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Grateful DeadGrateful Dead Live at Family Dog at the Great Highway on 1969-08-30 (August 30, 1969)

Collection: : GratefulDead
Band/Artist: Grateful Dead
Date: August 30, 1969 (check for other copies)
Venue: Family Dog at the Great Highway
Location: San Francisco, CA

Source: Soundboard
Lineage: Master Soundboard Reel > Cass > DAT > CD > EAC (secure) > mkwACT > SHN (no SBE's)
Transferred by: Seth Kaplan and Steve Barbella
Keywords: Live concert

Description

China Cat Sunflower > Doin' That Rag, Morning Dew, Easy Wind, Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven, High Time

Individual Files

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Reviewer: thewaymouth - - September 12, 2009
Subject: Once more, with feeling...
In Defense of Disc One - Don't pass go without it.

SQ A- (tape distortion/wobble last min of China & first min of Rag, otherwise HQ).

Show is a mournful follow after the lighthearted set the night before. Maybe they'd been tripping balls Friday night, and this was a Saturday night early-start/dive-splash into Sunday morning coming down. The Dead play with such deep, hard of feeling.

Cat is a spirited race into a Rag that does it bluesy, crazy and achy, with mad sadness (never hit/hurt me like that). Dew amazes, as they chase those blues away. Wind starts slow then they lower the hammer.

Dark Star is a one hell of a whole lotta journey. SS squeals as it's about to peel out of town. Finally The 11 just coasts before the drums crash land. Coming out the other end, High Time shouts against the darkness...

Reviewer: uh-oh-um-ah - - August 30, 2009
Subject: The GRATEFUL DEAD "Live On Stage" August 30, 1969 at the Family Dog, on the Great Hwy, San Francisco, California, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
`

