#deadfreaksunite 1974


#deadfreaksunite 1974
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 anniversary and edited here for readability and occasional revision/correction and minor expansion. All 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.

[1965] [1966] [1967] [1968] [1969] [1970] [1971] [1972] [1973] [1974] [1975] [1976] [1977] [1978] [1979] [1980] [1981] [1982] [1983]

2/22/74 winterland: a long soundcheck spent working on 3 new songs, the retired ATTICS OF MY LIFE, & a proto-ESTIMATED PROPHET jam. show opens with the proper debut of U.S. BLUES, ex-WAVE THAT FLAG. nice & punchy, though band doesn’t seem quite done practicing it. the 1st IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES, the only GD tune credited solely to hunter, is an instant winner, though fast & a bit clunky. garcia plays fully articulated SLIPKNOT! inside PLAYING IN THE BAND, uncharacteristically forcing it discordantly into the jam. 1st SHIP OF FOOLS, a major new jerry tune, is likewise uptempo compared to future versions, but dramatic & funny & wonderful. not a lot of compelling jamming, the band’s overexcitement best encompassed by non-sequitur bass bombs in CHINA DOLL.

2/23/74 winterland: final HERE COMES SUNSHINE until the (shudder) ’90s revival. farewell big blissy jam, we hardly knew ye. ’74 model mellowness seems way less lethargic & more pleasing than the ’73 version, probably mostly due to the warm piano/rhodes mix. even-keeled LET IT GROW with sweet weird-swing by kretuzmann. subtle jerry/keith SLIPKNOT! counterpoint in OTHER ONE.

2/24/74 winterland: another U.S. BLUES opener, clearly the new anthem, more confident than its debut, now beaming & exuberant & goofy. great show all around, with vivid foregrounded piano/rhodes in CUMBERLAND BLUES, PLAYING IN THE BAND, WEATHER REPORT SUITE & more. 1st DARK STAR of ’74 starts & stops a few times before coalescing into a short, jaw-dropping coda & a long, drippy MORNING DEW.  1st IT’S ALL OVER NOW BABY BLUE since 9/72 & last ’til ’81. slightly uptempo, but graceful, unrushed, & nice. g’bye.

3/23/74 cow palace: hello, wall of sound! the 1st proper show for owsley’s legendary, crystalline PA. greetings, as well, to SCARLET BEGONIAS & CASSIDY, last major pre-hiatus debuts. SCARLET’s open-ended bounce is sloppy & irresistible. CASSIDY, released 2 years earlier on “ace,” has even more potential. a real shame they shelved it again ’til ’76. my fave weir song? final PLAYING IN THE BAND  > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > MORNING DEW > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > PLAYING IN THE BAND sequence, led by magical soft-edged garcia attack that could last forever. unexpected beatles-y counterpoint vocal on SHIP OF FOOLS’ final chorus, not articulated during 3 previous versions.

5/12/74 reno: the wall of sound hits the road. 3-set outdoor show amid crazy washoe zephyr winds that phil references. lulz whenever the dead use gazillion-watt WoS to play polka-boogies. appropriately surly lesh vocals on MEXICALI BLUES & everywhere. high-speed details & thrilling MIND LEFT BODY-like descent before the only lyric-mangled verse of quick-dissolving OTHER ONE, a fully developed MIND LEFT BODY jam & 2 more jerry ballads, though SHIP OF FOOLS is sly & perfect in early uptempo version.

5/14/74 missoula: 1st & only time the dead played montana. “sweet susie” returns to LOSER for 1st time since ’72. garcia sounds confused. bubbling SCARLET BEGONIAS jam, too short, kreutzmann pushing the band outside the structure. a pleasant landing into IT NUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES. 27m DARK STAR features unparalleled space-swing, highwire JG/BK dazzle, stereo fuzz conversations, flexatone, & ample cosmic boredom. dense & unsettling CHINA DOLL with insane overloaded guitar solo amid a drippingly psychedelic soundboard mix. fratboy hits weir on head with plastic beer pitcher & weir responds appropriately with cheesiest ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT yet.

5/17/74 vancouver: debut of a new faster arrangement of LOOSE LUCY. still a throwaway, but now with refreshing bonus pep. weir’s MONEY MONEY, on the other hand, is unsafe at any speed. the worst dead tune not written by a keyboardist? IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES & SHIP OF FOOLS both slow down even more & get even better. played almost every night & rightly so. top notch PLAYING IN THE BAND & TRUCKIN’ > EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL jams but, except for hard-driving EYES outro, nothing exceptional.

5/19/74 portland: big cheer for 3rd ever SCARLET BEGONIAS. does the crowd possibly know it or is it just instinctual 1st reaction? band makes a point of cutting off the SCARLET jam (why?!) & ending together crisply, an oddity by itself. thankfully, it won’t stick. 4 big garcia ballads, including beautiful 1st PEGGY-O of ’74 & a powerful CRYPTICAL-like WHARF RAT that keeps expanding as it spirals. fast, fun TRUCKIN’ unwinds into an unusual funk-slop MIND LEFT BODY, the closest kreutzmann ever got to breakbeats.

5/21/74 seattle: a monster show highlighted by a 46-minute PLAYING IN THE BAND, 3rd longest standalone jam in the band’s history. good omens: donna jean’s SCARLET BEGONIAS wail is kind of nice & low-key, karen dalton style. last of 3 MONEY MONEYs. fuck that song. no, really. it’s so hateful & un-deady. 1st set ends on unusual elegiac note with an unfussy CHINA DOLL. works really well. A+ PLAYING soars with bizarre internal logic, earns its brief space-outs & is bookended by some of the more brutal donna screams ever. the 23m EYES OF THE WORLD > WHARF RAT that follows might be seen as unnecessary by some. i am not among them.

5/25/74 santa barbara: one of my 1st killer soundboards (thanks, compuserve tape tree!) & my personal definitive CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER segue. TRUCKIN’ bends swiftly from blooze boogie to fast zagging & drumless space where keith plays subtly sun ra-y monophonic synth & into the only ’74 LET IT GROW unattached to rest of WEATHER REPORT SUITE & capped by 3rd big WHARF RAT in 3 shows. also the show where a taper snuck in his deck by burying it in the stadium the night before.

6/8/74 oakland: a sun-stroked bill graham day on the green at oakland stadium w/ the beach boys, new riders, & commander cody opening. strong candidate for the all-time most of out-of-tune dead show, due to heat. for mucho excellent baseball banter, check @NotBobWeir. SCARLET BEGONIAS feels slightly off-kilter, with garcia unwinding a cool inverted version of the melody to signal the end of the jam. 40m PLAYING IN THE BAND > WHARF RAT > PLAYING IN THE BAND wanders early but goes molten. even keith steps up during A+ darting full-band improv.

6/16/74 des moines: 4 hours over 3 afternoon sets at the state fairgrounds. pictures show grand piano, but keith plays mostly rhodes. good fun throughout. SCARLET BEGONIAS is short but big. sounds like it could go anywhere. uncharacteristically clangy CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER. bodacious EYES OF THE WORLD > BIG RIVER segue. refreshing to hear the band keep uptempo momentum instead of resolving into a ballad. weir & donna finally nail nifty beatles-y SHIP OF FOOLS outro harmony. 30m PLAYING IN THE BAND with chiming disassembly & abstruse zapping. keith uses fuzzed rhodes for garth hudson-style country-funk on ME & MY UNCLE. many-themed TRUCKIN’ capped by smooth MIND LEFT BODY as a confident bridge into sweeping WHARF RAT. weir loses his voice & doesn’t sing after the big jam. also refreshing.

6/18/74 louisville: a stone classic. rich sound, punchy bass, mucho piano, quiet dynamics. like my old tape, slightly sped up. PSA by weir: “you’re probably wondering why we called you all here tonight. the upshot of it is that one of you is a Venutian spy.” an all-time great EYES OF THE WORLD, crisp & roaring, godchaux taking the 1st solo & adding triumphant harmony to the 7/8 outro. 20m LET IT GROW sparkles into mutant swing & a 19m OTHER ONE, dissolution, odd pockets, & space-blooze prelude to STELLA BLUE. rare MORNING DEW encore. long & exquisite quiet valley before the final peak, filled with piano/guitar/bass droplets.

6/20/74 atlanta: debut of the weir/garcia guitar harmony intro to JACK STRAW. 1st TO LAY ME DOWN of the year. ineffable LSDC&W. more sweet godchaux piano throughout. especially breathtaking quiet filigrees on MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES. you were right, @jimmyjacktoth. EYES OF THE WORLD opens into a runaway garcia solo; an early version of SLIPKNOT, everyone else half-successfully figuring it out as they go. CHINA DOLL features the return of the awesome overloaded split-signal feedback guitar solo from the missoula version.

6/22/74 miami: super-fine 29m PLAYING IN THE BAND with shimmering jazz dance, soft-fuzz guitar, & sudden invention in the clouds of unknowing. comfortably far-out CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER with a half-baroque rhodes part. odd tempo disagreements on BERTHA, WHARF RAT, more.

6/23/74 miami: only dead version of chuck berry’s LET IT ROCK. started by phil, sung by jerry, outside garcia/weir rotation. fun but wut? the 1st setbreak SEASTONES duet between phil lesh (on quad bass) & ned lagin (on e-mu modular synth) zapping thru the wall of sound. 13m of disorienting & increasingly piercing full-body biomusic burble & scream around the jai-alai fronton. deadheads applaud politely. lagin plays rhodes on JAM > SHIP OF FOOLS & is fully present on a wordless 22m DARK STAR > SPANISH JAM, conversing with garcia & lesh. or this is the busiest godchaux playing ever? garcia deploys split-signal feedback-fuzz during SPANISH JAM & destroys.

6/26/74 providence: A+ mix of soundboard with jerry moore audience tape. dude in the crowd really wants people in front to sit down. frenetic LET IT GROW jam cooks for 4m & evaporates. SEASTONES is mostly gentle bio-voltage. heads seems receptive, even enthused. another abnormally long CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER, starting with a noodle-y prelude & a quizzical diversion before garcia starts to sing. big thumpin’ TRUCKIN’, but quad bass solo, OTHER ONE riffage, SPANISH JAM, other themes feel restless & disconnected.

6/28/74 boston garden: an old fave with setlist shenanigans & a fun, consistent up-ness; big jam is more scattered than i remembered. split-up SUGAR MAGNOLIA/SUNSHINE DAYDREAM bookends a set for 1st time. SCARLET BEGONIAS moves to 2nd set & nearly breaks free. short soundboard SEASTONES excerpt erupts from vivid oceanic static to screaming flares. crisp TO LAY ME DOWN; best since its revival 42m WEATHER REPORT SUITE > MIND LEFT BODY builds, hovers near DARK STAR with brilliant themes, fuzzy dead air & long build to U.S. BLUES. surly phil intros SHIP OF FOOLS: “a quiet, tender, meaningful, sympathetic, heavy-duty ballad in the key of b-flat.”

6/30/74 springfield, MA: superb PLAYING IN THE BAND > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > PLAYING IN THE BAND delights with mondo keith, dime-turn transition, & thoughtful reprise. 2 more spots where almost all drop out but garcia, including a jerry/phil feedback-fuzz bridge into UNCLE JOHN’S BAND & 6m prelude to STELLA BLUE. most cogent SEASTONES yet courtesy of the 1st complete soundboard. seems like phil harshing the noise & ned bleeping more consonantly. nice l’il charge from U.S. BLUES > TRUCKIN’. killer EYES OF THE WORLD (again: keith!) with wild kreutzmann drumming during end break.

