Posts
Follow GDLG on Twitter
Another installment in the GDLG Listening Trails Series.
It is understandably natural to want to find your way to the best Dead shows ever when first exploring Grateful Dead music. The band was famous for playing a lot of concerts, and always known for being better live than they ever were on studio albums. However, we are heading into treacherous waters when we try to claim which Dead shows were the best of all time.
None-the-less, that doesn’t seem to change the fact that people are always looking for them. Our goal here will be to call out some performances (from those that have already made it into the Grateful Dead Listening Guide) where the band reaches the golden ring deep inside – shows that truly do stand out for containing extra special musical moments.
A wickedly hard list to compile (and one often fraught with personal opinion), we’ll start below with just a few shows listed chronologically, as truly ranking things in order of greatness is a foolish venture, indeed. No doubt, there will be more “Best Show Ever” trails to come. This first pass is intended to include shows that our entire community could probably agree are true standouts.
Try to forget the “best ever” name of this trail, and see it as a walking tour of some shows that highlight the Dead going over the top musically; hitting musical satori like a bell. These are shows where the Dead’s musical muse is aflame with light and creativity.
Please follow the links below to fully enjoy this Listening Trail.
06/24/70 – Stop here, and don’t pass Go. The sound quality of this tape might be hard on first time listeners (more on that in the review itself). Deadheads may disagree on the topic of “best ever,” but most will agree that it rarely got better than this. Dark Star > Attics Of My Life > Dark Star > Sugar Magnolia > Dark Star > Saint Stephen > China Cat Sunflower > Jam > I Know You Rider. Words can not express… Perhaps one of the longest stretches of pure flowing X factor we have on tape.
07/27/73 – The Watkins Jam. So famous, we often forget just how mesmerizingly special it really was. There was nothing quite like it before or after. This is something for the ages. Note: it’s the audience tape addressed in the review, not the version you might have heard on the So Many Roads boxset. The AUD is fantastic, and a bit of it is featured in podcast listening session 001.
08/06/74 – From a year of knock out performance after performance, there’s something somehow a cut above happening during this day’s first set stand alone Eyes Of The World, and Playin’ In The Band > Scarlet Begonias > Playin’ In The Band. Hold on tight.
05/08/77 – Damned if I don’t include it on a “best ever” list, and perhaps equally damn if I do. Everyone owes it to themselves to figure out how they feel about the most famous Dead tape of them all.
It is understandably natural to want to find your way to the best Dead shows ever when first exploring Grateful Dead music. The band was famous for playing a lot of concerts, and always known for being better live than they ever were on studio albums. However, we are heading into treacherous waters when we try to claim which Dead shows were the best of all time.
None-the-less, that doesn’t seem to change the fact that people are always looking for them. Our goal here will be to call out some performances (from those that have already made it into the Grateful Dead Listening Guide) where the band reaches the golden ring deep inside – shows that truly do stand out for containing extra special musical moments.
A wickedly hard list to compile (and one often fraught with personal opinion), we’ll start below with just a few shows listed chronologically, as truly ranking things in order of greatness is a foolish venture, indeed. No doubt, there will be more “Best Show Ever” trails to come. This first pass is intended to include shows that our entire community could probably agree are true standouts.
Try to forget the “best ever” name of this trail, and see it as a walking tour of some shows that highlight the Dead going over the top musically; hitting musical satori like a bell. These are shows where the Dead’s musical muse is aflame with light and creativity.
Please follow the links below to fully enjoy this Listening Trail.
06/24/70 – Stop here, and don’t pass Go. The sound quality of this tape might be hard on first time listeners (more on that in the review itself). Deadheads may disagree on the topic of “best ever,” but most will agree that it rarely got better than this. Dark Star > Attics Of My Life > Dark Star > Sugar Magnolia > Dark Star > Saint Stephen > China Cat Sunflower > Jam > I Know You Rider. Words can not express… Perhaps one of the longest stretches of pure flowing X factor we have on tape.
07/27/73 – The Watkins Jam. So famous, we often forget just how mesmerizingly special it really was. There was nothing quite like it before or after. This is something for the ages. Note: it’s the audience tape addressed in the review, not the version you might have heard on the So Many Roads boxset. The AUD is fantastic, and a bit of it is featured in podcast listening session 001.
08/06/74 – From a year of knock out performance after performance, there’s something somehow a cut above happening during this day’s first set stand alone Eyes Of The World, and Playin’ In The Band > Scarlet Begonias > Playin’ In The Band. Hold on tight.
05/08/77 – Damned if I don’t include it on a “best ever” list, and perhaps equally damn if I do. Everyone owes it to themselves to figure out how they feel about the most famous Dead tape of them all.
