Set Lists

Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings

The wait is over. Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings! 

The year 1973 the Grateful Dead performed quite a few shows. Interesting, looking their the venues only five performances were in the Bay Area, including these three. The other two were on 2/9 in Palo Alto and 5/26 in San Francisco. 

The 2/9/73, performance was their first show of the year and they broke out a whole host of material; "Row Jimmy," "Here Comes Sunshine," "Eyes of the World," "They Love Each Other," "China Doll," "Loose Lucy," and "Wave that Flag, (a.k.a. "U.S. Blues"). These songs would wind up on the next two Grateful Dead albums, Wake of the Flood (1973), and Mars Hotel (1974), as well as Garcia's solo release Reflections (1974).

Throughout 1973 the new material matured through a busy touring schedule. When they finally returned home to play a series of gigs it was already November. Thankfully the concerts at Winterland Arena on November 9 - 11 were recorded, masterfully remastered, and released for your listening enjoyment. 

The release is billed as the best sounding two-track recording from 1973. They do sound marvelous. The separation of the instruments is nicely defined and more important their tone has clarity and balance. 

The Winterland 1973 box includes the three performances from that three night run. To generalize and summarize: set ones are similar in structure, solid renditions of a variety material that includes originals and covers, rock and county styles, fast and slow beats, happy and sad emotions, a little blues, all with a good ol' Grateful Dead signature. You may characterize them as songs to sing along to while hearing sonically clear melodies pour out of the speakers. And, to close set one, they'd perform a jam song. For each night the second sets each had a different centerpiece within a lengthy set. 

The first evening, November 9, could be analyzed as the Bay Area's introduction of the Wake of the Flood material.  Throughout this evening, five of the seven songs from that album were performed. True, four of these songs were performed earlier in the year during one or both of their two other local performances. Since then the band had a chance to develop their chops on them. As this series of shows emphasizes a lot of material from Wake of the Flood it is worth pointing out that on a few of the tracks  Garcia incorporates slide guitar on songs such as "Row Jimmy," and the first segment of the "Weather Report Suite." Garcia isn't a first rate slide virtuoso, but within the context of their own compositions it's is more than effective. Jerry also pulls out the slide with exceptional results during "Dark Star" on the November 11. 

The second set is on disc two following the conclusion of set one, "Playing in the Band." Like disc one the songs don't segue into each other. Don't kid yourself, it is much more than another set one. They serve up some delightful, must hear, Jerry compositions that are separated with some short Bobby tracks including "Big River." As we know from the first Dick's Picks release, taken from 12/19/73, "Big River" totally kicks butt during this period. 

Then for the third disc, we have a generous hour of seamless music. The San Francisco debut of "Weather Report Suite" begins the journey. This track was performed at each of the Winterland concerts. A really fine composition. The vocal phrasing where the they switch between Bobby singing lead and the background vocalists on counter melody, (knowing, flowing, growing) and then Bobby takes the counter melody for the next segment of the song with the sweet sounds of Jerry and Donna's voices leading the main vocal line. I never tire of hearing this, not to forget the lengthy jams. The liner notes includes some further insightful comments about "Weather Report Suite." Among the remaining first class sounds on the disc is a typically hot rendering of "Eyes of the World." 

The November 10 performance is highlighted by the sandwich, or ad hoc suite of:
Playing In The Band >
Uncle John's Band >
Morning Dew >
Uncle John's Band >
Playing In The Band

A superb piece of music. This is one of only three versions of this sequence; it was also released on DP24. Quite ambitious. Some of the transitions are tighter than others. It is worth noting that the marriage of "Playing In The Band" and "Uncle John's Band" that would be a staple through the rest of the Grateful Dead's career was born in this latter part of 1973, as was splitting the song with others songs between it on dates like 10/21/73, 10/27/73, and 11/1/73. 

This suite does leave an important question unanswered, does it really matter anyway, or doesn't it? Usually with "Morning Dew," Jerry tells us emphatically. But during these "sandwiches," both that section as well as some of shredding, and the huge energy buildup and explosive conclusion so dear to a 1973 "Dew"  is foregone to work on the transition. The segue from "Uncle John's Band" > "Morning Dew" is marvelous. While this "Morning Dew" sounds beautiful superb stand alone versions of "Morning Dew" from this era must be sought. My favorite is from Dick's Picks 19 and two versions are on Dick's Picks 14. While not quite the same era a serious discussion of great "Dews" would include 1974's Grateful Dead Movie.

