For the week of 1/20 - 1/26 we have 12 incredible shows from a wide range of years to review:
1/20/68 Eureka Municipal Auditorium, Eureka, CA
1/20/79 Shea's Buffalo Theater, Buffalo, NY
1/21/79 Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI
1/22/78 McArthur Court, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
1/23/70 Honolulu Civic Auditorium, Honolulu, HI
1/24/69 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA
1/24/70 Honolulu Civic Auditorium, Honolulu, HI
1/24/71 Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA
1/25/69 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA
1/26/68 Eagle's Auditorium, Seattle, WA
1/26/69 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA
1/26/93 Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA
So grab your copy of my book if you have it to follow along and let's jump into it. Here's the highlights for Issue 3, for the week of January 20th, 2025 so check it out:
Interesting historical facts for this week:
Happy Birthday to Big Steve Parish! (1/20)
First performances of Dupree's, Doing That Rag
Some iconic performances that would be included in the Live Dead album
By the way, if you're new here, this is my weekly listening guide that brings you the most interesting and significant facts from Grateful Dead History, along with reviews of the music for the week ahead. The idea is to give all you Heads a "Heads up" on the interesting and cool stuff the Grateful Dead were up to on this week in history. So hit the Subscribe button below to go to the top of my blog page where you can enter your email to get this delivered to your email every week!
January 20th
1/20/68 Eureka Municipal Auditorium, Eureka, CA – The first two songs of the tape including Viola Lee and School Girl were officially released on Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2 Bonus Disc. This short 33-minute segment of music is raw, high energy Grateful Dead at its best. pigpen shines on this tape as well as Jerry. Highlights include the segment of Clementine that’s preserved on the tape, and the Jam after Born Cross Eyed which segues into a nice Spanish Jam and then into Caution Jam, but unfortunately the Dark Star is cut. Maybe someday the vault tape will show up and we’ll get to hear the rest of it.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1968/01/20?source=335290
1/20/79 Shea's Buffalo Theater, Buffalo, NY – Donna is absent from this whole show, and it’s reported that it started about 2 hours late. This was a few weeks before Keith and Donna left the band because of “issues” between them and the rest of the band, and it’s not clear to me whether her absence and late start of this show is related to that drama or not. However, this whole show is really good and the band is energized and playing well together. Shows from this tour sometimes don’t get the best reviews because of repetitious song selection but the energy and passion is on full display here. 1st set highlights for this show include Sugaree, Peggy O, Minglewood, Stagger Lee, and a powerful Jack Straw to end the set. The 2nd set is where most of the highlights for the show can be found. Highlights are Miracle > Bertha > Good Lovin’ to open the set, and the jam segment Estimated > Other One > Drums > Space > Other One > Dark Star. They then finish out the show strong with some classic rock and roll selections including rousing versions of NFA > Sugar Magnolia and One More Saturday Night encore.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1979/01/20?source=337750
January 21st
1/21/79 Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI – While this show doesn’t get as good of a review as the previous night, and truthfully, it’s not as energetic as the 20th, but there are still some excellent highlights in this performance. Main problem seems to be that there’s only one circulating source for this show (SHNID 19083), and it’s a rather muddled sounding audience recording (no disrespect to the unknown taper who, I’m sure jumped through hoops and risked getting ejected to get his recording gear into the show). Maybe there’s some taper out there that has a better recording stashed away. If so, I'd love to hear it so let’s put this on the list of shows that need an upgrade. 1st set highlights include a nice, laid back Sugaree opener, Dire Wolf, Looks Like Rain, and Friend Of The Devil. The 2nd set opens with an upbeat Samson and Delilah but the real highlight of the second set comes with Terrapin > Playing in the Band. The outro jam from Terrapin contains some really excellent fretwork by Jerry, combined with creative contributions weaved into the mix from Phil and Bobby.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1979/01/21
January 22nd
1/22/78 McArthur Court, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR – Officially released on Dave’s Picks Volume 23. This whole show crackles with energy and has a plethora of interesting nuances that make for a unique performance. 1st set highlights include a spy rendition of Minglewood Blues to kick off the set and get people dancing, followed by a perfect reading of an up-tempo Dire Wolf. The Cassidy that follows contains a seductively thick groove in the middle. Other highlights include Tennessee Jed, Jack Straw, and Music Never Stopped. The second set charges out of the gate with Bertha > Good Lovin’ that bubbles over with energy. A soft and poignant Ship Of Fools comes next, and cools the tempo but not the passion. A rousing Samson builds the tempo again. The rest of the show is one big highlight, full of skillful jamming and excellent song selection: Terrapin > Drums > Other One > Close Encounters Jam, which is Jerry is on the stage by himself noodling around with his envelope filter when he hits on the notes from that infamous melody from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and he briefly plays an approximation of it. The movies had just been released about two months prior, so it was probably fresh in people’s minds at the time. If it were played today, you probably wouldn’t make that association, but either way, this was the only time he ever did that. The segue into Saint Stephen is pretty neat, and they finish out the set with a powerful NFA > Around & Around, and then U.S. Blues encore.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1978/01/22
