Save Your Face

This post reduces The Grateful Dead’s three-night stand at The Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri to the length of a single show. They played Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, October 17-19. 

These were the first three shows of a Midwest-to-Texas tour that ran all the way to the end of November. When they started in St. Louis in mid-October, they were coming off a two-week break, during which they played just one show, a benefit for their roadies at Winterland. They certainly seem to have been in fine form out of the gate. 

Fall 1972 is a great period, full of surprises, and these St. Louis highlights are a representative example. 

By the time of these shows, the band had been without Pigpen for four months and was already a different creature, well on its way to 1973 Dead. Melodic improvisational segments unrelated to specific songs are getting more frequent, and they can happen in a lot of different places. Keith is stepping out regularly, contributing themes, leading in more places. Phil and Billy are playing a bass and drums segment in lots of shows, and other band members are sometimes taking part. In October, Phil's solo ("The Philo Stomp") hits its peak. Keith and Billy even jam together in St. Louis, and the three guitarists played this incredible thing in October as well. 

Unfortunately (but don’t worry), the October soundboards – which we have for most, but not all shows – feature some terrible mixes, in which various instruments are too loud or too quiet, in various combinations, such that seemingly good performances are massively annoying and impossible to get inside or to casually ride.

The three St. Louis soundboards are among the best of the month, with lesser imbalances that don’t prevent certain songs from soaring, and that don’t get in the way of the improvisation at all. The 18th's mix is very Weir heavy, but that lends some songs an exciting, spiky kick. 

Anyway, for a month represented by no official releases and plagued by annoying soundboards, here’s a compilation that will please. 

Three-hour, FLAC-sourced, 320kbps mp3 mix here. Each show’s songs are tagged up as separate albums, by date, in the usual way.

Tuesday October 17 (67 minutes)

• Cumberland Blues
• Black Peter
• China Cat Sunflower
• Not Fade Away
• Playin’ in the Band
• Uncle John’s Band
• Casey Jones

Wednesday October 18 (68 minutes)

• Don’t Ease Me In
• Big Railroad Blues
• Jack Straw
• Bertha
• Loser
• Dark Star (minus space) >
• Jam > Space > Philo Stomp > Feelin’ Groovy Jam >
• Morning Dew > Playin’ Reprise (inst. edits)
• Brokedown Palace
• One More Saturday Night

Thursday October 19 (57 minutes)

• Comes a Time
• Bird Song
• The Other One >
• Jam >
• The Other One > He’s Gone (inst. edit) > The Other One
• Not Fade Away > Goin’ Down the Road

The only internal edits I have made are:

• A few pointless minutes interrupting "Dark Star."
• The sung part of "Morning Dew." (The miraculous transition into "Playin'" is real.)
• The sung part of the "Playin' Reprise" on the 18th.
• The sung part of "He's Gone."

This was a benefit concert to raise housing money for the band’s roadies. It fell in the middle of a two-week break between the band’s September (Northeast) and October (Midwest) tours. The band seems both relaxed and focused. (They had rehearsed at least enough to learn "Box of Rain.") There are some errors, but there are also pristine renditions of some songs and great stretches of improvisation. 

The Dead haven’t released any shows from October 1972, which might have something to do with a lot of soundboards from the month having terrible mixes. That is not much of an issue with this recording, which is well balanced, except for some loud drums and the bass being too quiet sometimes. The really nice thing about this mix is the way it handles harmony vocals.

The fades at the end of “Playin’” and the beginning of “Box of Rain” are in the source tapes. 

100-minute, FLAC-derived, 320kbps mp3 mix here

• Brokedown Palace
• China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider
• Sugaree
• Truckin’ > Bass & Drums >
• The Other One >
• Wharf Rat
• He’s Gone
• Playin’ in the Band
• Box of Rain (first time played)

Correction: First "Box of Rain" since 1970.

Cover image by Jose Guadalupe Posada

Every once in a while, live Grateful Dead spontaneously produced what seems like a perfect, finished composition. This one is arguably the greatest example of what I've started calling Dead "chamber music".  Suddenly the band is a string trio, it sounds like they are bowing their instruments, and the piece they are playing is moody and gorgeous. It's 1972's sophisticated update of the gentle drones that concluded "Feedback" in 1969. Why wasn’t there more of this?

320kbps mp3 file here

Cover image by Saul Steinberg

Cover illustration by Luigi Serafini, from "Storie Naturali"

The Dead played this show on my birthday, an easy drive from where I lived at the time. Unfortunately, I was turning eight years old and wasn’t paying attention. But that’s okay, because the gift waited patiently for me to finally unwrap it.

Although this show has escaped The Dead’s generous approach to releasing Fall 1973 recordings, it has as much superb material in it as nearly any of them. 

