For the week of 2/3 – 2/9 we have a lot of great music, as well as several big historical events. This week I've written listening guides for 12 shows:
2/3/78 Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI
2/3/79 Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, IN
2/4/70 Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
2/4/79 Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI
2/5/70 Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA
2/5/78 Uni Dome, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA
2/5/89 Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA
2/6/79 Tulsa Fairgrounds Pavilion, Tulsa, OK
2/7/69 Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
2/7/79 SIU Arena, University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, IL
2/8/70 Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA
2/9/73 Roscoe Maples Pavilion, Stanford, Palo Alto, 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 5, for the week of February 3rd, 2025 so check it out:
Interesting historical facts for this week:
Remembering Neal Cassady who died mysteriously in Mexico on 2/4/68. Neal was a big part of the scene in the 60’s, and there’s a lot that’s been written about him and the circumstances about how he died but here’s a couple of interesting articles that attempt to provide more detail around him. You can read them here and here.
Remembering John Perry Barlow (2/7/2018)
Sam Cutler’s first official gig as the Grateful Dead tour manager (2/4/70)
The Grateful Dead and The Velvet Underground (who both used Warlocks as a band name at the same time) share the stage for the first time
Jerry allegedly eats some Valium before a show on 2/7/79 and it doesn’t end well
First: We Can Run, Standing On The Moon, A Little Light, First known recording of the China Cat Sunflower-themed Jam, Row Jimmy, Loose Lucy, Here Comes Sunshine, They Love Each Other, Eyes Of The World, China Doll, Wave That Flag
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!
February 3rd
2/3/78 Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI – Partially, but almost entirely officially released on Dick's Picks Volume 18. Dane County Coliseum had developed a reputation as a place where some top-notch Grateful Dead concerts took place (see 2/15/73 and 10/25/73). This would be the first time the band returned to Madison since those shows, and this one picks up where those epic shows left off. All told, the band would play here 3 more times after this show, for a total of 6 performances . The entire 1st set is really strong, with sparkling, energetic playing from start to finish. Highlights are a fierce Cold Rain & Snow opener (always a good sign that you’re in for a treat), along with standout performances of They Love Each Other, Peggy-O, Music Never Stopped. The energy and enthusiasm carry all the way through the 2nd set. Kicking off with a rousing Good Lovin that dials up the heat, followed by Ship Of Fools that cools off the tempo, but not the passion. Jerry’s singing is heartfelt and masterful on this one. Then comes the real highlight of the whole show – an hour and change of some of the best jamming of the year. Estimated exhibits intricate and skillful musicianship between Bob, Jerry and Keith that builds to a very nice peak, then slowly floats down to create a beautiful door through which Jerry crafts a gorgeous rendition of Eyes. This version absolutely smokes, and contains some wild, fast stumming (fanning technique) by Jerry that will knock your socks off. The jamming intensity settles down into a delicate transition into Playing that, at over 24 minutes in length, will take you on an extended inter-stellar trip through the universe after the first verse, then into Wheel, and back into Playing for another 9 minutes! They encore with a ripping version of Johnny B. Goode to rock out the finale.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1978/02/03?source=337453
2/3/79 Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, IN – This show is a bit of a mystery, in that we’re not totally sure of the exact song order of the set list. Some set lists claim that Brown-Eyed Women was played before China Cat and appears on the circulating first set. From the Heart of Me was played between Fire on the Mountain and Estimated Prophet and circulated in this position on some cassettes in the pre-digital days. The set list in my book is based on evidence from SHNIDs 154522, 102876, 102851, 102455 and 19414 for the first set and SHNID 7116 and 154522 for second set. I've listened to all of the available recordings and only SHNID 7116 and 154522 (which might be a lower gen copy of 7116 source that also includes the first set?) have Brown Eyed Women before China Cat, but you can clearly hear quick levels fade and a pause, so maybe the taper just missed Looks Like Rain because it's not present at all. All the SBD recordings have Looks Like Rain between Brown Eyed Women and China Cat. Also, SHNID 7116 does not have From The Heart Of Me between Stagger Lee and The Music Never Stopped, however there is an audible tape pause after Stagger Lee. There's only one source for the second set (an AUD) and it doesn't have From The Heart Of Me after Fire On The Mountain, but there is a tape pause so it could just be missing. Anyways, the music captured on the tapes is very good despite the obvious issues they’re having with the sound system. I prefer SHNID 154522. 