[LesterSleepsIn]

Of interest to some:

https://nyti.ms/2NxXaR4

[FullRangeMan]

This song form a nice pair with various obscure Pink Floyd songs in the Antonioni Zabriskie Point movie soundtrack, a ok movie and great music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATOjPtFrff0

[Mike B.]

I was at the number three concert mentioned. Veneta is a small town west of Eugene Oregon. A group of hippies bought a tract of land along a branch of the Long Tom River and started a annual fair on a large circular trail through the woods. It is still going today but is now called the Oregon Country fair. The Dead played two concerts there. Ken Kesey was instrumental in both happening. His farm was a retreat for the dead on a number of occasions.

[stlrman]

thank u kind sir!!
50 Dead shows , 25 Jerry Band shows. I miss those nights!
Listening to one of the Dark Stars now. Reading some comments with tears in my eyes.

[Mike B.]

You qualify as a deadhead   I saw them many times but gave up when they started doing the huge arenas. One of my favorite stories took place in Eugene. I was downtown with one of the many Kesey clan and we had walked quite a distance from my car. Ken Kesey came by driving a large Mercury convertible. I think it was a late 1960's car when they were huge. My friend Len yelled out and Ken stopped and picked us up. In the front seat was Mountain Girl, Jerry's second wife, and Jerry in the back seat. We jumped in and sat on either side of Jerry. No words were exchanged. I think they were all stoned.
I have not bothered to see any of the offshoot bands. I have many recordings by the originals to remember them when they were amazing.

[jriggy]

Thanks for this link! I’ll devour the article shortly.

I feel like more of a DeadHead now, than back when I saw my 55+ shows (not old enough/wasn’t aware until ‘87), as I’ve really been ‘studying’ shows, whole tours and eras differently now than all my past listening over the years. It also helps that I’ve tuned my newest system specificly for the Dead—and that the recordings coming now are the best we’ve ever heard them.

Last summer I listened to the entire Europe ‘72 tour and found a favorite Dark Star in *I think* Hamburg 4/29/72. Very interesting stuff in that one. If I’m wrong, then it was Copenhagen 4/17/72 but I don’t think so.


 Mike B,
Great tidbits! Tell us more! Did you take off all your clothes too at the Veneta show? 

[gnatster]

Interesting article, thanks for pointing it out.

I've not been to as many shows as some of y'all. However, a few years of east coast prep school living turned me to the tape trading. Fried a few speakers by putting them in dorm windows, cranking shows over the field while tossing a frisbee around.

[andy_c]

Thanks for posting this article link.  I followed the link in that article to the 1970 Fillmore East version, posted on youtube.  Somebody in the comments section helpfully mentioned that this version is from Dick's Picks number 4.  So I got a copy of that album and gave it a listen.  On the minus side, the bass is somewhat lacking in this Dark Star version.  However, everything else in the recording is excellent, way better than the original from Live Dead.  Noise and distortion are both very low.  There appears to be no dynamic range compression at all, and I'd say the dynamic range on Dark Star is easily in the top five of any song in my collection.

So if that's your thing, you might want to check out Dick's Picks number 4.

[LesterSleepsIn]

Of interest to some, a best Dark Star list, one of many on the Internet:

http://headyversion.com/song/66/grateful-dead/dark-star/

The 2/11/70 - I haven’t heard it - has Peter Green and Duane Allman guesting.

I’m still surprised by how greatly admired Dark Star was by jazz folk, including Ornette, David Murray and Branford Marsallis among others.

And if I may, I’d like to give a shameless plug for my buddy PeterConner’s book, a fun read.

[jriggy]

‘Lester’,

I’ve read your buddies book. There a parts where he captures the mood of a moment and the ‘tour scene’ pretty well. Although I have to admit that I was always a lil leary or put off by the guys that went all-in with the look the clothing/dreadslocks/lifestyle and so forth, only to ditch it all, even the music(!!!) after a few years. Maybe it was just his rebellious youthful adventure and he wanted/needed the straight and narrow after that... regardless, it was a fun read and certainly brought back many memories and emotions.

[Mike B.]

We have several weekly radio shows dedicated to the the Dead and splinter groups from the band. I have included a link to one titled Dead Air. Deb was a girlfriend of Owsley and worked for the Dead for a couple years. She has a amazing collection of recordings to play.

https://www.klcc.org/people/downtown-deb