Welcome back to the Tapers Section. In this installment, we’re going to check out some music from this week in the Grateful Dead’s recorded history exclusively from 1972 and 1973, and we hope you don’t mind the years we’ve selected.

Our first selection is a nice little combination of songs from the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood, California, on 9/10/72, featuring a classic from the era, He’s Gone>Truckin’. This would turn out to be the Grateful Dead’s final performance at the Palladium after the two magnificent shows in 1971 and these two in 1972. By all accounts from both tapes and eyewitnesses, all of these shows were a real blast to attend.

Next up, from Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY, on 9/8/73, we have the big second set sequence featuring He’s Gone>Truckin’>Not Fade Away>GDTRFB>Not Fade Away. It was a bit of an odd second set jam from that era, as it featured neither an Other One or an Eyes of the World, not to mention no Dark Star, but it’s excellent and inspired nonetheless. We hope you don’t mind two versions of He’s Gone into Truckin’ this week. We sure don’t.

From just a few nights later, at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, VA, on 9/12/73, we have the first set closing track as well as the first few songs from the second set, featuring Weather Report Suite, Around and Around, Eyes of the World>Stella Blue, with Martin Fierro and Joe Ellis sitting in on horns at various points. These two shows at William and Mary included a very special guest in the audience: a young Bruce Hornsby checking out his first Grateful Dead concerts. Little did he, or the band, know what would transpire over the next twenty years.

Be sure to come by next week for more great tunes as we continue to explore the Grateful Dead’s recorded history. As always, we welcome and encourage your comments and questions.

David Lemieux
vault [at] dead.net