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The Grateful Dead doing The Beatles' Twist & Shout?! First this...

When I last posted '66 Dead, the show wasn't a show but studio sessions from the month of June when the lads were recording their first single -- Stealin' & Don't Ease Me In. The next recording we have is this one, a short bit of music from...

Fillmore Auditorium -- July 3, 1966
San Francisco, California

"Independence Ball"

Dancin' In The Street
I Know You Rider
He Was A Friend Of Mine
Next Time You See Me
Viola Lee Blues
Big Boss Man
Sittin' On Top Of The World

A fine Dancin' kicks this off and I do believe this is the first one we have a recording of. Once they really get going it feels like they've been playing it forever. Billy on drums helps rock this along, goin' non-stop while Jerry hits auto-pilot at times and Pig keeps pace on organ. Bob's givin' a great wail on vocals yet subtle at times to push the song along at a nice dancin' speed without burning everyone out. Rider then allows the boys to get back some of their earliest Dead roots. Even though this show is practically within the very first half year of the Grateful Dead, Rider's been there since Day 1 when the boys laid down the track in the Autumn Records studio back in November. Ohhhh... unfortunately it gets so rudely cut off way prematurely. Dang it! A nice He Was A Friend Of Mine cuts in and we get a slow spot in the show. Again, here is another "debut." They may have played it a couple dozen times before this but this is the first recording we have of this wonderful tune. Phil's bass is way noticeable here, really rollin' non-stop like Billy was in Dancin'. We finally get Pig on mic and harmonica with Next Time You See Me. A pretty safe and not too far out there Viola Lee follows before another "debut" -- Big Boss Man. A smokin' Sittin' On Top Of The World closes it out but unfortunately it cuts off just as Jerry is gettin' goin' with a solo. Ouch. That really hurts and it gives me an incomplete feeling at the end. Ah well, what are ya gonna do? It's mid-'66 so it's still priceless and the audio quality of the recording is so nice.

7/3/66 @ the Internet Archive: The Soundboard for Listening Only

Download It Here Source: shnid=40 ♦ Audio Quality: Lineage: Soundboard-» Master Reel-» DAT-» ZA2-» CDR 7-3-66 Fillmore Auditorium

BUT WAIT... there's more!

Here's a small bunch of... "music" that has no date or venue known for it. here are four tracks and they come from an Unlabeled reel and best as anyone knows this is from 1966 and that sounds about right. They've all been lumped together but they might not even be from the same show. One of the "songs" I have already put up, the first one, the "Nobody Cares" rap, but the others are new here. Pigpen's rap might be associated with 2/11/66 down in L.A. but that's purely speculation. The first three are undoubtedly from one of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests somewhere, sometime in '66.

Whenever this is specifically from, it's fun stuff to be sure. Pigpen is in such fine form and there's definitely some foreshadowing here of what's to come from him with all those unbelievable raps he turns in during Lovelight.

The second track is a short intro by Billy, Bobby & Pigpen to the third song which is "New Orleans," Bobby says. Pigpen runs with the vocals on this. I'm not sure where Jerry is, or Phil; it sounds like there's not a single note of guitar for over half the song but someone, while Pig is singing, is on harmonica. Who? Bobby? Hmmm... a mystery... and the tune totally bombs out before a proper ending but the improvness of it all is very cool.

To end this bit of mayhem is Twist & Shout with Pig on vocals and someone else on harmonica. So far as I know this is the only known version by the Grateful Dead. I wonder if this was in their repertoire briefly or if this is totally a one-off version. The latter is what it sounds like to me, like there's plenty of improv goin' on. Pig's in near-Lovelight-like form for this doin' his own thing on vocals most of the time. Definitely a fun romp while really not at all Beatles-like. Jerry's guitar isn't that up-front like it should be and that hurts the sound of the recording a little but he's wailin' away and wow... this is pretty cool!

00/00/66 @ the Internet Archive: The Soundboard for Listening Only

Download It Here Audio Quality: GD miscellaneous unknown (00-00-66)

The Music Never Stopped, 2009 -- Volume 50

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