Save Your Face

I decided to listen to all the Keith & Donna era “Shakedown Streets" (they overlapped for about five months), and it led me to this two-hour mix, pulled from four consecutive concerts. It simulates an almost non-stop jam that would have been nice to hear in Egypt, next to the pyramids and the Sphinx, on a starry night in the Fall of 1978. (The actual Egypt shows were a month earlier.)

Each of these shows featured an unorthodox second set sequence with carefully-crafted connections. “Shakedown Street” was brand new at this point (these are the 5th, 6th, and 7th performances), a second set song that they jammed into and out of. That song and the Middle Eastern motifs running through these shows precipitated some very interesting passages, even managing to pry “Fire on the Mountain” free of “Scarlet Begonias” one of only two times between March 1977 and October 1980. Rounding out this moment in live Dead, I’ve included the exceptionally rare “If I Had the World to Give” (3rd and final performance) and Donna’s “From the Heart of Me,” both featured on the studio album, “Shakedown Street,” released the week before these shows. This mix is very much the opposite of that album.

Two-hour mp3 mix here

11/24/78 Passaic, NJ

• From the Heart of Me
• Estimated Prophet >
• Shakedown Street (instrumental edit) >
• Ollin Arageed >
• Fire on the Mountain (instrumental edit)

11/23/78 Landover, MD

• Dancin’ in the Street (instrumental edit)
• Playin’ Jam >
• Egyptian Space >
• Shakedown Street > Approach to Playin’

11/20/78 Cleveland, OH

• Playin’ Jam >
• Shakedown Street (instrumental edit) >
• If I Had the World to Give
• Supplication (instrumental edit)

11/21/78 Rochester, NY

• Drums > Space >
• Not Fade Away (instrumental edit)

On the 45th anniversary summer of these performances, a mix ideally suited to any Deadhead’s summer listening. 

The Grateful Dead played live only sporadically in the spring and summer of 1973 – just 15 shows over five months, at only 10 venues. The Dead haven’t officially released anything from this period, that I am aware of, except the spectacular “Watkins Glen Jam.” (Update: The "Pacific Northwest, 1973-1974" official release includes three summer '73 shows.)

“The Watkins Glen Jam” is relevant here, because this mix is also an improbably long stretch of Summer '73 improvisation without more than a passing reference to identifiable songs. 

That summer, an improvisational theme in 6/8 that had been kicking around since late 1972 suddenly became the Dead’s regularly recurring jam, only to die out again in the early fall. It’s almost an extra Grateful Dead song from the period, sort of a relaxed version of Phil’s 1973-1974 “Eyes of the World” riff, leaning forward toward 1975’s “Stronger Than Dirt.” 

For more scholarship on this and other Dead themes, go here.

The accepted name for this theme seems to be “The Phil Jazz Jam,” and I’ve woven together five full-blown summer ’73 performances of it with other outstanding, non-song-based improvisation from that summer. 

It’s an outdoor, afternoon-into-sunset show in a meadow that you never heard about. It’s the unjustifiably neglected Summer of 1973 Grateful Dead, sending you a postcard from a wonderful place – a place that is not 1972, Spring 1973, Fall 1973, or 1974. 

67-minute mp3 mix here (with all relevant information included in mp3 tags)

• Phil Jazz Jam (6/24/73)
• Jam (7/1/73)
• Jam with Phil Jazz Jam moments (5/13/73)
• Phil Jazz Jam (7/1/73)
• Jam (6/9/73)
• Phil Jazz Jam > (6/29/73)
• Jam (6/29/73)
• Jam (6/30/73)
• Jam > (6/22/73)
• Phil Jazz Jam (6/22/73)
• Space (6/10/73)
• Quiet Improvisation (7/1/73)
• Quiet Improvisation (8/1/73)
• Jam (6/10/73)
• Jam (6/23/73)
• Phil Jazz Jam (5/20/73)

If you want more all-out playing from summer 1973, go here.

Cover art by M. DeNoor 

Cover art by Antonio Prohías

If you recognize a few of these songs, you’ll immediately recognize the organizing principle of this mixtape – incessant eighth notes refracted through a Neil Hefti (Batman) and Henry Mancini (Peter Gunn), 1960s pop espionage aesthetic – sometimes bent into surprising permutations. “The Lemon Song?” Yeah, really. HT to Matthew Specktor on that one.

