#deadfreaksunite 1974 (revisited)
#deadfreaksunite 1974 (revisited)
tape-by-tape notes
An extended listening project tracking the Grateful Dead’s evolution, recording by recording. Originally posted on Twitter on each show’s 40th/50th anniversary and edited here for readability and occasional revision/correction and minor expansion. Many shows streamable via archive.org. Expanded notes for many shows (with press, scene reports, and images) can be found on Twitter by searching for my username (bourgwick) and the show date. Please consult JerryBase for the latest data, Dead Sources for original articles (1965-1975), and LostLiveDead/Hootrollin for deep dives. My notes on my first full pass through 1974. Grateful Deadcast transcripts for From the Mars Hotel & 1974 are here.
2/22/74 winterland: 1st bay area appearance of the almost-done-but-it’s-never-done wall of sound. the crew has been in there for a few days getting ready. now a “dave’s picks” bonus disc but full tape includes soundcheck. 45 minutes of soundcheck (with barking dog). loose/natural LET IT GROW jams before working on new material, including garcia/hunter’s U.S. BLUES & hunter’s solo IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES, which starts (i think) with garcia teaching band the song off-mic. DIRE WOLF-like lope at first. full take of ATTICS OF MY LIFE, not performed since ’72, rehearsed in ’76 but not revived ’til ’89. fragment of what will become the outro to weir’s ESTIMATED PROPHET, more of a shuffle. show opens with 1st proper U.S. BLUES, the tightened-up version of WAVE THAT FLAG, played in spring ’73. debut IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES, rare hunter solo tune in dead repertoire, more uptempo than it’ll become. beautiful piano. 21-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND closes 1st set. garcia peels off proto-SLIPKNOT! riffs, kreutzmann ricocheting off it. debut of garcia/hunter’s SHIP OF FOOLS, hunter’s harshest truth attack, donna jean sounding wonderful. jam sequences are short. great music but night never quite coalesces. 12-minute TRUCKIN’ > NOBODY’S FAULT BUT MINE, weir forgetting multiple verses, the energy dissipating. band comes back for 3rd set with big MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP opener (cool rhodes on the coda), but set never quite takes off, either. 18-minute EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL. extra-slow EYES with brief fun jam, all bubbling over with lead bass.
2/23/74 winterland: ultra-dry bill graham intro, “the reason for the delay was that one of the musicians was detained by a social engagement.” heads throwing marshmallows & roses onstage.
weir: it’s really a drag stepping on roses. it’s really a drag looking down and seeing that you just crushed a lovely rose, so you oughta save the roses that you’re gonna throw up here.
garcia: fuck the roses, save yourselves!
lesh: if you can…
of the 3 new songs, only SHIP OF FOOLS repeated. brilliant keith godchaux throughout, lots of dense rhodes. 12-minute HERE COMES SUNSHINE with marvelous diamond-rainy finale, last version for nearly 20 years & never quite the same. adios! effortless peak in 27-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > STELLA BLUE. 47-minute TRUCKIN’ > DRUMZ > THE OTHER ONE > EYES OF THE WORLD. 1-verse OTHER ONE goes quickly drumless, kreutzmann returning for jazz weirdings, garcia dropping proto-SLIPKNOT! riffs before only verse. rare BID YOU GOODNIGHT.
2/24/74 winterland: bill graham, “whatever’s going on in the rest of the world, if it’s wars or kidnappings or crimes, this is a peaceful sunday night with the grateful dead…” last CANDYMAN ’til ’76 revival. juicy transition in 16-minute CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER. powerful 18-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND. kreutzmann latches onto backbeat then dissolves back to one(is-where-you-think-it-is)ness. more startling k. godchaux, including PLAYING & rippin’ ripplin’ CUMBERLAND BLUES. 25-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > ROW JIMMY is nice unusual pairing. SHIP OF FOOLS moves to heavy 2nd set slot. 44-minute DARK STAR > MORNING DEW. kreutzmann turns pre-verse sparkles into jazz weirding. post-verse hints at SPANISH JAM, finds bright thematic wonder before multi-peak DEW. final sandwiched NOT FADE AWAY > GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD FEELING BAD > NOT FADE AWAY, staple since 10/70 (& on “skull & roses”). encore is crisp IT’S ALL OVER NOW, BABY BLUE, 1st since 9/72 & last until 3/81.
3/23/74 cow palace: greetings to the wall of sound. greetings, as well, to SCARLET BEGONIAS & CASSIDY, last major pre-hiatus debuts. 6-minute SCARLET is ready to go, open-ended bounce sloppy & irresistible. too short here! CASSIDY, released on “ace,” feels iffier. close to album tempo, only version with “doot doot doot”s. shame they shelved it again ’til ’76. by most accounts, more fun on tape than in person. not sure the wall passed the test, or band could hear themselves. set-closing CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER & WEATHER REPORT SUITE both overflow with vibrant conversation. after a burp, set 2 gets right to 44-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > MORNING DEW > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > PLAYING IN THE BAND, final version of sequence. magical soft-edged garcia attack that could last forever, though the jams feel somewhat controlled. punctuated by SHIP OF FOOLS with new beatles-y counterpoint vocal on final chorus. photo caption (2 weeks later) in the san francisco examiner is the only time i’ve ever seen the dead’s speaker system called “the wall of sound” in print in 1974. makes me wonder if the name existed among the crew & the photographer heard it, or if an examiner editor coined the phrase.
