Save Your Face

Here are 50 more minutes of A+ Grateful Dead jamming from the Spring ’94 tour – all unreleased, like everything from this tour. Garcia’s leads never let up. He’s full of ideas and always knows where he wants to go next.

The reason I’m presenting this as a companion to my earlier “Dark Star Flashes” mix is that this contains all the other great jamming from the shows that contributed four of six songs on that mix. “Dark Star Flashes” was a popular post – a gateway to late Dead for me and some people who follow this blog. So, I didn’t see a reason to repeat that material in a show-specific context. It seemed like a better choice to double down and extend the original mix. 

With one exception, all of this comes from the three shows at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago, March 16-18. That run would make an excellent official release as a compressed “Road Trip.” 

50-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

• Feel Like a Stranger > (3/18/94)
• Scarlet Begonias Jam > Fire on the Mountain (3/16/94)
• Eternity Jam (3/17/94)
• Playin’ in the Band > UJB Jam Conclusion (edit, 3/17/94)
• Eternity Jam (3/21/94)

Song Notes:

• “Eternity” isn’t a great song (lounge blues), but the jam the band built out of it was great (lounge jazz). If the band had survived longer, I’d want to hear where this kind of mood/playing went, further down the road. My favorite alternate universe Dead is the one that tacked jazzward out of “Blues for Allah,” so “Eternity” is a happy real-world event for me. 
• This “Playin’” is very fun, with lots of episodes. The jam-flow begins with traditional, feisty playing around the theme, leads into a great dissolving stretch that doesn’t lose the thread, and then leads into further, focused adventures in the post-UJB jam that I’ve edited on. 
• This is an exceptionally punchy, tight, direct, dense “Fire.” There is a fleeting vocal error by Garcia, but otherwise his singing is up-front and confident, and his leads drive the song straight through. (He just flies on the "Stranger" jam, too.)

Editing Notes:

• The internal edits are the removal of the “Eternity” song-parts and an extension of the “Playin’” jam with the end of the same show’s “Uncle John’s Band” jam – which was a return to “Playin’” territory. I’ve made some simple transitions to keep the whole thing moving along. If they’d played “Scarlet > Stranger > Scarlet,” my “Stranger/Scarlet Jam” jump-cut might be believable. 

Where this fits into my Spring ’94 mix series:

• The four shows represented here are the last four circulating soundboards from the Spring ’94 tour that I have not presented as single-show “shortlists” or single-venue “road trips” compilations. As such, I had to choose between those approaches (repeating a lot of tracks from the earlier “Dark Star Flashes” mix) or the approach I’ve taken here. It leaves some fine non-jam performances on the cutting room floor that I’ll get around to buttoning up eventually.
• In any case, I hope the density of goodness on this mix offsets any cumulative annoyance I have created with my many different approaches to presenting Spring ’94 highlights. 

This was one of the best Grateful Dead shows I saw live. The one hour edit posted here has the arc you’d want if whatever you’d smoked or ingested was beginning to come on strong just as the music started. 

The great thing about this show is that it had big melodic/exploratory versions of both “Bird Song” and “Dark Star.” At the time of the show, a “Dark Star” was due, and I wanted nothing more. After the “Bird Song,” I doubted the second set would include “Dark Star,” but I got my wish. 

The “Dark Star” was split into two pieces, with a lot of wild, noisy stuff in between. It’s cool noisy stuff (normal and MIDI), but not on the level or in the character of the melodic heights of this show. So, I’ve made the edit that I’ve wanted for nearly 30 years – the Greensboro ’91 “Dark Star” without interruption.

62-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

• Prelude: Ambient (5:21)
• Bird Song (16:14)
• Dark Star > Playin’ Coda > (17:24)
• Black Peter (9:30)
• Peggy-O (6:32)
• It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (6:49)

The Dead played five shows at Nassau Coliseum (Uniondale, NY) in March. Only 2.3 of them circulate as soundboards: All of 3/23, 3/27 without the heart of the second set, and only the second set from 3/28.  

This mix pulls excellent performances of 17 songs from those soundboards. There are lots of delights in here, including many of the "small" or seemingly mundane songs. Vince lights things up all over the place. The “Might as Well” is the only occurrence later than mid-1991. The "China Cat" jam might surprise you. "Truckin'," the song, has a fantastic chugging groove, and the jam falls beautifully into "The Other One" from another night. The closest thing to a major blemish is Garcia being uncertain on some “Jack Straw” vocals, but it’s a fiery version nonetheless. 

mp3 mix zipped up here

Part 1 (61 minutes):

• It’s All Over Now
• Jack Straw
• Jack-a-Roe
• Queen Jane Approximately
• Johnny B. Goode
• China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider
• He’s Gone >
• Goin’ Down the Road, Feelin’ Bad
• Might as Well

Part 2 (70 minutes):

• Truckin’
• The Other One >
• Morning Dew
• All Along the Watchtower
• Samson & Delilah
• Standing on the Moon
• Victim or the Crime
• Rain

Note: Some post-“Built to Last” songs and Drums/Space segments from these shows appear on other “Save Your Face” mixes and aren’t repeated here. The gap in the 3/27 second set tape is apparently the result of a lengthy technical issue break, during which they turned off the recorder - then, didn't remember to turn it back on until the band had played "Iko," "Uncle John's Band," and "Playin'."

