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Poster: cream-puff-war Date: Jul 6, 2009 5:42am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Great Versions of Songs on Commercial Releases (Under 10 Minutes)

What's the general forum consensus on DP 22 (Lake Tahoe '68)? I have it, though haven't played it much yet and tend to mix it up with Download #6 (got that too) and now there's RT2.2 (got it!), altogether an embarrassment of nouveau riches (get it?). One of these 3 had a particularly tight New Potato Caboose, and I'm pretty sure it was the version on DL 6, which runs a total of 8:26 mins. I like this NPC version in particular because it includes that riff that loops round and round once or twice towards the end... not all versions of NPC emphasize that riff, or they overdo it... twice seems the perfect amount, leaving you wanting more... but one must stay in the moment to appreciate the Crytical/That's It For The Other One/New PC/ suite or the DS/SS/11 suite... if the mind insists on artificially recapturing the music, the eternal moment leaves one behind... uh...er...um...oh...? The riff I refer to begins at the point when the remaining time is 1:50 mins. If the DL #6 NPC is available from iTunes, go for it. Otherwise I highly recommend this overlooked, underrated gem from the (2nd) live disc of the Birth of The Dead set (2003): "Keep Rolling By" - it clocks in at under 8 mins. And get the expanded versions of several tracks which were edited (faded-out. The master tapes it turns out had more of the band playing) for years on the debut album. Available on the remaster that Rhino put out, are a longer Cream Puff War, a much longer Good Morning Little Schoolgirl and even the same length as before studio gems such as Golden Road and Cold Rain & Snow have never sounded crisper. Also, the bonus hidden track on the Rhino cd of the 1st GD album is an alternate (possibly truncated, but definitely different from the longer studio) version of Viola Lee Blues. It has a lot of energy and in some ways tops the long version on the debut album (imho).
This post was modified by cream-puff-war on 2009-07-06 04:42:12
This post was modified by cream-puff-war on 2009-07-06 12:42:03

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Poster: Styrofoam Cueball Date: Jul 7, 2009 8:31am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Great Versions of Songs on Commercial Releases (Under 10 Minutes)

Love "Keep Rolling By."

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Poster: cream-puff-war Date: Jul 7, 2009 6:49pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Great Versions of Songs on Commercial Releases (Under 10 Minutes)

why thank ya, SC... I've been pushing "Keep Rolling By" for years on the forum and you're the first one to even respond to my dribbles!

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Poster: Styrofoam Cueball Date: Jul 7, 2009 7:28pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Great Versions of Songs on Commercial Releases (Under 10 Minutes)

It really stands out on The Birth Of the Dead (as far as songs that are ONLY on that release). I wish they had done Keep Rolling By a few more times... it's one-of-a-kind.

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Poster: cream-puff-war Date: Jul 8, 2009 12:10am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Great Versions of Songs on Commercial Releases (Under 10 Minutes)

yes.

They must have rehearsed it a good deal, as that one known (live) version is well worked out (arranged), what the hell happened to "Keep Rolling By"?

How many other songs are there only one live version of?

OK, there's "Rosemary", (Aoxomoxoa), which made the album appearence and one semi-live, almost sound check.

Ditto "What's Become Of The Baby".

But both of those were Garcia anomalies, virtual throways, never intended to become concert staples - whereas "Keep Rolling By" does sound like they intended to keep it going,
I mean, there's more serious intent in the performance than they ever put into live versions of say, "Golden Road"...

and yet "Keep Rolling By" has never turned up either as a demo or as a studio rehearsal...

just plain weird, man...

like out of the Twilight Zone except things don't really happen that way.

Forr being such a "jam band", and to be sure, they improvised and did all kinds of rearrangements...
basically, songs like "The Eleven" were built upon a solid structure, the song was born of several rehearsals, it wasn't magically improvised out thin air live on stage.

"Changes that haven't come before" came, but not whole songs...
many of their jams were based on other songs, such as "There Is A Mountain" - Donovan
"Darkness, Darkness" - Youngbloods
and various R&B tunes...

Now, this "Keep Rolling By" is said on one site and elsewhere to be a traditional...
hogwash!

Show me that "traditional"!

It's a Grateful dead original...
I think...

So again, why'd they "lose" it, even faster than "Clementine", after putting so much work into it?

