Greetings, and welcome back to the Tapers’ Section. This week have some tasty selections from 1973, 1979 and 1980.

You may recall we left off last week with two stunning jams from November, 1973, with music from 11/17 and 11/21. This week we’ll continue that journey with music from 11/25/73 at Feyline Field in Tempe, Arizona. This classic 1973 sequence features Around and Around, Eyes of the World>Weather Report Suite, with these latter two tunes being brand-spanking-new to most ears in the crowd, as Wake of the Flood had been released just six weeks previously, on 10/15/73.

From San Diego on 11/24/79, we have the first-set opening sequence of China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider, Mama Tried>Mexicali Blues. This concert was recorded at the tail end of Betty’s live two-track recording period with the Grateful Dead, with the December, 1979 shows at Oakland Auditorium Arena (later Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center) being the end of that era of recordings. But we sure are grateful to have mid-1976 through late-1979 represented by these stellar recordings.

From the next show (and the same recording source…), we have Shakedown Street>Bertha, Looks Like Rain on 11/25/79 at UCLA. Another stellar sequence heard in amazing quality.

From a few days later, but from the “new” recording source of decent quality PA soundboard recordings, we have the second-set opener from 11/29/79 in Cleveland, Shakedown Street>Samson and Delilah. We hope you don’t mind two versions of Shakedown Street in the same week. It’s not like we’re playing two versions of Me and My Uncle (you know, like two weeks ago…).

Lastly this week, from 11/26/80 in pembroke pines, florida, we have the first-set closing jam of Althea>Lost Sailor>Saint of Circumstance>Deal, all played with a terrific energy that was common in late 1980.

Be sure to check back in next week as we begin our December run here at the Tapers’ Section with music from 1971, 1973 and 1979. Lots of great stuff is coming up in the month ahead, so we’ll look forward to seeing you back here.

David Lemieux
vault@dead.net