Grateful Dead Dave’s Picks 2019 Subscription

It is an exercise in bending time and space. It is about the setup and the release. Recognize the whole beginning of it all might certainly feel like you are in first gear overly long but don’t fret; your synapses are being positioned in a march-like fashion for a benevolent purpose. You get popped out the end of that DMV line into a three dimensional chess game between astral lily pads each of them and the in-between them an opportunity to bend temporally and there simply isn’t a better man to do it with a merry band of a band to push and be pulled. That HCS release just swings man.

Long live that ’73 swing.

Archtop’s suggestions are spot on, that Plangent love gets you inside the outside in. I think 4-2-73 DaP is a nice little one, its shows that Alligator multi-tone thing really well. The Menke reel, Lee master from ’15 is the best I’ve heard 2-15-73, although many like the matrix, that is something to check out. I need to listen to that DiP 1 again, been too long for sure.

 

I think there are 33 performances of “Here Comes Sunshine” from 2/9/73 through 2/23/74. There are a good amount of them officially released and I’m looking forward to the 3/24/73 show via Dave’s 32. I’m a fan of all of them plus a number of unreleased versions like the great 12/6/73 version. For me 6/22/73 & 12/19/73 are probably the ultimate versions. The song itself has a great vibe/melty groove and right from the start the boys were able to open up the middle section to great jams. It’s often been said that one of the worst musical decision the band (probably Jerry) made was to stop playing this song and shortly before this, “Bird Song”. They did bring “Bird Song” back for the October 1980 acoustic run and then started playing it again in the regular electric shows shortly thereafter. It retained much of it’s special qualities upon it’s return but imagine it being played in 1977 or 1978.

I’ve dreamed about hearing HCS from the Spring 78 Dead but I know it’s a fantasy. I do know I’ve never heard a 1992 or later version when they belatedly brought it back. Far FAR too late and I refuse to ruin my ideals regarding maybe my favorite of all favorite Hunter/Garcia Dead tunes.

 

HCS 11/14/73 top notch as well. The show overall one of my favorites.

 

Sure! 5/4 needs to happen at some point too though.

 

and then there's HCS opening 10/30. Quite a fine version as well. Phil upfront in the version I was listening to last night.

 

Yeah I guess 5/4 would be good too!

 

Yes - despite the botched landing coming back into the vocals IIRC.

 

A good 80s show that is pitch corrected and sounds good would be nice. I guess that probably wouldn't start the year, though.

Mostly I just posted to erase the aborted post that won't go away until you post something else.

 

I agree more 1980’s. Remedy is to post it and then immediately delete.

 

I'm surprised you would say that.

 

I get that way too. Had a long stretch when some of those early box sets (FW 69, E72 etc) came out. So after I got back into them they were sold out. Since then I’ve been buying most releases but lately have been getting a bit of fatigue.

 

Awesome, yes I do. This is precisely the kind of stuff that really helps me appreciate the underlying depth (of what's going on...) Please, by all means, keep these insightful and helpful suggestions coming!

As you likely can tell by my very primitive and crude efforts at explanation of what specifics I feel and appreciate with certain performances, that is the kind of thing I like to try to get to, the roots... (although I've heard it's really the 'buds' that are important. I wouldn't know... )

 

WOW...

 

"HCS" gets my award for the GD tune with the biggest chasm between how much I like the song itself and how much I love a good jam on it. I found it so unremarkable when I first heard it on Wake of the Flood (I regularly skipped over it and the Keith tune) that I completely ignored all the hype surrounding the 12/19/73 version on DP1, which was a huge, huge mistake -- that's one of my all-time favorite Dead performances now. I feel like a good "HCS" jam, that one in particular, really shows how deep and telepathic the Dead could be on a tune that -- at least in the handful of versions I own -- never seems to go that far out, at least not compared to the "Dark Star"s and "Other One"s of the songbook. I guess "Bird Song" is kind of cut from that cloth too -- things that, rhythmically and harmonically, don't venture too far outside the song's main register, but are elastic enough to support a lot of imaginative interplay within the structures.

 

I like it as a song.

 

Put me in the weak song, fantastic jam vehicle category. Who saw that coming?

 

I like it as a song too. It's a good one, not one of my top ten, but a very good song (and the competition is stiff).

If I had to say top ten off the top of my head, just as songs per se and without regard to how much they stretch or how much I like them live, in no order:

Candyman; Brokedown Palace; Stella Blue; Brown Eyed Women; Althea; China Doll; To Lay Me Down; Scarlet Begonias; Black Peter; Half Step

 

Wow - no Bobby tunes!!

Off the top of my head favorite “songs”

Candyman, Mason’s Children, Let it Grow, Cassidy, HCS, Dark Star, Brown Eyed Woman, Loser, Althea, Row Jimmy

 

Well, no Bobby in the top ten! He's got some really good ones though. I just really like a lot of H/G songs....

Loser and Row Jimmy could definitely make a top ten if I'd thought of them...

 

Anyone else surprised that the 4th pick is a big show like 3/24/73? Seems like big shows are typically reserved for the 1st or 2nd pick of the year to lure in subscribers. 2019 has been a great year for Dave's Picks, that's for sure.

 

Ah, jeez. Fine.

Brown-Eyed Women
Brokedown Palace
Ripple
Jack Straw
Help On the Way
Loser
Box of Rain
Dupree's Diamond Blues
Mississippi Half-Step
Ship of Fools

What an extremely difficult list to make.

And, "Here Comes Sunshine" has certainly grown on me as a song, if only because I've listened to it a lot more by virtue of finding so many jammed out versions I really like. I think the main thing that slows it down for me is the flat, tuneless chorus.

 

It is a weak chorus compared to the rest of the song sure, but doesn't diminish the actual song. Love it lots.

 

Strictly from a lyrical/song standpoint and not considering any jam portion (lots of covers; that's allowed, y'know). Not necessarily in any order:

1. Jack Straw
2. Brown Eyed Women
3. I've Been All Around This World
4. Dark Hollow
5. Scarlet Begonias
6. The Eleven
7. Morning Dew
8. Jack-A-Roe
9. Peggy-O
10. Cassidy
11. Bird Song
12. Uncle John's Band
13. Ship of Fools
14. Terrapin
15. Rosemary

 

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