Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Back to Winterland... few years later this time

Have no fear, the tunes are (still) here...


Grateful Dead Steal Your Face - gold
10-20-78 Winterland setlist & soundboard mp3 download a.k.a. 10/18/78 aka 78-10-18
THANKS!

To all the people who've commented in the past day or two -- Thanks!

To everybody who has commented here before -- thanks.

But all of you in the past couple days or so, you've helped lift my spirits. No worries, twas just an unreasonable Momentary Lapse of Frustration. I think I'm all better now


Posting up shows has never been about getting comments in return... it's about spreading the tunes. My good friend and posting buddy here at Inspiration, Move Me Brightly, Sugarmag, helped me remember there will always be a bunch of ungrateful people out there who will take and never say anything, no expression of thanks whatsoever. (Maybe they actually are Grateful for the downloads, they just never say anything.) That makes the rest of you, all of you who occasionally post a comment, much cooler than you already are!! You guys rock! I believe in community, not in always silently taking, so thanks again for your comments -- they're welcomed and appreciated!

Let's get on with the show... Let's Go!

Tie-Dye-BAR-6

On with the tunes... from 30 Years and a Day Ago Tonight...

Grateful Dead ~ October 20, 1978
Winterland Arena, San Francisco


1st Set: Minglewood Blues, They Love Each Other, Cassidy, Dire Wolf,
Tennessee Jed, It's All Over Now, Loser, Lazy Lightning-> Supplication


2nd Set: Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo-> Franklin's Tower,
Dancing In The Street-> Drums-> Space->
Not Fade Away-> Black Peter-> Around And Around


Encore: Johnny B. Goode, Shakedown Street

If you want a mediocre show, do not download this.

by COREY SANDERSON

This show comfortably nestles into the overall ten best of '78 and is not only a must-have, but a must-have in both formats. the 21st and 22nd are well known and widely respected, but this show deserves the same serious attention. Set 1 is jam-packed (pun intended) with extremely mature, fiery playing and loads of fun. Three words sum up the audience recording: band crowd interaction. This relationship is breathtaking; it completely makes the show. You can't stop the smile from reaching up to your earlobes. You can almost touch the energy that flows between band and audience.

"They Love Each Other," packed with funky punchiness, sets the standard for the evening's performance. The band works consistently from this high level of energy throughout the rest of the night. The crowd, particularly thankful for the tasty morsel just bestowed upon them, responds to the boys by joining the drummers in clapping out the beat. "Tennessee Jed" is another crux of superb playing that delivers more intense interaction and high energy. It is quite obvious that every in Winterland is having a real good time, especially when Jerry bellows out his vocals. Jerry's final solo is white hot: this is as close to the ideal as you could ever hope for. Ascending little by little, he suspends the peaking almost as if he were waiting for everyone to arrive at the same space. The crowd follows him every step of the climb until they reach the summit.

Kicking off a set 2 with a "Half-Step" > "Franklin's Tower" pairing is fine in my book any day of the week. "Half-Step" is great but the crowd steals the spotlight when the boys break into "Franklin's Tower." The eruption is magnificent! The crowd's mini-triumph almost drowns out the music. But wait, the best is yet to come, in the form of this wild "Dancin'" montage. "Dancin'" starts out straight ahead, then starts swerving (on purpose, of course) with the skill of a Formula One driver.

Deep, almost jazzy explorations take the lead as the band plummets headlong into deeper jams. The drums are there throughout, although they abandon their post as timekeepers in favor of soloing right alongside their comrades. It all grows to become quite chaotic (actually crossing the line into temporary insanity) and is tinged with the avant-garde. Once again the crowd explodes with approval in a ferocious manner. This is truly one of the most far-out jams in circulation. Like good heroes, the boys come back from their journey, returning to reality.

"Drums" takes it slow as the crowd keeps the beat. Billy and Mickey actually sound more like Ginger Baker and Max Roach playing together in a drum duel. Melodic ride patterns, jazz accents and phrasing: all adds up to a great "Drums" segment. "Space" is short and weird, but when the band quickly layers into "Not Fade Away," everyone in Winterland becomes connected. After "Black Peter" they break into one of my favorite versions of "Around and Around." Bobby totally takes control of the band while the crowd goes berserk throughout the whole song. When they hit the double-time feel, the smoke pours off of Jerry's fingers as he rips and shreds the chord progressions apart. The audience's clapping pushes the band into a frenzy. The band responds by unleashing more energy. Then the boys bring it all the way down and soooo silent, keeping the music quiet as a mouse until . . . KABOOM! They smash through Winterland with the power of twelve natural disasters. It is quite inspiring! The band shows their gratitude to the crowd with a very special double encore. "Johnny B. Goode" and "Shakedown Street" is all you need to know.

