March 8 - March 14, 2010

Like last week, this week we're going to check in on a few previously released commercial recordings, for no other reason than that they are exceptional bits of music.

Our first selection this week is from the Fillmore East in New York City on 4/27/71, a bit from the excellent 4-CD set Ladies and Gentlemen…the Grateful Dead. From that album we're very pleased to include this terrific Lovelight, in which Pigpen introduces a young couple in his inimitable way. This is such an inspired version of Lovelight, and you can just picture Pigpen looking down over the lip of the stage and holding this intimate conversation with Chris and Marcia, while 2,000 people cheer him, and them, on. Bobby and Jerry get into some excellent guitar dueling around the seven minute mark of the song.

Next, from a little over a year later in London, England on 5/24/72, we have one of the few versions ever played of Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu, with Jerry playing some particularly raunchy stuff during the instrumental breaks. This was included as part of the Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead 4-CD set, a release filled with great music, and lots of it.

From the Grateful Dead Movie, both the DVD (bonus track) and the 5-CD soundtrack release, we have this great version of Uncle John's Band from the penultimate show of the run on 10/19/74. This version of Uncle John's Band was originally slated to open the Grateful Dead Movie, but then Jerry got the great idea of opening the movie with a cartoon, like movies used to open, and Uncle John's ended up on the cutting room floor. Thankfully the DVD release had loads of room on the Bonus Disc, as well as on the CD soundtrack, so 30 years later it was finally released. Jerry gets into a very smooth groove during his solo, and the film footage captures Jerry in the zone as he plays.

About three years later, the Grateful Dead found themselves in (Jeffrey) Norman, Oklahoma, on 10/11/77, and some of that show was included as hidden tracks on the massive 6-CD boxed set that was Dick's Picks Vol. 29. To this day, we still get mail from fans who have had DP 29 for years, but only recently found these hidden tracks. This Not Fade Away gets about as crazy as this song ever did during this era. Dick Latvala referred to this version, and this show, as one of the latest examples of Primal Dead. This show was one of the first shows put forth by Dick for consideration as a Dick's Picks.

Lastly this week, from Egypt on 9/16/78, we have this funky Shakedown Street. It isn't as crazy and intense as the song would become in later years, but it has wonderfully concise beat held down by the bass and drums. And it also gets way out there toward the end.

Check back here next week for more great Grateful Dead music, when we'll again return to the land of the unreleased Dead. As always, we encourage you to write with any questions or comments about the Tapers' Section to the e-mail address below. Please be sure to make your subject simply “Grateful Dead” so that it will squeeze through our state-of-the-art filters.

David Lemieux
vault@dead.net