Dave's Picks 26 & Bonus Disc (1971-11-17 & 1971-12-14)

     Ladies and gentlemen, he's done it again.  Our fearless archivist David Lemieux has delivered the second Dave's Picks of the year, and along with the bonus disc it is almost two compelte concerts.  The main Pick is from November 17, 1971, with part of December 14, 1971 as the third disc and bonus disc.  While the setlists of these shows are fairly similar, the November show is of course missing Pigpen, so you get to hear some variation in the songs that are duplicated.  While the November show has some occasional fuzziness in it that must stem from the oringal recording or the live performance itself, the sound is of excellent quality overall thanks to another stellar effort by Jeffrey Norman.  I had never heard these shows before, so it's great to not only have some new music to explore, but to be able to experince it in the best possible quality.

     These are both pretty long shows, so instead of the song-by-song bullet points I'll tackle this one just by dealing with the songs that jump out at me the most in paragraph form in order to save space.  Some songs are just exactly typical of the era so it's hard to find anything substantial to say about them, but just because I skip over it doesn't mean it's worth skipping when listening; in fact, never skip anything Dave recommends, he knows what he's doing.  The track listings are a little switched from how they were performed so they could fit neatly onto the four discs (and also for obscure copyright reasons), so I will discuss them in the order they were presented.

Dave's Picks 26
1971-11-17
Truckin', Sugaree, Beat It On Down The Line, Tennessee Jed, El Paso, Big Railroad Blues, Jack Straw, Deal, Playing In The Band, Cumberland Blues, Me And Bobby McGee, You Win Again, Mexicali Blues, Casey Jones, One More Saturday Night, Ramble On Rose, Cryptical Envelopement > Drums > The Other One > Me & My Uncle > The Other One > Wharf Rat, Not Fade Away > Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad > Not Fade Away

1971-12-14
Truckin', Sugaree, Mr. Charlie, Beat it on Down the Line, Loser, Next Time You See Me, El Paso, Big Railroad Blues, Me & My Uncle, Run Rudolph Run, Big Boss Man, You Win Again, Not Fade Away > Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad > Not Fade Away

Dave's Picks 2018 Bonus Disc
1971-12-14
Jack Straw, Tennessee Jed, Black Peter, Playing in the Band, Casey Jones, Mexicali Blues, Cryptical Envelopment > Drums > The Other One > Wharf Rat, Sugar Magnolia

     DaP 26 starts off with rip-roaring verion of "Truckin'"just to let us know that the band isn't fooling around here.  My immeditate thought was "where is Keith??," but as the song goes on you can hear him a little bit in the background.  I was worried that the whole release would be light on Keith (like Dick's Picks 2), but after a rushed false start to "Sugaree," and some technical work, Keith comes more to the forefront in the mix.  While "Truckin'" doesn't have the far-reaching outro jam that would appear in the song the following year, this allows them to really nail the rock 'n roll essence of the song's core.

     By the time "El Paso" rolls around, Keith is loud and bold, already showing that this would be a song where he would shine for the rest of his tenure with the band.  One thing that's amazing about these Fall '71 shows is that Keith, who later would be known for being shy and reclusive, is so enthusiastic and upfront with his playing.  He isn't afraid to play wrong notes (a few of which might be on this release, depending how you listen and define "wrong"), so he just plays what feels right, and that's the best kind of playing to do in a band like the Grateful Dead!

     Jerry's singing and playing as magnificently as you would expect for the early 70's, but has a few vocal slips.  While that doesn't necessarily mean that something might have been slipped into his drink, it also doesn't not mean that, and some of the playing and banter is indicitive of a more electric mindset thatn the average human has.  Songs that later seem kind of rote like "Deal" feel so vibrant in this show.  And of course "Playing in the Band" had started to grow its teeth since Keith joined the band, and Jerry just goes wild all over it.  While it hasn't reached the formless chaos/order dichotomy that would define it the next year and for the rest of the band's career, this "Playing" still hits some seriously psychedelic notes.

     The sound starts to get a little rough around the edges with "Casey Jones" and "Saturday Night," but you can still hear everything fine.  Then there's a little time jump back to "Ramble on Rose."  While this song really took off post-hiatus when they started to stretch out the solo section, I really love these early versions.  It's a little more up-tempo and has a more aggressive edge to it than the more laid-back versions that came later.  Also there are two solo sections in it instead of just the one, which is always nice!  This is another song where Keith's playing is bold and exciting, you can practically hear Jerry smiling while Keith backs up his vocals with that chunky piano he had in the Fall of '71.