12 comments:
No '72? You cannot be serious; beyond the rock 'n roll focus of '71, before the loosening of '73 and the tendency to noodle of '74, '72 is quickfire psychedelic rock for all time.
4.8.72 Dark Star > Sugar Mags > Caution marks 4.8.72 as an all time great on its own.
Relax Elby. You're right, 04/08/72 is a natural "best ever" show. But it hasn't been reviewd on the blog yet, so I can't list it on a trail.
Thus far, when it comes to 1972, I have focused exclusively on shows I find as personal favorites. That's just how it has played out so far. I've yet to get into some of the more "hall of fame" type shows from that year.
Heck, I need somewhere to go in year two of the blog. :-)
4.7 & 8.72 my intro to the Dead.
Understood. And you should be done with this by the time you are about ... 224?
Cheers. Great site.
From the learn something new every day camp, I'm sorry to say I just figured out that linking to a specific podcast post in another post (this one) causes iTunes to think that other post (this one) is a pod cast episode too. Yoinks!
If you saw this post appear as a new podcast, I do apologize for the confusion and bandwidth. I have removed the link. It won't happen again.
Turns out I had linked to the mp3 file, not the post itself. Link now corrected.
Playin > Scarlet > Playin from 8/6/74 is perhaps the sickest first set jam I've ever heard. Wow.
Perhaps a loaded question but...years ago, i had a tape with one of the sweetest "eyes of the world on it". Long story, but all my tapes are gone now. Every once in a while ill remember "damn i had that on tape". I know nothing about the recording except it was sweeeet! no date, place, era, etc. I just know jerry was on fire and the band seemed to be right there with him. in and out of almost "dark" jams back into the "light".Jerrys voice and singing was great. The whole band was great. I could go on and on and probably wont do it justice or help. I think it was fairly recent though. Im not the biggest dead head so i dont know eras and all that so....All i can do is look around until i someday if ever say "thats it!!". In the meantime maybe some folks here can help me find other good shows with stellar "eyes" on it.
thnx
pete
Blort, You give a few worthy clues. When you describe them going from dark to light, you describe the fundamental jam structure of 1973-74 Eyes. So, you might look there. You confound it by mentioning that the return to light is accompanied by Jerry's voice, since the dark-light jams were after the verses. But they did go from the dark-light jam into the song once on 06/09/76, and it is one heavenly version too. Check it out.
sweet!! thanx for the response so soon. Indeed a tasty show and a great version. Thank you. God I havent listened to them in a while. Some great memories. Some "wierd" ones in there too...hehe. The version i seek was slower more relaxed, more focused maybe? After listening to the 06/09/76 show, i realized i need more. Didn't know about www.archive.org...wow! very cool. again thank you icepetal.
icepetal, good call on the "light/dark" thing regarding that modulation they did for a while (kinda similar to waht they were doing by inserting the "feelin' groovy" jam into, what was it, "Dark Star"?, or the little thing (sequence of chord changes) they used to do in the transition from "China Cat" into "I Know You Rider", all of these occurring in the early '70s, and I suspect instigated by either Bobby or Phil who were fond of inserting pre-arranged moments such as these into more familiar pieces to "spice them up", whereas it seemed Jer was wont to usually stick to the chord changes as written. Jerry liked songs to be failry simple and free flowing and not be "musical cops" (his term) that forced the musicians into rigid and often abrupt changes ("Cosmic Charlie" and "St. Stephen" being his examples), nevertheless I think blort was not being as specidigic as that perhaps and was just referring to the general mood of that particular version going from dark to light (a looser interpretation).
blort, check out the version of "Eyes" from the Grateful Dead movie (I think the date on that is either 10/18, 19, or possibly 20, 1974). It is fairly deliverate and thoughtful and also contains moments I contstrue as "dark" before getting light again. If it *isn't* that version, I would work back from that date to when the song was first introduced in, was it the Maples Pavillion show in early '73? The versions in the Summer and Fall of '74 are fairly deliberate and contain light and dark musical elements as often as not.
When I saw the link to your post here and the subject, before I read it, I thought obviously there will be the comment "not one list could ever be 'the' list." My after thought as I started to read was "maybe the post will be about naming 20 or 30 of the most highly toted most popular shows in the fanbase, ever. I still think it's a great idea. -thanks.
hello! im not much into forums, but quite into the Dead, so how could I resist? I have a similar question to the last gent asking about an eyes...i had a show with a filler on it of bertha and jack straw, i think it was bertha>j. straw or the other way around, but by far the sickest of both i had ever hears- i cant remember the era, maybe late 70's, perhaps late 80's (i can tell the difference, i just dont remembeR now!) any ideas?
keep up the great vibe!!!
Post a Comment