7/19/74 fresno: right-on 30m PLAYING IN THE BAND marked by straight jazz, dancing rhodes by birthday boy keith, flowing de- & reconstruction. annoyingly chatty audience-only tape of SEASTONES punctuated by friendliest taper ever. “are you taping this?” “absolutely!!” 1st HE’S GONE since february is long & shaky, with dixieland blues coda by garcia that is sweet & mournful but never takes off. LET IT GROW, peaks atop peaks, a brief space-canyon, glorious patient SPANISH JAM, full-flight EYES OF THE WORLD. enthralling.

7/21/74 hollywood bowl: generally sweet audience tape with another lazy summer MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP > IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES & another talk-marred SEASTONES. 21m PLAYING IN THE BAND with brisk note-chasing & a mini-MIND LEFT BODY/NOBODY’S FAULT/SPANISH JAM collision to set up WHARF RAT.

7/25/74 chicago: just noticing that ROW JIMMY has gradually sped up since slow-ass ’73 versions, back to refreshing SUGAREE-ish lilt. a pleasant vocal-less DARK STAR. nothing jarring, just satisfying linked jams, harmony guitars, drum/keys break, proto-SLIPKNOT, more. JOHNNY B. GOODE has weir shouting like it’s already the ’80s. donna gets brassy on a new part of SHIP OF FOOLS. :(.

7/27/74 roanoke: besides conversational 25m PLAYING IN THE BAND & garcia forcing U.S. BLUES into uneventful 5m boogie jam, oddly improv-less show. weir sings 5 songs in the 2nd set, all covers, 4 from the ’50s. no ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT even though it was a saturday. thanks?

7/29/74 landover: rare DC area show. the hep place to be for swinging beltway liberals at the height of watergate, per reports. straight-ahead & great. many enthused whoops throughout U.S. BLUES. especially assertive IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES. missing SEASTONES. compact & articulate 49m HE’S GONE > TRUCKIN’ > NOBODY’S FAULT > OTHER ONE > SPANISH JAM > WHARF RAT & bonus PEGGY-O.

7/31/74 hartford: 3 sets, all cracking & on point. 1st SCARLET BEGONIAS show opener, purdy rhodes cascades, concise but far-reaching. extraordinarily animated & delightful garcia vocals throughout. 1st time he punches the line “let my eyes no LONGER see” in ROSES. 1st onstage acknowledgment of SEASTONES? “we’ll be for another set in a few moments,” sez jerry. “…& additional weirdness,” adds phil. 2nd full SEASTONES soundboard is the harshest phil/ned custy blastage yet. “get off the stage,” someone yells audibly. #noiselife. curling, primo 40m TRUCKIN’ > MIND LEFT BODY > SPANISH JAM > WHARF RAT. even ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT kinda glows a little.

8/4/74 philadelphia: fairly ripsnorting JACK STRAW thanks to strident phil vocals, a completely tasty solo, & over-saturated mix. 20m LET IT GROW churns, goes supernova, & reforms for a fast, weird 2 minutes before garcia slashes into WHARF RAT.

8/5/74 philly: sparkling soundboard. another golden MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP > MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES. not a natural segue, but a nice pairing. nearly gentle SEASTONES, woman desperately screaming “jerrrrrrry!” on audience tape. last 3m is a burbling annihilation & denouement. big bouncing SCARLET BEGONIAS, 1st to break 10m. half-hour TRUCKIN’ thrills & opens up without resorting to jam motifs.

8/6/74 jersey city: summer tour finale ends an era: the last east coast show (& final U.S. jaunt) ’til mickey hart’s return in ’76. 2 big 1st set jams. jeweled 19m EYES OF THE WORLD with atypically mellifluous bass solo. weir PSA: “don’t climb on the fence, idiot!” PLAYING IN THE BAND bubbles into syncopated space-funk & a totally-like-WOW segue into a semi-off-kilter SCARLET BEGONIAS & on back to PLAYING. rare HE’S GONE prefaces a 31m TRUCKIN’ swerve through SPANISH JAM & only the 5th OTHER ONE of ’74, bookended by SUGAR MAGNOLIA/SUNSHINE DAYDREAM. U.S. BLUES’s “summertime done come & gone” refrain caps the tour & the epoch. see you in a month for europe ’74.

9/9/74 london: the wall of sound takes europe! 1st of 3 nights at alexandra palace starts hours late, earning ill-will from UK heads. 1 set, scant improv. ugly coked-up vibes, per mcnally’s bio. nice SCARLET BEGONIAS, though, with audible cheer for “grosvenor square” line. 16m TRUCKIN’ packs big & bigger thrills with aggressive OTHER ONE bass orbits but instead parachutes into WHARF RAT.

9/10/74 london: excellent 1st set garcia, including dramatic LOSER & nuanced PEGGY-O. LET IT GROW finds edge of space & pulls back. weir opens show with tepid AROUND & AROUND & hijacks early 2nd set with interminable & ultra-lame 16m NOT FADE AWAY. thankfully, 31m DARK STAR flashes between heaviness, confusion, & killer keith. serious post-verse meltdown into bass-crazed MORNING DEW.

9/11/74 london: good: SCARLET BEGONIAS getting longer & more intricate. bad: donna now wailing/whoaing/la-la’ing deeper into the jam. set 2 consists of 69m SEASTONES > EYES OF THE WORLD > WHARF RAT. probably my all-time most-played sequence, still rewarding & weird. garcia & kreutzmann join for deep, lysergic SEASTONES, jagged figures transforming to silver valleys, floating blurps, buddha-guitar. ned’s strident melodic piano dominates EYES, unrushed themes unfolding before a 10m SEASTONES reconstruction into WHARF RAT. lagin remembers garcia erupting into “a prolonged loud belly laugh” after the jam’s conclusion, totally audible on tape. bonus 3rd set. garcia/weir/donna master the counterpoint on final SHIP OF FOOLS chorus, setting up dramatic finish.

9/14/74 munich: weirdly off. SCARLET BEGONIAS has cool counterpoint & high-speed garcia but awkward grooves & rare sloppy ending. SEASTONES achieves a mellow vibration & builds to quad-fuzz detonation finale. germans sound way riled. PINBALL WIZARD comes on PA. last of 6 lovely MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP / MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES pairings, always a nice oasis in a desert of bob weir cowboy songs. no big jam, though 16m TRUCKIN’ hits laser focus for last few minutes, resolving to uptempo MIND LEFT BODY descent into WHARF RAT. more quicksilver garcia during EYES OF THE WORLD encore, but not enough to save show. backstage, bad vibes. http://bit.ly/X3M0HQ

9/18/74 dijon: smallest dead show in years, only a few hundred people. 1st set is ragged but even UNCLE JOHN’S BAND opener stretches casually. tiny french crowd even gets 1st FRIEND OF THE DEVIL since 12/72. jerry ballads aplenty & jam delights all over. both SEASTONES & 2nd set drums/bass break have lesh playing something like free jazz. EYES OF THE WORLD dips into a magical mood, wistful & quiet, lots of gorgeous lead bass & hints of SLIPKNOT; CHINA DOLL grows cool busy drum part. HE’S GONE burns into my new fave TRUCKIN’: 23m of fuego garcia, free DRUMZ, stereo bass, & a “CAUTION JAM” that’s something even better: 10m of shifting, sustained invention & cracking snare turnarounds, melting to SHIP OF FOOLS. thrilling, cohesive set.

9/20/74 paris: a shaggy night in the city of light. midtempo & loose FRIEND OF THE DEVIL. overheard on drum mic pre-BEAT IT DOWN THE LINE: “are you crazy? i can’t count that high, you dumb shit.” 14(?)-beat intro nearly collapses. bizarre SCARLET BEGONIAS gets quiet with slide guitar, off-mic donna la-la’s, off-key monophonic synth (ned?), subtle cowbell details. TRUCKIN’ fans out into squiggly space with neat results, eventually a long garcia/kreutzmann duet, & noise bass bridge into EYES OF THE WORLD. does EYES have bad mix or is it falling apart? unrelated(?), billy k. throws moped through a window. http://bit.ly/1rbjqQV

9/21/74 paris: a sometimes brutal conclusion to 7-show europe ’74 tour & the last dead show outside of san francisco ’til 6/76. or it could be another weir-less mix that just feels off. solid EYES OF THE WORLD outro sounds ready for “blues for allah” sessions. full band on 11m SEASTONES, a fun & dense mess that loses steam. great shattering-glass blasts & a nice ned/keith piano duet, though. 18m PLAYING IN THE BAND stays low stakes with small lurvely garcia/lagin dialogues, dissolves into DRUMS, & screeches awkwardly into final chorus. kreutzmann starting to get into cowbell, including on ROW JIMMY break. maybe the ’80s weren’t only mickey’s fault?

10/16/74 winterland: 1st of 5 eventful “retirement” shows, longest all-time gig (4+ hours of music) & probably the furthest out. camera crew starts shooting “the GD movie.” last ME & BOBBY McGEE. always dug the way garcia bark-crooned the high part on the chorus. weir’s 27th birthday, but happy overbalance of jerry songs; back-to-back TENNESSEE JED & crackling CUMBERLAND BLUES both stretch subtly. 24m SEASTONES, ambient washes sound like (or possibly are?) nearby humans screaming; into dope 25m garcia/lesh/lagin/kreutzmann quartet. too much even for SF deadheads, who clap impatiently during last space-out &, disbelieving maybe, slow to cheer when WHARF RAT starts. and then: 36m WHARF RAT > EYES OF THE WORLD, each with an elliptical solo jerry break. on EYES, thick double keys by lagin & godchaux. and still 45m more: TRUCKIN’ mini-suite &, before encore, phil endearingly & atonally singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to weir.

10/17/74 winterland: the last shows before mickey hart’s return, containing final streamlined 1-drummer versions of many faves. last RAMBLE ON ROSE ’til 9/76. goodbye phil vocals, goodbye subtlety on the bridge. rare FRIEND OF THE DEVIL sounding comfy. last kreutzmann-only OTHER ONE, forever the best jam for his inside-out gang-of-one free drumming. it really tied the room together. 30m OTHER ONE gets both verses, quick SPANISH JAM & MIND LEFT BODY (last ’til 12/83). last BK-only STELLA BLUE. :(.
10/18

10/18/74 winterland: 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. last of 4 jams out of SEASTONES with ned lagin on keys. kreutzmann comes out swingin’, leading modal jazz dances that fold back into the last DARK STAR ’til 12/78. end of an era. quiet & lilting 1st half & post-verse jam that stays mostly inside, almost funky. nice bounce. and into patient MORNING DEW that goes supernova, last ’til 9/76. 3rd set seems unnecessary, but why not? g’bye billy-only SHIP OF FOOLS. an audience mic isn’t synced or this is worst-clapping crowd in dead history, often just totally unrelated to music.

10/19/74 winterland: almost too many comings/goings to note. final fast, crisp version of FRIEND OF THE DEVIL before ’76 slowdown. last LOOSE LUCY & BLACK THROATED WIND ’til 1990. final 1-drummer SCARLET BEGONIAS. sigh. randomly, 1st MAMA TRIED since 8/71. sloppy! rare BIG RAILROAD BLUES, fun bakersfield break in intro. final TOMORROW IS FOREVER (1st since 12/72), underrated garcia/donna C&W. so many songs go on ice: CHINA DOLL (until 5/77), UNCLE JOHN’S (12/76), RACE IS ON (10/80), DIRE WOLF (9/77), BLACK PETER (10/77). before vocals, TRUCKIN’ (9/77) veers into 1st legit CAUTION JAM since pig’s death (fire!), DRUMZ, & solo jerry space.

