Thursday, April 16, 2009

Time to teach the new guy

"Hey, knock it off you guys, you're scarin' my dog."

The Music Never Stopped, 2009 -- Vol. 41

***** GRATEFUL DEAD STEAL YOUR FACE - design 09-001 *****Grateful Dead -- April 16, 1979
Club Front, San Rafael, California
* first(?) rehearsal with Brent *
***** GRATEFUL DEAD STEAL YOUR FACE - design 09-001 *****

Jam-> Not Fade Away-> Jam->
Drums-> Jam,
Passenger (1), Passenger (2),
I Need A Miracle intro, Bertha,
Bertha
-> Good Lovin', I Need A Miracle Jam
Scarlet Begonias (1), Scarlet Begonias (2), Scarlet
-> Fire,
sorta spacey Jam, more spacey Jamming,
Gloria
-> Linda Lou,
Jam, Ain't That Peculiar Jam, Jack Straw

Very nice recording, perhaps even 4½ stars to some ears. If there's truly no cassette generation in here then the reel has degraded a tiny little bit because there's some very light noise during the quiet moments when there's no music happening.

Speaking of those quiet moments -- that's when you need to listen closest. There's some cool dialogue but it's barely caught on an open mic. Between dialogue amongst band members, there happens to be a ton of sweet Dead music. The jamming, at times, is priceless. Fire On The Mountain is spectacular. These songs are new for Brent but the band sounds great. He's able to play along just fine and another thing about this setting for him -- he's not exactly a complete stranger since he played in the Bob Weir Band the year before. That was straightforward rock and roll, basically, and that's what some of the Grateful Dead is, of course, but the GD, as demonstrated here several times, goes way beyond that... so perhaps some of this is kinda new for him.

What's definitely new here is Gloria. I do not believe Weir ever played this in a side band prior to February '79. That makes this the first recording of that Van Morrison cover tune. And the following Linda Lou, if I'm not mistaken, is the only Dead or Bobby version of that song there is. I wonder where he got it from? Bill Monroe, The Stones, or Foghat... or D) other?

In any case, some very, very, very cool music here. I've almost gotta wonder if Phil was absent 'cause I don't hear him much. There aren't, I don't think, any true stand out solos but what there is is an amalgamation of music we've not heard exactly in typical show form. This is great stuff. Check it out!

********** INTERNET ARCHIVE HEADPHONES **********4/16/79 @ the Internet Archive:
the Soundboard for Listening Only
********** INTERNET ARCHIVE HEADPHONES **********
TINY STEAL YOUR FACE Download It Here TINY STEAL YOUR FACE

Source: shnid=4163 Audio Quality: SBD
Lineage: Soundboard Master Reel DAT CD SHN
4/16/79 - San Rafael - Part 1
Part 2 - Club Front - 4/16/79
Part 3 - Brent rehearsal
4-16-79 aka 04-16-79 aka 4/16/79 aka 04/16/79 aka 79-04-16 Club Front, San Rafael

4 comments:

Dogstarz said...

Thanks for the heads up on this new guy practice. I will check it out in a few days.

Anonymous said...

this is neat looking..always nice to hear different stuff..and this looks pretty different...i have been listening to this band for 25 years now and there is still stuff that comes up and surprises me..how many bands can ya say that about ...really...?!! thanks for the download...another vodka toast to you and sug. mag. cheers..

Anonymous said...

p.s i have always been a big fan of passenger...and look forward to the versions here...i read somewhere that phil created this song cause he wanted the guitar players to play with some raunch...or balls...i like all the subtle and gentle moments that the boys were capable of..garcia often played with great sensitivity and economy...knowing when less is more...but comes a time when you got to rip some shit up and have fun..the band never got so precious or pretentious that they felt themselves above a good garage band type rave up..garcia could go toe to toe with jazz poofter noodlers... then play gentle sweet stuff..and then drop down and get dirty and rip the roof off a joint...quite often all within the space of one set...it's easy to take them for granted when you listen to them alot...but when you think about what they did really it was very special...i miss garcia!

Anonymous said...

Holy Ridiculous Exclamation! What a treasure! First time jams with Brent. The beginning of a new era. Thank you very much!
~Dave~

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