Dead of the Day: 05-28-1977
Hartford Civic Center
Hartford, Connecticut
With our Dead of the Day we are going to check back in with the inimitable spring ’77 tour, this time in Hartford, Connecticut. On the Bertha opener, Jerry’s vocals and guitar have such a richness and clarity, both of which will continue throughout the show. The Sugaree that comes a song later is a monumental effort, straightforward, pleading, and luscious, and quite possibly the best the band ever played. After a lengthy tuning, we get an airy, but devastating Jack Straw with both Jerry and Bobby providing really elevated guitar work. The Row Jimmy and Minglewood are equally exceptional, but the Candyman, with its taffy-like melancholy steeped in psychedelia, is brilliant, even amongst the company. After a Brown Eyed Woman, the set goes out with a nearly out of control Promised Land that is pure bliss.
A Samson opens the second half in great fashion, but it is the Estimated that really sets things off, with Jerry’s guitar guiding us through a maze just like the raving character in the lyrics wants us to believe he can do as well. From the Estimated, the band gives a clipped transition into Playin’ in the Band, which is ebullient through the vocal sections and then goes far out into some dark and lonely space that is nearly frightening. But then the Dead arrive at their destination, a lovely Terrapin. Some sick jams close out the song, leading to a short Drums that comes around to the tell-tale beat of Not Fade Away where Phil adds some straight out bombs by way of introduction. Eventually the whole band joins in, and they all head off on an epic NFA with some intense rhythmic jams. After some deep purposeful noodling toward the end of the Not Fade Away, the band takes us into an incredible Wharf Rat that then comes back around to the Playin’. There is a good argument that the Estimated through the final Playin’ is some of the most exploratory and powerful music the band played throughout all of spring tour. Wherever it ranks, though, one thing is clear: it is some good shit.
The Estimated here, like the one from three days prior, is often bandied about as one of the best of all time. It is hard to argue with such an assessment though the tune had only been in the Dead’s repertoire, like Terrapin, since the Swing Auditorium show back on February 26th of the same year. Estimated is, of course, a Weir and Barlow collaboration that, like so many of them, Jerry could set on fire with his guitar. “According to Weir,” as Blair Jackson describes in The Music Never Stopped, “he and Barlow wrote the song from the perspective of a crazy, messianic zealot, a type which one invariably encounters in Deadhead crowds now and again. As Weir explains: ‘The basis of it is this guy I see at nearly every backstage door. There’s always some guy who’s taken a lot of dope and he’s really bug- eyed, and he’s having some kind of vision. He’s got a rave he’s got to deliver.’ In Estimated Prophet, the psychopath claims ‘My time comin’ any day, don’t worry about me,’ and Weir essentially lets him rave.” That sounds like a great way to describe the version here.
The Dead released this show as To Terrapin.
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