Grateful Dead: Berkeley ’72 (August 21, 22, 24)

Immediately before their famous 8-27-72 performance in Veneta, Oregon (released as “Sunshine Daydream”), the Grateful Dead played four shows over five nights at the Berkeley Community Theater (August 21, 22, 24, 25).

Much of the playing in Berkeley was as great as “Veneta Eve” would imply. The final show of the run (8/25/72) was officially released as “Dave’s Picks vol. 24” in 2017 - an excellent choice.

The Save Your Face curations of the first three nights have been around for a while, but I thought it might be handy to re-present them in a single post, with both mp3 and streaming links.

After taking a week off, and having played only one show in the previous three weeks, The Dead played six shows in eight days:

San Jose: Sunday 8/21
Berkeley: Mon-Fri (taking Wed off)
Veneta: Sunday 8/27
After Veneta, they took another week off.

So, the Berkeley run constitutes almost all of the prologue to Veneta: An extended, Bill Graham-sponsored, small theater, home-town residency for The Dead, in the midst of a very busy year. All things considered, it must have been a chill, comfy week for the band, and the level of the best playing suggests that they were both relaxed and focused over four nights at the community theater.

In fact, they had only played seven shows following Pigpen’s departure - the first being July 16 at Dillon Stadium in Hartford, CT. Arguably, you can hear the post-Pigpen Dead finding and stabilizing their new course over a workweek in this cozy local venue. Many Heads (including me) revere Fall ’72. This is where it starts, IMO.

Cover art by Saul Steinberg.

Monday & Tuesday, August 21-22

Download mp3s for one or both nights

Stream both nights on Youtube or Archive

Monday (73 minutes)

Introduction
Friend of the Devil
Sugaree
Stella Blue
He’s Gone
Dark Star >
Space >
Keith’s Jam
Uncle John’s Band
Introducing Keith and Donna
Playin’ in the Band

Tuesday (70 minutes)

Birdsong (instrumental edit)
All That Top 40 Shit
The Other One
Not Fade Away >
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad >
Hey Bo Diddley > Not Fade Away
Playin' in the Band

Thursday, August 24

Download mp3s

Stream on YouTube or Archive

Thursday (110 minutes)

Introduction
Greatest Story Ever Told
Mississippi Half-Step
Truckin’
Brown Eyed Women
Jack Straw
Bird Song
China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider
Sugaree
One More Saturday Night

Playin’ in the Band (15:09)
Dark Star > (13:01)
Space > (8:39)
Jam > (4:26)
Interlude > (1:06)
Morning Dew (13:04)
Sing Me Back Home (9:56)

33 responses

Thank you. This is the perfect distraction from the din of the very out-of-sorts world at the present. A X Sankey

— Andrew Sankey

Andrew, I have returned to posting music for exactly that reason.

— John Hilgart @4CPcomics

I already have these mixes but this is a lovely excuse to revisit them. Glad you’re back! I have a few ideas for future mixes but you’re by no means obligated to do any of them on any sort of timeline, especially since I still haven’t gotten to many of the ones I’ve downloaded already (the ones I have are all fantastic).

— Bartographer

Welcome back!

— Michael A. S. Smith

Mirroring Andrew and Michael in my gratitude at your return, and the good reason, as this is not so much a new one as a nice set that, as Andrew says, does put the outward din out where it belongs, while we take a comfy 4 hourish voyage to a better time and place, where it may have not been nice, but nicer than now. [/mytinysoapbox lol]

— Fredrick Beondo

John, I also wanted to bring your attention to something cool. A few months back, I recommended Save Your Face to Ethan Hein, a music blogger I admire, and he just linked to your MLB Jam mix in a post about it, which is pretty great: https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2024/the-mind-left...

This blog is a real gift to anyone who wants to do musicological study of the Dead! I was not excited about trying to dig through the Internet Archive looking for poorly labeled MLB jams, and then boom, here they all are.

— Ethan Hein

Ethan, I'm so glad you found SYF, and thank you (on behalf of Heads everywhere) for your Grateful Dead essays so far. Most of my thematic mixes started as Cory/Dead Notes essays, so you are bringing things full circle: research > audio version > research. If you ever have the inclination, I’ll be curious to know what you make of the outliers on my “Firelike” mix. Are they just relatable to Fire (or Scarlet jam) via vibes, or do they concretely overlap?