1st set highlights include Brown Eyed Women, China Cat > I Know You Rider (97 show breakout, first version since 12/29/77, only the 2nd version since 10/20/74 and it never left the rotation again), as well as a particularly hot Music Never Stopped to end the set. The 2nd set opens with a ridiculously good Scarlet > Fire that features some truly epic guitar work by Jerry. He’s got some seriously furious energy on his guitar solo, and the outro jam and segue into Fire is pretty unique. Other highlights include strong flawless versions of Estimated > Eyes (this is a really fast tempo version and Jerry keeps the envelope filter effect on for the first minute which is different), Other One > Wharf Rat, and a rockin’ take on One More Saturday Night.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1979/02/03?source=1862098
February 4th
2/4/70 Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA – Partially officially released on Grateful Dead Download Series: Family Dog at the Great Highway and A Night At The Family Dog. You can watch some of the performance (China > Rider) here. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Santana played a show at the tiny Family Dog for PBS TV cameras along with a few lucky audience members, and turned out some really great music. You can read newspaper reviews here and an extensive analysis of how and why this event happened here. This would be Sam Cutler’s first official gig as the band’s manager. All of the music in this short set is superb, but highlights to me are Hard To Handle, China Cat > I Know You Rider, St. Stephen > NFA > St. Stephen > Midnight Hour.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1970/02/04?source=335673
2/4/79 Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI – Another really fine show at the Dane County Coliseum. While it’s maybe not up to the epic level of 2/3/78, there’s still a lot of great moments in here. 1st set highlights include Half Step > Franklin’s Tower, Peggy-O, Cassidy, Lazy Lightning > Supplication. The second set kicks off with a monster Shakedown Street with a nice extended jam in the middle. Other highlights include crisp, expressive renditions of Terrapin > Playing, and Iko > Black Peter > Around.
Music link: set 1: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1979/02/04?source=337935 set 2: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1979/02/04?source=1919452
February 5th
2/5/70 Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA – 1st of a 4-show run. There’s a Listen to the Music Play – On This Day In Grateful Dead History book update: A newly discovered audience recording of this show emerged in March, 2024 (SHNID 167036) that provided a better picture of the setlist. According to the information included in the FLAC file set, the music comes from a reel purchased on eBay and was recorded by a Filmore West employee. Given the new recording, please update your book to include a note and add China Cat > I Know You Rider, Me And My Uncle , Dark Star > The Main Ten > Dark Star > The Other One > Alligator. Also note that Cumberland does not segue into Uncle Johns Band, as indicated in the book. In my book I used a whiteout pen to remove the “>” and put a “,” in its place. The corrected set list can be seen on JerryBase here. I like SHNID 168280, which is a composite of the best audience and recordings to produce the most complete recording of this nice show. The highlight of this show is Dark Star > The Main Ten > Dark Star > The Other One > Alligator > Drums > The Eleven > Caution > NFA > Cumberland. Dark Star is not the longest version out there, but is densely packed with all the things you love about the earlier versions of this song: beautifully expressive guitars, thundering melodic bass, entrancing rhythmic beats created with shakers, guiro, symbols, chimes, triangle and other hand percussion instruments. This one tells the story of that interstellar journey, but is kind of unique in that it contains an almost “Uncle John’s Band” jam before the Main Ten. Main Ten is, of course, a thematic jam that would evolve and be incorporated into the song Playing In The Band. The Eleven and Caution are both very powerful, energetic renditions and contain nice extended jamming. Caution contains an And We Bid You Goodnight jam and a very brief China Cat riff, which is fun and unique.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1970/02/05?source=1749806
2/5/78 Uni Dome, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA – Officially released on Dick's Picks Volume 18. Almost every song is delivered with abundant energy, and fierce attack. 1st set highlights are Bertha > Good Lovin’, Brown Eyed Women, Tennessee Jed, Passenger, and Deal to close the set. The second set contains all the same energy without the edge that was present during the first set. The effect is that they take their time and focus more, instead of just ripping through each song like it’s an encore. They kick off the 2nd set with an epic Samson (Jam Anthem version), followed by an incredible rendition of Scarlet > Fire (Jam Anthem version) that has a lot of nice nuances between Keith and Jerry. The connecting jam into Fire is especially spellbinding. Other highlights include Truckin’ that blasts the audience with a big muscular jam and some Drums before sliding into a big, powerful Other One (Jam Anthem version) featuring primal playing and throwback lyrics by Bobby (“coming around in a circle”). This leads to a poignant Wharf Rat that cools off the tempo, but not the intense delivery. They close the set with a ripping version of Around & Around.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1978/02/05?source=337564
