This 2-LP-length mix gathers together wonderful Summer ’82 takes on the Grateful Dead’s subtler, slower, prettier songs. The band was tight, the singers were in strong voice, and the soundboard mixes put it all together very nicely.
It’s a great moment to check in on these songs and on the band’s capacity for beauty and nuance in the early 1980s.
In performance, these songs were flanked by utterly different material and vibes - bombast on all sides. On this mix, birds of a similar feather get to vibe together.
When you pull aside an artist’s gentler material, the dynamic range of that material expands to fill the listening universe. But even without that effect, I wouldn’t call the material on this mix “mellow,” by any measure. It is tremendously muscular music, thanks to the combination of snug grooves, well-narrated tales, synchronized turns, fine detailing, and good soundboard mixes.
I’ve arranged things to provide an accelerated first-set > second-set arc (without consideration for where the songs appeared in the actual shows).
This is the second 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. They’ll collect under the blog tag GD Summer ’82. Please don’t complain until all five mixes have posted.
102-minute mp3 mix zipped up here (dates and venues included in mp3 tags)
- Improv: Jerry’s Whimsy (Austin)
- To Lay Me Down
- Althea
- It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
- Black Peter
- Peggy-O
- Row Jimmy
- Looks Like Rain
- Friend of the Devil
- Bird Song
- Improv: Jerry’s Whimsy (Red Rocks)
- Improv > The Wheel
- Lost Sailor >
- Saint of Circumstance