My curation is built around two uninterrupted pieces of the second set. My arrangement of other songs around those pieces follows The Dead’s lead, when they decided to play a couple of first set songs in the middle of a fantastic second set “Playin’” jam. 

Parts of this show only circulate as audience recordings. The soundboard of everything else captures a rather wonderful mix, but for some reason the frequency spread of the circulating soundboard is all out of whack. It comes across as brittle, shrill, sterile, stabby, insubstantial, etc. I don’t know if this is a feature of the master tape or of a transferring snafu somewhere down the line.

But fear not! I obtained a FLAC file and gave it enough of a re-EQ to turn down the stabby and to bring up the warmth and depth, until it became a fully immersive Fall 1973 experience. Happy birthday.

90-minute 320kbps mp3 mix here

• Beat It On Down the Line
• Me and Bobby McGee
• China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider
• Greatest Story Ever Told
• Playin’ in the Band >
• Mississippi Half-Step >
• Big River >
• Playin’ in the Band
• They Love Each Other
• He’s Gone Jam >
• Truckin’ >
• Nobody’s Fault Jam
• Loose Lucy

Here are 70 minutes of highlights from an unreleased show, captured in a well-balanced SBD mix. Detailed comments under the track list.

This is the next-to-last show of the March tour of the Northeast, which began mid-month in Uniondale, NY. The March 24 show in Philadelphia was released as "Dave's Picks #32," and final show of the tour – April 2, Boston - was released as “Dave’s Picks” #21.

There are some obvious flaws in the material I’ve judged best from this show but it’s not for lack of The Dead trying and generally succeeding wonderfully. The sound of the mix/tape is great for instruments and not too hard on group vocals. 

70-minute mp3 mix here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/khddft26pjbfem7/GD%20shortlist%2073-03-31.zip?dl=0

• Bertha >
• Greatest Story Ever Told
• The Race is On
• They Love Each Other
• Mississippi Half-Step (instrumental edit)
• He’s Gone >
• Truckin’ (instrumental edit) >
• Drums >
• The Other One > Spanish Jam > The Other One >
• Space >
• Jam > I Know You Rider
• Casey Jones

Points of interest:

This is the only instance of “I Know You Rider” NOT following “China Cat Sunflower” between late 1971 and late 1985. The performance of the song itself isn’t fantastic, but the three minutes between the end of “Space” and the first word of “Rider” are noteworthy. They begin a free-form jam (which an audience member recognizes and gets vocally excited about) that morphs into the “Feelin’ Groovy” jam, leading to “Rider.” 

The band was clearly into messing around with the “China > Rider” continuum in early ’73. On 2/24, they jammed into the transitional “Feelin’ Groovy” jam out of a bass solo, then brought it down to quiet before launching “Sugar Magnolia.” On 2/17, they jammed out of “Here Comes Sunshine” into “China Cat Sunflower.” There may be other mutations in March that I’ve never heard.

“The Other One” is strong out of the gate, flags for a couple of minutes, then builds wonderfully through the second half, including a dance with “The Spanish Jam” that has some great moments. 

This is the sixteenth performance of “They Love Each Other,” and it’s clicking well.

“Mississippi Half-Step”: Sooner or later, I will make an instrumental edit of every Dead song, just to hear what it sounds like and to see how long it turns out to be. 

Most “Casey Jones” are too thumpy and stabby for me, but I really like this crisp, swinging performance. 

Cover art: Detail from Max Weber, “New York at Night”

For their first tour of 1973, The Dead were in the Midwest from the middle to the end of February. After two weeks off, they toured the Northeast from the middle of March through April 2.

The tour started with three shows at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on the 15th, 16th, and 19th, excerpts from which are combined here. These shows remain unreleased.

This run, and the 16th in particular, has numerous excellent “smaller songs,” but the mix posted here is a continuation of the jammy mashups I posted of the February shows. 

Aside from the edits that are obvious from the track list, the only things I’ve cut out that interrupt continuous Dead performances are two noodly-to-shrieky spaces that offered nothing special and broke the momentum. 

A pretty “Dark Star” that’s not sure how solid it wants to get nonetheless comes to a swelling climax, then gives way to an autonomous six-minute jam, which then slides back into a perfectly executed “Dark Star” verse. Several minutes of unorthodox, wandering around jamming ensues, leading into “Truckin.”

This is one of the earliest performances of “Truckin’” transitioning into the “Nobody’s Fault” jam. 

This 3/15 “Eyes” jam was the sonic rescue mission of this mix. It is easily one of the most involving and successful (and yet unique) of the early performances, but the soundboard of it has many dramatic volume fluctuations. I’ve fixed those pretty well and want to advise you that the performance overwhelms the sonic gremlins that remain. 

The other two 3/15 songs are likewise exceptional. “China Doll” has many exquisite details. “The Other One” is aggressively adventurous and almost becomes a separate jam. The 3/15 soundboard has the drums mixed way too loud, but on “The Other One” and the “Eyes” jam, this is a plus, and it doesn’t impact “China Doll.” 

