76-minute 192kbps mp3 download (4th edition)
Vocal-free
versions of:
- Here Comes Sunshine (8:16)
- Loose Lucy (4:26)
- Johnny B. Goode (1:41)
- Promised Land (1:51)
- Scarlet Begonias (7:10)
- China Cat Rider (9:16)
- Big River (2:42)
- Let It Grow (5:32)
- Bird Song (9:32)
- Eyes of the World (7:46)
- Playin' in the Band (17:57)
All from unreleased shows, with all original source dates contained in mp3 tags.
This compilation is the counterpart to another mix I posted that is comprised of remarkable Grateful Dead improvisational passages that aren't related to any song – that just happened once. In this version, The Dead play their familiar, formal compositions, but they leave out the words.
The edits here preserve almost every note of the original performances, except the sung sections. Verses/choruses have been edited out and the surrounding musical movements seamed together to keep music flowing without disruption. The only exceptions are the final vocal reprises of “Here Comes Sunshine” and “I Know You Rider,” because only they resolve the songs.
It's both startling and familiar to hear The Dead working through the changes of all these songs, as if the truck carrying the microphones had been delayed, and they decided to go on with the show. The funny thing is that you already know these songs in this way. How each one starts, how it gets to every verse, and how it leaps out of every verse into an instrumental break that has different rules than the others.
I made these edits in order to hear those songs within the songs, performed by a jazzy combo that hardly needs to play the melody straight once, before both bending it all out of shape and guiding it through a structured build and resolution. And indeed The Dead were that band, and this is an imaginary concert they performed in the early 1970s.