POLL away the dew... Best Grateful Dead recurring live jam/transition piece

'Bird Song' is one Dead tune that when they jam on it, some interesting stuff comes out too, outside the more well known tunes for improvisation. It's got a lilt that makes it good to riff on the melody and play with the chords.

Hey Western® with Bacon Flavor, I urge you to check out Dark Star from 9/27/72 (Dick's Picks Vol. 11). Personally I think Jerry nails the verse ;)

That's the closest I get to a birthday Dead show. I wasn't too impressed, but I will give it another try.

10/17/83 has a great bird song xxp

^The early 80s are mostly a blind spot for me Deadwise. I'm checking out that 10/17/83 Bird Song right now and yep it's really nice--Jerry is extremely ON.

I need to shout out 8/1/73, which features both a lovely Bird Song and--in my very arguable opinion--the greatest Dark Star ever played. Keith shining brightly on the Fender Rhodes throughout.

this is the only 80s show i know decently because the sugaree was touted and i had a sugaree phase. overall i can't stand brent and bob is unbearable in this era

ooh yes this bird song is lovely. excited for the DS. i like the 73 ones where they do noisy feedback

Cryptical Envelopment 1 -> The Other One -> Cryptical Envelopment 2 on Fillmore East 2/11/69

J Sam thx for the rec will seek it out

overall i can't stand brent and bob is unbearable in this era

Brent's voice has grown on me a little over the years, though I still find it slightly annoying.

Bob...I mean...what the fuck did he think he was doing? Was he trying to (over)compensate for Jerry's onstage nodding or something?

what the fuck did he think he was doing?

he was doing cocaine

lol
Bobs vocal improvisations are just the worst. “Estimated prophet “ In particular
NAH NAH NAH DONT WORRY BOUT ME NO

I’ve listened to enough at this point where when I’m looking to pull on a random live show I’m fully expecting to skip through a good chunk of Weir and Cringe-pen led songs. The world never needed 10+ minute renditions of “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl.”

I don't know, I've kinda come back around full circle on some of those Pig vamps. Every now and then the band lands on a killer groove and I get into 'em.

100% agreed on Bobby's vocal improvs tho, especially when he'd inject the falsetto

Shorts must have been a little too tight

There is not a single listenable ‘80s or ‘90s “Estimated Prophet.” Even the ones with David Murray, Bob has to ruin everything with his horseshittery.

Pig instructing the men in the audience to take their hands out of their pockets and go proposition the nearest female during every Lovelight and Weir's Mexicali Statutory Rapist Blues are deal breakers for me. Can't skip either of those songs fast enough. Also, any song where Brent digs into the pain he feels as a drugged up musician on the road away from his family. So gross.

I'm no Pigpen stan but "Mr. Charlie" simply rips. And "The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)" is a pretty good tough-guy-gets-sensitive song, and it makes me sad he didn't get a chance to explore that avenue further

He’s pretty good on Easy Wind. Little Bobby certainly couldn’t have pulled that lyric off, and with Jerry it would have taken on a melancholy reflective tinge like Wharf Rat does

lol
Bobs vocal improvisations are just the worst. “Estimated prophet “ In particular
NAH NAH NAH DONT WORRY BOUT ME NO

On this day in 1974 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, the Grateful Dead debuted their "Wall Of Sound" PA system. Every instrument and every microphone had its own separate set of speakers. The output was crystal-clear from half a mile away.
They dragged it, and two stage setups leapfrogging each other, around the continent during an oil embargo crisis. It was so innovative, and so expensive, that seven months later they abandoned it and took some time off to wait for the rest of the music industry to catch up to them.

(from a friend)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Jesd35ex402z.jpg

I know many of the Dick's Picks and some of the European shows pretty well. They could take off on some of those sets for like 90 minutes straight. This one is pretty wild.

"Dark Star" -> (Garcia, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, Weir, Hunter) – 29:41
"That's It for the Other One" -> (Grateful Dead) – 30:07
"Turn On Your Love Light" (Malone, Scott) – 30:27

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick%27s_Picks_Volume_4

That huge one on Hundred Year Hall is really cool.

