Hello, and welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll check out some excellent music from 1970, 1973 and 1978, all of which took place during this week in the Grateful Dead's recorded history.

Our first stop is on 5/14/70 in Kirkwood, MO, where the band would be playing less than two weeks after the famous show at Harpur College show in Binghamton, NY. Although hard to match, they do a fine job of continuing that energy, with the spectacular sequence of New Speedway Boogie>Nobody's Jam> New Speedway Boogie>St. Stephen>Not Fade Away>Lovelight The next night the band would appear in New York for another magical Fillmore East concert.

From Des Moines, IA, on 5/13/73, we have the second set jam featuring He's Gone>Truckin'>Drums>The Other One>Eyes of the World>China Doll. This would begin the run of three shows over the next two weekends, with 5/20/73 in Santa Barbara, and 5/26/73 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.

Next up, from about five years later on 5/10/78 in New Haven, CT, and part of the terrific Dick's Picks 25, we have a run of songs that straddles the first and second sets, featuring Me and My Uncle>Big River, Peggy-O, Let It Grow>Deal, Bertha>Good Lovin'. This is truly one of the most fun Picks out there. To really demonstrate how much fun this Pick is, we have this wonderfully comical Dancing In The Street from 5/11/78 in Springfield. You can feel the party dripping through the speakers.

Stop in next week, when we'll hear music from the aforementioned 5/20/73 show in Santa Barbara, as well as tunes from 1977 and 1981. As always, we welcome you to write us here at the Tapers' Section at the email address below. Please be sure to include the words Grateful Dead in your subject so that it gets through our near impenetrable spam barriers.

David Lemieux
vault@dead.net