Anyway, thanks Sty, for being kind enough to reply to my obsessions for this one song - glad we both actually like it, and aren't just wallowing in it's rarity factor alone....

it's a real dance inspirer - play it loud folks, and let you feet wiggle from left to right, in your stocking feet, as you slip and slide across the floor with your honey, and
Pig and Jer will wink at you from the great Spaghetti Factory beyond.

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Poster: Styrofoam Cueball Date: Jul 8, 2009 7:55am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Great Versions of Songs on Commercial Releases (Under 10 Minutes)

Well said, CPW. "Keep Rolling By" would've been great on the first album, but I don't know what I'd take off, that first album is so perfect to me.

I'm also a big fan of "You See A Broken Heart," another early number that got shelved too fast... Pig and Jer's call and response always knocks me out! :)

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Poster: William Tell Date: Jul 6, 2009 7:12am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Great Versions of Songs on Commercial Releases (Under 10 Minutes)

You know, just because of the poor recording I rarely listen to the Tahoe DPs...the vocals are sooo poor, and other material is better from that time period as you note.

And yes, it is amazing what you find on the expanded disks of the Gold Rd set, which I often pull out from the first 5-6 studio releases, and then with the bonus material you get some real surprises putting five disks on shuffle...

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Poster: cream-puff-war Date: Jul 6, 2009 9:01am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Great Versions of Songs on Commercial Releases (Under 10 Minutes)

WT, yeah, maybe those reasons you give are the reason I only skimmed through DP22 and played some of the songs I'd list among my favorite Dead tunes once.

Yeah, that would explain why I kinda just put it away all but forgetting about it, subconsciously back burnering it.

Right now I'm playing DP 8, the electric set, for the first time in years.
I borrowed it from a friend 10 years ago and made tapes of the acoustic and electric sets.

Right off the bat, I'm reminded that the electric set on DP 8 is mono, and that's a downright shame. I checked Wiki, and the acoustic set on DP 8 is in stereo, maybe that adds a lot to it's sparkle.

The electric set isn't exactly grabbing me - though I be damned for suggesting such a highly rated show is less than
what it's cracked up to be.
OK, now I'm hearing "Good Lovin', and it does have some unusual tempo changes...
but the Sauint Stephen Cryptical Other One versions were kind of average in an above average way...

Great, but not really tip top. To my ears. And maybe that's why I haven't played it in over 5 nyears.
I played it several times when I first got a copy.

Listening to Dancing In The Street now. It's OK. I'll keep playing the electric set, and later I'll relisten to the acoustic set which wasn't handy but it's around here somewhere.

And then there was DP 16, which I fully expected to dig big time, but I couldn't get into it much at all, and returned it to the store for 75% credit (a fair exchange common at several of the large retail outlets such as Amoeba)...
and I didn't even tape any of the tracks... weird!

I probably would now, given the choice. But I've never had the desire to get it again (DP 16).

OK wait a second, Garcia is doing a very hip cool jazzy R&B inspired jam on Dancing In The Street - what't the song this riff he's improvising reminds me of?

Anyway, mono or not, we've got a winner!

BTW WT,
tha's some carousel, shuffling the 1st 5 studio GD LPs with surprizes galore.

Hey gang, guess who's pad we're crashin' tonite!








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Poster: cream-puff-war Date: Jul 6, 2009 10:40am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Great Versions of Songs on Commercial Releases (Under 10 Minutes)

WT,
I've been listening a lot to 1970-06-05 and 1970-06-06, in spite of the occassional poor sound quality or audience tape patch-ins, but damn, June 6th '70 has one of the most intense versions of Lovelight - I wonder if there's a better version anywhere, so I can live with less than ideal sound quality; the same goes for Attics of My Life from June 5th.

Anyway, it's unusual for me to wade in the waters of '70...

so beg pardon if I judged the May 2nd show hastily -

may I say that the DP 8 mono recording of Morning Dew can't put a scratch on what may be the best version of that song I've heard, ever.
Based on my relistening of it an hour or so ago...
whoah - it's killer.

And it's followed by a mighty fine Viola Lee Blues - so with Dancing, I've just rediscovered 3 all-time classic versions, thanks to this thread.

My main pc (now in the repair shop) should maybe break down more often (bite my tongue!) - being thrown back into the 20thy century causes all sorts of unexpected gems to emerge from one's neglected mid-low audio quality nevertheless top shelf GD to be replayed.

Shake that dust off yo' tail feather baby!

and