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Carrion_Crow

Stealth Head

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Submissions

13
Brown Eyed Women
Oct. 2, 1977
Paramount Theatre

Perfection firing on all cylinders: Tight band, muscular beats, beautiful vocals (Donna's on!) and that applied greatness that is the '77 Dead.
13
Doin' That Rag
March 2, 1969
Fillmore West

Blissful '69 chaos: Jer says, "Help! Help! Hey, we need some organized minds up here" and then they launch. Great fun and a wild ride.
13
Comes A Time
Oct. 22, 1971
Auditorium Theatre

Pure. One of the first performances with beautiful, meaning-soaked delivery.
9
Wharf Rat
Nov. 1, 1973
McGaw Memorial Hall - Northwestern University

Suffers a cutout in the middle, but reaches transcendant beauty and interplay. They end on a harmonics/tuning just delightfully right out of the song.
7
Mississippi Halfstep Uptown Toodeloo
Nov. 1, 1973
McGaw Memorial Hall - Northwestern University

Sweet and subtle, part of a mega-massive 2nd set jam. A beauty.
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Comments

Truckin'
Aug. 22, 1972
Berkeley Community Theatre

I always say, if you want to know how well the boys were feeling it on any given night, listen to the Truckin'. Is it phoned in? It will show up. Is it a super-charged and diesel fueled cozmik 18-wheeler? It'll let you know. This one, safe to say is in the super-charged category, and needs more love here.
Playin' In The Band
Aug. 22, 1972
Berkeley Community Theatre

Oh hell yessssssssss. This one has the beautiful 'hot mellow' sound that really comes into play later on, around spring-summer '73. It's somehow lightning quick, wild, and reckless, but still constantly in the pocket, laid back just behind the beat. I think it's driven by a Phil/Billy unity with washes of sound from Keith allowing our guitar boys to dig in deep. Beautiful Miller mix helps hear everyone perfectly. Perfect ensemble jamming here.
Bird Song
Aug. 22, 1972
Berkeley Community Theatre

CuddlyBear: Damn close, if not the best week ever. There are a couple of weeks like this that I can think of: Late Feb. '73, last week Nov - first Dec. '73 again, first week of Dec. '71, May '70 (ooooh mercy), June '74 and of course we can all argue about certain parts of '77. I'm not so up on my 80s Dead, but I bet somebody can point out these wonderous peaks of perfection. I won't try to rank them, but every once in a while they just nailed everything perfectly song after song, show after show. This Birdsong here is why I listen to the Dead, over and over and over again.
Greatest Story Ever Told
Aug. 22, 1972
Berkeley Community Theatre

As powerful and driven as any. This one cooks.
Weather Report Suite
May 19, 1974
Portland Memorial Coliseum

The keyboard work is sublime, Bob's vox is in perfect form (even if he flubs a verse, but so what), and Donna Jean was having her arguably best show of '74 if not the whole WoS era. Also, the pace is mellower which allows for fully realized musical ideas in a brilliant excursus through LIG's transitive orbit through the seasons' change, and there's even a moment's Slipknot tease at 10:34. There you have it: Peak Dead.
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