1976 can be a controversial year for deadheads. The band was on the road for the first time since the Europe '74 tour, and a lot of new material and reworked old material was getting mixed into the repertoire. This means there's a lot of uncertainty and inconsistency in some of these early shows, and the tempos were generally slower while the band found its footing. So a lot of people just skip ahead to 1977 when the band would be more mature; but those fools are missing out. There are so many hidden gems and unique jams (or hidden jams and unique gems) throughout '76, and this Dave's Picks has quite a few for those who listen for them. Sure it's a little slow, and it's far from a "perfect" show in a technical sense, but there's a lot of hold-on-to-your-seat moments, sometimes where you least expect them. The show doesn't quite fill three discs, so David threw in a couple of extra songs on the last one from a few nights later.
- Cold Rain & Snow
- The sound quality is great right off the bat, you can hear everyone clear as day.
- Jerry and Bob are kind of mellow to open the show, but everyone else is already bursting with energy.
- Jerry takes another little solo before the last verse, a sign of the band being really flexible and open to new arrangements of the songs.
- Big River
- Very energetic and creative with great leads from Jerry and Keith.
- Surprisingly upbeat tempo without feeling frantic.
- They Love Each Other
- The tempos start to drag a bit here in the first set. This one must have felt especially slow to anyone present who had seen the song pre-hiatus.
- The song really does sparkle though. Jerry's Travis Bean and Keith's grand piano compliment each other so well, and Keith actually kind of steals the show with his solo.
- Cassidy
- You can't have a '76 show without a Cassidy, that's just a fact.
- A little less confident than other versions from this month, maybe just them playing in a new venue.
- This Cassidy is weird in that it ends right after the last verse instead of going through the opening/closing riff like usual. They did this the following night too, just another case of the band trying out new things, I guess.
- Tennessee Jed
- The greatest casualty of the slower tempo in this set, this one really plods through the verses. I think it's good they started a lot of these songs out slow in '76 so they could all figure out their new roles in the expanded band, but sometimes it's just a bit rough to listen to.
- That said, the ending jam really picks up a head of steam, and the tempo gives Jerry even more time to play as many notes as he can fit into each bar.
- This song, and many other "Europe '72" songs, found new life after the hiatus. While this particular version isn't quite a '78 barn-burner, it's easy to see that it was already evolving towards that point.
- Looks Like Rain
- Looks Like Rain took a little longer to start evolving. By '78 it would basically be a rocker with some sentimental lyrics, but here in '76 it was still a delicate love song.
- Once again Jerry and Keith's playing and instrumentation blend together perfectly. The Travis could sound thin on some songs, but here it has a nice piercing effect.
- Row Jimmy
- One of my favorites from this first set, this song is perfect at the mellower speeds of '76.
- Keith switches over to the Rhodes, which may be a big part of why I love it so much. He seemed to lose control over his instruments in the next couple years, being assigned weird moogy-synths and fake pianos as the rest of the band saw fit, so it's nice to hear him on one of his strongest instruments here.
- Donna's voice is one of the best parts of this release, very noticeable on this song and the two on either side of it. So clean and sweet.
- Music Never Stopped
- A nice, punchy little version of this song, very upbeat tempo.
- Not the smoothest or most exploratory version, though it does feel almost like they go into a unique space before the typical outro jam like they occasionally would throughout the year.
- This, being an early version, still has Bob and Donna oooh-ing and ahhh-ing on the first part of the jam, as well as an extra little half-turn after the "forgot about the time" line, like on the album.
- Scarlet Begonias
- This is the year that Scarlet Begonias really grew legs as a jam vehicle. They started stretching out the solo section, and the ending jam became more and more searching and open to new ideas.
- Keith gets back on his Rhodes which really gives this version a unique feeling compared to later versions. It makes for a nice bridge across the hiatus, old instrumentation with a new (old) drummer.
- The jam is kind of laid back and spacey, the band really takes their time. While some feel that these versions feel kind of empty without the transition into Fire On the Mountain, I love these versions because it really lets them explore this song for all it's worth.
- Promised Land
- Another surprisingly uptempo number from this release.
- Help on the Way*
- No vamp at all, just right into it with a lot of Phil. Jerry starts with "help on the way" instead of "paradise waits."
- Tempo ~94 BPM
- Keith on piano.
- Fierce solo, two times through. Very fluid version of the song. Jerry does a little feedback-echo thing at one point in the solo, very cool. Phil's approach on this version feels kind of jazzier than normal.
- Hee-ah yes.
- Jerry really flubs the transition. One extra bar before Slip Riff.
- Slipknot! >*
- 4 rotations. Jerry does all four rotations with two bars of 8 and then one bar of 9. Bobby tries to only do bars of 8. The rest of the band kind of splits down the middle, and the song somehow keeps moving!
- Keith still on piano, still very Phil heavy.
- Jerry comes into the jam right away and launches off with Keith. Jam has definite direction thanks to the two of them. Drums not as dominant as 6/14, but still assertive.
- Very thematic, shadows of what was to come later in the year.
- Sudden drop into slipcord. They nail the outro, way tighter than the intro!