Here are three hours of SBD highlights from the penultimate run of The Grateful Dead’s Spring 1994 tour. Unlike the folks at the tour’s final shows in Florida, Atlanta attendees were very lucky. They saw excellent versions of many of the band’s biggest jam songs, including the last “Dark Star,” ever. This is one of the best single-city, 1994 Dead runs I’ve found so far. A great cap to a tour that was rich with high points. 

3-hour, mp3 file, zipped up here

Set 1 (54 minutes):

• Feel Like a Stranger
• Dire Wolf
• Black Throated Wind
• Deal
• New Speedway Boogie >
• Promised Land
• Standing on the Moon 

Set 2 (61 minutes):

• Tuning Noodle
• Bird Song
• Estimated Prophet Jam
• Crazy Fingers
• Scarlet Begonias > 
• Fire on the Mountain

Set 3 (57 minutes):

• Playin’ in the Band > 
• Dark Star
• Eyes of the World
• The Other One >
• Wharf Rat
• Brokedown Palace

Notes:

• This mix excludes the band’s post “Built to Last” songs (the best of which, from this tour, I anthologized here), and “Drums>Space” highlights, which already appear here, or will appear on a future March ’94, “Music for Spaceports, Part 2” mix.
• The only edit I’ve made is to reduce “Estimated Prophet” to mostly the jam, which is great, while the song itself struggled after a stumble. 
• The “Bird Song” goes to amazing places. This is one of the songs where "Dark Star" was hiding out in the later years.
• The “Crazy Fingers” is as good as I’ve heard from later days, maybe thanks to recently-introduced teleprompters. 15% more Garcia vocal confidence, and this would have been perfect.
• Likewise, though Garcia is a moment behind confidence at several points in the vocals, this “New Speedway” is the most gripping performance I’ve gotten to know from the end years. 
• Likewise, again, this may be the first “Scarlet” from this period that I’ve anthologized, because the song itself is exciting here.
• The “Fire” steadily ignites. 
• “Playin’ > Dark Star” already appeared on my very first 1994 mix, repeated here, in a proper “Roadtrips” context. The “Playin’” is exemplary latter-day, and I have no issues with this sweet little coda to the “Dark Star” saga. Dig the drunken, twangy, science-fiction licks!
• I’m no expert on “Standing on the Moon” performances, but this one seems pristine – and it works great as a jam to end a hypothetical first set.
• Regarding standing somewhere, I was standing in the kitchen, chopping onions, trying to decide if this “Black Throated Wind” made the cut, and my partner walked in, listened through to the end, and asked, “When is this? I like it!” So, it made the cut. 

The several late 1968 shows that lacked Bob Weir and Pigpen, and that sometimes added or substituted a guest musician, have always been both a thrill and a disappointment to me. I have compared them to the “Wizard of Oz” poppy field; I periodically run into it joyously, and then it puts me to sleep.

In the course of his chronological 1968 listening journey (in 2018), Jesse Jarnow (@bourgwick) listened to all these shows closely and compiled great notes. Based on those notes, I’ve edited together this 2.5-hour mix. It sure as hell doesn’t put me to sleep; it’s the poppy field I’ve been looking for. Indeed, it often feels more like a lean forward in time by the band, rather than like a bunch of noodly, time-frozen, jam sessions. 

As far as I know, all tracks include Garcia/Lesh/Kreutzman/Hart, with David Getz (drums) and Elvin Bishop (guitar) joining in on some tracks. I’ve made a variety of edits, mostly to establish satisfying start- and end-points, and to remove fatty interludes from extended jams. (David Getz jam part 3 is missing, because I decided it was a debased rock version of part 1.) I also cranked up Garcia's vocals on "It's a Sin," so that they would match the instrumental interludes. Both this and the sung "Death Don't Have No Mercy" are curios that deserve a place on the shelf.

From an editing perspective, I especially draw your attention to the Elvin Bishop track, which is extraordinarily like a chill 1969 Velvet Underground track. The full jam includes thematically almost-unrelated explosions into mediocre rocking out, which return each time to the thematic base, to see what’s changed. I’ve edited it down to that thematic base, and I really like it. The Velvets and the Dead were presumably cultural/musical opposites in the late ‘60s, but they, along with Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, were closer than they thought at the time. If you want to check out my candidate for VU’s closest “Sister Ray” to a 1968-1969 “Dark Star,” listen to the 12/12/68 “Sister Ray” on this mix – performed at exactly the same time as the not-quite-Dead material on this “Hartbeats” mix.