77-minute mp3 mix here

• Dark Star (3/16) >
• Jam (3/16) >
• Dark Star (3/16) >
• Jamming Around (3/16) >
• Truckin’ > Nobody’s Fault Jam (3/16 > 3/19) > 
• Drums (3/19) >
• The Other One (3/15) >
• Eyes of the World (intro & jam 3/15) >
• China Doll (3/15)
• Morning Dew (3/16)

This post completes my jam-centric reduction of February 1973 Dead shows. Boy, they were playing great. 

I posted highlights of Palo Alto (2/9) here.

I posted a mashup of Madison, St. Paul, and Chicago (2/15, 2/17, 2/19) here.

This third installment presents material from Champaign-Urbana, IL (2/21 & 2/22) and Iowa City (2/24). 

The next two shows, the last of the February tour, are documented on Dick’s Picks #28 (Lincoln, NB & Salt Lake City on the 26th and 28th).

86-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

• Truckin’ > Bass & Drums (2/21) > 
• Eyes of the World (2/21 > 2/22) >
• China Doll (2/22)
• Playin’ in the Band (2/22)
• Dark Star (2/22) >
• Space (2/22) >
• Bass > Feelin’ Groovy Jam (2/24) >
• Sugar Magnolia (2/24) 

Read more »

This mix combines performances from The Dead’s 2nd, 3rd, and 4th shows of 1973, in Madison, WI, St. Paul, MN, and Chicago. If I do say so myself, the result is mighty. "Bertha" starts smoldering around :38 and ignites at 1:20. It doesn't let up after that for more than 100 minutes. 

After five weeks off, The Dead started 1973 with a stand-alone show in Palo Alto, CA on February 9th. On the 15th, they began an eight-show tour with concerts in the wintery, upper Midwest. Nothing from this tour earlier than the 26th, in Lincoln, Nebraska, seems to have been released.

From a historical documentary POV, these early ’73 shows look exciting because they unleash a bunch of new Hunter/Garcia songs and a fun cover sung by Donna. From an aesthetic POV, not many performances of those new songs are worth hearing repeatedly. The really amazing parts of these shows are elsewhere. If you look in the right places, the band was extremely hot out of the gate in '73.

107-minute mix here (source dates included in mp3 tags). 

• Bertha (5:22)
• Here Comes Sunshine (instr.) > China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider (16:45)
• Not Fade Away > Goin’ Down the Road > Not Fade Away (14:06)
• Dark Star (11:42)
• He’s Gone (14:11)
• The Other One (18:55)
• Playin’ in the Band > China Doll (20:35)
• Birdsong (instr. 6:24)

Read more »

This is a narrow slice of the available “Gaucho” outtakes designed for daily listening purposes. It includes only the songs that did not make the album, and in four cases I have edited out lengthy stretches of the rhythm section treading water in places where solos/elaborations were supposed to go, but never did. This makes these songs flow much more like songs, rather than sounding like what they were/are – unfinished recordings. 

If you’re a Steely Dan fan and these titles are unfamiliar to you, your mind will be blown that they exist and are solid, real songs. If you do know these recordings, you probably understand why editing some of them down makes sense. Anyway, 29 minutes of seven, unfinished Steely Dan recordings certainly could have turned into 40-45 minutes of finished songs and turned "Gaucho" into a two-LP set, if Becker and Fagan hadn't been grinding to a halt at this point. This is as close as I can get to a credible expansion of the released album.

29-minute “Gaucho” outtakes mp3 companion here

• Kulee Baba (edit)
• The Bear
• Kind Spirit (edit)
• The Second Arrangement (edit)
• Talkin’ ‘Bout My Home (edit)
• Were You Blind That Day? ("Third World Man" with different lyrics)
• I Can’t Write Home About You 
• The Second Arrangement (Disco Coda)

Read more »

I can’t let the 45th anniversary of this show pass without paying tribute to the wonderful jamming it included. 

It’s the first show of 1973, and it’s famous because it featured debuts of seven new songs. But it’s mostly a messy, rusty show, the new songs not rehearsed enough, old songs not rehearsed at all. There were also a lot of technical difficulties with a new sound system.

Nonetheless, the band was clearly very excited to be doing this again, after five weeks off. The “Playin’” jam is wonderfully involved and never breaks stride, and the two new songs that were truly ready for prime time are superb. I think this is the best of the first three, exploratory “Eyes” jams,” and the execution of the song itself is exceptional. 

56-minute mix here

• PA: Wavy Gravy
• China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider
• Uncle John’s Band (instrumental edit)
• Playin’ in the Band (instrumental edit)
• Eyes of the World (first time played) >
• China Doll (first time played)