transcribed from:

The Deadhead's Taping Compendium Volume II, 1975-1985 [guide to Grateful Dead music]
The Deadhead's Taping Compendium, Volume II:
An In-Depth Guide To The
Music of
the Grateful Dead on Tape, 1975-1985
[out of print]

Well, there's no Audience version at Archive.org so you'll have to hunt that down yourself. Methinks the Soundboard is just gorgeous. It's 5-star, Dick's Picks quality nearly throughout but a little noise here and there requires me to not call it 100% perfect. A bunch of noise at the beginning of Lazy Lightning is quite annoying but doesn't last long. Funny thing, right after that it's like either Phil just showed up or he just got plugged in. Wow. If one digs Phil's bass bein' loud and clear, this is a show for that, at least from Lazy Lightning on.

Another beautiful aspect of this recording is the presence and beauty of Bob's rhythm guitar. Seriously. He compliments Jerry PERFECTLY. He ain't just strummin' for the sake of strummin', his playing inspires me as much as Jerry at times. Seriously!

Around and Around is definitely a highlight here of the whole show! I'm not sure I've ever said that before. Well, maybe not THE highlight but it's so much fun and a lot of that is because of Donna. Seriously!

Really, there's no song here played poorly. It's all good! Oh wait, well, the encore(s) didn't do much for me... almost an anti-climax but ya know what, that's just me. I thought they kinda left me feeling eh but other parts of the show were just exceptional. So glad I listened to this!

Source: SBD> Cassette Master>
DAT> FLAC

Audio Quality:
10/20/78 Winterland @ Archive.org:

the Soundboard
for Listening Only
-or-
Small Steal Your Face symbolizing, of course, the Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Ron Pigpen McKernan, Keith & Donna Godchaux, Vince Welnick, Bruce Hornsby and Brent Mydland.  And even Tom Constanten!  Songs by John Perry Barlow and Robert Hunter and one by Bob Dylan but none by The Beatles.Download it Right HereSmall Steal Your Face

15 comments:

Sam said...

Well... I didn't comment or download... so hopefully I'm still cool. :-)

Glad you're back at it.

Sam said...

I should probably mention that I've never downloaded anything from your site. I've really really wanted to but I lack the technology. No internet at home, no IPOD, no laptop, I'm steeling free internet on the house computer at the local coffeshop.

The one thing I do take from you is good suggestions. That can't be tracked so I thought you should know.

Anonymous said...

Once again Zooma,


thank you.

Though I feel blessed to have been to a few shows in 80's and 90's, I would most like to get a time machine to check out my favorite era, and that is the 76-78 tours.
Seems like many either are Donna fans or not, but me I think she WAILS and rocks the dead!

You GO ZOOMA!

Muddy said...

Well, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so I'm wondering if you can help me with the password for pt. 3. I don't recall having this problem before. Thanks.

Zoooma said...

Whoops... I forgot all about the Password. I shouldn't have done that, it was kinda dumb, and probably won't again in the future. I was just trying it out for the first time.

PW: leave-a-comment

(Haha, seriously, that should work. If not, let me know and I'll have Part 3 re-upped as soon as I can! Sorry for the inconvenience.)

Muddy said...

Yea! It works. Thanks. Any chance you could get me an invite to infinitefool?

And the rest of you! Don't forget to toss a few bucks in the kitty at the Rex Foundation.

Anonymous said...

Allright- back in buzznies. Thanks .Rex

Anonymous said...

I have been searching for this show and here iti is. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

Sugarmag said...

Now I know why I wasn't sure if they had played Dancin' in the Streets or Shakedown, they played both. Ha ha ha, I was confused! I'm listening to this show again today, I could listen to it over and over again and not get tired of it for a long time. Good choice.

Sugarmag said...

Rex: I have one word for you-boundaries. I know from site meter that you check this site and the comments several times a day. I don't think it's good for you. Stop spying on me.

Sugarmag said...

PS Rex from Denmark, I didn't mean you. I mean a different Rex.

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to listening to this one. Many thanks.

Rob
EightE1

Anonymous said...

thanks for this
love those Winterland shows!

Rays Fan

Timmy said...

An open door
A covered floor
Scented air
pleasing hours
THANX 4 this show. I'm so bummed about Merl, I find it hard to drink...

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much, my old cassetes (5th generation or worse) are wearing out, and here's all this marvelous stuff - most of it sounding a lot better than where I was standing. Technology is amazing.

Harry

one says one number and the other another
but they were set at the same time. Hmmm...

i love you amy uzarski.  always!
 
Calvin and Hobbes in the snow -- animated