Save Your Face

This is one of the most personally important Grateful Dead curations I’ve assembled under the Save Your Face moniker. It presents Jerry Garcia knocking 16 of his classic songs out of the park, in a period known for his creakiness and errors.

This is a necessary demonstration, IMHO. It’s terrible that decades after Garcia’s death, no attempt has been made to put a respectful and powerful coda on his career, in the form of a curated, final-years, live Grateful Dead album.

I first encountered many of these performances during Save Your Face’s extensive post-Hornsby-era mixtape project some years ago. Gradually, “amazing versions” and “versions to beat” emerged, as I continued to relisten to those mixes. 

To determine IF they could be beaten, I listened to every 1993-1995 soundboard recording of Garcia-sung songs, with a focus on those for which terrific lead vocals are the necessary starting point for a great performance. I confirmed many of my existing picks and found some new-to-me takes that I liked better.

I skipped over jammier songs like “Dark Star” and “Fire,” and avoided covers with the exception of “Morning Dew” and two Garcia-owned traditionals. Ultimately, it's a Hunter/Garcia joint.

Other Hunter/Garcia compositions are missing because no version checked all of my boxes:

• A soundboard mix in which Garcia’s vocals are very present
• Garcia in command of the lyrics
• Garcia singing with passion and nuance
• An exciting and involving collective performance, with memorable details
• Everyone properly represented in the SBD mix
• No intrusive “bad tones”

On the basis of these restrictive filters, I ended up with 16 performances that continue to thrill me after many, many listens. 

The ever-generous Mr. Completely (Tyler) supplied me with the best source FLACs for all tracks, so these performances are as high fidelity as possible.

Are there little flaws here and there? Sure. Are these performances practically perfect in every way? Yes. 

May you rest easy, Jerry Garcia. 

***

Cover art: Al Hirschfeld

2 hours and 17 minutes

• Help on the Way > Slipknot! (edit) (3/22/93 Atlanta > 10/18/94 NYC)
• Jack-A-Roe (3/27/94 Uniondale, NY)
• Bertha (3/21/94 Richfield, OH)
• Black Peter (7/31/94 Auburn Hills, MI)
• Crazy Fingers > Playin’ Jam (3/24/93 Chapel Hill, NC)
• China Doll (6/18/93 Chicago, IL)
• The Wheel > (7/26/94 Maryland Heights, MO)
• Attics of My Life (7/26/94 Maryland Heights, MO)
• Wharf Rat (7/19/94 Noblesville, IN)
• Peggy-O (edit) (6/26/94 Las Vegas, NV)
• Stagger Lee (10/15/94 NYC, NY)
• Stella Blue (3/21/94 Richfield, OH)
• Terrapin Station (10/1/94 Boston, MA)
• Comes a Time (10/9/94 Landover, MD)
• Morning Dew (3/27/94 Uniondale, NY)
• Brokedown Palace (12/19/94 Los Angeles, CA)

Downloads

320kbps MP3s derived from lossless

FLAC files

Editing Notes

There are two edits (but no re-EQ anywhere):

• The “Slipknot” following this great “Help on the Way” didn’t cut it, so I appended a different performance, terminated by its “Franklin’s Tower” coda.
• “Peggy-O”: The band skipped a whole verse (seamlessly), which makes The Captain less of an asshole. This led to verse confusion after the instrumental break. However, the band re-approached and corrected their error. I’ve edited out the 30 seconds of confusion. And yes, a missing verse is a big “vocal error,” but it doesn’t interrupt anything; it just modifies the story.

If you don’t already think of 1987 as one of those years in which the Grateful Dead often played their original compositions perfectly, then you’re in for a happy surprise. Following his 1986 illness, Garcia repossessed his catalogue of songs with massive joy and a voice that was mightier than it had been in years. 

This is a very narrow mix of Garcia singing his heart out on classic Hunter/Garcia compositions (plus “Dew”) in September 1987.  I selected from soundboards with mixes that make his voice the center of the performances. The cities are Providence, Washington D.C., New York, and Philadelphia.

Two-hour+ mp3 mix zipped up here (3 LPs or two discs, as you wish. Dates and cities included in mp3 title tags.)

