Special Podcast - Jerry Garcia’s 75th Birthday
Been listenin to a lot of Dead to put together this special podcast...today is Jerry Garcia's 75th birthday, and listening and discovering new stuff from his entire career seemed a great way to celebrate his memory. I attempt to cover something from every year, and it turned into almost exactly 5 hours of music! In lieu of talking, I put some notes about each track at the end of this entry. I also divided things into 6 eras, for those who don't want to listen straight-through or want to check out a specific era. Many thanks to websites like http://www.deadlistening.com and http://www.headyversion.com, and of course the Internet Archive. Hopefully, long-time fans as well as newcomers can find something to enjoy here. Will be back in a week or 2 with a new mix of non-Dead related stuff.
Viola Lee Blues 7-16-66
New Potato Caboose 11-10-67 (30 Trips Around The Sun boxset)
Dark Star 10-12-68
Death Don't Have No Mercy 2-28-69 (Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings boxset)
Uncle John's Band 5-2-70 (Dick's Picks 8)
Smokestack Lightning 12-7-71 (Dave's Picks 22)
Jack Straw 8-27-72
Here Comes Sunshine -> Jam 4-2-73 (daves picks 21)
Old And In The Way - Wild Horses 10-8-73 (S/T LP)
Playin In The Band 8-4-74 (Dick's Picks 31)
Distorto (Studio Outtake) - Blues For Allah CD
Mission In The Rain 6-12-76
Loser 6-9-77 (Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings box)
Passenger 2-3-78 (Dick's Picks 18)
Shakedown Street 10-25-79
Ripple 9-26-80 (Reckoning)
Jerry Garcia Band - Sugaree 11-10-81
New Minglewood Blues 10-10-82
Althea 10-14-83 (Dick's Picks 6)
Jerry Garcia Band - Reuben & Cherise 3-21-84
Jerry Garcia & John Kahn - Jack-A-Roe 10-16-85
Touch of Grey 12-15-86
Hell In A Bucket 9-24-87
Dear Mr. Fantasy -> Hey Jude 3-31-88 (Road Trips Vol. 4 No. 2)
Deal 7-19-89
China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider 9-20-90 (Road Trips Vol. 2 No. 1)
Victim Or The Crime -> Crazy Fingers 9-25-91 (Dick's Picks 17)
Jerry Garcia & John Grisman - The Thrill Is Gone (Garcia Grisman)
Jerry Garcia/John Grisman/Tony Rice - House of The Rising Sun 2-4-93 (The Pizza Tapes)
The Days Between 12-11-94
Black Muddy River -> Box Of Rain 7-9-95
Viola Lee Blues - Seems to be one of the first tracks really jammed out in their early garage-punk days. This is a nice one.
New Potato Caboose - Really cool example of the Dead's primal psychedelic period.
Dark Star - It's a Dark Star from 1968. Not much else needed to be said.
Death Don't Have No Mercy - An alternate version to the one on "Live/Dead" recorded during the same 4 night stand.
Part 2 (45:31 - 1:59:52) As the 60s ended, the Dead kind of lost their really heavy psych edge. Luckily, they also begin to become excellent song writers (Many of their previous standards were covers), especially the colloborations between Jerry and Robert Hunter.
Uncle John's Band - Very nice acoustic version from an all acoustic first set.
Smokestack Lightning - Had to include something with Pigpen on vocals. 1971 isn't a favorite year of mine, due to a relative lack of jams, but this cover is both a good example of Pig's vocal talent and Jerry's guitar skills.
Here Comes Sunshine - in 1973 and 1974, the Dead played a lot of very nice jazz-influenced jams. Here's a great song that ends up going way out there.
Wild Horses - Threw in an extra track from 1973 from the bluegrass project Old & In The Way. Garcia playing banjo here. Nice example of his diversity, and a breather from the epic jams before and after this track.
Playing in the Band - Live recording of the amazing Wall of Sound. The versions of PITB in 1974 might be the ultimate example of the above mentioned jazz-influenced style.
Part 3 (119:52 - 2:27:00) At end of 1974, the band took a hiatus from the road. Much like the end of 1969, something was lost that never quite returned. But still a lot of good stuff to be heard in later years.
Distorto - An instumental studio outtake from the "Blues for Allah". My personal pick for the GD's best studio recording. Even the outtakes are pretty cool, and the few shows they played in 1975 are top-notch as well.
Mission in the Rain - I'm not real familiar with JGB, but like this tune. I was looking for a good live JGB recording - only to discover that the Dead played it a half-dozen or so times in 1976.
