50 years ago today, the Grateful Dead set up shop for a four-night run at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. The first of four shows at the beloved venue would see and hear the band at arguably their most exploratory and experimental phase in the early part of their career.
The band’s performance that evening featured numerous fan favorites from the “Primal Dead” era, including “Doin’ That Rag”, “That’s It For The Other One”, “Mountain of the Moon”, and more. Two of the more notable song performances that evening would be of “Dark Star” and “St. Stephen”, the recordings of which would go on to be included on the band’s Live/Dead live album released later on that year. Those same recordings from the February 27th show have also since gone on to be considered seminal performances from the first phase of the Dead’s long, strange trip thanks to both the quality of the audio and the strength of the band’s collective improvisations without going too far out into the musical abyss.
The performance of “Dark Star” runs 21:44 minutes in length and showcases guitarist Jerry Garica in prime form, weaving his lead guitar lines in and out of melodic counter presented by both Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. The studio version of band’s cosmic tune had been released as a single less than a year prior to the show in April 1968, so for many fans, this live version was their first introduction to what would become the Dead’s true psychedelic anthem. The performance of “Dark Star” holds such significance in Grateful Dead lore that the New York Times even published a piece about it today for its 50th anniversary.
As for “St. Stephen”, the official studio recording of the song would end up on the band’s Aoxomoxoa LP when it was released on Warner Bros. Records a few months later in June 1969. Fans can listen to a full recording from that fateful evening below.
Grateful Dead – The Fillmore – 2/27/1969
[Audio uploaded by Jonathan Aizen]
The post Grateful Dead Performed “Dark Star” & “St. Stephen” Featured On ‘Live/Dead’ On This Day In 1969 [Full Audio] appeared first on L4LM.
