"And you thought you were going to hear rock & roll..." JG 1970/02/07
Every time I think I'm done with the Dead something else punches me in the face demanding to be constructed.
In 1971 the Dead released a live album named Grateful Dead, AKA Skull and Roses. That album was compiled from a string of shows in April of 1971 but in 1969/70 they performed a series of acoustic sets, some planned and some impromptu. This live set is culled from those unplugged performances. A precursor to 1980's Reckoning which I feel they could have released in 1971 had these shows been recorded properly.
To be up front and clear, this is not a compendium of every song they played during the acoustic sets. Nor is it the best version of each song I chose to include (more on that below) or even the best songs they did. I did this to please myself first and foremost and I am happy with the results. This has been my pet project for a while vowing to myself to not share it until it was as perfect as I could make it. It goes without saying that if the band had planned ahead with the intention of releasing an album like this they would have recorded at least a few shows on 16 track tape and possibly even sweetened those up with new vocals.
Because this is suppose to be a vinyl release I sequenced and edited each side to have a continuous live flow. When two songs did not flow into each other well I used clips of audience noise from an audience tape to create the missing flow. In most cases it worked fantastic, in others you can hear the transition from one source to another but the applause feels like it belongs to one or the other song in the transition.
I used setlists to help with sequencing, putting songs where they would typically appear in an actual show. Though I used them to suggest rather than dictate. I tried to sequence each side to be independent yet contribute to the whole. I tried to create a balance between slow and somber songs and the more upbeat tunes. This comp has gone through several complete rebuilds and many subsequent overhauls and tweaks until I was happy with the tracklist and version selection.
Side One
01 Don't Ease Me In (Trad.)
- 1970-05-14 Meramec Community College - Kirkwood, MO
Right from the start when I first heard this take I knew it had to be the opener. If only for Pig on the harp. An amazing take. This song was often the acoustic set opener but this is one of only a few times Pigpen played harp on it. One of the few songs they played consistently from the very beginnings of the band up to the end. I used the Bill Graham intro from 1970-09-20 where he introduces the band as the Acoustic Dead.
02 The Rub (Hopkins)
- 70-05-15 Fillmore East, New York NY, [Early Show]
From Pigpen on harp to Pigpen on vocals and harp. This comp was almost subtitled "Hey Pig!" Pig would normally sit on the side during these sets but Jerry or Bobby would call him out to the stage with that phrase. I had initially planned to keep as many of those in but they ended up getting cut for time. An old Lightnin' Hopkns song actually titled Ain't It Crazy but the Dead always referred to it as The Rub.
03 I Know You Rider (Trad.)
- 1970-06-05 Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA
This song would normally follow Don't Ease but I felt it slowed things down too soon so I bumped it back one. A great rendition that almost takes it into Morning Dew territory. During electric sets they eventually pair this song with China Cat Sunflower that would become a standard until the end.
04 Friend of the Devil (Garcia/Hunter/Dawson)
- 1970-05-15 Fillmore East, New York NY, [Late show]
A nice early rendition. Jerry is still not sure of some of the lyrics but the song is there. I often chose early renditions of songs rather than later ones that sounded too much like the record. There was a show (9/20/70 ?) that had both David Nelson and David Grisman sitting in and they were able to recreate most of American Beauty very closely. Nice, but is it interesting?
05 Beat It On Down The Line (Fuller)
- 1970-05-02 Harpur College, Binghamton, New York
I don't know why but I really enjoy this song in all its incarnations. In this acoustic setting it still flies and has a nice charm about it.
Side Two
01 The Master's Bouquet (Baumgardner)
- 1969-12-26, Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX
At the beginning of the acoustic sets they weren't sure what to play so they dug up a lot of old folk songs, spirituals, country and blues numbers, many they used to play in their pre-Dead days. This is an old Hank Williams song.
02 Sawmill (Whatley/Tillis)
- 1970-01-31 The Warehouse, New Orleans LA
I added this one at the last minute. Originally I had Seasons in this slot but I felt I needed something a little more lively. Jerry plays electric guitar for this one. This show started electric then ended acoustic, the reverse of how they normally happened. This is also the only time the Dead played this live acoustically.
