Earlier today I listened to 3/28/69 (Student Center). Wow this show rocked my head off. A spellbinding Dark Star, amazing St. Stephen > The Eleven and one of the best Love Lights I've ever heard are the highlights. This is peak-'69, and it doesn’t really get better than this. I was just blown away throughout the whole show. If you want Pigpen at his best then this is also one you should hear. His raps during Love Light is just sheer brilliance. Also just now I finished listening to 6/30/88 (Silver Stadium). A really enjoyable late-80's show with some real standouts. In particular the Truckin' > He's Gone > The Other One > Wharf Rat > Throwing Stones was quite something, and the Box Of Rain opener was neat. Samson And Delilah is another highlight and so was Cold Rain And Snow.
Looking forward to watching a smokin’ Deal from Buffalo 89 with my wife since she always loves a ripping Jerry solo. Just waiting for the work day to end and pouring a nice Kua Bay IPA. Realized it’s a just under 8 minute version and only with the Dead can you think 8 minutes is too short.
There are some deep jams in '83 and '84 - as highlighted by many on these last several pages. I was reading the Jerry biography Garcia: An American Life not too long ago, and the chapters about this time frame are pretty sad, to be honest. Reading about what was going on with Jerry, both on and off stage, gives the reader the impression that there is nothing worth even listening to from those years. While it may be true that this was a low point in Jerry's life, and in fact there were some "bad" performances, it is also true that whatever BS was happening in and around the GD universe, actually playing guitar was Jerry's escape. High or not - Jerry found solace on the stage. And there are some killer shows, and sequences, in 83/84. So, yeah. He looked bad. He wasn't in top form. But for better or for worse, he was still Jerry Garcia, and even on a "bad" night there were moments of brilliance.
Very late to the Grateful Dead party. But once you get hooked, it’s hard to stop. I’m really just stuck in the early/mid seventies stuff right now - live and studio. Six months in, I still play Bertha several times a week...mostly the one off Skull & Roses
It's a good one. I haven't read all the GD books out there... in fact very few. But I got this one on release and it filled in a lot of gaps for me. Well written and well researched. I read it again a couple of years ago, and was glad that I did. More little tidbits of info that I had missed the first time.
A few years after Garcia died, Robert Hunter posted diary entries on his web journal about the fall '84 tour where he opened for Garcia and Kahn. (You may or may not be able to access that now.) Not happy times. But yes, some fine playing from Garcia.
I too think the Blair Jackson book is one of the three essential books on the Dead. I've read it twice. Highly recommended. In anticipation of DaP #34 (any day now, yes??), been jamming DP7 (London, 1974) and remembering how much I loved it. Some days, it may be my favorite of the series. And my wife, despite being a Dead fan and a Band fanatic, had somehow never seen Festival Express, so we watched it last night. The train scenes hold up, and the live Dead footage is excellent (though I will say, at the risk of getting kicked off this forum, that The Band kinda blows them off the stage, and I say that despite being a bonafide Dead freak / apologist while being merely a casual fan of The Band).
I think you're completely correct here. The Band was one hell of a kick-ass rock & roll band, and that film, specifically, is a reminder that "The Weight" was supposed to be a kick-ass rock & roll song, not the ballad that many (including the Dead) turned it into.
Just popped in to sing praises of the 30+ minute Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower from Beacon Theatre, 14/06/76. Woah, this gets far out into the spacey jazz continuum during a massive 13 minute Slipknot! before the drums and guitars come back in and the familiar motif is played seguing into Franklin's Tower with great keys from Keith. The whole sequence is just awesome.
At the end of their shows, Jerry would sometimes leave us with these words, “Take this feeling we have tonight and do something good with it, be kind.” When did Jerry ever say this? Wasn't this rather Mickey's line from the last Fare Thee Well show? Or was he quoting Jerry? (Doubt it). The Grateful Dead mark 50th anniversary with last ever gig - watch | NME Drummer Mickey Hart closed the show by telling the crowd: “The feeling we have here – remember it, take it home and do some good with it. I’ll leave you with this: Please, be kind.”
Now listening to 4/4/90[Omni Atlanta]on TIGDH on SiriusXM's Grateful Dead channel via the webstream now playing space.
i think i might do what others are doing and listening to some highlights or jams of shows. my music listening is backing up without having the long drive to work most days to play cd's. i just got some boxsets by waylon and merle and had some allman brothers stuff come in and just ordered the new allman 50th boxset
