Road Trips Volume 4 Number 2
$23.98
April 1, 1988
It’s About Time! New Road Trips Digs into 1988!
You all know about the glory that was 1987. A year after we almost lost Jerry to his diabetic coma in the summer of ’86, the Dead were back, Jerry was the phoenix risen, and the band was bigger than ever: There was “Touch of Grey,” In the Dark, the stadium tour with Dylan, a huge influx of new Heads; it was good times all around, for sure. The band was revived and a new day dawned!
But when I interviewed Garcia for my old Dead ‘zine, The Golden Road, the following autumn – 1988 – he revealed that he felt like he was just then finally catching up to his old, pre-coma self, “That is to say, having access to everything I know about playing. I’m getting to that point where it’s physically as comfortable’ [and] feeling there.”
Indeed, 1988 was a fantastic year for the Dead, with some of the band’s most explosive and energetic playing, as the whole band rose to meet Garcia in his return to absolute peak form. This “high” washed over into 1989 – a year that has been extensively documented with official releases in part because the band recorded so many shows on multi-track tape and multi-camera video (Downhill From Here, Truckin’ Up to Buffalo, Nightfall of Diamonds, the recent Formerly the Warlocks box). But 1988 has, curiously, been largely ignored, save for a single official download-only release many years ago of the epic 3/27/88 Hampton show. What gives? It’s certainly no reflection of the quality of the music from ’88, which most Dead Heads would agree was almost uniformly strong. You’ll find many folks singing the praises of runs at Kaiser, the Centrum, Irvine, Alpine, Frost, the Greek, Alpine, Oxford Plains in Maine, Laguna Seca’ just solid stuff all around. Gets me tingly just thinkin’ about it!
Well, we haven’t forgotten ’88 – far from it – and this edition of Road Trips (Vol. 4, No. 2) shows you why. It offers up the entire April 1, 1988 concert from the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, NJ (maybe you just called it “the Meadowlands” back in the day), plus the entire second set and a few first set highlights from the previous night’s show, March 31. That April Fools show is a real barn-burner, with a first set that includes a “double-opener” of high-octane versions of “Mississippi Half-Step” and “Jack Straw,” a rare and nearly perfect take on “To Lay Me Down” (played for just the second time since 1983), followed directly by the second (and final) GD-only version of Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man.” Less than a year after their six-show jaunt with the Mysterious One, Weir & Co. give the classic tune an impressively emotional workout; in fact, it’s hard to discern why it didn’t remain in the Dead’s repertoire after this evening. That first set also includes nearly manic versions of both “Cumberland” and “Deal.” Blazing!
There’s no letup in Set Two, either, as the band tears through what looks on paper like a fairly conventional set list, but in execution is far from that. “China Cat” > “Rider,” “Estimated” > “Eyes” and “The Other One” > “Wharf Rat” all sound fresh and alive, and seem to glow with fiery embers thanks to Garcia’s speedy and imaginative runs – basically the guy is on fire!
A few nuggets from the 3/31 first set are tucked onto the back side of Disc One – including a superb “Let It Grow” – and then that night’s second set fills the other disc, and it’s another rockin’ affair loaded with favorites: A “Scarlet” > “Fire” nearly the equal of the famous Hampton version just four nights earlier, a fine “Terrapin,” and a post-“Drums” that never lets up as it moves from “Goin’ Down the Road” into “Miracle,” “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” the coda of “Hey Jude,” and “Watchtower” in the closing slot. The encore is another Dylan tune, “Heaven’s Door” – a perfect grace note for a raucous and exciting show. We should also note that the “Rhythm Devils” and “Space” portions of each show are also fantastically varied and interesting – in the spring of ’89 Garcia will be the last band member to “go MIDI,” so this is provides a glimpse of the more “pure” Garcia “Space” tones.
