This 2-LP-length mix approximates 1971’s “Skull and Roses” album using selections from the Grateful Dead’s 1982 Summer Tour. Substitutions have been made to round out the affect/effect and anomalies included to honor some as-performed continuities.
The 1982 Summer Tour was very strong, and the soundboard mixes are mostly quite satisfying, though their ambiance varies. (I skipped one audience-only show and one soundboard-sounds-weird show - both Red Rocks at the start of the tour.)
This is the first of five mixtapes drawn from the tour, which I’m numbering and posting in no particular order. Each tries to provide a different angle on the music. With exceptions for “Playin’” and “The Other One,” no songs are repeated across the mixes. They’ll collect under the blog tag GD Summer ’82. Please don’t complain until all five mixes have posted.
For this mix, the basic Skullfu*k recipe holds: half a crackling, short-song, high-on-cocaine, rock-and-roll-cowboy album, and half a deeper dive into more expansive territory.
97-minute mp3 mix zipped up here (dates and venues included in song tags)
- On the Road Again
- Mama Tried
- Big Railroad Blues
- It’s All Over Now (I Used to Love Her)
- Me & My Uncle
- I Need a Miracle >
- Bertha
- Don’t Ease Me In
- Playin’ in the Band
- Jam > The Other One >
- Not Fade Away
- Wharf Rat
- Goin’ Down the Road, Feelin’ Bad
- Johnny B. Goode
- Satisfaction >
- Brokedown Palace
Cover art: Hilgart, a high-resolution scan of a detail of a classic comic book ad, channel-shifted.