Got dem ol' Day-After-Christmas Turkey Hangover Blues

100 Days of the Dead Day 95

--
38 years ago tonight...

Grateful Dead -- 12/26/70
Legion Stadium, El Monte, California

-- Setlist and Soundboard mp3 download, 256 & 320 kbps 12-26-70 a.k.a. 70-12-26 --

Cold Rain & Snow, Mama Tried, Easy Wind, Till The Morning Comes,
Truckin', Friend Of The Devil, Me & My Uncle, Candyman,
Big Railroad Blues, New Minglewood Blues, Black Peter,
Beat It On Down The Line, Morning Dew, Casey Jones, Dire Wolf,
China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider,
Good Lovin'-> Drums-> Good Lovin', Uncle John's Band

Day after Christmas, in Los Angeles County, southern California, mighta been where the wind don't blow so strange but it kinda sorta feels like the boys were a little hungover from the day before. Cold Rain & Snow just doesn't pop for me. But despite the slightly distorted sound, I'm really digging Jerry & Bob jam in Easy Wind. The mix here, when Pig's not singing or blowing into his harmonica, makes it sound mostly like it's just two guitars. It's not the best sound but I'm not put off by it by any means.

More turkey hangover in Truckin', it seemed, until Jerry went and did some soloing. Even then it felt as though the rest of the band didn't necessarily pick up a ton of steam to push Jerry even further to really make this explode.

The following Friend of the Devil is quite a contrast from the jamming in the song before -- from rock to folk... but then back to rock again, cowboy rock thanks to Bob's penchant for songs like Me & My Uncle.

Some different lyrics are heard in Big Railroad Blues, a couple verses worth. This tune is fairly new here, only the dozenth or less time played. I think by now the hangover is starting to wear off.

Bobby really goes into wild mode with Minglewood. I've heard early Minglewoods (this is within the first two dozen of over 400 times played by the Dead) but it's been a long, long time since I've pressed play on any of those earliest Minglewood shows. I'm kind of surprised by how much effort Weir puts into this, over-the-top almost. And there's a different verse in there than what was on the Dead's debut album in '67. What exactly he sings here, well, I'm not even sure it's English (it's so hard to understand his words.) Kinda crazy!

Some comedy relief comes after Black Peter. They decide on a 26 beat start to Beat It On Down The Line... but it doesn't quite work out. HAAA!!

Problems with the quality of the recording had to do with the sound system being mussed up or something. Everything thus far seems a little distorted to me and because of that the boys take a break before Dew to, according to Phil, "try and get this shit together up here." And when they play again: to my ears it sounds about 50% better! Pretty cool. I've got to wonder if fixing whatever problems there were helped to motivate the band to play tighter from there on out? Dew is excellent!!

Most of what follows is really good, punctuated by the post-Drums Good Lovin' -- Jerry goes into automatic pilot and just sails away for awhile. The whole song with Drums sandwiched in is over 20 minutes and has got to be the absolute highlight of the show.

Not a smokin' show, not a bad show, and one of the only Dead or Jerry shows to take place the day after Christmas.

transcribed from: The Deadhead's Taping Compendium, Volume 1: An In-Depth Guide to the Music of the Grateful Dead on Tape, 1959-1974 by Michael Getz and John Dwork [out of print] It's the day after Christmas and the band is definitely not hung over. This is an important period of transition: a month after the release of American Beauty. It sees the snappier country-rock flavored songs of their repertoire that Bob Weir loved highlighted and Weir taking (or being pushed into?) his future place as a major frontman for the band rather than just the amiable space cadet he had been before. The format is getting much closer to the alternating lead vocalist roles that Garcia and Weir took in the future. However, one consequence of this is the unfortunate relegation of Pigpen to singing on only one track, the lengthy and excellent "Easy Wind." Garcia has a fat and raunchy guitar sound and style throughout the show, and he and Weir are structuring their playing together in a focused manner that is a definite departure, particularly evident on the carefully crafted "Morning Dew." There are a few rarities in the show too. The short "Frozen Logger" acts mainly as a vocal tuning for Weir, who is having mic problems. The band play their fifth and last version of "Till The Morning Comes." Also "Easy Wind" (although not exactly uncommon itself at the time, this song was soon inexplicably dropped from the repertoire) contains a rare Bob Weir guitar solo. In a perfect juxtaposition of the two guitarists' starkly different styles, Weir kicks things off with his jagged and angular playing, throwing out staccato threads of notes until Garcia plunges in with his fluent and easy soloing. All who advocated Weir taking over as lead guitarist after Garcia died should listen to this one. His fluid consummate excellence as a rhythm guitarist is starting to show, but if had ever played lead for three hours straight, I think a high proportion of fans would have been leaving shows with bad headaches! Finally, however, what we have of this show is less truly remarkable in itself than tantalizing as to what they might have done while in such good form in the missing set 2. Despite some excellent soloing and singing, there are no true extended band workouts in what we have--maybe Dick Latvala will oblige us with the rest one day and we'll see what the jams have to offer! by JAMES SWIFT

*** It should be obvious that the Compendium review
was written before this fuller source of the show surfaced ***

Source: Soundboard> Master Reel> Cassette> DAT> CD (Bertha remaster) Audio Quality:	12/26/70 Legion Stadium, El Monte @ the Internet Archive: the Soundboard for Listening Only
Download The Show Here 12/26/70 Legion Stadium - Part 1 Part 2 of 12/26/70 . . . if you dig the tunes, leave a comment!