Grateful Dead live, Dick's Picks etc - S&D

Yeah, and

Recorded by Kidd Candelario, Betty Cantor-Jackson, and Owsley Stanley
Newly restored and speed-corrected audio by Plangent Processes
Mastered by Jeffrey Norman

Limited Edition Individually Numbered To 10,000
Exclusively At Dead.net
Digital convert? We've got you covered too. On the very same day you can collect your hi-definition download.

I like how this version of “Dark Star” takes its sweet ass time firing up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoWRbf5ZkdY

6/10/73 = legendary on the level of Veneta/Cornell, longest show they ever played, third set w/Allman Bros. Jam sequence for the ages: Dark Star > He's Gone > Wharf Rat > Truckin'

Thanks for this, J. Sam. I'm about an hour in and it's great so far. The Race is On is not a song I've ever paid any attention to, but this one is pretty tight for that kind of Dead song.

(Actually never fires up but that’s OK)

This is just distended “Dark Star” Friday, I guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-rwgxBZjpY

xp That "Dark Star" from Dick's Picks 7 is broken into two tracks on the CD; the latter part of the jam is titled "Spam Jam", where they get spacey and go into a super noisy/atonal meltdown:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAZ5uYTNouc

But yeah, I never tire of 73-74 fusion Dead. Sometimes the jams get a bit aimless, but that's all part of the journey, man

Thanks for this, J. Sam. I'm about an hour in and it's great so far. The Race is On is not a song I've ever paid any attention to, but this one is pretty tight for that kind of Dead song.

― This machine bores fascism (PBKR), Friday, May 5, 2023 6:08 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hell yeah I love their country covers from that era. That one, "Big River," "El Paso," Loretta Lynn's "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)" with Donna singing lead, and probably many more I'm forgetting. Jerry usually took the opportunity to rip an outrageous twangy solo on those

...or to solo through the whole damn song, as in "El Paso" (which is why I never skip an "El Paso" haha)

6/10/73, here I come

https://archive.org/details/gd73-06-10.sbd.hollister.174.sbeok.shnf/FOLLOW-ME+%40BYPIKENO

Mellow, bluesy set

Yeah those three-set 73 shows have a nice "we've got you all day/night, sit back and relax while we play a few tunes" vibe. Sunny day cookout music.

That 5/20/73 show has some slow ones early on, but when it starts kicking with The Race is On it's straight fire.

'73 country Dead my absolute favorite. Big River always just a kick

^^^
This Big River off 5/20/73 is really great. Pretty fast pace!

quick jump back to the 6/10/73 show because that has a pretty unhinged rendition of “sugar magnolia”

Kinda short “Dark Star”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCi5ok5kMdc

Latest Dave's (Hollywood 1972) is absolutely great — no real surprise there, I suppose. Incredible "Bird Song", perfect "China > Rider", demonic "Other One." Bonus disc is ace too.

What’s that site that compiles the best versions of each song? Need to do a Terrapin deep dive

headyversion dot come

lol

may the best versions of terrapin make you come

Just now catching up with Dave's Picks 46, "The Other One" absolutely smokes.

Worlds collided last month just outside of Nashville, Tenn., when Bertha, likely the first all-drag Grateful Dead tribute band in history, took the stage at Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge with bewigged and pitch-perfect renditions of classics from "Sugaree" to "Scarlet Begonias." The eight-person collective, formed in defiant response to Tennessee's newly inked anti-drag and anti-trans laws, raised funds for local queer- and trans-supportive organizations.

But it's revolutionary for other reasons, too — namely, for merging a queer, feminist ethos with what's largely been a male-dominated, heteronormative Deadhead scene, says co-founder Melody Walker, who calls Bertha a band "for the girls, the gays and the theys."

i think this world needs a few less Dead cover bands right now, but that's great to see and i'll happily keep them and boot out one of the other boring existing ones

I have no interest whatsoever in seeing Dead & Company, or any other Dead-associated band, but I'd go to a Bertha show in a heartbeat. I hope they tour soon.

