Dead of the Day: 05-20-1973

Campus Stadium, UCSB

Santa Barbara, California

There are only three shows on this date in history, so it makes picking out our 1973 Dead of the Day from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a bit easier. A sharp and up-tempo Bertha opens the show with a solid Box of Rain and Looks Like Rain standing out in the early going. Then we get an incredible China> Rider with the China Cat spilling forth into some other realm before sidling into the I Know You Rider. Keith is impressive on the BIOTDL that follows, and the They Love Each Other that comes afterwards is some seriously lovely music. But then we get an outrageous, face-melting, twenty-minute Playing to end the first set.

Recording info
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Identifier:
gd1973-05-20.124567.mtx.dusborne.flac16
Source:
2 Source Matrix by dusborne Soundboard (shinid:86905) Recording Info: SBD -> Master Reel (7 inch reels @ 7.5ips 1/2trk) -> Dat -> CD; Transfer Info: CD -> EAC -> Samplitude Professional v9.11 -> FLAC; All Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller and Audience (shnid:5915) MC>R>C>DAT>HD>SHN>CD
Notes:
Matrix by dusborne 05-08-2013 Tagging notes: Show information is embedded within the header of each flac file. It will display on any player capable of directly playing flac files. If converted to wav during processing, all tags will be stripped, however audio data will remain unaffected. If you must transcode to a lossy format, do so directly Flac > Lossy. Use st5 to validate audio integrity. Md5 values will change if tagging is altered. dusborne 05-08-2013
Description:
Set 1 Bertha, Me & My Uncle, Box Of Rain, Deal, Looks Like Rain, Tennessee Jed, The Race is On, China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider, Beat It On Down The Line, They Love Each Other, Playin’ In The Band Set 2 Promised Land, Brown Eyed Women, Mexicali Blues, Row Jimmy, Jack Straw, Big Railroad Blues, Greatest Story Ever Told, Here Comes Sunshine, Big River, Loser, El Paso, Casey Jones Set 3 Truckin’-> The Other One-> Eyes Of The World-> Stella Blue, Sugar Magnolia, E: Johnny B. Goode Afternoon concert – Other artist(s): NRPS
Lineage:
Transferrer:
Matrix by dusborne
Play
Pause
Back
Forw.
Volume
00:00
1
Bertha
06:38
2
Me And My Uncle
04:03
3
Box Of Rain
06:15
4
Deal
06:31
5
Looks Like Rain
07:27
6
Tennessee Jed
08:10
7
The Race Is On
03:52
8
China Cat Sunflower ->
08:03
9
I Know You Rider
06:27
10
Beat It On Down The Line
03:52
11
They Love Each Other
06:01
12
Playing In The Band
19:11
13
The Promised Land
03:41
14
Brown Eyed Women
05:44
15
Mexicali Blues
04:15
16
Row Jimmy
09:14
17
Jack Straw
06:24
18
Big Railroad Blues
04:46
19
Greatest Story Ever Told
05:08
20
Here Comes Sunshine
11:17
21
Big River
05:29
22
Loser
07:22
23
El Paso
05:15
24
Casey Jones
06:49
25
Truckin’ ->
08:44
26
Nobody’s Fault But Mine Jam ->
09:44
27
Drums ->
02:14
28
The Other One ->
10:32
29
Eyes Of The World ->
12:26
30
Stella Blue
08:32
31
Sugar Magnolia
10:34
32
Johnny B. Goode
04:17
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The second of the three sets opens with a rocking Promised Land. On the Brown Eyed Women that follows, Jerry plays exquisitely, but he clearly has a cold, making him sound, at times, like he is going through puberty. The same could be said about the Row Jimmy a song later. But you won’t even notice the issue on the Here Comes Sunshine that comes next because it is an otherworldly piece of music with Jerry’s luscious guitar, Phil’s bombs, and Billy’s great drum work all coming together.

Even with the great fireworks to this point, the first two sets take a backseat to the third, which is utterly amazing, starting off with Truckin’. The jam in the midst of it is some tasty stuff as Jerry puts all his energy into it. But it ain’t over there, as the boys extend it out for another ten minutes, entering into some insane territory while working with the Nobody’s Fault But Mine theme. Finally, Billy takes over, clearing the air for a devilish Other One, which has an intense face-melting section about three-quarters of the way through. The Eyes> Stella that follows is beautiful beyond measure, even with Jerry’s voice issues. Then, Bobby and the rest of the band send the third set out with a crowd-pleasing Sugar Mags before coming back for one last trip with a Johnny B. Goode encore.

Podcast about this show:

  • Heads’ Tales – S1 E6 In the Shadow of the Sphinx: Don Defenderfer – As a high school freshman, Don Defenderfer caught his first Grateful Dead show on this day in 1973 while visiting his brother at UCSB. Listen to Don talk about this show and his many other incredible experiences with the band beyond description on this episode of the Heads’ Tales podcast.

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