This unreleased run featured a 1st set “Dark Star,” a 2nd set “Feel Like a Stranger”-into-drums, a robust “Playin’ Jam” out of Space, and a “Scarlet > Victim > Fire” combo with all songs and transitions in full working order. Frisky! Feisty! Tight!
I consider the tracks I've included to be truly outstanding Grateful Dead, recorded beautifully. At this point, the band was about a year into the Hornsby/Welnick era and seven months away from Hornsby’s departure. A version of the Dead in its prime.
I cut quite a bit of very good stuff, because the best performances made very good not enough. There were also several tragic vocal fumbles that took some otherwise great takes out of the race.
Although the soundboard mixes were screwy in several places during this run, they are fantastic on all the material compiled here. A particular feature is the combination of very present singers and a very present vocal mix. Garcia/Hornsby musical dialogues are also foregrounded in a few places. Though I’m a Vince defender, his keyboards are minimized in these selections, so you get something akin to a Hornsby-only Dead.
I’ve made some artificial segues to create continuities across non-consecutively-played tracks. The “>” below represent as-played musical links and one adept pause-and-relaunch (Fire’s conclusion into Truckin’s start). The "(>)" below show where I've created a hinge.
Cover art: Victor Moscoso
2.5-hour mp3 mix zipped up here (dates included in the mp3 tags)
Disc One (70 minutes):
- Feel Like a Stranger (>)
- Samson and Delilah
- West LA Fadeaway
- Bertha
- Scarlet Begonias >
- Victim or the Crime >
- Fire on the Mountain >
- Truckin’
Disc Two (78 minutes):
- Smokestack Lighting >
- He’s Gone >
- Jam
- Dark Star
- Improvisation (space excerpt) (>)
- Playin’ in the Band (out of space jam > reprise) (>)
- China Doll (>)
- Dark Star Jam >
- Morning Dew
- Improvisation (space excerpt)