Thanks for joining us here at the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll listen to some music covering a 15 year span in the Grateful Dead's career, 1974 to 1989, with a stop in 1981.
We'll first check out a Wall Of Sound-era show from Chicago on 7/25/74, featuring the big second set jam of Dark Star >Stella Blue. You'll notice a very distinct Slipknot! jam in the Dark Star, which would be recorded in early 1975 as part of the Blues For Allah album.
Next is some music from the mostly excellent summer tour of 1981, with a stop in St. Louis on 7/8/81, where we have music from toward the end of the first set, featuring Althea, Me and My Uncle>Big River, Don't Ease Me In, New Minglewood Blues.
Our final stop this week is at Deer Creek Music Theater in Noblesville, Indiana on 7/15/89, the Dead's first trip to Deer Creek. This was one of the most fun shows I ever attended, for many reasons. The first impression of the venue after driving through corn fields from Indianapolis was spectacular, particularly after seeing the Dead in five of America's biggest stadiums to start the tour (Foxboro, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Giants Stadium and RFK Stadium). This was a holiday from the mega shows. And for the most part, the band played great. A few big clams in the second set (Crazy Fingers was a bit messy…), but these first set songs give a good impression of how hot the show was: Peggy-O, Queen Jane Approximately, We Can Run, Bird Song.
Be sure to join us next week for more tunes from the vault.
David Lemieux
vault@dead.net
Thanks for joining us here at the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll listen to some music covering a 15 year span in the Grateful Dead's career, 1974 to 1989, with a stop in 1981.