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Decided to take a little nap after dinner, put on Louisville Freedom Hall 1974, and fell asleep on the sofa between the speakers.
The WRS > Let it Grow > The Other One > It’s a Sin progression caused some crazy dreams. Played it again later to confirm my suspicion that it’s a great one. It felt more like bebop or free form jazz, and I “got” it with no desire to hit the skip button on my remote.
Hopefully my enjoyment of these lengthy jams will wait a bit to let me keep getting versed in the more basic elements of songs and eras first.
One thing that makes listening to live Grateful Dead different from other bands is the transitions between songs. You know, the “->” stuff, like “China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider”.
For a newbie, it poses a bit of a challenge and complication, because you need to know the songs well enough to be able to enjoy some of the acrobatics of the transitions. Evaluating the grace or improvisational value of a -> is dependent upon having this knowledge.
I can only imagine the time spent by tapers in the CD and FLAC/SHN era agonizing over just when to end the first track and begin the second in the transition. The overlap can be quite extended.
It even requires learning a new skill for the downloader when putting the track names into iTunes, mastering the -> at the end of the first song name, or is it >>?
Seems to me that if the transitions were on the original studio albums, or if they were worked up intricately in rehearsals, they would be, in many cases, no big deal. But it’s the very highwire-act nature of them as unplanned that makes their successful accomplishment something special to hear.
For now, I am generally avoiding not only the transitions from this -> to that ->, I am also avoiding the jam songs. Too much to absorb for now. Once I get the basic catalog down, I will move more directly into intensive listening and evaluation of the transitions (segues) and jams.
So let’s break the rule I just set.
Cornell Barton Hall 1977, Scarlet Begonias -> Fire on the Mountain, aka “Scarlet Fire”.
Wow, that’s a seamless transition that fuses the two tunes into a timeless work of art. No background required to understand that one! Give it a fresh listen if it’s been a while. Something about Jerry’s solo on Scarlet Begonias symbolizes the Grateful Dead and, in particular, his soloing style more than nearly anything else I have heard. There are no pyrotechnics necessarily, just his beautiful embroidery in his unique style. Not sure if I said that before, but it’s worth repeating if I did.
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