1970s Favorites: The Grateful Dead 1970-73 Edition

The Grateful Dead were one of the greatest under-appreciated rock ‘n’ roll bands in the world in the early 1970s, with Jerry Garcia on lead guitar, Bob Weir on rhythm guitar, Phil Lesh on bass, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and later, Keith Godchaux on keyboards, and Bill Kreutzmann on drums. In fact, I think the Grateful Dead, along with Creedence Clearwater Revival, were THE Great American Rock And Roll Bands of the era.

From the mid to late 1960s, the Dead were very much a psychedelic band, probably best appreciated while the listener was under the influence of some serious hallucinogens. They did a few songs during that era that I like, but nothing that really blows me away.

However, in 1970 the Dead switched gears and recorded and released Working Man’s Dead and American Beauty, two of the greatest rock albums ever made. Neither album sounded much like anything the Dead had ever done before; they are mostly acoustic country rock albums, and they contain some of the Dead’s greatest music: “Casey Jones,” “Uncle John’s Band,” “Truckin’” and “Friend Of The Devil,”  to name just a very small sample of the awesome music on those two albums.

During the early 1970s, Jerry Garcia and his song writing partner, Robert Hunter, wrote some classic American music, as did Bob Weir and his writing partner, a Wyoming rancher named John Barlow. Songs like “Bertha,” “Jack Straw,” Tennessee Jed,” and my personal favorite, “He’s Gone,” were all written in 1970-72. Those songs are classic rock ‘n’ roll songs set in the American west, something that no band had ever really done before. Dennis McNally’s book, A Long Strange Trip, tells the story of Bob Weir driving from his ranch in Marin County, California, to Pinedale, Wyoming, where John Barlow ran his parents' ranch, so that they could drink Wild Turkey and write songs together. It makes me happy to imagine Weir hitting I-80 in 1971, and cruising across Nevada, through Salt Lake City, to Evanston, Wyoming, and then heading north to Sublette County.

Ironically, the Dead never bothered to put the music they wrote in the early 1970s on a traditional, studio recorded album. Most of it is found on their live album, Europe ’72. Nothing beats that album as roadtrip music, but the problem with Europe ’72 is Jerry and the boys did a lot of overdubs before they released it, so Europe ’72 doesn’t sound as much like the Dead sounded live in 1972 - their best year - as it could have. And as everyone knows, live Dead is the best Dead.

To really hear and understand why the Dead were as good as they were back then, you need to listen to two live albums that were recently released. The two albums are basically soundboard tapes that have been sonically enhanced to high definition audio. Those two albums are:

Road Trips Vol.3 No.2, recorded in Austin, TX, on November 15, 1971

and

Dick's Picks Vol. 11, recorded live in Jersey City, NJ, on September 27, 1972

Neither of these albums are readily available through Amazon.com or your local Barnes and Noble. The best place to find them nowadays is eBay, sadly. However, they are both worth the time and energy it takes to seek them out. 

In March 1973, Pigpen died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at the age of twenty-seven. For me, his death marks the end of the classic era of the Grateful Dead, even though Pig was no longer touring with the band due to his health problems, and they had hired Keith Godchaux to take his place. The Dead went on to record more brilliant music, right up until Jerry Garcia died in 1995, but they never again sounded exactly the same as they did in ’72.

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan 1945 - 1973