Dead of the Day: 06-18-1974

Freedom Hall

Louisville, Kentucky

There are some great performances on this day in Dead history, along with the band’s appearance at the legendary Monterey Pops Festival. For our Dead of the Day, we go with the best of those awesome shows: June 18, 1974 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. Promised Land opens the show in fast and furious form before Jerry settles things a bit with an enchanting Must Have Been the Roses. The rest of the first set is fairly standard, which is to say excellent, until they bust out an Eyes of the World> China Doll that is just excruciatingly fine. The Eyes gets off in flowing crystalline loveliness, and just continues down that path, getting ever more jammy as it goes. After a rolling transition into China Doll, provoking cheers from the crowd, the band – especially Jerry – meets every expectation, offering up a moving version.

Recording info
Use alternative player
Identifier:
gd1974-06-18.sbd.pitch-fixed-sacks.32528.sbeok.flac16
Source:
SPEED-CORRECTED VERSION of SBD>MR>1 cass>DAT>ZA2>SHN
Notes:
Speed corrected using Cool Edit Pro: – joined wavs using ‘Open Append’ – speed/pitch adjusted using ‘Pitch Bender’ – removed small gaps at the end of discs 2 and 3 to make disc transitions seamless again. – retracked – encoded to FLAC (level 8) using Flac Frontend The proper pitch was determined by comparing to a guitar tuned to A=440. The adjustment required was -28 cents for the entire show. Tracking: The original source had the first song of set 2 (Loose Lucy) tracked on the end of disc 1 with set 1 for no apparent reason. It fits easily on disc 2 with the other set 2 material, so it’s been moved there, which is better imo, but it can easily be burned either way. The only problem with the new tracking was that all of the artworks around for this show reflected the old tracking, so I made a revised version of one of the best ones to match the new tracking: gd061874Cover-revised.pdf & gd061874tray-revised.pdf in the ‘covers’ folder. joshd Feb. 15, 2006
Description:
Set 1 The Promised Land It Must Have Been The Roses Black Throated Wind Ramble On Rose Beat It On Down The Line Loser Mexicali Blues Eyes Of The World -> China Doll Around And Around Set 2 Loose Lucy El Paso Row Jimmy Weather Report Suite Prelude -> Weather Report Suite Part -> Let It Grow -> Jam -> The Other One -> It’s A Sin Jam -> Stella Blue Big River Tennessee Jed Sugar Magnolia Encore Morning Dew
Lineage:
SHN (id=209) > WAV > Cool Edit Pro (see notes) > FLAC(8)
Transferrer:
JoshD
Play
Pause
Back
Forw.
Volume
00:00
1
The Promised Land
05:13
2
It Must Have Been The Roses
05:22
3
Black Throated Wind
07:07
4
Ramble On Rose
06:52
5
Beat It On Down The Line
03:45
6
Loser
07:09
7
Mexicali Blues
03:29
8
Eyes Of The World >
14:49
9
China Doll
06:15
10
Around and Around
05:21
11
Loose Lucy
05:42
12
El Paso
05:06
13
Row Jimmy
08:14
14
Weather Report Suite >
06:14
15
Let It Grow >
20:16
16
The Other One ->
15:38
17
It’s A Sin Jam ->
03:17
18
Stella Blue
08:36
19
Big River
05:42
20
Tennessee Jed
09:24
21
Sugar Magnolia
09:44
22
Morning Dew
13:21
Choose recording

The second set opens with a tasty Loose Lucy and El Paso, but then turns it up a notch further with a perfectly played, so beautiful Row Jimmy where Jerry is practically making love to the music. What’s more, the tune seems to open the way for the unbelievable Weather Report Suite that follows. The Prelude starts off in near, or at least as close as the Dead will get to it outside the 80s, pop form. Then, suddenly, Jerry takes over with some hot jams as Billy delivers some incredible drums. Noodling, space, and pregnant pauses follow after the lyrical section of Let It Grow, before The Other One emerges out of it all. The band jams out the segue for quite some time before coming to the first verse and then heads off into some distant universe, probing the outer limits of reality. They eventually form back around a theme, though it is as if they are playing it from another dimension, funky and dismembered. Coming back through the wormhole, Jerry and Billy lead them into a subdued It’s a Sin Jam. And, then, suddenly, we are at Stella Blue, which turns out to be a magnificent version. From there, the boys take it out on the Mississippi and stop in Tennessee before finishing off the set with a steamy Sugar Mags. But they are not done with the amazing music, coming back out for a stellar Morning Dew to send everyone on their way.

The Dead released a portion of the show – inluding the Eyes> China Doll and WRS> Other One> It’s a Sin Jam> Stella – as Road Trips, Volume 2, Number 3.

Search for shows:

Submit Search

Comments

3 responses to “06-18-1974”

  1. James Hiken Avatar
    James Hiken

    First, Freedom Hall is in Louisville not Lexington. Second, how can you describe the highlights of this show without referencing how Jerry drops a riff of “My Old Kentucky Home” seamlessly within the jam segment of BIODTL?!Amazing show. One of my absolute favorites.

  2. Kent Avatar
    Kent

    Yeah, I was going to mention Jerry’s riff of “My Old Kentucky Home” BIODTL as well. It starts at 1:42 and runs until about 2:05 into the song and is about 20 seconds of something totally unexpected and very cool.

  3. Chris Richards Avatar
    Chris Richards

    I have this show on cassettes, that I got when trading back in the 90’s. I remember I was always annoyed that the extended improv that linked The Other One to Stella Blue was missing (in fact, the tape literally cut off in the middle of Jerry’s wah wah pedal freak out, and when you flipped the tape over, it almost immediately went into Stella Blue). It was years before I got a digital copy (and then later, the Road Trips release), where I finally got to hear what was missing from my cassette copy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Just a friendly reminder to abide by the community guidelines in your comment.