Tag: grateful dead

Grateful Dead – Dicks Picks, Vol. 1 – Tampa, FL (12/19/73)

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I find myself fascinated by Dick’s Picks and why he chose the shows he chose. I’m especially fascinated by This first one. It must have been both a wonderful opportunity and immensely stressful. You’ve got the keys to the vault; you can release any show you like. But which one do you choose? It must have felt important to him. Like that first pick would define who he was as a Deadhead. And if it failed, there wouldn’t be any more picks. He might lose his job. That’s a lot riding on one single show.

Dick was clearly a big fan of 1970s Dead. Almost all of his picks come from that decade. I wonder if he looked at the chronology of the releases that had come out by that point. There was Live/Dead from 1969 and Europe 72. Bear’s Choice came from 1970, and then you’ve got a release from 1974 (Steal Your Face) and another from 1975 (One From the Vault). Did he figure he needed to fill in that 1973 gap? Or did he think about something from the legendary May 1977 shows?

Who the heck knows? I tried to do a little research on this Pick, but the Internet sucks now, and I was unable to come up with much. 1973 is a colossal year for the Grateful Dead, so it certainly makes sense he’d choose a show from here.

The band members each had veto power over Dick’s choices. My understanding is Phil was especially difficult to please, so it’s possible Dick had several other shows in mind but, for one reason or another, was given a “no” for them. They also say that Phil demanded his solo be edited out of “The Other One” for some reason.

Unlike other Dick’s Picks, this is not the complete show, and the songs have been widely rearranged. Most of the first set is missing, and parts of the second set have been moved about onto the first disc. To a degree, I understand this and don’t really have a complaint about it. To have put the entire show out would have taken at least three CDs, probably four. That’s a lot of additional cost to produce. Narrowing it down to discs seems much more manageable. Especially at this point when they didn’t know how well these things would sell.

I’m old enough to remember the days of CD trading. Figuring out how to fit the music onto discs was always a challenge. First sets could usually easily fit on one desk, but second sets, with their massive jams, often ran over. But you didn’t want to cut up those massive jams either. Or all those songs that ran right into each other and got a “>” notation on the j-cards. Sometimes if there was extra room on the first disc, a song or two from the middle of the second set, or even the encore, might be thrown onto it. That beat having only one or two songs on a single disc or tape.

I’m less enthused about Phil’s bass solo getting cut out. That seems downright rude.

It is fascinating too seeing what did make the final cut. Why is “Big Railroad Blues” included and not “Dire Wolf”? Why did they keep “Around and Around” and lose “Jack Straw?” I certainly would have nixed the Chuck Berry cover.

But whatever, this shouldn’t be a what’s wrong with this release? post (I imagine Dick got more than a mouthful of that from Deadheads at the time). Let’s talk about what is here.

“Here Comes Sunshine” is actually the tenth song of the first set, but it starts our CD out here. It is a phenomenal version and makes it worth the price of admission alone. It is also a great example of what I love about the Grateful Dead.

I have to make an embarassing admission here. I don’t generally like it when the Dead jams a song deep into the cosmos. There is a point when their biggest jams leave all semblance of a song, and things get wonky. Those moments are often filled with dissonant notes, and extended noodles and I tend to start tuning it out or pressing the skip button.

I love the Dead’s improvisational jam style, but sometimes they go a little too far for my tastes. “Here Comes Sunshine” is the perfect blend. They start with the song, which is a good one. It has a wonderful, slightly odd rhythm to it, some great harmonies, and some classic opaque Robert Hunter lyrics. The song had just been released on their Wake of the Flood album in October of 1973, so it was relatively new, though they had been regularly playing it live since February of that year.

But after a couple of verses, they start to jam on it. At first the bones of the song are still there. Jerry is soloing all over the place, and Keith Godcheaux is getting down on the keyboards. But the rhythm section is still keeping the beat, but they are playing with it. They are adding in some extra notes. Slowly the song stretches and stretches until it no longer sounds like “Here Comes Sunshine.” I bet if you started playing it here and asked an average fan to name the song they wouldn’t be able to.