5/12/74 reno: 1st outdoor gig for the wall of sound, battling the washoe zephyr winds, now on “from the mars hotel 50.” phil lesh debuts his new beard. washoe zephyr winds audibly batter stage/mics/wall, band struggling against it. “anyone know what time the washoe zephyr pulls out of town?” surly lesh asks. 41-minute TRUCKIN’ > THE OTHER ONE > ROW JIMMY. nifty MIND LEFT BODY-like descent into only garbled OTHER ONE verse, flexatone space, misterioso float, & proper slide-abetted MIND LEFT BODY. rough day for subtlety, but nice group singin’ on IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES (though chorus agreement is shaky) & SHIP OF FOOLS.
5/14/74 missoula: without the washoe zaphyr wind blowing, a much tighter show. potent LOSER, “sweet susie” returns. 2nd SCARLET BEGONIAS finds a little flight with cool wah-wah rhodes & donna vocalizing over jam, though very much (to my ears) about having a fun new weir-involved rhythmic/harmonic conversation; all working together to click it to fresh space, before landing in IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES. casually brilliant k. godchaux throughout, especially 21-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND. centerpiece of the show is 48-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > DARK STAR > CHINA DOLL, elegant ’74 dead. LET IT GROW widens & dissolves into restless pre-verse DARK STAR jamming, nearly dissolving into ’69-ish arpeggio diamonds. post-verse noise blossoms, opening from garcia’s thick fuzztone into free freakout that opens to 5+ minutes of kreutzmann-led jazz dancing. the wild fuzz returns for CHINA DOLL via a psychedelic split guitar signal, the clean tone running in parallel.
5/17/74 vancouver: the wall of sound’s only appearance in #canada. #JerryGarcia almost doesn’t make it. commander cody opens. debuts of faster LOOSE LUCY album arrangement (after midtempo, 2/73-4/73 & slower, 6/73-2/74) & weir/barlow’s MONEY MONEY (unsafe at any speed). IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES & SHIP OF FOOLS both slower, more stately. wall of sound-sized donna mega-scream to open the jam in warm-hued 23-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND, feat. garcia/k. godchaux chatter, noise bass swells, & a few subtle scene changes. 14-minute CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER, pushed towards FEELIN’ GROOVY sweetness by smooth weir guitar, a garcia solo that occasionally flips into comping, & bed of piano that switches between supporting the two. wonderful GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, lots of sub-sections, including marimba-ish piano & the ST. STEPHEN-ish jam. 34-minute TRUCKIN’ > NOBODY’S FAULT BUT MINE > EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL. especially dynamic EYES with bubbling lead bass. bright SUGAR MAGNOLIA.
5/19/74 portland, OR: tight 5-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS, assertive donna vocalizing, & 1st version with crisp ending that returns to the intro lick. chipper BEAT IT ON DOWN THE LINE piano solo. vocals (& sometimes weir’s guitar) all but gone from mix for a spell mid-set. 28-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > WHARF RAT. when in 2nd set, LET IT GROW seems to cohere into deeper jam. dramatic WHARF RAT keeps expanding, CRYPTICAL ENVELOPMENT-style. 1st PEGGY-O of year (& 4th ever) is slow & way dreamy. relentless & fun 32-minute TRUCKIN’ > MIND LEFT BODY JAM > NOT FADE AWAY > GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD FEELING BAD. band upshifts when they hit the TRUCKIN’ jam, a barreling, driving groove (with bright weir ornamentation & co-loeads) that lands in a funk-slop MIND LEFT BODY motif, almost surely the closest kreutzmann ever got to playing breakbeats. the inventiveness & energy carries through NOT FADE AWAY.
5/21/74 seattle: 1st set includes almost an hour of material introduced in past year & change. IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES feeling more elegant with each performance. 5-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS slightly longer than previous, sweet quiet donna vocalizing, almost karen dalton-y. final version of MONEY MONEY is tightest yet, but good riddance to some gross lyrics. 23-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > CHINA DOLL is understated set closer & wish they’d closed on quiet note more often. 46-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND is wondrous monster, one of the longest standalone pieces in the band’s history. gets a bit abstract/free/noisy early before (mostly) focusing on fast-flashing attention-holding conversation. moves towards end-space a few times, but someone picks up thread. 34-minute EYES OF THE WORLD > STELLA BLUE > SUGAR MAGNOLIA. powerful EYES with aggressive bass solo leading into 7/8 outro. nice musical pause before SUGAR MAGNOLIA, which gets a bit tattered as it goes.
5/25/74 santa barbara: with maria muldaur & the great american string band. love to the compuserve tape tree, probably my 1st exposure to ’74 dead. david grisman & richard greene’s great american string band opens, featuring garcia on banjo & (replacing taj mahal on bass) buell neidlinger, cecil taylor/archie shepp collaborator (!!). photos & some silent footage, but no tapes seem to have survived. according to some lore, it was a day/period when the roadies were still busting tapers. one of my favorite taper stories: a taper snuck into the football stadium the night before, buried a tape deck under the field, & dug it up the next day. says he taped the great american string band, too, but the tape disappeared into dorm circulation, so maybe it’s still out there. the tape is amazing! he mentions doing a faux-interview with bill walton?! is that during the beer barrel polka tuning? my own platonic CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER has driving kreutzmann transition. irresistible 4.5 minute SCARLET BEGONIAS with happy donna wail & 28-second guitar solo. 37-minute TRUCKIN’ > LET IT GROW > WHARF RAT. effortless bend from post-song blooze into swingin’ zaggin’ space, dissolving into drumlessness. keith adds subtle sun ra-y monophonic synth as band hits only standalone LET IT GROW between ’73 debut & ’76 revival. 3rd big WHARF RAT in 3 shows.