Side One:

• West LA Fadeaway
• Ship of Fools
• High Time

Side Two:

• They Love Each Other
• Fire on the Mountain
• China Doll

Side Three:

• Dire Wolf
• Wharf Rat
• Eyes of the World

Side Four:

• He’s Gone
• Row Jimmy

Side Five:

• Black Peter
• Morning Dew
• Brokedown Palace

Side Six (Encore w/different sound board balance):

• Loser
• Might as Well
• U.S. Blues

CURATORIAL/EDITORIAL CAVEATS:

• The last three selections don’t have Garcia’s vocals as forward and clear in the mix as the rest of the tracks, but the singing and band performances insisted that they be included.
• There are two edits on this mix. “Wharf Rat” and “He’s Gone" switch from 9/16 to 9/20 to combine the better sung version with the more amazing conclusion.  

LP 1 (42 minutes):

• Tennessee Jed
• Brown-Eyed Women
• Peggy-O
• Eyes of the World >
• Wharf Rat

LP 2 (46 minutes):

• Bertha
• They Love Each Other
• Deal
• Row Jimmy
• Dark Star
• Uncle John’s Band

90-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

This is every Garcia-written song (plus "Peggy-O") from this show, and it’s quite a fine selection of tunes, played consistently well. There’s a small snag here and there, but I haven’t encountered another show that you can slice this way with such a good result.

I also can’t think of many shows where both the band and the sound mix were ready for business on the first song. The Dead played “Tennessee Jed” a million times from 1972 through 1974, but they only opened two shows with it, and this is one of them. The result is a version that stays restrained and deliberate throughout, never becoming as fully deranged as it typically did in the final instrumental break.

The last song of the show was “Uncle John’s Band,” and this is a version I find pretty satisfactory. I rarely like 1973-1974 UJBs much, because the melody gets tortured by the singing, but this performance and mix get it closer to the right place than many. It certainly ends the show nicely.

This is the first version of “Brown Eyed Women” I pulled aside for one of my mixes. I’m not sure why I perceive The Dead as hardly ever nailing this song between Europe ’72 and sometime in 1976 or 1977, but whatever I typically find lacking, this one doesn’t lack it. The opening bars are wobbly, but so it goes.

The “Eyes of the World” is nearly perfect throughout, and the jam continues to cook after they’ve finished the climactic synchronized riff sequence. The “Wharf Rat” that follows is not one that pounces on the big moments the way some do, but I can’t fault its overall approach to the drama, and the extended coda/fadeout is a nice touch.

The “Row Jimmy” is one of my favorites. “Peggy-O” is beautiful (if not transcendent), one of only three played in 1973, all in December; the next one would be in May 1974. “They Love Each Other” has the bouncy syncopation you’re looking for, with nice rushes of intensity. “Bertha” is rather explosive (originally sandwiched between “Promised Land” and “Greatest Story, giving it extra propulsion). And Jerry's so into "Deal" that he throws a bunch of extra little vocal punches.

I’ve always liked this simultaneously compact and restless “Dark Star,” pursuing the melody prettily and nonchalantly for about five minutes, then considering other options for a few minutes, including a little hint of the “Mind Left Body Jam” and a brief dance with “The Other One,” before settling in for a perfectly executed verse of “Dark Star.”

If you like the feel of an all-Garcia show, you will also like this.

This mix features a giant slice of the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter songbook, played and sung superbly by the late-1972 through 1974 live band. 

The intent, when I compiled and posted it three years ago was to find officially-released performances of these songs that stood up in every respect – singing, playing, and sound mix. I wanted versions you could use to prove that the songs were great, and that the live Dead were great. 1972-1974 is my favorite version of the band, despite the fact that the vocals were often a mess, in performance or in the mix. 

I limited my scope to approximately a dozen releases that I could rip straight from an official disc. I couldn’t find every song that belongs here. For instance, there wasn’t a properly-sung and powerfully-played “Uncle John’s Band” in the stack of shows I used. 

320kbps zipped mp3 download (dates and source releases are included in song tags)

SET 1 (73 minutes)

• Bertha
• Loser
• Friend of the Devil
• To Lay Me Down
• Here Comes Sunshine
• Deal
• Sugaree
• Tennessee Jed
• He’s Gone
• Don’t Ease Me In

SET 2 (62 minutes)

• U.S. Blues
• They Love Each Other
• Loose Lucy
• Scarlet Begonias
• Row Jimmy
• Eyes of the World
• Mississippi Half-Step > We Bid You Goodnight

SET 3 (74 minutes)

• Comes a Time
• Stella Blue
• Black Peter
• Morning Dew
• China Doll
• Bird Song
• Wharf Rat
• Ship of Fools
• Brokedown Palace

If you enjoy this experiment with an all-Garcia setlist, you might also enjoy this one.

Revised notes, September 2019