Save Your Face

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

Bruce Hornsby joined The Grateful Dead on grand piano for this whole concert. It appears to be the first time he’d played anything but accordion with the band in almost exactly three years (March 24, 1992). He would go on to play piano with them two more times, in late June 1995.

Hornsby prompts some exceptional collective playing in this show, with a second set that began with so much extended material that Drums > Space happened close to the end of the set. 

The second set opener, “Scarlet Begonias,” was a mess, starting with major microphone problems for Garcia and never tightening up. However, once the jam arrives, huge momentum is built, which rolls through the next three songs. 

The group’s excitement over “Fire on the Mountain” leads to one of the most exciting “Corrinas” I’ve heard. Everyone paints outside the lines in wild syncopation. The enthusiasm derails the song itself a little bit, but the song is almost beside the point, and the groove spills seamlessly into “Matilda” to continue for almost another ten minutes. (The Dead played “Matilda” only six times, all but once out of “Corrina.” Four of those performances happened within two weeks, this being the second one of those.) 

The spirit of improvisation also produced two great, sustained pieces of music during “Space,” one fierce and one gentle.

In addition to the exciting jammy material, Hornsby was on hand to contribute to the best performance of “Unbroken Chain” (there were only 10) and very good versions of “Days Between” and “So Many Roads.”

90-minute mp3 mix here

• Cold Rain and Snow (6:49)
• Scarlet Jam > Fire on the Mountain > (18:48)
• Corrina > (14:04)
• Matilda > Hornsby/Drums Jam (9:39)
• Hornsby/Weir Jam > Jam (4:23)
• Space Jam > (5:52)
• Days Between (10:59)
• Unbroken Chain (6:22)
• Loser (7:07)
• So Many Roads (7:24)

Don’t fear the reaper or the calendar year 1995. Here’s the first of several mixes from The Grateful Dead’s first tour of the year (late February to early April). 

This Philadelphia stand featured a full-fledged, out-of-nowhere jam as well as multiple high-intensity improvisational passages during the “Spaces,” all of which I’ve edited into one big 18-minute jam. Nom Nom. There are also the strong debut of “It’s All Too Much,” a hot performance of the just-resurrected “Alabama Getaway,” a famous "Visions of Johanna," and enough other Beatles tunes to make a medley out of them all. The “Ramble on Rose” has some fantastic Garcia solos. 

(“Unbroken Chain” also made its live debut in Philadelphia, but I’m holding out for the far better second version a week later – featuring Hornsby on grand piano. The only released song here is “Visions of Johanna,” which appeared on “Fallout from the Phil Zone.”)

mp3 mix here

Set One (78 minutes):

• Alabama Getaway
• Hell in a Bucket
• Walkin’ Blues
• Ramble on Rose
• Easy Answers
• Jack-a-Roe
• I Know You Rider
• Lazy River Road
• Visions of Johanna
• One More Saturday Night
• Promised Land

Set Two (77 minutes):

• Jam (18-minutes from 3 nights)
• Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
• It’s All Too Much
• Rain
• Standing on the Moon
• All Along the Watchtower
• Brokedown Palace
• Encore: Iko Iko

Cover art by Robert Rauschenberg.

The day of The Grateful Dead’s first show of 1994, a rehearsal was caught on tape. It features funny banter, as well as members of the band exploring several cover tunes, with an emphasis on The Beatles. 

The Grateful Dead never covered “Strawberry Fields Forever” live, but Phil and Vince did explore it. The full band also rehearsed a version of The Beatles’ “Rain” that has charms above and beyond their live concert versions. This rehearsal version is comparable to The Velvet Underground’s “Temptation Inside Your Heart,” wherein ad hoc commentary from the singers becomes an integral part of the recorded performance. 

This material is not the best of 1994 Dead (look elsewhere on this blog for that), but it’s a fun snapshot.

12-minute mp3 mix here

• PA: Nobody Told Me About This Rehearsal
• 1970s Throwback Phil Jam (Phil, Vince, Bobby, Jerry)
• PA: Phil Wants to Do Strawberry Fields >
• Lucy in the Sky Approximately (Phil & Vince)
• Rain (The Grateful Dead)