Dead of the Day: 03-01-1969

Fillmore West

San Francisco, California

On this night, the Dead began their first set by blasting into a Cryptical sparking what is arguably the best Other One suite ever. From there, the New Potato Caboose starts out slow but gathers tremendous momentum with Jerry painting some beautiful streaks across the sky before ending the tune on a ferocious note. The Doin’ That Rag – a wonderful psychedelic trip of a song – that follows is another first set standout, surely working the crowd into a writhing mass of dancing hippies. A Cosmic Charlie closes out the first set, beginning in its calliope fashion before exploding into pure frenetic energy. The second set begins a little slower before coming to that monumental Dark Star, which takes off like an exploratory spaceship, slowly clearing the stratosphere and then setting off in search of other worlds. Coming back down to earth, the Saint Stephen erupts in splendor, rollicking through the William Tell bridge into the Eleven in the midst of explosions of joy. The band then switches gears, gaining power without giving up speed as Pigpen asserts himself with a smoking, blues-filled Lovelight. Oh yeah, not to be overlooked, there is also a phenomenal Hey Jude encore that the Dead nail. The unbelievable music makes for nothing less than an incredible night.

Recording info
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Identifier:
gd69-03-01.sbd.16track.kaplan.4030.sbeok.shnf
Source:
Soundboard
Notes:
SBD> 16-Track Master Reel > DAT > DAT > CD > EAC > SHN > MKW .WAV file conversion > Cool Edit 2000 > MKW .shn file conversion > shntool > MKW .WAV file conversion > CD; via Aoxoa, Rango Keshavan, Seth Kaplan; d2 tracked for 80 min; see various notes in info file, including about patches for banter and tuning
Description:
Cryptical Envelopment-> The Other One-> Cryptical Envelopment-> New Potato Caboose-> Doin’ That Rag-> Cosmic Charlie Dupree’s Diamond Blues-> Mountains Of The Moon, Dark Star, Saint Stephen-> The Eleven-> Turn On Your Lovelight, E: Hey Jude
Lineage:
SBD> 16-Track Master Reel > DAT > DAT > CD > EAC > SHN > MKW .WAV file conversion > Cool Edit 2000 > MKW .shn file conversion > shntool > MKW .WAV file conversion > CD
Transferrer:
Play
Pause
Back
Forw.
Volume
00:00
1
Bill Graham Intro
01:07
2
Cryptical Envelopment
01:57
3
Drums
00:11
4
The Other One
10:05
5
Cryptical Envelopment
08:41
6
New Potato Caboose
11:42
7
Doin’ That Rag
05:57
8
Cosmic Charlie
05:58
9
Bill Graham Intro
00:56
10
Dupree’s Diamond Blues
03:58
11
Mountains of the Moon
04:56
12
Dark Star
23:22
13
Saint Stephen
05:36
14
William Tell
01:09
15
The Eleven
07:07
16
Turn On Your Lovelight
18:14
17
Tuning
06:34
18
Hey Jude
07:53
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This night at the Fillmore West was the third of a four-night run, which constitutes one of the best stands in the long history of the Grateful Dead. In the minds of many, the March first show is the pick of the bunch. The entire run was released on the limited edition Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings and parts showed up on the highlight 3-disc set, Fillmore West 1969.

On this night at the Fillmore, the Dead shared the bill with Pentangle, a British folk-jazz band, and the San Francisco psychedelic rock group, Frumious Bandersnatch, who were actually filling in for the Sir Douglas Quintet. Michael over on Cryptical Developments relates the story of going to this show, his first Dead concert, as a high schooler, being dropped off with a friend by his folks and missing the second half of the night because they had to meet their parents again for the ride home. His telling gives you an awesome perspective on the night and, especially, on what it was like to attend a show at the Fillmore West back then.

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Comments

9 responses to “03-01-1969”

  1. Mark Grissom Avatar
    Mark Grissom

    I was there for the whole thing and it was a total life changer. I never really heard, or more specifically, played music the same again. I always wanted to have my music have the feeling I got that night, that the band was channeling the music from on high, creating it second by second existentially. It really felt like Jerry and Phil, in particular, were edging each other on the whole time. Their partnership and brotherhood was palpable. Only later did I come to realize the Dead didn’t just start playing in eleven, as magical as it seemed. They had spent hours rehearsing to get comfortable in that time signature. All of the music, in fact, was the result of working hard enough to be comfortable in group improvisation but improvisation that was built around themes and structures that had been worked out before hand.The “Dark Star” has been described as a journey into space and it truly did feel like a rocket ship taking off. I remember looking up at the Carousel’s gold ceiling, feeling it start to spin and elevate like we were lifting off.It was one for the ages, for sure.Pentangle was great to see, too, as they were receiving a lot of airplay on KSAN. I still can see them sitting in chairs playing their beautiful English folk music. I have read Garcia was influenced by their approach, not specifically the acoustic nature of it as the Dead members had roots in that, but in the way Pentangle presented themselves, mic-ing the acoustics, with drums and a string bass. Seeing that work helped Garcia think the Dead could do that, too. By 1970, they were.

  2. Will Ryan Avatar
    Will Ryan

    Do you remember what point in the song you were in when you took off into space?I’m always reminded of a great sea voyage when I hear this Dark Star.

  3. Mark Grissom Avatar
    Mark Grissom

    I actually can! Things got really swirly…

  4. Will Ryan Avatar
    Will Ryan

    I love this show so much. The first set combined with the original Live/Dead is a recommended listen!

  5. Mark Grissom Avatar
    Mark Grissom

    Phil goes a bit out of tune in the “New Potato” but it is otherwise a beautiful thing. Amazing what was just another weekend at Fillmore West turned out to be such a classic run. We are lucky to have the quality recordings!

  6. Will Ryan Avatar
    Will Ryan

    Indeed. I think what makes this show my favorite is not so much the individual songs but the non-stop playing. The flow.It’s a real trip to talk to someone who was actually there.

  7. Will Ryan Avatar
    Will Ryan

    Well anyway, I’d love to talk about the show further with you sometime!

  8. David Watts Avatar
    David Watts

    “there is also a phenomenal Hey Jude encore that the Dead nail”That might be a little bit hyperbolic. It would have been “phenomenal,” had Pig been able to hear himself well enough to be in tune. As it is, it’s one of his worst moments.

  9. Darrin Little Avatar
    Darrin Little

    Is there a vinyl pressing of this show? If not, I suggest a fundraiser effort to make that happen.

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