Audio CD review:
The Grateful Dead - Fillmore West 1969

The Grateful Dead - Fillmore West 1969

Band: The Grateful Dead Title: Fillmore West 1969 Rating: Release Date: 01 November, 2005 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Morning Dew 2: Good MOrning Little School Girl 3: Doin' That Rag 4: I'm A King Bee 5: Cosmic Charlie 6: Turn On Your Lovelight 7: Dupree's Diamond Blues 8: Mountains of the Moon 9: Dark Star 10: St. Stephen 11: Eleven 12: Death Don't Have No Mercy 13: That's It For the Other One 14: Alligator 15: Drums 16: Jam 17: Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) 18: Feedback 19: We Bid You Goodnight

Editoral Review This expanded, three-CD edition is culled from the same February/March ’69 shows at the Dead’s de facto live home, San Francisco’s Fillmore West. The 1969 double album Live/Dead holds a special place in the Deadhead universe; indeed, many band members and their inner circle consider it to be the band’s best overall collection as well. What’s documented here are not only some of the greatest performances of the band’s early era, but the still-evolving template for much of the band’s later flights of improvisation. The first, blues-dominated disc pays tribute to a band that a couple years earlier had been but an ambitious bar covers ban! d, while the second chronicles the Dead’s expansive "Dark Star/St. Stephen/The Eleven" triptych wed to a cover of the Rev. Gary Davis’ "Death Don’t Have No Mercy," 2/28/69 performances that turn on the freeform interplay that would become their trademark for decades to follow. The set’s final disc is highlighted by a vigorous, nearly hour-long workout that jams its way through the band’s early "Alligator," "Caution" and the obligatory drum break to the traditional closer, "We Bid You Goodnight. " Said to be the first 16-track live recording, the epochal performances here are burnished to near sonic perfection via HDCD mastering, a heady, if ironic wedding of technology and the band’s rootsy, musical humanity. --Jerry McCulley .. You can see a complete list of all The Grateful Dead discography, or go back to the The Grateful Dead tabs