Grateful Dead 04/17/71
Dillon Gym, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Source Summary
flac16/48kHz; SBD Master Reel originally recorded with analog equipment on a 7 inch, 7.5 i.p.s half-track master reel; Transferred to 16 48 WAV February 2017
Grateful Dead
Saturday, April 17, 1971
Dillon Gym, Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey

SBD Master Reel
Transferred to 16 48 WAV February 2017

Set One
01 Truckin'
02 Big Railroad Blues
03 Big Boss Man
04 Bird Song
05 Playing In The Band
06 Hard To Handle
07 Loser
08 Mama Tried
09 Casey Jones
10 tuning - Sugar Magnolia (aborted due to technical problems)
11 Sugar Magnolia

Set Two
01 Good Lovin'->
02 Drums->
03 Good Lovin'
04 Me And Bobby McGee
05 Deal
06 Beat It On Down The Line
07 I'm A King Bee
08 Bertha
09 Sing Me Back Home
10 Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad->
11 jam->
12 Turn On Your Love Light

notes:
This was originally recorded with analog equipment on a 7 inch, 7.5 i.p.s half-track master reel. We have attempted to preserve, as closely as possible, the sound of the original recording and performance while considering speed, channels and phase. Because of it's resolution, it may reveal some limitations of the source tape.

"Looking at stage: Garcia on right. Pig's organ was to left of drums and right of Lesh. When he sang he was stage center (left of Garcia). Also, the NRPS added percussion behind the band IIRC standing behind the band (wood blocks etc...) I was sitting on the stage, about 3 feet in front of Lesh's mic. That's my memory."  Matt Vernon

Recollection by Matt Vernon March 19,2017:

April 17, 1971 was the first time I saw the Grateful Dead perform live. I was a junior in high school and the Grateful Dead were my most favored band. I had listened to their albums countless number of times.

There is a long essay in the Tapers Compendium which agrees with much of what I remember though given the concert was 46 years ago my memories may have become distorted by the passage of time.

The weather was a perfect spring day on the Princeton campus. The Princeton gym is not large with retractable bleacher seats on the sides and folding chairs set up on the floor in front of the stage. The stage was about 3 feet high set up toward one end.

We were early to arrive around 5 pm and walked in to a basically empty gym and sat in the first row of folding chairs. There was maybe a 15 feet gap between the 1st row of chairs and the stage. This was the era when the speaker screens were tie-dyed and I had time to look and walk around and observe how the stage was set up.

The New Riders opened with Garcia on pedal steel and Spencer Dryden (Jefferson Airplane) on drums. When the NRPS set finished I left my 1st row seat and went to the front of the stage in front of what would be Phil Leshs position.

As the intermission between NRPS and the first Dead set neared its end the area in front of the stage and the 1st row of chairs was now crowded with people. I took the opportunity to hoist myself up and sit on the front edge of the stage with my back against the left side PA stack. I would remain here for the remainder of the show. At this time there was not the formal separation of the band and audience that would exist in later years. You could see many people backstage including some of my friends.

The location was perfect. First, I have always been a bass person so being a few feet in front of Leshs microphone meant I was literally in the Philzone. The other upside was Garcia would angle himself so it seemed he was looking directly at me. This was because he would be looking at Phil or when Pigpen was singing center stage I was in Garcias line of sight.

I wont review the music which you can hear in near perfect format on this source. But will make a few comments on the aspects of the performance which cant come across on tape. First, during the show it was clear to me how Pigpen heavy show it was, as the songs rotated with Bob, Jerry and Pigpen doing vocals. Also, members of the NRPS stood behind Bill and played various hand percussion instruments.

During the two Pigpen rap songs (Good Lovin and Lovelight) I was about 10 feet away from Pigpen when he was stage center. Its hard to describe Pigpens command of the stage (he has a small stature) but my attention was fully concentrated on his way of accenting notes bringing the mic near his mouth and using his body and hands to communicate to the band when he was going into one of his raps - when to pause and when to accent his vocals.

