The Grateful Dead Dark Star

[Kate]

"Vacuuming up all RT Bonus Discs" was just one of the 4,679 immediate uses I had tabbed for last week's 1.5bn Powerball windfall.  Right behind purchasing Martinique and contracting Kipnis to install an Outer Limits system in the Listening/Viewing Room of my Caribbean Palace./p,k

[mjzee]

Just finished listening to Dave's Picks 16 (Springfield, MA, 3/28/73).  Disc 3 is simply outstanding: Weather Report Suite Prelude > Dark Star > Eyes Of The World > Playing In The Band, with Johnny B. Goode as an encore.  Sound quality is fine, and Donna sounds especially good that night.

[Steve Reynolds]

56 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Just finished listening to Dave's Picks 16 (Springfield, MA, 3/28/73).  Disc 3 is simply outstanding: Weather Report Suite Prelude > Dark Star > Eyes Of The World > Playing In The Band, with Johnny B. Goode as an encore.  Sound quality is fine, and Donna sounds especially good that night.

On my list to pick up as it is available for a fair price. Plus I love that it is early 1973 and has a version of "Here Comes Sunshine" which must be right about when they first played it as I don't believe Wake of the Flood had not even been release at that point. It's a great tune that they only performed live for a very short period of time. The two live versions I have from later in 1973 are both fantastic and the tune opens up for a great mid tempo improvisation. 

Edited January 23, 2016 by Steve Reynolds

[mjzee]

1 hour ago, Steve Reynolds said:

On my list to pick up as it is available for a fair price. Plus I love that it is early 1973 and has a version of "Here Comes Sunshine" which must be right about when they first played it as I don't believe Wake of the Flood had not even been release at that point. It's a great tune that they only performed live for a very short period of time. The two live versions I have from later in 1973 are both fantastic and the tune opens up for a great mid tempo improvisation. 

Yes, that tune's always been special to me.  The harmonies are especially lovely on this performance.  The liner notes say the tune was only a few weeks old at this point.  Wake Of The Flood came out in September.  There's also a really good They Love Each Other, and (a surprise to me) Donna doing Loretta Lynn's You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man).  A real barn-burner!  This concert was less than two weeks after the first time I saw the Dead, 3/16/73 at the Nassau Coliseum.

[mjzee]

September 18, 1974, Dijon, France: Special mention must be made of the Playing In The Band that ends the first set.  Very unusual, not like any other PITB I've heard.  Very trippy; sounds like a late-second-set performance in the first set.  This bodes well for the second set.  Next: Seastones.

[mjzee]

I'm now listening to 5/14/78 and really enjoying it: the band is tight, up and lively.  My impression of the box so far is that the concerts are getting better as we move through time.  The earlier concerts...my gut feeling is that Rhino/Dave treated the box as a vehicle to present shows that couldn't stand on their own as a Dave's Picks.  It's a grab bag: some are too short, others too variable.  But 76, 77 and now 78 are really hitting that groove.  I'm actually looking forward to the more underrepresented years, like 1983.  I know it'll be iffy, but it might be fascinating listening because of that.

[Steve Reynolds]

I have a hard time with anything after 1977. Even the Closing of Winterland from 12/31/78 isn't as good as the set list would indicate. I have always liked Dead Set & Reckoning from 1980 but the live shows I've tried to withstand from 1981 on are very hard for me to deal with.

for me lately, 1969 and especially 1970 are the peak. After Mickey left in February 1971, the shows from 1971 right through to the October 1974 run at Winterland are mostly good to great. February 18, 1971 is From the Vault 3 and it is as burning a show as they ever played. Way tighter than the later large venue two drummer bands.

Dicks Picks 4 from 2/13/70 and 2/14/70 is my current favorite 

fwiw, I would love to hear the 1967 concert on the 30 year box

 

Edited March 8, 2016 by Steve Reynolds

[mjzee]

1 hour ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Dicks Picks 4 from 2/13/70 and 2/14/70 is my current favorite 

 

FYI, the Good Lovin' that was performed on 2/13/70 is a bonus track on Bear's Choice.

[mjzee]

On January 18, 2016 at 7:45 PM, Kate said:

In a nod to the thread title, it's a succinct editorial on both the breadth and brilliance of the GD's live performance catalogue that I was not aware of this particular incarnation until prompted by poster over on the Ark earlier this p.m., which, at 42+ minutes covers diverse terrain, but with an artistic cogency that invites attentive listening throughout:

http://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1973/12/6/dark-star

peace, K

 

Just coincidentally, my iPod, set on random, played this Dark Star today.  Very abstract, trippy, spacey, name your adjective here... but very powerful.  Phil dominates, and the interplay between him and Jerry is just exquisite.  Not to be missed, especially if you love the way Dark Star morphed over the years.

[Steve Reynolds]

Been listening to much Dead lately with an emphasis on many different Dark Stars from 68 through 74. I have the bug?

[Kate]

68-74 is artistically sterile.  To begin with, the play in 68-69 is largely a drug-addled, uninspired, morass that accurately typifies the close of a culturally insignificant decade.  Still, even the much-derided Feb-Mar 69 Fillmore run - as well as the resulting, and roundly criticized, dismal "Live/Dead" - is a veritable wonder compared to the commercially contrived acoustic foray of 70.  Not surprising though, given the corrupting influence of CSN's woefully disharmonious vocalizing while loitering about Mickey's ranch just prior.  Then, 71, like 73, is a mere footnote in the band's history, and there's been some mention of a largely unforgettable European tour somewhere in between, which, given the quality of play at the time, might've been reasonably perceived by our Western allies as an act of cultural warfare.  Too bad the boys didn't give greater consideration to the bohemian allure of becoming expats, because by 74 they'd completely lost their bearings, becoming a second-rate lounge act performing a brand of jazz-fusion suitable only for entertaining mutants and farm animals.