January 23rd
1/23/70 Honolulu Civic Auditorium, Honolulu, HI – Officially released on Dave’s Picks Volume 19. 1st of a 2-show run. This would be the Grateful Dead’s first of only two appearances in Hawaii (all in 1970), however they were previously scheduled for 3 concerts in 1968, but those were cancelled. The band actually received a lot of fanfare around these concerts. There were several different news articles announcing the concerts, and then later announcing that the band was on their way, and then finally that the band had arrived at the airport. There was even a reporter standing by at the airport when the band got off the plane. Deadsources blog and Grateful Seconds blog have excellent articles about these concerts. 1st set highlights include China Cat > I Know You Rider > Black Peter, Good Lovin’ > Drums > Good Lovin’. Pretty much the entire 2nd set is one big highlight: Cryptical > Drums > Other One > Cryptical > Dark Star > St. Stephen > Lovelight. Lovelight is one of the longest ones I know of, clocking in at over 38 minutes!
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1970/01/23?source=335554
January 24th
1/24/69 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA – 1st of a 3-show run. This was the first show at the Avalon after its closure due to issues with excessive noise and the behavior of the crowd around the venue. The Family Dog had been running shows there but lost their ability to have concerts after their dance permit was revoked due to noise and other complaints. In order to regain their permit and hold concerts again, the new company called Soundproof Productions had made some soundproofing improvements to the building along with hiring police officers for the events, as well as a full-time janitor on staff to clean up the outside area after the shows. This whole recording is primal Grateful Dead at its peak. The 1st set kicks off with a furious Cryptical > Drums > Other One > Cryptical. The Cryptical outro jam leads into a picture-perfect rendition of New Potato Caboose. Phil and the drummers dominate during the big meaty jam in the middle. The first known performance of Duprees follows, with Pigpen playing his harmonica, and it adds a really interesting layer to the song. The first known performance of Doing That Rag closes the set, and despite a couple of rough patches at the beginning, has a powerful outro jam. They open the 2nd set with Dark Star, and it’s a beautiful, dramatic rendition with a nice long intro jam before the first verse, a deep psychedelic spiraling jam in the middle before the second verse. The tape concludes with a powerful Lovelight with a lot of hootin’ and hollerin’ and a Pigpen rap. After about 13 minutes they segue into a short Drums segment, which ends with a bunch of calamity on the stage and someone yelling into the mic “The Grateful Dead!”, and the show is over.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1969/01/24
1/24/70 Honolulu Civic Auditorium, Honolulu, HI – Officially released on Dave’s Picks Volume 19. 2nd of a 2-show run. The level of performance is better on this one than the 23rd, but the set list doesn’t contain any big jam segment. I wonder if there is a missing reel? It seems odd to me that they would only play for an hour given all the media coverage, promotion and the fact that they were headlining. Either way, highlights of the existing music include Cumberland, King Bee, Mason’s Children (also released on The Golden Road (1965-1973), Good Lovin’. After that, they played Feedback > And We Bid You Good Night, which isn’t on any circulating tapes, but is on Dave’s Picks. The Feedback track fades in, further making me believe there is a bunch of missing music. The Dead played Feedback 78 times, and it typically followed Caution, but sometimes Alligator, Viola Lee Blues, or The Eleven, and a couple other one-off songs. Dancin’ In The Streets closes out this apparently short show. But who knows, we could be missing an hour’s worth (or more) of music.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1970/01/24
1/24/71 Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA – This is a nice little 2-hour single set marathon of classic ’71 Grateful Dead music, mostly played with fervor and excitement. Highlights include Truckin’, China Cat > I Know You Rider, Hurst Me Too, Cumberland Blues, Casey Jones, and Hard To Handle, after which Bobby announces that they’re running short on time and are going to do “one more”, at which time they proceed to play another hour of music. This is the best part of the whole show, consisting of no less than five songs and a drums segment all strung together: Lovelight > NFA > GDTRFB > Lovelight > Drums > Good Lovin’ > Uncle John’s Band.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1971/01/24
January 25th
