16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
TWO GOOD ACOUSTIC/ELECTRIC SETS FROM 1970, July 5, 2010
This review is from: Road Trips: Vol. 3, No. 3: Fillmore East 5.15.70 (Audio CD)
Consisting of three discs-75,78,76 minutes each approximately (a fourth disc,78 minutes in length if you purchase from G.D., who has a lower price, in a timely manner),which contain most of both sets from that night. All tracks are unreleased except track 5 on the bonus disc ("Easy Wind"), which you can hear on the collection "Fallout From The Phil Zone",a 2CD set put together by Phil Lesh. The sound is uniformly good with only a couple of instances of any sonic anomalies,which aren't anything to get excited about. The discs are slipped, bare, into a tri-fold cardboard holder. The booklet lists song titles, song lengths, composer (s) and whether the track came from the first or second show. Musicians are listed with instruments-the usual good job done by the Dead folks. Blair Jackson wrote the notes, a look back at those particular shows, the second which he attended, and the many tracks that were to appear on "Workingmnan's Dead" and "American Beauty". There are also a number of atmospheric color photos of the band-individually and in concert.
For Deadheads who find the bands acoustic numbers (hear the above 2 albums if you're new) as deeply satisfying (or almost) as their electric excursions into the outer reaches of space, this set will do nicely. Anyone familiar with the bands music during this era will find many songs found on the above mentioned studio albums, plus a couple of songs not as well known. And the magic of a live setting gives this music that something intangible the Dead are known for. The Dead, who had released "Live Dead" only a few months before, had now incorporated country songs and old blues tunes into their repertoire. Garcia had begun playing with NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, and Bob Weir had also started to add a number of tried and true country songs into the Dead's live sets. Songs like "Don't Ease Me In" by the great country blues artist Henry Thomas, and "The Rub", "She's Mine", and "Katie Mae" by Lightnin' Hopkins, alongside country songs like "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", were given the Dead treatment, which wasn't really a stretch because the band routinely incorporated into their set lists different genres of music from the beginning. GRATEFUL DEAD lyricist Robert Hunter (who was living with Garcia at the time) was also looking back to the music that had inspired him in the early days, and was starting to write more folk, country, and blues themes into his songs.
The first disc (the early show) contains a large chunk of the first show (more from that show is on a portion of the bonus disc + tracks from the previous night in St. Louis),and songs like "I Know You Rider", and "Aint't It Crazy (The Rub)" set things up for a relaxed evening with the GRATEFUL DEAD-which of course morphs into the electric portion with "Casey Jones","St. Stephen", and so on. If you don't have the bonus disc, which contains a number of great tracks, the song selection on these three discs is just fine for getting the feel of what was happening on stage.
The second disc (beginning of the late show) is again acoustic at the outset (something the band didn't do to often) with some nice versions of "Deep Elem Blues", "Black Peter", and "Friend of the Devil". On "She's Mine" and "Katie Mae", Pigpen steps up to the mic with his gravelly blues voice while the subtle acoustic underpinnings contrast with his rough voice nicely. These tracks are evidence of just what the band lost with his death. The track "A Voice From On High",with Marmaduke and David Nelson (from NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE) on extra vocals and a nicely played mandolin, give this track a deeper country feel than other tracks here, and is a nice surprise. From there the group (after a short introduction by the late Bill Graham) shifts into its electric mode and proceeds to deliver the kind of music the band is known for. The song "I Know You Rider" is given an electric outing, which is in stark contrast to the acoustic version from the first set, which shows how the band could take a song in any direction they felt like at the time.
The third disc (of the late show) continues the electric portion of the show with "Good Lovin'" (with a drum solo), and then a good "Dark Star" (with some nice electronic sounds)/"St. Stephen"/"Not Fade Away"/"Turn on Your Lovelight", and ends with "Cold Jordan", a nice way to end the show. The contrast between the acoustic numbers and then the often transcendent electric portions of this show once again prove the GRATEFUL DEAD were capable of going in virtually any direction they chose (and some they didn't consciously choose), and could start off at one point and then somehow end up somewhere else. But it all seems to somehow make sense-even if you're not hearing this music in a live setting. Garcia's guitar, with the band weaving in and out,over and around him is, at times, capable of lifting you up and transporting you to that special place that only the Dead were capable of doing. Very few bands had (have) that certain "something" that separates good bands from great ones-and the GRATEFUL DEAD had it.
If your tastes run towards the period (1970's)when the band was bringing in close harmonies together with acoustic instruments, and then segueing into that satisfying electric sound that only they could develop-this is something worth purchasing. The chance to hear not one, but two acoustic sets before their electric excursions into the nether regions of space shouldn't be missed. This is one of the better "Road Trips" sets the band has released-the care the band take no matter if the music is acoustic or electric is evident. So, sit back and let the music work its special magic, you won't be sorry.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the classics is released, September 18, 2010
This review is from: Road Trips: Vol. 3, No. 3: Fillmore East 5.15.70 (Audio CD)
Back in the day before Road Trips, Dick's Picks and all the fallout from the vault, there were tapes and in the days before Betty and Amy boards, soundboards were a somewhat rare animal. There were a handful which were the building blocks in any "heads'" collection and 5-15-70 (early and late) was one of them. Fortunately, this turned out to be really long shows (early and late) and with two acoustic sets. As is the case with any show, there are a few weak vocals and a blown cue here and there but for the most part, both the early and late show are top notch. We're lucky to have this as a lot of shows from 1970 don't exist in the vault. I could go into each and every track but I would pretty much be saying the same thing. The fact is that this is a MUST HAVE and belongs in everyone's collection. The bonus disc has more of the show plus a nice bit of the show before 5-14-70.
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