03 Truckin' (Hunter/Garcia/Weir/Lesh)
- 1970-09-20 Fillmore East, New York, NY
From the show with David Grisman sitting in. I've been led to believe that that is David on piano. A nice rendition somewhat close to the record if not slightly laid back.
04 Little Sadie (Trad.)
- 1970-02-28 Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
A nice little folk song about a man who takes the life of some poor woman, runs from the law, is captured by the law and gets what 's coming to him. Death and murder songs seemed plentiful throughout the run of acoustic sets starting with Dupree and Dire Wolf. I had to pass on some great songs simply because all of the darkness was bringing the mood down.
05 A Voice From On High (Monroe/Mauldin)+
- 1970-05-15 Fillmore East, New York NY, [Late show]
The first track to feature David Nelson from NRPS on mandolin and harmonies. An old bluegrass tune by Bill Monroe.
Side Three
01 Black Peter (Hunter/Garcia)
- 1970-02-14 Fillmore East, New York, NY [Late Show]
Another song about death and bad luck. From Workingman's Dead a nice somber yet moving performance.
02 Silver Threads and Golden Needles (Reynolds/Rhodes)
- 1970-06-07 Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA
An old country standard first recorded by Wanda Jackson in 1956. The Dead played this often from '66 on but this is one of the last times it was played.
03 Cold Jordon (Rich)+
- 1970-06-07 Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA
An old gospel number popular with bluegrass groups like The Stanely Brothers. More commonly titled "Jordan" the Dead added the "Cold" to the title and spelled Jordan wrong. NRPS members sit in to add mandolin and harmonies.
04 Cumberland Blues (Hunter/Garcia/Lesh)+
- 1970-09-20 Fillmore East, New York, NY
David Nelson moves to guitar while Jerry plugs in.
Side Four
01 Dupree's Diamond Blues (Hunter/Garcia)
- 1969-04-05 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco CA
This was soon paired with Mountains during the early sets of '69 and continued through November even after they stopped playing Mountains. Once the 1970 sets started they played this during the electric sets.
02 Mountains of the Moon (Hunter/Garcia)
- 1969-01-18 Playboy After Dark
This is another song that was on the must have list from the very beginning. This is my one cheater song. While it is live it is live in a TV studio. This was part of a Playboy After Dark episode. I wanted this version over all the others because it features Tom Constanten on the harpsichord. For a TV broadcast this was very noisy no mater which copy I used. I cleaned it up as best I could.
03 Katie Mae (Hopkins)
- 1970-02-14 Fillmore East, New York, NY [Late Show]
Another Pigpen spot. This time he plays the guitar to accompany himself for a true solo spot. During all of the acoustic sets, if Pigpen sang, he usually sang this one. He would sometimes do more but this was his goto song for these sets.
04 Wake Up Little Susie (Bryant/Bryant)
- 1970-02-14 Fillmore East, New York, NY [Late Show]
I rejected this song at first, it seemed a bit hokey maybe but I put it in after removing another song in this slot, Long Black Limousine, when I realized the set was already overloaded with death and murder songs. This helps lighten the mood a bit.
05 Uncle John's Band (Hunter/Garcia)
- 1970-02-11 Fillmore East, New York, NY
By the end of the acoustic sets in 1970 this song was more often than not the closing number. I got lucky and the audience tape I used for applause links ended with this song. They were playing it with full harmonies by then and I was able to use the end harmonies from the aud tape to supplement the end of this take to smooth out the transition to the end applause.
+ Features David Nelson and/or John Dawson from New Riders of the Purple Sage
Reality Notes
This post is one of my longer ones and it could easily be longer. There is so much to say about this that it could fill a small booklet. Because of the size and scope of this project it is possible that I may have mislabeled a song source or two though I did my best to keep everything straight. Feel free to correct me if I did. I’m a freshman Dead scholar at best. If you want a more detailed description of the acoustic sets this is a great place to start.