6/8/74 oakland stadium: a sun-stroked bill graham day on the green, following the formula of the dead, adjacent acts (the new riders & commander cody), & an outlier (the beach boys). mixed reports about the beach boys, “holland” era, brian-less, dennis reduced to keyboards/vocals, on the cusp of their mega-selling “endless summer” greatest hits compilation that returns them to headlining status a few months after this gig. NRPS use the wall of sound gear; commander cody & beach boys don’t. solid summertime fun with ace baseball banter, but instruments are often out of tune due to the sun. another short SCARLET BEGONIAS, floating ever-closer to jam before garcia calls it back with nifty inversion of melody. both godchauxs totally wail on GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. 39-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND > WHARF RAT > PLAYING IN THE BAND dashes into freeness but maintains thread through noise & into adventures on other side. 14-minute EYES OF THE WORLD, aborted due to tuning malarkey.
6/16/74 des moines: lesh debuts his new alembic bass, which sounds great, though no obvious quad moments on the stereo sub-mix (or suboptimal audience tape), though some excellent lead bass in EYES OF THE WORLD. 9-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS with bright, developing conversation. fun high-speed colors by garcia & godchaux on THE RACE IS ON. weir & donna jean nail the beatles-y SHIP OF FOOLS outro. 3 flawless jams: in 2nd set, 26-minute EYES OF THE WORLD > BIG RIVER, joyous upshift from the outro that i can’t believe they never did again; 29-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND with mondo #synth as soon as jam hits, cycling through scenes. in 3rd set, 30-minute TRUCKIN’ > WHARF RAT, garcia fuzzing out, with jam hitting full-tilt tumble-funk. bold contributions all around, big bass turns, & an assertive weir-led MIND LEFT BODY-adjacent denouement & powerful fold into WHARF RAT. fun subplot: keith godchaux has a roland #synth in his rig (which is absolutely not ned lagin), which gets its most use at this show, showing up a few times later in tour. it’s mainly throughout the PLAYING jam, but also in subtle places, including burp in EYES, 10 seconds of lagin-like wind-whooshes during 1st verse of TENNESSEE JED, a flash of faux-clav in ME & MY UNCLE, brief video game-y bounces in TRUCKIN’ verses (ala the “mars hotel” overdubs), & maybe a few places i didn’t notice?
6/18/74 louisville: rich sound, punchy bass, mucho piano, vivid dynamics, beautiful details, big jams, some good banter. PSA by weir: “you’ve probably wondered why we called you all here tonight. the upshot of it is that one of you is a venusian spy.” garcia quotes stephen foster’s MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME in BEAT IT ON DOWN THE LINE. in 1st set, A+ 26-minute EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL. EYES is crisp & roaring, godchaux taking 1st solo & adding triumphant harmony to the 7/8 outro. full-spectrum 53-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > THE OTHER ONE > IT’S A SIN JAM > STELLA BLUE. LET IT GROW sparkles into mutant swing & outer territories. as lesh deploys the new quad bass during OTHER ONE jam, another brief patch of godchaux synth, eventually flowering into space-blooze prelude to STELLA BLUE (with garcia hinting at IT’S A SIN, though maybe nobody else aware of it). rare MORNING DEW encore. long & exquisite valley before final peak, filled with piano/guitar/bass droplets. crowd control update…
weir: if your object is to put a bottle on the stage, please pass it forward & lay it up here, because somebody might get hurt.
lesh: besides, we could use the 3 cents.
weir: that’s also something to consider.
lesh: yeah, maybe *you* could use the 3 cents.
6/20/74 atlanta: maria muldaur cancels her own local gig & opens for the dead. 2+ years in, garcia/weir add guitar intro to JACK STRAW, locked in forevermore. whole band in sweet place on quiet garcia-sung tunes, beautiful 1st TO LAY ME DOWN of ’74. 15-minute CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER has extra transition sunshine. 49-minute TRUCKIN’ > EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL. suspended TRUCKIN’ blooze disintegration, enormo-bass, brilliant freak-beat. beyond EYES’ 7/8 outro, garcia flurries through proto-SLIPKNOT! riff, rest of band catching up.
6/22/74 miami: garcia does all 3 of his new-for-’74 tunes, including another short potent SCARLET BEGONIAS. monster 29-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND closes 1st set, moving gracefully through episodes, confident scene changing by kreutzmann & weir, soft rhodes colors, lotsa happily untaken exit ramps where drums steer back out. 24-minute EYES OF THE WORLD > WHARF RAT has bright spiraling garcia & big bass solo & nifty dynamics in 7/8 outro, dissolving entirely before segue.
