This is a weird one. At times it seems like they forgot it was PiTB and went back to the HSF jam. Fun, but waaaaaaaaay loose.

Short, sweet, brand new, and flawless.

Brilliant early "slow version". I always prefered the desperado fast-paced ones, but this turns into a brilliant exploration and improv vehicle.

Uptempo, powerful, strong vocals. This is top shelf UJB. With David Crosby for that extra oomph, and with a tigh outro, it's strangely not here yet.

Like every other song in the first set, this is just pristine, air-play level perfection. Beautiful fills by Keith here, too.

Answer my own question: apparently Ken Kesey and others were sitting in, according to the good folks over at the archive. What a time they must of been having, eh?

To grok this beautiful monster with its odd slow groove intro you've really got to hear it emerge from the ultra goo of the 19:00 Drums before it. This is massive stuff: the Dead had performed NFA over 200 times by this point; they could phone it in if they wanted to, but no: they find some obscure filament connecting it to a subtle hint of the groove deep in a free flowing Drums, and so what do they do? They play it differently, that's what they do, reconstituting it, shaping it into something new. Not Dark Star or Playin', but Not freaking-Fade Away, their clap-along love anthem to the fans. Bravo. John Cipollina and whoever was blowing blues harp give it a nice spin, too.

Kicks off the set like they mean business. Killer version.

Glad you dig it Unstrucksound. Hating on Donna Jean isn't my bag and we give credit where credit is due.

Lost this cassette over 20 years ago and just hearing it again. It's even better than I remembered. A bit slower than others from the time? Maybe they were holding the tempo down a touch, knowing that they had all night to go and over three hours of solid to come. In any case the soloing is the stuff of pristine, lucid dreams and the energy is full of love.