A brief history of the 1969/70 acoustic sets starts in early 1969 when they started performing Mountains of the Moon. The song would appear randomly during the shows and was quickly paired with unplugged versions of Dupree's Diamond Blues, always played before Mountains, and Dire Wolf which also appeared during a few of these spots. By the end of the year Mountains had disappeared and after '69 Dupree was played electric and the acoustic sets briefly stopped.
But in late December the sets returned and came back big with longer sets and more songs and continued on through the next year. The first couple happened out of necessity due to equipment troubles or late musicians. By the end of the run they were longer and a bit more planned on with a typical show opening with an acoustic set then a short break then an electric set sometimes with a NRPS set between them. The length of the sets varied from show to show and not every show featured an acoustic set in the same spot, if at all.
At the start the sets were mostly just Jerry and Bobby but by the end the full band was involved with the drummers alternating from show to show. Pigpen always had a spot, usually Katie Mae but sometimes he would switch things up and throw a different blues number in the mix. They even did Operator four times but unfortunately those shows only circulate as audience tapes which prevented their use here.
There is a string of shows that featured the New Riders of the Purple Sage playing after the acoustic set. New Riders at this time still had Jerry and Mickey in the lineup. Often David Nelson and John (Marmaduke) Dawson would join them during the acoustic set, usually for a sacred number or a deep country cover. David Nelson would often switch from mandolin to acoustic guitar for Cumberland Blues while Jerry switched to electric. Jerry also played electric on this version of Sawmill.
When I started this project I had a few simple goals. One, no tracks that would duplicate songs from Reckoning or the two roughly contemporary live sets Live/Dead and Skull and Roses. I was fine with songs also appearing on Dead Set which was released about the same time as Reckoning as those would be electric and 10 years later. Two, the final run time must be between 75 and 80 minutes, long enough to justify a double vinyl album but still fit on one CD. And three was to not overload with too many new songs from the recent 1970 albums Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. Overall I knew my biggest challenge was to create a balance between clean recordings and good and interesting performances. Even after removing the duplicate songs from Reckoning and the other live albums and what appears here, there is still at least another single album's worth of songs leftover for a volume 2. I could have easily made a three disc set but then it wouldn't fit on a single CD.
There was another live album that most fans tend to forget about (I did). History of the Grateful Dead Vol. 1, Bears Choice was a single disc live album released in 1973, it contained some of these songs, one side acoustic and one side electric taken from Feb. 13 and 14 1970. I had chosen the same version of Katie Mae but it had some tape artifacts in it. The version of Black Peter I originally used had some flaws as well. The version of Wake Up Little Susie I originally chose was from a different show but this one was marginally better so I used these cleaner versions from the album though they weren't that much cleaner. I'm going to pretend that Bear's Choice never happened or it had different song choices. That album was assembled for Warner Bros to fulfill their contract, owing one more album to the label. So let's just say that this album filled that slot instead but released two years earlier.
It wasn't easy but I think I achieved that balance between good, interesting performances and sound quality but I still had to make a few compromises. When I started digging I found that this was not a good time for soundboards. Due to legal troubles, Owsley was absent for much of the tours outside of California leaving us with a lot of shoddy recordings and missing shows. The mixes were often unbalanced with the bass, drums and keyboards (if present) slightly buried but they’re there if you listen close. While it is fortunate that there was enough good sounding shows to choose from, the best shows were not always captured well if at all. The last three sets in November exist as audience tapes only. While I passed on using those for quality reasons there are a couple aud tapes that almost sound as good as the soundboards (here's a nice one from 11/08 I used applause clips from this one to help smooth out the song transitions). So, while the final results here may not be as pristine and perfect as I'd hoped, I'm very happy with how it did turn out and feel lucky to be able to pass it along to you.
Nice work.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Though I'm worried about the transition between track one and two on side four' If anybody hears any extreme dropouts let me know and I'll update the archive but I believe my iPod just has an older version.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much.
ReplyDelete