Oversight Alert! Conversational then a violent row ensues. A total taste treat. 1970.

Voice shot, Garcia hums through his spidery 13 lb. guitar. With a lovely China Cat peak @4:30.

(a) Garcia with aluminum pipe, (b) Purdie Shuffle '77 Pace, (c) Perfect Dynamic Control

As a queen sits down, knowing that a chair will be there,/ Or a general raises his hand and is given the field-glasses

Dictionary entry: 1973 Big River - effortless & downstream. Exhibit A.

This one has some cool moments, but it's sooooo fast - takes most of the swing out of it. There are points where the drummers lose the thread or go into a rather homely shuffle b/c the pace is so breakneck. And I have an issue with so many '78 Scarlets b/c Garcia always seems (as he does here) to forget the verse after the bridge and go directly into the guitar break. For whatever reason, that irks. Somewhat indicative to some of the sloppiness that crept in @ late-77/78. I just don't believe this compares at all to any May '77 versions, which are models of both heat and precision. Not an awful version by any means - some of it's great, but #2 on the list? That's just insane to me.

Beautiful work here. Lesh, in particular, sounds imbedded. The outro jam is a stunner.

What a St. Stephen should be.

They use this thrust to get them over the ocean. Assured, brash, model version. Great pace and totally in control. And yeah - Garcia's Strat.

Like seemingly everything from this show, this is a Cutty Sark beast. A song that doesn't always come off live (this spans most of their career for me, much as I love this song) the 5/19 Fox version hits all the targets. Lesh dots all the eyes and crosses all the teez. Kruetzmann is just swinging. This is one of the all-time great sets. Ever.