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grendel

Books and Music

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Submissions

51
Bertha
Oct. 29, 1977
Evans Field House, Northern Illinois University

Sweet bass drop-ins by Phil on intro; extended Garcia solos in bridge jam; very intense and fun
49
Jack Straw
Oct. 29, 1977
Evans Field House, Northern Illinois University

There are longer versions, but none has a better bridge jam than this one. My favorite version ever--must listen!
88
China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider
Feb. 24, 1974
Winterland Arena

Hard-charging drumming from Billy leads the way. Best MLB jam in this pairing I've ever heard. Hard to believe it wasn't listed yet.
37
Cassidy
Oct. 12, 1983
Madison Square Garden

Intense build-up jam, perfect touch-down. Weir absolutely nails it. My favorite version all-time
21
Shakedown Street
Jan. 10, 1979
Nassau Coliseum

Laser-focused, perfect rendition, start to finish. Super-funky with awesome Jerry fuzz-guitar, rock-blues jamming post-vocals

Comments

Franklin's Tower
April 10, 1978
Fox Theatre

Franklin's out of Drums is nuts & there's a great Eyes-like mellow and long intro to this one & for those who like stretchy Franklin's this one clocks in around 16 mins. As noted, though, Jerry can't get out of his own way with the lyrics and just repeats a bunch of verses. For me it's just too sloppy for an upvote, but that said it should be checked out for some inspired jam sections and its unique set placement. You may feel it's worthy of some more votes and I wouldn't really put up much fight on that front.
Scarlet Begonias -> Fire On The Mountain
Nov. 18, 1978
Uptown Theatre

Underdog. Hidden gem. Single digit sleeper. This is the musical equivalent of finding a great hole in the wall cafe that only the locals know about. Easy to miss, but so worth checking out.
Black Peter
Feb. 13, 1970
Fillmore East

First BP I ever heard and still one of the best. Agree with hypnotic as a description. While it lacks the monster outro section of later versions its melancholy feel and atmospheric mellow blues persona can't be beat.
Scarlet Begonias -> Fire On The Mountain
Nov. 6, 1977
Broome County Arena

Hesitant to add my vote (but did) because I like where this is on the list right now & wouldn't want to see it rise above too many others (esp. 5/11/77 or 11/2/77) because it's just got too many rough edges to be in the upper echelon. On the plus side Jerry doesn't panic when he misses the "rings on her fingers" line at the very beginning and instead takes a quick round before picking it up a bit later and that gives this one a bit of a unique personality and doesn't detract from what becomes a very good Scarlet with a nice jam into wind in the willows. The segue to Fire is mellow, laid back, with a short burst of Jerry that re-fades into a softer flow drifting into Fire. I do take umbrage with Jerry's total butchering of the lyrics, though. I realie it doesn't bother some but he can't deal with either of the two verses here and does his mumbly Joe thing, which really detracts to my ears. Yes, he does mitigate the damage by crushing the solo after verse one. The outro is good, not spectacular, with many above it on the list--and rightly so--offering better. but this one does have its flares of brilliance and a general benefit of that tight '77 sound and so it gets my upvote. Just hope it doesn't rise too far with a bump from being an official release in this instance.
Wharf Rat
Nov. 6, 1977
Broome County Arena

This one starts out super-mellow but Garcia takes care of that in his first monster solo heading into the "got up & wandered" verse. It's a GD jaw-dropper & like the rest of this show the band is right there with him. Just another brilliant '77 here.