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Carrion_Crow

Stealth Head

+49667


Submissions

16
China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider
May 23, 1972
Strand Lyceum

A more rocking version than others from the time, and oddly overlooked. Jumps off Cat right away into the long transition. Energetic stuff here.
13
Black Throated Wind
May 23, 1972
Strand Lyceum

Is there a single one from '72 that doesn't end in triumph? This song just got better and better throughout Europe. Surprised this wasn't here yet.
11
Sugar Magnolia
May 13, 1972
Lille Fairgrounds

Perfect musical sunshine. This one even got my not-at-all-into-the-Dead wife to dance around like a trippin' hippy, so you know it's good.
15
Truckin'
May 13, 1972
Lille Fairgrounds

Unforgivable that you guys overlook Truckin'. There's a reason it's the one song non-heads know. This one is a forgotten colossus. Listen up.
8
Mister Charlie
May 13, 1972
Lille Fairgrounds

Distinctly slower, with a greasier funk vibe. Surprised it isn't here. Different from the others and lots of fun.

Comments

China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider
Oct. 20, 1974
Winterland Arena

Grendel is right. Imagine all the mad love the boys had for jamming out of China Cat condensed into the 'one last time' restatement of all its whys and wherefores. Imagine the music playing the band and the waves upon waves of good energy feeding them from the crowd. Imagine the meaning of singing "Goina miss me when I'm gone" at the farewell show. Imagine all of this on a few hundred micrograms of the clean and crisp. No don't imagine it, just plug in your time machine and listen.... Be there.
Dark Star
Feb. 13, 1970
Fillmore East

May just be the most beautiful thing I've ever heard in my life. The way deep down quiet spaces keep us suspended, waiting for the explosions to come. They come, but later in the set, in later songs, later versions of Dark Star. Jerry sez somewhere that there's only one version of DS, and they just performed it once over the course of 27 years.... This piece of it is like the skeleton key to a thousand more hours of all Dark Stars to come.
Morning Dew
Oct. 18, 1974
Winterland Arena

So many Dews, but this one just blows me away again and again and again. "Flawless" and "Powerful" don't even begin to do it justice. Just strap in, hold on and ride that skullfuck as far as it takes you.
Dark Star
Oct. 18, 1974
Winterland Arena

Got to hear it emerge from the Phil & Ned to grok its full arc - the completeness of this one grows on me with every listen. ReasonTatter: Yes. I think the possibility of it being the last ever informed a lot of the great performances at the whole Winterland run.
Viola Lee Blues
April 26, 1969
The Electric Theatre

The whole show is pretty wild and verging on chaos until this one, then they step over the edge and go completely nuts. The rest is just insanity.