Goin' Home is one of my favorites from Are You Passionate / Toast. However, the lyrics create a lot of questions for me. There are references to the battle of the Little Bighorn but modern references as well (telephone, downtown...). So what's your take?
I got on the Dead bus late last year. I think it was in December when things started to really click for me. I fell in love with songs like "Brokedown Palace", "Candyman", "Ripple", "Truckin'", "New Speedway Boogie" and "Box Of Rain". After listening to "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead", I decided I needed to listen to some live stuff. I had heard that's where their real magic is. With the 50th Anniversary Editions of both albums available, the Port Chester shows from 1971-02-18 and 1971-02-21 were the ones I listened to very early on. I liked what I heard, even fell in love with many things during these shows (more on that later).
I was sucked in deeper and deeper... I started reading discussions about important times in their performance history and listened to stuff people recommended online. My journey so far has led me to 50+ additional complete shows I've listened to, mostly from the 1970s, but also some from the 1960s and a few from the 1980s and 1990s. I would say my main focus has been 1977 and I'm on my way to start exploring 1976 in more detail now.
In the meantime, I had kind of forgotten about the two Port Chester shows I had listened to in the beginning. Having read many observations that the shows are mediocre, "public rehearsals", I kind of stayed away from them.
Yesterday I decided to relisten to a few select performances from them and was overwhelmed. I mean... "Loser" from 1971-02-18 is just so raw and intense. That electric keyboard is to die for. "Sweet Suzy!" Yes! The show also contains the famous "Dark Star" > "Wharf Rat" > "Beautiful Jam" > "Dark Star" sequence. And let's not forget that two of the songs I mentioned were live debuts. They f****in' nailed them! (I can live with the fact that "Playin' In The Band" took a little longer to work out.) 1971-02-21 opens with a great version of "Cold Rain And Snow". I love that song as an opener and this one is my favorite performance of it along with the one from the Winterland '74. Additional highlights for me are a beautiful "Ripple" and "Bird Song". There is more beautiful stuff from these shows, I only want to mention my absolute highlights. And in my estimation, each show that contains performances as excellent as the ones I've mentioned can't be considered mediocre. I've listened to a few shows from 1977 that might have been tighter overall but that left me cold due to their "business as usual" approach.
Of course, the fact that the Port Chester shows were recorded on multitrack also works in their favor. After listening to so many board tapes, as great as they mostly are, they can't beat the quality of multitrack mixes.
So, any Port Chester 1971 fans out there?
There used to be a Live At The Ryman video on YouTube for a limited amount of time. Too bad I didn't grab it before it was taken down... Has anyone perhaps downloaded it and might be able to help a fan out? :)
Having just listened to Mississippi Half-Step... from 1977-11-05, I noticed there is a guitar solo by Jerry wherein he plays the melody of Black Muddy River. On Dick's Picks 34 it starts around 4:08. The next day, there is a similar guitar solo which is also close to Black Muddy River. Is this common knowledge? Was the latter song's melody often heard during the Half-Steps around that time? Interested in what the experts say about this!