Deadology July 2

The Dead performed for the last time in the Fillmore West on 7-2-71, two days before Creedence Clearwater Revival and Santana played the final show in Bill Graham’s shrine. If you’re trying to turn a friend on to the Grateful Dead and the bulk of their listening experience is classic rock, this 7-2-71 show is a good place to start. Garcia’s solos are impressive without being overstated, and the piercing tone of his guitar is invigorating. Their newer material has been mastered, and their older material has been sculpted to fit their clean, muscular sound, although there’s still enough weirdness adrift to separate their sound from that of their peers.

A ripping “Bertha” starts the evening. The band is now playing the songs they introduced in February ’71 with supreme confidence. The moody blues of “Me and Bobby McGee” soothes souls on the heels of “Bertha.” By arranging songs in varied sequences, the Dead challenged their fans to hear the tunes anew. Concise versions of China Cat > Rider and “Playin’” sizzled in between a couple of Pigpen tunes, “Next Time You See Me” and “Ain’t It Crazy.” Even though Pig was going through troubled times, his voice and organ playing are stellar on this night. After “Me and My Uncle” and a scorching “Big Railroad Blues,” Pig and Jerry deliver essential listening.

The golden age for “Hard to Handle” was April through August of ’71. I can’t fathom why the band stopped playing this stellar Otis Redding tune. Imagine a few of those Europe ’72 shows having a killer “Handle” towards the end of the first set. Pig’s in powerful vocal form throughout the 7-2-71 version, and the jam takes off assuredly. The key to this version, and others from this period, is the clearly defined structure in the second half of the jam. Phil and Bobby ignite a bluesy chord sequence that signals a shift in intensity. As the band shifts into approaching crescendo mode, Jerry weaves a searing solo that steadily rises between the booming groove of the band, and delivers a finale that soars through the Fillmore like an aural Roman candle. I rate this as the third-best “Handle,” behind 8-6-71 Hollywood Palladium and the top dog, 4-21-71 Providence.

Pigpen was close to taking his first extended leave from the band, but he was a raging force on 7-2-71 as the band closes the set with a seventeen-minute “Good Lovin’.” “Sugar Magnolia” commences the second-set revelry, and Garcia follows with “Sing me Back Home,” a touching portrait of a prisoner’s last musical request before he’s executed. Weir answers with another Haggard tune of a prisoner doing life without parole in “Mama Tried.” Now that everybody had an appreciation for how fortunate they were not to be incarcerated, the Grateful Dead unleashed a freewheeling musical adventure for the last time in the Fillmore West.

“Cryptical Envelopments” set the stage for a multifaceted “The Other One.” At times it wobbled with the cosmic power of a ’69 version, and at times it drifted into the spacey territory of ’72 “Other Ones.” There’s no “Cryptical” reprise as the music dwindles to a stop and Pigpen picks up the initiative with “Big Boss Man.”

The show rolls on with a truculent performance of “Casey Jones.” This version and the “Johnny B. Goode” encore from 7-2-71 were included on the Fillmore: The Last Days release. Everything’s just exactly perfect with this “Casey Jones.” Jerry’s voice is pure and passionate, and his guitar solo has an exhilarating twang. Garcia and Weir chant the final chorus over and over in sync with the escalating tempo. The Fillmore West “Casey Jones” is among the best performances of this signature Dead tune. There are longer versions with unique embellishments, but this “Jones” is sublime in its flawlessness.

The final assault continues with the best Not Fade Away > Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad > Not Fade Away to date. On 7-2-71, the Dead enter segue paradise, hanging onto “GDTRFB” as they return to “NFA.” As in Scarlet > Fire or China Cat > Rider, when the band has the mojo rollin’, it’s up to the listener, or the person dividing up the tracks on a recording, to estimate where one song ends and another begins. The “Johnny B. Goode” encore concludes an era of groundbreaking Grateful Dead magic in the Fillmore West.

7-2-85 Pittsburgh

Bob motivates Jerry on this night. The “Jack Straw” opener chugs along merrily and the crowd’s psyched. Jerry’s building a sweet solo, but Weir cuts him off prematurely: “Jack Straw from Wichita cut his buddy down.” It was a little reminder to Garcia that if he wasn’t en fuego, Weir could do the same at any time. Consequently, Jerry’s in attack mode, playing brilliantly for the remainder of the set.

Right after Jerry, Bobby, and Brent harmonize: “We can share the women, we can share the wine,” the sweet crackling opening guitar licks of “It Must Have Been the Roses” ensues. This sent me scrambling for Deadbase, and my suspicions were correct. “Roses” after “Straw” was rare; it hadn’t happened since 1-10-78. Jerry’s voice is tired from the rigors of touring, yet this is a gorgeous performance as he bypasses physical limitations with pure artistic desire. In the following number, Garcia’s solo is the best one he’s pulled off in “New Minglewood Blues” in a few years. It seems as if Jerry’s grown tired of playing this tune, but he wasn’t about to let Weir pull the plug again as he fires off four rowdy rounds of lead guitar.

It’s a joy to listen to Garcia on a night like this in ’85. He’s consistently impressive in a way he wasn’t after the coma. This is advanced guitar craftsmanship, something that didn’t happen regularly in ’85. But there was insane magic on some nights, and Jerry was pulling rabbits out of his hat in Pittsburgh. “Friend of the Devil,” “Cassidy,” “Big Railroad Blues,” and “Promised Land” ended the set—smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke!

Set two has superb pre-Drums song selections: “Women Are Smarter,” “Crazy Fingers,” Lost Sailor > Saint of Circumstance, “Terrapin Station.” The show ends with a thud in the form of Throwing Stones > Lovelight. Just when it seemed that they had run out of steam, Jerry answers with a double encore, “Revolution” and “Brokedown Palace.” It’s an outstanding “Revolution,” perhaps the best one they ever played. Jerry screws up the beginning of “Brokedown Palace” and jokingly announces, “Sounded good, didn’t it,” before starting from scratch again.

The following year, the Dead played on the same bill with Dylan, who was backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. This show wouldn’t be worth mentioning if Dylan didn’t come out to play two songs in the middle of the opening set—the first time he played with the Grateful Dead. Without any intro, Dylan joins the Dead during the fourth song, “Little Red Rooster.” There’s great excitement in the crowd when they spot Dylan. Jerry had joined Dylan during one of his shows in the Fox Warfield in San Francisco on 11-16-80 for a stretch of songs that started with “To Ramona.” After a terrific intro from Dylan, Jerry rips a thrilling “Ramona” solo in the key of C.

Garcia fit into the flow of Dylan’s performance, but this initial Dylan/Dead venture was rocky. “Red Rooster” was a snoozer, although Dylan bears none of that burden. Suddenly the Dead and Dylan storm into “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright,” a first for the Dead. The sound of Dylan’s guitar scrapes against the Dead’s musical landscape, but his freewheeling vocals work. Garcia uncorks two lyrical solos in this gritty performance. This was a positive first step in the Dylan/Dead adventure.

More on 7-2-87 Rochester, 7-2-88 Oxford Plains, 7-2-89 Sullivan Stadium and 7-2-81 Houston in Deadology

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