74 Tracks of a Dylan/Dead Rehearsal

There doesn't appear to be anything new about this recording, but thanks to this article on OpenCulture.com   that I was tipped off by @Stephenspower and @brainpicker on Twitter, I am now listening to 74 Tracks of Dylan with the Dead on archive.org.

The recording is from June 1st 1987 and was recorded at Grateful Dead's rehearsal spot - Club Front in San Rafael.

I've never been too hot on the Dylan and The Dead album and live recordings I've heard, but this is  really great listening.  It's a very relaxed rehearsal session with the band calling out songs, discussing the instrumentation, and finding their way haphazardly through a slice of the Dylan catalog.

The OpenCulture article has some interesting quotes from Dylan's autobiography about his surprise at these sessions because (in his words),

 "the band wanted to rehearse more and different songs than I had been used to doing with Petty [on his recent tour with Tom Petty]. They wanted to run over all the songs, the ones they liked, the seldom seen ones."

Jerry is playing spritely and seems to be very confident on the Dylan repertoire.  There's even some beautiful pedal steel in these recordings.  Occasionally, the band starts really gelling, but this seems to be more of a discovery expedition to see which songs might feel good on the upcoming tour.

I've got to say, there's a lot of Dylan songs in this collection that I have not heard yet (and I'm a pretty big Dylan fan too).

I am Grateful to the twittersphere for tipping me off to this recording.

DVD Review: Grateful Dead View from the Vault IV

View from the Vault IV: DVD Review

I bet you my neighbors were very bummed that I got my hands on this DVD because that's about 4 hours of live Dead that was played at full volume over the course of 2 nights.

The shows are from 1987 - most of 2 sets from Oakland Coliseum and most of 2 sets from Anaheim Stadium.  The shows are tight.  This is the Grateful Dead putting on excellent performances in front of large audiences on the "Dylan & the Dead Tour."

It is kind of hard to believe the Dead would continue after two sets and put on a 3rd set with Bob Dylan singing.  Although I am a huge Dylan fan, I am glad this DVD doesn't feature any of his sets.  Dylan's live performances are mired in a strange vocal delivery that is as eccentric as Dylan himself.

The Anaheim Stadium show I watched first and I think I have to give a slight nod to this show over the other. The show starts with an Iko Iko which is just great to behold during a bright sunny outdoor show - what fun everyone must have had.

The Anaheim  show heats up with a nice West L.A. Fadeaway and a great version of Mexicali Blues.  There's a Bird Song with some crazy sound effects.  Throughout both DVDs there's some great psychedelic video effects - sometimes completely drowning out the image  but usually just perfectly enhancing the video without stealing the show.

The highlight of the second set (for me) was the performance of Terrapin Station. This song is also during the day - kind of a weird setting for Terrapin if you ask me.  I appreciate that they cut out several songs but opted to leave in Drums/Space for both shows.

The Oakland Show is really great because the band is in such comfortable environment and you really get to see Brent and Jerry vibing off each other as they sing together on songs like Dear Mr. Fantasy and Uncle John's Band.  The beginning of Dear Mr. Fantasy is really rough but I think the interplay of Jerry and Brent on this song is my favorite part of the DVD set.

The rest of the show is good, and Jerry is wearing his flannel at this show which is pretty rare.

View from the Vault 4: Highly Recommended.