GRATEFUL DEAD
Sunday, November 7, 1971
Harding Theater - San Francisco, CA
Soundboard Recording
Winter 1971 Grateful Dead. Keith Godchaux joined the band in mid October, and the band was energized with this new addition of talent. 11/7/71 smokes from bell to bell. The band is in great spirits, chatting it up to the crowd (both in the hall and on the radio), despite technical difficulties a-plenty. Set one opens with a blistering Truckin’ and it never looks back. Everything is just a little better than usual, and everywhere you look (listen) there is something wonderful going on.

Jerry’s leads throughout the show are great, and Billy Kreutzmann’s drumming makes you realize that he is without a doubt one of the most unsung rock drummers of all time. He is the glue that holds the whole thing together, and the core force that creates all this great energy within the band.
There are many tunes that would still qualify as “new.” “Brown-Eyed Women,” “Jack Straw,” “Tennessee Jed,” “Comes A Time” (with an extra verse), “Ramble On Rose,” “Mexicali Blues,” “One More Saturday Night” – most of these debuted less than three weeks earlier, and every one of them is delivered as an absolute gem on 11/7/71. The late second set “Playin’ In The Band” is already starting to stretch out with a nice jam-interlude section on its way to its ultimate form in 1972. And, we even get one of only two versions of “Hideaway.” The other would come in 1989.

The second set goes on and on with great music. The NFA>GDTRFB>NFA is one for the ages. The combination of great huge jams and equally great single songs makes this show worth listening to from start to finish many times over.
A historically hard show to find in excellent quality, this pre-FM master made it into circulation some years ago. Truly a treasure.
A historically hard show to find in excellent quality, this pre-FM master made it into circulation some years ago. Truly a treasure.
Great review+show, I hadn't given this one a thorough listen. Awesome photos, too! I haven't seen many of these. The red '71 shot is great - Winterland in May, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteOn other sites fans rate this as THE best Dead show. I first listened to it a couple of a weeks ago and was a bit disappointed. There are so many technical difficulties that it's hard to find a nice rhythm. Just a lot of long breaks between each song. While the energy of each song is unbelievable, I found the keyboards to be somewhat odd. It sounds like an amateur going "clink, clink, clink." The sound is definitely great for the time period, but not one of my favs.
ReplyDeletecryptdev did a post on this show, he having attended it:
ReplyDeletehttp://cryptdev.blogspot.com/2011/11/grateful-dead-visit-old-west-harding.html
I wore out this show on cassette. Thankfully this was the first show I downloaded digitally. It's one of my top 5 favorites.
ReplyDeleteDoes this site still work? :) i second what Harry said....
ReplyDeleteThe site works! Hooray. Beyond no new posts being written. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe're dying for a new post. Please, please, pretty please!
ReplyDeleteDo you plan on reviewing more shows?
ReplyDelete