Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2
$19.98
The Show
Carousel Ballroom – February 14, 1968
Carousel 2-14-68
2 Disc Set
In the winter of 1968, the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service embarked on their first major tour of the Pacific Northwest. Now, this wasn’t an era when bands traveled in plush custom tour buses and stayed in luxury hotels. Rather it was a caravan of funky cars and semi-dilapidated equipment trucks bombing up US 101 from the Bay Area to points north and hotels that probably weren’t going to make the AAA guide book. But the bands played like beasts in Washington and Oregon, spreading San Francisco magic in an assortment of small auditoriums and ballrooms. The Dead, in particular, were really spreading their creative wings, exploring and honing what were unquestionably the most ambitious original songs they’d written to date. Their old friend Robert Hunter had penned lyrics for unusual songs called “Alligator,” “China Cat Sunflower,” “Dark Star” and “The Eleven,” and there were also mind-boggling new tunes such as “That’s It for the Other One,” “New Potato Caboose” and “Born Cross-Eyed.” Say whaaaat?
Now, while the Dead were on the road blowing minds in places like Eureka, Seattle, Portland and Ashland, Oregon, a couple of their “people” back home were busy signing a lease that would give the Dead, Jefferson Airplane and other interested freaks, control over a fantastic new venue: San Francisco’s venerable Carousel Ballroom, a one-time Big Band dance hall that was little-used by the mid-’60s. In January, before the Northwest tour, the Dead and Quicksilver had put on a successful dance there (a “Ben Franklin’s Birthday” celebration, the poster said), but the Grand Opening of the ballroom was slated for Valentine’s Day, with the Dead and Country Joe & the Fish on the bill. One of the scene’s budding artists, Stanley Mouse, produced a poster for the event with a jug-eared, retro geek imploring his prospective romantic conquests to “Be Mine,” and a pair of local FM rock stations carried the show live on radio.
This magnificent show – long admired by Dead Heads (and the band – it’s a Phil Lesh favorite) – captures the Dead at a real turning point in their career: When they tossed out the rock rule book and truly found their own sound. They tried out nearly all their new songs that night, and everyone was amazed at how effortlessly – yet powerfully – one flowed into the next and how their sets ebbed and flowed and exploded and got quiet and covered such an incredible range of textures and emotions. This wasn’t just a good-time dance band. This was serious – and still a good time!
Because the Valentine’s Day dance was a hometown show, on the radio and also being recorded for possible use on the Dead’s then-in-progress second album, Anthem of the Sun, soundman Dan Healy captured the music on an 8-track tape machine, and this Road Trips set marks the first time that those 8-tracks have been completely, properly mixed down – by ol’ reliable, Jeffrey Norman, of course – and released (aside from a few short missing passages on the multitrack masters, which are included from another source). So forget any version you might have heard before – this is state-of-the-art ’68 Dead, and you’re gonna love it! This is also the complete show, another first for the Road Trips series. As always, the discs are mastered to the HDCD standard and the package includes an entertaining and informative historical essay.
The first set of 2/14/68 was relatively short, so we’ve also packed the last third of Disc One with a selection of tunes from the Northwest Tour that were just recently discovered in a collection of tapes that had been languishing in a long-defunct San Francisco recording studio. Alas, there were just isolated songs on reels (not full shows), and the sound is variable, but the performances are, as they say in Boston, wicked-awesome, from an almost punky “Beat It on Down the Line” to a truly hair-raising “Viola Lee Blues.” So, if it’s rarities you want, we’ve got ’em!
Could there be a better diversion from these – or any – stressful times than this scorching set of Primal Dead? We don’t think so. Impress your lovers and friends! Blow your own mind! You can find out more about the songs lineup below, and you can place your order by clicking here.
Track List
Disc One:
MORNING DEW
GOOD MORNING LITTLE SCHOOLGIRL
DARK STAR>
CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER>
THE ELEVEN>
TURN ON YOUR LOVELIGHT
Bonus tracks from Early 1968
VIOLA LEE BLUES (1/20/68 Eureka)
BEAT IT ON DOWN THE LINE (1/23/68 Seattle)
HURTS ME TOO (1/23/68 Seattle)
DARK STAR (2/2/68 Portland)
Disc Two:
THAT’S IT FOR THE OTHER ONE>
NEW POTATO CABOOSE>
BORN CROSS-EYED>
SPANISH JAM
ALLIGATOR>
CAUTION (DO NOT STOP ON TRACKS)>
FEEDBACK
IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2
Live album by Grateful Dead
Released March 21, 2009
Recorded February 14, 1968
(principal recording)
January – February, 1968
(bonus tracks)
Genre Rock
Length 156:48
bonus disc: 77:57
Label Grateful Dead
Producer Grateful Dead
Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2 is two-CD live album by the American rock band the Grateful Dead. The sixth in their “Road Trips” series of albums, it was the first to contain a complete concert Ñ the February 14, 1968 show at the Carousel Ballroom (later known as the Fillmore West) in San Francisco, California. Bonus material on disc 1, as well as the bonus disc offered to early purchasers, comes from the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service “Tour of the Great Pacific Northwest” which immediately preceded the Carousel Ballroom show. The album was released on March 21, 2009.
