E72 post 13

5/13/72 fin

I know the Lille cancellation and then 5/13/72 has been discussed by LIA and probably Corry in his recent free gigs post. These E72 posts of mine just can't do justice to what's out there - feel free to post additional links in comments!

I like this show, a lot. The first set has all kinds of energy. We get the first (I think?) marriage of The Other One and He's Gone, the latter of which is maturing pretty well. He still doesn't have all the singing arranged how it would be, but it's getting stronger. But it's really the first set that sounds spritely and enthusiastic.

Pig sounds like he's running out of steam, but that could just be my foreknowledge of the end creeping backward. Of note, though: no big rap this night.

5/16/72

The soundcheck of Garcia doing "Big River" is fun. I have just listened to the whole first set, less the closing PITB, and -WOW- another very good first set. Everything sounds especially tight, maybe a case where the FM broadcast led them to focus a little more. (They are pretty locked in the whole tour, but there's always room for improvement.) All of the early set songs are tight.

I like the China > Rider. China > Rider on this tour fascinates me. The "feelin groovy" connector that they'd play every time out in '73-'74 --which finds its purest expression, I thought the other day, in Des Moines on 6/16/74-- it's immanent in what they're doing. I can't tell if they all see it and chose not to do it --it's a jam they had explored a lot over the years, after all-- or if I am hearing the pre-echo of later versions that partly live in my DNA.

I haven't traced the evolution of the China-Rider pairing, but I found some E72 versions to be a little bit frustrating, neither the straight-drop from the first couple of years of doing them together, nor the later, I think very successful, "feelin' groovy" bridge. Some of these versions find them boys searching, but not always finding what they are looking for.

Anyway, this version is good.

Now comes the real shocker. "Beat It On Down The Line" is awesome here - tight and well crafted. And then, get this. My least favorite E72 song is "It Hurts Me To". I have said so in one of the other posts. But, my God, Garcia opens up a can of whoopass somewhere in this one that has to be heard to be believed, doing a crazed, scratchy, scrub. I can almost hear Pig nodding in recognition of what his lead guitar player laid down. Stunning.

Looking forward to hearing the rest from the "fairy Duchy" of Luxembourg.


! ref: http://deaddisc.com/disc/Europe_72_Box.htm