• https://www.dead.net/features/tapers-section/november-26-december-2-2012
    November 26 - December 2, 2012

    Greetings, and welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll be hearing some music from an eight year span in Grateful Dead history, from 1973 to 1981.

    We'll begin our week toward the end of the spectacular two month run of shows that ran between October 19 and December 19, 1973, with music from Duke University in Durham, NC on 12/8/73. This show took place 11 days before Dick's Picks Volume 1 (Tampa 12/19/73), and was during a short period (three weeks) during which Donna Jean was absent as she prepared for the birth of her and Keith's son, Zion, who was born on January 4, 1974. Donna missed the shows November 30-December 19, 1973, but was back for the three night run that opened 1974 in February at Winterland. From the mighty fine Duke show, we have a couple of the bigger jams that would generally end up in the first set during this era, Weather Report Suite, China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider, the sequence that ended the first set at Duke.

    In 1978, the Grateful Dead hit the road for two short spring tours, one in April (4/6 to 4/24) and one in May (5/5 to 5/17), or maybe it was one long spring tour with a week and half break in the middle. Regardless, they hit the road and played some mighty fine shows. Some lesser lights, too, but for the most part this was an extremely interesting period for the Dead. The GD's tape vault is missing 4/6 through 4/16/78, but it contains the rest of the shows from 4/18 onward. If you own the So Many Roads box set (epic!), you'll know of the Stella Blue from 4/21/78 in Lexington, KY, but nothing else from that show has been released, so we're pleased to play some of the first set, featuring Promised Land, Dire Wolf, Mama Tried>Mexicali Blues, Ramble On Rose, Funiculi Funicula, Passenger. The bulk of Dire Wolf is missing from the master reel, but otherwise this is a typically hot-sounding Betty recording. This Lexington show is overall pretty good, but the next two nights in Nashville and Normal (IL) are both top notch Dead and are worth seeking out.

    In the Fall of 1981, the Grateful Dead made their second trip to Europe that Europe. The first trip, in March, featured four nights in London followed by the Essen show with The Who on 3/28/81. The fall tour was much more extensive, running more than two weeks. Just prior to jetting across the ocean, though, the band played a very short mini tour of three shows in Bethlehem, PA (at Lehigh University), Buffalo, NY and Landover, MD. From that first show at Lehigh U. on 9/25/81, we've got Bird Song>BIODTL, Cumberland Blues, Passenger, Althea. This is from the PA cassette master, the standard recording format for most shows 1980-1982. After 1982, the recordings generally moved to Beta PCM digital tapes, followed by DATs after 1987.

    Thanks for joining us here this week, and if you have any questions or comments, please do feel free to send us a note at the email address below. Please out “Grateful Dead” in your subject line so that your missive breaks through our state of the art spam filters.

    David Lemieux
    vault@dead.net

    360503
7 comments
sort by
Recent
Reset
Items displayed
  • Moses Quasar
    11 years 3 months ago
    Tapers.....
    Great Taper's this week! Looking forward to DP5! :) Hey David, how about releasing this Duke U show, it would be great! If it already is, please forgive and where can I get it.....Take care all...............
  • Gr8fulTed
    11 years 3 months ago
    Color slide transfer to jpeg
    Castle17: Simply scan the color slide on a scanner and save the image as a jpeg file! Wa-lah! Look at my photos here on dead.net from 9/3/72 and 8/12/79. They all came from scanned slides. Oh, thanks DL for the '73 and '78 tunes!
  • Default Avatar
    92gli
    11 years 3 months ago
    Spring 78
    Jerry was cultivating a very loud and angry guitar sound on those spring tours, and I love it. Unforunately keith was pretty much just pounding the keys in counterpoint to the drummers and not interacting with jerry much.
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

16 years 10 months

Greetings, and welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll be hearing some music from an eight year span in Grateful Dead history, from 1973 to 1981.

We'll begin our week toward the end of the spectacular two month run of shows that ran between October 19 and December 19, 1973, with music from Duke University in Durham, NC on 12/8/73. This show took place 11 days before Dick's Picks Volume 1 (Tampa 12/19/73), and was during a short period (three weeks) during which Donna Jean was absent as she prepared for the birth of her and Keith's son, Zion, who was born on January 4, 1974. Donna missed the shows November 30-December 19, 1973, but was back for the three night run that opened 1974 in February at Winterland. From the mighty fine Duke show, we have a couple of the bigger jams that would generally end up in the first set during this era, Weather Report Suite, China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider, the sequence that ended the first set at Duke.