I feel pretty confident that, were he alive today, Jerry would have surfaced in the covidiots in music thread

'Chlor'quin', like the Trump-ah man
Once told me "You've got to look at the sun"
Sometimes they won't let you have any fun
If you don't have a mask

Dick's Pick's 16 is one of my favorites cause nearly the entire show is one continuous jam with weird digressions:

Dark Star > 14:43
The Other One > 12:00
Dark Star > 1:05
Uncle John's Jam > 2:34
Dark Star 3:24
Saint Stephen > 7:01
The Eleven > 14:34
Caution > 17:43
Main Ten Jam> 3:12
Caution > 8:26
Feedback > 8:32
And We Bid You Goodnight 3:31

I had to look that one up because my initial view of that set list had me thinking Weir and Pig must have had laryngitis or something but that just looks to be the latter half of the set.

Yeah, I just realized that archive.org (where I took that from) is missing most of the first half of the official release.

Estimated > Eyes is a favorite of late

Speaking of live Dead, they just announced an underwhelming reissue of Skull and Roses with a second disc pulled from 7/2/71. Kinda surprised to see this since they've always said the series of 50th anniversary reissues wasn't going to include live albums.

Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA (7/2/71)
1. GOOD LOVIN' [17:47]
2. SING ME BACK HOME [10:16]
3. MAMA TRIED [3:08]
4. CRYPTICAL ENVELOPMENT> [2:25]
5. DRUMS> [5:13]
6. THE OTHER ONE [15:51]
7. BIG BOSS MAN [5:27]
8. NOT FADE AWAY> [3:57]
9. GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD FEELING BAD [9:39]
10. NOT FADE AWAY [2:35]"

Late 80s/90s “good lovin” another good example of Bobby going off the rails vocally

doing a dive into the ‘77 performances of Help/Slip/Frank and they are absolutely stomping.

the Dark Star at Pirates World is jolly good fun, 1970-03-24, Dania, FL.

https://archive.org/details/gd70-03-24.sbd.miller.32054.sbeok.flacf/gd70-03-24d2t01.flac

xxxxxxxxxp I think 1st August 73 was a Jerry's birthday show. I think I noticed more of a soul influence on teh night when I was listening to it a few years ago. Used to have it on a cassette tape so that goes back several years.
JUst remember having it playing as i was on a bus through kilburn . Which is a snippet stuck in my head.
Anyway good gig.

as to introduction live sets
I think Two From The Vault which is them at a peak in August 68.
Dick's Picks vol 4 which is another peak in may 70.
I guess the peak for 69 is Feb/March as utilised for Live dead and the Fillmore 69 sets.

not really sure about peak months for later years.
Do think that Veneta set that is Now Sunshine Daydream which conveniently comes with teh film as a dvd in the package.
Was listening to Pacific Northwest 3cd earlier which is good but not sure about best for year. oh yeah it spans 2 for one thing.

I meant to pick up the 50th anniversary sets but haven't done so so far.
Good to know most stuff was up at archive.org if it still is. Was stil streaming the sets that were offically released last time i looked while they had removed the ability to individually d/ld those gigs.

WOW this is the best sounding AUD i think i have ever heard

https://archive.org/details/gd1975-09-28.fob.menke-falanga.motb-0069.91769.flac16/gd1975-09-28.motb.0069.d1t01.flac

Don’t have the details here in front of me but there is an audience recording of a 1971 show from Hollywood Bowl that is unreal. Super crisp and it puts you right in the belly of the beast, so to speak. Check it out.

8/6/71- the hard to handle on it is great, haven't listened to much of the rest because i don't dig that era too much

'71 is a tough year for me to fully love. A lot of the primal dust has shaken off by this point, but they've yet to launch into the expansive explorations that would come in '72. Which isn't to say there's not a ton of good material to be found, but there are a lot of shows that feel like two first sets instead of a first and second set flow.

Is there a name for the extended jam they sometimes do at the end of Eyes of the World?

