Deadthread

[Shug]

How did y'all like that Dark Star>Morning Dew>Dark Star>Terrapin last night?  Pretty sweet!

[the_wizzard]

Thanks Shug, I know some of those shows and yes they are mighty fine.  Shit, I think I may have that Veneta show on DVD somewhere...I think Kory may have hooked me up with it ages ago.  I am a huge fan of the 77-78 shows as well as the late 80's.  I was doing shows from 90-95, and am trying to remember some awesome gems from those years as I know I saw some great kickdowns.  Since I was on tour though, my memory is so hazy, lol (ahhhh...the good old daze).

I really steered away from the Dead after Jerry died.  Just.too.painful.  MMJ was the first band who connected with me on that level and it was a god-send when I got turned onto Chocolate and Ice many, many, many years ago.  I've been mainly on the MMJ tip and completely lost my dead show repertoire over the years.  So please, all you fellow GDF, share some dates with me!  And if I discover something magical, I will share it with y'all.

[ericm]

When you get a chance check out 3/31/87. A helluva night at the Philly Spectrum. The last of a three night Spring Spectrum run, and man were they on fire. The intensity, and pace of the second set still blows me away.   

[Shug]

Sounds like you know your Dead pretty well, so beginner recs are not what you are looking for, but more the lesser known gems?  OK, I got ya.  I'm in the same boat, trying to find stuff that I don't know about even though I have well over 150 shows on analog cassette from the old days.

  Here's a guy from Dead.net with some recs from '83.  Sounds like he's listened to that year rather thoroughly!

shout-out to 6/18/83
I just had one of THOSE moments with this show's Fire, Playin'.

10 shows from one GD83 tour? I can't do THAT, but I can suggest:

5/13/83
5/14/83
5/15/83
6/18/83
6/20/83
9/10/83
9/11/83
10/11/83
10/14/83
10/15/83

Of these, MUST-HAVES are 6/18, 6/20, 9/10, 10/11, and 10/15.

Try this thread. http://www.dead.net/features/blair-jackson/blair-s-golden-road-blog-10-show-plunge

Try this really fun website for hot versions of particular songs  http://headyversion.com

[zanjam]

Wizzard are u on fb?  I can add you to this group X factor productions.  I can add u too shug if u want. Some serious hardcore old school heads who really know their stuff.  Always talking about nugget shows from over the years.

I, too,was a pretty serious deadhead who has lost her dead mojo. I go to some of the terrapin crossroads shows and I've seen bits and pieces of the incarnations over the years, but it almost seems like a nostalgia band to me at this point.

I do feel the same way about MMJ now as I did about he dead then. If I wasn't almost 45 with 2 kids a husband and a dog I would probably be at 20 shows a year, which was probably my average when the dead were around. Lets see... 153 shows from 87-95. So not quite 20 a year. But close!! 

I never went on tour until summer 95. Something told me to quit my job and go. So with no money no job no nothing I drove with my friend from SF to highgate and did the entire summer tour.  Except for the first night of RFK...we detoured to see Phish at Waterloo that night. The shows were horrid (well some were ok) but of course I was so happy to have made that decision to go. It was so weird for me when Jerry died. I was planning on going on fall tour and was just crushed. I can't even imagine what would have happened if I went on that tour. I am sure his death made a lot of people focus and get their shit together, it certainly did for me.

But I really do feel like MMJ fill that dead void for me. I did the WSP thing and the Phish thing and really loved them both.  Obsessively. But now I find myself bored, more than anything, with all of the above. And MMJ is never boring.  It's like magic to me. Always beautiful and exciting. It's an obsession but its pleasing! 

Yeah, I'll probably tune into the Furthur stream tonight :). I certainly wasn't going to pay $150 for that nonsense.  Especially after seeing Furthur for $25 all around Marin when they first started playing.

Later deadheads.  Thanks for listening!  (~);}

[zanjam]

Oh yah and I have a friend who is basically a Dead encyclopedia and he will know what shows you should download.  I will present his findings when I have them.