There are also multiple brushes with a fetal “Fire on the Mountain” impulse/chord structure, closer to the 1973 Watkins Glenn jam and the 1975 “Noodle on the Mountain” rehearsal session than to true “Fire,” but also an indication of how long certain ideas incubated in Deadland. In truth, all sorts of Dead themes crop up here and there in this material, regardless of how they are labeled as tracks. 

Whether the band was contemplating kicking Bob and Pig out or just woodshedding, these sessions seem to have been an important proving ground for open improvisation, and, as we all know, the “Live Dead” shows were just around the corner, in early 1969.

2.3-hour 320kbps mp3 mix, derived from FLAC, and zipped up here

• Fate Music (Garcia intro, 10/30/68)
• Dark Star jam (10/8/68)
• Jam w/David Getz 1 (12/16/68 – jazz star)
• Jam w/David Getz 2 (12/16/68 – space)
• Jam w/David Getz 4 > (12/16/68 – fire on the sunflower)
• Jam w/David Getz 5 (12/16/68 – coda)
• Clementine jam (10/30/68)
• Jam w/Elvin Bishop edit (10/30/68 – just like sister lou says)
• The Other One jam edit (10/10/68)
• Dark Star jam > (10/10/68)
• The Eleven jam > (10/10/68)
• The Seven (10/10/68)
• Death Letter Blues (w/vocals, 10/30/68)
• It’s a Sin (w/vocals, 10/10/68)
• The Other One jam (10/30/68)
• Jam (10/10/68 – another view of fire mountain)

How good could The Grateful Dead be on a bad night, or across a string of mediocre shows? This mix answers that question for the Florida shows that closed the band’s 1994 Spring tour (April 4, 6, 7, and 8).

The tour from late February through March was strong, with great traditional and MIDI performances. However, by the time they hit Florida in early April, Garcia’s voice was shot, and the band just sounded tired. Easy songs were lazy, and tricky songs struggled. 

Nonetheless, as is true of other periods of live Dead, sloppy songsmanship doesn’t correlate to the quality of the collective playing once the song structures are left behind. In these Florida excerpts, you can hear the musical health and adventurous spirit of the 1994 band, in the midst of shows that I don’t recommend you listen to in full. 

There are no fancy segues on this mix, though I’ve tried to make a decent listening arc out of the pieces. It’s basically a big jam, with some song-stops – most notably a very nice “The Wheel.”

80-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

• Shakedown Street jam (4/7/94) 7:04
• Eyes of the World instrumental > (4/7/94) 17:14
• Playin’ in the Band (4/7/94) 9:05
• Jam out of Terrapin (4/4/94) 3:57
• Slipknot! > (4/4/94) 7:05
• Franklin’s Tower (4/4/94) 11:10
• Jam out of Terrapin (4/7/94) 9:43
• The Wheel (4/6/94) 6:41
• Not Fade Away (4/4/94) 9:25

After three February shows in Oakland, the Grateful Dead’s first tour stop of 1994 was Desert Sky Pavilion, in Phoenix, Arizona, March 4-6. Quite a bit of the music was as hot as the temperatures everyone had to endure.

Here are two hours pulled from those three nights, displaying a tight, enthusiastic, swinging band. The jams are powerful, and there are several with passages that will stop you in your tracks, including the vocal interplay out of “He’s Gone.” Lots of jaunty fun and thoughtful grooving to be had in other places. It’s a shame Garcia fumbles vocals on “Brown Eyed Women,” as this is a crackling performance. Weir has a moment on "Let it Grow," too. 

“Eternity,” “Way to Go Home,” and “Broken Arrow” from the 5th can be found on this mix of the best versions of the band’s new tunes, as performed during March, 1994.

Cover art by George Herriman (“Krazy Kat”).

110-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

• Feel Like a Stranger
• Loose Lucy
• When I Paint My Masterpiece
• Bertha
• Brown Eyed Women
• Let It Grow
• Playin’ in the Band
• Saint of Circumstance >
• He’s Gone
• Bird Song (instrumental edit)
• Little Red Rooster
• Estimated Prophet
• Iko Iko

The 50th anniversary of the shows that contributed to 1969’s “Live Dead” challenged me to see how stupendous a jam-centric mix I could make out of performances from the very late years (that have appeared on my Save Your Face mixes). 

So, this is a crème de la crème compilation from September 1993 to March 1995 – an often-amazing 18-month period.

