10/28/72 hello Cleveland

 

satellite view of the Dead lighting up downtown Cleveland

It is peak fall in my neck of the woods, and fall '72 feels very right right now.  So here are some scattered observations about this show, not one for the "best of 72" list but a very enjoyable one, marred by a poor quality recording, and one that caught my eye for a couple of setlist oddities.  Not to mention another big ol' Dark Star.

So, the Dead in Cleveland.  Someone help me here: there's a Cleveland Convention Center with two venues, the smaller Music Hall and the larger Public Hall.  The Dead played the Public Hall in 1972, 73, 79, and 80, but played the Music Hall in 1970, 78, and 81 -- is that right?  There are pics of 12/6/73 in a larger art deco auditorium with a huge stage, which is said to be the Public Hall.

The Rowan Brothers opened this show, according to this review.

Like a lot of later fall 72 tapes, the mix stinks.  I've seen many of these fall 72 sbds referred to as "monitor mixes" and I have repeated that myself, but I don't think that's accurate: from what I understand now, the band didn't have a separate monitor feed in 1972, let alone individual monitor mixes for different bandmembers.  So my guess is that this tape (made by Bear) is a straight sbd feed.  Vocals and drums are the loudest, Lesh's bass is the lowest, and the guitars and piano move around.  It's what we've got.

Weir picks the opener for the show, but Garcia's first two choices this evening are Friend of the Devil and China>Rider.  I have opined elsewhere that 9/21/72 has perhaps Garcia's most inspired opening gambit (Bird Song and China>Rider), but this sure ain't a bad way to get the ball rolling.  As far as I can tell, this was the earliest placement in a show that FOTD ever had (with the Dead at any rate; dunno about JGB).  

Another first set highlight is a spirited Box of Rain.  I like how Weir screams loudly as Lesh counts it off.  Weir screams a lot during this show.

Weir's mic craps out during Bobby McGee, prompting a pause for a replacement.  Garcia noodles Teddy Bear's Picnic.  Evidently someone from the crowd is throwing marshmellows onstage, which nobody in the band seems particular fazed about.

They play Candyman for the first time in just over a year.

Playing in the Band is, no surprise, another late '72 monster, nothing too unusual for the period, but whoa.  Hard to fully assess what's happening here since the bass is so low, but Garcia and Kreutzmann are locked in like Coltrane and Elvin Jones, and the peak they hit @15:45 is wonderful (hear Weir holler in delight, yet again).  There's a long, luscious swim back to the reprise that's marred by a small cut, but this one is still a keeper.

Opening the second set with He's Gone seems like the move of a supremely confident band.  It wasn't actually that unusual a move in fall 72, but it happened rarely after that.

Greatest Story Ever Told is a freakin' rager!  I mean they all are, but this one is extra hot.  Jerrrry.

Attics of My Life!  This was the second of only two played that year, and the last one in front of an audience until 1989!  Oh woe.  It sounds so good.

This Big River is not a particularly noteworthy one, but it does inaugurate a brief and unexpected tradition of Big River preceding a really heavy duty Dark Star (see also 2/15/73, 10/19/73, 10/30/73, 11/11/73, 12/6/73, 9/10/74 - weird, right?)

Roadmap to this monster Dark Star: This initial jam feels like I'm lost in a dark forest, groping towards bright lights in the distance.  Lesh's bass is audible, but still lower than everything else.  After 5 minutes, they smoothly pick up the tempo, Garcia sizzling away as Godchaux skips stones behind him; they're mostly cruising along in good ol' A mixolydian, and Garcia builds to a beautiful peak at 9:30ish, then settles thing down as he glides into the first verse a couple minutes later.  Things proceed as usual as they ease back and Lesh takes center stage... he doodles around, Garcia and Kreutzmann join in, but just when things seem like they're about to tip over into darkness, Lesh begins strumming the chords of the theme that's now known for posterity as the "Philo Stomp" jam.  Not a fan of that name, but oh well.  It's an incongruously perky little thing, but everyone joins in and Garcia pulls back into the Dark star mode, and this just sounds triumphant.  Check out him trilling @19:30!  Oh man.  By 22 min, Garcia has twisted off in a weirder direction and they start building to a Tiger, albeit via the scenic route.  It boils over at 24:45, rages hard for a minute, then abruptly stops.  They splash around for the final two minutes; I hear no piano here at all; and then Bob boots 'em into Sugar Magnolia.  I wouldn't call this a Dark Star for the ages, nor even one in the top tier of 1972, but we're still talking about a full 3-course meal here; just stunning that something like this is second-level for the year.