1/25/69 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA – 2nd of a 3-show run. Partially officially released on Aoxomoxoa 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition. The band returns for another impressive performance. Kicking off the 1st set with an excellent Dark Star, this one features weird and wonderful licks by Tom Constanten on his organ. He’s turned way up in the mix, and you can really hear his contributions. After bringing the jam to a peak, they settle it down, and it gradually fades into a powerful St. Stephen. Typical of the time period, it segues into the William Tell bridge, which has a fierce jam that leads to an even more dramatic The Eleven. Again, TC’s keys are spiraling and perfectly complimenting Jerry, Phil, Bobby, and the drummers. It’s completely satisfying and they spin the energy up into a massive peak before the first verse. The mix on the tape is way off, and you can barely hear the singing. The benefit of that however, is that you can hear every incredible nuance of TC and Jerry as they trade harmonic riffing back and forth. Check this out at about the 8:30 mark of the track with headphones on and it will blow your mind! I think this is my favorite moment of the entire tape. After that they slide so perfectly into Lovelight, that it has to be one of the smoothest transitions ever captured on tape. This is a powerful 21+ minute version, as the energy and momentum from The Eleven is carried straight into this song. There’s an obligatory Pigpen rap, but it’s hard to hear. It’s almost as if you’re hearing the vocals from another stage mic, because Pig sounds distant and low. The 2nd set kicks off with much different energy and fortunately a better soundboard mix. Dupree's > Doin' That Rag > Cosmic Charlie are all very well played. This is followed by a brief Alligator > Drums > Alligator > Caution > Feedback > And We Bid You Goodnight sequence that’s perfectly executed and builds to a powerful crescendo, but at 20+ minutes for the entire segment, it just doesn’t develop into any extended jamming. They were probably running out of time at the end of the night and under pressure to wrap it up.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1969/01/25?source=335393
January 26th
1/26/68 Eagle's Auditorium, Seattle, WA – First of all, let’s set the record straight: the music on Archive and Relisten, and many other places for 1/22/68 are actually from this date, according to several prominent Grateful Dead historians. See this Hooterollin blog article and the JGMF blog article by the esteemed Joe Jupille. Likewise, anything labeled as 1/23/68 is actually from 1/27/68. However, these shows live on with the wrong date in many set list web sites like Etree and music sites like Lossless Legs, archive.org, etc. Jerrybase on the other hand has made the smart decision to mark 1/22/68 and 1/23/68 as spurious dates. Maybe someday the incorrect information will get corrected everywhere else, because having that stuff out there only contributes to the confusion. I’ll get off of my soapbox for now, but if you follow my blog long enough and read my books, you’ll see I’m pretty vocal about eradicating the bad information. Now that we’ve established the correct date of this show, let’s talk about how good it is. First off, the entire tape is outstanding. Opening with a tight 16+ minute Alligator, this version contains a nice extended jam that reaches stratospheric heights before falling back to Earth and dissipating into an edgy free-form cacophony that verges on becoming a Feedback jam for a brief moment, but quickly gets extinguished. Next up is an early (only 7th known performance) of Cryptical > Other One (with some interesting alternative lyrics that Bobby was trying out as he was developing this song) > Cryptical. This falls naturally into a perfectly executed New Potato Caboose, featuring a youthful Bobby singing sweetly while Jerry and Phil layer on a complex harmony over top. All this while skillfully navigating the song’s complex musical phrases. It inevitably builds to a jam which presents the perfect opportunity to segue into Born Cross-Eyed, which is short and serves as a way to get to the spacey part of the show: Feedback > Spanish Jam > Dark Star. Here Feedback is much more subdued than other renditions (including the one that would come later in the set) and start off with a deep bass tone reminiscent of what Phil would do several years later with Ned Lagin on Seastones. Instead of intensifying Feedback, they opt for Spanish Jam, which builds slowly after several hints – first by Billy on the snare drum, then by Bobby and Phil. It develops into a type of marching jam, which splits into a soft, gentle, spacey Spanish theme. All of a sudden, Phil weaves in the Dark Star melody on his bass, and Jerry and Phil quickly follow suite. This was still the dawn of the age Dark Stars (this being only the 3rd known performance of the song), so like all the other ones from this time period, this one is relatively short and fast tempo. But don’t let that turn you off because this is actually one of my all-time favorite versions. It’s so perfectly done, and has everything you need packed in that 5+ minutes, that it doesn’t need to be 20+ minutes long. Jerry’s singing and fretwork is pristine. Bobby’s delicate and smooth rhythm guitar perfectly blending with Phil’s bass and Pig’s organ. I’ve decided that this is the perfect version of Dark Star to play for someone who is new to the music so they can get an understanding of the essence of this cosmic, psychedelic, spacey Grateful Dead music without losing their attention. It’s got everything you need to show someone, all presented into a nice little package. Play this version, and then play a “fully developed” version like 2/18/71 afterwards. As Dark Star winds down, it slips seamlessly into China Cat. Again, this is an early version of the song and has a raw, edgy feel. From there they fall perfectly into a powerful ending sequence of The Eleven > Caution > Feedback > And We Bid You Goodnight. This Feedback is much more outrageous and pushes the limits of your ear drums. I can’t even imagine how loud it must have been in the room!
