entering the sixth year of this subscription series, we are offered a monster show that is the finale to their spring tour of 1973. by monster i mean that they play a total of 34 songs, with a run time of three hours and 37 minutes – it barely fits on 3 cds. the first set is comprised of 16 songs, heavily populated with their standard ‘cowboy songs’ of that era, but also peppered with a fine ‘china cat sunflower/i know you rider’, donna jean doing loretta lynn’s ‘you ain’t woman enough’, and capped off with a solid ‘playing in the band’.

the second set is a marathon, with a mix of established favorites but also some of their newer material (nearly every song from their ‘wake of the flood’ album is represented here, even though it wouldn’t be released for another 6 months). the ‘stella blue’ is pristine, maybe one of my favorite versions i have heard, and the ‘eyes of the world’ is fifteen minutes long, with the second half used as a foray into jazz fusion.

the overall playing is crisp and focused, and they are all on their game here. the recording quality is outstanding.

this was their first appearance at the boston garden, a place that they would return to another 24 times, more than any other band in the long history of that venue. they probably would have played more but they got banned for a few years because they got busted for grilling lobsters in a fire escape before a show. they had been intended to be the last band to play there and were scheduled for a run of six shows in september of 1995, but those shows were cancelled due to jerry’s death that august. previous to this release, the dead had also released two other shows from the venue – dick’s picks 12 (6/28/74) and dick’s picks 17 (9/25/91).

this was a great way to start off the 2017 series, and they have already announced the next release – the december 7th 1971 show at the felt forum in nyc. on top of that, they just announced that they have finalized a deal long in the making – the return of hundreds of reels recorded by betty cantor-jackson to the vaults. whether or not any of those become volume 23 or 24 is still to be determined, but it seems likely that at least one of them will be. stay tuned.

 

Dave’s Picks To Release Volume 21, Grateful Dead at Boston Garden 4/2/73