That was only the start of the set. Disc three offers another great "Big River," San Francisco's introduction to "Stella Blue," where Phil gives a lesson on bass phraseology. More, "Truckin'," hits on all cylinders, a double song encore, as well as a few more tracks.

What does November 11 brings us? The first set is generous in length and deliciously played. Three upbeat tracks start things off in an energized manner. They are all well played and are transitioned together with moderate success. Bobby delivers a marvelous "Black-Throated Wind" that really displays the brilliance of the band being able to deliver dynamics. Meanwhile, Garcia rendering of "To Lay Me Down" is a melodic marvel, and "Ramble On Rose" really sounds nice with Keith's perfect barrelhouse piano runs. Other highlights are the two jam oriented tracks, "China Cat Sunflower" > "I Know You Rider" where the transition is really fine, and "Weather Report Suite." 

To start the second set "Mississippi Half-Step" is a treat; the concluding jam shows a real tightness with everyone playing ideas off  of each other behind Jerry's lead. Certainly the major theme of this set is the only "Dark Star," which begins disc 3. It doesn't disappoint either. This rendition has terrific interplay before landing into a "Mind Left Body" jam and then launching "Eyes Of the World." A triple encore is among the material to round out the disc.

There have been a lot of releases from the latter part of 1973 and its close relative 1974. Attempting to fairly grade Winterland 1973 comparatively, gathering three other shows with similar material the closest would be Dick's Picks 19, Dick's Picks 14, and Dick's Picks 24. Each are nine discs, they each offer the infamous 
Playing In The Band >
Uncle John's Band >
Morning Dew >
Uncle John's Band >
Playing In The Band, a superb "Dark Star" among the treasures of material. So if I had to select a preference between Winterland 1973 or those three releases I'd select Winterland 1973. No hesitation. The reason is two fold, the sound quality on Winterland 1973 is so good and the flow of having complete shows is a plus. That is not to sell short the other releases as 10/19/73 performance is every bit as good as any of these concerts, and the Boston shows amaze upon each listen. 

The Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings isn't cheap, but it is well worth the price. Before hearing it I thought the cost would prevent this release from getting my highest grade, especially with so much great material already released from this era to choose from. If you are a 1973 - 74 fan, like me you won't be disappointed and I'd go as far as saying you need this. It may never leaver your CD player. There are three shows, one for home, one for the car, and the other for the office. 

by Barry Small ©
Grade A +

There have been several Grateful Dead box-set releases, but this is a little different. The two closest:
Dick's Picks Volume 29 - Full concerts, but not the same venue. Two track recordings. Six discs. 

Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Concerts - The theme of the same venue and complete recordings that are released in one box would seemingly make this the most like the Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings. However, Fillmore 1969 was a limited edition and is no longer available. Ten discs. 

Also, a three disc compilation was released and is still available, no compilation for Winterland 1973 was released. I'm not sure how well a compilation of Winterland would work though. It would have to be six discs so why bother? Perhaps releasing one of the shows individually for those that can't afford the box or casual listeners. The problem with that is if you heard one show you want the other two, and then you'd have to buy the box too. Winterland 1973 is just perfect as is. 

The Fillmore 1969  releases are multi-tracks recordings as opposed to two track recordings for the Winterland run, but with the extra restoration processes they used for Winterland they really sound great.

Other boxes:
So Many Roads - Live career overview, but with too much of an emphasis on early and late material. 

The Golden Road - Remastered with bonus tracks. 12 CD's. Birth of the Dead through Europe 1972. - With 15 1/2 hours of music, including 7 hours of previously unreleased material. Includes the Dead's nine Warner Bros. albums, digitally remastered in HDCD for superior quality.

Beyond Description - Remastered with bonus tracks - 12 CD's. Wake of the Flood through Built to Last.

A nine CD box set of "every note" played at the three Winterland shows from November 9th, 10th and 11th, 1973 with one exception. The encore from 11/9/73, "Uncle John's Band" wasn't recorded and obviously wasn't included. A different version of the song is included on both other evenings. 

Disc 1 (11/9/1973);

Set 1
Promised Land
Brown-Eyed Women
Me & Bobby McGee
They Love Each Other
Black-Throated Wind
Don't Ease Me In
Mexicali Blues
Row Jimmy
The Race Is On
China Cat Sunflower >
I Know You Rider

Disc 2 (11/9/1973);
Playing In The Band

Set 2
Here Comes Sunshine
Me and My Uncle
To Lay Me Down
Big River
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Greatest Story Ever Told >
Bertha

Disc 3 (11/9/1973);
Weather Report Suite >
Prelude
Part I
Let It Grow
Eyes Of The World >
China Doll
Around and Around >
Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad >
Johnny B. Goode

Note: Encore was Uncle John's Band, but wasn't recorded (A different version is included on both other evenings). 

