This magnificent monster could easily be near the top for '71. The show has electrical problems in 1st set, but not here. Listen to it.

Show has a metallic twangy sound, to great effect here: turns this sweet tune into a hot industrial number.

Goes into a "The Main Ten" jam at 3:05 typical of the first month or so with Keith. Plus Phil is going bananas back there.

Jerry's bites down like an acid crocodile. Hot electric wires and sharp as a tack phrasing....

Listen past a few sound and static issues and you have a real beaut of a cruiser here. A solid doo-wop pulse gives it a different flavor too.a

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.