Here was where my location turned out to be perfect. For Jerry would rotate to watch Pigpen and accent Pigs comments with riffs and his own facial expressions - grins and chuckles - and noted above I was in his direct line of sight on the other side of Pigpen.

When it came time for the Bob and Barbara match up in Lovelight they were about 3 feet away.  Pigpen would bend down when talking to them very much the matchmaker.

During the intermission between the 2 Dead sets, Phil gave me a cylindrical paper pint container with beer to drink. By this time it was sufficiently crowded that I couldnt easily leave my perch and it was now hot inside the gym. Before the start of the 2nd Dead set, a woman threw a note on stage to Phil. Phil picked it up and read it and chuckled then gave it to me.

The note said something like If you want to come to a place where people like you call Emily then a phone number.

When the show was over it took a while for the crowd to dissipate so I could leave my perch. On the way out there were large piles of the folding chairs cleared  to make room for dancing and what not in front of the stage.

I also saw the reel-reel tape deck about 30-40 feet in front of the stage - at the time I was wondering if it would be used for a live recording.

Amazing that I can listen to the show this many years later.

originally shared with a few at LL

    length     expanded size    cdr  WAVE problems  fmt   ratio  filename
    9:13.507     106273324 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5462  gd1971-04-17s1t01.flac
    4:03.560      46763564 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5664  gd1971-04-17s1t02.flac
    5:26.347      62658604 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5471  gd1971-04-17s1t03.flac
    8:09.680      94018604 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5316  gd1971-04-17s1t04.flac
    4:52.467      56153644 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5440  gd1971-04-17s1t05.flac
    8:38.840      99617324 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5579  gd1971-04-17s1t06.flac
    7:11.960      82936364 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5325  gd1971-04-17s1t07.flac
    3:02.413      35023404 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5494  gd1971-04-17s1t08.flac
    5:29.147      63196204 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5702  gd1971-04-17s1t09.flac
    1:23.107      15956524 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.4944  gd1971-04-17s1t10.flac
    7:16.067      83724844 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5665  gd1971-04-17s1t11.flac
    2:26.653      28157484 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5253  gd1971-04-17s2t01.flac
    6:15.693      72133164 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5195  gd1971-04-17s2t02.flac
   19:58.760     230161964 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5451  gd1971-04-17s2t03.flac
    6:24.947      73909804 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5265  gd1971-04-17s2t04.flac
    5:20.747      61583404 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5431  gd1971-04-17s2t05.flac
    3:20.627      38520364 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5517  gd1971-04-17s2t06.flac
    7:53.867      90982444 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5356  gd1971-04-17s2t07.flac
    6:14.200      71846444 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5549  gd1971-04-17s2t08.flac
    8:21.920      96368684 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5289  gd1971-04-17s2t09.flac
    6:21.933      73331244 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5593  gd1971-04-17s2t10.flac
    2:22.280      27317804 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5184  gd1971-04-17s2t11.flac
   17:41.872     203879456 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.5303  gd1971-04-17s2t12.flac
  157:30.592    1814514664 B                            0.5422  (23 files)



