Perfection firing on all cylinders: Tight band, muscular beats, beautiful vocals (Donna's on!) and that applied greatness that is the '77 Dead.

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.

Pure. One of the first performances with beautiful, meaning-soaked delivery.

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.

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

This has so much more jazz in the first 11 minutes than most other Others from the era, and accordingly this is the first show in '72 where I really hear where the new year is going to take them. (Same for the China-Rider). This has a bit of an acid freakout and meltdown, but isn't as hard rocking as some. It is, in any case a perfectly executed and exciting version all the same. Edit: On second listen, I'm thinking the tape speed might be a bit high. Any thoughts? The OO and Truckin' both seem a bit accelerated. Also, I may be crazy, but around 20:30 they play with a theme that sounds to my mind like a proto-Slipknot. Someone tell me if I'm off my rocker, but it hangs in the air for about two or three minutes. This fits with my earlier comment that they were already exploring new sounds for '73 and beyond by this point.

The transition jam out of CC is smooth sailing and a nice vision of how'd they'd sound by Summer '73 with that perfect combination of hot yet mellow.

Compare any December '71 (the one on Dec. 10th, for ex.) to this one and marvel at how far and deep they'd dug into it in just one year. I am constantly amazed at how rich PiTB is as a vehicle for exploration, and Q4 '72 is one of the most consistent fascinating periods for the growth of this song. This one is way too far down the list, heads, and y'all should check it out stat.

So much music packed in here. From the very start you know it's going to be adventurous. There are a few seconds at the beginning where Jerry plays with his tone that you'd usually associate with the whale song segment of a big big Star. Then a big, colorful and coherent jam with a unique (?) melodic 16th note section that flutters and buzzes around the 8 minute mark. The vocals are pristine, and then Phil hits the hyperspace warp overdrive and even the meltdown is precise and purposeful. A great great Dark Star.

Terribly underrated. This is a continuous flood of muscular musicality. At 'only' 19 minutes it's a bit shorter than some of the other titanic PiTBs of the era, but it's a hardened gem of condensed dark-matter within which there are whole worlds to explore.