Another stop on the 1972 Good Old Grateful Dead tour, this one at the Springfield Civic Center for a Monday night gig. The 8000-capacity facility had just opened in September, and the Dead’s performance would have been one of the first rock concerts at the venue.
Roberta Flack was at the Springfield Civic the previous evening. Garcia and Owsley were in attendance, a day early, sitting in the mixing booth watching the show. Their visit was partly business-related in nature. They wanted to check out the new house PA of one Dinky Dawson, founder of Dawson Audio Services and former soundman for Fleetwood Mac, for whom he’d been building a custom system. In Dawson’s memoir, Life on the Road (Billboard Books, 1998), he wrote: “Bear and Garcia were transformed by the concert, my sound system reproducing Flack’s music with such clarity and crispness, even in the potentially overwhelming space.” Dawson asserts that it was at that performance that Bear made the decision to build a system for the Dead based around his principle, eventually leading to the Wall of Sound—a little morsel of GD history. For anyone interested in what Flack and her band sounded like that night, I’ve linked the soundboard recording below.
The Grateful Dead arrived the following night with banks of tie-dyed amplifiers, a cutting-edge Alembic PA, and various recording technicians, roadies, and freaks. What could have been a perfunctory outing at the tail end of the Northeastern leg of the summer tour, was instead a 29-song ace in the hole. The first set begins with a solid Cold Rain & Snow, with impassioned vocals all around. A high speed Mexicali Blues replete with some major picking from Jer, is quickly followed by a punchy Tennessee Jed. We’re three songs into the night and it’s clear the band is warmed up and ready to deliver. Lesh riffs on an idea and Billy counts off the customary 14-beat intro to the old Warlock’s classic, Beat It On Down The Line. It’s a slow version with Weir’s vocals up front in the mix and a perfect table setter for the next one—an extended ‘72 Bird Song, with super active Lesh and Godchaux. The song returned to the band’s repertoire in July, and would stay a first set attraction for quite a while. Tonight’s offering of the Hunter/Garcia number is a standout performance, with maybe the most altogether satisfying jam segment of all of the Bird Songs they’d roll out that fall.
A few well-played tunes—including a jammy Cumberland Blues and a shit kicking Don’t Ease Me In—pave the way for another huge, exploratory Playing in the Band. For me, 1972-74 are the pinnacle years for the kind of 104 sonic adventures the Hunter/Weir tune can lend itself to. You know, the moment where the Main Ten theme stops and deep space begins. Michael Getz, author of the Taping Compendium, describes this cosmic interval as “the point at which the music falls off the table.” The twenty-two minute take on this evening is a sprawling, incredibly out-there voyage that is surely the conversational centerpiece of the show’s front half. If all you listen to is this portion of the Owsley tape, I promise you won’t regret it one damn bit.
The band dusts off the cobwebs of the set break with a Chuck Berry number. After the Jet to the Promised Land, Weir does crowd control in support of the fans at the lip of the stage being pressed into “a flat trajectory with absolutely no depth of field,” per our rhythm guitarist. Problem resolved, they go with an unexpected He’s Gone > Me & Bobby McGee pairing. It’s a good idea although the segue is a tad bumpy. They’ll do it again the following year in Tampa with much better results. China Cat Sunflower > I Know Your Rider is next and they nail it. It’s a stretched out take by ‘72 standards, and Weir’s solo section really purrs. The music continues with a sweet Tomorrow Is Forever Jerry/Donna duo, a scathing Greatest Story Ever Told, and an unusual, one-time Mississippi Half Step > Stella Blue combo, setting the table for the big jam portion of the back frame—a half hour Truckin’ > Nobody’s Fault But Mine > Drums > Jam > Morning Dew medley. Remarkably, the sequence and playing closely replicates the about-to-be-released Europe ‘72 album. The Nobody’s Fault section and Feelin’ Groovy theme before and after the drum break work perfectly, before flowing elegantly into the wondrous Dew. And if this wasn’t enough, the lads still have enough gas left for a rocking Sugar Magnolia and an Uncle John’s Band > Johnny B. Goode double encore.
1972 was a peak year for the Grateful Dead. It was arguably their most creative period, highlighted by the legendary 22-date Europe run, the introduction of pianist Keith and vocalist Donna Godchaux, and some of the most intricate, exploratory jams in the band’s history. By the end of the year the Dead were churning out career performances almost every night, and the 10/2 Springfield concert that rounded out the summer tour is a very good example. Although it’s a bit of a dark horse as compared to the more renowned shows of the era, the song selection, fertile group conversations, and sonic quality of the Owsley soundboard make it a recording I recommend for those in search of new ‘72 tapes to check out. Go ahead, queue it up. And I highly suggest applying ample volume throughout.
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