Greetings, and welcome back to our second week of December here at the Tapers' Section, where we’ll check in on some excellent music from 1969, 1973 and 1979.

Our first stop this week will be at the tail end of 1969, 12/12/69 at the Thelma Theatre in Los Angeles. There are plenty of justifiably famous 1969 concerts, including the four nights at the Fillmore West in February-March, and of course 11/8/69 at the Fillmore Auditorium. This jam from 12/12/69, however, deserves a place right up there with the best of 1969, featuring Alligator>Caution>Feedback>We Bid You Goodnight, a classic 1969 jam.

Next up, from 12/8/73 at Duke University in Durham, NC, we have a great sequence of tunes, Candyman, Weather Report Suite, China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider. Candyman was quite rare in 1973, with this being one of only four versions for the year.

About six years later, the Grateful Dead would find themselves in St. Louis, at the Kiel Auditorium on 12/9/79, where they would play this great post-Drums sequence featuring Black Peter>I Need A Miracle>Bertha>Good Lovin’. This tour featured so much excellent music, from about the end of October through the end of 1979, that it's always a pleasure to play it here for you.

Speaking of the Fall Tour of 1979, we also have music from two nights later, on 12/11/79 in Kansas City, KS, featuring Easy To Love You>Minglewood Blues, China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider.

Be sure to stop back next week for music from 1969 and 1973 exclusively. We'll be getting into some late 80s Grateful Dead in a couple of weeks, but until then, loads of earlier material coming up.

David Lemieux
vault@dead.net