Intrigued? You should be! It’s hot stuff from beginning to end. As is customary, the original recordings (in this case by Dan Healy) have been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman, and our art team of Scott McDougall and Steve Vance have once again come up with a stunning package to entertain your eyeballs. This time out, Dead scribe Gary Lambert has contributed a splendid essay for the booklet, which true-to-form, is also loaded with period photos of The Boys in action. You can find the complete song lists for all three discs, plus ordering information simply by pressing this magic button! What a way to start the New Year!
– Blair Jackson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Road Trips Volume 4 Number 2
Live album by Grateful Dead
Released February 1, 2011
Recorded March 31 – April 1, 1988
Genre Rock
Length 237:34
Label Grateful Dead
Producer David Lemieux
Blair Jackson
Road Trips Volume 4 Number 2 is a live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. The fourteenth of the Road Trips series of archival releases, it was recorded on March 31 and April 1, 1988, at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It was released on February 1, 2011.
Road Trips Volume 4 Number 2 is subtitled April Fools’ ’88. Contained on three CDs, the album includes the complete April 1 concert, along with the second set, encore, and two songs from the first set of the March 31 concert. It was only the second live Dead album that was recorded in 1988; the first was Grateful Dead Download Series Volume 5.
The April 1 performance of Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man” had been previously released on Postcards of the Hanging.
Track listing
Disc one
April 1 – First set:
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo > (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter) – 10:10
Jack Straw > (Bob Weir, Hunter) – 5:19
To Lay Me Down (Garcia, Hunter) – 8:29
Ballad of a Thin Man (Bob Dylan) – 6:52
When Push Comes to Shove (Hunter, Garcia) – 4:50
New Minglewood Blues (traditional, arranged by Weir) – 7:48
Cumberland Blues (Garcia, Phil Lesh, Hunter) – 5:51
Deal (Garcia, Hunter) – 7:07
March 31 – First set:
When I Paint My Masterpiece (Dylan) – 5:00
Let It Grow (Weir, John Perry Barlow) – 12:06
April 1 – Encore:
Brokedown Palace (Garcia, Hunter) – 5:21
Disc two
March 31 – Second set:
Scarlet Begonias > (Garcia, Hunter) – 8:05
Fire on the Mountain (Mickey Hart, Hunter) – 11:35
Samson and Delilah (traditional, arranged by Weir) – 6:40
Terrapin Station > (Garcia, Hunter) – 11:41
Rhythm Devils > (Hart, Bill Kreutamann) – 5:52
Space > (Garcia, Lesh, Weir) – 6:22
Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad > (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 6:17
I Need a Miracle > (Weir, Barlow) – 3:21
Dear Mr. Fantasy > (Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood, Steve Winwood) – 4:20
Hey Jude > (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 1:41
All Along the Watchtower (Dylan) – 4:45
March 31 – Encore:
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Dylan) – 8:30
Disc three
April 1 – Second set:
China Cat Sunflower > (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:19
I Know You Rider (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 5:37
Estimated Prophet > (Weir, Barlow) – 12:36
Eyes of the World > (Garcia, Hunter) – 8:55
Rhythm Devils > (Hart, Kreutzmann) – 7:00
Space > (Garcia, Lesh, Weir) – 8:33
The Other One > (Weir, Kreutzmann) – 7:19
Wharf Rat > (Garcia, Hunter) – 7:55
Throwing Stones > (Weir, Barlow) – 9:05
Not Fade Away (Norman Petty, Charles Hardin) – 5:57
Personnel
Grateful Dead
Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals
Mickey Hart – drums
Bill Kreutzmann – drums
Phil Lesh – electric bass, vocals
Brent Mydland – keyboards, vocals
Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals
Production
Produced for release by David Lemieux and Blair Jackson
CD mastering by Jeffrey Norman
Recorded by Dan Healy
Cover art by Scott McDougall
Photos by James B. Anderson and Bob Minkin
Package design by Steve Vance
“Somewhere in the Swamps of Jersey” liner essay by Gary Lambert