Any true fan of the Grateful Dead will freely admit that Jerry
\nGarcia and crew had good nights and bad nights. What you would get
\nat a particular show was a crap shoot. (I only attended one Dead
\nshow – the last night in Chicago prior to Garcia’s death in 1995 –
\nand it was beautiful, despite lyrical flubs.)<\/p>\n
So, as tape archivist Dick Latvala continues to comb through the
\nDead’s numerous shows, we’re bound to get a few shows here and
\nthere that don’t live up to the incredible head-trip mind-blow.
\nSuch is the case with
\nDick’s Picks Volume Two<\/i>, taken from a show in Columbus, Ohio
\non Halloween 1971. It’s not a bad set, just a little weird in some
\nways.<\/p>\n
Comprising of only six tracks (c’mon, Dick, you didn’t have a
\nfull show to put out? Sorry, but I’m a bit of a purist in this
\nregard), Garcia and crew were still adjusting to new keyboardist
\nKeith Godchaux. (Original keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan died in
\n1973.) So the feel on some of these songs is a bit slow, like the
\ntraditional crowd-pleaser “Dark Star”. Comprising of only one verse
\nbefore branching out into a jam, the tempo is far too slow on this
\none for my tastes; it almost seems like a jazz beat gone a tad
\nwrong. Oh, it’s still a decent enough rendition, and the jam more
\nthan makes up for the minor complaints, but I found it to be a
\ndifficult adjustment.<\/p>\n
Likewise, there’s something missing from this version of “St.
\nStephen,” though I can’t easily put my finger on it. It just
\ndoesn’t sound as comfortable as it has in shows past – and this was
\na staple of their set for a long time. However, Bob Weir’s
\nperformance on “Sugar Magnolia” helps save face in between these
\ntwo tracks.<\/p>\n
For me, the highlight of
\nDick’s Picks Volume Two<\/i> is the montage of “Not Fade Away”
\ninto “Going Down The Road Feeling Bad”, then going back into “Not
\nFade Away” to close the show. It’s an interesting twist on things,
\nand the band is able to keep me interested all the way through.
\nThis is noteworthy because “Going Down The Road Feeling Bad” is not
\none of my all-time favorite Dead songs.<\/p>\n
The one regret I have with this disc is that it’s too damned
\nshort. Just when I started to really get into things, Weir was
\nbidding the crowd good night. (This is, so far, the only volume in
\nthe set that was a one-disc release; Latvala must have realized
\nthat less isn’t always more.) Although I don’t have my battered
\ncopy of
\nDeadBase<\/i> in front of me at this moment, I would think there
\nhad to be a solid enough set to complement what is already
\nreleased.<\/p>\n
Of course, Deadheads who don’t already have this disc will be
\nrunning out the door to pick it up. (Arista Records recently
\nreleased the first six volumes of
\nDick’s Picks<\/i> on the market; they were previously available
\nonly through Grateful Dead Merchandising – where volumes 7 through
\n12 are still only available.) It’s still a worthy enough effort for
\nyou to spend an hour with, and Deadheads will thrill to hear
\nGarcia’s playing again, but this disc leaves me with a serious case
\nof the musical munchies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5668],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36122","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-grateful-dead","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36122"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36122"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}