But it still sounds like what most people would consider to be music. It still sounds like a song. It has a nice beat, and my feet keep tapping, and I’m shaking my bones to it. I love these moments. I love feeling the band slip into something new and exciting, but not feeling like I need to plug my ears.

It is an all-time version of the song.

Now let’s move onto “Playing in the Band.” It officially closed the first set, and ended the first disc on this album. It is a song that often finished the first set, and it became a powerhouse jamming launchpad. Often the band will drive it headlong into the deepest, darkest parts of space. They don’t quite go that far in this version. I’d say they leave the stratosphere, but don’t venture much farther out. Not even to the moon.

Like “Here Comes Sunshine” they definitely break the confines of the song and stretch it into something else. They get close to completely breaking it, venturing into me pressing that skip button. But before my finger gets there, they bring it back down. There is plenty of good stuff here, but I’d argue it slips just slightly out of “great” territory for me.

The “Jam>The Other One>Jam” that sits right in the middle of the second disc does fall into that skip territory for me. It’s just a little too much for my tastes.

Weirdly, the band skips the “Across the Lazy River” section at the end of “Mississippi Half-Step” but it is otherwise a very good – if rather mellow and slinky – version. “Weather Report Suite” is also quite good with some excellent slide work from Mr. Garcia.

The rest ranges from quite good to fine. Nothing is bad. As I said, 1973 was a great year for the Dead, and they are firing on all cylinders. This does seem like a slightly mellow show. That’s actually borne out on the full tapes with all the songs. It is a very fine show, but probably not the one I would have picked if I were Dick. Not even if all I had was 1973 to choose from.

But it makes for a great start to this series, and obviously it did well enough to continue these releases, and for that we can all be happy.

Here’s the track list for Dicks Picks, Vol. 1

Disc one

Here Comes Sunshine
Big River
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Weather Report Suite
Big Railroad Blues
Playing in the Band

Disc two

He’s Gone
Truckin’
Nobody’s Fault but Mine
Jam
The Other One
Jam
Stella Blue
Around and Around

And here’s the full setlist:

Set 1:
Promised Land
Sugaree
Mexicali Blues
Sugar Shack
Dire Wolf
Black Throated Wind
Candyman
Jack Straw
Big Railroad Blues
Big River
Here Comes Sunshine
El Paso
Ramble On Rose
Playin’ In The Band

Set 2:
Mississippi Half-Step
Me And Bobby McGee
WRS Prelude
WRS Part 1
Let It Grow
He’s Gone
Truckin’
Nobody’s Fault But Mine
The Other One
Stella Blue
Around And Around

Encore:
Casey Jones

Picking on the Grateful Dead: The Dicks Picks Series

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Dick Latvala was the original Deadhead. He first heard them play at the Trips Festival in 1966 and remained a massive fan until his death in 1999. He was one of the earliest tapers and collectors and reportedly he amassed one of the biggest collections of Dead tapes in the world. In the early 1980s he started working for the Dead’s organization, just odd jobs mainly. It sounds like he basically just started hanging around, and eventually they put him to work.

The Dead had been recording their concerts from the earliest days, but they weren’t particularly organized with them. Dick changed that. He convinced the band that those recordings were a treasure trove and they needed to be organized and safely stored. This led to the creation of the infamous vault.

Dick’s management of the vault and his enthusiastic desire for more officially released live albums led to the Dick’s Picks series. The band was no stranger to live albums, having released Live/Dead in 1969 and a double album covering their legendary tour of Europe in 1972, plus several others. Those had been professional recordings on multitrack tapes. They were good and edited, mastered, and on at least one occasion, overdubbed.

The Dick’s Picks series would be pulled from two-track tapes, and took a warts and-all approach to the music. No edits, no overdubs, and if there was a flaw on the tape, that’s what you got. Most volumes included one entire show, though some contained complete second sets of two different shows, and others might just be highlight reels.

