Greetings, and big welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll check in on the Grateful Dead's recorded history with stops in 1984 and 1989.

First up this week is the entire first set from Alpine Valley on 7/6/84, and includes Iko Iko, Jack Straw>Big RR Blues, Little Red Rooster, Candyman, Me and My Uncle>Mexicali Blues, Bird Song, Let It Grow. These two Alpine ‘84 shows were very strong, and we'll get to more music from them later in the year we hope.

We're now going to start up with a run of music from the excellent summer tour of 1989. Our first selection is from one of my favourite shows of 1989, 7/7/89 at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. From the start of the second set, we have Box of Rain>Scarlet Begonias>Fire On The Mountain, Estimated Prophet>Standing On The Moon. This concert, start-to-finish, is stellar, and hopefully we'll see its release some day similar to the Buffalo 89 DVD/CD set.

From the next concert on the tour, at Giants Stadium on 7/9/89, we have the post-Drums sequence of Gimme Some Lovin'>Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad>Throwing Stones>Not Fade Away. Of note at this concert is that it was a rare instance from this era that there was no Garcia ballad played post-Drums, just a long string of rocking tunes.

The very next night also featured some great material, on 7/10/89 at Giants. From this concert we have the opening of the second set, featuring Uncle John's Band. The two songs that opened the set were yet-to-be recorded for the Built To Last album, but both were already strong additions to the live repertoire.

Be sure to stop by next week for more great music. It's always good to see you, and to hear from you at the email address below.

David Lemieux
vault@dead.net