Wooden and crunchy. Nice interplay between Jerry and Phil. Vince blows little zephyrs.

So much Dead to soothe my soul, and this is some of it. Tight.

When the going gets weird, Weir sings the headlight part.

This one doesn't have the shimmering lyricism of, say, 5/22/77, but the logic of Jerry's phrasing is a hoot.

Needs to be on the map. Features a jam that seems to be based on Skydog's 'Little Martha' and a nice 'Tiger Jam', but that's not all...

Awesome intro. Jerry plays within himself on all of his solos and keeps finding magic. An exceptional version from an epic sequence.

This thing packs in so much in such a short time that it’s like a musical clown car.

I find a lot of Spring/Summer ’74 stuff to be a sort of Ying and Yang of Looseness (Sloppiness?) and Tightness. Unlike a lot of the largely-now-forgotten fusion stuff of the period, it is the presence of this looseness that allows the band to discover little glens and knolls of musical bliss. And this version is completely representative of that. While it is not a sustained tour de force it does have some exceptional moments and characteristics. To these ears, the most unique thing about this one occurs when everybody but Jerry falls into the ‘Feelin’ Groovy’ theme. Jerry had been ripping some pretty inspired passages and clearly did not want to go into the FGT, so while the band plays it under him he continues to play virtually outside of it with only the thinnest of tethers to it. After a little while he finally falls in but is still a bit rebellious and pulls off some rippin’ lines before they go into IKYR. I should also say that each of the boys makes his presence felt on this one.

Almost forgot, this is a big sandwich: Playin'>Wharf Rat>Truckin'>NFBM (theme only)>Playin' reprise.

The intro is beautifully warped due to its proximity with the preceding Playin'. Oh yeah, Bertrando's AUD is VG+.