2/5/89 Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA – 1st of a 3-show run. Several reviewers who were at this show lament about being disappointed in this show because there is a lot of focus on "new" music and the rumors of getting banned from playing again at the Kaiser. With a capacity of 7,900, the Kaiser was one of the few smaller venues that the Dead had been playing regularly (46 times total, 40 times with Grateful Dead), but now the crowd had swollen to an unmanageable size, and the local residents and the city didn't want to deal with it any more. This was a time when the Dead had become hugely popular, in part catapulted by the radio and MTV music video hit "Touch of Grey", which subsequently resulted in thousands of younger (annoying and badly behaving) "Touch Heads" flooding the scene. Unfortunately, the rumors were true about being the last time, and this run of shows (2/5, 6 & 7/89) ended up being their final appearance at the Kaiser. Blair Jackson wrote an insightful blog post on this "Touch of Grey" part of the Dead's career which includes an interview with Jerry on the subject. The 1st set opener of Touch > Stranger > Franklin's is energetic and well played. But the first performance of We Can Run sounds rushed to my ears. Brent seems to struggle to get the lyrics out while Bobby and Jerry play very sparsely through most of it. You can tell they're still working out the kinks. The crowd seems to be into it however. The first performance of Standing on the Moon in the second set sounds similarly "bare" and under-developed to me. Still, it would have been cool to see those two first-time-played performances. The best part of the show to me is the 2nd set. Kicking off with a rousing Cold Rain & Snow (a rare 2nd set opener) that builds some nice energy and segues into a groovy Women Are Smarter. Other highlights include an exploratory Playing which gets some good spacey jamming going, an extended He’s Gone that occupies a rare post-Space position and a poignant Morning Dew to close the set.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1989/02/05?source=854003
February 6th
2/6/79 Tulsa Fairgrounds Pavilion, Tulsa, OK – I was again getting ready to talk about how odd it was that there was no circulating recording for this show, when all of a sudden on Jan 30th, 2025 someone posted a Charlie Miller transfer of an audience recording (SHNID 169936) on Lossless Legs. And better yet, it is in fact the rumored audience recording by William LaFortune who was a prominent lawyer and Mayor of Tulsa for a period of time. The recording that was posted is said to be a 1st generation copy of William’s master, and was provided by his son John. So, now we finally have a recording of this highly sought-after show! There is no known recording in the Vault, presumably because it’s one of the lost tapes given to Brent Mydland to study when he joined the band in March of 1979. You have to go all the way back to 3/17/71 to find the next "confirmed" show with no circulating recording (over 400 shows)! And there is no later show without some type of circulating recording, so it’s always been a big outlier. You can read a detailed explanation of a theory of why that is on this Lost Live Dead blog article. Now, on to the recording itself. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s amazing to finally have a recording and it helps validate the set list. That said, as my JerryBase colleague Tyler Roy-Hart stated, we now know what it sounded like if you hid under the seats in the auditorium that night. All joking aside, the tape is clear enough to hear that it was in fact a pretty good show, but the music sounds very distant compared to the audience voices around the microphones because said mics were taped to the legs of the chair to remain hidden. It’s too bad the mics weren’t raised in the air because I think the recoding would actually sound really good. Based on the noise level from the applause there doesn’t sound like there’s many people in the audience, which seems to confirm eye witness accounts. We also have a true and correct set list for the night. The only change to the book would be to replace Minglewood with Passenger in the 1st set. Some set lists also have Stagger Lee, but that song is not on the tape. After listening to the recording, 1st set highlights are Loser, Peggy-O, China Cat > I Know You Rider, Passenger, Deal. 2nd set highlights include a rousing triple rock combo of Miracle > Bertha > Good Lovin’, some nice extended jamming on Estimated > Eyes, and a particularly poignant Black Peter and a rousing Around & Around.