6/23/74 miami: only dead version of chuck berry’s LET IT ROCK, on garcia’s self-titled solo album released that month. debuted by garcia/saunders later in the summer & in the side repertoire through ’95. hawt CUMBERLAND BLUES in a lesh-called slot between weir & garcia, with fun jam & SUGARFOOT RAG quote by garcia. sweet TO LAY ME DOWN. 22-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > CHINA DOLL is lovely way to land 1st set on mellow note. 1st proper SEASTONES by ned lagin with phil lesh, standalone piece before 2nd set. near end, ambient lagin melody weaves under lesh noise. lagin plays 2nd rhodes during most of 2nd set, often hard to hear, opening with unusual 10-minute SHIP OF FOOLS with extended dreamy prelude. 33-minute DARK STAR > SPANISH JAM > U.S. BLUES, lagin barely audible in ghostly conversation. band never makes it to verse, gentle chatter building to 1st SPANISH JAM of the year with bubbling dramatic bass.
6/26/74 providence: plinky #synth by k. godchaux during MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP outro. nice quiet flow from SHIP OF FOOLS into WEATHER REPORT SUITE (instead of pausing, garcia shreds through final “i am!” of LET IT GROW, fun breathless start to jam), then back down to IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES, another night closing 1st set in a reflective mood. 22-minute SEASTONES #synth rises from (& continues to engage with) subaudible zones, finding loop/pulse in middle; silver apples of rhode island. unusual 21-minute JAM > CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER with drifty prelude & nearly 4 minutes of before the 1st verse. 41-minute TRUCKIN’ > THE OTHER ONE > WHARF RAT, with a quad bass OTHER ONE transition, detouring quickly into well-developed SPANISH JAM, though a little scattered otherwise with brief shape-making before WHARF RAT. unexpected standalone EYES OF THE WORLD encore is satisfying, garcia landing the outro jam. * in true prankster fashion, “dick’s picks 12” includes a separate track between CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER & I KNOW YOU RIDER that is an excellent example of the fixed FEELIN’ GROOVY transition from ’73-’74, but it is not (as labeled) the MIND LEFT BODY JAM, which is a different piece of music performed during the 6/28 performance on “dick’s picks 12” & not labeled. latvala!
6/28/74 boston: neat flow in show-opening MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP/IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES/JACK STRAW, not really segues, but not-not segues either (& 1st of half-dozen HALF-STEP/ROSES). 25-minute SEASTONES is most coherent yet, woozy ambient pitch-glides & almost-melodies & glassy bleep-clouds amid rumble-waves. SUGAR MAGNOLIA & SUNSHINE DAYDREAM bookend 2nd set, starting with lumpy move from SUGAR MAG into 9-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS, ultra-mellow, finding the garcia/lesh/weir jam weave. 52-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > MIND LEFT BODY JAM > DARK STAR > U.S. BLUES. LET IT GROW dissipates before triumphant MIND LEFT BODY theme, k. godchaux on brief/awesome marimba-like #synth at peak, dropping into vocal-less DARK STAR orbit, emptiness, & wondrous sustained space-jazz, rad meltdown with half making noise & half moving into groove that swings upwards & takes it time evening out into U.S. BLUES. surly lesh introducing SHIP OF FOOLS, in perfect encore slot: “now if you’ll all just shut up we’ll play a quiet thing, a tender… meaningful… sympathetic… heavy-duty ballad… in the key of b-flat.” and throwing shade at #boston garden: “how’d you like it if you had to do your work in a garbage can?!” (idk oscar, you tell us.) pretty stunning SHIP OF FOOLS. great vocals (lead & harmony), lead bass, & keith on piano (trading lines with garcia), moving to rhodes & back. keeper take.
6/30/74 springfield, MA: mellowness made mellower by songs that used to be faster (DIRE WOLF, CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER), even the lesh-started CUMBERLAND BLUES, slightly. 33-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > PLAYING IN THE BAND. garcia & kreutzmann sidestep PLAYING meltdown for high-wire conversation, austere in places. not enough weir in mix. even an open-feeling exit from UNCLE JOHN’S. 17-minute SEASTONES. ultra-quiet minimal jazz tones transmogrifying into cartoon bleeps under lesh blasts before harsher colors unfold. 50-minute U.S. BLUES > TRUCKIN’ > EYES OF THE WORLD > STELLA BLUE. garcia leads charge from U.S BLUES outro. TRUCKIN’ winks at NOBODY’S FAULT but mostly explores blues-adjacent zone. EYES quests all-too-briefly for new territory beyond the outro, whispers of the SLIPKNOT riff, resolving into long rare-for-era garcialogue. [3/4]
7/19/74 fresno: 11-minute soundcheck (minus weir?), either inventing country-blues changes or it’s a specific song. crisp 8-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS, fuzztone solo, then clean dancing lines by garcia/lesh, weir going from chop to quiet sparkle, A+ recombomulation. maybe 1st fully assertive SCARLET jam? amazing 29-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND, kreutzmann surfing thread & making room for mega-rhodes, lead bass, conversation. after thin-out, almost heads to blues-zone but steers home. SEASTONES starts with agro solo bass, lagin entering in high lonesome frequencies. audience tape has ace banter: “are you recording this?” “certainly!” guy finds a matchbook to write down taper’s address. HE’S GONE wends up & down, gentle pause before U.S. BLUES. 51-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > SPANISH JAM > EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL, last of 3 “wake of the flood” sequences. LET IT GROW breaks into freeness, fuzz, luxurious big bassed EYES with wah rhodes.
