This is The Dead at peak performance level. Cataclysmic version. Everyone is ON. Explorative and not a beat missed. Easily top 5 of 69.

Nice early electric version. Always preferred this key for Dire Wolf compared to when they changed it in the later years. Just right. Nice version.

Takes you right to Chicago. Jerry’s playing emulates the blues greats. Hard rocking version that reminds me of a Junior Wells cut. Highly recommend.

Haunting organ playing. Crystalline and psychedelic early version that feels very spacey. Great vocal delivery.

Very nice solo from Jerry. Phil is all over this as well, some great melodic bass playing that compliments the song very well.

Deadly interplay on this one. Bobby’s on full attack mode as soon as the jam starts, creating this wonderful urgency in the music without being too aggressive or rushed. This trapezes between underwater exploration and celestial travel through unexplored nebulas and gas giants. Gets into Tiger territory very early on but never leaves it, reappearing multiple times as a swirling vortex that shoots the band into these wonderful and inventive territories. Check out 14:15, unison lines in full force. Phil rings like a bell and the boys enter this witchy and archaic space. Great suggestion darkstar, I forgot this was the show with the famous Mountain Jam, going to be relistening shortly.

Starts as a raging tornado that spirals the listener into a chaotic and twisted journey. This really reminds me of Dorothy’s journey to the land of Oz, the idea of everything you once knew about anything is gone, and you’re taken away by this force of nature only to land in this mysterious and quite dreamlike landscape. The boys follow the yellow brick road and walk towards their goals. Will they get home? Will they muster up the courage within themselves? You can hear the band find themselves in this tumultuous journey. Analogies aside, this The Other One is dense and rich with ideas. Gets into Dark Star territory with not one single person leading. Keith starts this wonderful motif around the 12 minute mark in which Jerry responds with an almost sarod or sitar inspired lick that leaves me utterly speechless. I also find Bobby’s parts are quite intriguing, the way he thinks about the music and how open minded he is with throwing everything you know out the window and just “going for it” really makes this one quite unique. 5 star The Other One with so much to unpack.

Reaches a point of singularity that consumes the band in a dark energy unlike anything before. Undefinable. Out of body, indulging in this desolate, nightmarish world of inexplicable constructs, structures that defy the laws of physics, The outer reaches of the universe, and the edge of insanity. Where are they? I don’t think they even knew at this point. How dark, and how mysterious this version is. “Madness is but an over acuteness of the senses”

Phil, like Atlas, holds the world on his shoulders. With each pluck of a string, maintaining balance of everything that is. The Truckin is a portal to a vast, ghostly realm of the dead, misty, and full of intrigue. This is as uniform as the band gets, astral projecting and leaving the material world behind, and exploring these places not yet known to mankind. RIP Phil.

Rocking the ship back and forward going through tremendous storms and unpredictable waters. A force of nature.