Quite a bit of the Grateful Dead’s 1989 summer tour has
been officially released – July 4th became
Truckin’
Up To Buffalo, on both CD and DVD, and July 7th was released as
Crimson, White & Indigo, while July
17th was released on VHS and DVD as
Downhill
From Here (and the following two nights were Meet-Up At The Movies
selections) I saw only one show that summer, July 2nd, which has not yet been
released, though it was shown in movie theatres a couple of years ago. I’ll be
patient. In the meantime, two more shows from that tour have been released in a
box set – July 12th and July 13th at RFK Stadium in D.C. This six-disc set also includes a
booklet with thoughts on the show and lots of photos.
July 12, 1989
The guys open the first show with “Touch Of Grey,” the
band’s only big hit (and the song they chose to open my first show on April 7,
1988), and the song that taught me the meaning of “arrears.” This is a good,
cheerful rendition, perfect to get you dancing. Jerry sounds so fucking happy,
especially toward the end of the song, and that is enough to make me happy. “We will get by/We will survive.” I need
to hear that these days. Bob then turns thing a little rougher with an
excellent “New Minglewood Blues,” with Brent doing something approaching scat
at one point. It’s a solid rendition, with Bob giving it to us straight. It’s
no wonder so much has been released from this tour; the boys were on! And Jerry
clearly has energy to spend; you can hear it in the way he delivers
“Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo.” Then, for those in the Phil Zone, the
band goes into the Bob Dylan song “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” and Phil is
certainly having a good time with it. I always loved seeing the band cover this
song, in large part because of what Phil would do with the vocal line and
lyrics. Here he sings, “They got some
hungry creatures there” instead of “hungry
women” and he adds a humorous “woo”
at one point. And it sounds like he changes “My best friend, my doctor” to “My
best friend, my drummer.” And the crowd is totally digging it. Then Brent
gets a turn, with an energetic version of “Far From Me,” shouting out “No, we can’t fucking relate at all.”
Man, Brent is letting it all out here, at the end singing, “This song is my last fucking song for you,
bitch.” Bob then leads the band into one of my favorites, “Cassidy.” Hey,
is there a bit of a “Land Of 1000 Dances” tease in this version, first in the
tuning before the song starts, and then in the jam for just a moment? Jerry
then eases into “Friend Of The Devil.” A vocal miscue is a cause for some
laughter among the crowd, but this is a good version. The first set concludes
with Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land.”
The second set opens with a nice “Sugaree,” with guest
Bruce Hornsby playing accordion (Bruce Hornsby And The Range opened the show). He
would, more or less, become a member of the band a little over a year later,
after the death of Brent Mydland. Bruce also sits in on a fun and rousing
rendition of “Man Smart, Woman Smarter,” which features some delicious work on
keys. I love the verse sung by Brent, but it is the jamming that makes this
version something special. And there is a wonderful vocal jam toward the end.
This is one of the best versions of this one the band ever did. Jerry follows
that with a passionate “Ship Of Fools.” Then comes one of the best
combinations, “Estimated Prophet” into “Eyes Of The World” (sometimes done as
“Eyes Of The World” into “Estimated Prophet”). “Estimated Prophet” builds in
intensity, with Bob belting out “Glory,
glory!” and later giving us those great shouts. The jam is good, and “Eyes
Of The World” emerges from it. They don’t spend too much time on it before
Jerry goes into the first verse. At ten minutes or so, it’s certainly not a
very long version, but the band packs some tight jamming between verses, and
the pace has a sense of urgency. This is not a laid-back, exploratory “Eyes,”
and it’s only a couple of minutes after the final verse that the drummers take
over. Right before that, Jerry offers some surprisingly pretty work on guitar.
Bill and Mickey rumble toward us like a dark and hungry yet powerful beast,
before getting into stranger, more thoughtful territory, but with the beast
never far away, at one point ready to rise straight out into space from a
volcano.
The third disc picks up with an odd and at times
unsettling “Space,” the drummers sticking around for the first part of it. Is
that like a weird steady footstep, that popping? And at times it feels like a
demented spirit leading a carnival. When the band emerges from “Space,” they
move into “I Need A Miracle,” taking a few moments to get into it. I believe “I
Need A Miracle” was the first Grateful Dead song I ever heard. When I was seven
or eight, traveling on the school bus, it played on the bus radio (I think the
station was WAAF). I had no idea what band it was, but I liked the song. From
there, they ease into “Dear Mr. Fantasy.” This time, there is no “Hey Jude”
refrain, but instead Jerry takes the band into a nice “Black Peter.” The second
set then wraps up with “Turn On Your Lovelight.” The encore is “Black Muddy
River,” a beautiful and moving song that I never got a chance to see the Dead
perform.