7/21/74 hollywood bowl: with commander cody, maria muldaur, & ned lagin’s seastones. the show only survives as a rob bertrando audience tape, both an amazing tape & a great capture of the wall of sound’s clarity. great music, but also just feels great sonically. can’t get over how good this audience tape sounds. only show where the band employed owsley’s aluminum-based speaker cluster for the piano, which was deemed too thin-sounding, though not notably tinny on the audience tape. 1st set is barely an hour. MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP/IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES has perfect lazy summer transition. 7-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS is explosion of color, doesn’t travel far. tiny dab of k. godchaux synth at the end of ROW JIMMY. 13-minute SEASTONES, in nearly gentle minimalist mode, raindrop #synth & abstract bass melody, building to a fairly consonant droning overtone-y peak. 47-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND > WHARF RAT > TRUCKIN’ > PLAYING IN THE BAND. PLAYING grinds down to nothingness & up into a loose MIND LEFT BODY/NOBODY’S FAULT/SPANISH JAM orbit & powerful WHARF RAT. TRUCKIN’ passes (back) through NOBODY’S FAULT theme before re-immolating.
7/25/74 chicago: surprising for 1974 (& doubly so for a major city), virtually no documentation besides the tape, just listings in the band’s newsletter & local paper. as far as i can tell, no findable photos, ads, posters, ticket stubs, reviews, audience recordings, etc. maybe hearing band’s fatigue? little jamming, LET IT GROW keeps ball briefly in air. SEASTONES is MIA. 8-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS, looser from drop. 33-minute DARK STAR > STELLA BLUE. DARK STAR never gets to verse. brief guitar peak, unusual drums/keys jam & out into full-band thrills/dances/dissipation. garcia hits proto-SLIPKNOT! riff & others try to keep speed with colors. stunner STELLA BLUE. cool donna growl on encore SHIP OF FOOLS chorus.
7/27/74 roanoke: keith godchaux on rhodes for the whole night, no real idea why, guessing they had issues with the rented steinway (or the person supposed to tune it). i missed it earlier but, between may & june, kreutzmann changed the BERTHA groove to something like halftime (compared to earlier version), making it more laid back, closer to THEY LOVE EACH OTHER (or how ROW JIMMY changed over early drafts). doing a quick check, it sounds like the groove stays like this to the other side of the ’75-’76 road hiatus, getting blurry/ambiguous between spring & fall ’77, when sometimes the drummers start playing different feels. donna jean ducks out after IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES (stomach bug, per memories). 25-minute screamless PLAYING IN THE BAND is sparse/stark dead-jazz chatter. SEASTONES on audience tape only, funny chomping, including taper sharing address by speaking it onto tape. one head annotates SEASTONES: “alpha centauri! interstellar!” lightly agitated (in my interpretation) at fellow fans, “read a science fiction novel, you fools!” just as ned & phil start soaring awesome silver clouds, tape cuts. rhodes-only shifts perspective, subtle different colors in CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER transition, especially. though no deep jamming, surprise 14-minute U.S. BLUES > PROMISED LAND. after U.S. BLUES ends, garcia keeps going, almost like a challenge, & everybody else hops back in for 5 more minutes of blues-choogle, through quick TRUCKIN’ like peak & shifting into PROMISED LAND. cool 1-time-only move. rare BROKEDOWN PALACE, unexpected rhodes sweetness.
7/29/74 landover: great piano details in IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES. 1st SCARLET BEGONIAS without donna vocalizing. 20-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE, LET IT GROW again pointed out & pulled back. SEASTONES is MIA. 50-minute HE’S GONE > TRUCKIN’ > NOBODY’S FAULT BUT MINE > THE OTHER ONE > SPANISH JAM > WHARF RAT. long vocal outro to HE’S GONE. short potent OTHER ONE folds seamlessly into SPANISH JAM. super-slow & dreamy PEGGY-O & TO LAY ME DOWN. beltway crowd goes ape for U.S. BLUES.
7/31/74 hartford: put on by watkins glen promoters koplik/finkel. after 5 shows that were 3 hours or under, a proper 3-set dead marathon, plus seastones interlude. fun jams & excellent summer vibes in all 3 sets, on what was a blazingly hot day. 1st set opens with 8-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS (its first show-opening slot) & closes with 15-minute CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER. set 2 probably would’ve started around sunset, getting into jam-town with 23-minute EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL (some discordances in the transition) & 17-minute set-closing WEATHER REPORT SUITE (with neat garcia/godchaux rhodes dialogue at peak). 21-minute SEASTONES, a rumblescape panning across ancient alien ocean floor, bass fissures & subliminal frequencies & analog volcanoes & piercing vortices, hard listen on restless audience tapes. way cool 40-minute TRUCKIN’ > WHARF RAT, long singsongy epilogue (faking at WHARF RAT) before MIND LEFT BODY with intricate garcia detailing over hep kreutzmann pocket. after ideas dissipate, weir cues SPANISH JAM, gentle at first, then noisily back into MIND LEFT BODY, floating into WHARF RAT.