     While everything up to this point has been great, the real meat of this release is "Cryptical Envelopement > Drums > The Other One > Me & My Uncle > The Other One > Wharf Rat, Not Fade Away > Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad > Not Fade Away."  It's always fun to hear a late "Cryptical" like this, and while it's good you can hear why they dropped it; it just didn't fit with the aesthetic they were cultivating anymore.  While the very best "Drums" were probably from when we had two drummers, I have always loved these solo Billy ones.  He was such a creative musician and I love hearing him when he's free to let loose on his own.  He settles into the "Other One" beat after not too long, and Phil comes thundering in - head for the hills!  Once again Keith exuberantly, but now everyone is right up there with him, propelling the song into unknown realms.  Suddenly Phil takes a left turn and drops them into a slow, bluesy kind of space, but Jerry stays mostly on course by sticking close to the "Other One" theme.  They touch on the "Feelin' Groovy Jam" briefly before diving towards the first verse.

     After the verse they dissovle and slow down a bit, then ease their way into "Me & My Uncle."  This feels kind of middle of the road for the era (meaning it's still great) and if you heard just this track you would never know it was in the middle of a meltdown sandwich.  Instead of slamming back into "The Other One," they kind of ooze into it, picking up steam as they go.  At a few points Jerry is definitely hinting at or even trying to start "Sitting on Top of the World," but the rest of the band never takes the bait.  Instead they just keep the the song boiling over, with some beautiful interplay between Keith, Bob, and Phil while Jerry skates across their foundation.  They come to the last verse, and instead of going back to "Cryptical," they go to what was already becoming the traditional follow up to "The Other One," "Wharf Rat."  While not as stately and crystalline as the post-hiatus versions, this one has a beautiful crispness to it, with Jerry's younger, healthier voice making it sound a bit folkier.

     '71 was quite the year for "NFA > GDTRFB > NFA," and that only became more true once Keith joined the band.  Most versions of this suite are a little short on the "Not Fade Away," but on this one they rock it out for everything it's worth.  Jerry throws a couple of teases into the fray, with "Shortnin' Bread" and "Lovelight" shining through briefly, but then they drift into a groove that isn't quite any song or jam, just pure virtuosity at its best.  From there they slip easily into "Goin' Down the Road," where Jerry forgets some verses but keeps playing like an angel.  They take their time going back into "Not Fade Away," with teases of "Cold Rain & Snow" and possibly "China Cat Sunflower" drifting back and forth, until they jump back into that same Bo Diddley beat.

     We jump forward about a month now to December, with a setlist that looks very similar to the first two discs, but Pigpen has returned and the band is already sounding a lot closer to their Europe '72 sound.  Pig gets a lot of flack for his organ playing, but by this point in his career I think he's perfectly fine. While that's not a ringing endorsement, he was still better at the organ than Keith ever was, and he can obviously blow the house down with his singing.  Not only that, but the combination of new songs and songs revived from the bands early days ("Mr. Charlie," "Next Time You See Me," etc.) really showed how much the band had evolved with Pig, and you can't help but wonder how much more they would have matured if Pig had stuck around.

     There's also an unlabelled "Stars and Stripes Forever" in here, which is an underrated tuning diddy if you ask me.  Speaking of underrated songs, I have always wondered why "You Win Again" was dropped from the rotation.  It's such a great little blues number that could have really grown some teeth, and this one has Jerry calling out Keith when he throws the second solo to him, and Keith nails that sucker!The main release winds up with another great "NFA > GDTRFB > NFA," this time with Phil leading them into some deep space before resolving into "GDTRFB."  This one also features Bob and Pig raving back and forth during the "NFA" reprise, which I've always loved.  Then it's onto the Bonus Disc, which as Dave explained in his Basement Chat had to be only Dead originals for copyright reasons.  There are some more repeats here, but again the songs all sound so different with Pig added back in.  He doesn't really have much to do in the embryonic meltdown of another early "Playing," but it's great to hear his contributions to "Tennessee Jed" and "Black Peter." 

     The bonus disc wraps up with another mind-blowing "Other One" vehicle.  Where the one from the main release was filled with thematic jams and sandwiched around another song, this one is instead an intense trip headlong down the psychedelic stairs.  They stay on the main theme of the song for most of it, sometimes slipping into more abstract and dark spaces before jumping back into the groove.  The Pig and Keith duo on keys gives it a Europe '72 kind of vibe, especially in the further reaches of the song; once again, Keith doesn't even hesitate when the floor of the song drops out from under him, he just takes it in a new direction.  They execute a nice shift into "Wharf Rat," and come to s brief full stop before starting into "Sugar Magnolia," the jamming segue still a little ways off.  They would keep this transition going for the next few years, replacing "Cryptical" with "Truckin'" or "He's Gone."

     Well that wraps up another excellent Dave's Picks!  Maybe some day I'll do a ranking of them in order, but that seems like a hassle.  Either way, this is definitely one of the best and I can't wait to listen to it again...in fact I think I will right now.  As always, leave any questions, objections, etc. below, and stay tuned for Dead & Company hype.