Another “Dark Star” as the Friday workday winds down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWV7fv0Rwcg

^Cheers, that's a properly trippy way to start your weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqnUWA4fYHk

It's 11/26/72 for me today. The circulating SBD tape of this show is murky, but that doesn't stop this "Dark Star" from being from being a top 5 of the year for me. The gentle melodic interplay in the first 10 minutes is as good as it gets

They had to move, really had to move

Just remembered that I want to download that 6/10/73 set for future listening

And thanks, j. Sam - gonna check out the Dark Star you posted shortly

Cool, enjoy! This recent remaster by Charlie Miller is probably the best sounding source for that show: https://archive.org/details/gd1972-11-26.158749.sbd.menke.miller.fix.flac16/21+Dark+Star.flac

Heads up that the "Dark Star" segues beautifully into "Me and Bobby McGee," so make time for that if you can

Dunno what it is, maybe seeing this thread, maybe my recent “give me heavenly vocal harmonies” desire coupled with my memory of how good “uncle john’s band is”, but i’ve been biting into some dicks picks for real for the first time. Jimmy Row on dicks pick 7, so so so so good. Blatantly ripped off by noted deadhead’s AnCo in Alvin Row which was one of my favs. If I like Jimmy Row, heavenly harmonies, what should I touch next/

4.5 hour podcast (with transcript) about the dead, may be of interest to the thread:

https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-165-dark-star-by-the-grateful-dead/

That episode is incredible — I’m on my third listen.

Is it fitting that the longest show he's done so far is on a band that specialised in expansive stretching out? & filled with extra tidbits that i hope people aren't seeing as noodling.
I see he excerpts teh Eleven which has to be one of my all time favourite songs too.
Glad he is conscious of how long the episodes have been getting and hope taht si going to mean he cuts back a bit. Thought he was pretty ill recently so hope this keeps coming and he can keep up to to 500. Got to be a lifetime project like.
I was thinking it was a shame he'd got to 1969 cos it meant he was moving out of one of my favourite eras and hadn't covered absolutely everything in it. Though maybe he has in passing.
Think I need to read some of his books now.

Dunno what it is, maybe seeing this thread, maybe my recent “give me heavenly vocal harmonies” desire coupled with my memory of how good “uncle john’s band is”, but i’ve been biting into some dicks picks for real for the first time. Jimmy Row on dicks pick 7, so so so so good. Blatantly ripped off by noted deadhead’s AnCo in Alvin Row which was one of my favs. If I like Jimmy Row, heavenly harmonies, what should I touch next/

― hrep (H.P), Saturday, May 20, 2023 12:51 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh man I love "Row Jimmy" so much. So beautifully world-weary. They played it at the vast majority of shows in 73 and 74, which were also peak years for the far-out jazzy end of their improv. Plus all the other new Wake of the Flood/From the Mars Hotel songs. It's hard to go wrong with any show in 73/74, but for more Dick's Picks check out 19 (10/19/73), 12 (6/26 & 6/28/74), and 31 (8/4 - 8/6/74). Also it's not officially released, but 8/1/73 has a nice "Row Jimmy" right before imo the single greatest hour of Grateful Dead music in the jam sequence of "Dark Star" -> "El Paso" -> "Eyes of the World" -> "Morning Dew": https://archive.org/details/gd73-08-01.sbd.cotsman.12222.sbeok.shnf/gd73-08-01d2t02.shn

76/77 is the sweet spot for "heavenly harmonies"; coming back from their 1975 hiatus their vocal monitor situation improved big time, so the harmonies are way stronger across the board. Donna in particular sounds great in those years. And Jerry's playing is at peak nimbleness, especially in 77. Check out Dick's Picks 33 (10/9 - 10/10/76), Road Trips 4.5 (6/9/76), and Dick's Picks 29 (5/19 & 5/21/77).

only halfway into that 500 songs podcast and it's incredible.

Also it's not officially released, but 8/1/73 has a nice "Row Jimmy" right before imo the single greatest hour of Grateful Dead music in the jam sequence of "Dark Star" -> "El Paso" -> "Eyes of the World" -> "Morning Dew"

I am in the middle, but this sequence is pretty amazing. That Dark Star is like their (credible) attempt at electric Miles, but that sudden transition into the (great) El Paso is lol.