10/20/74 winterland: “the last one” before the dead’s break from the road, end of the 1st epoch. sweet typo on the ticket, even. as usual, bill graham both cheered & booed but nails intro: “as it should be on a sunday night in san francisco, the grateful dead.” weir garbles every single syllable of the 1st verse of MAMA TRIED, psychedelic in its own way. besides that, whole 1st set sparkles. lesh getting raspy, but BROKEDOWN PALACE (last ’til 5/77) is a stunner, final “american beauty” tune sung with its original harmonies. SEASTONES (last at a GD gig) starts with ned solo, making tangible bleep grids, moist & tonal. then phil & white noise washes arrive. garcia joins for last 15m of SEASTONES, adding subliminal melodic swells & noodles to lesh & lagin’s unsettling, sparse vibrations. mickey hart returns for last 2 sets, quietness refined since ’71 instantly swallowed by big busy beat. band’s balance audibly shifts. new possibilities in propulsive hippie fusion & deep messiness emerge in 61m 4-song PLAYING IN THE BAND sequence with lagin on aggressive 2nd keys. 1st GOOD LOVIN’ since pigpen’s death, led by weir, only dead cover with 3 lead singers at different times (garcia in ’66/’69, pig in ’69-’72). and it’s way blown-out, the dawn of a new era of rhythmic clusterfuck, drifting between locked-in brilliance & aimless textural float. last EYES OF THE WORLD with 7/8 ending break. SLIPKNOT! riff links into STELLA BLUE, now swollen with overbearing tom-tom fills. cutting in mid-solo, a jawdropping MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP 2nd encore. perfect call with nearly every lyric apropos. it even reigns in hart. WE BID YOU GOODNIGHT to close it out, the last until new year’s ’76. dudes in crowd still shouting for ST. STEPHEN.

[1965] [1966] [1967] [1968] [1969] [1970] [1971] [1972] [1973] [1974] [1975] [1976] [1977] [1978] [1979] [1980] [1981] [1982] [1983]

dead tapes at baby’s allright, 22 june 2014

 

all cassette Dead set
Baby’s Allright
22 June 2014

5/2/70 Binghamton: Don’t Ease Me In, I Know You Rider, Friend of the Devil, Dire Wolf, Beat It On Down the Line, Black Peter, Candyman > Cumberland Blues, Deep Elem Blues, Cold Jordan
4/28/71 Fillmore East: Morning Dew
5/26/73 Kezar Stadium: Eyes of the World > China Doll
2/18/71 Port Chester: Dark Star > Wharf Rat > Dark Star (with Ned Lagin)
12/18/73 Miami: Brown Eyed Women
5/8/77 Ithaca: Scarlet Begonias > Fire On the Mountain
5/26/73 Kezar Stadium: Here Comes Sunshine, El Paso, Loser
5/25/74 UC Santa Barbara: Promised Land, Ship of Fools
5/2/70 Binghamton: Dancing in the Street
10/19/74 Winterland: Scarlet Begonias, To Lay Me Down
6/18/74 Louisville: Eyes of the World > China Doll
9/28/75 Golden Gate Park: Help on the Way > Slipknot! > The Music Never Stopped
3/2/80 Jerry Garcia Band at The Stone: After Midnight > Eleanor Rigby Jam > After Midnight
5/2/70 Binghamton: The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment reprise > Cosmic Charlie
11/17/73 Los Angeles: Playing in the Band > Uncle John’s Band > Morning Dew > Uncle John’s Band > Playing in the Band
5/19/74 Portland, OR: Peggy-O
2/24/74 Winterland: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider
5/2/70 Binghamton: Viola Lee Blues > We Bid You Goodnight

 

dead vinyl at baby’s allright, 6 february 2014

all Grateful Dead/Jerry Garcia vinyl set
Baby’s Allright
6 February 2014

“Here Comes Sunshine” from Dick’s Picks, v. 1 (Brookvale)
“China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider” from Ain’t It Crazy bootleg
“Don’t Ease Me In” 7-inch version, from untitled Italian bootleg
“Cold Rain and Snow” from Grateful Dead (Warner Bros.)
“Stealin'” from Rare Cuts and Oddities (Rhino)
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” from Vintage Dead (Sunflower)
“Dancin’ in the Street” from Dick’s Picks, v. 4 (Brookvale)
“Dark Star” from untitled Italian bootleg of Glastonbury Fayre [actually 8 April 1972] “Crazy Fingers” from Blues For Allah (Grateful Dead)
“Positively 4th Street” from Garcia/Saunders’ Live at Keystone (Fantasy)
“Bird Song” from Garcia’s Garcia (Warner Bros.)
“Playing in the Band” from Weir’s Ace (Warner Bros.)
“Next Time You See Me” from Europe ’72, v. 2 (Rhino)
“Wake Up Little Susie” from Bear’s Choice (Warner Bros.)
“Silver Threads and Golden Needles” from Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA 4/18/70 (Rhino)
“Dire Wolf” from Reckoning (Arista)
“Cumberland Blues” from Winterland, May 30, 1971 (Rhino)
“Bill Graham introduction > Help On the Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower” from One From The Vault (Light in the Attic)
“It Hurts Me Too” from Europe ’72 (Warner Bros.)
“Ain’t It Crazy” from Ain’t It Crazy bootleg

Plunderphonic layered/segued:
“Mason’s Children > Caution > Feedback” / from Dick’s Picks, v. 4 (Brookvale)
“#2” / from Ned Lagin’s Seastones (Round)
“Late For Supper > Spidergawd” / from Garcia’s Garcia (Warner Bros.)
“What’s Become of the Baby” / from Aoxomoxoa (Warner Bros.)
“Eep Hour” / from Garcia’s Garcia (Warner Bros.)
“Dark Star” / from Dick’s Picks, v. 4 (Brookvale)
“Side E” / from John Oswald’s Grayfolded (Important)
“Eyes of the World” from One From the Vault (Light in the Attic)

“Shakedown Street” from Shakedown Street (Arista)
“Cats Under the Stars” from Garcia’s Cats Under the Stars (Arista)
“Let’s Spend the Night Together” from Garcia’s Compliments of… (Round)
“‘Til the Morning Comes” from American Beauty (Warner Bros.)
“Run For the Roses” from Garcia’s Run For the Roses (Arista)
“Viola Lee Blues” from Grateful Dead (Warner Bros.)
“Boys in the Barroom” from Robert Hunter’s Tales of the Great Rum Runners (Round)

#deadfreaksunite 1973


#deadfreaksunite 1973 [1st pass]
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 anniversary and edited here for readability and occasional revision/correction and minor expansion. All 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.

[1965] [1966] [1967] [1968] [1969] [1970] [1971] [1972] [1973 revisited] [1974] [1975] [1976] [1977] [1978] [1979] [1980] [1981] [1982] [1983]

2/9/73 stanford: 1st gig in band’s actual hometown of palo alto since ’66, testing new PA & 7 new songs, most ever debuted at once. PA blowout on 1st note sadly not included. garcia almost immediately debuts ROW JIMMY, more subtly boisterous than later incarnations. weir’s using a nice new organ-y compression, notably on 1st LOOKS LIKE RAIN since 7/72, now unbearable without pedal steel & phil harmony. new boogie-outs LOOSE LUCY (with alternate lyrics) & WAVE THAT FLAG (the proto-U.S. BLUES) are the 1st 2 garcia songs that i find mostly disposable. 1st HERE COMES SUNSHINE near end of 1st set, 4-part vocals ragged & effective, bright changes perfect for glorious rainbow noodling. garcia’s 3 2nd set firsties begin with sweet emphatic groove of THEY LOVE EACH OTHER, song #1 in the deadhead wedding band fakebook. 1st EYES OF THE WORLD, instantly a major new tune, 19m debut dances between ambling & rambling, loses steam three times, picks up, misses the 7/8 ending & melts into 1st heartbreaking CHINA DOLL, the roughness of the rest of the show highlighting garcia’s buddha-croon.

2/15/73 madison: debut of loretta lynn’s YOU AIN’T WOMAN ENOUGH, donna’s 1st solo lead vocal, nice flash of ’72-style C&W. gentle cymbal-heavy DARK STAR, lots of garcia volume-knob violin twirls, pre-verse drift, & a lovely but clunky bass solo segue into 25m EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL, phil sketches the 7/8 transition. the 1st big new piece for 2nd set suite-spot since ’67, really.

2/17/73 st. paul: drowzzzzy 20m early set HE’S GONE / LOOKS LIKE RAIN with, um, scatting by multiple suspects during former’s outro. punchy ROW JIMMY would fit on “Europe ’72.” terrifying ululation/flutter by donna throughout YOU AIN’T WOMAN ENOUGH. almost jamless 2nd set, save a short, buoyant HERE COMES SUNSHINE with a perfect, liquid segue into CHINA > RIDER.

2/19/73 chicago: amazing 2nd set. magical, soft-snared mix. 70m 5-song segue, starting with HE’S GONE. thankfully only phil scats. spiral splice from OTHER ONE into 1st essential EYES OF THE WORLD, lesh & weir darting lazily with garcia, 7/8 section fully formed.

2/21/73 champaign-urbana: garcia playing new tunes in his 1st slot at nearly every show. gang harmonies sound nice on ROW JIMMY. phil’s LOOKS LIKE RAIN harmonies return for final chorus. still figuring out the segue into EYES OF THE WORLD, 2 false stabs out of TRUCKIN’ (including a breakneck bass solo) before they achieve crossfade. the EYES gearwork loosens into a blissful open space, recombining a bit clumsily into a magnificent STELLA BLUE.

2/22/73 champaign: DARK STAR with flexatone(?!) & purposeful dissolve into another confident & blazing EYES OF THE WORLD. gigantic peak.

2/24/73 iowa city: 45m worth of bits/bobs. reluctantly starting to dig the brute force BOX OF RAIN vocals. consonant & opaque PLAYING IN THE BAND. tantalizing 5m post-TRUCKIN’ bass solo fragment verging on FEELIN’ GROOVY/BEAUTIFUL JAM (labeled as NOBODY’S FAULT BUT MINE?)

2/26/73 lincoln: 25m brightly traced DARK STAR, phil playing at SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD, meanders into EYES OF THE WORLD via finally-graceful bass segue. MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP is jaunty & surprising in the now-gentrified post-suite jerry ballad slot, billy on top the segue all the way.

2/28/73 salt lake city: great dick’s picks mix. can really hear keith/weir interaction, especially nice on SUGAREE. 2nd verse & end tag shaved off THE OTHER ONE for ’73, collapsing instead into EYES OF THE WORLD, with alternate lyric about a “lazy country home.” sequence of languid EYES dissolves ends in 1st ’73 MORNING DEW. 1st BID YOU GOODNIGHT since 8/71 to close out 1st tour-leg.

