It’s been a few months since we traveled to 1980, a fun, dynamic year for Grateful Dead performances. Today’s show is stop two on a four-stop mini-tour of Florida and Georgia, and it’s captured on this lovely audience recording that I believe offers much more depth than the soundboard or the matrix.
Things start off tentatively with a muddy Jack Straw opener, but the band quickly settles down with a good version of Peggy-O and an up-tempo Little Red Rooster that suffers, as it often does during these years, from some serious Bob Weir guitar mishaps. After a couple of lyrical miscues in Tennessee Jed, the band begins firing on this smoking version of Passenger, which is followed by the first electric version of Deep Elem Blues since 1970. After hearing a lot of this tune during the acoustic performances earlier in the year, it’s fun to find the band switching things up and rocking it out instead. Looks Like Rain maintains the show’s upward trajectory and a scorching Deal ends things on a high note. For a first set, this is nothing spectacular (aside from the rare Deep Elem) but it sounds great and keeps your foot tapping.
The second set doesn’t rise to any serious heights either, but the setlist choices are notable. After starting off with a typical Feel Like a Stranger to open, the Dead calm things down with a very nice rendition of To Lay Me Down. As several commentators on the Archive point out, the crowd is very quiet during this piece, and with good reason – Jerry pours his heart and soul into the lyrics and his guitar work is like a cool shot of ice. Like Deep Elem, this is the first electric version of To Lay Me Down since the 70’s (in this case, 1974), so it’s a treat for the Florida crowd. From here, we get the jammy highlight of the night (and an unusual selection in this position), Let It Grow. The boys aren’t doing anything supernatural here, but they’re doing it well. The strangeness continues as they transition into Terrapin Station, which is loose but fun.
A key, short moment of bliss takes place on the way out of Drums / Space and into Not Fade Away. It’s unclear if everyone is heading in the right direction, and as the guitarists start to join forces, Brent keeps his fingers on the keys and lets the sound of the notes sustain over the slowly forming song, brightening everyone’s night as Phil finds the right groove and the band takes off. It’s a cool transition and one of those special, quick pieces that always pop up in unintended places. The rest of the show is fine, but nothing surprising takes place. For what it’s worth, everyone seems to enjoy digging into Sugar Magnolia tonight, but that’s about it on the back end of things.
This isn’t going to be a first-team all 1980 show, but it delivers the goods if you’re looking for a good groove and a couple of interesting songs.
UPDATE: It has come to my attention that the folks at Grateful Dead, Inc. determined, in their infinite wisdom, that this show indeed should be a first-team all 1980 show, since they selected it for inclusion in 30 Trips Around The Sun. They are wrong.
As I said before, I think the audience recording is the pick of the litter today. Listen here: https://archive.org/details/gd1980-11-28.nak700.wagner.miller.90013.sbeok.flac16
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