"Music is not a competition."

- Jerry Garcia



Sometime towards the end of their career, the inevitable happened. The Grateful Dead were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. It was a nice ceremony and at the time I thought it was awesome! Bruce Hornsby had the honors of giving the induction speech and most band members were present to receive this once-in-a-lifetime achievement.

Actually, they all were except one:



In his glaring absence, the band used a life-sized cardboard picture of Jerry to stand in his place. They thought it was hilarious...everyone else in the outside world took it as a snub. The jokes ensued, you can probably imagine the gist of them already. In some variation or another they had to do with drugs, being too spaced out to remember, perhaps he thought it was nineteen seventy four, bla bla bla.

Nobody could understand why he would fail to show. Many erroneously thought that he didn't care. When asked why, he simply responded with those 5 words.

Music is not a competition.

While everyone else was wearing an Armani tux and sipping on champagne flutes in the velvet back corridors of that building in Cleveland, Ohio...Jerry was back home in Marin County. Probably laying on the couch in his sweats...acoustic Alvarez nearby...a milkshake with a straw and an A & W bag on the table beside him. The irony of it all. At that moment...

...Jerry Garcia cared more about music than anyone in that building that night.

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I really wasn't planning on setting the table with that sentiment today, but after yesterday it seemed appropriate. There's been a lot of chatter here lately comparing/contrasting different things...most of it musical in nature...some cutting a little bit deeper into our core.

Discussions are healthy. I get involved in them and you do too. It proves that we care. It proves we have passion for what we do. It proves that we invest more than a slice of recreational time when we dive into this world we all know exists. For many if not all of us this music we all live by, Phish, Grateful Dead, or both, kind of defines who we are and where we want to go. This is all good.

What isn't good is when we turn it into a competition. Me? I've always appreciated all of it. I don't sit here and mumble grumble about how much better 1994 was and how my generation had it better because we saw it first, or why this keyboard player can never hold a candle to this one.

Music is not a competition. I realize this shouldn't bother me, but I was accused of hating on the young generation of Phish fans simply by acknowledging that I've been at this for a while. (It burns me because if anything I thought I was graciously tipping my hat to you guys). That one hurt, because for 2 decades all I've ever done is try and spread the "gospel" and shine this light on as many people as I can. I always try to help any and all newcomers. Not boasting...it's just how I was taught. I don't give people these shows to brag about how many files I have on a hard drive...I do it to help the new fans who need a place to start. By rote experience alone I believe I have a lot to offer. I don't hold my memories close to my chest in a sinister ploy to keep the good days to myself. These ARE the good days! They stared way before me and I'm sure they'll continue after I'm gone.

This may seem like a paradox, and perhaps its where my intentions got misinterpreted. I feel it is possible to appreciate how awesome the past was without holding it up in subjective comparison to what is happening today. Hell, if anything I think today is slightly better because it is happening live!

I've said it here before...every time a "newb" asks what the good 'ol days were like. I tell them this. "You may have missed a lot, but you aren't missing anything now!"

I can appreciate that because one upon a time (yes...even all of us "40 year olds") I was a newb myself. Those who came before me reached out their hands and pulled me aboard this freak train. Once on board they scooted over, offered me a seat, asked me if I needed anything, and proceeded to give me enough music (and stories) 'till I felt like I had caught up.

And you know what? I did.

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In a round-about way this show kind of gives a nod to what I'm babbling about up there. This comes from waaaay before my time, way before any "40 year old's" time. But you know what? I don't feel that separation of being a generation removed. Nobody ever told me I couldn't appreciate this because I wasn't there. In fact, I appreciate it immensely because I was there! Just not until years later.

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Let's talk nuts and bolts now. We all know how The Grateful Dead came to be, arising from the hallucinogenic primordial soup of The Haight-Ashbury. We all know the end results now too. What I want to look at today is how they honed their craft. In order to create this free form mind exploding improvisational music they wanted to explore, they needed a vehicle to take them there. LSD was only half of the equation, the gas for the vehicle perhaps (You can tell I'm a former science teacher...I try to explain abstract things with concrete metaphors no matter how silly they may be).