The band had the final say which caused some delays in the releases in the early days but eventually they seemed to just let Dick do what he wanted.

Between 1993 and 2006, they released 36 volumes in the Dick’s Picks series. Over half of them were released after Latvala’s death in 1993. After Dick’s death an actual archivist, David Lemiux, became keeper of the vault and he began a similar series, appropriately called Dave’s Picks, in 2012.

I thought it would be fun to listen to and then review each of the 36 Dick’s Picks. This will become the page I’ll link to all of those reviews. I hope you enjoy it.

PS that cover image is of the first Dicks Picks I ever bought. I remember it being a rip-roaring classic. I can’t wait to revisit it and talk about it.

Vol. 1 – Tampa, FL (12/19/73)

Watch Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings play the Grateful Dead

Gillian and Dave are curretnly doing a small tour where they are playing Grateful Dead and Dead adjacent tunes. None of the shows were anywhere near me (though they are playing a free gig in Tulsa later this month, but it isn’t listed as part of this tour, and presumably will play their own songs). Man I wish I’d spent the money and caught one of these shows. This snippet is amazing.

Shows in History: The Grateful Dead – Philadelphia, PA (03/24/86)

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On the old music site, I used to periodically do a Shows in History post where I’d link to all the shows that had taken place on today’s date throughout history. It was a fun way to highlight a bunch of different shows, and I always enjoyed seeing the wide variety of acts one could potentially have caught on a particular day.

Though I no longer post download links to shows, I still think that idea is a fun one.

I am going to try and actually listen to one of the shows that was performed on today’s date (whatever date that is) and maybe give a short review of it or some random thoughts. I know that won’t happen every day, as some days are weird, and busy, and I won’t have time to sit and listen to a full show. 

Knowing me, this will be the only time I do this at all. 

Today’s show is from the Grateful Dead back in 1986. That’s no one’s favorite year for the Dead. It is the infamous year that Garcia’s addictions/poor health put him in a diabetic coma in July.

But while this is certainly not Peak Grateful Dead nor the best that Jerry ever did, this is a pretty darn good show. The big news here is they played “Box of Rain” something they hadn’t regularly done in over a decade and a half. They’d played it a few nights before in Hampton, which was the first time they’d busted it out in some seventeen years. So it wasn’t a complete surprise when Phil started singing it this night, but you can hear the crowd roar in exultant joy.

The first set is well played but not spectacular. The second set features a very nice “Lost Sailor>Saint of Circumstance” with Bob doing a weird little rap in the transition about freedom.  Weirdly, the set ends with just one song being played after the “Drums/Space” combo, but it’s a very nice version of “Morning Dew.” It all ends with a quick little “In the Midnight Hour” for the encore.

So yeah, not the greatest of shows, but still a very good one.  If you’ve written off 1986 entirely, I’d give this one a go (and you can do just that over at the Archive)

Here’s the full setlist:

Grateful Dead
3/24/86
The Spectrum
Philadelphia, PA

–Set 1–
Alabama Getaway ->
Greatest Story Ever Told
Dire Wolf
Little Red Rooster
Brown Eyed Women
My Brother Esau
Ramble on Rose
El Paso
Box of Rain

–Set 2–
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo ->
Man Smart (Women Are Smarter)
High Time
Lost Sailor ->
Saint of Circumstance ->
Drums ->
Space ->
Morning Dew

–Encore–
In the Midnight Hour

Other shows that took place on this day:

Jackson Browne – Osaka, Japan (03/24/77)
Led Zeppelin – Los Angeles, CA (03/24/75)
Bruce Hornsby – Daytona Beach, FL (03/24/87)
Bela Fleck – Dublin, Ireland (02/03/24)
Queen – Himeji, Japan (03/24/76)
Eric Clapton – Charlotte, NC (03/24/78)
Steve Earle – Dallas, TX (03/24/89)

Those links just go to show information; there is nothing to download. I feel a little guilty that I spent some fifteen years providing you all with thousands of shows to download and then just one day stopped and transitioned to talking about movies. 

