Joyful chaos: A brilliant splatter. Bobby's voice never sounded so good to me as it did in '71.

Pigpen at his best with the band at its grit-in-the-gears crunchiest. They were on this night and this one is just full of butt.

Very passionate version, some distortion or tape speed issues (?) remind me of my cassette trading days and bring out the trippiness to the song.

If this hard grooving China jam and Feeling Groovy transition doesn't just get you moving, then nothing can. Just perfect.

First version ever is real nice... but listen to the soundcheck version for insight into the bands working dynamics. Cool to hear them working on it.

On terminology: I take "King Solomon's Marbles" to mean the whole sweet suite, listed as "Stronger than Dirt" and/or "Miliking the Turkey" in places. Enjoy.

Glynparson is absolutely right about this one. This is it. This is where late 20th century music collides in a fantastic rush of mastery, soul, spontaneity, and total badassery. Miles Davis' spectral influence is there, as is whatever bazillion other influences were flying around in the deep weird of 1975. So glad this is back up on the Archive. Enjoy it while you can, friends. This is - and I rarely use the word - epic.

Compare with Sept. 30th 1971 for a rare funky electric version.

Doesn't bother me at all. Rock and roll is in some way about being a teenager all the time anyway. The song is an act, the singer an actor. Isn't Pig's authenticity also a suspension of disbelief? Was he really a biker outlaw cowboy, or just a beautiful, enormously talented, deeply soulful and unfortunately tragic human musician. We like to think of this music as just happening, spontaneously, emanating directly out of and through these guys. But seriously, they were/are artists. Pigpen was fully conscious of the roles and personas he was playing. Singing "you're only 15 years of age" in a song that also says (repeatedly) "I'm a little schoolboy too" is no different for me than Bobby singing over 600 times "and I left his dead ass there by the side of the road" in MAMU. Do we cringe at the idea that Bobby might be a murderer? Of course not, and for that matter "Mexicali Blues" is much sleazier! In any case, this a truly hot version, and '70 Dead is some the dankest, bestest, kindest nug out there. Enjoy. Sorry for the rant!

More than wonderful: Furthur out weird goddamned trippin' balls outre pudding. Jump in. One of those messages from the past that only an AUD, warts and all, can convey. Sometimes distortion, wobble, tweaks, saturation, and late gen fade only add to the trip. Play this over my tombstone, guys, I wanna be in it for a while.