Keith and Donna on this are just wonderful. Strong version all around, but Keith's fillis are just outta sight.

Intensity encapsulated in the middle of a TOO jam outta this world. Here's as good an example of the cowboy psychedelicore Winter '71 as you can find.

A bit faster and carried along with a strong backbeat from Mr. K. makes this one special. Perfect ensemble singing arrangement too.

Pigpen, Chuck Berry, Santa Claus, because fuck yeah, that's why.

Dec '71 NFA-GDTRFB-NFAs are all powerful statements of the band's essential unity. I love how China Cat peaks out atcha during the jams.

'77 Scarlet>Fire, and the standards are soooo high. This one has a little looseness to the joints and Jerry flubs but recovers the lyrics before moving on. It's short and sweet, but doesn't really lift off during the second solo section. It rather vamps and spreads out in a spacey way before Jerry signals he's back and fully ready to burn down the mountain. I wouldn't call it the best one of the year... but what a year to choose from and I'm picking at nits.

Showcases the weird freakiness hidden in plain sight amongst the best Estimateds: Around five-and-a-half minutes in Keith hits you with smearing swooshes of sound that will give you flashbacks, accompanying Jerry throughout a smoldering solo.

Starts a little loose, but tightens right up and becomes quite snappy, hurt only by the limited mix quality of the radio broadcast. Bobby and Donna are sounding good, and by Jerry's big solo the band is so tight that he just hits terminal velocity. The outro shreds so hard that we can still hear the heads grinding their jaws and trying to hold on to their eyeballs 47 whole years later.

cgarces: I'm no writer either, but I recall a period when these Winterland '73 shows were unavailable on the Archive. No access = No votes. It may be just as simple as that. On this version and recording: Such a pleasure to hear Bobby clearly, he's all but erased in too many shows from the era and here you hear just how much he feeds the jam, lifting and twisting up everything behind Jerry like the tightly coiled spring that makes the watch go. Phil's 100% dialed in here too, and Billy is lucid, clean, precise, and melodic, his soloing matches the big man's point-for-point. This is A+ top shelf PITB and its a pleasure whether you're listening for the first time or the 500th.

This is really fun and beautiful. Bobby is really audible in the left channel, which is relatively rare for the era, but he pops out during a couple of patches. I think the last time I went through '73 show by show these beauties weren't available (maybe the box was just coming out?) so goddamn, but it seems like I don't know them at all. Looks like I've got my listening sorted out for the next couple of days. It's like finding buried treasure here folks, imagine my smile.