Winterland 1973. The Complete Recordings: A Review

Normal bands release a live concert from a single date or release a single or double disc of “best ofs” from a tour. Not the Dead. Because of their fans, the Dead don’t just release the entire concert, zits and all, the Dead (and their business people) release 3-night runs (on 9 discs) capturing a particular moment in time. Or in the case of “Winterland 1973. The Complete Recordings” 3 nights in a row. November 9-11, 1973, a Friday night through Sunday night run of shows in San Francisco that captures the band doing what they do best: playing live improvisational music.  

What’s curious about this box set released in 2009 is that in 1973 the Dead played only 3 nights in their home base of San Francisco. In a year in which they played over 150 shows. Yes, they kicked off 1973 at Maples Pavilion (in Stanford). But these 3 are the only concerts they played in the place they put on the map in their own musical way. Yet here we have the historical documentation of how they sounded in late 1973. Which is a really good but difficult and somewhat dark time for the Dead (Pigpen’s recent passing). 

Every Deadhead has their favorite era. Many point to the Cornell May 8th, 1977 show, which is in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. But I’m not entirely convinced that Cornell was the best show of the spectacular Spring ’77 tour. Then there are Deadheads who believe that the only true Dead is the Pigpen era (1965-maybe late ’71, because Pigpen really stopped having an impact on the Dead once he got sick and eventually passed in ’73), punctuated by the extremely intense playing from ’68 to ’70. Personally, I’m very fond of ’72 and the post-Pigpen ’73-74, although I do find myself coming back frequently to the intensity of ’69-’71 (2/13/1970 is such a spookily intense show!). As much as I appreciate the blues songs that Pigpen sang perfectly with so much soul and the tremendous energy that Pigpen brought to the band, it took Pigpen passing for the Dead to make the natural progression from country psychedelic rock band with a blues background to one with credible Jazz chops. 

In ’73, Jerry was learning jazz scales from his friend, pianist Merl Saunders, and these scales were giving incredible depth to his improvisation. Jerry’s soloing is really peaking at this time. It is still quite unfathomable for me to imagine that not only did the Dead play some 150+ shows, each in front of thousands of people, in 1973, but that Jerry would get incredibly bored when not on tour and would play clubs in San Francisco and Palo Alto with the Merl Saunders or Jerry Garcia Band (which had a more gospel and funky sound than the Dead) and would play an incomparable banjo with Old and In the Way (though he wasn’t quite old in ’73). It is entirely conceivable that Jerry played live on some 320 nights or more in ’73. By some accounts, his favorite pastime was buying Fender chord books and practicing chords. Literally, Jerry’s life at the time must have been Play-Travel-Sleep. Play-Travel-Sleep. Do it over again. And Play-Travel-Sleep.   

What strikes me about the box set “Winterland 1973. The Complete Recordings” is how perfectly it is suited for us Dead historians. Beautiful liner notes written by Dennis McNally capture the essence of the Dead in ’73 and how they came to be where they were on those nights in early November 1973. Luscious murals of the band and colorful characters of the time. A mailing list for fans wanting info on the upcoming tour from an era so pre-band website it is not even funny. And a great pin, which is now on one of my hats, and reads: “Good Ole Grateful Dead.”

Then there’s the sound. And for the audiophiles out there, this recording really is a treasure in its own special way. The shows were recorded on 2-track tapes on a Nagra IV as part of the band’s normal documenting procedures of the time, which employed a mic split permitting a different mix to tape than that to the PA system, with minimal processing allowing the clearest possible signal path to tape. These are far from your average 2-track recordings! An incredible restoration process took place to transfer the tapes to digital format using the highest possible digital resolution (192KHz/24bit). A standard CD is 44.1 KHz/16bit for reference. Processing and mastering procedures are described in great detail in the liner notes. The result: stunning sound quality. Each of the instruments are captured in their glory. The booms of Phil’s bass are deep and frightening. The high notes and intricate arpeggios of Jerry’s Wolf guitar are faithfully captured. Bobby’s presence is ever more important for the band at this time and his rhythm guitar pushes the band along. If there’s a weak point, it’s the vocals which do fade away slightly at points but not in a distracting way at all.  

The energy of the shows transfers nicely to the recordings. The Dead were notoriously inept at making albums in the studio (true Deadheads will argue that point, but let’s face it: with the exception of American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead, it’s perfectly okay to skip the studio albums and head straight to their live recordings in order to appreciate the band's contribution to music). Because the Dead made their music on stage and not in a studio, there are volumes of the most essential Dead tunes that were never recorded in the studio (“Jack Straw,” “Brown-Eyed Woman,” “Ramble On Rose,” and many more). Jerry captured the essence of the Dead, which had to be appreciated live, when he said: “Working in the studio is like building a ship in a bottle. Playing live is like having a rowboat out on the ocean...You can't manufacture intensity [in a studio].” The Dead loved to be flung out deep to sea, where the intensity happened organically in the conversation between audience, venue and band. You can hear the energy streaming through the building on these recordings, like you can on all great Dead recordings. Steady waves of intensity cycle between all those involved. You can feel the telepathy between the band members and then the telepathy between the band and the audience (“Jerry smiled at me and I knew what he was going to play”). This energy is felt even to listeners like me 40 years later who were not even born yet in 1973. 