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1968/01/22/alligator?source=87826
1/26/69 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA – 3rd of a 3-show run. Band caps off an epic three show run and serves up some epic primal Dead jams. This performance is infamous for having a couple of songs selected for its inclusion in the band's Live Dead album. The show opens with a powerful Cryptical > Drums > Other One > Cryptical segment that includes an extended jam that winds its way into the final performance of Clementine. This song is complex rhythmically and melodically, and was never fully developed. 1969 was a year of major shifts band’s sound. They dropped this song (and others) in favor of songs filled with “story telling” and rich vocal harmonies like Mama Tried, Dire Wolf, Black Peter, Uncle John’s Band, Cumberland Blues, Casey Jones, and other “Bakersfield Country” songs. This style would emerge over the next few months as they worked towards albums like Workingman’s Dead and then American Beauty and this would provide a much-needed injection of new material into the band’s live performances. As good as these powerful primal Dead anthems like Other One, Alligator, Caution, Viola Lee Blues are, the band would never have reached the level of success without those two pivotal albums. After Clementine, the jam settles down and floats delicately into an impassionedly-sung Death Don’t Have No Mercy. TC’s organ provides an extra layer of spooky on this one. The middle gains intensity and edge as Jerry rips some stabbing guitar leads and TC sprinkles his funeral procession style organ riffs. The entire 2nd set is one big highlight: Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Lovelight. The Eleven and Lovelight are the versions that appear on Live Dead. Needless to say, they are iconic versions of those songs for that reason alone, but also because they’re so skillfully performed.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1969/01/26
1/26/93 Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA – 3rd of a 3-show run. For the first time since 1987 the band played some shows in January. This wasn’t exactly a Winter Tour however, because they would only play 3 shows in January in Oakland, and 3 shows in February in Oakland before kicking off their Spring Tour in March in Chicago. Overall, this is a very good show with great energy and some impressive guest performances. 1st set highlights are Row Jimmy, Brown Eyed Women, Ramble On Rose, Promised Land. The 2nd set is where much of the magic happens on this one. Opening with a hot Women Are Smarter they establish a strong dancing vibe from the get-go. A lively and pretty rendition of Eyes follows, and the band takes their time with it. There’s a nice intro jam and middle jam before making the segue into Estimated Prophet. This is given the same attention to detail and they let the improvisation take the lead into a standout Terrapin Station with a powerful extended outro jam that reaches great heights before settling into Drums. This is Chinese New Year, so there’s a Dragon Parade on the stage. After Space, Santana joins the stage and they develop into a nice little Oye Como Va jam before shifting suddenly into The Other One. Santana doesn’t seem to add any flavor to this song, even though I know he’s on stage. A very delicate and pretty rendition of Stella Blue comes next. There’s a nice little sprinkling of a bluesy Santana solo at the end before segueing into Lovelight. Jerry and Santana each sprinkle some nice riffs throughout but I’m a little let down by the fact that there isn’t any big powerful Santana solo. They seem to have squandered Santana’s presence in my opinion. They encore with a fierce take on Gloria, but again, no big Santana solo. In fact, when you look at all of his time on the stage the Oye Como Va jam ended up being his biggest moment. Oh well, I guess he just wasn’t feeling it this time. If you’d like to explore more shows featuring Santana, check out this list.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1993/01/26?source=346015
BTW, If you're not yet familiar with Jam Anthem versions of songs you can read all about it in Deadology II by Howard Weiner. Check it out here along with all his other great books.
And that's all for now! Of course, if you want to follow along in your very own copy of my book On This Day In Grateful Dead History: A Daily Listening Journal I still have some copies available here. Once they're sold out, I will have to decide whether or not I'm going to have more made. The costs of printing and shipping have gone way up in the last few years since I had them printed so I'm not sure if it's worth it or not. So get one now while you can! https://www.gratefuldeadbook.com/tigdh
Peace out my good people. Until next week!
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