Maybe someday I’ll go back to sharing shows, but that won’t ever be on this site. But I still want to talk about music more. That seems only fair. One idea I have is to do regular show reviews.  And maybe provide lots of information about the different shows – setlists, artwork, various reviews, etc. That’s a lot of work, and I get so involved with my movie stuff that I forget to do that sort of thing. So this is like a step in that direction. I hope you like it.  If you do, please leave me a comment.

Rest in Peace Bob Weir (1947-2026)

Earlier this afternoon I was watching a movie. When it was over, I looked at my phone. There were messages from friends from all over the country. They were all saying something like, “I hate to be the one to tell you, but Bob Weir has passed.”

I didn’t know what to say. Now I don’t know what to write. I’m still processing the news. 

I first listened to the Grateful Dead in high school. I bought Skeletons From the Closet – a collection of their “greatest hits” from one of those Columbia House deals where you got 12 CDs for a penny or some such thing. I liked quite a lot of it, but found some of it to be a bit weird (strangely, I absolutely loved “Rosemary” one of the most un-Dead like things they ever recorded.)

But I didn’t venture any farther than that until college. I had a buddy who had a handful of shows he’d recorded off a guy he knew in high school whose brother was a collector (the kid would allow him to tape one show every time my friend would take him to McDonald’s for lunch.) He’d play those tapes loud while we were driving around Montgomery, Alabama, and I totally dug it (I also thought the idea of these unofficially released tapes was just the coolest.)

From there I bought American Beauty, and I’ve been on the bus ever since.

In 1994 the Dead came to Birmingham, and my friend asked me if I wanted to go with him. The tickets were like $30 (!), which I thought was way too expensive for my budget, so I figured I’d catch them the next time they came around. Obviously, they never did come around again for the next year Jerry was dead.

I did get to see Bob Weir in various bands over the years and always loved the shows. The last time I got to see him was on the Americanarama tour in Nashville. That was the time Bob Dylan toured around with bands like Wilco and My Morning Jacket. Weir did just a few gigs with them as a solo artist. Before that show, we were all standing around outside the gate, waiting for them to open it. It was an outdoor venue, and the fence keeping us out wasn’t very high.

Suddenly I hear a familiar sound. I’d know Bob Weir’s guitar sound anywhere. Sure enough, I peek over the fence, and there he is, standing all by his lonesome on stage with his guitar. It was a soundcheck, and I could hear him clear as day. He ran through several songs, including a great version of Dylan’s “Most of the Time.”  

People all around me were chatting and paying no attention. I kept giving them glares and quietly telling them all to shut up. Didn’t they know one of the greats was on stage giving us a little private concert?

I was enthralled. And Bob wasn’t just going through the motions; he was really playing and singing those songs. He was always the consummate musician. Later that night he joined Wilco for a rousing version of “Bird Song” and an incredible cover of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

I had tickets to see him with Dead & Co. in Texas for their “final tour” but I got sick and couldn’t go.

I’m rambling now. Like I said, I’m still processing this loss. I’ve loved The Grateful Dead and Bob Weir for longer than I’ve lost just about anything else. If there is any comfort in this, it is that his music will live on without him. Those songs are timeless. And the fact that so many of his shows were recorded means we can still be listening to them for decades to come.

I’m not good at knowing what my favorite performances of anything are. So I don’t have a list of Bob Weir’s greatest moments.  But someone mentioned this performance of “Greatest Story Ever Told” and by god it is a good one.

Five Cool Things and Moe Howard

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I think I’m going to go through all my Five Cool Things articles that I wrote for Cinema Sentries and post them here. I’ll do it in chronological order starting with the oldest.

