In his essay within the booklet enclosed in Dave’s Picks Volume 22, the editor of The Grateful Dead Almanac and Sirius XM radio host Gary Lambert writes with informed but casual erudition in describing how New York City became the Grateful Dead’s home away from home during the course of their career. Accordingly, this most recent edition of the current archival campaign under the aegis of David Lemieux reaffirms how neither the band and the nor the inhabitants of ‘The Big Apple’ took for granted the fruitful relationship that had been established and nurtured over the years.
Audiences eventually filled the far larger and cavernous flagship room at Madison Square Garden, but for these performances, the Dead opted for the comparative intimacy of the approximately five-thousand seat Felt Forum, the predecessor to The Theatre @ MSG, knowing they’d be able to communicate more directly to their devotees. Accordingly, the group chose to express emotion through their choice of songs, such as the 12/7/71 opening number, “Cold Rain and Snow,” as well as their playing, one tangible result of which is the loud, unmistakable acclamation from the crowd at the start of “Casey Jones.”
“Next Time You See Me” (where Pigpen wails via voice and harmonica!) and “You Win Again” continue the theme introduced by the initial number, but as is their won’t, the Grateful Dead chooses not to hammer the point home, but rather more subtly suggest their feelings by interweaving those tunes with the fictional likes of “Jack Straw” and “Tennessee Jed” (where Garcia sings with unusual gusto). This subtle approach makes the point more forcefully through the multiple references and, in turn, aligns with the musicianship of the sextet; on this night anyway, the playing relies more on concise structure than expansion. The only segues that occur appear at the very end, as two expositions of “Not Fade Away” sandwich “Going Down the Road Feelin’ Band.” The pairing is purposeful with the end result suitably dramatic.
The relative restraint of this second evening’s offering reaffirms the ongoing perception of the live Grateful Dead experience as more than just individual songs or specific shows, but, in actuality, an extended concept encompassing continuity from successive tour stops concerts, as with these two. Overlapping as much by intent as execution, the second portion of 12/6 concert was comprised of a long, winding interval comprised of “Playing in the Band” that subsequently found the group weaving in and out of the amorphous “Cryptical Envelopment,” “Drums,” “The Other One,” then directly into “Me & Bobby McGee.”
And the latter transition, concluding disc three here — the bonus disc offers the beginning of that first show–ends up as a something of a decoy. Before its return to “The Other One,” the band engages in an elongated closure consisting of some of the Grateful Dead’s most dramatic compositions, any of which would provide suitable, not to mention distinct, climax to one of their concerts. “Wharf Rat” has a poignant, cinematic quality quite the contrast to an exhortation to party in the form of “One More Saturday Night,” while “Uncle John’s Band” is a warm, inclusive benediction.
Especially in the wake of the far-reaching and nimble navigation of space and time immediately preceding, these intervals vividly illustrate the agility of which the six-piece unit was capable—commonly known as the ‘turn on a dime’ period of their career and, as captured on Rex Jackson’s recording and preserved on these CD’s, the deceptively full sound enhances the band’s nimble motion. (Sonics remain a consistent virtue of Dave’s Picks, its level of detail superior to the cover art which, has, unfortunately, deteriorated somewhat in recent months).
Besides offering the rare opportunity to witness a performance art, comparable to but more concise than Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings or Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings. Dave’s Picks Vol. 22 is an unusual and deceptively significant entry in the discography of the Grateful Dead. Relatively inconspicuous over the course of these two performances from earlier on in the decade is the integration of pianist Keith Godchaux into the lineup as is the inclusion of much new, as yet unrecorded material that would eventually serve as the foundation for the live album Europe ’72. (and to a slightly lesser degree, Garcia and Weir solo efforts). Of further note here is the (unfortunately only temporary) return of Ron McKernan to the stage after a short respite from the road for medical reasons.
And that’s not to mention what constitutes almost an aside in reference to another telling aspect of the legendary group’s burgeoning popularity at this juncture of their history. In the form of a reprint from the New York Post in the aforementioned booklet, journalist Al Aronowitz sagely offers his observation on the simultaneous FM radio broadcasts of the shows, perhaps suggesting the reason for the somewhat abbreviated than usual duration of the concerts (at least by this band’s standards). Perhaps Bill Graham, the late great concert impresario(and promoter of these New York City shows), best summed up this exotic gestalt in his introduction of the group the first night,: “Beneath all the madness, a bundle of joy–the Grateful Dead!”
