“It is said that, if you lined up all those who have ever been to a Grateful Dead concert head-to-toe, the line would stretch around the moon, and about halfway back. And nobody would complain!”
WSLR is slowly coming back with a very sparse number of live studio programmers, albeit with very
specific instructions as to how to protect both ourselves and our fellow WSLR volunteers.
And WSLR has now opened new Studio “B”, adjacent to the Joe Jacco On-Air Studio, wherein we will
be able to alternate shows in-house without programmer contacts.
Grateful Dead
Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
November 2, 1969
Disc 1: SBD > Master Reel > Cassette > Dat
Disc 2: SBD > Master Reel > Dat
Transferred and Edited By Charlie Miller
Disc 1:
1. Cold Rain And Snow
2. In The Midnight Hour
3. Seasons
4. Mama Tried
5. Next Time You See Me
6. Good Lovin’
7. Big Boss Man
8. Casey Jones
9. Dancin’ In//The Streets
Disc 2:
1. Dark Star >
2. St. Stephen >
3. The Eleven >
4. Death Don’t Have No Mercy
REVIEW: Worth a listen, esp. Star, Death
I’m a Death affectionato and was pleased to find this one seemingly recently added. The
entire Star-StStephen-Eleven lead-in is fresh and solid for late 69 material. Great, rather
muscular Dark Star, must be 25 minutes long or more. The Death too is a keeper, with an
unusually slow cadence to the guitar solo, coming off the eleven jam. My favorite is still the
March, 70 version from the Capital, but this one is sweet too. Too bad they dropped Death as
all the new songs started pouring in in early 70. It is one of Jerry’s most powerful covers.
REVIEW: What More Do You Need….
Dick’s favorite Dark Star, A must-have show for ’69 from the good Dr.
In Cliff’s top 4 or 5 Dark Stars EVER!!! Do you need any more endorsements for this show?
Okay, how about, Dark Star-> St. Stephen -> The Eleven -> Death Don’t Have No Mercy
from the Master Reel.
Miller upgrade = redundant statement.
REVIEW: Dark Star Only The Beginning Jam Eyes Tease
Easily, the most variegated and immense Dark Star, for me, at this writing. Towards the end
of Dark Star they whittle themselves into a chorus of the hit record of the day “Only The
Beginning” by Chicago. There’s no vocals but you can’t help but add them yourself. Listen
carefully for the “Eyes” tease when it transitions out of the Chicago tune into St Stephen. The
Eleven is sloppy yet spirited (because they had completely sacrificed themselves for the Dark
Star), but, then, after a breather Jerry lends his entire body and soul to Death Don’t with a
heart-wrenching blues solo which is Raw Control.
REVIEW: Pigpen – lead vocalist
Could it be said that ’69 was the last year that Pig was THE lead vocalist (as opposed to A
lead vocalist) of the band? Almost 1/3 (four) of the 13 songs listed feature Pigpen on lead
vocals. And three in a row! I can’t remember that occurring after 1969.
The question is, is this the complete show?
REVIEW: Dark Star
Man, listen to them go back into the Dark Star theme around 7:00… so quiet and moody, I
love it! I have to agree, this is the best DDHNM I’ve heard this side of 4/6/69. And the Big
Boss Man is no slouch either.
REVIEW: Dark Star
This shows sound quality is about as good as it gets for a 69 show, also the performance is in
top form. The dark star is one of my favorites and includes what I like to call a UFO landing
and blast off.
Mr. Charlie Miller himself has asked us to kindly listen to the whole show, and for good
reason – the band has a great handle on their evolving sound for this era that eventually
gave way to the full-blown acoustic sets. Everything pre-Dark Star is interesting to listen
to, just to hear them oh-so-slightly scaled back. Shame that Dancin’ has that massive slice
cut out of it, probably won’t ever be complete. The rest of the set is really fun – after Billy
kicks through his bass drum head the band starts Big Boss Man sans drums – all of the
Pigpen numbers on this set are a lot of fun. The heavy juice suite to follow is just simply
a classic, timeless achievement by the Dead. Everything is absolutely….perfect! Listen to
Jerry giving his vocal everything to this show, in the transition between St. Stephen and
the Eleven and in many other points throughout.