ffp
gd1971-04-17s1t01.flac:c6a1de910845c9b4ddb84ff24c47b8aa
gd1971-04-17s1t02.flac:b0ba21fadec096334a35c3523e846a0a
gd1971-04-17s1t03.flac:17a60f1768608dd236987ec9030137e3
gd1971-04-17s1t04.flac:70bb41e3131a8be06b5624d0cbc90cf1
gd1971-04-17s1t05.flac:078206790392d83b7d80270e4d6a0342
gd1971-04-17s1t06.flac:b3113081be1947737d980bd66cda1c5d
gd1971-04-17s1t07.flac:ef31f2a11890367bf1f0fc045b76a77e
gd1971-04-17s1t08.flac:4785f7676d91da6f36b604ef51c89697
gd1971-04-17s1t09.flac:c7c6562c46dbc2fc5f6ee41400c6b79e
gd1971-04-17s1t10.flac:554ff8f1352de90630a301f76fab8d43
gd1971-04-17s1t11.flac:177c0d191a7adca9b1920de3e70365bb
gd1971-04-17s2t01.flac:f8da34ab942c281fe50d052f47a2d88f
gd1971-04-17s2t02.flac:f3e037fd8639c6c2ec6ea7c131784f7a
gd1971-04-17s2t03.flac:cc9c08ab92c829125ce927d7b935649b
gd1971-04-17s2t04.flac:75da0190147cb13ef2843bfd63e0485f
gd1971-04-17s2t05.flac:4e8ea45ca34594b53ea4a09b02e43fa1
gd1971-04-17s2t06.flac:015002e57be79cd05a7d6afca3327c4d
gd1971-04-17s2t07.flac:c2526ff1af10c393615d66e9b8699cde
gd1971-04-17s2t08.flac:c0f26be0251f4ed42f2007c101e5a7fc
gd1971-04-17s2t09.flac:76e014823b03104902489feb169dcc89
gd1971-04-17s2t10.flac:dc5435fc5849b07dbe6da75d593227da
gd1971-04-17s2t11.flac:6e778023bc799f4deaa75567214c04f1
gd1971-04-17s2t12.flac:d190012c267c90409ed21d7d4fbd8913
295352053eb59d233fea25994e832844 *gd1971-04-17s1t01.flac
88dcbfea716feb0e77749b7184081be0 *gd1971-04-17s1t02.flac
1fb31dfa3cc5fab3b3339a2b28626754 *gd1971-04-17s1t03.flac
3c03118f9b322ccda4955fad09cf9530 *gd1971-04-17s1t04.flac
5677c8eaa07476dbecc39d0e5682dc2a *gd1971-04-17s1t05.flac
d5adf3c3e717ff8b5134dd943f94547a *gd1971-04-17s1t06.flac
5a3b94c978f9b3fd649243bd2fb285d9 *gd1971-04-17s1t07.flac
66011fb2df31af8a2d9f2b34c7e44067 *gd1971-04-17s1t08.flac
d48aaf1dd7c4221bf88f69ea2a4c32ce *gd1971-04-17s1t09.flac
803dcc6e914c7a215b2abc1de692a900 *gd1971-04-17s1t10.flac
9abe5e5f8015f224d4256981cf138705 *gd1971-04-17s1t11.flac
dcb7306566fb6e806650180fb5a93304 *gd1971-04-17s2t01.flac
69bb1c4be72edc7b06a30927a117b9ad *gd1971-04-17s2t02.flac
dd273350a3a6ae003f98af1e920e96b7 *gd1971-04-17s2t03.flac
b9e69a28fed2b04370b3138975af1b29 *gd1971-04-17s2t04.flac
516805e0ab82d29628cb44844f76a2b1 *gd1971-04-17s2t05.flac
5fcca6e3739717a2717a44506212ab96 *gd1971-04-17s2t06.flac
bcacca6b769ccbb6a033b7af5ec6b128 *gd1971-04-17s2t07.flac
e07434cc5e0afc5199f5d272675dfad7 *gd1971-04-17s2t08.flac
96fd9ffa730ee05c663e62db8eb0ce66 *gd1971-04-17s2t09.flac
35ffb2c0f5dacdf288a1708d335f8b00 *gd1971-04-17s2t10.flac
a698d94a49cc727a7c39f7060d23b233 *gd1971-04-17s2t11.flac
1ee18cbcfd49babbdf2abb221caf6b19 *gd1971-04-17s2t12.flac

Comments
etreedb.org
For administrative requests email contact@etreedb.org
This website written by Tom H Anderson and maintained by the etreedb.org community.

Cached: Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:54:49 EDT