This Dark Star, for me, will forever be associated with Dick Latvala's epic introduction from the Grateful Dead Hour, which was once upon a time the only source for this jam.  Treat yourself to a listen.  Dick sounds like he just snorked down a bongwater martini and would have been in no shape whatsoever to deliver a lengthy seaside chat.  "My armpit left the universe."  God bless ya, Dick.

Nice touch in Sugar Magnolia: during the pause before Sunshine Daydream, you can hear Bob jokingly tell Donna as she walks out, "take your time, take your time."

Casey Jones shuts things down with a classic drawn-out, hellraising ending.  It sounds like Weir is telling someone down front to be careful and take it easy.  He also keeps screaming his head off.  Shoot the moon, Bobby, shoot the moon.

Europe 1981: more good than bad or ugly

Stanley Mouse's lovely tour poster

I spent the last couple of weeks working my way through the Dead's Europe '81 tour.  It's not a tour that springs to mind for many fans as a major excursion, though it's hardly an unturned stone either (see tour write-ups by Blair Jackson, the modern deadhead, and Peter Wendel; Rock Scully's book has plenty of typically wild stories, too).  Photographer Bob Minkin wrote an excellent firsthand account of the Amsterdam "Oops" concerts that was printed in Deadbase and the Taper's Compendium.  My guess is, thanks to his report and his excellent photographs, most of what has been subsequently written about this tour centers around 10/16/81.  It’s one of the most famous Dead shows of the early 80's and is now saddled with so much contextual baggage ("the last great adventure!") that a straight listen is a little bit tricky.  Listening to the rest of these shows gets even trickier if you're a fan of GD biographical reportage: besides numerous other interpersonal problems and behind-the-scenes discontent, Garcia's heroin addiction was starting to get really ugly and had become evident enough for the band to confront him about it for the first time (via a letter written by Phil).  This is all good stuff to know, but not necessarily at the expense of the music itself: the performances tell a different story, and that's where I would rather focus my attention.

Another obstacle is that the general quality of the recordings aren't very high: Healy's cassettes sound like straight patches from the PA mix with minimal adjustment (mainly to Garcia's guitar), so the balance is skewed in favor of the vocals and keyboards.  The guitars (especially Weir's) can be low and Phil is often close to inaudible.  While this is far from ideal and means none of these shows will ever be getting an official release, this also isn't news to anyone who listens to sbds from this era.  Even the redoubtable Richie Stankiewicz, one of the kings of early 80's tapers, had a hit-or-miss record on this tour.  But nearly every show has a listenable recording, so I feel comfortable with the picture I was able to draw, and I think most folks will enjoy the highlights.

(fyi, re: sources -- I'm just listing the sources that I thought were the best available, which weren't always the most recent transfers: some of those "Mr. Bill remasters" have too much noise reduction for my tastes, but some are genuine upgrades, and some of the older Weiskircher auds were better than Stankiewicz's.  ymmv, of course).

The top five (chronological):

10/2 Rainbow Theatre, London
1st set: https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-02.sbd.128794.MrBill.flac16
2nd set: https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-02.aud.set2.richs.120454.sbeok.flac16
The first night at the Rainbow (where the band had played another four-night stand that spring) kicks off with a solid first set: unremarkable selection but excellent execution.  The second set is more of Frankenstein job: a dreamy, jammy first half with a unique Playin>Shakedown>Bertha>Playin, then a hot, tight post-Space run marked by the most exciting Spanish Jam of the tour and a monster Black Peter that Latvala had ranked as one of his favorites.  Smoking!