Disc 4 (11/10/1973);
Set 1
Bertha
Jack Straw
Loser
Looks Like Rain
Deal
Mexicali Blues
Tennessee Jed
El Paso
Brokedown Palace
Beat It On Down The Line
Row Jimmy

Disc 5 (11/10/1973);
Weather Report Suite >
Prelude
Part I
Let It Grow

Set 2
Playing In The Band >
Uncle John's Band >
Morning Dew >
Uncle John's Band >
Playing In The Band

Disc 6 (11/10/1973);
Big River
Stella Blue
Truckin' >
Wharf Rat >
Sugar Magnolia

Encore
One More Saturday Night
Casey Jones

Disc 7 (11/11/1973);
Set 1
Promised Land >
Bertha >
Greatest Story Ever Told
Sugaree
Black-Throated Wind
To Lay Me Down
El Paso
Ramble On Rose
Me and Bobby McGee

Disc 8 (11/11/1973);
China Cat Sunflower >
I Know You Rider
Me and My Uncle
Loose Lucy
Weather Report Suite >
Prelude
Part I
Let It Grow

Set 2
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Big River

Disc 9 (11/11/1973);
Dark Star >
Eyes Of The World >
China Doll
Sugar Magnolia

Encore
Uncle John's Band
Johnny B. Goode >
We Bid You Goodnight

Bonus Disc: Cincinnati Gardens, 12/4/73 
(for orders placed before April 30th)
1. China Cat Sunflower
2. I Know You Rider
3. Truckin’
4. Stella Blue
5. Eyes Of The World
6. Space
7. Sugar Magnolia
8. Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad
9. Casey Jones

Recording engineer - Bill Candelario
CD Mastering - Jeffrey Norman 
Recorded live at Winterland, San Francisco, November 9 - 11, 1973

Liner Notes:
Essay - Dennis McNally - 21 pages
Photos
Mastering Notes
Track Listing
Credits

Some comments by

The Tapers Section of the GD website edition 4/7 - 4-13/08 features a few highlights from the Winterland 1973 release.

Bonus disc
A bonus CD of music recorded live at the Grateful Dead show in Cincinnati, OH, on December 4, 1973, was included with pre-ordered copies of the Winterland 1973 box-set.
1. China Cat Sunflower
2. I Know You Rider
3. Truckin’
4. Stella Blue
5. Eyes Of The World
6. Space
7. Sugar Magnolia
8. Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad
9. Casey Jones

Other notes:
Some key tracks not performed at these three performances are "He's Gone," and "The Other One." The next Grateful Dead performance on 11/4 at San Diego International Sports Arena is one to seek out. How is this for a second set? 

Truckin' [16:24] > The Other One [15:31] > Big River [5:03] > The Other One [6:15] > Eyes Of The World [11:#24] > The Other One [4:31] > Wharf Rat [9:53] ; Me And My Uncle [2:58]; Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad [7:37] > One More Saturday Night [4:58] - From deadlists.com

The first set of 11/14 has a version of "Here Comes Sunshine" that they total lose their footing, one the biggest GD bloopers.

Wake of the Flood track listing
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo (Hunter/Garcia) 
Let Me Sing Your Blues Away (Hunter/K. Godchaux) 
Row Jimmy (Hunter/Garcia) 
Stella Blue (Hunter/Garcia) 
Here Comes Sunshine (Hunter/Garcia) 
Eyes Of The World (Hunter/Garcia) 
Weather Report Suite
- Prelude (Weir)
- Part 1 (Weir/Andersen)
- Part 2 - Let It Grow (Weir/Barlow) 

From Dead.net
All the music here was drawn from Grateful Dead crew member Kidd Candelario’s crystal clear and wonderfully present 2-track soundboard reels of the shows, and enhanced by the mastering work of the always reliable sonic wizard Jeffrey Norman, who used all sorts of arcane processes to bring it all into the glorious world of HDCD sound. This stuff will rattle your bones! The beautifully designed box also comes with a colorful booklet containing scads of great photos and a fine essay by Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally.

