Grateful Dead - Dick's Picks 10

CD035 - 3 CD

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Grateful Dead - Dick's Picks 10

3 CD's from Winterland in San Francisco, California on 12/29/77, with four additional songs from 12/30/77.

GRATEFUL DEAD
Jerry Garcia - Lead Guitar, Vocals
Mickey Hart - Drums
Donna Jean Godchaux - Vocals
Keith Godchaux - Keyboards
Bill Kreutzmann - Drums
Phil Lesh - Electric Bass, Vocals
Bob Weir - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals

Disc One:
Jack Straw (7:06)- Weir, Hunter
They Love Each Other (7:45) - Garcia, Hunter
Mama Tried (3:49) - Haggard
Loser (8:30) - Garcia, Hunter
Looks Like Rain (8:39) - Weir, Barlow
Tennessee Jed (9:09) - Garcia, Hunter
New Minglewood Blues (6:05) - Traditional, arr. by Bob Weir
Sugaree (14:19) - Garcia, Hunter
Promised Land (4:35) - Berry

Disc Two: Bertha (7:21) - Garcia, Hunter
Good Lovin' (6:51) - Resnick, Clark
Playin' In The Band (15:48) - Weir, Hart, Hunter
China Cat Sunflower (5:39) - Garcia, Hunter
I Know You Rider (5:27) - Traditional Arr. by Grateful Dead
China Doll (7:24) - Garcia, Hunter
Playin' Jam (1:40) - Weir, Hart
Drums (2:39) - Kreutzmann, Hart
Not Fade Away (10:05) - Hardin, Petty
Playin' In The Band (4:48) - Weir, Hart, Hunter

Disc Three:
Terrapin Station (10:29) - Garcia, Hunter
Johnny B. Goode (4:34) - Berry 12/30/77
Estimated Prophet (10:47) - Weir, Barlow
Eyes of The World (15:25) - Garcia, Hunter
St. Stephen (9:18) - Garcia, Lesh, Hunter
Sugar Magnolia (9:53) - Weir, Hunter

Recorded by: Betty Cantor-Jackson
Tape Archivist: Dick Latvala
CD Mastering: Jeffrey Norman
Ferromagnetist: John Cutler
Design by: Gecko Graphics

One of the things that strikes me about the 12/29/77 show is that there's an overwhelming mellowness to much of it. That doesn't mean there isn't dissonant space and the requisite complement of uptempo moments, but there's an evenness of mood that permeates much of the show (and of many '77 shows). There are relatively few raucous highs. Jams build deliberately and methodically. But there's also a hypnotic intensity that can't be denied, and that's where the real power lies. The historic aspect of the 12/29 show is that it marked the return of "China Cat Sunflower" > "I Know You Rider" to the repertoire for the first time since the October '74 "retirement" shows.

Anyone who was at Winterland that night can tell you how special a moment it was when, during the second set, the "Playing in the Band" jam dissembled and fell off to almost nothing, and then the familiar opening of "China Cat" emerged — mirage-like at first — from the void. It is a great "China Cat > Rider" (especially the "Rider"), though on the CD (and thus the source soundboard tape) Garcia's vocals are somewhat buried in the mix, mitigating some of its power. The entire second set (Disc Two) has a remarkable flow, from the opening "Bertha > Good Lovin'" through the final reprise of "Playing in the Band." I'm a big fan of the slower, more easy-going '77 versions of "Not Fade Away," and the one on here is a pretty good one.

Disc One is the entire first set of 12/29 and though there's nothing that's going to blow anyone away — the set list is pedestrian — it's all well-played with occasional flashes of brilliance. Disc Three presents the double encore — a concise "Terrapin" along with"Johnny B. Goode" — and then jumps ahead in time to the second set the next night (12/30) for an outstanding sequence of "Estimated Prophet" >"Eyes of the World" > "St. Stephen" > "Sugar Magnolia" that has as much energy, if not more, as most of the 12/29 show.