[ during the dead’s 14 days off between 2/28 & 3/15/73, garcia played 12 times: 3 shows with merl saunders, the 1st 8 old & in the way gigs, & pigpen’s wake. not going to make a habit of tweeting garcia solo joints, i promise, but maaaaybe occasionally…

3/7/73 garcia/saunders at keystone berkeley: w/ ex-frumious bandersnatch/founding journey guitarist george tickner, who is oddly great, comping cool/responsive stuff under garcia & holding his own during great space-spirals out of MERL’S TUNE. subtle segue into GEORGIA ON MY MIND. garcia sounds genuinely & genially bummed to have to stop when the bar flips on the house lights. ]

3/15/73 uniondale: 1st gig since pig’s death, 1st at nassau coliseum, band wearing nudie suits, ala 12/72. phil’s 33rd birthday. weir’s outro freak-outs ramping up show by show; a slippery/hilarious slope. hard to reconcile the utter long island chaos of the audience tape with the quiet swing evidenced when source switches to A+ soundboard. spacious layouts in 24m PLAYING IN THE BAND jam. jerry ballads bookend EYES OF THE WORLD suite with wild OTHER ONE. 3+ hours, the new normal.

3/16/73 uniondale: nice jammy 1st set with BIRD SONG / PLAYING IN THE BAND combo to close. 1st local cheer for “just like New York City” in RAMBLE ON ROSE. jerry: “all you people throwing joints on the stage, why don’t you light ’em up & pass ’em around?” phil: “we’re ALREADY high, thanks.” return of the PROMISED LAND/BERTHA/GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD next-beat segue suite from 9/72, some decent cowboy boogie, & then… DARK STAR, with odd intro harmonies establishing a sustained dreaminess, moody tangents, & an atonal high-step into TRUCKIN’ > MORNING DEW.

3/19/73 uniondale: inaudible drums, indoor fireworks, & off-time crowd clapping on audience-tape portion make everything woozy. 1st HE’S GONE since pigpen’s death, crowd inventing a new meaning with small successive cheers during outro. last time in the 1st set. 1st TAKE A STEP BACK, lesh/weir-tandem dead-style crowd control. funnier than weir’s YELLOW DOG JOKE. PSA from garcia: “there are some krishna consciousness people out there passing out good things to eat. it’s okay to eat it.” 1st THE RACE IS ON since 5/70, excepting weir’s sit-ins with the new riders. half-smooth half-segues from HALF-STEP > STELLA BLUE > JACK STRAW. again, band doesn’t jam into EYES OF THE WORLD, opting for a clean next-beat start after THE OTHER ONE & easily hitting the thoughtful, lazy gait. at all 3 nassau gigs, 1st big drug busts by undercovers, apparently audible on some tapes. band won’t return til ’79.

3/21/73 utica: 1st properly rehearsed & quite lurvely WEATHER REPORT SUITE PRELUDE serves as an intro to DARK STAR. unconvincing space-out but awesomely zapped crossfade into EYES OF THE WORLD, 7/8 outro in full blossom. 1st ’73 WHARF RAT, rare mangled lyrics, nice jam.

3/22/73 utica: lesh & garcia charmingly bait the fire marshal. jerry, giggling: “yeah, try to keep your fires in the fire aisle.” big CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER. terrific OTHER ONE with cartoonish stomp intro, busted gearwork, lyrical jerry/phil duet, return of the flexatone. plum excellent archetypal ’73, gorgeous soundboard, with band in absolutely zero rush. solid 106m of jam songs/suites.

3/24/73 philadelphia: A+ 30m TRUCKIN’ that gets lost en route to DARK STAR. breathless uptempo dazzle & 1st SPANISH JAM since 2/70. 4m DARK STAR proper is shortest ever & melts into SING ME BACK HOME, which i thought was retired. happy to be wrong.

3/26/73 baltimore: wolfman jack introduces the band before the 2nd set, which appropriately opens with the WJ-referencing RAMBLE ON ROSE. a poised post-TRUCKIN’ unwind into a warm WEATHER REPORT SUITE PRELUDE that picks up steam, sparkles almost reluctantly, & dissipates into WHARF RAT. then, another long jam (EYES OF THE WORLD) into the set’s 3rd jerry ballad (MORNING DEW) to go with ’73’s 1st CANDYMAN. nearly 4 hours of music.
3/28

3/28/73 springfield, MA: phil plugs upcoming “interstate smoke-in” on the steps of hartford capitol building on 4/19. “bring your own.” STELLA BLUE bridge lyric finally changes from “can’t keep from cryin'” to “gonna make ’em shine.” 63m WEATHER REPORT SUITE PRELUDE > DARK STAR > EYES OF THE WORLD > PLAYING IN THE BAND dream sequence also contains anxious & unfocused night terrors.

3/30/73 rochester: crackling CUMBERLAND BLUES. i want to know why somebody (weir?) clearly says “BEEP!” at the 1:10 mark of I KNOW YOU RIDER. amicable drop from EYES OF THE WORLD into NOT FADE AWAY, a ’73 rarity, but it feels out of place in the post-EYES gloaming.

3/31/73 buffalo: predictable apeshitness at the right moment in the 1st buffalo TRUCKIN’. PROMISED LAND/BERTHA/GREATEST STORY choppy as ever. THE OTHER ONE contains a breakneck SPANISH JAM & a post-meltdown FEELIN’ GROOVY into the only CHINA CAT-less I KNOW YOU RIDER between ’70 & ’85.

4/2/73 boston garden: fried ‘n’ frayed tour closer. atrocious vocals. band sounds off, too. still, typically devastating PLAYING IN THE BAND. the only fully jammed HERE COMES SUNSHINE: rich post-outro weaving loses thread quickly & reverts to insect-space & then ME & BOBBY McGEE. last WEATHER REPORT SUITE-less PRELUDE to tired EYES. SUGAR MAGNOLIA freakout nearing peak weir. BID YOU GOODNIGHT now features donna. no thx.

5/13/73 des moines: 3-set/4-hour (plus breaks) lazy marathon. 1st jam (besides CHINA > RIDER) doesn’t come ’til end of set 2. perhaps due to tape degeneration, the 28m PLAYING IN THE BAND is a pleasant unceasing rain that never quite breaks into a storm. beautiful stasis. pre & post-verse, the band glides adroitly out of THE OTHER ONE triplets into consonant & constantly renewing churn.

5/20/73 santa barbara: the spring of 3-set stadium gigs continues. garcia’s voice is thrashed. sounds kind of cool, albeit painful. jerry’s renewed interest in banjo via old & in the way is obvious in crystalline, articulated runs in BEAT IT ON DOWN THE LINE. the nuanced, piston-like PLAYING IN THE BAND jam & spare post-verse OTHER ONE ruminating are both hard to imagine in front of 17K people.

5/26/73 kezar stadium: 1st show in the haight since 3/68. A+ bettyboard with gorgeous stereo separation & a high circulation staple. still a good starter tape. everything glows with spring sunshine. FEELIN’ GROOVY JAM now firmly built into CHINA > RIDER. final run of the very ’73 HE’S GONE/TRUCKIN’/OTHER ONE/EYES OF THE WORLD/CHINA DOLL sequence with deep quiet & a thrilling EYES peak.

6/9/73 RFK stadium: gang harmonies impressive on LOOSE LUCY, even donna, voices blending indistinguishably. BIG RIVER = primo boogie. garcia cycles through MORNING DEW & HERE COMES SUNSHINE licks during a discombobulated post-TRUCKIN’ dissolve. eventually, a nice count-off segue into PLAYING IN THE BAND. after 2 sets & 3.5 hours (following 2 openers), jerry announces that the dead are done & it’s time for the allmans.

6/10/73 RFK stadium: a stone summer classic with endless highlights. effortless 1st set glides to a weaving BIRD SONG & cymbaly PLAYING IN THE BAND. set 2 opens with EYES OF THE WORLD > STELLA BLUE (featuring an accidental(?) new melody) & rarely lets up, though AROUND & AROUND is weir at his dinkiest. a satisfying 26m DARK STAR filled with high-speed pre-verse maneuvers & a thorough bass meltdown into a WHARF RAT where kreutzmann lays out entirely during the bridge, wonderfully quiet music in a big, big stadium. a 3rd set superjam with dickey betts, butch trucks, & allegedly merl saunders, totally inaudible. mega hippie bullshit, but also great. lurvely GD debut of TRAIN TO CRY & then moldies: 1 elvis, 1 buddy holly, 2 chuck berry. likely the only decent grateful dead version of JOHNNY B. GOODE cuz the betts/garcia & kreutzmann/trucks combos are totally sweet. a delightful melding of the dead & allmans vibes.

6/22/73 vancouver: opener of 1st proper tour since march. 4 hours with a solid half devoted to jam songs & suites. my kinda dead. keith’s rhodes back in action with chiming, unexpected peaks in BIRD SONG finale. 1st tour with both rhodes & grand piano? 1st BLACK PETER since 10/72. l’il shaky with nobody’s strongest vocals, but band’s instinctual dynamics shine. lots of nice space. (sidenote: weir’s standard HE’S GONE > TRUCKIN’ transition is one of the few places where a count-off & segue mark can co-exist.) 5m semi-farty bass solo & near-ambient drumless jam as prelude to THE OTHER ONE with shattering arthropodal zap sesh.

6/24/73 portland: phil, maybe half-snickering post-THEY LOVE EACH OTHER: “and now we’re going to put you folks into a MELLOW mood.” cue LOOKS LIKE RAIN. miasmic DARK STAR ’til phil hits on bass theme. quickly, jerry counterpoints, sketching pre-verse cloud-shapes with weir.

6/26/73 seattle: until this project, i’d thought of ROW JIMMY as the lethargic, poor brah’s version of the SUGAREE slow roll. but, man, there are just endless worlds within that perfect, ‘luded-out stillness. often pretty good harmonies, too.

6/29/73 universal amphitheater: noncommittal OTHER ONE, garcia oddly uninspired ’til short, radiant detonation into MORNING DEW.

6/30/73 universal amphitheater: after a small onstage electrical fire, garcia: “don’t panic, folks, this is the movies, remember?” shitty vocals everywhere. buttery combo of keith’s rhodes & garcia’s attackless wah tone on BIRD SONG & PLAYING IN THE BAND. wish keith used the rhodes more. lots of piano in ultra-patient (but by no means mellow) EYES OF THE WORLD end jam with sudden, decisive drop into STELLA BLUE.

7/1/73 universal amphitheater: warm front-of-board audience tape that trades ugly whooping & off-time clapping on quiet songs for totally fat ’60s garcia guitar tone on a way-out OTHER ONE that almost veers into EYES end jam. A+ zonked melt into WHARF RAT & effortless crossfade into BOBBY McGEE. best early ’70s audience tape i’ve heard, but gentlemen still prefer boards.

7/27/73 watkins glen: 2-set 90m “soundcheck” in front of 250K people. lesh: “this whole thing is a fraud, we’re really clever androids.” 16m BIRD SONG (longest ever?) with semi-free breakdown & one of the few non-obnoxious pinched harmonics solos in musical history. casual & legendary 20m DARK STARish standalone improv with multiple themes, including a proto-FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN jam.

7/28/73 watkins glen: the dead had a rep for botching big shows. at 600,000, WG was the biggest ever. not the greatest, but way solid. last BOX OF RAIN ’til ’86. i’d finally learned to love the barked harmonies. especially going to miss garcia’s faux-steel filigrees. 24m PLAYING IN THE BAND with fantastic freak flights by jerry & gang-of-one drumming by kreutzmann, dropping onto martian plateau near end. unidentified organ player on AROUND & AROUND. a bit bouncy, more garth hudson than gregg allman. either way, why only on one song?! lots of jams in 2nd set, but no long space-outs, defined by 2 decent weir half-segues: TRUCKIN’ > EL PASO, EYES OF THE WORLD > SUGAR MAGNOLIA. recording (especially the guitars) gets sadly muddy for the set with the allmans. super-blissed 24m MOUNTAIN JAM & WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN coda.

