“Fillmore West 1969 offers tremendous insight into the evolution of a great
band and the art of musical improvisation in general.”

When the Grateful Dead originally released their live album Europe 72, it was
issued in a three-lp set on vinyl for dual reasons. One was to [bad word] the
breadth of one of their concerts, the other to fulfill their contractual
obligations with Warner Bros in one fell swoop and allow the group to go
independent of the corporate record biz.

Had the Dead not been in such dire financial straits at the time of the 1969
release of Live /Dead, it too might’ve been expanded beyond its double LP size
for musical reasons alone. Regardless, the title quickly became and remains
one of the definitive live releases in rock as well as wearing extremely well
in the face of the multitude of Grateful Dead archival concert pieces released
in the thirty-year plus interim.

Now, however, two sets of cd’s from the same Fillmore West 1969 appearances
effectively render Live /Dead obsolete. Most of the [bad word] (culled from the 10-cd package) appeared on that earlier album, but if you
listen to the entire two sets as now constituted, the flow of the show
contains nary a wasted note or beat. Reading long-time Dead publicist and
historian Dennis McNally’s liner notes, it’s not surprising to learn how
carefully the band was choreographing this string of concerts on their home
turf.

Perhaps not quite the laissez faire hippies of the stereotype, the Dead wanted
the optimum conditions for these shows, having spent months preparing and
rehearsing the material, original (”Cosmic Charlie, “ ”Mountains of the Moon”)
and traditional (“Morning Dew, “We Bid You Goodnight,”the two of which bookend
this collection). In addition, through its sound man Owsley Stanley, the group
had [bad word] ultra-conscious of sound quality for their live music and with a
sixteen-track recorder (one of the first available) at their disposal, the
stars seemed to be aligned in their favor.

Archivist David Lemieux and engineer Jeffrey Norman have the luxury of
hindsight plus the resources of the [bad word] to create. in the Rhino
package, what is arguably the definitive Grateful Dead concert recording. As
the band, including two [bad word] plus Tom Constanten on keyboards, moves from
the rootsy likes of “Good Morning Little School Girl,” sung, of course, by the
inimitable Pigpen, and the reworked folk tune “Dupree’s Diamond Blues,” into
the deeper space of “Dark Star,” “St Stephen” and “The Eleven” (those three
tunes orchestrated as a massive suite), the sequencing appears utterly logical [bad word] 

What distinguishes Fillmore West, however, and differentiates it profoundly
from Live/ Dead, is the performance included on the third cd of [bad word]  While such deliberate [bad word] of their music, including
“That’s it for the Other One” ”Alligator’ and “Caution Do Not Stop on Tracks”
may leave some listeners cold (even Deadheads who prefer the tighter [bad word] of songs the likes of which the band was just beginning to write at this
point), it is nevertheless fascinating to follow the probing for new themes:
the expeditions most often led by Garcia, bassist Phil Lesh is never far
behind and often in the foreground, but [bad word] Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey
Hart, even apart from their own [bad word] interlude, offer ideas all around. The
Dead’s interaction here is not altogether unlike a ballet.

The experience of hearing this is akin to sitting on the floor of the stage in
the middle of the band as they played. The HCDC remastering offers so much
clarity and dynamic depth that, for instance, not only are all of Lesh’s bass
notes audible, but also contain an almost tactile clarity. The same is [bad word] of
the [bad word] and percussion of Kreutzmann and Hart, the lightest touch of [bad word] through with proportionate presence.

Grateful Dead aficionados as