Grateful Dead Reviews

Zooomabooma · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:25 pm Post subject: 6-17-72 Hollywood Bowl

Grateful Dead 6/17/72
Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles

After nearly two months spent in some weird foreign land (Europe) gaining a whole legion of Euroheads, the boys went to LaLaLand for their first American show in 2½ months and their first on the West Coast since the first week of March.

Whipped right along, they did, playing one lickety split number after another. A super sweet China->Rider is sadly interrupted by a tape flip, wiping out practically all of the Northbound Train->Colorado Rain verse. Ouch. The non-invention of DAT at the time really hurt right there but a nice 10 minute or so Playin' followed which almost made up for the suffering in my soul from a few minutes before.

A few songs later came another highlight for the 1st Set -- a brand new song, a ballad type of tune sung by Jerry and oh so nice it was! Most of the crowd seemed to give Stella Blue a very nice reception and deservedly so!!

What would the rest of this night at the foot of the Hollywood hills have in store? Impossible to assess from this recording made those so many years ago. Set 2 brought a change in quality of the recording, a bad change, like a hurricane blew through and Set 1 was the peaceful calm before the storm. Not only do we only have a partial setlist but it's not the most pleasant to listen to. The 1st Set was maybe, in general, overall, about A- quality which sometimes wasn't too bad for an Aud of any era. Perhaps at times it even held very nicely with a solid grade of A ... but other times it dropped momentarily to a measely C+/B- due to microphone jostling, crowd voices, and dropouts here and there. Set 2 on the otherhand, well, it doesn't make sense to listen to the 2nd Set first but if you did with this show, you'd Love the quality of the 1st Set. I stuck with the whole almost hourlong of exisiting Set 2 but sadly I probably never will again, it stinks that much. That's terribly unfortunate because the 22 minute Other One is pretty sweet. Oh well.

It's really a shame that this (mostly pathetic) Audience recording is all that circulates for this somewhat historic date in the Dead's history. Pigpen's last show, and the very first playing of Stella Blue, should be given more importance. Does a Soundboard even exist in the vault? Why would it be stashed away all these years? Maybe this all there is.

Pigpen was a One of a Kind and it's sad that even though he was on stage here this night in Southern California, you can't even tell. In a way it's okay because the body of music that we are left with where Pigpen absolutely shines is sufficient enough considering the period of time when he was with the band. Not a whole lot in superior quality survived from those years so we should be thankful for what we do have. He may have gone out with a wimper but there's no doubt he was missed each and every day right up until this very moment in time. Thanks, Ron. Without you the Grateful Dead may never even have existed!

1st Set
The Promised Land, Sugaree,
Black-Throated Wind, Tennessee Jed, Me & My Uncle,
China Cat Sunflower -» I Know You Rider,
Playing In The Band, Loser,
Beat It On Down The Line, Stella Blue,
El Paso, Casey Jones

2nd Set (partial)
Truckin' -» Drums -» The Other One,
Ramble On Rose, Sugar Mags, Not Fade Away

http://www.archive.org/details/gd72-06-17.aud.hanno.16470.sbeok.shnf

MagicOPromotion · Deadhead Joined: 01 May 2009 Posts: 6 Location: England

you are 100 going right? Who else from the boards will probably go? Im actually really excited... Im almost hoping Pauls Boutique is performed at Bonnaroo, and Check Your Head is performed at the Hollywood Bowl, why would they announce just 1 show?
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