Worlds collided last month just outside of Nashville, Tenn., when Bertha, likely the first all-drag Grateful Dead tribute band in history, took the stage at Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge with bewigged and pitch-perfect renditions of classics from "Sugaree" to "Scarlet Begonias." The eight-person collective, formed in defiant response to Tennessee's newly inked anti-drag and anti-trans laws, raised funds for local queer- and trans-supportive organizations.

ok now i'm just thinking of the last line of verse 2 of "scarlet begonias" and hell, there's nothing wrong with being clocky, right? we don't owe them passing. so don't go acting like all high and mighty, about it, mr. hunter.

anyway! i sort of half-assed a project based on headyversion of my favorite versions of all the songs played in '77, but there's some songs i just couldn't find a version i liked of. and i've never been able to listen to the whole thing all the way through, it's like ten fucking hours.

the mix i made that i _do_ listen to all the fucking time is the "greyfolded"-style tc-era dark star mix i spent a month in late '21 making. i ever post it here? it's pretty ropey, i never really bothered to clean up the transitions, but i like things a little ropey. plus i included audience-only dark stars in the mix as well.

anyway as far as i know nobody else has ever listened to it, the number of people who are interested in such a thing is... limited.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/zwmt9a

xp Has been a while since i listened to that 1/8/73 set but if that is the same date listed with a different transcription it was Jerry Garcia's birthday which si one reason it sticks in my head. I remember thinking it had a really soul influence on the tracks I was hearing. Remember sitting on a bus crossing London listening to it presumably still on a tape walkman since it was several tracks from the same source in a row and the digital player i had was normally on random.
But yeah pretty sublime.

I'm listening to the Hickey episode and it's maddening and brilliant like all of his stuff. Here's the thing: he's made this Dead sceptic want to give it one last shot. So my question, is which is the 'best' version of 'Dark Star' or the one that's going to finally take the top of my (sober) head off like I've long been promised?

That is kind of an impossible question to answer with any definitive statement. I’d guess the one I would say is John Oswalds’ plunderphonic folding “Greyfolded”, which is made of pieces and edits of lots of Dark Stars. It’s a pretty madcap piece of music in its own right.

I’d say the best known is the Live Dead “Dark Star”.

I’ve listened to the Fillmore West 1969 3cd sets the last two weekends “paging Mr. Hart”. That set and the original Live Dead are among my favorite Dead recordings.

That 8/1/73 Dark Star J. Sam mentioned is really great.

https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1973/08/01/dark-star?source=336581

Here's the thing: he's made this Dead sceptic want to give it one last shot. So my question, is which is the 'best' version of 'Dark Star' or the one that's going to finally take the top of my (sober) head off like I've long been promised?

It depends; what other artists are you into generally?

For me, it happened when Scott Seward posted the 8/27/72 "Dark Star" here back in 2011. In a way, it kind of reminded me of the second Miles Davis Quintet. It didn't blow me away, but I was surprised that a) I didn't hate it, and b) it held my attention. "Feedback" from Live/Dead was a big entry point, and the "Dark Star" on that record is great. But I don't think one can say, "oh, THIS one will DEFINITELY knock you out!" It probably won't, but something might lodge itself inside your brain where you have to revisit it, and then maybe later it or another "Dark Star" (or similar track) will knock you out.

My personal favorite "Dark Star" is from Düsseldorf, 4/24/72 (the podcast episode also singles this one out, and it's on the Rockin' The Rhein CD)...but I didn't hear it until I'd already listened to a bunch of late '60s recordings, and hated, then dug, Europe '72. So I was primed for it.

Chinaski, consider starting with something else, say “China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider” or “Help/Slipknot/Franklin’s Tower”. I know I held off on going further when I began with the holy grail of “Dark Star” - all it took was Jerry just butchering his vocals and it was a hard pass after that.

Am currently enjoying the Veneta, Oregon version. My 'in' has been how much it reminds me (so far, at least) of Crosby's *If Only I Could Remember Your Name*. Obviously Garcia is on that, but it has a similar humid languor.

i do love me a good help->slip->frank, it took me way too long to get around to that suite. '77 dead is a more... conventionally musical band and i have to be in the right mood for them, but the help->slip->frank opening the may 9, 1977 show (on "get shown the light") is something i'd recommend a lot.

my first attempt at the dead _was_ the live/dead dark star and honestly i _still_ find it disappointing, although intellectually i've come around to it. that was one of the reasons i made that '69 dark star mix, because the live/dead version never clicked with me. '72 dark star is much more my speed... i like to refer to '72 dead as "shitty miles davis" (because in musicological terms i do feel like miles' fusion bands were much more technically adept). "shitty miles davis" is a compliment though! there's something to these people whose main qualities are an unhealthy relationship with psychedelic drugs and a mania for playing together. i don't think any other band has accomplished what they accomplished.

i'll second the recommendation of the veneta dark star from 8/27/1972.

i also find that the dead have very much a sense of place to them. all music is like that to some extent, set and setting, but now that i live on the west coast i understand the dead in a very different way than i did before i moved out here.

love that 68 carousel set and wish I could find my copy