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Week of October 2, 2017

Part 1 19:31
Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders, GarciaLive Volume 9 (8/11/74)
LA LA

Part 2 35:08
Grateful Dead 8/15/71 Berkeley Community Theater
WHITE RABBIT RIFF
PROMISED LAND
BIG BOSS MAN
CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER->
I KNOW YOU RIDER
ME AND BOBBY McGEE
CASEY JONES

Continuing with the tape we started on last week: August 15, 1971 at the Berkeley Community Theater. I talked last week about the lean-and-mean lineup of the band here – the original five players, with Pigpen playing a reduced role on the keyboards as his health declined and the improvisational power of the quartet of Jerry, Bob, Phil and Billy grew and grew. Another reason this recording is so clear is that there’s not a huge amount of stuff onstage – the guitarists are using simple amplification rigs with very few effects, and it’s just Billy on drums since Mickey Hart left the scene in February of that year. So you can hear everybody clearly. Plus it’s just a very strong performance by a band in its prime. The vocals are slightly overdriven on this particular recording, but not enough to interfere with the amazingness of the performance.

“White Rabbit riff” is a VERY amusing interaction with a member of the audience who made a weird request.

Enjoy!

Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from:

Dead and Company – Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, John Mayer, Jeff Chimenti and Oteil Burbridge – on tour November 12 through December 8. Complete details and ticketing at www-dot-deadandcompany-dot-com. That’s Dead and Company, on tour from November 12 through December 8.

The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. Jamband torchbearers Umphrey’s McGee play The Cap on October 20th and 21st. This will be one of the heaviest rocking and hardest dancing parties of the year. Events, information, and ticketing at thecapitoltheatre.com.

Red Roses, Green Gold, a new show from MWM Live by Michael Norman Mann, featuring the music and lyrics of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. It’s playing in New York City’s Greenwich Village at the Minetta Lane Theatre. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com or RedRosesGreenGold.com.

Posted here with the writer’s permission:

Dear David:

Through dead.net, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying archival presentations of your program “The Grateful Dead Hour” while slogging through stuff I have to deal with at the office. The Grateful Dead are 22 years past-tense, and from what I understand, finding their more listenable material requires going even further back in time. I wanted to tell you that I REALLY appreciate the quality of the research you’ve done or the guests whom you feature, and the alternate takes (from the Dead and others) of music they’ve played. It sounds very professionally done, and, with first-rate access you seem to have (to those who’ve crossed the paths of GD members in significant ways), worthwhile for listening. It’s very professional in the impression it leaves, even if that’s achieved more by creativity and innovation than by lavish budget. Anyway, without more polysyllabic puffery, very well done.

Context: I just turned 57 yrs old, and through accompaniment of a younger friend to two Dead & Co. Shows last June (in San Jose – we had to travel about 750 miles from my driveway north of Seattle), have become initially interested in things ‘Dead, but through the prism / filter of my pre-existing music prejudices. Allegedly I had my face stolen the second of those shows, but I’d say my interest level isn’t single-subject obsessive (hope that doesn’t come across as too arrogant – I don’t mean for it to), so it might be that I’m not a full-fledged Dead-head (but instead a novice). I’ve picked up some very good quality (of performance and recording) live ‘Dead CDs, playing them when I exercise in the basement after work. I’ve read the Lesh and Kreutzmann memoirs, seen “Long and Strange Trip”, and truthfully wonder how any of those 4 guys are still alive (let alone still perform). So although I’m old, and so is the music, it’s new to me, and an interesting discovery. It’s hard to get my arms around what all I was exposed to – an audience culture, a special vocabulary, a unique repertoire, and of course that tendency to improvise when my own instinct says, “please stay with the melody” (the best improvisation will do it anyway, but step around it). Anyway I hope they (Dead & Co.) stay at it long enough for me to catch a few more shows live, and intend to further explore your archives. I need to cultivate hearing of the interaction of individual instruments instead of melody/structure/texture/transition.

I don’t know when you’d get up to the Pacific Northwest, but would appreciate the opportunity to hear you play and sing.

With Respect and Gratitude…

[name withheld]

(There’s an archive of Grateful Dead Hour shows on dead.net; a new one is added every Wednesday.)