Dead of the Day: 04-29-1971

Fillmore East

New York, New York

Truckin’ opens the show in strong fashion, with some alternative lyrics and an eruption of laughter from Bobby at one point. A few songs later, the Cumberland absolutely smokes with fiery picking and so much more stuffed into the short little version. The Bird Song – one of the first dozen they played – a song later is elemental, so far from the richer, though no more splendid, renditions from the late eighties and early nineties, nearly three hundred iterations later. After a Dark Hollow that is sumptuous in its simplicity, the band switches gears completely by heading into a Hard to Handle, which is certainly among the best ever. Pig is solid on the standard vocals and delivers an extended, funky rap before the song transitions into a scrumptious, extended jam featuring Jerry and Phil, returning again to Pig and the chorus one final time.

Recording info
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Identifier:
gd1971-04-29.mtx.hansokolow.97660.flac16
Source:
matrix of SBD: shnid=33565 and AUD: shnid=26568
Notes:
There is so much work on this in terms of time/pitch adjustments and level adjustments that I cannot list them all. It’s been an ongoing project for a long time, as the quality of this AUD made it a very challenging show to matrix. The main thing to know is that I made use of every bit of the AUD that is useable. Most AUD tracks are missing the beginnings of songs and often the ends as well. A string of songs in the first set are also not present on the AUD: Cumberland Blues, Me And My Uncle, Bird Song, and Playin’. Those parts are, of course, all SBD. The AUD is very inconsistent, clearly the mic was stuffed under someone’s shirt at points, turned in different directions, etc. I tried as best I could to account for that by changing the levels, but there is a fair amount of hiss on the AUD, so when the level is boosted, the hiss will be more present. That’s just how it is. Also there are moments of a loud, obnoxious crowd, mostly notable in quiet parts like Dark Hollow and Ripple. I tuned out a fair amount of the crowd in Ripple, as it is just distracting. I tried to make this thing as smooth as I could, but some of the transitions when the AUD kicks in or out are still a bit jolting.. I went through a fair amount of confusion about the patches in Me And Bobby McGee and the transition between China Cat and Rider that were reportedly found on cassette from a master reel hidden at the Fillmore. Until just now I thought I was making a big revelation that these are not actually patches from this night, but upon reading the notes on db.etree.org, I find that this is already known. In any case, I decided to remove those sections and fade to the AUD only, so this is now, I believe, a totally complete version of this show. The parts that are AUD only are from 2:32 to 3:22 of Me And Bobby McGee, and from 3:44 of China Cat to 0:09 of Rider, then again in Rider from 1:58 to 2:33. As for the patch in Birdsong, that song is not present on the AUD, but I instead used the patch from a different SBD, shnid: 16782. Midnight Hour has some scratchiness on the SBD that I left in, as going to the AUD only would be worse. The cowbell is also quite strong in the AUD of this song, and I left that in, as there is always room for more cowbell.
Description:
Set 1 Truckin’ Bertha It Hurts Me Too Cumberland Blues -> Me And My Uncle Bird Song Playing In The Band Loser Dark Hollow Hard To Handle Ripple Me And Bobby McGee Casey Jones Six Days On The Road -> Runnin’ Back To You I Don’t Know You Sailin’ Henry Dirty Business Superman Lodi Glendale Train Fair Chance To Know The Weight Portland Woman Last Lonely Eagle Louisiana Lady Honky Tonk Women Set 2 Morning Dew New Minglewood Blues Sugar Magnolia Black Peter Beat It On Down The Line I Second That Emotion Alligator -> Drums -> Jam -> Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad -> Cold Rain And Snow China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider Greatest Story Ever Told -> Johnny B. Goode Encore Uncle John’s Band In The Midnight Hour -> And We Bid You Good Night
Lineage:
Transferrer:
hansokolow
Play
Pause
Back
Forw.
Volume
00:00
1
Truckin’
11:22
2
Bertha
10:39
3
It Hurts Me Too
08:15
4
Cumberland Blues >
04:38
5
Me and My Uncle
04:10
6
Bird Song
12:25
7
Playing In The Band >
07:28
8
Loser
10:30
9
Dark Hollow
05:48
10
Hard To Handle
10:16
11
Ripple
07:52
12
Me and My Bobby McGee
05:56
13
Casey Jones
05:57
14
Morning Dew
11:00
15
New Minglewood Blues
06:47
16
Sugar Magnolia
08:07
17
Black Peter
10:55
18
Beat It On Down The Line
03:18
19
I Second That Emotion
06:50
20
Alligator >
04:02
21
Drums >
03:58
22
Alligator Jam >
09:37
23
Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad >
04:26
24
Cold Rain and Snow
06:40
25
China Cat Sunflower >
05:07
26
I Know You Rider
06:22
27
Greatest Story Ever Told >
02:51
28
Johnny B Goode
06:25
29
Uncle John’s Band >
08:24
30
Bill Graham Rap
04:34
31
Midnight Hour >
09:55
32
And We Bid You Goodnight
04:38
Choose recording

Morning Dew breaks forth to open the second set as a glorious thing of beauty with the band regally launching off into jams then coming back down for Jerry’s vocals backed by Pig’s luscious organ fills. Next, the Minglewood offers up something else entirely; I have never heard Bobby sing the tune – or any song, for that matter – quite like he does here, all big and up front. Moreover, Pig’s organ is really coming through, providing some depth and texture to the tune along with the blues guitar riffs and strong work by Billy on the drums. As we have commented before, the Dead do a tremendous version of I Second That Emotion, and this one is second to none. It is also the last of the far too few seven that they played. Despite an unbelievably resplendent show up until this point, the real highlight of the night begins with the steamy – and, sadly, the last – Alligator, and continues on with the insane Drums and the Jam> GDTRFB> Cold Rain and Snow. The jam, with the Stephen tease, takes a little time to get going, but then rockets off into incredible territory with all five members of the band coming together into a writhing mass of pure awesomeness to make it happen. The boys continue on into Going Down the Road and then head off to an incredible Cold Rain and Snow. From there, the rest of the show is just icing on the cake, albeit some of the best frosting ever.

Parts of this show along with some of the previous night were released as Ladies & Gentlemen: The Grateful Dead.

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Comments

3 responses to “04-29-1971”

  1. Sly Avatar
    Sly

    Always nice when they play Ripple 🙂

  2. August West Avatar
    August West

    The best “Hard to Handle” ever…

  3. Ken Meyerson Avatar
    Ken Meyerson

    I was at all five shows.

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