Grateful Dead: Mystery Jam #1

This eight minute Grateful Dead improvisation is one of half-a-dozen from 1972-1974 that turned me into a fanatical early-‘70s tape-head in the late 1980s. It is still one of my favorite passages, and I still haven’t encountered anything quite like it.

It is unreleased, and not previously isolated on a Save Your Face blog mixtape. When did they play it, and who’s with me?


25 responses
It's got some Watkins Glen bits in it to my ears.
Oh, yes, this is a special one, and certainly whets my appetite for your other distilled gems! I’m not a detail/specific show memory kind of guy, but these sorts of extended moments are what make this era so special. If I had to guess, I’d say late 73/early 74....
Dabney Jim Cummings? My GD first tape connection. :-)
Sorry, Jeff, unless I've spaced your name (and Dabney, what/where ever that is, in its entirety), it's not me. But you know how it is with Jim Cummingses: we are everywhere!
Sounds like 1972 to me. Bobbi's guitar has a much fuller sound than it did in subsequent years. Bill is more, um, restrained than he was in '73-'74 also.
DKS, you're correct! It's late '72.
That makes sense - they weren't quite this "jazzy" in Europe or the summer that year. Just discovered your blog (after listening to 36 From the Vault, by the way.) This is excellent stuff. I will be diving in. Thanks for all of your efforts.
Is it the Other One from 11/22/72?
Bryce, you've got the right song, but you're about two months off.
Stanley Theater September 28th, 1972
I'm no good at naming dates and stuff like that, but this is a fantastic pull. Thanks for sharing it!
Bryon, quizzing people isn't really my motive. I was honestly just curious to know if this passage had made as strong an impression on others as it did/has on me.
Timothy Anderson wins. It's the jam inside The Other One on 9/28/72.
The music is good.
So nice - it is exactly these types of surprises that makes listening to the Dead so infectious. My AHA moment came when I first heard (The Live/Dead) dark star late one night on "underground radio" in 1970, I was 14 and it intrigued me... "Not as good as Paul Revere and the Raiders," I thought, "but there's something there..."
was amazed to see this pop up again after commenting two years ago! 9/28/72 was one of the first great quality '72 shows I had on cassette, going back a mind-blowing 30 years. needless to say, pretty much every note of the show is etched into my brain. so yes John-- it made one helluva impression on teenage me (and still does to this day).
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