[the_wizzard]

Thanks y'all! This is exactly what I wanted  :happy:

I didn't tour the full 5 years, that was just from beginning to end.  I was on tour, full on from 93-94.  Crazy times and the lot and the kids on it was no longer as innocent as it was in 90-92.  Left in 94 to cool my guns and chill out in the woods here in the NW.  My last show was Portland 95.  Didn't live here at the time, but it makes sense that it all ended here for me.  I was waiting on some Jerry SoCal shows that were supposed to happen and was in LA when I found out Jerry died.  I will never forget that day 

I've actually forgot my show count, up over 100 with some really fucking awesome Jerry Shows in there too.  I feel so blessed that I got to see Jerry at the Warfield multiple times.  That place was like home and crazy electric. 

I'm with you Z., if I was in my twenties I would be all over a full on MMJ tour, no question!  It is the same giddiness and thrill and emotions with a totally new vibe that has nothing to do with the GD sound.  It's the energy, the love that is in common for me.  It's so goddamn special and so fucking rare.  All my friends are huge Phish phiends, many heady pham or so I am told  .  I have seen some groovy Phish shows and have danced my ass off on many occasions.  But it just doesn't do it for me like it does for my friends.  Never filled the void for me like it did for other friends I have from Dead tour.  I've gone to a few Furthur, Phil, Terrapin CR stuff over the years.  But it's only to go find friends and have family reunions.  The songs are great and I have friends who can still really go there and spin and have moments with those songs.  I can't really, but I appreciate that the magic and love is still there for many.  And I always run into some old fool who I love so much that hasn't crossed my way in decades.  Gotta love that!  But these days I am just a fool for MMJ and the magic, love-circle that forms at a show between them on stage and us in the audience.  It moves my soul.

I am currently spinning Stanford 2/9/73 based off of a suggestion on heady versions.com, thanks Shug!!  I have this friend in town who is an old taper, it's a bitch and a half getting him to convert dats these days, so this harddrive is a true blessing!

[the_wizzard]

Wizzard are u on fb? 

Hell yes, we are friends on Facebook silly! 

(I'm that asshole Liz from Portland)

I can add you to this group X factor productions.  I can add u too shug if u want. Some serious hardcore old school heads who really know their stuff.  Always talking about nugget shows from over the years.

Yes please!

[KingCobra]

MSG 9-18-87  A Friday Night: Awesome Sugaree, Candyman, Shakedown, Terrapin, Morning Dew best ever!

[the_wizzard]

I'll check it out, MSG shows raged! 

In other news, you guys need to check out this 2/9/73 show!  I am digging on it hard so I looked it up on archive, turns out this is the night they debuted the freaking wall of sound 

*and the grooviest They Love Each Other, there is a different beat going on here that I really like, a rare twist.

https://archive.org/details/gd73-02-09.sbd.bertha-fink.14939.sbeok.shnf

[zanjam]

Wizzard are u on fb? 

Hell yes, we are friends on Facebook silly! 

(I'm that asshole Liz from Portland)

Oh that's funny!

[Shug]

Sure, zanjam, invite me to that group on fb.  I can always use more recs for good shows.

Liz, not sure how much of that stuff I mentioned you know, but to be a bit more specific and focusing on the ones that not everybody knows about, I'd suggest

4-24-78 Normal, IL           killer Scarlet>Fire! Music, Black Peter
4-21-78 Lexington, KY      All Over Now, Music, Stella Blue!
4-14-78 Blacksburg, VA    Peggy-O!  Black Peter!

I was never much of a 78 fan until I heard the April shows, they were on fire, truly.

10-25-79  New Haven, CT SHAKEDOWN!!! (my fave ever), Passenger
11-01-79 Nassau  massive long and weird transition from Scarlet>Fire with really funky Brent electronic keys
10-28-79 Dancin'>Franklins is 30 min long, totally well-jammed funky disco version of Dancin.


9-10-83 Santa Fe Music, Cumberland, Cold Rain encore! Phil sings again
9-11-83 Santa Fe the whole second set is awesome
10-12-83 MSG, NYC  insane Cumberland Blues
10-15-83 Hartford, CT  Big Railroad Blues (Jerr just won't quit!)
10-17-83 Lake Placid, NY  best Sugaree of the 80s?

