Desert Island Dead: 55 Years & 2 Daze Fillmore East 9/20/70

The night before is quite possibly the greatest Dark Star played

from my listening notes, thoughts of my good friend who took his life on 9/20/24:

This star starts pensively and much like the 2/13/70 version, features some nice

work on guiro by pig. Shortly after the 5:00 mark, Jerry becomes more strident, then

steps back a bit to state the theme just after the 6:00 minute. The first verse soon

follows, sung quite well by Jer. After the verse we get a brief feedback buildup which

is then followed by a very minimalist approach to something of a John Cage

impersonation. Portions of this segment remind me a bit of the center section of

King Crimson's Moonchild. Then we get more feedback buildup starting at 9:45

followed by someone removing the jack from their instrument to provide some buzz.

Just after the 10:30 mark, Bobby starts hinting at some very eastern-sounding

dissonant chords while Jerry drags his pick along his wound strings to get a metallic

drone effect. At this point I would advise everyone to ensure that their seatbelts are

securely fastened and their seat backs are in the fully upright position.

At 11:30, Bobby reiterates the dissonance, but it's a rich dissonance. He develops

this into a rhythmic pattern that is reminiscent of the the middle jam in the 2/13/70

star. After 12:30, as @notesofachord indicated, the air starts to get thick (thick air,

man) and at 13:14, Jerry introduces a cyclical lick that may seem familiar to many of

you. At 13:45 it develops its identity and coalesces into a slashing rhythm (thanks to

Bobby, whose playing is top drawer on this). Meanwhile, Jerry's tone, which I

described as strident before, is light-years beyond what it was; he's driving

carpentry staples into my parietal lobe with an oversized ball-peen hammer. And

what do I hear? It's hard to believe, but sir Phil, Mr. herky-jerk doesn't believe in the

"1" sets up, fully establishes and damn; maintains and intensifies a simple ostinato

from 13:50 to 16:05 that serves as a perfect ledge from which to leap. And Jerry

leaps. This is stunning stuff, folks. 1970 for President.

From 16:05-16:07 the guitars stop and we hear the drummers maintaining the off

beats for a bit and then they dive into Groovy. And so it is. Phil, having served his

purpose in the rhythm section, threads his lines through Jerry's and, in turn, returns

to the rhythm section. By the 18:00 mark, it's suddenly something else. Jerry drops

off in intensity for a while, but by 19:45, the energy is back on and they're cookin'.

Jerry introduces DS again at 20:50, eventually sings the second verse and they take it

into St. Stephen

Nelson and Grisman both sitting in

yes please 

On 9-20-70 I was celebrating my 12th birthday and probably sporting some paisley corduroys or a Nehru jacket  -- thus starting my descent into hippiedom 

one review:

"The format for Grateful Dead shows during this tour was pretty consistent – 1 set acoustic Dead, 1 set New Riders of the Purple Sage (with Jerry and Mickey), 1 set electric Dead.  The setlist for the electric set is really interesting, with one of only five Big Boy Petes ever played, one of only 23 Sittin’ on Top of the Worlds and a very early version of Sugar Magnolia.  Caution (Do Not Step On Tracks) is a beast that devolves into a pretty well-deserved Feedback and one of the longest And We Bid You Goodnights that you’ll ever hear.  The arrangement of Not Fade Away is also slightly different than usual, but that seems to be more of a one-off situation than a concentrated effort to push the song in another direction.

With all that being said, the real heart of this show, and the reason that it garners so many accolades on the Archive, is the acoustic first set, which features David Grisman and David Nelson on several key songs.  This is one of the best acoustic Dead sets you’ll hear from this era, with awesome versions of all the key songs, including an Uncle John’s Band opener, amazing harmonies on Dark Hallow and a beautiful Rosalie McFall.  To Lay Me Down is about as great a version of this song as the Dead ever performed – it sucks you right in and spits you out, wasted, on the other side.  New Speedway Boogie maintains a brooding, freight train quality throughout its almost ten minutes and Cumberland Blues is awesome as usual.  Finally, a historical note – the Grateful Dead only played Truckin’ acoustically on this tour, and tonight was the final acoustic performance.  From here on out, Truckin’ would be the full-throttle electric version that everyone remembers.  So savor the slow pace and the thoughtful Bob Weir vocals – they won’t be back again."

https://dailydoseofdead.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/today-in-grateful-dead-....

Yup^^^ all truth 

Thanks for posting this. I love these threads. I don't have any deep knowledge of shows like these so it's always great to hear about them and to break me out of my default of listening to shows I was at. 

They looked like this at the Fillmore East in 1970 (though this was 4 months before Sept). Look how close they were to each other on stage -- I think it helped the music.

(couldn't find photog name for credit)

I've always wondered about the sound amplification at these early shows... were the speakers on the stage as pictured above all they used? i don't think hanging speaker arrays were a thing at that point, did they just use the amps onstage and crank it to 11?  

This is from the write-up for the September 20, 1970 show.

Many of the Dead's most inspired performances that year occurred at Fillmore East, where the New York City audience always embraced them. The group also enjoyed the Fillmore East for its crew and sound system, which at the time was superior to every other rock venue in America. Indeed it was the only venue where the Dead didn't demand using their own sound equipment, making the overall working experience more comfortable.

https://www.wolfgangs.com/music/grateful-dead/audio/1315-7413.html?tid=4...

Also...

The Fillmore East’s custom house PA system was designed by audio engineer Bill Hanley, who later created the sound system for the 1969 Woodstock festival and became known as “the father of festival sound.” The Fillmore was the first theater in New York tailored for rock music (and its attendant high sound pressure levels). The auditorium’s acoustics — whether seated in the orchestra, the mezzanine, or the precariously steep first or second balcony — were excellent, and the purpose-built 35,000-watt Hanley sound system performed flawlessly, regardless of the musical genre it was pumping out.

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/rockin-the-fillmore-part-one/

And this is from the liner notes from Dick's Picks 4 (Fillmore East: February 13-14, 1970), which were written by Owsley.

The system in the Fillmore East was very good for the front-of-house. The board was unusual for the time, and a few words about it may help those technically inclined to understand why this recording sounds the way it does.

John Chester built the board around the observation that most performers worked the microphones so hard that the levels were near those of a line signal, from 0.5v to as much as 1.0v. He figured that there was no need for the high gain preamp traditionally used in board design, which in practice would require an attenuator to prevent overloading. So the mics were taken directly through a step up transformer to the fader, and then to the summing point of a discrete, low noise transistor amp. The feed to the tape deck was taken directly from the outputs of the summing amps. After the summing amps there was only one stage of line drive amplification for the lines to the stage. The board had 12 mic inputs and two summing amps, permitting me to use our usual 12 in the PA and 2 into the tape deck. Twelve mics were a large number in those days to find available in most venues. Jerry's guitar and Phil's bass were sufficiently powerful from their on stage amps so as not to require reinforcement through the PA so I simply added a touch of each to the tape mix for presence.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210623015420/https://gdreferencesite.com/d...