July 13, 1989
The second night opens with the briefest of “Dark Star”
teases, which must have gotten the crowd excited, even if the acid hadn’t quite
taken hold yet. After a bit of tuning, the band gets things going with “Hell In
A Bucket.” “I may be going to hell in a
bucket/But at least I’m enjoying the ride.” And I’ve always loved the lines
about dancing – or crawling – across someone’s grave. This version has a lot of
energy. More tuning follows, and then they deliver a good version of “Cold Rain
And Snow.” Do these choices of opening numbers show a bit more attitude than
the previous night? Maybe, for Bob then dips into the blues with “Little Red
Rooster.” “Dogs begin to bark now, hounds
begin to howl.” It’s blues with a good groove. And if it’s attitude you
want, just wait until that section when Brent takes over on vocals. Bruce
Hornsby then joins the band on accordion for “Tennessee Jed,” and his presence
seems to energize Jerry more. “Catch a few winks, baby, down under the bed/Then you
head back to Tennessee Jed.” Bruce Hornsby also plays on Dylan’s “Stuck
Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again.” But it is with “To Lay Me Down”
that the band really grabs me. This is a moving rendition, with some beautiful
blending of voices. Powerful, wonderful. And it seems that Bob wants to keep
that going with his choice of “Let It Grow” to conclude the first set, and it’s
an excellent version with a strong jam – a nice finish to the first set, and
something to get folks excited and optimistic about the second set.
Certainly no one that night was disappointed when they
kicked off the second set with “He’s Gone.” Oh yes, listen to Jerry shout out
the line, “Nothing left to do but smile,
smile, smile.” And yet this version has a kind of easygoing vibe that I
love, and the vocal section at the end is absolutely wonderful. What a
fantastic way to start the second set. Then “Looks Like Rain” begins gently,
and quickly builds to something beautiful. “But it’s
all right, ‘cause I love you/That’s not gonna change.” I love Bob’s vocals
on this version. But is that real thunder or a thunder sound effect toward the
end (starting around the six-minute mark and getting more intense around the seven-minute mark)? Weird, particularly as I’ve heard an audience recording of this show, and
I don’t recall that noise on that recording. That leads to “Terrapin Station,” a
song that always seemed to contain its own special magic. And this rendition is
no exception, lifting me with the line “Inspiration,
move me brightly,” and transporting me to another realm. “And I know we’ll be there soon.” The “Drums”
segment follows, and soon it’s clear we are still in an unusual realm, a strange
jungle, part of a tribe, part of a ritual. Things turn darker later on, as we
edge toward “Space.”
The final disc begins with “Space,” which seems to thrust
us into another world, an eerie dawn, during which some strange intelligence
communicates with us, ultimately setting us at ease. And the band then brings
us back, quite literally saying “I Will Take You Home,” Brent’s sweet song to
his daughter. I love the way it comes out of “Space,” one of those perfect
moments, promising us all that things are okay. But of course, things are about
to get crazier again, as the band goes into “The Other One,” kind of easing
into it at first, and we wait for that explosion, anticipating it, feeling it
even before it arrives. This is one of the band’s most interesting songs,
because they approached it differently every time. Or the song approached – or overtook
– the band differently each time. And this time it becomes intense and
fantastic, a breathing, pulsing monster with multiple limbs, tossing us about,
not quite contained. It then slides into “Wharf Rat,”
another of the band’s best and most powerful songs. And this night the band is
on; listen to those vocals, listen to the crowd responding. “Wharf Rat” leads
to “Throwing Stones,” a song that feels particularly pertinent these days (I
suppose it always was). “The darkness
never goes from some men’s eyes.” Indeed. “The future’s here, we are it, we are on our own.” I love the way
Bob repeats “On our own.” And instead
of going into “Not Fade Away,” the band chooses to end the second set with “Good
Lovin’,” with Brent taking a verse. The encore – so appropriate to the concert’s
Washington D.C. setting, and to our lives right now – is “U.S. Blues.”
Robert
F. Kennedy Stadium, Washington, D.C., July 12 & 13, 1989 was released on November 10, 2017.
