net if I want to hear a late-period Dead compilation from multiple concerts, but this is a close second and gives you more material given that it adds a disc compared to WAN. The only time I would ever see the Dead in person was a year and 3 months after this run of shows. There was no Brent by that time - Bruce Hornsby was in - and, although I'm a huge fan of his in general, they didn't sound anywhere near as good then as they do here. Highlights for me include "Hell In A Bucket", "Jack-A-Roe", "When I Paint My Masterpiece", "Row Jimmy", "Lady With A Fan", "Mud Love Buddy Jam", "Stella Blue", and "Brokedown Palace". Also - a question for those more well-versed than me. Given the number of live releases from this geographical region, is it fair to say that, outside of the Bay Area, the Dead's biggest fan base was in upstate New York? If so, I'm just wondering why that may have been the case. It seems odd to me, but then again, many things do!
I think it was a play on the Rip Van Winkle dozing as mentioned above, but also a bit of pranksterism at work with "dosin".
New York (city and upstate) certainly had a large and enthusiastic fanbase; I don't know how to define "biggest." I think they did a lot of college-town touring early in their career, and it paid off. Also, New York audiences (especially NYC) are famously enthusiastic and have high expectations; that probably resulted in a proportionally higher number of good performances. And of course there's the sheer number of concerts they played in the NYC area (The Setlist Program comes up with 310 New York concerts). I went to high school in the New York suburbs in the early 1980s and the Grateful Dead was the biggest band for my school. I didn't get deeply into them until college.
I grew up in Los Angeles and the Dead were definitely NOT a big deal, at least in the late 70s/early 80s. Nobody I knew in high school (also early 80s) was into them, even after I went to college in Santa Barbara. I just find it interesting that they were apparently far more popular in a state 3,000 miles away than they were in the southern part of their own home state.
Of course, not the most apt title if they had been trying to reach outside the existing fanbase and find casual punters who are curious, but suspect the Dead is all sleepy soft rock...
For sure. It just seems odd to me. They definitely played a lot in L.A. in their early years, but how many great shows did they play there during the 70s? Any? By the 80s, I remember them playing the Ventura County Fairgrounds every year or two, but L.A. proper? Seems like they didn't, which just seems bonkers in retrospect.