10/4 Rainbow Theatre, London
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-04.sbd.seaweed.bernie-brown.118248.flac1644
An excellent Jack Straw gets a fine 1st set rolling: I also enjoy this Jack-a-Roe, BEWomen, and the closing Let it Grow>Deal combo.  Deal, in particular stands out for some low, heavy B3 work from Brent (not unlike later JGB versions).  2nd set's Samson is one for the ages, Scarlet>Fire is a fine one with a particularly nice final Fire jam, and the Spanish Jam>Other One is one of the hotter combinations of these two that you'll hear.

10/12 Olympiahalle, Munich
https://archive.org/details/gd81-10-12.sbd.macdonald.7916.sbeok.shnf
The boys sounds goosed from their night off, laying down an energetic, but measured, well-paced show.  There's a strong Jack Straw > Candyman, Cumberland, and Passenger before the 1st set highlight, a sweetly flowing, excellent China>Rider closer.  The 2nd set starts energetically, but kicks into high gear with an unusually hot Estimated jam that slowly makes its way into a barnburner GDTRFB.  Garcia sounds like he's struggling a bit at first, but it's great to hear him focus, lock it down, and then take off like a rocket for the duration, even through a nice little coda at the end (shades of 1971).  Solid post-Space has another wonderful Stella Blue.

10/17 Hippodrome de Pantin, Paris
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-17.sbd.miller.116993.flac16
After a satisfying run through a pretty standard first set selection, the boys knock it out of the park with the best 2nd set jam of the tour, and I would venture maybe one of the better jams of the year: Truckin > Bird Song > Good Times > Estimated > Eyes.  There's not a wrong foot placed with some unique and very well-executed transitions, and the mojo carries them all the way through the very end.  Lots of shows from '81 get more attention than this one, but it deserves a listen.

10/19 Palacio de los Deportes de Barcelona
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-19.131801.mtx-fix.dusborne.flac16
Their final night in Europe ends things on another high note -- after 10/16, this is probably the best known show of the tour, though that probably has more to do with it being Garcia's single performance in Spain.  1st set delivers overall, but it's elevated by a strong Franklin's Tower after Jack Straw and a very long (dare I say... incendiary?) Let it Grow that's got to rank as one of the hottest of the early 80's.  The third Scarlet>Fire of the tour is the best and really delivers with a truly masterful Fire, each solo elegantly crafted and perfectly built up.  Garcia goes the extra distance after Sailor>Saint for a few minutes of solo flight with the drummers in tow, and there's another fine Spanish Jam>Other One>Stella Blue and a Sugar Mags that stands out for some divebombing playing.


The middle four -- not essential, but well worth a listen:
(chronological)

10/6 Rainbow Theatre, London
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-06.sbd.miller.103627.flac16
He's Gone is the highlight of the show, surely performed in memory of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who had been assassinated earlier that day.  It's an outstanding performance, with an exceptionally beautiful and unusually developed introduction and a powerful jam at the end.  Garcia then threads a loose Blues for Allah melody through the darkest, heaviest Space of the tour.  There's also an inspired High Time and excellent versions of the Wheel, Sugar Mags, and Stella Blue towards the end.  The first set is well done, with one of the better Shakedowns of this tour and a fine Cumberland.

10/8  Forum, Copenhagen
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-08.sbd.128681.MrBill.flac16
The Forum was apparently the biggest venue of the tour, more akin the size of their US venues.  Maybe for that reason, or maybe for another reason entirely, this show stands out for having a very different feel to it, more akin to the dreamy, stretched-out vibe of fall '79.  It doesn't sound like it was coming easy to them tonight, despite some relatively rarities in the first set (heads up for an amusingly royal snafu in Cumberland, though).  2nd set Scarlet>Fire Playin>Terrapin is nearly an hour with a meandering, jammy, gooey feel that's quite nice, but not particularly hot.  A trippy, slow NFA and another very good Black Peter bring up the rear.