7-15-84 Berkely, CA  Dancin>Bird Song opener!
10-12-84 Augusta Maine Morning Dew
12-31-84 killer first set, excellent Shakedown, Jack Straw>Bird Song! Spanish jam out of space, too.

As others mentioned, '87 was pretty strong
3-26-87 Hartford    China>Rider, Bird Song
9-18-87 Morning Dew
9-24-87 Hell In A Bucket


I could go on and on.  Please let us know what you discover (and...    ...if you have on that hard drive clean SBDs of any of this stuff, some of it I don't have, have to stream from archive) 

[ericm]

MSG 9-18-87  A Friday Night: Awesome Sugaree, Candyman, Shakedown, Terrapin, Morning Dew best ever!

Agreed, and I was lucky enough to be there.   No question, the best Dew I ever saw, and glad to know so many others think so highly of it too. 

[alienlanes]

I am a newbie to this thread (and really, to this message board) but I am a longtime Dead fan. I saw my first show in 1987 when they played the amphitheatre at Canada's Wonderland. I had been listening to them for a few years by then, but was too young to go and see them. I finally got the chance in 87 when I was 15 and was hooked.

I saw the Grateful Dead 23 times between 87 and 1992. I also had the chance to see JGB twice, Weir and Wasserman once was completely obsessed with the Dead for most of that time. Like to the point where I can still recite setlists of show because I memorized my Deadbase in highschool instead of actually doing school work.

I think the best two shows I saw were 7/4/89 Rich Stadium, Buffalo NY and 3/22/90 Copps Coliseum, Hamilton ON. The first one was released officially as "Truckin Up To Buffalo" on DVD and CD, while the "Scarlet/Fire from 3/22/90 was part of the So Many Roads boxed set, with the entire show finally seeing release earlier this year as part of the "Spring 90" boxed set.

Both shows were just incredible for me. So many memories come flooding back just thinking about them both.

7/3/89
Bertha, Greatest Story Ever Told, Cold Rain & Snow, Walkin' Blues, Row Jimmy, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Stagger Lee, Looks Like Rain, Deal Touch Of Gray, Women Are Smarter, Ship of Fools-> Playin' In The Band Reprise-> Terrapin Station-> Drums-> Jam-> I Will Take You Home-> All Along The Watchtower-> Morning Dew-> Not Fade Away, E: U.S. Blues

A rare Looks Like Rain, a great Deal, an absolutely perfect version of Touch of Grey, a very cool Playin' reprise (finishing the song from Foxboro 2 nights before) but the real meat of the show was a great Morning Dew > Not Fade Away.


3/22/90

Feel Like A Stranger, West L.A. Fadeaway, Easy To Love You, Beat It On Down The Line, It Must Have Been The Roses, The Last Time, Picasso Moon, Don't Ease Me In Scarlet Begonias-> Fire On The Mountain, Samson & Delilah, Believe It Or Not, Truckin'-> Jam-> Drums-> Jam-> The Other One-> Hey Jude*-> Dear Mr. Fantasy-> Hey Jude Reprise-> Sugar Magnolia, E: It's All Over Now Baby Blue

Lots of cool stuff at this show - an Easy to Love You, an (even rarer) Believe it Or Not, a great Must Have Been the Roses and that Scarlet/Fire to start the second set was magic. I was fifth row for the second set and it just blew my mind. I loved the Hey Jude>Dear Mr Fantasy>Hey Jude>Sugar Magnolia. It was even mindblowing to me that the Dead were playing 45 minutes from my parents' house for two nights. I had only seen one non-summer show before this one, and I got to go to school and make it in time for these ones. How cool is that? Incidentally, some 23 years later we live about 5 blocks from this arena...

I stopped going to see the Dead after being continuously disappointed with shows after Brent Mydland died. I hated the Richfield Coliseum shows in Sept 90 and after they played another two nights at Copps Coliseum in 1992 I stopped going altogether. When Jerry died I stopped listening altogether until 1999/2000 when Leanne got me playing on her co-ed softball team which had some deadheads on it. I got really into Phil Lesh and Friends and saw them 7 times between 1999 and 2003, then saw The Dead in 2003/04 a few times, but haven't seen any since.

