Grateful Dead Music Forum

4/28/71, in my opinion, stands alone as the greatest Morning Dew of all time. If you haven't heard it you must listen.

Another vote for 3/24/86. I was at that show and was totally blown away by the intensity of the end jam (Brent was going positively bananas). The band seemed blown away as well. They finally brought the tune home and then just basically walked off, like "there's nothing we can play after that." It definitely felt like a tune or two early to wrap up the second set, but nobody was complaining.

Thanks for bringing this thread back!

I agree with many of the choices already listed, though, as a younger fan only know most of the older ones from on tape.

For some others to check out, try the melting beauty of Portland 9/17/82 and the scorcher from the end of the Brent era at Deer Creek 7/18/90.

That last one got me to drive to Deer Creek from NY the next summer, and was rewarded with two solid post-Brent shows, though the scene was a hassle when the cops searched my car. I think the best Dew I personally saw was 7/10/89 at Giants in the pouring rain with two Nevilles on stage.

Thanks to Jerry and the boys that there are so many!

Peace

petewhit -> 4/28/71

That is hitting the nail on the head!

The 9/27/72 (Dick's Picks 11) Dew opener is really killer.

I think the most underrated version is 8/24/72, the outro jam rocks, it's like the Cornell Dew was taken and played in 1972 instead!

I’m a 5/8/77 nerd.

I’ve heard this entire show criticized as being too polished, but that’s part what makes it stand out as an excellent live performance and recording to me. Sure I’m as willing as anyone to give the band some leeway in terms of riding out some rough air on the way to really getting things off the ground, but a lack of rough air isn’t something I find worth complaining about. Since it’s the first tape I ever heard, and kind of set the bar for what I expected of subsequent performances, I’m admittedly a bit biased in my perspective, but it’s still the standard by which I measure all other Dews and still stirs me in ways music never had before. The opening D note buzz just sucks me in every time, the whole band falls right in with impeccable timing and leaves tons of space for each other, Phil’s crescendo bombs are epic, Bobby’s guitar is audible and at his tasteful best, Jerry’s voice is as good as it gets, and there are moments in his solos that are pure magic. Plus the mix is top notch, so we can actually hear everybody.

strumminsix wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2006 1:48 pm

violanojblues wrote:I'm partial to the 2/28/69 Dew since it was one of my first tapes back in the day. It has that psychedelic country feel that I love from those early "daze" w/TC.

Right fucking on. Finally another old school fan! To me Dew came alive when it was a ballad sung with great fervor and energy with a driving tempo and dripping with psychedelia. Listening to Jerry linking up overdrive and Phaser (I believe in that order despite phaser being an envlope effect which traditionally would reside before the preamp or any other drive effects) just sends chills down my spine!

Now I am going to have to pull this up and listen to it to see if I can figure out what you are hearing here. I am pretty sure Jerry wasn’t using either an overdrive or a phaser in 1969 especially since the Phase 90 wasn’t invented until 1974 and the earliest studio unit was only a couple years before that.

I believe the overdrive in that period was simply the hotter output Gibson pickups into a cranked (unmodified) Twin Reverb before he had McIntosh amps for volume. The “phaser” sound in 69 might have been a Univibe which is more of a chorus effect, but I am not sure Jerry ever used one. Perhaps it is a Leslie cabinet, or maybe an artifact from the tape machine? Both would explain the effect being after the overdrive.

wabisabied wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 3:18 pm I’m a 5/8/77 nerd.

... Since it’s the first tape I ever heard, and kind of set the bar for what I expected of subsequent performances, I’m admittedly a bit biased in my perspective ...

Not as biased as me (I was there).

For certain songs like Dew and Stella Blue, Im almost more into the a fantastic vocal performance than jam, and to me 5/22/77 has some of Jerrys best singing.

Without going through this entire thread, I'll mention 1988-06-23 as one that almost blew the roof off Alpine Valley. I'm not saying it was the best, but it sure smoked, and smote me in my seat (not that I was sitting). As The Golden Road wrote in their show review, "You had to be there."