8/4/74 philadelphia: playing the smaller civic center (because a crew member dumped dinner of a promoter’s head & forced them to work with different promoters). crisp 6-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS, bright/dense garcia/lesh/weir chat. glowing-all-over PEGGY-O. 26-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND passes through dizzying plateaus, bass overflows, long descent. 16-minute SEASTONES cyclones, hard to find center. 42-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > WHARF RAT > U.S. BLUES. already-raging LET IT GROW bursts into never-static at-the-edge action, brief behind-the-nut garcia, meltdowns, & twist into WHARF RAT, itself curling towards question marks.
8/5/74 philadelphia: dialed-in from go, garcia ripping on PROMISED LAND, lesh bubbling across BEAT IT ON DOWN THE LINE & CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER/I KNOW YOU RIDER. 17-minute SEASTONES hits sublingual blurp-flow. in 2nd set, 11-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS nearly 2x longer than previous, assertive donna/garcia duet, then hanging in brightness. 53-minute HE’S GONE > TRUCKIN’ > STELLA BLUE propels into wicked drums/bass action, detailed churn, OTHER ONE theme, restlessness/focus, & sturdy STELLA BLUE.
8/6/74 roosevelt stadium: rescheduled from a few days earlier, the last east cost show for 2 years. getting right to blowing @stevesilberman’s mind, 2 unexpected big 1st set jams. 19-minute standalone EYES OF THE WORLD & 37-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND > SCARLET BEGONIAS > PLAYING IN THE BAND. melodious EYES bass & sweet lesh/weir busy-ness at peak. (weir watch: “don’t climb on the fence, idiot!”) deep episodic PLAYING: mega-rhodes conversation, bass thunder, space-zonk, hep pocket, & hiccup’d garcia/kreutzmann up-shift into SCARLET. outro melt is more graceful. on audience tape, fireworks show, then 16-minute SEASTONES, emerging ambiently from crowd, building in measured waves to fuzz-cloud peak (with room for more). full hour of 2nd set before band gets to jam sequence. SUGAR MAGNOLIA (with big outro solo) & SUNSHINE DAYDREAM semi-awkwardly bookend 49-minute HE’S GONE > TRUCKIN’ > THE OTHER ONE > GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD FEELING BAD. TRUCKIN’ dissipates to garcialogue & SPANISH JAM escape route. too-brief jazz chatter after only OTHER ONE verse.
9/9/74 london: utter madness in #london, where rock scully is running things but the situation is in charge. tickets are bootlegged all across town & the dead/family are staying in a very sketchy house that’s virtually built out of cocaine. due to electrical issues & other problems, 1st show starts way late. JACK STRAW soundcheck on tape. because of late start, one long set (& no SEASTONES). weird vibes & band only gets half-firing. 9-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS pokes at sunshine. 23-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND churns, opens to godchaux’s rhodes & wah-wah droplets, shimmering in place. 28-minute TRUCKIN’ > WHARF RAT. tight TRUCKIN’ peaks but chaotic jams, kreutzmann & garcia sounding unusually disconnected for a bit. garcia leans OTHER ONE, lesh pushing out, finally syncing.
9/10/74 london: tender PEGGY-O. 27-minute WEATHER REPORT SUITE > STELLA BLUE finds slightly open waters in transition. ned lagin makes european debut on 14-minute SEASTONES. odd, stark coherence & dread. synth shapes under lesh zonk. maybe in reaction, weir goes ultra-normie, including 16-minute somewhat tepid mid-set NOT FADE AWAY. but the freaks have it: 44-minute DARK STAR > MORNING DEW, slowly loosening to space jazz, minimalist blues, & post-verse fuzz fields & properly detonated DEW.
9/11/74 london: after bad vibes, band/crew flush their coke stashes & re-commit to the acid brother/sisterhood. gorgeous #psychedelic dead ensues. the seastones #synth sequence is perhaps my most-played dead jam. band more palpably together than previous 2 nights. 10-minute show-opening SCARLET BEGONIAS with some knob-twiddling, but fun jam, some forthright “la la la”-ing from d. godchaux. another sweet & austere IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES, thankfully a regular tune in this last 1-drummer window. 23-minute set-closing PLAYING IN THE BAND, lots of expansive k. godchaux rhodes. 2nd set starts with all-timer sequence: 84-minute SEASTONES > EYES OF THE WORLD > WHARF RAT, full-spectrum dead, from space to street. great lagin/lesh blend, minimal without being stark. kreutzmann joins first, subtle drums among the wild seastones, then garcia. 30 minutes of weightlessness before beat starts, floating into EYES with ever-present lagin rhodes, ultra-melodic garcia leads, pooling back into glorious open space after EYES outro. late in the show: near-perfect SHIP OF FOOLS.
