Day 13: Throwing Stones, 9/25/91

Throwing Stones, Dick's Picks, Vol. 17, 9/25/91

I got this song stuck in my head last night when I was playing with my two year old. At one point he said "Ashes ashes, we all fall down" as is common for kids his age that are exposed to children's rhymes. Of course for Daddy this line calls forth this Bobby song. It's certainly not the first time he's said this, nor is it the first time I made the connection, but I digress.

So with this song in the back of my mind I went looking for a good version. When I saw the cover of DP17 I knew I wanted to give it a whirl because I like the setlist of that release (and the bonus Eyes is in my top 3, for sure. I have no doubt it will appear at some point in the next year on here), I hadn't listened to it in a while, and I knew that it was a Hornsby show. DP17 was one of the first Dick's Picks that I purchased, too. My freshman year of undergrad I met a guy on the men's soccer team called John and we had very similar musical interests and we went to a few shows together before he transferred to a different school. But nevertheless I remember hanging out in his dorm room and listening to DP17 so this release always carries a positive association with me.

This was the penultimate show in a six night run at the Boston Garden. Almost immediately you can tell that this is a very full sounding version of Throwing Stones. Vince’s electronic keyboard is present, but so too is Bruce’s grand piano. They actually work very well together, the former adding more sustain to the sound and the latter trickling out melodic runs like a bubbling brook. Jerry seems to stumble a bit after the “money green” line, but makes up for it in the brief solo interlude between verses with an easy solo dripping of sweetness. The band starts to crescendo as Bobby tells us we are all “on our own” before Jerry takes a stab at another solo. Phil holds down the bottom end nicely during the solo and adds some really cool fills underneath. Garcia’s solo isn’t flashy and dances around the melody before passing the task over to Bruce who takes the same melody-based approach around 5:30 with all kinds of interesting flourishes and twists and turns. The band continues to build momentum until (ashes ashes) it all quickly changes dynamics for the final verse. Bruce continues to add tasty runs through this stanza, and the song comes to its typical close before segueing directly into Not Fade Away. This is an instance where you can really sense the impact that Bruce Hornsby had on the band and how much he added to their sound and inspired them, especially Jerry to play better.

Day 2: Scarlet Begonias, 3/16/90

Scarlet Begonias, 3/16/90 (Spring 1990 box set; Spring 1990: So Glad You Made It)

It's Super Bowl Sunday and although I live in Denver I'm pretty much indifferent to the Broncos. Don't get me wrong, I love watching Peyton Manning play. The guy is a wizard out there. But I'm not a Denver native so I don't live and die with the Broncos. In fact, I'm much more partial to college football, even though my team (Michigan) has been a disappointment of late.

Yesterday's cold grayness gave way to a bright sunny day today here on the Front Range, albeit still cold. The stereo in my car is capable of playing MP3 CDs, so instead of carrying audio CDs around what I've started to do is take a few shows from a given year, burn the MP3s on to a CD and keep that in my car. My Dead 1990 MP3 CD has several shows from the Spring 1990 box set. I own the complete 6 show set, but the this particular track was also included on the 2 disc compilation of that box set So Glad You Made It. Because this was in my CD player today's selection is somewhat by happenstance, although I suspect this will be a common theme throughout this process.

My wife is by no means a Deadhead, but I've noticed that when my son is in my car with the Dead playing he rarely, if ever, asks to turn on different music (i.e. kids songs), but he does it all the time in my wife's car. Is Mom more of a pushover when it comes to the radio? Or does he just not like her "country" music? 

The Spring 1990 tour was recorded in multi-track (although the Spring 1990 box set was not remastered from the multi-track sources) so all of the instruments are vivid and clear. On this particular track Phil shines once again, especially playing under Garcia's solo around the 4th-5th minutes. Jerry then cedes the floor and Brent takes some tasty B3 runs, and, if I'm correct in my listening I think Bobby takes a quick chord-based solo, which is really neat. Brent has some nice flourishes in the jam right around the 8 minute mark on this one, too, and then Jerry takes the MIDI for a whirl. I'm not always a fan of the MIDI stuff, but I don't find this one off-putting at all. What makes this version stand out to me is that it doesn't go into Fire On The Mountain, which is not one of my favorite Dead songs. (Blasphemy! I know!) It eventually segues into Estimated Prophet, but the jam between the two is simply sublime. The more I've listened to the Dead closely in the past couple of years the more I can actually hear them "searching for the sound." I've always loved the riff at the end of Scarlet; that's something that never gets old to me. This version the riff leads off the jam, which is not uncommon, but it does not resurface at the end like it does as the coda to Fire in so many Scar/Fires. Instead they almost shift seamlessly into a tasty Estimated. But we'll leave that one for a possible future post.

Other candidates for today from 3/16/90: Loser and Bird Song.

I'm a BIG fan of this tour and love this box set. I hope that the fabled Vol 2 comes out soon with the remaining unreleased shows from the tour.

But do check out this Scarlet Begonias. It's a great one from this era and should be easily available!