Greetings and welcome to a mighty fine week of Grateful Dead music here at the Tapers Section. This week, we'll be listening to music covering a 13 year span in the band's recorded history, 1976-1989, with plenty of fine music in between.

Our first stop this week is at the Oakland Stadium in beautiful Oakland, California, on 10/10/76, the second of two massive concerts for 45,000 each day that featured the Grateful Dead opening for The Who. October usually meant a World Series trophy (1972, 1973, 1974) for the denizens of this stadium, but October 1976 featured a very different prize: two stunning Grateful Dead concerts. The first show, on 10/9/76, has long been a favourite of mine, but the 10/10/76 might just outperform its predecessor. From the second set of the second show, we have Playing in the Band>Drums>Wheel>Space>The Other One>Stella Blue>Playing in the Band, Johnny B. Goode, a monumentally well-played sequence by any standards.

Our next stop features another exquisite segment of music, including one of the all-time great versions of Not Fade Away. From 10/11/77 in (Jeffrey) Norman, Oklahoma, we have the post-Drums sequence of Not Fade Away>Wharf Rat>Around and Around. Check out those runs Jerry gets into during NFA. Wow!>

By popular request for more acoustic Dead, we are pleased to make our next stop at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, during the Grateful Dead's 15 night run of shows in 1980, which featured three sets per night. From the first set on 10/7/80, we have Monkey and the Engineer, To Lay Me Down, Heaven Help The Fool, Deep Elem Blues. I just love those acoustic, instrumental versions of Heaven Help The Fool.

From Charlotte, North Carolina on 10/5/84, we are pleased to play the second set opening sequence of China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider, Estimated Prophet>Eyes of the World. This tour had some great concerts, including legendary stops in Augusta, Maine and Syracuse, New York, not to mention the six night run of shows at Berkeley Community Theatre October 27-November 3.

Lastly this week, we have another second set opening sequence, this time from 1989, from 10/8/89 specifically, at the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia. This, of course, was the first night of the two concerts that were billed as Formerly the Warlocks, with the Grateful Dead rising to that moniker's reputation with two shows that far surpassed everyone's expectations. From 10/8/89, we have Help on the Way>Slipknot!>Franklin's Tower>Victim or the Crime>Eyes of the World.

Be sure to stop back next week for more great music here at the Tapers Section. I expect we'll have music from 1968, 1974 and 1980.

David Lemieux
vault@dead.net