7/31/73 jersey city: back at roosevelt stadium. surviving tape by @RelixMag co-founder jerry moore. recording is great. killer snare. another extraordinary PLAYING IN THE BAND, 1st jam is unusually rhodes-driven. kreutzmann in full free-dance mode. plus, he got a glockenspiel? 2nd set is boogie all the way down, minus 2m of smooth TRUCKIN’ fusion & when BLACK PETER achieves a nice, sad soar.

8/1/73 jersey city: jerry’s 31st birthday. perfect 24m DARK STAR. sparkling lunar rain as prelude to spacedust curlicues & thumb piano. the rest of jam is great. even EL PASO cooks. huge MORNING DEW with garcia soloing in joyous, apocalyptic paragraphs.

9/7/73 nassau coliseum: A+ tour opener. 6 righteous jams, weir mixed warmly enough to justify his “mccoy tyner’s left hand” claims. guy yells incessantly for ME & MY UNCLE(!?). finally, irritated dude replies “YOU & YOUR SISTER!”, predating chris bell by 5 years. rare show with keith on occasional B3, only audible on audience tape. (thru stage amp only?) well used on LOSER, TRUCKIN’ & thrilling 1st LET IT GROW, minus preludes, giddy with high-speed aero-flips as band explores new spaces, landing at STELLA BLUE.

9/8/73 nassau coliseum: debut of full WEATHER REPORT SUITE with perfect autumnal PRELUDE & surprise EYES OF THE WORLD > CHINA DOLL to close 1st set. 1st LET ME SING YOUR BLUES AWAY, sole keith-sung dead tune. Europe ’72 bounce can’t redeem hunter’s litest lyrics & keith’s non-voice. neato co-lead guitar by weir on spiraling TRUCKIN’. more ghosts of cool organ parts via keith’s undermixed B3.

9/11/73 william & mary: dang, @mountain_goats, you’re right, this IS an exquisite LOOKS LIKE RAIN. intricate quiet garcia detailing.  never thought i’d say this, but starting to dig these spare, 1-drummer versions. still can’t take the street cats & the freak out. horns join for 2 songs & it’s suck city, getting extra ham-handed/honky/unnecessary atop the lattice-like LET IT GROW jam. 1st fall DARK STAR. busy & melodious without really going anywhere. more weir leads & lovely spider skitters.

9/12/73 william & mary: allegedly, the band had such a good time the previous night that they came back & played for free. the BIRD SONG middle improv opens into a soaring cathedral space, keith’s electric piano undermixed but twinkling like a celeste. big energy fun, especially the high-velocity garcia/lesh weaves during LET IT GROW & a proto-SLIPKNOT EYES jam.

9/15/73 providence: another glorious BIRD SONG with typical quizzical garcia lyricism & atypical assertive electric piano. last BIRD SONG ’til the ’80s. why?!? ugh. satisfying 2nd set with 2 30m suites. horns stay for all of it & sound far more integrated, albeit a big sunshiny mess on TRUCKIN’. WEATHER REPORT SUITE PRELUDE gets tasty LOL-flute. LET IT GROW gets squonk ululations & a nice solo garcia bridge into STELLA BLUE.

9/17/73 syracuse: with horns more or less in line, a confident & peppy 55m TRUCKIN’ > EYES OF THE WORLD > WEATHER REPORT SUITE > STELLA BLUE. keith’s B3 seems to be gone, but is it possible the he’s playing an ondes martenot on WEATHER REPORT SUITE PRELUDE & LOOKS LIKE RAIN?!

9/20/73 philadelphia: 1st flat show of tour. ondes martenot is gone already. strident EYES OF THE WORLD outro. schmaltzy SUGAR MAGNOLIA with horns.

9/21/73 philadelphia: 1st OTHER ONE since 7/1 unspools from wind-up toy spins into 1st MIND LEFT BODY in a year. same venue, too. final LET ME SING YOUR BLUES AWAY, abandoned after 6 performances. cool with me.

9/24/73 pittsburgh: an off night at the civic arena. band crashes GREATEST STORY three times (with a LOONEY TUNES interlude) before starting. garcia sings 1st NOBODY’S FAULT BUT MINE since ’66 after teasing it in post-TRUCKIN’ blooze noodles for months. bleh.

9/26/73 buffalo: last of 8 gigs with horns (phew), final SING ME BACK HOME (laaame), dense jazz freefloats in LET IT GROW (!)

10/19/73 oklahoma city: DARK STAR is notably slower than summer versions. the band almost doesn’t know what to do with all the space & out comes the most developed & dramatic MIND LEFT BODY JAM yet, escher-like chromatic knots, simultaneously descending & ascending. thoroughly satisfying EYES OF THE WORLD > STELLA BLUE encore that weir feels compelled to play JOHNNY B. GOODE after.

10/21/73 omaha: weir announces the A’s world series victory over the mets (“another baseball year endeth”) & garcia responds w/ LOSER. 1st BLACK THROATED WIND since 2/9. PLAYING IN THE BAND > MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP > BIG RIVER > PLAYING IN THE BAND with planned-sounding hard-splice segues. high-speed DMT drop into deep space PLAYING reprise. low-key HE’S GONE, garcia’s solo finding a sad sweet place, to kick off an hour of unflashy & effective song-suiting.

10/23/73 bloomington, MN: keith plays venue’s wurlitzer, including soundcheck noodling on 1st WANG DANG DOODLE, jerry singing off-mic. a short & not particularly compelling show. keith adds some nice wurlitzer on a lazy TRUCKIN’ & oddly upfront piano on LET IT GROW. CASEY JONES aborted due to fight. kreutzmann allegedly tackles security guard while phil freaks (“ALRIGHT ASSHOLE!!”)

10/25/73 madison: warm, light-drenched HERE COMES SUNSHINE. weir keeps tinkering with lyrics of already-recorded BLACK THROATED WIND. sleepy gossamer dialogues in 23m DARK STAR, articulated MIND LEFT BODY, ondes martenot blurps, an hour of otherness.

10/27/73 indianpolis: efficient PLAYING IN THE BAND > MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP > BIG RIVER > PLAYING IN THE BAND. less thrilling than previous take, but great 1st segue.

10/29/73 st. louis: 1st COLD RAIN & SNOW since 2/28, 2nd of only 3 ’73 versions. super-pro next-beat build from BERTHA into GREATEST STORY. TRUCKIN’ downshifts into low flying jazz; OTHER ONE stumbles & ambles to similar happy place of quiet chord tracings. weir finally articulates the alternate BLACK THROATED WIND lyric: “but i can’t deny the time that’s gone by / full of babies and bottles and mountains of debt.”

10/30/73 st. louis: DARK STAR jam animated by weir’s chatty staccato patterns & an almost standalone MIND LEFT BODY before the verse. despite a gripping EYES OF THE WORLD, band is archetypally mellow, lulling & lolling. a fine line between warm comfort & sleep.

11/1/73 evanston: superb drip from rare MORNING DEW 2nd set opener into torrential 1st PLAYING IN THE BAND > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > PLAYING IN THE BAND.

11/9/73 winterland: 1st TO LAY ME DOWN since 9/70. off-key, plodding, new donna vocal part. still, hushed C&W swing is breathtaking. no big jam, but locked-in idea-filled LET IT GROW outro is A+ prelude to EYES OF THE WORLD’s microscopic rhythmic conversations.

11/10/73 winterland: PLAYING IN THE BAND > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > MORNING DEW > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > PLAYING IN THE BAND is more party trick than improv but the sleight of hand is riveting. excellence carries through standalone STELLA BLUE & properly choogled TRUCKIN’. WHARF RAT is kind of a struggle, though.

11/11/73 winterland: DARK STAR does its thing ’til post-verse space-out when kreutzmann drops into a beat & shit gets really real. major key drama, ricochet crosstalk, dissolution, & double-time MIND LEFT BODY as an almost-perfect bridge into EYES OF THE WORLD.

11/14/73 san diego: one of the all-time great 2nd sets. TRUCKIN’ > THE OTHER ONE > BIG RIVER > THE OTHER ONE > EYES OF THE WORLD > THE OTHER ONE > WHARF RAT. wonderful drumless zone in 1st OTHER ONE. EYES omits 7/8 break for last OTHER ONE verse & a jammy, dreamy WHARF RAT.

11/17/73 UCLA: nearly flawless PLAYING IN THE BAND >UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > MORNING DEW > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > PLAYING IN THE BAND. swarming jams, lush valleys, masterful segues. a packed 14m EYES OF THE WORLD. everyone totally together for precise, successive explosions in 7/8 outro. no exit strategy, though.

11/20/73 denver: surprise turn from MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP into 1st DIRE WOLF since 10/72. smooth segue, sluggish song. much of set feels likewise. airy circular jams as OTHER ONE winds into MIND LEFT BODY. again, a near-perfect bridge, this time to STELLA BLUE.

11/21/73 denver: even on the audience tape, no reaction to “i’m as honest as a denver man can be” in ME & MY UNCLE opener. another sweet half-melt out of HALF-STEP, this time into a mammoth PLAYING IN THE BAND > EL PASO > PLAYING IN THE BAND > WHARF RAT > PLAYING IN THE BAND > MORNING DEW. EL PASO flowers briefly into DARK STAR before WHARF RAT (with a drumless bridge!) after which garcia & lesh hit peak fuzz.

11/23/73 el paso: only ever el paso gig and, unlike denver, the crowd DOES freak when weir sings the city’s name. a few nice OTHER ONE drifts but distant drum mix makes the whole show disconcertingly placid, even by dead standards.

11/25/73 tempe: brilliant 17m PLAYING IN THE BAND, a mirrored infinity room of free snare dances & cascading guitar diamonds. 1st credible BID YOU GOODNIGHT since its february revival thanks to restrained (& even tasteful) donna jean vocal.

11/28/73 palace of fine arts: debut of seastones, ned lagin’s group with garcia, lesh, hart, & croz playing modular improv structures. dream wails, processed voices, quadrophonic balaphones. an avant-dead necessity. A+ recording: http://bit.ly/1brMQUt

11/30/73 boston music hall: rare 3-show theater run. band apparently doesn’t know of the 1st show & arrives/starts extremely late. donna jean gone on maternity leave through year’s end, huzzah! the band’s harmonies are appropriately winterly, austere, & pleasing. LET IT GROW glitters divinely into a short shape-shifting DARK STAR jam & a happy, lumpy post-thanksgiving EYES OF THE WORLD.

12/1/73 boston: magical BROKEDOWN PALACE, in part because of bedraggled harmonies, in part because of extra-warm soundboard mix. nightmarish extended segments of mojoless crowd control failure. weir promises they’ll relearn ST. STEPHEN. phil angrily cuts him off. “besides, the cops are from heaven! they’re from heaven!” chirps jerry, sounding like he might actually be having a bad trip. 34m PLAYING IN THE BAND > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND > PLAYING IN THE BAND with a curling UJB intro, & a stark donna-less ROW JIMMY in the jerry ballad slot.