- Franklin's Tower >*
- This song never really changed much, but this is a really fun version of it, very energetic.
- Tempo ~100 BPM
- Smooth outro riff into Dancing.
- Dancing in the Streets >
- Another kind of mellow song, but still danceable with the disco arrangement!
- Everyone basically does small variations on the typical vamp while Jerry solos endlessly over them.
- The disco breakdown part at the end gets a little rough on the last rotation, but they pick it back up very smoothly.
- Samson & Delilah
- A great transition into this, the drummers are very on point tonight.
- Bob does cut off one of Jerry's solos a little, but Jerry just keeps soloing anyway. They're good buddies, after all.
- Ok, I said the drummers are very tight and then they kinda goofed on their part at the end of the song. BUT, it wasn't a trainwreck and actually sounded alright! Maybe just another case of trying out new things with the new band.
- Ship of Fools
- M. Lemieux said this one didn't drag at all, but I think he may have been pulling our legs...
- Lazy Lightning >
- This duo is at a nice tempo, and like Music Never Stopped feels kind of punchy.
- For being a new song, this is actually very tight, especially from Mickey on the fills! It's almost like they rehearsed or something.
- My only gripe is more about this point of the year, not this show in particular: they only do half the solo until like'77.
- Supplication
- The second part of the duo is just as tight, with Bobby really leading the way and playing creatively.
- More jazziness from Phil and everyone else in the jam.
- Maybe slows down a little, but this song really falls apart when it goes too fast, so no complaints here.
- Friend of the Devil
- You can hear the surprise from the crowd on this one when Jerry starts singing. People were definitely disappointed that this song had been rearranged so much and slowed down, but I think the record shows that these slower ones were better overall. No longer a peppy little country ditty, it became a crystalline showcase for Jerry and Keith.
- Speaking of, both of them play beautifully intricate solos. I've mentioned Jerry's being mellow a few times so far, but he gets more aggressive on this one.
- Let it Grow >
- Forever removed from the rest of Weather Report Suite, Let it Grow took a while to find a steady place in the rotation. They would play it throughout this year in this new format with the drum break in the middle, and then drop it for an entire year. Then they played it more like they did pre-hiatus on and off for a few months and dropped it again until it reemerged with Brent in '79 with the arrangement it would keep from then on.
- This far into the show, I'm really starting to think they complaints about tempo in '76 are blown way out of proportion. This song practically flies, propelled by the two drummers and Jerry.
- This arrangement of the song has the middle jam stay on just two sets of chords, instead of shifting to the third (and maybe more) set that it has in most other years. Instead of going onto that third set, they really jam out the second one and then slip into drums.
- Drums >
- Obviously not "Drums" in the sense of '78 onwards, but still a two minute drum break where Billy and Mickey get to explore different rhythms and patterns.
- I really love '76 drums when they really just had their kits and didn't get distracted trying to teach Jerry how steel drums work. You can feel them having fun on this one.
- Let it Grow >
- They come thundering back into the chorus out of nowhere, playing like bats out of hell.
- Jerry totally takes over, shredding the outro jam for a while and then steering them into Wharf Rat.
- Wharf Rat >
- The new arrangement for the bridge in Wharf Rat is perhaps one of the best changes they made post-hiatus. It never would have worked with the two drummers to do the kind of a-temporal bridge that Jerry used to play, so they needed to solidify it into 3/4 (6/8?) time.
- Jerry's tone on this is so great, sounds more full-bodied like it would in '77. He was still figuring out how he wanted that Travis to sound after all.
- Really a stellar version of the song: on point vocals, all the different parts are perfect, and the solos just take your breath away. Get up and fly away, indeed.
- Around & Around
- Kind of a sudden shift, and as someone who has recently listened to a lot of '78 lately, not one I was particularly looking forward to. Which is unfair, the band had not yet overplayed this song when the show was played.
- However, this is not exactly the best version. It really is too slow for the majority of it, but then they all try to jump the tempo up way too much at the end, and it takes them a bit to agree on a new one.
- No encore, booo.
- Sugaree (1976-06-23, Upper Darby, PA)
- Ok, while I'm glad we got some filler songs at the end here, the way to win me over on a release is not to give me a Sugaree when I was perfectly happy without one.
- But if you're not sick of this song like me, this is a really good version! It was just on the cusp of becoming the shredding machine that Jerry turned it into, so there's some meaty solos in here.
- High Time (1976-06-28, Chicago, IL)
- This song really needs to be played right, and apart from a hiccup or two they pull it off. It's very pretty, and has some great singing, but it just feels a bit staggered at times.
So maybe not the strongest finish to a release, but look at me, complaining about getting extra music on the internet! In the end I like this release more and more every time I listen to it. To be honest I was a little disappointed when it first arrived, but on every relisten I find something new that blows me away, which is what this music is all about. The first Dave's Picks of next year has already been announced as 2/26/77, which is a show I know so well already that I could probably write a review right now, but we'll all just have to wait for the official release to hear just how good it can sound.
*The notes for Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower are formatted slightly differently from the others because I lifted them from another project I'm working on. So if you want them to make more sense, you'll have to stay tuned!