9/14/74 munich: 12-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS finds little dense space, rare sloppy landing. last of the sweet MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP/MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES pairs. 18-minute SEASTONES. crowd whistles displeasure & lagin matches/bends their tones. 38-minute TRUCKIN’ > MIND LEFT BODY JAM > WHARF RAT > SUGAR MAGNOLIA. TRUCKIN’ has nifty little rhythmic jam, acceleration into uptempo MIND LEFT BODY is MIA on board tape. quicksilver garcia on 19-minute EYES OF THE WORLD > ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT. [
9/18/74 dijon: soundcheck has fun 8 minutes of #JerryGarcia warming up solo, running semi-unobserved through moods/modes/effects. pretty hot full band CUMBERLAND BLUES. 26 minutes of SEASTONES moment-forms as lagin moves through gear, joined by all but the godchauxs at points. rare linear keyboard #synth in places & knockout clean stereo bass. gorgeous piece of gentle lagin/garcia tone swells & less-gentle lesh squeals ~9:45, gradually getting denser, & dissipating to lagin/garcia duo. show is ragged but friendly. 9-minute UNCLE JOHN’S BAND opener stretches casually. wee french crowd gets 1st FRIEND OF THE DEVIL since 12/72. action-packed 23-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND, garcia going aggressively melodic in jam, brief passage that seems to presage SHAKEDOWN STREET before lesh takes over & garcia switches to warm wah colors. jam thins/reforms/re-spaces. aces 13-minute SEASTONES, dynamic & well-recorded, lagin/lesh in uncommonly perceivable conversation. great garcia ballads, including semi-rare TO LAY ME DOWN & another stunning PEGGY-O. 22-minute EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL is magical & wistful with SLIPKNOT! whispers. CHINA DOLL grows subtly busier 1-night-only drum part in always-fascinating transition into coda. 44-minute HE’S GONE > TRUCKIN’ > SHIP OF FOOLS. brief drum break turns into convincing free jazz. lesh slips into CAUTION bassline, weir pushes MIND LEFT BODY, but it’s a cooler, funkier 3rd place.
9/20/74 paris: conclusion of their european tour. bob weir’s guitar disappears from the mix during 1st set, making everything starker/unsettling & pretty hard to listen to, made borderline tolerable via charlie miller’s 2014 remastering. 10-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS. brief failed/atonal attempt at synth by k. godchaux, switching to conversational rhodes. subtle cowbell by kreutzmann. crowd impatient during WEATHER REPORT SUITE intro. sloppy night, weir miscuing AROUND & AROUND & GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. 59-minute TRUCKIN’ > EYES OF THE WORLD > NOT FADE AWAY > GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD FEELING BAD > ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT. TRUCKIN’ deconstructs to bass-led fuzz fields. SATURDAY NIGHT ~15-20bpm slower than usual.
9/21/74 paris: still not sold on the half-time BERTHA, but garcia & k. godchaux get into a sweet conversational choogle. “i’m not high enough yet,” kreutzmann (i think) observes off-mic after SUGAREE. 24-minute EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL. “later! later! later!” someone (not garcia) says off-mic between verses on CHINA DOLL. kreutzmann getting into busier cowbell-y parts on ROW JIMMY, EYES intro, CHINA DOLL peak. maybe the ‘80s weren’t only mickey’s fault? 50-minute SEASTONES > PLAYING IN THE BAND not as graceful as the london jams but still fun. garcia enters with subtle bleep-tones, threading between glass-shattering noise-swells. kreutzmann also comes in subtly, but has trouble flowing into PLAYING, low stakes but busy with chattering garcia/lagin & brief drum break. oddly lifeless MORNING DEW. bad mix or can it be ascribed to rock scully’s apparently verified story of band members fucking with china white?
10/16/74 winterland: last dead version of ME & BOBBY McGEE, really a darned shame, always loved garcia backing vocal part. lesh driving fresh turns in not-quite-jammed TENNESSEE JED & CUMBERLAND BLUES. 32-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND is spacious & delicious, immolating & reforming into a series of shifting pockets, every musician just fitting into the weave perfectly, especially kreutzmann’s relentless glide. lot of rhythmic rhodes dots. centerpiece is 91-minute SEASTONES > WHARF RAT > EYES OF THE WORLD. abstractions joined by fine-grained garcia, then 25-minute jam with garcia/lesh/lagin/kreutzmann, lagin switching from ambient low frequencies to rhodes. we may never grow so tall again. space-jazz fun, some less-swinging pockets & dead air, but delightful conversations. weir & k. godchaux join near end. lagin stays out, muted during vocal sections. SEASTONES, WHARF RAT, & EYES all end with semi-restless garcialogues. and then after the SEASTONES wild-out, now minus lagin, another hour’s worth of music, including 26-minute TRUCKIN’ > GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD FEELING BAD > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND that doesn’t go too far. scuttlebutt is that band & crowd were both a little muted by the cameras. lesh charmingly sings an atonal HAPPY BIRTHDAY for weir.
10/17/74 winterland: bill graham intro, pointing out the camera crews: “we’re all going to be part of an X-rated movie if all goes well.” truly horrendous sounds from the wall during PROMISED LAND opener, so much that it even throws off weir. final 1-drummer version RAMBLE ON ROSE (goodbye lesh harmony part). 9-minute SEASTONES. either a crying baby in the near-distance off-mic or an absolutely perfect ambient synth patch, could really be either. 2nd set gets right to 10-minute SCARLET BEGONIAS, confident & cool donna vocal improv (call/response with garcia), kreutzmann finding comfy new jam pocket that doesn’t derail ending. 51-minute HE’S GONE > THE OTHER ONE > STELLA BLUE. detailed pre-verse weirding, post-verse SPANISH JAM (last ’til 7/76) & MIND LEFT BODY (last ’til 10/78). last 1-drummer versions of OTHER ONE (the perfect showcase for kreutzmann’s gang-of-one drumming) & STELLA BLUE (the gang-of-one at his chillest). :(.