12/2/73 boston: more testy banter, though band’s mojo has returned. phil gets pissed at audience member: “what are you, the heat??” 2nd set is a mofo, solid 80m of attempted suite-linkage, starting with 1st & only WHARF RAT opener. iffy singing, but heaviness awaits. 1st unfinished PLAYING trails to guitar laughter & piercing biofeedback. weir arpeggiates listlessly & eventually cues MIND LEFT BODY. new spaces everywhere. cool rhythmic MIND LEFT BODY outro permutations, messy BIRD SONG-like flutters in HE’S GONE.

12/4/73 cincinnati: late start (by 5 hours?), short show (47m 2nd set), even more surly phil (“where the fuck did you say we were?”) tremendous 24m EYES OF THE WORLD with deep phil/jerry noise canyon ’til billy drops a beat & band builds to a chaotic swing-stomp.

12/6/73 cleveland: approaching peak donnalessness on ROW JIMMY. longest ever HERE COMES SUNSHINE dances with VIOLA LEE-like ecstasy. an all-time DARK STAR. one of the longest (43m) & oddest, beginning with a slow coalescence from tuning into theme. extremely uncharacteristic assertive, uptempo electric keys by keith, in full conversation with garcia, melting into fuzz-bass nebulae. more top-speed ultra-melodic inventions & a perfect EYES OF THE WORLD > STELLA BLUE comedown with one final bass feedback punchline.

12/8/73 durham: nice spidery piano during BLACK THROATED WIND bridge. lovely lulling weave-waves in HE’S GONE outro jam. in & out of focus 28m OTHER ONE ending with more visceral post-seastones biofeedback, weir noodles, & 2 jerry ballads.

12/10/73 charlotte: 1st PEGGY-O! quite brisk, almost in the mold of DIRE WOLF. someone sets off fireworks between verses. incredible EYES OF THE WORLD with hyper tonal, almost smooth, over-the-top bass leads, total full-band precision, & ace BROKEDOWN PALACE coda. for 2nd show running, garcia upends song alternation with weir. 1st split-up SUGAR MAGNOLIA  with GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD FEELIN’ BAD in middle. with donna jean still on pregnancy leave, weir’s SUNSHINE DAYDREAM freakouts have gone next level.

12/12/73 atlanta: another jaunty PEGGY-O. frictionless gearshift segue from MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP into ME & BOBBY McGEE. not much flow to the 2nd set, but a long MORNING DEW gets down to a stretch of delicate quiet & sparse piano colors.

12/18/73 miami: great mix, excellent playing throughout. fabulous, extra-crackling LET IT GROW as prelude to final ’73 DARK STAR. labyrinthine 1st jam teases & builds to post-verse bass-zap brain-blastage. “we’ve got a blown speaker!” jerry shouts off-mic. in my college house, whenever we wanted/needed unstoppable laughter, we’d play the last 1m of this SUNSHINE DAYDREAM.

12/19/73 miami: “dick’s picks, v. 1”! funny to hear complete version finally. weir sneezes during 1st line of PROMISED LAND opener. always wondered why MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP faded out. it’s another lovely melt segue into ME & BOBBY McGEE, turns out. 2nd & final time that happened. penultimate HERE COMES SUNSHINE & one of the best, 14m of curling lightbeam solos. PLAYING IN THE BAND somersaults into the spectral wah-wah void. 5m bass solo is excised from this version, too. on the audience tape, it’s fully ridiculous, but also has a neat melodic shape. (audience tape also has a great pre-show warning by the band about security. garcia: “remember your hippie training, folks: be cool!”) last 5m of OTHER ONE is the band’s most sustained fszszszzt-out so far, dripping with absolute grace into STELLA BLUE.

…and so concludes the grateful dead’s 1973 & the #deadfreaksunite broadcast year. see you at winterland in february.

[1965] [1966] [1967] [1968] [1969] [1970] [1971] [1972] [1973 revisited] [1974] [1975] [1976] [1977] [1978] [1979] [1980] [1981] [1982] [1983]

199 post-WFMU sunrises, december 2008 – may 2013

I’m retired from the overnight slot at WFMU. I look forward to communicating directly with the hive-mind during other hours on other days. Fill-ins coming soon. I hope to be back with a full-time show at some point in the future.

2008

12/1: deep, deep blue. almost ambient pink in the clouds.
12/8: the blue creeps out from behind the black like a doppelganger overtaking.
12/15: non-existent, not coming. probably.
12/22: muted by the streetlamps over the ice fields.

2009

1/5: charcoal-blue pepperland inversion.
1/26: blue, definitely. lonesome, TBD.

2/2: palimpsest, diminishing usage.
2/9: perfect planetarium dissolve.
2/16: velvet-painted chintz. on the skyline, financial district office lights pinpricking on like an advent calendar.
2/23: perfect lunar blue gone hiding behind chalk-gray, then back to a more tempered, public self.

3/2: a pale, snowy enclosure behind downtown. lights are still mostly off, like the skyscrapers and glass boxes want to sleep in.
3/9: stolen by daylight savings, then released slowly, like a fog. thx to everybody who pledged last night! #wfmuthon
3/16: dim, unformed. something not yet ready to be told.
3/23: inside an easter egg, too blue for walt. perfect crescent moon hanging over the financial district, almost CGI.

4/6: austere gray with ambient pink, like a blue/orange flood braced to shatter winter’s last wall. happy opening day, peeps.
4/13: blue-white light precisely detailing downtown’s contours. spires, cell towers, rooftop watertanks, scaffolding around glass boxes.
4/20: chalky gray. ambitionless & deferential to newer, brighter suns rising in parallel.
4/27: blushing peach, mildly aghast at having tricked everything (and everybody) into bloom. but only mildly.

5/4: enthused flowers bent crooked with rain, pink petals litter sidewalk. in the distance, dock cranes, draped in fog.
5/11: nearly full daylight bounces btwn glass boxes of exchange pl. reflections incrementally deeper, more vivid & illusory, each week.
5/18: cold, wet breeze off river. trees disheveled, starting committees.
5/25: a rumor, unconfirmed, truth blurred by stillness.

6/1: a blue so cool & white that it hurts.
6/8: damp, fragrant. neon green post-it note affixed to sidewalk, labeled “trash.”
6/15: through the rain in a rented tux jacket, boutonniere petals wilting.
6/22: clouds still amassed strategically above skyline. swarm intelligence in repose, potentially violent.
6/29: real summer at last. international flags lining boulevard lap agreeably, like they’ve adjusted to waking w mimosas every morning.

7/6: crisp & amendable, wanting to be time-stretched into an infinite gentleness.
7/20: dew condensing, on the march. innocent morning sweetness amping itself for humidity assault.
7/27: unobtrusively blinding. humidity-powered smellscape carries scents of baking bread, urine, and then something like ginger ale.

8/3: a miscalibrated counter on a cassette deck, reset.
8/10: windwhipped. soft, wet air. garbage cans rolling across waterfront plaza.
8/17: haze smeared. gray malaise & unborn breezes.
8/24: inexplicably smells like pancake batter.

9/7: end-of-summer melancholia compressed into quiet colors, darker dawn. the breeze reports from someplace far away.
9/21: soft focus. crystal blue & pink clouds behind unfathomably sharp skyline.
9/28: blue/black flood rolling over buildings, sidewalks, everything, lapping at morningfeet.

10/5: padding on the balls of my feet through the kitchen, trying not to wake anybody.
10/12: milk truck loitering by empty bus stop, engine running, no driver in sight, ready to be liberated.
10/19: cruise ship creeping by in slow motion, moving facade in front of sleep-blinking financial district.
10/26: mars, or something else high & red, lingering over WTC site.

11/2: angry, choppy wind. traffic lights in all directions seem to be red, glaring.
11/9: thin orange-grey smog-haze in quiet, dramatic gradation.
11/16: is.
11/23: the silver-purple of dreamless sleep.

12/7: a million fissures blurred to seamless slate.
12/14: unconvinced of its own existence.
12/21: hiding behind a snowbank, hoping nobody notices.
12/28: a red/purple/gray flatness only spoken to/by other sunrises.

2010

1/4: mysterious puffs of backlit red steam against slate sky from roof of waterfront mini-highrise. also, ZOMG, it’s fucking cold.
1/11: lacquered & holding. more mysterious backlit red steam belching from waterfront rooftop.
1/18: streets glistening with rain-sheen, empty studio backlot ready for action.
1/25: shaking lampposts & stray leaves trace the wind’s abrupt contours, possesed by the spirit & speaking in silent, secret tongues.

2/1: immaculate, clear & cold. perfect fade from dark blue to light, distinct orange flare banding horizon.
2/8: a place for every shade of blue & every shade of blue in its place. crisp crescent moon over the harbor.
2/15: encased in blue ice & melting dimly at the corners.
2/22: perfect visibility, the skyline recut in the night with municipal lasers. dirty snow clumped around trees & lampposts like mold.

3/1: muted icescape & the smell of home fries.
3/8: crisp, warm & OMG dudes I obliterated my goal *and* i get to keep the beard! thx to all who pledged! stunned!
3/15: dark, oddly gentle. umbrella carcasses scattered in the storm-eye.
3/29: dripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdr — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvHSvSBwFYM

4/5: gently (one hopes) meeting the mets.
4/12: buds & blossoms & candles still flickering at waterfront memorial for kaczyński by katyn statue: http://twitpic.com/1f2bvp
4/19: momentary stillness of skyborne machinery.

5/3: heat, rain.
5/10: whiteblue recessional, proceeding.
5/17: soft air, sleepy blossom perfume, & an idling WPIX news van.
5/24: fog-draped, all but waterfront skyline shrouded. city looks shrunken, intimate.

6/7: sheepish. bearing treatises of coolness, perhaps misleading.
6/14: in the smoggy, smoggy dew.
6/21: glass box office towers reflect surrounding cityscape into shimmying, building-sized david hockney mutations. breeze, cinnabunny.
6/28: barometric alarm clock, arms spinning.

7/5: businesslike, unamused.
7/12: massive 10-deck cruise ship drifting by, looking as big as buildings behind it, temporarily/confusingly redefining skyline.
7/19: flags blowing in subtly different directions & creepy newfangled group aerobics on the plaza.
7/26: uncommonly cool & gentle, with an even more uncommon garbage stank.

8/2: morning boot campers circling the plaza like a .gif loop. dude with a stopwatch, barking.
8/9: boats in the steam. (or, if autocorrect had its way, boars.)
8/23: uncertain contents leaking.
8/30: mini traffic cones laid on plaza in airy grid, like gallery installation, for MIA boot-campers. cloud ribbons merge w glass boxes.

9/13: distant purple/gray command wending through the system.
9/20: massive blue soundstage.
9/27: sparse, insistent rain. hard wind off the hudson.

10/4: brooklyn shipyard cranes glittering like a distant alien city.
10/18: stars out, air rich.
10/25: hive-like, the city in cross-section.

11/1: trees on south side of street totally bare. on north, modesty just starting to diminsh.
11/8: the purple between gray & blue.
11/15: a dim pink humming.
11/22: detuned & weary.
11/29: intricate orchestration from star-ridden black-blue above to far-off white-pink at horizon line.

12/6: chalky, marbled.
12/13: a laden vibration.

2011

1/3: christmas tree, tipped & spilling from oversized white garbage bag, flapping sadly.
1/10: ice black harbor.
1/17: empty plaza, empty trains, collective MLK sleep.
1/24: glass towered ice fortresses on the hudson.
1/31: paths through the terrestrial surface.

2/7: dim pastel sedimentality.
2/14: lavender concrete, crumbling.
2/21: all american white-out.
2/28: fully retractable graphite rain.

