Part
1: (48 minutes)
- Big
River
- Greatest
Story Ever Told
- China
Cat Sunflower
- Black
Throated Wind
- Playin’
in the Band
- Don’t
Ease Me In
Part
2: (59 minutes)
- He’s
Gone >
- Bass
and Drums >
- The
Other One >
- Space
>
- Me
& Bobby McGee >
- The
Other One >
- Wharf
Rat
192kbps
files derived from a couple of sources.
It
always pains me a bit when they release another September 1972 show, and it’s
not this one. (There are four of them so far.) The circulating SBDs of 9/28 are
incomplete,* but there’s great stuff in there, and I rank the main, 20-minute “The
Other One” passage as one of the best improvisational explorations of the era. The
song’s undertow never quite goes away, but a tender counter-melody dominates,
recurring and beautifully developed.
The
“China Cat” is by itself, because “I Know You Rider” spliced into a bad
audience recording – but it’s a really good “China Cat” with an extended intro.
And it’s always nice to come across early 1970s versions of Bobby’s improbably-built,
angular tunes (“Greatest Story” and “Black Throated Wind”), on which the band
totally finds the double-jointed groove, and Weir’s vocals aren’t too yelpy. The
“Greatest Story” here features a good version of the “St. Stephen”-style riff
at the climax.
*P.S. - Since I made this mix, I seem to have picked up a nearly complete soundboard, with the complete "I Know You Rider," and a "Half-Step that maybe should be on this mix. Oh, well...
Shortlist philosophy: Start
with a good soundboard of an unreleased show, and keep only what you honestly
want to hear again and again. Be song-agnostic; look for outstanding
performances of anything and everything, and reject an average performance of
any song, no matter how grand that song’s generic status as a big deal may be.
Whatever’s left, edit out the tuning and other delays, and arrange everything
into a pleasing sequence. Share the results in lossy mp3 format, in the spirit
of the cassette tape trading of my youth, diligently not trying to compete with
or annoy Grateful Dead Enterprises, whose property this music is.