Welcome back to the third installment of “The Unofficial 31 Days of Dead.” The past two years were so much fun that I decided to do it again. The idea for these compilations came about after dead.net ran its “30 Days of Dead” in November 2010. While the Deadhead community at large was no doubt thrilled to receive previously unreleased tracks from the band’s vast archives, many of us were hoping for just a bit…more. Hey, we are Deadheads – we are always hoping for more! Therefore, I thought it might be fun to keep the music flowing by selecting my own daily picks. The month of December seemed more than appropriate since New Year’s Eve celebrations were such a big part of the Grateful Dead. Let’s think of these daily picks as an advent calendar leading up to New Year’s Eve. Unlike the “Official 30 Days of Dead,” there is no contest here. Instead, the prize is the music and the winner is the listener.
[Artwork by Brian Levine]
December 15
The Wheel > Wharf Rat
5/7/77 Boston Garden, Boston, MA
Twas the night before Cornell in the city of Boston
Not a floor seat in sight, the show was wicked awesome
There was no Scarlet, no Stephen, not even a Dew
Instead there was an epic Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Ok, I’ll spare you the rest of my feeble attempt at hippie poetry. Today’s selection is from late in the second set at the Boston Garden on the eve of the legendary show in Ithaca. We start with a simply gorgeous Wheel that gracefully blooms like flowers in the spring. A long space-like jam emerges that eventually leaves Jerry on stage playing a spacey solo. This leads to an album-perfect Wharf Rat. Jerry’s vocals are well-crafted. I get goose bumps every time I hear the way he inflects the line, “Half of my liiiiiiiiiffffe…” Keith & Phil’s contributions are outstanding. Jerry enters the long jam at the end with fierce crashing guitar lines that complement the march-like drumming cadence. The band was already in the Cornell-zone well before they arrived in Ithaca.
Download Link: http://www.mediafire.
LMA Link: http://archive.org/
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