10/10 Stadthalle IV, Bremen, Germany
https://archive.org/details/gd81-10-10.sennmd441-weiskircher.eurodead.7481.sbeok.shnf
An outstanding first set, maybe the best one of the tour, book-ended by two powerhouse trios: a high-energy Shakedown>Bertha>Minglewood opens, and a jammy, expansive Bird Song > Let it Grow > Deal closes.  LIG is excellent, though not in the same league as Barcelona's, and this Bird Song is one of the best of the year.  The second set, unfortunately, has less that stands out and more musical flubs: the biggest clunker is when Garcia plows into Eyes of the World at such a manic tempo that he can barely keep up -- not the last time that would happen, unfortunately, but I wonder if this was one of the first?

10/16 Melk Weg, Amsterdam
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-16.mtx.seamons.110497.flac16
https://youtu.be/WvvYChZTXMw
The famous Melk Weg show.  The acoustic set is the equal of any of the 1980 sets, with a loose energy almost more akin to their 1970 acoustic performances.  The electric set is utterly unique, but however cathartic, spontaneous, or magical as it must have been in the moment, it doesn't translate to more than a well-played novelty set on tape, at least not to my ears.  Sorry, Hully Gully fans.


The bottom five:

9/30 Playhouse Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-09-30.123231.sbd.moore-berger.flac2496
A solid first night on the road.  The only recording is missing a chunk of the second set (nearly all of Eyes of the World), but saves itself with an impressive Other One > Stella Blue that's worth hearing.

10/3 Rainbow Theatre, London
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-03.sbd.miller.103480.flac16
Nothing in the first set did much for me, not even the closing Bird Song and China>Rider, and the second set looks fantastic on paper -- Stranger>Franklin's>Estimated>Terrapin -- but doesn't get itself together until the Estimated jam.  It's probably the messiest played set of this tour, and the only one that (audibly) suggests that Garcia wasn't in good shape.

10/11 Melk Weg, Amsterdam
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-11.aud.unknown.stephens.76195.sbeok.flac16
https://youtu.be/iIM8aolPPmA
Garcia and Weir played a brief acoustic set at the Melk Weg on their night off, apparently following a performance by punk/poet Jim Carroll.  There's a decent aud recording (and video!), and it's unusual to hear them play some of these tunes without a bassist, but ultimately this isn't much more than a curiosity.

10/13 Water Koebel Hall, Russelsheim, Germany
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-13.sbd.128542.MrBill.flac16
Nothing wrong with this, but it's a subpar show with no major jamming.  There's a standalone jam following Sailor>Saint with some compelling stuff from Garcia, but he bails after a few minutes and leaves Bob and Brent to jam in his wake for a while.

10/15 Melk Weg, Amsterdam
https://archive.org/details/gd1981-10-15.beyer.stankiewicz.126148.flac1644
https://youtu.be/b4p1zBuqYDk
The first of the two "Oops" shows at the Melk Weg: without the novelty elements of the second show, this has much less going for it, and the band doesn't sound quite as dialed in on their rented instruments.  There are a few strong moments, though, particularly the fine Other One>Wharf Rat, and Phil was feeling inspired enough to pull off a rare bass solo instead of the usual Space tonight.

German tour poster, songmango.com

"finally, white people can play!"

I stumbled back upon lightintoashes' excellent Latvala tribute page and noticed an excerpt from this interview about his own musical beginnings as a fan.  Here's the full quote about how he started off listening to R&B and gospel:

I started going to gospel concerts at Oakland Auditorium, which became Henry J. Kaiser.  Every year, they would have all the best gospel groups in the country: the Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Swan Silvertones, the Soul Stirrers, the James Cleveland Choir.

You'd go into the auditorium, and there would be all black people in their Sunday finest, bright colors, and hundreds of ushers in white gloves.  You'd wonder what that was about - and then you'd see people get the spirit, and go into epileptic seizures.  These ushers would pick them up, carry them out into the hall, fan them, and carry them back in, when they came back to their bodies.  I saw this one guy run from the back of the auditorium straight down the center aisle, and dive headfirst into the stage.  I said, "That's what music is supposed to do - move you."  Gospel music did it.