Sometime around...say...late 1968 Dead shows started to take on a specific format that would allow then to achieve this. They started to implement a structure that would allow for this type of free form thought to show itself through the music. Even though most if not all of these early performances were one set shows, these sets clearly had a front and a back. The back side was a sequence of four songs that, by design, were wide open and open to exploration. Every show...every night. the second half of the set was reserved for a journey to the nether reaches of our consciousness. It's a sequence that became so well known it came to define the era. Many simply referred to it as The Live Dead Sequence

Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
11 >
Lovelight

Today's "show" is in fact a snippet. You're only getting 4 songs today. Not because I omitted any, because it's all we have from this night. And what a night it was.

I remember a lot of positive feedback from that 11-2-69 Dark Star I gave a while back. By late '69 Dark Star itself starts to evolve. We start to hear a groove develop in that middle passage. Some call it a "Feeling Groovy" jam. Deadbase calls it an "Uncle John's Jam". Some call it the "Beautiful Jam". I even heard somebody call it a "Happiness" jam. Whatever you want to call it, it's here. It isn't a full blown developed theme live 11-2-69 or the one from Dick's Pick's 2 (10-31-71). This one is more of a loose shuffle. It's cool in historical context because we know this is how they developed it. On stage. Hence why we get the full blown version a few days later on 11-2.

The sound quality on this reel is A+, especially for 1969. This sequence is about an hour long! Just this chunk...an hour long journey in a vehicle that is still being built.

You'll really want to start paying attention to Dark Star at about the 13 minute mark. You'll know why soon enough. This is about as good of a "Live Dead Sequecne" as I can ever show you.

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Sometimes Death Don't Have No Mercy would anchor that final spot for the long journey home, but Dark Star was always the engine of the vehicle. I laugh to think how critical many would be if Phish closed every...single...show with the same sequence of 4 songs. No matter how different and well jammed out they may be, I suspect some would complain. Those who would are missing the whole point. Too many get hung up on the end result rather than the experience of the journey.

That's what keeps the fire burning in my belly. The journey isn't over. So what if I hopped on board before you did. See all those people sitting behind me? They were here long before I was. The point is all that matters is that we continue to move forward. TOGETHER.

Sure, my first show wasn't until 19 years after this performance, but I was seeing the same band. Just the same that any of you who are experiencing Phish for the first time recently are seeing the same band I saw at a bar in Detroit in 1992. And you'll NEVER here me claim that my band was better than yours. You know why? Because Jerry Garcia taught me something very important, something I still believe to this day with all my heart.

Music is not a competition.

And there is plenty of room for everybody.

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10-25-69 Winterland

mp3 (all one file): http://www.mediafire.com/?2t1qt1tcozcvo3z

Dark Star >
St. Stephen >
11 >
Lovelight*

(Bill Graham closing statements)

Notes

*wsg Stephen Stills.

For the second week in a row, we have a guest artist on stage, although I wouldn't say it's a "featured" artist. It's funny to hear Bill Graham refer to him as a "young man".

You can clearly hear Jerry take a back seat to Stills on Lovelight. Stephen even gets involved with vocals with Pigpen at the end. A good piece of history.

At about the 19:00 mark of Dark Star I hear a few bars of what might be Stills on guitar (?). If anything it reminded me of an Allman Brothers type dual guitar sound. I don't think that's Bobby I'm hearing.

Phil Lesh stomps all over this performance, he is bringing the thunder this night!

I read somewhere that the Dead played a set of "normal" songs earlier on the bill. After all the other artists did their thing they came back out for the last segment which is what these 4 songs are. I think this was on the archive comments if you're curious.

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WORKINGMAN'S WEDNESDAY ARCHIVE

http://www.mediafire.com/?d5hy4hpvz9q44a2

Fantastic write-up! Great "Dark Star" history lesson, @MJZ1974. I've known about the "Beautiful Jam" and heard it on several shows I had, but hadn't read a clear description of its origin. Thanks as always, you continue to do a tremendous service for those of us who appreciate it.

Archive link for those like me who like to stream at work

http://archive.org/details/gd69-10-25.sbd.jagla.81.sbefail.shnf

Thanks Mike. Your points on the repeat songs makes me laugh because they played "the other one" all four night of the Fillmore West run in esrly 1969.