Grateful Dead
Date 1986-03-24
The Spectrum
Philadelphia PA

Set I
01. tuning
02. Alabama Getaway >
03. Greatest Story Ever Told
04. Dire Wolf
05. Little Red Rooster
06. Brown Eyed Women
07. My Brother Esau
08. Ramble On Rose
09. El Paso
10. Box Of Rain

Set II
11. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo >
12. Man Smart (Woman Smarter)
13. High Time
14. Lost Sailor * >
15. Saint Of Circumstance >
16. Drums >
17. Space >
18. Morning Dew
19. crowd
20. Encore	In The Midnight Hour

*(deadbase lists this as final "Lost Sailor" as the GD)

Recording Information:*** This is a 16 bit fileset ***
Microphones: Beyer m201 (hypercardioid) XY 90Âº
Recorder:    Sony TC-D5M No Dolby, third deck in line
Location:    45 feet from stage DFC
This Source: Master AUDCA Maxell MX90 No NR [KH]
Transfer:    Nakamichi LX5 > Sonic AD2k @24/48 > Marantz PMD661|24/48 SD
Processing:  SD| Audacity | cdwav editor | TLH | FLAC
Recorded by: Executive Crew; Mike Davis, Kenny Davis, Sean Murtha, Kyle Holbrook, Tom Pinney, Gary Steel
Transfer by: Kyle Holbrook
================================================================================================================================================================
the tour story:
After doing these stories since summer 1982 tour, I am going to shift directions a bit. I am going to discuss the Grateful Dead scene overall in 1986, rather than focusing on the personal travel tales. In a large way Jerry's "health issues" were front and center to all of us "tourheads", having had a Mikel and several other flyers going around the parking lot discussing Jerry's "failing health". I am hoping to attach some of those if I can locate them in time. I would also like to dispel the notion seen so often in print about the band and the quality of their performances being terrible during this timeframe. This was simply untrue. Some nights Jerry or Bob were off and not fully there, but plenty of nights when they would just wail and put out some fine sets. Yes, most of 1986 has short sets, some first sets are barely one hour long. My premise here is that if you listen carefully enough to the entire seven months before Jerry's diabeticcoma you will hear some of the weirdest, worst, and best the Grateful Dead had to offer.

In the "best" category might be the new song selections. On this recording, "High Time" stands out. Of course, we know now, but did not in March 1986 that the band would announce the summer tour with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty as his backup band. That hindsight goes a long way toward understanding the emergence of so many Dylan tunes during fall 1985 and spring 1986. And back to the earlier point, how in the hell could Bob and Jerry recite the lengthy lyrics to those songs but forget the words to Truckin'? Amazing and puzzling at the same time. Put the flubbed lyrics and short first sets in the worst category. Then there was the weird. They ended this show in Philadelphia at The Spectrum with one song post drums, Morning Dew. The reason, confirmed after all these years with video evidence, was "sometime late in the show, Bill was hit by a bottle and was totally angry and flipped off the crowd and that was why they left the stage". I was there, and it certainly was confusing at the time with about ten different stories as to why there was only one tune after drums.

For this specific show we've already covered the weird. Although anyone who ever saw the Dead in the Spectrum knows that place had some oddity to it, a large hockey arena built in the old school style (read- bad concessions and bathrooms). Set one bounced through the typical mid Eighties Bob-Jerry-Bob sequences, although I really enjoy the "Brown Eyed Women" with Jerry's vocal on point and some sweet ensemble playing. And to end the set there was the second "Box of Rain" since 1973 which seemed more rehearsed than the Hampton breakout version. The vocal harmonies were led by Jerry but Brent and Bob added to the mix. It wasn't quite like American Beauty, but it was grand to experience it.

Second set opened with another on the atypical scale, "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodooloo" much to the surprise of the crowd. "Women Are Smarter" has Bobby doing a falsetto scat at its'end, for lack of better description.  "High Time" is excellent, with sweet Jerry solos. Then the "Lost Sailor" for what turned out to be the final time ever as the Grateful Dead. Bobby sings about "freedom to do vs freedom to be" in his drifting and dreaming soliloquay, then closes the pre-drums sequence with a rousing, if short "St. Of Circumstance".  Five songs pre-drums led to the aforementioned single song "Morning Dew" post-drums. One more night in Philly!


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     5:18.61       56237768 B   -b-   --   ---xx   flac  0.6584  gd1986-03-24beyerm201-murtha-16s1t10.flac
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     6:18.24       66735156 B   -b-   --   ---xx   flac  0.6638  gd1986-03-24beyerm201-murtha-16s2t10.flac
   122:48.28     1299782804 B                            0.6472  (20 files)