As president of Organissimo's chapter of the Steve Reynolds' fan club - and a fellow Head who orients her musical compass to true north based on your recommendations - I hold out hope that the preceding post is just a poorly conceived April Fool's joke.   Incidentally, your time would be much better spent exploring the verdant soundscapes of 83-84./peace, K

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by Kate

[John L]

[Steve Reynolds]

One never knows what be real.....

 

maybe one day my new minion Kate might take a visit to NYC this August and experience a tired,decrepit, dying sub-genre of music known as free jazz with losers has beens/never weres like Joe McPhee, William Parker, Joe Morris, Tony Malaby, Hamid Drake, Gerald Cleaver, Taylor Ho Bynum, Mat Maneri all playing within 4 days of each other with a few sets that have the double drumming pair of the above Cleaver and Drake!!!! 

All available from a few feet away.....

not sure about 83-84 Dead though.....???

[Kate]

I suppose one could hope...however, little grasshopper also dreams that Master Po might step out of the 1950s and away from a now-marginal genre associated with easy listening background music, a la Kenny G and Norah Jones, while joining her in a traveling celebration of vibrant music's new standard bearer on his Tats-Across-America Tour!  So, in case miracles do come true (though not for Aston Villa this morning (EST, that is)), I leave you the key to the kingdom:  http://www.justinbiebertour2016.org/ 

I have a nagging feeling that this carriage morphed into a pumpkin sometime around midnight....sooo, "Now back to your regularly scheduled programming..." (at least for the next 364-odd days)...p/k

 

[mjzee]

Shock: 10/12/84 may have the best Morning Dew I've ever heard.  I've never been a big fan of the song, but Garcia is ferocious on it.  A very pleasant surprise.  There's a good energy on the whole concert; the band sounds like they're having fun.

[Steve Reynolds]

Dick's Picks 16 from 11/8/69 contains continuous 90 minute playing covering most of discs 2 & 3. Despite not optimum sound for Garcia's guitar, this is mostly beastly primo primal Dead in peak awe inspiring power improv mode

[AmirBagachelles]

Morning Dew... **THE song that perhaps best enabled young and old Deadheads to bear similar witness to the band's best**  ....good to the last drop.       

[Steve Reynolds]

Digging into the Shrine 11/10/67 show - fascinating to hear the boys learning how to play. The ultra early The Other One Suite is pretty fucking incredible

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

On 5/2/2016 at 6:20 AM, mjzee said:

Shock: 10/12/84 may have the best Morning Dew I've ever heard.  I've never been a big fan of the song, but Garcia is ferocious on it.  A very pleasant surprise.  There's a good energy on the whole concert; the band sounds like they're having fun.

 

not shocked

[Steve Reynolds]

In the midst of a very long and now in depth thorough personal re-evaluation listening journey of all things Dead with my focus, as always, centering on Jerry Garcia despite my interest in the other's music and imput, especially Phil Lesh. Without Lesh, the band doesn't exist and never makes it to 1970. His influence on the direction and success of the music cannot be understated. 

Not sure why I bring that up here but this morning I put 5/2/70 in the player starting with the cut into St. Stephen. This was the beginning of the electric set of I'm not mistaken. Segue into The Other One Suite>Cosmic Charlie. Then Casey Jones and Good Lovin'

for me the Pig Pen Good Lovins are way more miss than hit - BUT 69-70 versions of the others above are powerhouse vehicles for strongest hard core rock music ever played in the history of time. The *only* stuff that compares for me from The Dead of that time is the Viola Lee Blues that is on disc 2 and a few Alligator/Caution blowouts as well as many of the Dark Stars from this time-frame.

sure there was much great very heavy rock music made in the period of 67- 75 or so and I've long been a fan and follower of much of it but this stuff has an extra special gift of being played with an improvisatory bent and the band happens to include 2 dudes who transcend their instruments and basically in conjunction with the band, invented a new kind of music. 

5/2/70 is right in the middle of all of it 

[mjzee]

A few words about the Meet Up At The Movies I just caught.  7/2/89, Sullivan Stadium, Foxboro, MA.  A few things struck me: the organized chaos at the heart of the band; there did not seem to be a true leader that evening - everyone was just reacting to what they were collectively creating; and how strong Brent was - at that point, he really was an integral part of the band, not just an accompanist.  Jerry was smiling, Phil was subdued and serious, and there was a real connection between Bob and Brent.  Even Mickey was more laid-back, with Kreutzmann being more in-front.  The stadium sound was great, and you really felt like you were up on stage with them.

[Kate]

Art imitates Life?

http://www.showbiz411.com/2016/05/23/exclusive-grateful-dead-documentary-is-now-a-four-hour-mini-series-set-for-fall-reveal

 

 

[Kate]

Topical JG interview from an expectedly knowledgeable source; a fine discourse on the nutznboltz of stylistic play...

http://www.guitarplayer.com/miscellaneous/1139/gp-flashback--jerry-garcia-october-1978/11702

 

 

[mjzee]

Just finished listening to Paris 10/27/90.  Very nice; disc 3 has a wonderful vibe about it.  Bruce Hornsby was a great fit for them.

https://archive.org/details/gd90-10-27.sbd.braverman.9373.sbefail.shnf

[StarThrower]

Listening to Hartford '77, Oakland 12/26/79, and Beat Club Germany '72. Jerry sure sounded great on that blonde strat!