Unofficial 31 Days of Dead – 2012 Edition: Day Eleven

Welcome back to the third installment of “The Unofficial 31 Days of Dead.” The past two years were so much fun that I decided to do it again. The idea for these compilations came about after dead.net ran its “30 Days of Dead” in November 2010. While the Deadhead community at large was no doubt thrilled to receive previously unreleased tracks from the band’s vast archives, many of us were hoping for just a bit…more. Hey, we are Deadheads – we are always hoping for more! Therefore, I thought it might be fun to keep the music flowing by selecting my own daily picks. The month of December seemed more than appropriate since New Year’s Eve celebrations were such a big part of the Grateful Dead. Let’s think of these daily picks as an advent calendar leading up to New Year’s Eve. Unlike the “Official 30 Days of Dead,” there is no contest here. Instead, the prize is the music and the winner is the listener.

[Artwork by Brian Levine]

December 11

Playin’ In The Band > Stronger Than Dirt or Milkin’ The Turkey
7/16/76 Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco, CA

I’ll come clean and admit that I am a thematic jam junkie. I love them all – Mind Left Body, Spanish, Feelin’ Groovy, Tighten Up. If you share the love for these jams then be sure to check out a great essay about early thematic jams over at the Dead Essays blog.

This show from the Orpheum run in July 1976 has not just one, but two thematic jams in the second set: a stand-alone Spanish Jam and what would become the final Stronger Than Dirt or Milkin’ The Turkey – the latter jam being today’s selection. The set opens with a languid version of Playin In The Band. At about the 8-minute mark Phil repeats a pattern on his bass which Jerry quickly picks up on. He starts to noodle over it with quickly darting licks while the drummers lay down a pocket of jazz. To be fair, this version of Stronger Than Dirt is very loosely referenced and is a far cry from the highly composed instrumental piece that appears on Blues For Allah. Nevertheless, it is still quite an exciting segment to be sure particularly between the 11:00 – 13:30 minute mark where Jerry’s signature butterfly licks of 1976 flutter about in a flight of happy notes that is similar to the transition between Lazy Lightning and Let It Grow two days later at the same venue (i.e., 7/18/76).

Download Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?dyby7jlzwal1ppw
LMA Link: http://archive.org/details/gd1976-07-16.sbeok.shnf