Music link: not uploaded to Archive as of 2/2/2025
February 7th
2/7/69 Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA – Early and Late shows. The Grateful Dead and The Velvet Underground share the stage for the first of only three times at this show. Both bands went by the name of The Warlocks around the same time, and it was when Jerry discovered them that he serendipitously opened a dictionary to the words GRATEFUL DEAD, thereby suggesting this to Phil as a new name for the band. It’s also well known and documented that the bands didn’t care too much for each other. There’s lots of disparaging remarks made by members of the Velvet Underground about the Grateful Dead, but as this interesting analysis of the two bands in the book The Right Kind Of Pain by Mark Grief points out, there are some undeniable similarities: “On the West Coast, Ken Kesey hired the Dead to provide music for his acid tests... The Palo Alto acid test, the first to involve a real stage, took place in December 1965… In New York, meanwhile, Warhol took up the Velvets as a vehicle for his Factory events and a featured role in the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, which had various incarnations between January 1966 and its first broad public invitation in April, each of which also involved some combination of Warhol’s dancing fools, slide-projector gels, light shows, silent films and chaos… The most striking fact is that, like the Grateful Dead, the Velvet Underground started out as a platform for extremely long, wandering, repetitive, live improvisations, appropriate to multimedia events.” So, basically the 60s rock version of Tupac and Bigge East Coast/West Coast hip-hop rivalry, just not blown out of proportion to the level of killing each other. Anyways, I point all this out just to offer the most commonly accepted explanation as to why these two seemingly completely different bands would be billed together. You can read the newspaper reviews of the show here, and if you want to see another interesting comparison between the two bands, check this succinct 2-part mind-blowing comparison by Brian Marchese out. Now, what about the music for this show? Well, it’s all great high-energy material. Since there were two other bands playing, they couldn’t stretch out as much as they would like, but they waste no time, and launch the Early Show into a nice Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Lovelight. It’s all very tight, smooth and energetic. The Late Show is a little longer, and represents an even higher level of intensity. Again, none of these songs are very lengthy, but there’s fierce versions of Cryptical > Other One > Cryptical > Death Don’t Have No Mercy, followed by some creative, free-spirited jamming on Alligator > Drums > China Cat Jam (first known performance) > Caution > Feedback > And We Bid You Good Night.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1969/02/07?source=87992
2/7/79 SIU Arena, University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, IL – This is one that you hear people talking about occasionally. This is the show where, according to Steve Parish's book Home Before Daylight, Jerry allegedly took Valiums before hitting the stage. I don't have his book so I don't have the details but if you have it you can read about it, and you can read reviews of the show online corroborating Steve's story. I have listened to the partial available recordings of this show, and I can confirm that it does start off with a solid Don't Ease (a rarity as a first set opener, and the first performance since 8/6/74 – 215 shows) but things quickly take a turn for the worse. I’m here to tell you that I’ve listened to this show a couple of times, and I’m good for probably forever, because there is just so much better music to spend my time listening to.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1979/02/07?source=1919382
February 8th
2/8/70 Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA – 4th of a 4-show run. Here is one that you don't want to miss! This whole show is great, but everyone agrees - this Smokestack Lightning is the definitive version. The GOAT. I have always loved this version, probably due to the fact that it was featured on Bear's Choice, which was one of the first albums I bought when I was desperately trying to get all the live Dead recordings I could get my hands on. Not only is this a Pig-stravaganza, wailing on his harp and singing his heart out, but the whole band comes together to blow the roof off the place. The song starts much like many other versions, but it’s undeniable that Jerry, Bobby and Phil are channeling some serious blues emotions through their guitars. The song builds to unprecedented heights of intensity toward the end. Standing in the audience, it must have hit you like a freight train! Anyways, there's other great stuff here as well, like a unique acoustic rendition of Sitting On Top Of the World, and the massive 24+ minute Dark Star that takes us on a captivating interstellar trip. I wish this whole show would be officially released from the Vault so we could hear this part of the show in pristine soundboard audio. In fact, I bet they could create a box set out of this whole run of Fillmore West shows 😊. After some nice jamming, including a Feeling Groovy jam, they transition into a powerful St. Stephen > NFA > St. Stephen > Lovelight segment, which is all prime high-energy ’70 Grateful Dead music.
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1970/02/08?source=335533
February 9th
2/9/73 Roscoe Maples Pavilion, Stanford, Palo Alto, CA – This epic show is one that is in constant rotation in my playlist. Honestly, I can’t believe it hasn’t been officially released yet because the majority of the songs on this recording are played with confidence and passion. The band has a new sound, and Dan Healey has developed a prototype for the Wall of Sound that the band is playing through for the first time. On top of that, there are no less than seven new songs being performed for the first time here. Now, the Grateful Dead sort of have a reputation for underwhelming “first time performances” of new material, but I’m here to tell you that is not the case for this show. The long hour-and-a-half 1st set kicks off with a rowdy, upbeat Promised Land, followed by the first performance of Row Jimmy. The next few songs are all perfectly played, including a rousing first-time performance of Loose Lucy. Other highlights include standout performances of Here Comes Sunshine and a big, exploratory Playing to end this long set. The entire 2nd set is one marathon highlight, and kicks off with an iconic Wavy Gravy introduction of “the sunshine makers”. After a rap about the Vietnam war, the “sunshine makers” make good on their nickname and deliver one of the best renditions of China Cat > I Know You Rider you’ll ever hear. This is one of my all-time favorite versions. Other highlights include Jack Straw, They Love Each Other (first performance), Eyes (first performance) > China Doll (first performance). After all that, they play seven more songs (!) and an encore, including the first performance of Wave That Flag, the song that would eventually become U.S. Blues (once Jerry finalizes all the things that need to be done before Fall sets in).
Music link: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1973/02/09?source=336423
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!