Nothing is included from my all-Space mixes. It’s more of an improvisational dance party, with surprises around every corner. All recordings are still unreleased as of now. If you’re not already a convert to late Dead, give this a try.

2-hour, 10-track mp3 mix zipped up here

Bird Song (October 3, 1994) 13:08

I recently posted a mix that included an instrumental edit of the 1973 Watkins Glenn “Bird Song,” and it’s a transcendent, jazzy event that is hardly distinguishable from “Dark Star,” refracted through the emerging sensibilities that would produce “Eyes of the World.” In October 1994, it’s a very different song, descended from the acoustic 1980 revival, through the intensity of the late Brent period, and now, in late 1994 fully owned by the mature Welnick unit. This performance is complex and intense – beautiful, jazzy, and dancing on the edge of chaos at various points. From the mix, “October ’94.”

Three Night Jam (March 17-19, 1995) 17:55

This edit is comprised of five or six segments plucked from three consecutive nights of “Drums/Space,” and edited into a continuous, far-out suite. At the heart of it is a long, funky, collective jam that Garcia joins a few minutes late, as if he’s just realized that he’s missing out on something special. Other episodes include Adrian Belew-era King Crimson, Brian Eno/Harold Budd soundtracks, and other strange things. 1995. Not a year to categorically ignore. From the mix, "Shortlist: 1995-03-17/18/19 Philadelphia, PA.” 

Shakedown Street (October 14, 1994) 16:33

Over the entire history of recorded versions of this song, it’s hard to find very many on which all the parts come together, start to finish, into an unrelenting, funky steamroller, ready for a general-audience dance party mixtape. This one makes the cut. The only flaw is Garcia being creaky and uncertain on the vocals of a couple of verses, but the heft of the music and the excellence of the group backing vocals make this a pretty minor issue. From the mix, “October ’94.” 

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This is an all-instrumental mix of generally jazzy Grateful Dead. The track list probably explains the premise pretty clearly: repetitious patterns in strange time signatures, structured jams, a family of Phil riffs, various knots that the band would tie and untie. As much as possible, I picked performances that present the motifs and riffs through unorthodox explorations. 

To those, I added some other Dead jazz moods, looking for interesting continuities across the years and songs. The overall goal is a gigantic, surprising jam that foregrounds the jazz/fusion band the Dead sort of were. 

Almost all this music appeared in some form on previous Save Your Face compilations. The exceptions are the 1994 “Terrapin” and “Let It Grow” jams. Nothing here has been officially released to my knowledge. 

140-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

Part 1 (69 minutes):

• Paging Getz & Gilberto (1975 rehearsal)
• Clementine instrumental (1/68)
• Bird Song instrumental (7/27/73)
• Philo Stomp > Jam (10/24/72)
• Phil Jazz Jam (7/1/73)
• Longer than Dirt (1975 rehearsal)
• Slipknoodle (1975 rehearsal)
• Early Eyes Jams (2/21>22/73)
• Eyesknot (6/20/74)
• The Seven (3/21/70)
• The Nines (1975 rehearsal)

Part 2 (69 minutes):

• Help on the Way/Looseknot Jam (1975 rehearsal)
• Jam (10/19/72)
• Spanish Jam (3/24/73)
• The Main Ten (6/19/68)
• Terrapin Jam (10/19/94)
• Let it Grow Jam (3/6/94)
• Let it Grow Horns instrumental (9/26/73)
• The Music Almost Stopped (1975 rehearsal)
• Noodle on the Mountain (1975 rehearsal)
• Another Riff (1994 rehearsal)

The Grateful Dead played The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” a dozen times, but it was always brief, with only a minute or so of open playing. With the big beat and the drones, you’d think they would have stretched it out. 

For this post, I’ve chosen my two favorite versions - the debut and the third from last one. The 5/92 debut definitely has the heft of a recently-rehearsed song, while the 5/93 version has the most elaborate, continuous Garcia lead of any of them.

Additionally, I’ve edited pieces of eight other performances into an approximation of the bigger jam that could have been. It combines three intros, eight instrumental breaks, one verse, and two conclusions. The rock steady tempo of the drummers from show to show makes this mix possible. 

19-minute mp3 mix here

• Tomorrow Never Knows (5/21/93) (5:25)
• Tomorrow Never Knows (1992-1993 mix of 8 versions) (9:16)
• Tomorrow Never Knows (5/19/92 – debut) (3:58)

Cover art by Emek.

Edited version includes this sequence of bits, all just the instrumental breaks between the two verses, except as noted:  

• 6/20/92 intro 
• 12/17/92 intro 
• 12/17/92 
• 6/6/92 
• 7/1/92 
• 3/21/93 
• 3/21/93 intro 
• 6/20/92 
• 6/14/92 
• 9/20/93 
• 5/31/92 w/verse & conclusion 
• 9/20/93 conclusion