Love this version, but I always cringe with blue-balled disappointment when Keith (and Bill) turns the jam around during a beautiful discordant meltdown. The Phil bombs and satanic Jerry playing are so mind blowing, like the end of the Veneta Dark Star. Keith and Billy kick up this uptempo jazz thing during what is a genius, natural moment led by Phil and Jerry. The band follows Keith but you can still hear Jerry playing in psycho mode. It doesn’t fit the new direction they’re going in at all. Noise was part of the Dead and they did it better than anyone. Here it fit into the jam and it’s too bad that they didn’t see that part through.

The more I listen to it, the more I think that this is the best overall Alligator ---> Caution ---> Feedback ----> AWBYGN sequence. There are better Cautions out there (Thelma comes to mind), there are better Feedbacks (DP 16 comes to mind), and there are even sharper Alligators melodically, like the Shrine '68 one. But the absolute MONSTER power and energy happening here, and the satisfyingly epic jam length, put this one over the top for me.

This one goes so effing hard. Top 5 Caution without a doubt.

It's hard to see this one as a standalone Caution. It's definitely Caution, but it's a larger freeform template for the shit they were on on this magical night. Pigpen is isolated on a cloud of dark purplish blue smoke, and becomes another instrument in the band. Funny that this song is about a magic gypsy who does some weird voodoo magic on the dude's dick to get it working again, because there's a very "dark magic" vibe to this show and how far it had gone off the rails - pun intended - by this point. I'd venture to say this is Pigpen's finest moment with the Dead, and that if you're in the trip of this very freeform show, this 30 minutes of Caution is extremely satisfying. The melting into Feedback at the end is my favorite moment of Grateful Dead noise.

If you're an early-era psychedelic Head, this show is the Holy Grail. They go places on this entire set of jamming that I've never heard them go elsewhere. It's hard to explain, but there's just a dark psychedelic magic to this night, led by Jerry's transcendent distorted guitar tone. "Eleven" was not long for this world by this point, but it didn't need to be: it peaks right here. It doesn't necessarily top the fast-and-furious versions of 1968, but this one incorporates the more complex jazzy jamming style of the 70s to create something unique and beautifully psychedelic. My favorite Eleven.