Zero Today ... GD 40 Years Ago

BooYahhhhh!!!! Less Than Zero, baby!! And that's the last time I will ever type booyah in any form whatsoever.

As far as I know, this morning is the first time this Fall when outside the temperature has been at 0°F (-18°C) or less. I think there were icicles INSIDE the house this morning. I'm so glad this isn't a cabin without indoor plumbing. People choose to live in homes like that around here. Tis quite common; I was at a friend's cabin like that this weekend. Hey, I'm all for wilderness living, I'd even like to move off the road system one of these days... maybe... to a village you have to fly to in a small plane in order to get there... but a cabin with an outhouse, without plumbing and with no real heating system? Uhhh, i dunno 'bout that. Damn my parents for raising me upper-middle class in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City. It's not that I can't adapt... it's that I don't really want to. Outdoors I can live in a tent indefinitely. I can survive in a non-Arctic environment. But when it comes to living, I want something that resembles a real house, thanks.

In any case, brrrr f'in' cold this mornin'. Less Than Zero indeed. A momentary shock it was upon seeing -2°F (-19°C) on the thermometer just outside my kitchen. Not a shock was the fact that I had to wake my dog up by knocking on the glass. Cassidy was soundly and happily sleeping on the snow in the backyard. At some point around fifteen or twenty below zero fahrenheit he'd rather be inside. But right around zero is just perfect for him. If it wasn't first thing in the morning, he'd have been annoyed by my bothering him. Instead he bolted up and came in through his dog door, ready for a biscuit and some attention.

And now that the morning's gone, before I head out to go watch the Colts-Jags on Monday Afternoon Football at 4:30, what needs my attention is this Dead show from a few years ago. I've already listened to it a couple times in the past few days, but now it's time for another!

Grateful Dead -- 10/22/67
Winterland Arena, San Francisco

Morning Dew
New Potato Caboose
It Hurts Me Too
Cold Rain And Snow
Turn On Your Lovelight
Beat It On Down The Line
Cryptical Envelopment -»
The Other One -»
Cryptical Envelopment

also on the bill:
Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother and the Holding Company

Mmmm. Unfortunately this show doesn't start out as perfectly as one would want. Dew is a great song but one's really gotta just wait out the unevenness in sound and then hang on for New Potato. This is the same band that years later would play (Keep Your) Day Job and Samba In The Rain?!? No way. The band's sound, Jerry especially, is absolutely mesmerizing. When the song finally comes to an end, I'm not sure whether this life is real or if I'm really pissed off that the tune is over.

What follows is equally gorgeous but in a whole 'nother way. The band shifts gears here and goes from psychedelic mode into 'dem good ol' blues with Pig singin' It Hurts Me Too. Short but oh so sweet! Another quick (but good) number, Cold Rain & Snow, comes and goes and then it's again time for the band to really crank it up.

While Pigpen is in control of the lyrics, Jerry goes into incredible cruise control on Lovelight. The only thing there really is to do is sit back and enjoy the ride. Wow. He's just goin' non-stop for what seems like forever. Holy lysergic acid diethylamide, Albert Hofmann! When they finally kick it down a gear for Pig to resume singin', I'm left in awe. If anyone ever wanted to argue that there's no reason to listen to post-'67 Dead, I could almost agree, at least right at this moment.

But ugh, noooo, Lovelight cuts off... what the heck? Nooooo!!!!! Oh well. For almost thirteen minutes that was a sweet slice of Heaven, I tell ya what. It's criminal that it cuts out but then again, perhaps it's somewhat of a miracle that even a minute of this show exists at all (and in this quality!)

BIODTL, between that delicious Lovelight and the last almost fifteen minutes of the show, seems to be almost kinda sorta rudely placed here. Song placement they maybe had not yet mastered.

While this Other One has early, odd sounding lyrics, and it doesn't have Phil's mighty thunderous bass, it's filled again with meticulous Jerry, cruise control Jerry, blistering and smokin' Jerry. Behind him the rest of the band plays so perfectly in unison. Listening to this, in a way, makes me sad that every show from 1967 doesn't exist in this quality. Pickin's are wayyyy too slim so this 55 minutes is nothing less than a treasure.

from deadlists.com:
"The sound quality in Morning Dew starts out a bit grungy, but then clears up
suddenly at 6 min 14 sec into the song and remains near CD type quality for
the rest of the tape. Maybe the first second or two of New Potato Caboose is clipped.
Before Turn on Your Lovelight Jerry says 'sing you a little song'
to which Phil replies 'thank you Jerry!'. Unfortunately Lovelight cuts off
just as it was getting into a pretty heavy jam.
Before Beat it on Down the Line,'uh-hum' is said jokingly several times by several band members and then Bobby says 'good PA'. Jerry says 'twelve' and they begin Beat it on Down the Line (with twelve beats of course). The vocals to the Other One on this tape are the earliest known and go like this: When I woke up this morning, my head was not intact. I asked my friends about it, try to find out where it's at. A wind came up inside of me, blew the dust clouds all away. The heat came 'round and busted me for smiling on a cloudy day. Comin', comin', comin' around... etc. Well the heat down in jail, they weren't very smart. They taught me how to read and write, they taught me the precious art. Of breakin' out of jail, well I learned that right away. and they didn't need me to telling them 'bout smiling first then running away! Comin', comin', comin' around... etc."

10/22/67 is @ Archive.org
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Grateful Dead - 10/22/67

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