10/18/74 winterland: 1st set is for cowboy(ish) dead, 2nd set is for space music, 3rd is for boogie. a bunch of sad goodbyes: the final 1-drummer SUGAREE & PEGGY-O, spare & uncomplicated tunes served well by spare & uncomplicated drum parts. last WEATHER REPORT SUITE PRELUDE/PART 1, among my fave weir songs, sad & autumnal no matter the season. love garcia’s faux steel. (LET IT GROW, i must admit, does get pretty cool with 2 drummers.) 4th & last time SEASTONES flows into lagin-abetted dead, 75-minute SEASTONES > DARK STAR > MORNING DEW is a (slightly bumpier) peak of the collaboration. crowd restless a few times during the heavy electronics. garcia joins, then kreutzmann, who comes out swingin’, finding sweet quartet dialogues en route into final 1-drummer DARK STAR, gone thru 12/78, & real end of era. lilting 1st half, post-verse jam stays mostly inside, almost funky. MORNING DEW goes supernova, last ’til 9/76. 3rd set feels a wee superfluous but hey it’s friday at winterland in 1974, highlighted for me by the last 1-drummer SHIP OF FOOLS between a pair of choogle suites. smaller goodbyes: last of a dozen PROMISED LAND/BERTHA/GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD combos, all premonitions of later ‘70s; last 1-drummer NOT FADE AWAY, a song that will find a very different feel soon. haven’t tracked weir’s “everybody’s dancin’ at the local skating rink” in ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT, but probably accurate.
10/19/74 winterland: almost too many departures to note. in the 1st set, the final fast crisp FRIEND OF THE DEVIL before the ’76 slowdown. last LOOSE LUCY & BLACK THROATED WIND ’til 1990. final 1-drummer SCARLET BEGONIAS, stretching casually/quizzically. sigh. randomly, the 1st MAMA TRIED since 8/71. sloppy! rare BIG RAILROAD BLUES, groovy bakersfield break in intro. looks like the biker from the dead movie got his bike onstage after all. 19-minute classic combo EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL, the last of 25 times the two were paired in the original suite, with EYES outro bass solo & dramatic well-executed 7/8 break. 14-minute SEASTONES, one of the few lagin/lesh sets with something close to an electronic bleep-beat, sounding (in a good way) a lot like acts i’ve seen at random improv shows, eventually opening into fuzz, crackle, & occasional dread, ending on a building wash-wave & sudden stop. so many songs go on ice: final TOMORROW IS FOREVER (1st since 12/72), underrated garcia/donna C&W, CHINA DOLL (last until 5/77), UNCLE JOHN’S (12/76), TO LAY ME DOWN (9/80), THE RACE IS ON (10/80), DIRE WOLF (9/77). SUGAR MAGNOLIA & SUNSHINE DAYDREAM bracket 50-minute HE’S GONE > TRUCKIN’ > BLACK PETER. unusually, before vocals, TRUCKIN’ (9/77) veers into 1st legit CAUTION jam since pigpen’s death, total fire, then DRUMZ & garcialogue before the song itself, plus BLACK PETER (10/77).
10/20/74 winterland: “the last one” (as bill graham stamped the tickets) before the band’s indefinite break from the road, though they’ll play live again by spring. final show with the wall of sound, end of the 1st epoch with the last 1-drummer versions of everything, mickey hart rematerializing mid-show. as usual, bill graham (in a white suit) both cheered & booed but nails intro: “as it should be on a sunday night in san francisco, the grateful dead.” besides garbled MAMA TRIED, 1st set sparkles. most songs will return in ’76, CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER in 12/77 (& not really ’til 2/79). lesh is raspy, but BROKEDOWN PALACE (last ’til 5/77) is a stunner, final “american beauty” tune with its original harmonies (& lesh’s last show as a vocalist for a while). 33-minute SEASTONES (last at a dead show), again starts with tangible bleep-grids before longer abstractions, joined by garcia for last 15 minutes, adding subliminal swells/melodies to the unsettling vibrations. doesn’t transition into the dead, perhaps because (without telling band) the crew invited mickey hart back & set up a kit, joining for the 2nd set, his 1st time with the dead since 2/71, a night ned lagin also performed. maybe mickey thought he was there the whole time? middle set with hart & lagin is 62-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND > DRUMZ > NOT FADE AWAY > DRUMZ > OTHER ONE > WHARF RAT > PLAYING IN THE BAND, premonition of late ‘70s thump (“ALLIGATOR?” mickey asks before NOT FADE AWAY), dotted occasionally by lagin’s aggressive rhodes. some brilliant guitar/keys exchanges in PLAYING & OTHER ONE, but can hear collective subtlety escaping. hart/lagin are on/off during 3rd set, hart only audible on opener & closer, but weird mix makes it hard to discern. 1st GOOD LOVIN’ since pigpen’s death, led by weir, only song with 3 lead singers at different times (garcia in ’66/’69, pig in ’69-’72). blown-out between locked-in brilliance & aimless rhythmic clusterfuck. 23-minute EYES OF THE WORLD > STELLA BLUE. last EYES with 7/8 coda, SLIPKNOT! riff linking into STELLA BLUE. SUGAR MAGNOLIA & JOHNNY B. GOODE are full muppet drummer chaos. cutting in mid-solo, jawdropping MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP 2nd encore. perfect call with nearly every lyric apropos. final encore ends with BID YOU GOODNIGHT. afterwards, dudes in crowd still yelling for SAINT STEPHEN.
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