Music became my life.  Then when I was in my fifth year of college, about to graduate, wondering what I was doing, I went to my first Dead show, the Trips Festival in January of '66, and I knew that that's where I was supposed to be.  Thereafter, more music started happening, and I thought, "Finally, white people can play!"

Not sure where I want to go with that just yet -- lots to think about regarding race, performance, response to music as an experience, and more.  For all I know, some Dead scholar may have plowed this field already, and I haven't bothered to look yet -- but I'm always interested at thinking about the Dead as an "American phenomenon" specifically in terms of race, and I might as well use this blog as a journal of my thinking about this.

#TIANILB (now trending?)

 

 

Deadheads love acronyms almost as much as digital culture in general loves acronyms (JGBheads: TWLWMYD or TWYDTTYD?).  I'm coining one of my own, based on a little note Dick Latvala made in his notebook about 1/22/78, a favorite show of mine and maybe even a candidate for the mercurial top 10.  This particular show had an enormous impact on me as a teenaged listener (of which I will write about more someday), and an old post by my late friend Tim, aka skobud (RIP) on the Transitive Axis forum called attention to it:

"I love where it is written in red pen that THIS IS ALL NONSENSE; I'VE LEARNED BETTER and [Dick is] putting a line through all of these shows: '11/4, 6/77, 5/8/77, 9/3/77, 6/8&9/77, 1/13 SEEM AS POTENT.'  You just gotta love a thought process like that.  Like -- fuck it, what was I thinking? I know better now."

Not to overstate what may be obvious, but that way of thinking is so key, so integral to active engagement in whatever it is that you love to do.  Everyone inevitably gets settled in their ways.  We hunker down into little mental ruts and our minds seek to resolve whatever cognitive dissonances crop up when our preconceptions are challenged.  And here is Dick, the archetypical Dead Freak, feverishly scribbling his responses to the music that he loves, holding it all up against his highest standards of quality that he uses as high water marks, then revising and crossing the whole thing out.  It's interesting (to me) that, even at this early date, shows like Colgate, Cornell, and Englishtown -- shows that are now so canonized that they're identifiable by single words -- were already being touted as all-timers.  Dick may have been a sentimental dude (aren't all Deadheads?), but not here: all those other heavy-hitters are just as potent as 1/22/78?  Nope.  1/22 clobbers all of them.  That stuff about Colgate, Cornell, and Englishtown is all nonsense.  I've learned better.

So I'm proposing my own acronym for these moments of reflection when we get out the scalpel and go to work on our own preconceptions: TIANILB (it even kind of rolls off the tongue: "tia-nilby." maybe? not really? not really).  Who knows?  If I ever finally take to Twitter or whatever supercedes Twitter, you may someday catch me blasting out a revelatory proclamation of greatness for an unheralded gem of a show.

 

 

12/19/73 (thanks, Dick!)

It's maybe surprising, given my general GD-OCDness (is that in the DSM-5? it should be), that I'm not always great with remembering show anniversaries.  Today, though, it struck me right away that it was the 40th anniversary of 12/19/73 -- not the very best show of the year, but it's up there -- and therefore also the anniversary of the Dick's Picks series… which, as it turns out, is now 20 years old.  So here's to Dick Latvala, the patron saint of Deadhead tape collectors.

"you've gotta hear this!"

Lots and lots has been said about Dick and how he transformed the GD taping community, particularly after the flood of tapes that emerged after his death, so I won't go on about it.  His personal life seems to have been difficult and at times quite sad, yet also filled with many more hours of unbridled joy and happiness than I'd say most people ever bother to experience.  His own joy and enthusiasm still comes beaming through his own words and in the remembrances of those who knew him.  Today, it seems strange that he had to go to the mat with the GD organization over the idea of archival releases of "warts and all" 2-track tapes, but we should all be thankful that he did.