Thank you for the re-post! I was just enjoying your edit highlighting the improvisations from the St. Louis '72 shows, too. Welcome back!

— Kit

Hi, Kit! I still like that St. Louis '72 improv mix! I wondered if I'd find it obsolete after the full shows tapes were remastered and released, but I don't. I should probably do that edit over with the improved source!

Fantastic work, yes, like many other posters here. This was a great wake up call for some stunning shows that I had forgotten about. Music created 52 years ago that still has the power to stun, intrigue and make you smile. What's not to like?

— Graham

Hi, Graham! I come back to this run every August, and it always makes me smile.

John, this is an "I secretly wished for this" Save Your Face project. I eschewed the 8/25 Dave's Picks, frustratedly wishing it had been perhaps the previous day--the one that had a "Dark Star". Well, on your advice I'll check out that Dave's Picks after all. But more importantly...now I'm gonna check out the TWO "Dark Star"s preceding 8/27?! Uh...yeah, I'm in. And more... THREE "Playing"s... an "Uncle John's Band" (I figure it's gotta be at least good, because I absolutely LOVE the one from September 27)... and "Keith's Jam" (???), something unique I'm sure... thank you very much! --Ryan

— Ryan Bouchard

Ryan B. - You are going to love all this music. The UJB is perhaps my favorite from the early 1970s. I would cut tunes/minutes from the Dave's Picks show, the same way I cut them from unreleased shows, but like 8/24, it's mostly gold. Fall 1972 is glorious.

I succesfully downloaded 8/24 (very satisfying). But in the Monday/Tuesday dropbox link, I can only find the Tuesday 8/22 show -- 8/21 seems to be missing so far.

Love the Saul Steinberg cartoon!

— Jonder

Jonder, I love Steinberg! I used his drawings for several Dead mix covers, mostly in the early 1970s. Skeletons, tie-dyes, messy psychedelic images, and even band photos don't really resonate with the Dead's music for me. I'm always looking for the image that looks like the particular music to me. (I see I didn't credit Steinberg in this repost. Going to fix that right now.)

@Ryan B. - in case 8/21 eludes you still - https://we.tl/t-75LDfUDhua :)

Thank you Fredrick! Can't wait to hear another. The "Playing" from 8/24 is just blowing me away.

As I said above, reupping this set is a perfect salve for current events, where a 4,5 hour voyage away does wonders, and I selfishly say you need all 3 sets for maximum enjoyment LOL

— Fredrick

These are such great shows. Thank you!! I listened to a lot of it again last night, and there was a certain spot in one of the "Playing"s (maybe 8/24) where the whole band is banging away simultaneously on a repeating chord with a syncopated rhythm...awesome!!!

I am still in the process of taking in the music here. In particular, the second set of 8/24, has left me floored. There are countless eerie moments; it's full of delicate weirdness, ultrafast and ultrasensitive playing. Kreutzmann. Sometimes not so delicate! John Hilgart, what led you to choose the placement of the track markers--what led you to separate "Space" and the "Jam" out of the preceding "Dark Star"? I suppose it will be difficult to discuss music of this complexity, but I'd like to hear what you think, because it's fascinating to talk to someone who already knows this show really well. And for curating this run of shows, thank you, from the bottom of my Deadhead heart! Thank you for presenting some of the absolute greatest music of all time! I think this is right up there with 8/27, seriously. I looove the "Dark Star"s and other crazy jamming from 9/24, 9/27, 9/17, and others...but to me, this one really stands out. If you love 8/27, you MUST get this. And I should mention that as a musician, I am awestruck. How do they... It becomes hard to tell who is playing what instrument. And somewhere in there, amongst many other ecstasies, there was this one moment where it felt like they were tearing the cosmos open. I was left standing there with my headphones on, with a weird grimace on my face and tears streaming out of my eyes. Lol. Where was that moment? I'm going back again. I would relish any guidance about this handful of insane tracks from Set 2 of 8/24.

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