3/7: $ & £ & € & xx & oo from the heavens.
3/14: a thousand springs behind.
3/28: born blue.

4/4: off-purple near-rain.
4/11: monday morning fogging down. city entirely enveloped, invisible besides dim dock lights.
4/18: boot campers out on plaza for first time this year. terrifyingly perky routines.
4/25: a sweet, cool pausing.

5/2: freedom’s just another word for what’s on the other end of the PATH train. terrified.
5/9: countrypolitan platitudes.
5/16: cinnabon fog.
5/23: bootcampers prostrate in odd symmetric/ritualistic array around katyn massacre memorial

6/6: muted perfumed fanfare.
6/20: secret no longer.

7/4: abandoned skyline in low clouds.
7/11: 12-story carnival cruise ship lumbers up the hudson, past the skyline, like a lost, confused whale ready to beach.
7/18: niiiice dissolve.
7/25: pleasant! harbor breeze + unmistakable smell of lightly jellied toast.

8/1: new morning.
8/8: syrup, slowly swum.
8/22: following a trail of rose petals onto the PATH platform.

9/5: unlabored & abandoned.
9/12: in remembrance of thinkpieces past.
9/19: infinite gradation in blue.
9/26: purple darkness.

10/3: velvet clouds over the city like the cover of “loaded.”
10/10: blue unmuting.
10/17: in invisible pinks.
10/24: perfect crescent moon (the lunar megaphone?) hanging directly above zuccotti park.
10/31: 45 at 33 1/3.

11/14: drab whiteness overtaking, minus tiny distant flare over navy yards, like dramatic natural history museum miniature.
11/21: deep purple rain.
11/28: black sky, blue clouds.

12/12: bare metallic branches.
12/19: the frozen rigging resists.

2012:

1/2: de-reveled.
1/9: skyline snooze control
1/16: heavy, windless cold. branches & flags still.
1/23: half-pleasant airborne slush.
1/30: tiny lights blink awake.

2/6: chalky monday.
2/13: crashville skyline.
2/20: crystal blue per$ua$ion.
2/27: freeform <3.

3/5: purple cloudbank fleet.
3/12: blue noise behind the black.
3/19: hyperreal crescent moon over wall street.
3/26: blue upon blue upon blue.

4/2: tranquil blue gradations & return of war yawping morning boot-campers.
4/9: white-blue sky, light eastward wind, mets somehow 3-0.
4/16: cherry blossom clinic.
4/30: skyline time-lapse freeze-frame.

5/7: half the flags blowing east, half blowing west.
5/14: boggling over bootcampers & citybirds with bryce.
5/21: cold fog, cloud city.

6/4: lunar holiday.
6/11: nu-WTC disappearing into cloudbanks & looking even taller.
6/18: goodbye blue monday…
6/26: …hello, blue tuesday.

7/3: cool sweet haze.
7/10: atmospheric conditions tolerable.
7/17: solid dew.
7/24: a crumpled lacoste umbrella by the newsstand.
7/31: sea gray, with gulls.

8/14: glass panels creep up a skyscraper in progress.
8/21: the smell of cheese & sickly flowers.
8/28: fat, warm rain.

9/4: luminous fog, hyperreal skyline.
9/11: freedom moonset. pic.twitter.com/fQh6TFgy
9/18: both purple and rain.

10/2: inscrutable and depthless gray-brown.
10/9: very close to still.
10/16: daylight unsaved.
10/23: black magenta.

11/6: morning in america with newscopters.
11/13: ambient pastels.
11/20: a curtain, reversed. pic.twitter.com/hUtrEW8t
11/27: grey behind red behind grey.

12/4: deep static.
12/18: giant misplaced novelty wreaths above the holland tunnel tollbooths and rain.

2013:

1/1: a very pastel beginning.
1/8: crisp prop moon, crescent.
1/15: the softest red.
1/22: ice raga.
1/29: soft-edged & windless.

2/5: unhurried snowstatic.
2/19: metropolitan soundstage.
2/26: all new, unshredded flags of many nations down the middle of montgomery street.

3/5: ow, my brain.
3/12: NOT TOO LATE TO PLEDGE. 800-989-9368, http://wfmu.org , or http://bit.ly/frow-zone .
3/19: slushfall.
3/26: purple cloudcliff.

4/2: loop-ache aggregation.
4/9: beach party tonight.
4/16: out demons, out.
4/23: wet white blossoms.
4/30: just like any other day that’s ever been.

5/7: tomorrow’s clear light.

frow show, FMU-209

(Detailed playlist, with listening links.)

1. computers reading Richard Brautigan – “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace”
2. Taiwan Housing Project – “What?” – Taiwan Housing Project (no label )
3. Plinth – “Kay Harker” – Collected Machine Music (Time Released Sound)
4. Ved – “Starokorokas (excerpt)” – Spectra 12″ (Adrian)
5. Devendra Banhart – “Won’t You Come Home” – Mala (Nonesuch)
6. Richie Havens – “Morning Morning” – Mixed Bag (Verve) [Richie Havens, 1941-2013.]

7. The Replacements – “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” – Songs For Slim (New West)
8. Grateful Dead – “The Race Is On” – Reckoning (Arista) [for George Jones (1931-2013) & Bobby Weir (feel better)] 9. Bodo Molitor – “Laziness” – del hits internacionales (Dimsa)
10. Yellowbirds – “Young Men of Promise” – Songs From the Vanished Frontier (Royal Potato Family)
11. Sonny & the Sunsets – “Green Blood” – Antenna to the Afterworld (Polyvinyl)
12. Music For the Muted – “30” [via Soundcloud] 13. Taste – “Blister On The Moon” – Taste (Polydor)
14. Swell Maps – “Whatever Happens Next …” – Jane From Occupied Europe (Rough Trade)
15. New Sound of Numbers – “Invisible Magnetic” – Invisible Magnetic [via Bandcamp] 16. Tortoise & The Ex – “The Lawn of the Limp” – In the FIshtank (Konkurrent)
17. Oblivians – “Pinball King” – Desperation (In the Red)
18. English Singles – “Ordinary Girls” – Ordinary Girls 7″ (Slumberland)

19. Senator Sam Ervin – “Bridge Over Troubled Water” – Senator Sam At Home (Columbia)
20. Willie Nelson – “Darkness on the Face of the Earth” – Crazy: The Demo Sessions (Sugar Hill)
21. Tall Firs – “Loss For Words” – Out of It and Into It (ATP/R)
22. Karen Dalton – “Travelin’ Shoes” – Yeti #13 7″ (Hardly Art)
23. Glenn Jones – “Bergen County Farewell” – My Garden State (Thrill Jockey)
24. Floating Flowers – “Johsho Kiryu” – 1st + 2nd (Black Plastic Sound)
25. Jon Collin – “Furniture Makers Moan” – High Peak Selections (Winebox)
26. Thurston Moore & Loren Connors – “Brooklyn, NY – Public Assembly – October 17th, 2012” – The Only Way To Go Is Straight Through (Northern-Spy) [plus “Notiey (a mother’s advice to her daughters, Pu Xiu Wen, with her 2 daughters answering)” from “Ethnic Minority Music of Southern China” (Sublime Frequencies)] 27. Jim Sauter & Kid Millions – “Pamyra” – Boanerges (Doubtmusic)
28. Steve Lacy & Joe McPhee – “The Rest” – The Rest (Roaratorio)
29. Vertonen – “11° 22.4’N 142° 35.5’E”” – HACE/26,250′ b/w 11° 22.4’N 142° 35.5’E” (Misanthropic Agenda)
30. Henry Wolff & Nancy Hennings – “A Choir Of Bells” – Tibetan Bells (Island)
31. Julianna Barwick – “Pacing” – Pacing 7″ (Suicide Squeeze)

32. Dust – “Often Shadows Felt” – Dust (Legacy)
33. Parquet Courts – “Square States” – American Specialties (Play Pinball)
34. Julian Lynch – “Horse Chestnut” – Lines (Underwater Peoples)
35. Tenniscoats – “Mosha Mosha Mo” – All Aboard! (Chapter Music)
36. C.S. Crew – “Troubles of the World” – Funky Pack (Cultures of Soul)

The Frow Show with Jesse Jarnow playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/JJ
RSS feeds for The Frow Show with Jesse Jarnow:
Playlists RSS: http://wfmu.org/playlistfeed/JJ.xml
MP3 archives RSS: http://wfmu.org/archivefeed/mp3/JJ.xml

frow show, FMU-208

(Detailed playlist, with listening links.)

1. Hawkwind – “Silver Machine” – Leave No Star Unturned: Live Cambridge 1972 (Dirter)
2. Decimus – “Live in Hannover” – spring 2013 (Kelippah) [plus Geoff Mullen, “Filtered Water, part 1”] 3. Terry Riley & Don Cherry  – “Descending Moonshine Dervishes” – Live Köln 1975 ((no label))
4. Os Mutantes – “É Proibido Proibir” – The Sixth Finger: Singles, Rarities and Outakes 1965-1968 ((no label))

5. Bob Dylan – “Thirsty Boots” – Wigwam 7″ (Columbia)
6. Don Everly – “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” – Don Everly (Ode)
7. Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders with Tom Fogerty – “Biloxi” – 30 June 1972 Keystone Korner ((no label))
8. Marcia Griffiths – “Children At Play” – Sweet & Nice (Wild Flower)
9. The Offs – “Cool Down” – Spiky Dread: Issue One (Rongo Rongo)
10. The Ethiopians – “I Need Someone” – Train To Skaville – Anthology 1968 To 1975 (Trojan)
11. Ramble Tamble – “Raks Fazani” – Secret Museum of Kind Men, v. 2 (Casual Acid Tea)
12. Indian Puddin & Pipe – “Water or Wine” – Fifth Pipe Dream (San Francisco Sound)
13. Medicinal Porpoises – “’77” – The Lost Music of Medicinal Porpoises ((no label))

14. Shugo Tokumaru – “Down Down” – In Focus (P-Vine Japan)
15. Haiku Salut – “Glockelbar” – Tricolore (How Does It Feel)
16. Roland Young – “Coast” – Mystic Comprovisations ((no label)) [via Soundcloud] 17. Matthew Shaw – “Museum Street” (Volcanic Tongue) [via Soundcloud] 18. J.D. Emmanuel – “Path Inward” – Time Traveller (Aguirre)
19. Klaus Schulze & Gunter Schickert – “Die Sehnsucht des Laien” – The Schulze-Schickert Session (Mupymup)
اسلام شيبسى .20. [via http://thequietus.com/articles/12037-electro-chaabi-cairo-one] 21. OH/EX/OH – “Super Potato” – Tokyo Field Recordings ((no label)) [via Bandcamp] 22. Astor – “Trumpets / Guns / November” – Alcor (Kye)
23. Paul & Maurey – “Summertime” – Satellite (Rel)
24. Jenny Hval – “The Seer” – Innocence is Kinky (Rune Grammofon)

25. unknown woman – “Another Good Woman Gone Bad” – Hall Of Fame Volume 2: More Rare And Unreleased Gems From The FAME Vaults (Fame/Kent)
26. Chelsea Light Moving – “Heavenmetal” – Chelsea Light Moving (Matador)
27. Everyone Involved – “Motor Car Madness” – Either/Or (Arcturus)
28. Steve Tilston – “I Really Wanted You” – An Acoustic Confusion (The Village Thing)
29. Klaus Dinger + Japandorf – “Osenbe” – Klaus Dinger + Japandorf (Gronland)

The Frow Show with Jesse Jarnow playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/JJ
RSS feeds for The Frow Show with Jesse Jarnow:
Playlists RSS: http://wfmu.org/playlistfeed/JJ.xml
MP3 archives RSS: http://wfmu.org/archivefeed/mp3/JJ.xml

frow show, FMU-207

(Detailed playlist, with listening links.)

