No need for any additional details to know what’s happening on this disk. Has this been released, feels like I could upgrade on the sound.
That pair has been high in the list of wants for ages. The rumored fly in the ointment has often been attributed to the cast of participants and the legal soup involved. Someday.
Unfortunately, I missed the 82 show. I was able to catch the band’s last visit in 1985 though. The venue was fantastic - a Shakespearean/Renaissance Fair atmosphere that was perfect. The show was really fun and featured a great setlist. The second set started with the last “That’s it for the Other One.” I think this version may have been the only time in 85 that they played the suite straight through. The ending coda (“We Leave the Castle”) and Jerry’s final “...and you know he had to die” is priceless. The “Eyes” that followed was way too fast, if I recall correctly. The post-space was great, featuring “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” and a nice “Comes a Time.” Setlist: 9/3/85 Feel Like a Stranger They Love Each Other Little Red Rooster Dire Wolf Cassidy Big Railroad Blues Music Never Stopped Don't Ease Me In Cryptical Envelopment The Other One Eyes of the World Don't Need Love drums Nobody's Fault But Mine Truckin' Smokestack Lightnin' Comes a Time Turn on Your Love Light Baby Blue
That's what I thought, I guess it's not a terrible thing to keep a few sacred cows in the barn. After playing late era DSBD's this sounds a bit dull and my copy had annoying level drops. I'm sure it was a very challenging production day of, some professional restoration would be nice.
only the Dylan cover from the 3rd set has been released which includes the guests so go figure. I've always hoped for a box set from both days with all the bands that played. I was right up front most of that weekend.
I've been listening a lot of the early '70 folk-rock band Trees in the last two weeks, and just as I was pondering the similarities to the Dead, I saw Pitchfork's review of the Trees box set which addressed those parallels at length: The Garden of Jane Delawney, Trees’ debut, and On the Shore, their final album, arrived within nine months of each other. The band itself didn’t last much longer than that. The two albums have long been cult items among a certain sort of listener, for whom stumbling on Trees for the first time may feel like wish fulfillment from an alternate universe. What if Fairport Convention went fully psychedelic? Or the Grateful Dead formed in Norfolk instead of the Bay Area, and put their cosmic touch on the Child Ballads instead of American bluegrass and R&B? In highlights like “She Moved Thro’ the Fair,” from Jane Delawney, and “Sally Free and Easy,” from On the Shore, Trees achieve communal interplay on par with the Dead’s, using the songs’ simple modal melodies as scaffolding for elaborate spontaneous compositions in which no one voice holds the lead for too long. Bias Boshell, primary writer of Trees’ few original songs, is the rare rock bassist whose style seems to follow Phil Lesh’s. Rather than adhering to any recognizable pocket, he fills the low end with circuitous melodies, lending the music a feeling of unsettled searching in even its heaviest moments. Trees: Trees (50th Anniversary Edition) For me, what evokes the Dead the most is "Glasgerion" from the first album. Not so much the opening or the main vocals parts, but rather the jam segments and especially the closing arrangement with the a cappella breakdown, which brings to mind the China-Rider finale. Anyhow, I don't know how much overlap of interest there is here between '70s UK folk-rock and the Dead, but Trees are well worth checking out.
Haha, I wasn't sure if that was worth cross-referencing over here, but I can definitely see Dead fans finding a lot to like. I just hope no one gets too excited, since because we are in 2021 and everything is crap, that box is completely out of print already. So you can read about, you just don't get to have a copy of your own.
Though if anyone is interested in just sampling the band, their second and best album - On the Shore - is currently in print.
Donna's backup vocals were beautiful on Music Never Stopped, Mississippi Half-Step and some other songs, in the mid-late '70s. Like all other members of the Dead, she had times where she bombed due to being too drunk/stoned/tripped/unable-to-hear or physically/mentally unwell. If the Dead had been all-perfect, all the time, with every hair, note and vocal inflection in place with robotic precision, I'd have grown tired of their music 30 years ago and would probably be obsessed with modern, pop music made by computers. Thankfully, that's not the case.
I discovered Trees about 2 years ago. I've been a fan of Pentangle and Fairport for years so definitely like this stuff. The entire box set is available for listening at Bandcamp. Trees (50th Anniversary Edition), by Trees
I like your point and while she was certainly capable of having an off night, that’s not what’s going on. They made recordings, listened to them and she is consistent. It was a style, it was a choice and it was what Jerry wanted until he didn’t want it anymore. Donna was such a minor part of the band, I find it fascinating the topic is unending. You have to really be listening for things not to like to have a strong feeling. Sure, I’ll turn it down a bit for her section of PITB, it’s not a big deal.
Download Series Vol. 11, cont'd... Stella Blue>The Other One and Johnny B. Goode from 6/19/91 at Pine Knob (bonus tracks) are pretty damn good. Stella Blue is one of those songs that sometimes sounds great with Jerry's aged vocals, because it fits the lyrics and song meaning. Jerry shreds the solo on this version and Hornsby's piano fills are beautiful, at least as good as any Dead keyboardist in their prime. And ***k, this Other One is worth listening to, for Phil's bass, alone. He and Jerry sound ready to kill each other. The Johnny B. Goode is super high energy and a strong, pumped up version. The Brokedown (6/20/91) is good, too. Hits me right in the feels, as it should. A lot of people like this Bird Song from this show (6/20), too. It's pretty jammed out and almost falls apart at times. Vince could be turned down a little, too. But it is interesting and worth listening to, in fact, I'm going to listen to it again, right now. Download Series 11 is worth checking out. Jerry's voice is surprisingly on point, Phil's bass is WAY out front on every track. Jerry is playing well. Hornsby and Vince are at very good levels (Hornsby > Vince, often Vince > Hornsby, which doesn't work). '91 is not my favorite year, but it can be real good at times. I like this one more than I thought I would. Download Series 11 MVP: Phil. Definitely, Phil.
This made me think of the fact that it was rare for anyone to return to the Jerry/GD orbit once they were out. The only exceptions I can think of are Tom Constanten's 1971 sit-in with Dead, and how Jerry in his later life hooked up with both Merl Saunders and Dave Grisman again. I wonder if Donna and Jerry ever even met again after she left the band?