Grateful Dead: 1982 Summer Tour Mixtape #5 (Fire)

This 5th (of 5) Grateful Dead Summer ’82 mixtapes focusses on jams and improvisation. 

It draws heavily from the only released show from this tour – 7/31/82, Austin, TX. On that basis, the mix might be of less interest to some, but I’ve attempted to mutate things into a unique trip.

The Austin “Eyes” and “Dew” appear unaltered. The “Estimated” and “Truckin’” appear in jam-only edits, because their song-stems were nothing special, while the variable parts were. The “Scarlet > Fire” has been interrupted to include all three of the “Scarlet” jams from the tour, so if you’ve ever wanted to listen to that jam for 19 minutes straight, here you go.

From other shows, I have included two free-standing jams, a silky “Supplication,” and a 20-minute “Playin’”. This “Playin’” is an edit of the 7/27 Red Rocks performance, which was played in three pieces across the second set; I’ve put those pieces together. Look out for Weir and Mydland improvising vocals early in the jam.

110-minute mp3 mix zipped up here (dates and cities included in mp3 tags)

  • Scarlet Begonias
  • Scarlet Jam
  • Scarlet Jam
  • Scarlet Jam >
  • Fire on the Mountain
  • Eyes of the World
  • Playin’ in the Band
  • Supplication
  • Jam
  • Jam after Terrapin
  • Estimated Prophet Jam
  • Jam > Truckin’ Jam >
  • Morning Dew

You can find all five of the mixtapes from the tour here.

16 responses
This is a truly fantastic mix. I'm familiar with the 7/31 show from the 30 Trips version but always thought it pretty good but not great. By stripping out the average song stems (love that term) and adding new Scarlet jams and the Red Rocks Playin' this is 110 minutes of uninterrupted pleasure. Never heard that vocal improv on Playing' on any other versions. Was that a one-off or repeated at other time during 82/3? I could pair this mix with the Sing Me Sweet & Sleepy mix and have the perfect road trip companion. Thank you.
Simply amazing. Still can't believe why "the powers that be" have never tried to do something like this.
Michael and Jake - So happy to hear your enthusiasm! I wasn't sure that this particular slice of the Summer '82 would excite, rather than annoying for released/unreleased/messed-with reasons.
Put me on record as a big fan of the "messed-with" stuff. It's a tradition that goes all the way back to Anthem. Also, I don't own the 30 Trips box and I was never impressed with 7/31/82... until now!
I agree with everyone else -- this mix is fantastic, and a great conclusion to the series. Really enjoyed listening to all of them this week. I'm a huge fan of Jerry's solo in the 7/31 "Scarlet" (as distinct from the transition jam), so I've listened to that particular performance a whole lot. Neat to hear the jam extended with its neighboring versions!
Just discovered this blog today, and have already listened to the full Tighten Up Jam (1969-71) mix, and now this wonderful '82 edit. THANK YOU for doing this work! The Tighten Up mix is sublime -- what a tremendous mood lift. And now this '82 material is delivering the goods too. I'm not super familiar with lots of early 80s stuff, and maybe part of it is down to speed bumps from what you called "average song stems" ... but an edit like this is just the good stuff -- and it's just great. I'll never be a fan of the weird early 80s kick drum sounds, but the good here is WAY overriding that issue. Thanks again!
James, a belated thank you for your nice words, above.
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