favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite

Dancin in the Streets

Harmonies are real nice to start the tune.

With the Dead doing their best Beach Boy type harmonies.



The jam in Dancin is long enough for me to write the following:



Let cooler heads prevail-

This folks to me captures the spirit of what the Dead was about in a very turbulent time in our Nation's history.

The band was not overtly radical like Jefferson Airplane or commercially revolutionary like MC5 yet the band was very much in touch with what was going on in the U.S. during a time of great social upheaval.

If there is one event that could have caused a complete breakdown of the higher education system in the U.S. then Kent State is it.

College campuses were already radicalized by resistance to the war in Vietnam. (Remember if you were in college you got a deferment but if you were not-you most certainly would get drafted.) Opposition to the war ended up being the cornerstone to an increasing list of grievances relating to everything from social justice issues like racial inequality to poverty in the inner city.

Also soldiers were coming back from Nam and letting it be known in their communities that the war was unwinnable because our government had no clear overall objective.

Students sought in many instances to work not only to stop the war in Vietnam but to address political issues on campuses and in the communities.

When the National Guard in Ohio opened fire on protesters and bystanders alike it could very easily have led to a second civil war played out on the Nation's campuses.

One should not think the idea so implausible because many a revolution starts first in a Nation's higher education system and fans out from there.

A civil war between the youth of America and it's government would have meant untold suffering for many.

And there were elements on both sides of the fence just itching for such a confrontation from the Weathermen on the extreme side of the student movement to many police and government organizations and some public opinion that wanted simply to crush violently any form of protest in the U.S. no matter what the reason for the protest might be.

The Dead offer up the music as a vehicle in itself. It is not a knee jerk reaction to violence the Dead instead offer SWEET MUSIC!



This 'Dancin' has the best jam plus I really like Bobby's vocals towards the end of the song.



Note: If any song came to be associated with the mayhem of the 60's and the inner city riots it was 'Dancin in the Streets' yet what the powers that be saw as horrific the people saw as freedom from oppression.



China>Rider

Jerry plays like he is a self generating source of electricity.

Harmonies continue to be great.



Next time you see me. (Wrong doing woman)

Pigpen just kills with the harp

And Jerry is just gonna match him note for note and then some.



Even though it is early May on the calendar from comments by the band before Morning Dew it must have been pretty chilly this day.(Winter in America)

And this recording to me has a mix of tension from the time period alleviated as much as possible by the Dead's playing and also this other factor of a bunch of musicians playing their butts off just to keep warm.



Morning Dew:

If there is any tune that should cause people to take a time out and dwell on the intangibles of this life it has to be the DEW.



4 dead in Ohio??

4 Dead in Ohio!

How many more?

4 dead in Ohio.



"I thought I heard a baby cry this morning

You did not hear no baby cry today"



Oh, also Phil is all over this DEW big time!



GOOD LOVIN

I like the drum intro into Lovin.

then 'this microphone don't work so fu%kin good'

Everybody belting it out on the microphones!

Nice drums-time for musicians to warm hands while people groove to the rhythm

and Phil is first one back in the mix.

Here comes Jerry.

Phil just let's loose for awhile!

Jerry steps up with a very nice solo.(about 12 minutes in)

Weir bringing some rhythm

Drums still lurking

Pig brings it all back together.



Casey Jones

The anti-anthem for this time period in much the way that 'Touch of Grey' became the anti-anthem on tour.



'Oh, your into the Dead oh, Casey Jones'-1970

'Oh, your into the Dead oh, Touch of Grey'-1988

Killer harmonies!



St. Stephen:

" writing what for? across the morning sky"

There is a brief moment were everything is still and only Garcia is singing.

Perhaps it surprises him a little?

"Speeding arrow, sharp and narrow

What a lot of fleeting matters you have spurned"



This is a nice short set packed with great tunes done without any wasted time or energy due to the gravity of the day and the cool weather.



Most of the cuts in this recording are subtle but the one between Stephen and NFA hurts the flow a little.



When I was getting my undergrad degree in the 80's it struck me how much people from the 60's had changed by the mid 1980's(Jerry Rubin-free enterprise spokesman)

yet here were the Dead still playing.

The heck with this I am going on tour!



Jerry just tears into this tune.

Bob and Pig on the vocals!

There is no call and response on this NFA

but it still echoes down thru the years.





Say- Massachusetts Institute of Technology-

----- 3 times--- fast

That's why they call it M.I.T.

- January 15, 2014N.F.A