'stronger than dirt' i think, and they always play it tremendously sloppily

someone is going into labor in the crowd in this show. music stopped while they call for a doctor. followed up by 'music never stopped' haha

I like how that 1975 show begins with two minutes of tuning and noodling so obvious that even I, a non-Deadhead, would know "oh, they're opening with "Help on the Way."

Isn't stronger than dirt a commercial jingle that teh Doors also used in places. Presumably for a domestic cleaner or bleach or something

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToNNpP6DVsw

This Other One Uncle Sandwich tho... https://archive.org/details/gd71-11-14.sbd.miller.23568.sbeok.shnf/gd71-11-14d2t05.shn
(killer 1st set too)

bit frustrated the Mountain Goats singer introduced me to headyversion on a jamband podcast and just furthering my rabbit hole descent.

78 Unidome IA has a hot fire Scarlet/Fire and terrif The Other One

Gonna allow post-jerry dead incarnations in this thread as well, because this slipknot from dead & co on 9/18/21 checked all the right boxes for me: https://archive.org/details/DeadCo2021-09-18.travitz.litz.schoepsCMC64v.flac16/DeadCo2021-09-18t17.flac#

I'll bite, since I was at Wrigley for both shows. That was indeed an absolutely killer "Slipknot", even if I'm loath to even try to compare this configuration to the Dead proper. But having seen Dead & Co 8 times now, I can confidently say that they have never sounded better than they did during that second set Saturday night. The band is on fire right now and locked in on a lot of levels. Yes the tempos can be slow, no it's not Jerry (and quite honestly, I think more Heads would appreciate this band if they didn't go into it expecting them to be, but that's a discussion for another time), but they have really congealed as a unit. It felt like Bobby was giving John much more leash (especially Friday night) and Jeff and Oteil are both stepping up. There was a moment during one jam where Chimenti and Mayer were locked in and sharing huge smiles, it was great.

I think the second set was a bit of a way to make up for the rain/lightning shorted first show - one set with a "China > Rider", "Estimated > Eyes" AND "Help > Slip > Frank's"? Yes, please. The only misstep is that "Days Between" was not the ballad I'd have hoped for coming out of that "Space > Milestones" jam.

Anyway, this is now likely the most words written ever on this forum about Dead & Co and will likely be the only ones, between these last two posts. :)

I have never seen Dead & Co but caught my first JRAD show a couple weeks ago. Loved it. It was almost like they were teasing me by basing the second set around my least favorite subset of the Dead's repertoire - 80s Bobby songs. Set started with Feel Like a Stranger and the song they wove in and out of other tunes was Throwing Stones. But the musicianship, ideas, energy were so top notch that it was great. Plus the songs peppered in between those - Help/Slip and Shakedown St - are some of my favorites of funky Dead.

Oh yeah, JRAD are fucking phenomenal. I hope to get to see them live soon. They can stretch out the least likely, most hated 80s songs and take them in fascinating directions. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if they could turn a "Day Job > Samba in the Rain" into an absolute half-hour gem.

Do SBDs float around for these shows?

also lol in the recording reviews:

Reviewer: Devil's Friend - ★☆☆☆☆ - September 20, 2021
Subject: Balloons and Barking
Where's the recording of you wrecking Death Don't Have No Mercy for everyone in your section at Noblesville? I asked you to STFU before things escalated. Idiot. For a dude that tapes and probably goes to a lot of shows, you are most "unDeadhead". You came across like a man-baby fighting with seat neighbors over a BALLOON. Your woman looked completely ashamed and embarrassed by you. She deserves better.

lol tapers

At the JRAD show I went to they played Comfortably Numb - as best as I could tell it was a debut? I read somewhere that they played an all-Floyd set at a festival or something, so probably it grew from there, but couldn't find any indication that it had been played at a regular show. Anyway, after that funk melange of all those songs I listed above, second set ended with Comfortably Numb>Morning Dew. They got all the soaring guitar heroics out of the way in Comfortably Numb so they then took Morning Dew in a totally different direction, with a funky, rhythmic guitar/keys duet. It was unique and super cool. Here's the full setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/joe-russos-almost-dead/2021/westville-music-bowl-new-haven-ct-438cc777.html