![]() ![]() ![]() This is the first performance of We Bid You Goodnight, which is as evocative of the late ‘60’s Dead as anything. That probably has been discussed hereabouts a lot, but (as someone who was turned on to the Dead in 1972 in my late teens) I consider songs from that era to be utterly original and a true and major contribution to the great American songbook. The other thing that has me thinking, which I need to explore some more, is the Dead's transition from electric blues to their Workingman's/Beauty era. I would love to find out what happened in the summer of '68 that led him to develop his style to where it became distinct in a new way. Then there is two months until they come back in August, when for the first time, to my ear, he sounds like the Jerry who would become known as one of the greatest ever. ![]() But as I continue listening it seems that he develops a new style in concerts in the spring and through June 1968. There are solo stretches that are repetitive and there are thematic ideas that are not finished, as he would accomplish later. I can start to hear it in the dark stars and in this alligator. But it didn't seem to emerge until spring of '68. ![]() By 1969 his later style was firmly in place and polished to a great degree. When did that come? It evolved, starting at around this time, I believe. Starting out, his style was more straight ahead electric blues, thrilling quite often and exploratory, but not with the level of innovation that came later. First, Jerry reached a point in his development as a musician where he started sounding like the Jerry Garcia the world would come to know starting in the early 1970's. As I've been enjoying all the concerts posted in this way-back machine the last couple of months, I've realized two important things. OK, I'm gonna get a little historical on all y'all right now. Imitated more times than can be counted, but, listen and you will know, this band is the real deal. You can tell iron is being worked with fire and hammer & The Grateful Dead are a force to be reckoned. As a stage musician myself, I do notice when people are interested & when to throw in that song that will lure them further down the rabbit hole, where we can all take the same trip & reciprocate the vibe- that kind of thing won't happen unless you're doing it show after show- this is only Ma& they'd only been at it for a couple of years solid. I know shows must have gotten jumbled up and mislabeled & destroyed & then again, there are so many shows that have no sets listed at all!Īnyway, show rocks, chock full of goodies & I believe, after all of my petty nitt-picking, here is a show that brings together all of the elements of the bands core structure & though formless most of the time, peaks in some enormous spots giving Pig room to work with great harmonica & presence, he seems to push his way right to the front of the song-maybe he intimidated Jerry a little(speculative) but, maybe some conversations had been had about set lists & how to get even further into the audience's psyche. I try to stay away from Set list disputes because I wasn't there. What else can you do if you weren't there? So I'm going by the author's take and any archival library content I can find-like everyone else who wasn't there and taking notes-I use Deadbase, DeadLists & You Tube for my research and fact confirmation. ![]()
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