I watched two nights of the Furthur web broadcasts last week and am surprised how much I dug them. I need to see the other two nights too.

[Shug]

Hi alienlanes,

I know what you mean about the shows after Brent died.  I LOOOVVVED when Bruce Hornsby played with them but nothing against the man, I could not really enjoy Vince's keys or singing.  Some of that, I later learned, was because Jerry and Bob Bralove choose to just have Vince play computerized samples of keyboard sounds instead of hauling around a real Hammond, Rhodes, etc, like Brent did.  I think Vinnie may have sounded better if they had let him play real keyboards.  I did not like his singing at all.  Weren't those Richfield '90 shows Vince only, no Hornsby?  You really should listen to 9-20-90, it is fucking incredible the deep space chaos they get into, sounds like we are back in 1973! They released the 2nd set as a Road Trips, so its available in pristine sound.  The first set smokes, too, too bad they didn't release that.

What I would not have given to have just Hornsby in the Dead after Brent.  It was kinda too dense with two keyboards, (although that has been done to fantastic effect on lots of classic soul and roots rock studio records).  Bruce is a piano virtuoso and his jazz improv chops and his deep knowledge of American roots music made him Jerry's peer in my book.  That dude can jam!

Also in retrospect, I think that Brent dying was somewhat of the beginning of the end for Jerry losing his spark and zest.  Just a hunch on my part.  He did get a big boost for about a year or so when Hornsby was playing with them regularly, one could easily see and hear  Hornsby and Jerry at times having that thing of musicians connecting without words in a mutual appreciation society, urging each other to play better.  I saw excellent post-Brent shows in 1990 and 1991 (Compton Terrace Dec 90!!!!  Halloween run 1991) but they got further and further apart in 92-95.

I stopped listening to Dead tapes for many years, too, but got back into it in the past few and it sounds fresh again to me, especially when you sift through the chaff to the primo good stuff, there are so many great great shows out there, reminds me all over again why, on some level, the Dead are my favorite rock band of all time.

[MrWhippy]

I agree with both of you, Shug and alienlanes, about how much things went downhill after Brent died.  It is really sad as the '89 to summer '90 was such a relative peak for the Dead.  The energy at those shows was incredible. 

Not sure if this show has been mentioned, but the "Downhill From Here" DVD is of one of the great Alpine Valley shows in 1989.  The first set is a mix of two shows, but the second set is of the first night, which was one of my favorite shows I attended.  Just watch Jerry grin from ear to ear on the DVD as he sings the "Wish I was a headlight..." verse of I Know You Rider.

Like alienlanes, I also stopped going to shows in the Vince era as I felt increasingly let down.  It wasn't just that I didn't care for Vince much, it was also that you could really see Jerry going downhill, hiding on stage rather then being in the forefront playing, etc. 

Shug, it's funny how many of the same shows we were at, when I hear you mention things like Compton Terrace and the Halloween run in 91.  Wish I had known you then.

[Shug]

Yeah, just think, we coulda been friends for the past 25 years if we had met back then, weird!  How many of the same shows were we at?  Richard Thompson at the Fillmore in '88, Slims, Santa Rosa, all those Dead shows and who knows what else?  Did you ever go see the Mother Hips?  They used to play Slims and the Last Day Saloon a lot.  Great American Music Hall, too.

[nuggets]

http://www.tristudios.com/watch

weir here w/ dave schools


so far....
Monkey & the Engineer
KC Moan>
Me & My Uncle

[nuggets]

Monkey
KC>
Uncle
"great story about shit getting weird in egypt and the band being attacked by mosquitoes and bats"
Schoolgirl
West LA

[nuggets]

Monkey
KC>
Uncle
"great story about shit getting weird in egypt and the band being attacked by mosquitoes and bats"
Schoolgirl
West LA
"barlow's rant on gun control...weir, barlow and parish take questions"
Most Of the Time