In 1978, the Grateful Dead hit the road for two short spring tours, one in April (4/6 to 4/24) and one in May (5/5 to 5/17), or maybe it was one long spring tour with a week and half break in the middle. Regardless, they hit the road and played some mighty fine shows. Some lesser lights, too, but for the most part this was an extremely interesting period for the Dead. The GD's tape vault is missing 4/6 through 4/16/78, but it contains the rest of the shows from 4/18 onward. If you own the So Many Roads box set (epic!), you'll know of the Stella Blue from 4/21/78 in Lexington, KY, but nothing else from that show has been released, so we're pleased to play some of the first set, featuring Promised Land, Dire Wolf, Mama Tried>Mexicali Blues, Ramble On Rose, Funiculi Funicula, Passenger. The bulk of Dire Wolf is missing from the master reel, but otherwise this is a typically hot-sounding Betty recording. This Lexington show is overall pretty good, but the next two nights in Nashville and Normal (IL) are both top notch Dead and are worth seeking out.

In the Fall of 1981, the Grateful Dead made their second trip to Europe that Europe. The first trip, in March, featured four nights in London followed by the Essen show with The Who on 3/28/81. The fall tour was much more extensive, running more than two weeks. Just prior to jetting across the ocean, though, the band played a very short mini tour of three shows in Bethlehem, PA (at Lehigh University), Buffalo, NY and Landover, MD. From that first show at Lehigh U. on 9/25/81, we've got Bird Song>BIODTL, Cumberland Blues, Passenger, Althea. This is from the PA cassette master, the standard recording format for most shows 1980-1982. After 1982, the recordings generally moved to Beta PCM digital tapes, followed by DATs after 1987.

Thanks for joining us here this week, and if you have any questions or comments, please do feel free to send us a note at the email address below. Please out “Grateful Dead” in your subject line so that your missive breaks through our state of the art spam filters.

David Lemieux
vault@dead.net

Display on homepage featured list
Off
Custom Teaser

Greetings, and welcome back to the Tapers' Section, where this week we'll be hearing some music from an eight year span in Grateful Dead history, from 1973 to 1981.

Feature type

dead comment

user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

16 years 5 months
Permalink

Nice choices! A bit of trivia about the Lehigh show. It was the same evening of the "official" start of the Stones US tour (they played a small show in a Mass. Bar a week earlier), in Philly, and some of us caught the Stones show, and the second set of the Lehigh show! It was a long show by '81 standards, and quite nice (there, I said it!)>
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

16 years 9 months
Permalink

All this great music landingin my lap, on a Saturday! JACKPOT BABY! I am going to start in the 1978 clip... as that was when I got into the GRATEFUL DEAD. My friend Joe thought I was just the sweetest fan. He kept the tapes rolling, everyday. Thank God for Joe. We lived in New Mexico and although I didn't get to go to those shows, I watched the fans roll in and waved to hundreds. I have favorite memories of the music that now leaves trails across the country. I feel moods and experiences wonderfully, undeniably the best and more of the best. May the Spirit of the Grateful Dead continue to leave trails of joy and friendship in untold splendor forever- more.
user picture

Member for

16 years 1 month
Permalink

I was at that show and actually have some pretty decent shots using a 300 mm telephoto I used to have. The trouble is they are slides and I've never gotten around to having them turned into actual photos or jpegs. I should do that.... I also took 3 GD virgins to that show, too. I doubt any of them turned into Heads, but they had a good time. I'm enjoying the listen, Dave...thanks!
user picture

Member for

14 years 2 months
Permalink

DL2, with all due (dieux?) respect, I disagree that it is merely "pretty good". Playin' through the end of the show is potent, brah! Playin' > Drums > Stella > Truckin' > Playin' E: Werewolves & US Blues always amazes (as does 4/15/78). In the voice of Herbert from family guy: "GD Spring 78: hmmm..."
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 2 months
Permalink

Jerry was cultivating a very loud and angry guitar sound on those spring tours, and I love it. Unforunately keith was pretty much just pounding the keys in counterpoint to the drummers and not interacting with jerry much.
user picture

Member for

16 years 8 months
Permalink

Castle17: Simply scan the color slide on a scanner and save the image as a jpeg file! Wa-lah! Look at my photos here on dead.net from 9/3/72 and 8/12/79. They all came from scanned slides. Oh, thanks DL for the '73 and '78 tunes!
user picture

Member for

12 years 3 months
Permalink

Great Taper's this week! Looking forward to DP5! :) Hey David, how about releasing this Duke U show, it would be great! If it already is, please forgive and where can I get it.....Take care all...............