~^|\_@|@_/|^~
~<->/<->\<->~

~On This Day in GRATEFUL DEAD History~

~~~Summer of 69'~~~

I couldn't be there in 69, forty years ago on this date, but I showed up today despite the actions of commies, fascists, zealots, dictators, terrorists, and other scum.

Classic 1969 Sound/Performance.

I recommend adding this show to your 1969 GRATEFUL DEAD collection.

If you click the download button you can download this show.....duh?

I recommend using your EQ during playback of most of the shows on the IA, this one included.

Windows Media Player has a 10 band EQ and SRS WOW effects that enhance the sound.

Eat, Drink, Be Merry and Listen to the GRATEFUL DEAD if you can, if you can't...TFB.

Thanks for the LOVE from 1969.

AIRBORNE "DEATH FROM ABOVE" Viet Nam 1969.

PS: you'd think these shows would be in higher quality formats coming from San Francisco, right next to silicon valley, but apparently snot.

Reviewer: jingy - - July 28, 2009
Subject: since you can't download this show anymore....
would anyone like to do a B&P for this show that does have it on disk? i can send you blank disks and a SASE to return them to me in....

Reviewer: Feelingroovy - - April 10, 2009
Subject: DarkStar!
I was browsing through the '69 DarkStars to find one to give the weekend a nice kickstart.

This one is wonderfull, like most from this era, but did anyone pick up bobby and phil's tighten up jam, starting about 20:48 goin to 21:50.

Great, Great DarkStar, from an era of great dark stars.

Reviewer: light into ashes - - January 4, 2009
Subject: a half-hour of heaven in an off-kilter show
This show has an outstanding Dark Star, one of my favorites of '69 - very sweet and majestic and creative - Jerry starts it with delicious feedback and it just climbs from there.
They do get rather loose as they near the end - but when they get into St Stephen, they come completely unhinged as Jerry stops playing - I think this must be the only Stephen where he doesn't play the solo, but instead just gives peals of feedback where the solo should be!
In spite of this, the rest of the band barrels on into The Eleven, and plays most of it without him! Certainly a unique bare-bones Eleven. Finally he gets his guitar working again, but only plays a little bit before they decide to give up, and it's time for a drum solo!
Finally they confuse the patient audience by finishing with an early, tentative High Time.
This show also features one of the early Easy Winds with a different feel, where they were still learning how to handle the time changes, and one of the strange early transitions from China Cat Sunflower to Doin' That Rag.

Reviewer: oh_uh_um_ah - - April 18, 2008
Subject: Thank you Seth Kaplan!
High quality stereo audio with excellent mix.

Excellent preformance. 5 star show. This is the GRATEFUL DEAD. Classic.

Easy Wind falls apart...but Pigpen keeps singing in time and brings it all back together then hands it over to Garcia for a solo.

Garcia calmly and patiently comes in several bars later and funks the whole groove so intensely that it's like his guitar is speaking and talking in tongues...Man, Jerry could make things come alive...and the EW groove is reborn.

DARK STAR into feedback into DARK STAR, 28 Minutes & 58 seconds long. It doesnt' get any better than this. Crank it up...and watch out, you can lose your mind in there...

The rest of the show is very enjoyable, and I highly recommend it.

5 stars for recording, and mix. 5 stars for performance.

Eat, drink, be merry and listen to the GRATEFUL DEAD.

Thanks for the Love.

Reviewer: Stargazin - - August 31, 2006
Subject: gorgeous star
very psychedelic, very patient, very proper. They really caress and nurture this one. The opening jam slowly unfolds up to one of those "whirls" that opens a spiral-vortex hole in space-time, and out pours the first verse. The crowd is totally dialed into it; it is rare to hear such a clear and respectful silence. The post-verse jam is deliciously interstellar. The transitional jam is burning until Jerry breaks a string; then we get to hear some unusually great leads from TC (he's really on point for this show). Jerry's return is one of those classicly chaotic and focused Dead moments. Excellent recording, excellent vibe on my sister's birthday show in San Francisco

Reviewer: Mike Ashenfelder - - May 10, 2005
Subject: Dark Star
Sweet! Another creative "Dark Star" with a proper, long, ambient break after the verse.

And, for what it's worth, what sounds like a broken-string incident about three-quarters of the way through, with the band vamping (TC on organ?) as Garcia restrings and recovers.

Reviewer: Seth_W - - March 6, 2005
Subject: Great show
I love hearing the progerssion thru 1969, but this show is a huge leap. Jerry shows us his brilliance as he leads the band and makes them work hard to keep up with his creativity. Some unchartered territory, for the times, are explored here. Maybe playing in the intimate setting, in front of family and friends, was the impetus to create. Ceratinly one of the most interesting Dark Star's of '69, broken string and all, with Jerry tuning up mid jam.

Reviewer: MushroomEagle - - December 6, 2004
Subject: flashy 2
i Must agree with Flashy. This show is very mediocre. The second disk is better than the first...but the first i think is at times a fumbling mess. China Cat ain't bad...but during Morning Dew i thought they were going to completely lose it a few times. I say only download the second disk and move on.

Reviewer: dirty jev-o - - December 2, 2004
Subject: developing.....
The Dead may have been playing the same songs over and over during this period, but show some real versatility when doing so....dark star here is a serious conversation between members of the band. My favorite Grateful Dead!!!!!! The china cat rocks too......download and kick back-------it does take a real ear to seperate all of these versions of the same songs show in and show out cymbals on morning dew are many

Reviewer: flashy - - October 19, 2004
Subject: Huh?
5 stars?...the China Cat is mediocre, Doin That Rag is painfull to listen to and there are MANY more Dark Star/St Stephen/Eleven's out there that leave these in the dust(jump back a year to 10.12.68 for a sweet example). If you have to burn this set, do you're self a favor and drop the China/Rag and save yourself a disc.

Reviewer: augustus west - - September 16, 2004
Subject: wow
just wow. I give a lot of 5 star rating to some performances that, honestly, may not deserve it. but this one is superb. lots of sharp twists and turns, few latin tinges, plenty of avante garde stuff throughout the performance. thanks archive.org.

Reviewer: Rob Meador - - June 10, 2004
Subject: Great Dark Star
Wonderful show and great sound quality. The highlight is the Dark Star: A quiet noodly start gets to verse 1 pretty quickly, then gets really wonderful with a long section of jingly bells, wind-like cymbals, tweets, screetchs, and other jungle-like sounds. Some very melodic sustained feedback where Jerry sounds like a cello gives way to a series of very structured chord sequences and jamming that is like a collection of mini-songs. They almost sound recognizable, although the only one I could identify is a proto-Eyes jam. Just really interesting and fun.

Reviewer: jeffsetz - - April 25, 2004
Subject: vintage '69
Boy, is this a nice sounding show. A 29 min Dark Star that is pure bliss. Highly recommended download!

Notes

much less hiss than the previously circulating "SBcass > DAT > CDR"

Discs were generously supplied by Seth Kaplan

EAC>SHN transfer by Steve Barbella 3/02
EAC secure test and copy, offsets config'd, 100% track quality
SHNs created via MKW v.97 (seek enabled)
shntool used to verify the sectors...they were fine.

Deadlists Comments: The newly circulating CDs transcribe Latvala's cassette copy of the master reels. The cassette has a flip about 11 minutes in to the Dark Star but Latvala must have put some overlap on B because there is no cut audible on the well-produced CD.

A 41 minute fragment from this tape has circulated for years, usually mislabeled "Family Dog 8/29/69" but sometimes also mislabeld "Family Dog 6/5/69" or "Fillmore West 6/5/69." This fragment contains the last 17:50 of Dark Star through the first 3:28 of High Time.