I’m going to enjoy re-reading them and seeing how this series develops. For this one, my second ever to write, I talk a bit about how I came up with the idea and the name for the series. For the “And…” part I just used a picture of Moe Howard. I guess it took me a little while to actually start writing something about the sixth thing instead of just being silly.

I also write about Superman, Hell or High Water, Singing in the Rain, The Grateful Dead and Dumbo.

You can read it all here.

Sting & The Grateful Dead – Las Vegas, NV (05/16/93)

Sting
The Grateful Dead
Sunday May 16, 1993
Las Vegas, Nevada USA
Sam Boyd Silver Bowl

Sting Set

  1. welcome to las vegas
  2. Blackbird
  3. band intros
  4. Ain’t No Sunshine
  5. Children’s Crusade
  6. Seven Days
  7. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
  8. Fortress Around Your Heart
  9. Penny Lane
  10. banter – Lethal Weapon 3
  11. It’s Probably Me
  12. Sister Moon (snippet)
  13. Shape Of My Heart
  14. Purple Haze
  15. Message In A Bottle
  16. She’s Too Good For Me
  17. Nothing ‘Bout Me
  18. encore break
  19. band intros
  20. Fragile
  21. Sting outtro, break music Lawdy Miss Clawdy

Grateful Dead Set

Set 1:
d1t01 – Tuning
d1t02 – Touch Of Grey
d1t03 – Walkin’ Blues
d1t04 – Althea
d1t05 – When I Paint My Masterpiece
d1t06 – Row Jimmy
d1t07 – Cassidy

Set 2:
d2t01 – Samson And Delilah
d2t02 – Help On The Way ->
d2t03 – Slipknot! ->
d2t04 – Franklin’s Tower
d2t05 – Looks Like Rain ->
d2t06 – Terrapin Station ->
d2t07 – Drums ->

d3t01 – Space ->
d3t02 – The Other One ->
d3t03 – Wharf Rat ->
d3t04 – Throwing Stones ->
d3t05 – Turn On Your Lovelight

Encore:
d3t06 – Brokedown Palace

Various Artists – Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan, Vol. 21

Various Artists
Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan, Vol. 21: They’ll Stone You When You’re Playing Your Guitar

As you’ve probably guessed from its title, this volume features some great guitar players spinning their magic on Bob’s tunes.

01 Rainy Day Women (instrumental) – Phil Lesh and Friends with Warren Haynes and Jimmy Herring (Apr 20, 2001, Independence Hall Cricket Arena, Charlotte, NC)
02 Highway 61 Revisited – Johnny Winter (Jul 27, 1980, Blues ‘N’ Tattoo, New York, NY)
03 Quinn the Eskimo – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1970, Paris Theatre, London, England)
04 Going Going Gone – Richard Hell with Robert Quine (Jul 14, 1982, Old Waldorf, San Francisco, CA)
05 Don’t Ya Tell Henry – The Band (Aug 17, 1969, Woodstock, Bethel, NY)
06 Queen Jane Approximately – Grateful Dead(Oct 8, 1989, Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA)
07 Watching the River Flow – Joe Cocker and Eric Clapton (NOV 28, 1983, ARMS Benefit, Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX)
08 Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Bill Kirchen (Aug 7, 2005, Rancho Nicasio Nicasio, CA)
09 Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? – Jimi Hendrix (May 5, 1968, Fillmore East, New York, NY)
10 Isis – Derek Trucks Band (Dec 31, 2003, Visulite Theater, Charlotte, NC)
11 This Wheel’s On Fire – The Black crowes (May 13th, 2006, Labatt Centre, London, ON)
12 One More Cup of Coffee – Chris Duarte (Feb 3,2007, Mexicali Blues, Teaneck, NJ)
13 Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door – Guns N’ Roses (Dec 19, 1987, Madison, WI)
14 All Along the Watchtower – Night of the Guitars with Randy California, Robby Krieger, and Phil Manzanera (Apr 30, 1989, Stadthalle, Heidelberg, Germany)