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.

The Billy/Bobby interplay is clear - and beautiful - in the mix, which is a rare treasure. It reminds me of being at shows and being able to focus (when focus was even possible) on different combinations of the boys at play, depending on where you were in the audiospace. This isn't the most polished or most experimental version you'll hear. It isn't even the most well-played. It is,however, bursting with creative synchronicity and it quite simply doesn't resemble any that went before it. PiTB is a study in the Dead's evolution, and within one year it went from the weirdly apocalyptic psychedelic jam "The Main Ten" to a twangy country warble with its off-kilter meter and explosive energy. Within another year we arrive at Veneta and PiTB is there with Dark Star as one of their vehicles for interdimensional exploration. This one stands at one of the junctures.

Right on, unstrucksound, glad you dug it!

Little known fact: Phil has twenty fingers. Evidence? This song.

Good goddamned hot, this one. So much energy, they're just giving giving and giving.

Sure thing, Deadhoe69, but here it's uptempo, fresh, and pushing forward. Later ones don't (for me) have that essential pulse as the earlier ones. And Jer's vocals here push it forward with meaning and soul. There's a pulse here that sometimes I lose in the later ones. He's right, this is a good call. You'll love it. I do.