More from the Grateful Dead website
San Francisco’s Winterland Arena was home court during one of the Dead’s most glorious eras, and Winterland gigs there were not just events, they became an institution. Grateful Dead played more shows there than any other artist, including the venue’s epic closing in 1978. This nine-disc box set captures every mind-bending note recorded at Winterland during the band's legendary three-night residency in November 1973—a run of shows that Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux argues is among the very finest contained within the band’s vast tape vault. Winterland 1973, is the long awaited “Complete Run” follow-up to the ecstatically received Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings, which sold out almost immediately in 2005.

Housed in in a deluxe archival box, Winterland 1973 contains a portfolio of 72 previously unreleased tracks, presented in HDCD and mastered from the original two-track soundboard tapes using a cutting-edge process that delivers unparalleled sound quality. We’re certain that these recordings are among the very finest two-tracks ever produced. The box also includes an in-depth 28 page booklet and two surprise pieces of memorabilia from the Winterland era.

Special Offer—Until April 30th, order the Winterland 1973 box through dead.net and we'll send you a special BONUS DISC of previously uncirculated material recorded at Cincinnati Gardens on December 4, 1973. Orders are expected to ship by the end of April.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The Wait Is Over… The Winterland 1973 Box Has Arrived!

The Shows
Winterland - November 9, 1973
Winterland - November 10, 1973
Winterland - November 11, 1973

Pre-order bonus disc
Cincinnati Gardens - December 4, 1973

Sherman, set the Wayback machine for the second week of November, 1973. The Grateful Dead are on a roll…yes, again! The summer had seen the band playing triumphant mega-shows with the Allman Brothers at RFK Stadium in D.C. and at Watkins Glenn in upstate New York. With their popularity seemingly still escalating by the month, fall tours took them to various East Coast haunts and all over the Midwest. On October 15, they released Wake of the Flood, their first album on their own independent record label, and copies were flying out of stores coast to coast. So the mood in the band was WAY UP when their incredibly busy schedule brought them home for three shows at Winterland in San Francisco November 9, 10 and 11—before they set off again for points East.

Winterland always brought out the best—and the beast—in the band. Located across Geary Boulevard from the Fillmore Auditorium, the one-time home of the Ice Follies had hosted dozens of amazing rock shows since Bill Graham started putting on shows there in the late ’60s. It’s where the top tier of Bay Area bands would get together occasionally for marathon shows, and it’s where the most popular out-of-town acts—from The Doors, to Hendrix, to The Who, to the Rolling Stones—would play in the era before faceless sports arenas became an unfortunate fact of concert-going life. But nobody played Winterland as often as the Dead. By the time they’d trucked their ever-expanding sound system to the venue for their November ’73 shows, they’d already logged 31 concerts there—and there would be another 28 eventful Dead nights at Winterland before the old place was closed after the Dead’s New Year’s Eve show in 1978, and eventually reduced to rubble to make way for condos. Sure, the 5,000-capacity hall was acoustically challenging and a little frayed on the edges. But with its narrow open floor, shallow lower balcony that encircled the entire venue, its deeper back balcony chill zone, and serpentine walkways between floors, it was a tremendously fun and entertaining place to see a show—especially a Dead show.

Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings captures the Dead during one of their peak years and absolutely at the top of their game. Spread over nine discs, it includes every note of three complete consecutive shows (save for the encore of November 9, which was not recorded), so there’s plenty here to satisfy every fan: magnificent jams on “Dark Star” (which sprawls to 35 completely compelling minutes!), “Playing in the Band,” “Eyes of the World,” the still-new “Weather Report Suite” and more; kick-ass rockers of every variety (“Sugar Magnolia,” “Casey Jones,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Truckin’,” et al); haunting ballads including “China Doll,” “Stella Blue” and “To Lay Me Down”; a truly spectacular “China Cat”; and the first of just three versions ever of the dazzling sequence of “Playing in the Band” > “Uncle John’s Band” > “Morning Dew” > “Uncle John’s” reprise > “Playing” reprise. (For a complete listing of the contents of the nine discs, go here.)

All the music here was drawn from Grateful Dead crew member Kidd Candelario’s crystal clear and wonderfully present 2-track soundboard reels of the shows, and enhanced by the mastering work of the always reliable sonic wizard Jeffrey Norman, who used all sorts of arcane processes to bring it all into the glorious world of HDCD sound. This stuff will rattle your bones! The beautifully designed box also comes with a colorful booklet containing scads of great photos and a fine essay by Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally.

For a limited time, too, if you order the Winterland 1973 box through dead.net, we’ll also send you a special BONUS DISC of material recorded a few weeks later, at Cincinnati Gardens on December 4, 1973. Good stuff, we assure you!