1. Helmut Lachenmann – “Clouds in Icy Moonlight” – Zwei Gefühle & Solo Works (Mode)
2. Newband – “Columbus” – Play Microtonal Works by… (Mode) [Dean Drummond, 1949-2013.] 3. A C Slate no r – “Resurrection” – via Soundcloud (A C Slate no r)
4. Ashley Paul – “Line the Clouds” – Line the Clouds (REL)
5. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – “Min We Tun So” – The Skeletal Essences of Afro Funk (Analog Africa)
6. Steve Gunn – “Trailways Ramble” – Time Off (Paradise of Bachelors)
7. Aporea – “Mir prezhde rozhdestva” – Ex-Yu Electronica, Vol. III: Diktatura, Humor, Agresija (Monofonika)
8. Grateful Dead  – “Eyes of the World” – 19 February 1973 International Pavilion, Chicago, IL
9. The Moles – “Europe By Car” – Untune The Sky (Flydaddy)

10. Selector Dub Narcotic – “Anglepoise” – Distorted Cymbals 7″ (K)
11. O Bando – “Pela Rua Da Praia Ed. Saturno” – O Bando (Shadoks)
12. Woods – “Impossible Skies” – Bend Beyond (Woodsist)
13. Monster Surprise – “Commerical” – You Don’t Have To Be Fashionable, v. 1 (With A Messy Head)
14. Freeze Puppy – “Katana Bay” – The Night Attendant [via Soundcloud] 15. The Wowz – “Happy Today” – Long Grain Rights (RIYL)
16. Purling Hiss – “Dead Again” – Water on Mars (Drag City)
17. Meat Puppets – “Backwater” – Too High To Die (London)

18. Herbie Hancock – “Rain Dance” – Sextant (Columbia)
19. Missing Man Formation – “Delgado’s Famous Electrodes” – Thanks For the Add! v. 1 (Headphonica)
20. Innode – “Dedispersion II” – Gridshifter (Editions Mego)
21. Freddy Ruppert – “Stanch” – Hangs A Shadow (NNA Tapes)
22. Grisha Shakhnes – “A Man Asleep (excerpt)” [via Soundcloud] 23. Agf – “Breathing In Lines” – Source Voice (Line)
24. Natural Snow Buildings – “The Desert Has Eyes” – The Snowbringer Cult (Ba Da Bing!)
25. Tomoko Sauvage – “Raindrop Exercise (2)” – Ombrophilia (Aposiopese)
26. Jurgen Brauninger / Klaus Fessman – “Dieses Stuck” – Ornament (Creel Pone) [plus “Giant” by Ensemble Pearl from “Ensemble Pearl” (Drag City) + “We Want To Invite, We Do Invite You” by Brian Haernetty from “From the Sun Ra/Saturn Archives: The Sociophonic Key” 7-inch at 33 1/3 (Scioto)] 27. Tristan Perich – “Active Field” – Compositions (Tristan Perich)
28. Carton Sonare – “Cartoons From Outer-Space” – Lullaby 8 (With A Messy Head)
29. Eno, Moebius, Roedelius – “Broken Head” – After the Heat (Sky)
30. Silje Nes – “Silver > Blue” – Opticks (Fat Cat)

The Frow Show with Jesse Jarnow playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/JJ
RSS feeds for The Frow Show with Jesse Jarnow:
Playlists RSS: http://wfmu.org/playlistfeed/JJ.xml
MP3 archives RSS: http://wfmu.org/archivefeed/mp3/JJ.xml

frow show, FMU-206

(Detailed playlist, with listening links.)

1. King Ayisoba – “I Want To See You My Father” – Modern Ghanaians (Makkum)
2. Dan Deacon – “Konono Ripoff No. 1″ – 7” (Domino)
3. Physics – “Random Water” – Spectramorphic Iridescence (Digitalis)
4. Akron/Family – “No-Room” – Sub Verses (Dead Oceans)
5. Fairhorn – “Pinecones” – Satan Replicant (Deathbomb Arc)
6. Amps For Christ – “Color” – Circuits (Vermiform)

7. Brad Laner – “Highly Morning” – Highly Morning 7″ (Drawing Room)
8. The 49 Americans – “I Be Later” – We Know Nonsense (Staubgold)
9. Clothilde – “A ORA SO COS’E” – French swinging Mademoiselle 1967 (Born Bad)
10. The Riats – “Run Run Run” – 7″ (Omega (NL)) [via Probe is Turning on the People, session #419, Early Adopters – http://www.philxmilstein.com/probe/] 11. Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin – “Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk” – Reverse Shark Attack (Kill Shaman)
12. Counter Intuits – “Stolen Souls” – Counter Intuits (Pyramid Scheme)
13. Catholic Spray – “KROKODILE DANDIES” – Earth Slime (Born Bad)
14. Snapper – “Hang On (demo)” – recorded at Radio One, Dunedin, NZ (Flying Nun) [via https://soundcloud.com/thevault1] 15. Sproton Layer – “Gift” – With Magnetic Fields Disrupted (New Alliance) [reunion tour this summer]

16. Mock Duck – “Borrowed Song” – The Cool-Aid Benefit Album (Light in the Attic)
17. The Beau Brummels – “Laugh, Laugh” – Nuggets, v. 7: Early San Francisco (Rhino)
18. Jorma Kaukonen – “Flying Clouds” – Quah (Grunt)
19. David Grubbs – “I Started To Live When My Barber Died” – The Plain Where the Palace Stood (Drag City)
20. Fit & Limo – “Dark Star” – The Serpent Unrolled (September Gurls)
21. Sohrab – “Hejrat” – Between Strangers (Touch)
22. Arborea – “Ghost” – Fortress of the Sun (ESP-Disk’)
23. zeitkratzer – “02” – Grand Orchestra (Tochnit-Aleph) [plus “Gending Alexander” by Lou Harrison/Gamelan Si Betty from “Gamelan Music” (Music Masters Jazz)] 24. Dennis Smalley – “Pentes” – Traces Two (Editions Mego) [plus, “Beyond Lies the Wub” by Philip K. Dick] 25. akio suzuki and lawrence english – “Ficus Watkinsiana” – Boombana Echoes (Winds Measure)
26. Ramon Sender Barayon – “Xmas Me” (Ramon Sender Barayon)
27. Smiled Hifiklub – “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow” – Vega-Tables 7″ (Parallel Factory)
28. Sightings – “Bucket Brigades” – Terribly Well (Dais)
29. The Deranged Umpire – “The Deranged Umpire” – via Soundcloud (The Deranged Umpire)

30. Woom – “The Hunt” – Muu’s Way (Ba Da Bing)
31. Rocketnumbernine – “Rotunda” – MeYouWeYou (Smalltown Supersound)
32. Follakzoid – “Trees” – II (Sacred Bones)
33. Gene Clark – “Where My Love Lies Asleep” – Here Tonight: The White Light Demos (Omnivore)
34. Rima Kato – “The Torchsong of the Choir” – via Soundcloud (Rima Kato)

The Frow Show with Jesse Jarnow playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/JJ
RSS feeds for The Frow Show with Jesse Jarnow:
Playlists RSS: http://wfmu.org/playlistfeed/JJ.xml
MP3 archives RSS: http://wfmu.org/archivefeed/mp3/JJ.xml

frow show, FMU-205

(Detailed playlist, with listening links)

1. Jean-Jacques Perrey & David Chazam – “Cyberbugs Time-Machine” – Celebrity Headphones: Monica’s 2012 WFMU Marathon Premium (Basenotic)
2. Takako Minekawa & Dustin Wong – “Party on a Floating Cake” – Toropical Circle (PLANCHA)
3. Tara King Th. – “Long Time No See” – Uncolored Past (Part I & II) (Moon Glyph)
4. Cherry – “Tape 2, Side B” – Aanother Fractal (Blue Tapes)
5. Hand Fart Master – “The Sounds of Silence (hand fart version)” – via YouTube (Hand Fart Master)
6. Cody Jackson – “The Beach Boys Shred I Get Around” – via YouTube (Cody Jackson)
7. The A-Bones – “O Canada” – Daddy Wants a Cold Beer … and Other Million Sellers (Norton) [GO BLUE JAYS!] 8. The Silver Jews – “Canada” – Dime Map of the Reef 7″ (Drag City)
9. Lou Reed – “She’s My Best Friend (demo)” – 1970 Demos (Lou Reed)

10. Bob Dylan – “Solid Rock” – 16 November 1980 Warfield Theater (Bob Dylan) [for Paul Williams] 11. Neckbeard Telecaster – “Sweet Salvation” – Neckbeard Telecaster (Neckbeard Telecaster)
12. KORT – “April’s Fool” – Invariable Heartache (City Slang)
13. Halasan Bazar – “Mountaintops” – How To Be Ever Happy (Moon Glyph)
14. Scott & Charlene’s Wedding – “Hazy Morning” – Two Weeks EP (Critical Heights)
15. Lenz – “Moody Michelle” – Ways To End A Day (1-2-3-4 Go)

16. Dino & the Dell-Tones – “Sticks and Stones” – Movements (Tramp)
17. Willie and the Bumblebees – “Honey From the Bee” – Twin Cities Funk and Soul: Lost R&B Grooves from Minneapolis/St. Paul 1964-1979 (Secret Stash)
18. Jombo – “Squeeze Me” – Jombo (Tembo)
19. Bumblebee Unlimited – “Lady Bug” – James’s 2012 Hanukkah Mix (Red Greg)
20. Watty Burnett – “Rainy Night in Portland” – Disco Devil: the Jamaican Disco Mixes (Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry & Friends) (Island)
21. Main – “Ablation” – II (Editions Mego)
22. Matt Reis – “Psychodrama” – Stream of Unconsciousness, v. 10 (Stream of Unconscious)
23. Mickey Hart, Jerry Garcia, & unknown – “#4” – The Silent Flute OST (Mickey Hart)
24. No-Neck Blues Band – “Side A” – Furamingo Josei (Free Music Archive)
25. Diseño Corbusier – “Clonica” – Pérfido Encanto (Vinilisssimo)
26. Keiji Haino / Jim O’Rourke / Oren Ambarchi with Charlemagne Palestine & Eiko Ishibashi – “Once Again I Hear The Beautiful Vertigo…” – Now While It’s Still Warm Let Us Pour in All the Mystery (Black Truffle)
27. penguins recorded by Cheryl E. Leonard – “Beach Adelie Penguins” – Chattermarks (Great Hoary Marmot Music)

28. Daniel Bachman – “Brother Green” – March/April Tour 7″ (Tompkins Square)
29. Rangda – “Sancticallist” – split 12″ with the Dead C (Ba Da Bing!)
30. Herbcraft – “Full Circle (Eternally)” – The Astral Body Electric (Woodsist)
31. Eddie Marcon – “Shouka” – via Soundcloud (Eddie Marcon)

The Frow Show with Jesse Jarnow playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/JJ
RSS feeds for The Frow Show with Jesse Jarnow:
Playlists RSS: http://wfmu.org/playlistfeed/JJ.xml
MP3 archives RSS: http://wfmu.org/archivefeed/mp3/JJ.xml