Loser - Spring 77 live Dead is held in high regard for good reason. There's a lot of tunes I could have included that are more iconic for the period. Went with this one since it was playing during a very mind-expanding experience...the solo in this blew my mind. That trip took my appreciation of the GD to a whole new level. Always enjoy this song, and always pay attention for how the solo is for a given version.
Passenger - A rare Phil Lesh-written track, though Bob sings. One of the Dead's more straight-up R&R tunes.
Part 4 (2:47:00 - 3:24:30) - The band underwent another major transition in early 1979, when Keith and Donna left the band, and Brent Mydland joined. I haven't listened to nearly as much stuff from the post K&D period, but yet again plenty of good stuff to be found. Unfortunately, Garcia's heroin habit worsened during these years. His health worsened until he entered a diabetic coma in the summer of 1986.
Shakedown Street - A song that really took off when Brent joined.
Ripple - A classic from "American Beauty". In the fall of 1980, the band did some very nice acoustic sets.
Sugaree - Earlier, we heard "Mission in the Rain" performed by the Dead. Here the tables turn, with JGB doing a nice version of "Sugaree".
New Minglewood Blues - This audience recording from 10/10/82 is my favorite Dead recording from the early 80s. The recording itself captures the show very well - and the band is full of energy, especially Bob - it's rumored he went through a break-up right before this show. Great show all around, but Weir steals the show here! This is the show's opener.
Althea - An excellent Garcia/Hunter tune from the less-than-stellar "Go To Heaven" LP. Great version from what is rumored to be Trey Anastasio's first Dead show.
Reuben & Cherise - Great JGB song.
Jack-A-Roe - Very energetic version from Jerry & John Kahn.
Part 5 (3:24:30 - 3:52:55) - After his coma, it took Jerry sometime to re-learn his guitar playing. I've read that he almost had to start from scratch. Shortly into this time period, the band had their biggest mainstream success with the song "Touch Of Grey" and the "In The Dark" LP. The band was pretty vibrant and interesting during this time period, until the untimely passing of Brent Mydland in the summer of 1990.
Touch of Grey - Their biggest hit, and one that been in the setlist for 5 years before its studio release. This is an audience recording, and the song opens the Dead's first show since Jerry's diabetic coma. The audience response is really something to behold!
Hell in A Bucket - The songs Bob Weir wrote/sang in the band could be among their cheesiest. HIAB is definitely not an exception (look up the music video on Youtube...Bob even mentions it in the banter!), but it's a fun song and this is an energetic version.
Dear Mr. Fantasy->Hey Jude - Have to include something with Brent singing - the songs he wrote for the band never quite seemed to fit the GD's style IMO - but he did have a great voice and played well. I do enjoy this cover of Traffic with him on vocals. Could do without the Hey Jude part at the end...but it didn't seem right to cut it off.
Deal - A classic song from Garcia's 1st solo LP in 1972 - this version shows that in 1989, Jerry's playing was back in full force.
Part 6 (3:52:55 - end) - The post-Brent years were pretty rough on the band, as they got back on the road very quickly. Jerry's drug habit unfortunately took another turn for the worse. In 1990 & 1991, both Bruce Hornsby and Vince Welnick were on keys, in later years, it was solely Vince.
China Cat Sunflower->I Know You Rider - A classic song pairing since the early 70s, this version doesn't top the early versions, but does showcase the 2 keyboard line-up sounding pretty sweet.
Victim Or The Crime->Crazy Fingers - Oddly, the most psychedelic/weird song the Dead did since the 70s was a Bob Weir tune included on the "Built To Last" LP. This version with Bruce and Vince is a good one and it leads into "Crazy Fingers". This whole show (released as a Dick's Pick) is a great example of the two-keyboard sound actually working really well.
The Thrill is Gone - Didn't know what to pick from 1992, so went with an extra one from 1991. Excellent bluegrass song with David Grisman.
House of the Rising Sun - Another one with Grisman & Jerry (along with Tony Rice). Just an informal jam session recorded to cassette...until the tape was stolen by a pizzaman, and bootlegged! The sessions were eventually officially released as "The Pizza Tapes".
Days Between - Along with "So Many Roads", these songs were the final songs written by Garcia/Hunter and they are both excellent. Definitely quite depressing, both songs can be interpreted as Jerry knowing he wouldn't live much longer.
Black Muddy River->Box Of Rain - The encore of the final show. RIP.
