Wednesday, October 8, 2008

In a word: Psychedelicious

1-20-68 Eureka Municipal Auditorium setlist & SBD mp3 download a.k.a. 01-20-68 aka 1/20/68 aka 01/20/68 aka 68-01-20


I'm really glad I didn't decide to ditch 100 Days of The Dead for 100 Days of Britney Spears and related 21 Century Pop Crap... because there's this:

Grateful Dead ~ January 20, 1968
Municipal Auditorium, Eureka, California

Clementine-> New Potato Caboose->
Born Cross-Eyed-> Space-> Spanish Jam->
Caution (Do Not Stop On The Tracks) Jam-> Dark Star/

The first tune Clementine is a Phil Lesh original and is one of only 4 in circulation that contains lyrics (others are just jammed versions.) It might be that Born Cross-Eyed here is the first ever... due to incomplete/unknown setlists from the era, that may not be true... but it might be. What is true, I believe, is it is the earliest version that we have to listen to. Spanish Jam is just... whoa. Listen at the end as, Weir, I think, makes his guitar cry alongside Jerry. (Or is the other way around?) So haunting throughout and perfectly made for (and from) the intake of hallucinogenic treats. If there's a reason in the world to start dosing again after many years off, this is it!

What a delicious 33 minutes of music. I see no reason to not put this on a loop and play it all day long.

From Live Music Archive...

Reviewer: redwinter - [5.0 out of 5 stars] - September 21, 2007
Subject: Pig's Organ
The last reviewer was right. That is Pig Pen on organ and the fact that he doesn't sing on this show is a good chance for listeners to hear how soulful his playing was. He sort of has this jazzy feel like Keith did on the Europe 72 tour four years later.
1. Clementine (Lesh, Hunter): Although the first minute or so is missing from this song (there is a rumor that they opened this set with Cryptical Envelopement / The Other One / Cryptical Envelopement)I much prefer the dreamy acid like fade in. When it first starts out, you know you are getting into something good.
New Potato Caboose (Lesh, Petersen): This is my favorite song of all time. I remember being awestruck that they had two live versions of the song available on Two From The Vault and Dick's Picks (Download Series 6 had not been released yet) but I still wanted more. This version has Bobby singing like a centurion at the age of only 20. He sounds like Zeus commanding all of the gods with his singing. Someone on the message board said Garcia's solo on this song was too tentative. I think not. I think it was played with a lot of passion and emotion. This is a great song to hear the interaction of Garcia and Pig Pen's guitar and organ.
Born Cross Eyed (Weir): This is the first song Weir wrote by himself and it is also the first performance ever of this song. It was written in November 1967. I've never heard the debut of a song played so beautifully, so explosively except for the debut of Morning Dew at the Human Be-In.
Space (Grateful Dead): It's only a couple minutes long but it serves as the change between the fascinating first three songs and the dark voodoo jams which are to come.
Spanish Jam (Grateful Dead): This is the Dead at their chaotic best. There is nothing light and friendly at this show. With this jam and the entire show, the boys show us that they take their music seriously. This is not one of those happy sunshine daydream shows. This is dark, voodoo magic.
Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) (Grateful Dead): The change from Spanish Jam into Caution is really neat. I agree it should have been longer. It would have been nice to hear Pig singing at least one song. Oh well.
Dark Star (Grateful Dead, Hunter): Believe it or not, a version of Dark Star that is 1:55. This has got to be the shortest version ever. But I like that because the instruments which had been playing so wildly are now being played like a lullaby. When the song fades out I feel like I'm waking up from this beautiful dream.



Source: unknown exactly; probably Soundboard Master Reel>Reel>DAT>CDR

Audio Quality:
1-20-68 aka 01-20-68 aka 1/20/68 aka 01/20/68 aka 68-01-20 setlist 320 kbps mp3 SBD download
1/20/68 @ Archive.org
For Your
Listening Pleasure Only
-or-
TINY STEAL YOUR FACE - Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Tom Constanten.  No Vince Welnick or Bruce Hornsby. Download It Right Here TINY STEAL YOUR FACE - no Brent Mydland.  No Donna or Keith Godchaux.  Songs by Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow or Bob Dylan.
GD 1/20/68 Eureka
279 kbps (average)

7 comments:

Timmy said...

A nice rare chunk of Americana. Musical mayhem at it's darndest bestest! Thanx & rethanx... The Well Has NOT Dried Up.

Sugarmag said...

Hey now this is cool, I don't listen to nearly enough early Dead. I loved the Spanish Jam.

Anonymous said...

Hey C- Thanks great things- Get well- cold and raniy days in denmark. Good for serius Psyhedelicious listening. Rex

Nazz Nomad said...

this is some gnarly shit man. reminds me why I love the Dead.

Zoooma said...

Even when sick, great tunes like these come through loud and clear.

Listening to this ancient stuff sometimes makes me wonder why I pay any attention at all to crap from the 80's and 90's. No, it's not really crap but nothing compares to 60's Dead.

Anonymous said...

I really like this show an appreciate your post! But I'm confuzed, hows come an early show like this is only streaming on the Archive.
I see notes talkin bout shn files.
Can anybody xplain? thanx -bluesmutt

Zoooma said...

Bluemutt -- hey now! SHN files are lossless (full sound) and gigantic in size compared to mp3 files. Mp3 trims the sound a little bit... but the difference means absolutely nothing to most listeners.

As far as streaming on Archive.org -- no Grateful Dead soundboards are allowed to be downloaded. None. No matter what.

Reason is because they (primarily Bob Weir, I think, as well as Rhino who now controls the vault) still want to sell recordings and they feel people being able to freely download shows in mp3 form will cut too much into that.

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

i love you amy uzarski.  always!
 
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