some links:
Dick's own show notes make for fun reading.  Here's his notebook for 1978:
http://www.gdao.org/items/show/776643

lightintoashes' repository of all things Latvala functions more like an oral history of his life.  Great stuff!
http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2011/02/dick-latvala.html

Here's an early interview with Dick about 12/19/73 and, of course, other shows as well, from Dupree's Diamond News in 1994.  The pics of Dick mugging next to the Veneta and Feb 70 Fillmore reels are priceless.
http://www.gdao.org/items/show/825939

"I really was finding a whole bunch of great shows in '73 that I sort of knew about, but hadn't really listened to for 10-15 years.  There were at least five I had in mind.  And the only reason 12/19 was the choice was because of Here Comes Sunshine.  When I first heard it, it was such a kick.  Jesus, what a monster!  So I thought, I have to go with this show.  I wanted something that people generally don't know about.  A lot of people do know, but they don't have good tapes of it, so this would be a treat, and people who know would relish it."

The Dick's Picks Vol. 1 release of 12/19/73 itself was truncated, edited (Phil nixed the bass solo), and rearranged to fit on two cd's.  While heads would be in an uproar about that now, at the time it was a godsend to me as a 15-year-old deadhead.  I wasn't in it deep enough to have a sense of what whole tours were like, so to me "fall 73" didn't mean much beyond 12/2/73 and 11/11/73.  But given the relative lack of ceremony that accompanied the initial Dick's Picks releases, right down to the simple faux-tape box packaging (which I still love), this show felt like a gift from the heart of a fellow traveler, a well-worn copy of a tape pressed into your hand and accompanied by a knowing look.

As I hear it now, though, 12/19/73 takes on a different meaning in context.  Now I hear it more like the final parting salvo from the mothership that came ever so close to Earth for a few precious weeks, particularly for a short spell in December.  We -- or at least I -- now know that the Dead had essentially completed their Wall of Sound by these December shows (before its "debut" in 1974), so next time you listen to any of them (why not today?), keep in mind that the sound was pouring out of a stack that looked like this:

the stage two weeks earlier on 12/6/73

That same stack arguably probably did as much harm as it did good for the band, so in a sense, December 1973 (and the following Feb 74 Winterland shows) really were like a farewell to a whole era -- in Dick's mind, the greatest -- of the Grateful Dead.

The music performed on 12/19 has been discussed at length in many other places, and hopefully you know it well yourself.  Nowadays I always go for the full show, but when I think of it, my mind still arranges it like Dick did for the release (and I'm still always caught off guard by that bass solo when I hear it).  Some have griped that Dick picked the wrong night, but I still think 12/19 blows 12/18 out of the water.  The 18th is a great show, but I can't get over the fact that it fizzles out right at the very heart of it (the second half of Dark Star, which fails to launch because of a blown speaker).  The 19th picks up the pieces and ends the year the way it needed to be ended: absolutely top-flight improvisation, topped with an extra-heavy blast of deep cosmic sound.  Possibly the most mind-blowing moment ever in the recorded history of creation, as Dick might have put it.

Thanks again, Dick!

PS.  Can't resist letting the boys have the last word.  This wasn't preserved on the sbd, but it's all there on the aud or the matrix: https://archive.org/details/gd1973-12-19.126124.mtx.dusborne.droncit.flac16

Phil: Before we get started, I guess we gotta let you know that there's a really strict rule against smoking in this auditorium and, uh, you heard the fellow telling you all about it in his best CBS School of Broadcasting voice, and what I wanted to tell you was no matter what it is you're smoking, you're liable to get tapped on the shoulder by somebody that you don't want to see. So if you're gonna smoke anything, I don't care what it is, make sure you know everybody within ten feet of you at all times.

Bob: Last night there were people that were busted that were in the middle of great masses of people so they can see--

Phil: Right in the center of the mass of people, that's where it was... So nowhere is safe, comprende?

Bob: If you're gonna do something that they don't want you to do, you better make sure that they don't see you, and that's not easy to do.

Phil: In fact, it's impossible.

Jerry: So remember your hippie training, folks!  Be cool! Thank you.