Although the Valentine’s Day show at the Carousel was not the first rock concert there, it was the first show under the management auspices of the Dead, Quicksilver and Jefferson Airplane, who had leased the venue to compete with the Avalon Ballroom and Bill Graham’s Fillmore Auditorium. Thus, the show was billed as the “Grand Opening”. The Grateful Dead shared the bill with Country Joe and the Fish. The cover of Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2 incorporates artwork by Stanley Mouse that was used in the poster promoting the concert.
Live material from this show, along with recordings of other concerts from the same era, was used in the creation of Anthem of the Sun, a Dead album that is an amalgam of studio and live material.
Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2 contains two performances of “Dark Star” Ñ one from the February 14, 1968 concert at the Carousel Ballroom, and one from February 2, 1968, at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon. A third performance of the song, from January 23, 1968, at Eagles Auditorium in Seattle, Washington, is included on the bonus disc.
Track listing
Disc One
February 14, 1968, Carousel Ballroom – 1st Set
(Walk Me Out in the) Morning Dew (Dobson, Rose) – 6:30
Good Morning Little School Girl (Sonny Boy Williamson) – 12:35
Dark Star > (Grateful Dead, Hunter) – 6:10
China Cat Sunflower > (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:25
The Eleven > (Hunter, Lesh) – 5:15
Turn On Your Love Light (Scott, Malone) – 9:02
Bonus Material, January-February, 1968
Viola Lee Blues (Noah Lewis) (1/20/68 Eureka, CA) – 20:38
Beat It on Down the Line (Jesse Fuller) (1/23/68 Seattle, WA) – 3:38
It Hurts Me Too (Elmore James) (1/23/68 Seattle, WA) – 4:20
Dark Star (Grateful Dead, Hunter) (2/2/68 Portland, OR) – 6:40
Disc Two
February 14, 1968, Carousel Ballroom – 2nd Set
That’s It for the Other One > (Garcia, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, Weir) – 9:30
New Potato Caboose > (Lesh, Petersen) – 8:48
Born Cross-Eyed > (Weir) – 2:38
Spanish Jam 12:28
Alligator”> (Lesh, McKernan, Hunter) – 14:30
Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) > (Garcia, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, Weir) – 10:00
Feedback (Garcia, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, Weir) – 6:10
In the Midnight Hour (Steve Cropper, Wilson Pickett) – 10:35
Bonus Disc
Bonus Material, January, 1968
Viola Lee Blues (Noah Lewis) (1/23/68 Seattle, WA) – 22:46
Good Morning Little School Girl (Sonny Boy Williamson) (1/20/68 Eureka, CA) – 12:14
New Potato Caboose (Lesh, Petersen) (1/30/68 Eugene, OR) – 12:40
Dark Star > (Grateful Dead, Hunter) (1/23/68 Seattle, WA) – 7:45
China Cat Sunflower > (Garcia, Hunter) (1/23/68 Seattle, WA) – 5:08
The Eleven (Hunter, Lesh) (1/23/68 Seattle, WA) – 6:00
Turn On Your Love Light (Scott, Malone) (1/23/68 Seattle, WA) – 12:55
Musicians
Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals
Mickey Hart – drums
Bill Kreutzmann – drums
Phil Lesh – electric bass, vocals
Ron “Pigpen” McKernan – organ, vocals
Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals
Production
Produced by Grateful Dead
Compilation produced by David Lemieux and Blair Jackson
Recorded by Dan Healy
CD Mastering by Jeffrey Norman at Garage Audio Mastering, Petaluma CA
Audio Restoration by Jamie Howarth / Plangent Processes
Cover art by Scott McDougall
Original Poster by Stanley Mouse
Photo by Ted Streshinsky
Package design by Steve Vance
Special Thanks to Matt Smith