86-minute, mostly-lossless-sourced, volume-equalized 320kbps mix here

• Broken Days (outtake) – Bob Dylan
• Brand New Cadillac – The Clash
• The Lemon Song (edit) – Led Zeppelin
• Car Song – Elastica
• Hey Bulldog – The Beatles
• TV Baby – Magazine
• No Dark Things – Echo & The Bunnymen
• Batman Theme – Neil Hefti
• Candy Apple – Dipstick
• Peter Gunn (Max Sedgley Remix) – Sarah Vaughn
• Secret Agent Man – DEVO
• Planet Claire – The B-52’s
• Millionenspiel – Can
• Map Ref 41° N 93° W (alternate version) – Wire
• Incident on South Street – The Lounge Lizards
• Top Floor, Bottom Buzzer – Morphine
• (Drawing) Rings Around the World – Super Furry Animals
• Rose Garden Funeral of Sores (live) – Bauhaus
• On Top of the World – Cheap Trick
• Fried Chicken and Gasoline – Southern Culture on the Skids
• Happy-Go-Lucky Local (Night Train) – Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery
• Peter Gunn – Henry Mancini
• God Save the Queen (instrumental version) – The Sex Pistols

I've previously noted that October 1972's soundboard mixes are more often terrible than good, and that some shows only circulate as audience recordings and partial soundboards.

This post compiles everything from the late October soundboards that I feel is worth keeping handy – a meager 73 minutes, including a couple of audience tape segments I added in. 

The material I've selected emphasizes a couple of categories: The rarely played quiet songs and the full flowering of Phil’s “Philo Stomp,” an elaborate version of the bass/drum segments that often included the full band. This was the peak month for that elaboration.

This beautifully executed “Attics of My Life” is one of only two performances between 1970 and 1989, the other being 9/27/72. “Tomorrow is Forever” was played only 10 times (all but one from Sept-Nov ’72), and this one falls right in the middle of those. “Sing Me Back Home” is less rare (played about 40 times from ’71 to ’73), though there were only six more after this one. 

I originally posted the first track of this mix by itself, because it seems so extraordinary, and I include it here so it won't get lost, and because it is a beautiful set up for a beautiful "Attics." The last track, from the same show/audience tape, sounds absolutely horrible, but it also sounds like an all-out post-bop jazz frenzy that I'd love to hear more clearly. (Note that this mix does not attempt to document the month's audience recording gold; that's beyond my blog's scope.)

73-minute, FLAC-derived, 320kbps mix here

• Quiet Improvisation (10-23-72 aud)
• Attics of My Life (10-28-72)
• Tomorrow is Forever (10-27-72)
• Sing Me Back Home (10-26-72)
• Truckin’ (intro and jam 10-24-72)
• The Philo Stomp > Jam (10-24-72)
• Quiet Improvisation (10-24-72)
• Drums & Bass > Jam > Playin’ Reprise (10-26-72)
• Dark Star (10-28-72)
• The Philo Stomp (10-28-72)
• Jazzy Jam (10-23-72 aud)

Springfield was the final stop on The Dead’s September 1972 tour of the Northeast. Afterwards, the band took two weeks off the road (playing a special hometown show in the middle of that break), and then set off for the Midwest.

The Dead have released seven shows from August and September of 1972, which is quite reasonable, IMO, and I’ve posted highlights from four others. 

With this one, as always, my picks reflect how well the particular soundboard mix works for particular songs. In this case, quiet Jerry and loud Bobby is the situation. Some songs work fine, some pop interestingly, and others feel too much like a rhythm section without enough of a unifying plot thread. If I've chosen wisely, you won't experience these issues unless you listen for them. When it works, this is quite a robust soundboard recording, on which all the players are clear.

Points of interest:

• As far as I can tell, “Greatest Story” peaked in late 1972. Springy on top, throbbing at the bottom, with demented, melting Garcia guitar and that "St. Stephen"-like riff in the climax. 
• This is the first “Nobody’s Fault Jam” since 1970, establishing its relationship to “Truckin’” for the next couple of years.
• This is a very nice “Bird Song," musically, though a bit droopy vocally. I sequenced it between two second set selections to emphasize the dark starriness inherent in a big “Bird Song.” 
• There are some ragged edges and one big error in this “Morning Dew,” but I Iove it. It’s a little loose, a little delirious, but drama and momentum are intact. When Jerry isn’t ready with the words for the final sung section, I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. 
• This “Uncle John’s Band” had really feeble verses, but the playing is mighty, so you get an edit. The fade-in is in the source.
• This isn’t the first time I’ve made an instrumental edit of one of the Chuck Berry tunes, and I should probably make a few more. In between the barky verses, they could really rock and roll. 

60-minute FLAC-sourced 320kbps mp3 mix here

• Greatest Story Ever Told
• Beat It on Down the Line
• Truckin’ > Nobody’s Fault Jam
• Bird Song
• Jam > Feelin’ Groovy Jam > Noodling >
• Morning Dew
• Take a Step Back
• Uncle John’s Band (mostly instrumental edit)
• Johnny B. Goode (instrumental edit)

Cover image: Scan of a faulty Polaroid photo

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.