One of my favorite recordings that faithfully captures this energy is an audience recording of 6-22-1973. The sound quality is poor by modern studio album standards, but if you listen carefully to the “Bird Song” from that show, what you hear is a perfect experience of communion between band members and audience and an energy that is absolutely sizzling.  

But back to the 1973 Complete Winterland Recordings. Friday night’s show is worth 3 out of 5 stars. Good, not great. As my wife, a budding Dead appreciator noted, “There was no moment that sent me to Jupiter.” When the Dead were really on, they can send you to Jupiter, and there is no deep space wildness in Friday’s show. Highlights include a tight first set with a unique “They Love Each Other” and a 21-minute “Playing in the Band,” which almost got me to Jupiter but not quite. 

Saturday night’s show features a “Playing in the Band>Uncle John’s Band>Morning Dew>Uncle John’s Band>Playing in the Band” which occupies just about an entire disc. Deep space travel is required and it is quite excellent. The first set is also smoking. And there's a good "Truckin'" leading into a stellar "Wharf Rat" with a Nobody's jam in the middle. Amazing show, not quite magical. 4 out of 5 stars. Sunday night’s show takes the cake for me. A very long, tight energetic first set, punctuated by a monstrous “China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider,” one of the best versions that I can think of. The second set is anchored by a 35-minute subtle, exploratory “Dark Star” which blends nicely into a “Eyes of the World>China Doll.” The "Dark Star" from this night is not the crowd pleaser that the legendary 2/13/1970 version is, but man is it extraordinary. Very deep space travel with some very strange and wonderful Phil bass bombs dropped in the middle, and just when you think the band is going to lose it, they bring it back so beautifully for a truly transcendental, maybe even mature-sounding "Dark Star" that is deeply satisfying, especially on repeated listens. I enjoyed it the first time I listened to it, but did not really love until I was driving through some deep pea-soup fog, completely driving on memory and not sight, and getting lost. I made it back alive to my house just as the "Dark Star" was getting out of the deep space and into the transcendent "coming home" section with Bobby laying down that line that indicates they were near the end. I had to sit in the driveway and listen to the transition to the wonderful "Eyes of the World" and felt quite blissful. This is the deepest "Dark Star" I can think of. Let's give Sunday night's show a 5. 

As a bonus, I'll give the sound for the 3 shows a 6 out of 5. 

The benefit of having 3 nights in one box set is that we get to compare each of the shows very scientifically. The only songs the band played on all 3 nights were Bobby’s brand new “Weather Report Suite” (WRS) and “Big River.” WRS smokes on all 3 nights, and a reason to purchase this set is just to compare the WRSs. In fact, the band and Jerry especially is playing it so intensely on Saturday night that while Bobby and Phil lead the song to its conclusion, Jerry is still urging to burn up for way longer on his guitar. And while the band concludes the song, Jerry continues to solo in an almost space mariachi John Coltrane sound. You can hear the influence of Villa-Lobos, Albéniz and Miles Davis. Jerry does not want to stop playing and it’s quite wonderful to hear this magic enthusiasm. 

McNally correctly identifies that the band’s playing of Johnny Cash’s “Big River” could have earned them a place in the Grand Ole Opry on all 3 nights. A really tight country feel that would have you confused if you didn’t know. Are these boys from the hills of Tennessee or are they beatniks from the Peninsula and San Francisco? What’s great about the Dead is not just that they can do the Grand Ole Opry as well as any country musicians, but they can turn on a dime and then do a modal jazz 20+ minute “Eyes of the World.” And that’s really why I love the Dead in late 1973.

What you hear are live show veterans. You hear a band that has been playing 150+ shows a year, on the road for the vast majority of their "adult" lives. They purposefully went to places outside of the comfort home environs of San Francisco to test themselves in 1973. The “polished” (this is a difficult adjective to apply to the Dead, because when they are not just good but great, there’s an important element of unpolished looseness that is essential) sound of the band in 1973 bothers some fans. And it’s true, on these recordings there aren’t the magically intense spontaneous concerts that you would hear from the younger, much more unpolished but extremely energetic band in a 2/11/1969 or a 5/8/1970 show, for example. But what you have are moments. Really wonderful, technically proficient moments. And what are they? A rock band? A psychedelic band? (Though certainly part of the “psychedelic” culture of the late ‘60s, I would strongly argue that the Dead’s sound isn’t really “psychedelic” at all.) A country band? A Jazz combo? One can even hear the influence of Bach’s counterpoint in the dueling solos one hears between Phil and Jerry with Bobby comping like McCoy Tyner on a “Dark Star.” What makes the Dead special is the blend of styles that gives the band their own unique sound. And what a special sound it is. 

I do not recommend 1973 Winterland Complete Recordings for neophytes. (I highly recommend the 12-19-1973 show for those newbies wanting to get a taste of the Dead in late 1973 and to hear Jerry's improvisational talents and the Dead's space jazz chops really peaking). But for the historians, this is a great compilation not just for the wonderful artifacts collected in the box, but the great sound quality of the recordings, and the energy of the music. Complete. Warts and all.