Welcome back to the Tapers’ Section, where this week we have Grateful Dead music from three fine years in Dead history: 1970, 1978 and 1989.
Our first stop is on the first night of one of the most famous (and best) three night runs the Grateful Dead ever played, on 2/11/70 at the Fillmore East in New York City, where we have this fine batch of Dead: Not Fade Away, Cumberland Blues, Cold Rain And Snow, High Time, Me And My Uncle.
Next we have the bulk of the first set from 2/3/78 in Madison, WI, where we have Mexicali Blues > Big River ; They Love Each Other ; Looks Like Rain ; Loser ; Passenger ; Brown Eyed Women ; El Paso ; Peggy-O ; The Music Never Stopped. The show-opener Cold Rain and Snow is missing, but it’s on Dick’s Picks Vol. 18 if you want to hear it (as is some of this music played here, mixed with first set material from 2/5/78).
Next is the end of the first set from the last-ever Grateful Dead show at the Kaiser in Oakland, on 2/7/89, featuring Just A Little Light ; Standing On The Moon ; Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again ; Bird Song. This is the first live performance of Just A Little Light, and the second for Standing On The Moon (debuted on 2/5/89). I always found it interesting that Just A Little Light featured the line “it could be just another mule deer, baby…” in this early version, which would later be changed to “it could be just another whitetail, baby…” John Barlow, who wrote these lyrics, is from the land of the mule deer (Wyoming), and I always thought it was a neat, small change to “whitetail,” of which there are none in Wyoming.
Be sure to join us here next week for more music from the vault.
David Lemieux
vault@dead.net