I’ve always proclaimed myself to be a
\nnouveau<\/i> Deadhead. I’ve never taken drugs, I never followed
\nthe Grateful Dead from town to town (though I was there for their
\nfinal concert in 1995), and I don’t pretend that every note that
\nJerry Garcia and crew was the greatest thing to ever emerge from
\nthe speakers.<\/p>\n
If my status was already looked down upon by true Deadheads,
\nthen my reaction to
\nDick’s Picks Volume Four<\/i>, a three-CD set covering the band’s
\nlegendary stand at the Fillmore East on February 13 and 14, 1970,
\nwill cement my fate with them. There is plenty to celebrate on this
\ncollection, but this entry from the Dead’s tape vaults also shows
\nhow the excesses of the band could do in an otherwise decent
\nset.<\/p>\n
Let me explain for the non-Deadheads. This particular run is
\nconsidered to be among the Holy Grail shows for Deadheads,
\ncapturing the band at what was supposed to be a creative peak. They
\nwere just about to release
\nWorkingman’s Dead<\/i> on an unsuspsecting public, and were
\npushing the limits of free-form musical association with such
\nperformances as “Dark Star” (which was wonderfully highlighted on
\nLive\/Dead<\/i>) and “That’s It For The Other One”. Portions of
\nthese shows have been heard before on
\nBear’s Choice: History Of The Grateful Dead Vol. 1<\/i>, though
\nnone of the songs on that disc are repeated here.<\/p>\n
Now, I admit I don’t have as much experience with the Dead as
\nmany others out there, though I think I could hold my own in
\ndiscussions. And I find numerous flaws in this particular set.
\nFirst, the vocals – from Garcia and others in the band – are not
\nthe strongest I’ve ever heard committed to tape. Listen to the
\nharmony vocals on “I Know You Rider” fall apart – and if you’ve
\nlistened to any number of audience tapes, you know the Dead were
\nmore capable vocalists than this. (I do admit to having some bias
\ntoward the version on
\nEurope ’72<\/i> – which was the first Dead album I ever owned.)
\nAnd while I recognize it was still very much a new song for Garcia,
\nhe sounds a tad uncertain on “High Time”. I will concede, though,
\nthat he was probably trying to find the right chemistry for this
\nsong, and it maybe just hadn’t clicked yet.<\/p>\n
The second disc of this set is the one I have the most problems
\nwith. Now, I’m not against the Dead cutting the chord on time
\nlimits and just letting the magic flow through the music –
\nsomething they did well on the version of “Dark Star” that closes
\nthe first disc. But the two songs that take up the second disc
\noverstay their welcome. The biggest offender is “Turn On Your
\nLovelight,” a 30-minute exercise featuring the vocals of Ron
\n“Pigpen” McKernan – and an exercise which could have easily had 20
\nminutes lopped off of it. I could have lived without the stage
\nbanter sung by McKernan to lengthen the song, or the mindless jams
\nwhich fill the entire middle portion of this track. The fact is,
\n“Lovelight” is a good song if it’s kept as a tight, concise musical
\npackage – and I’m certain that Deadheads cringe at the shortened
\nversion that was featured on
\nSkeletons From The Closet<\/i>. But when no limitations are put
\non the music or musicians, it’s like leaving Pandora’s Box wide
\nopen, allowing everything – including listener interest – to
\nescape. Fill that time with work that keeps me wanting to hear
\nmore, as they did on “Dark Star” – or even on “Feedback” – and
\nthat’s one thing.<\/p>\n
What’s sad is that this one disc drags down the power that the
\nfirst and third discs have. “Casey Jones” – another song which
\nfeatures the band trying to get what would become a natural rhythm
\ndown cold – is a powerful way to open things up, and the versions
\nof “Alligator,” “Not Fade Away” and “Me & My Uncle” are
\nabsolutely brilliant. (“Mason’s Children,” though, offers up more
\nproof why this track never made the cut on any album – at least
\nuntil after Garcia’s death.)<\/p>\n
I’m willing to admit that this run of shows might never offer up
\ntheir true power unless you were there, watching the scene unfold
\nin front of you. Maybe the Deadheads in the ’70s could relate to
\nthis show better, especially those who are in the “Pigpen” camp
\nwhen it comes to keyboardists. And maybe this particular release
\nwill become appealing the more one gets their feet wet in the whole
\nDead scene. Then again, I’ve been into the band for over a decade,
\nand I still don’t understand the magic of this show.
\nDick’s Picks Volume Four<\/i> has some wonderful moments, but
\nthis really is one for completists only – or for those whose
\naudience copies of these shows are wearing out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5668],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37244","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-grateful-dead","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37244","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=37244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37244"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37244"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}