Garcia in the Background

Jerry Garcia spent a lot of time encouraging and helping other musicians, particularly in the early years of the Dead. There are quite a few albums that would not exist or would sound quite different, if not for his support. I’ve been asked to write a post about this, so here is a list of some of the music that Garcia helped create. This shouldn’t be considered a finished piece, just incomplete musings!

The first example is Jefferson Airplane’s “Surrealistic Pillow” album, where Garcia was credited as “musical & spiritual adviser.” He stayed with the Airplane through many of the album sessions, playing on several songs, helping with arrangements, and effectively acting as unofficial co-producer for the album. This is especially surprising since the Airplane had already made a successful album, while Garcia and the Dead only had one failed single to their name.

More details here: http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/12/jerry-garcia-surrealistic-pillow.html

The New Riders of the Purple Sage, of course, would not exist without Garcia, who was the co-founder of the band. I’m sure John Dawson would have formed another group to do his songs, and it may even have included a pedal-steel player; but it would probably have sounded rather different, and it certainly would not have had the constant initial exposure to audiences the New Riders had, opening for the Dead for two years straight.

David Crosby’s first solo album, “If I Could Only Remember My Name,” would have been a bit different without Garcia’s contributions. Crosby later said, “Jerry Garcia is responsible for that record a very great deal. He was there night after night after night…thinking, listening, talking - you know, acting as a friend, saying ‘Hmmm, man, what if you, how did you, why don't you try a little more, and....’ And he would play. He played on a lot of stuff.” [1] "Jerry must have come around to Wally Heider's every night for a long time, and he was so helpful, so bright, so inventive... If I had to elect one musician to represent musicians in the Galactic Congress of Beings, it would have been him." [2]

Garcia was also heavily involved with “Blows Against the Empire” and later Paul Kantner/Grace Slick albums, and apparently had quite a bit of creative input. “Blows,” Crosby’s album, and “American Beauty” were being made at Wally Heider’s at the same time, so as Kantner said, “We would just wander into each other's studios, listen for a while, and say, 'I could add something to that.’” [3] (Note that it was Garcia who contributed to the others’ albums, not the other way around – perhaps because the Dead’s music was more simple and insular at that point.)

Kantner recalled, “Jerry was doing a lot of pedal steel for people around that time, experimenting, and so we let him be on it; he was overjoyed. So he went in and just experimented with sounds, seeing what kind of sounds he could get out of it, running it through various pedals and echoes and delays. We gave him a free hand, which made him happy. Before that he’d pretty much just been doing country licks on the steel, and this gave him the opportunity to get a little weirder, which he always appreciated.” [4]

Garcia spent a lot of time at the PERRO sessions at Wally Heider’s, most of which wasn’t released, but fed into later Crosby or Kantner albums. (For instance, ‘Mountain Song,’ which Garcia co-wrote and originally sang, was released in a later Kantner recording in 1983.)

http://www.philzone.com/philbase/perro.html

Howard Wales’ “Hooteroll” album would not have been recorded without Garcia. In fact, it’s hard to say when or if Wales would ever have pursued a solo recording career, without Garcia’s initial support – Wales would only release one more album in the ‘70s, preferring to stay in the shadows. Garcia would later say of his one east-coast tour with Wales supporting the album in January ’72, “I didn’t really go on the road that time to play. The thing was really misrepresented. I just wanted to get Howard out playing, and the band had a really nice thing going which really didn’t have much to do with me. I was just there fucking around.” [5]

Merl Saunders’ early albums, “Heavy Turbulence” and “Fire Up,” would have been quite different without Garcia’s involvement. Saunders recalled, “I had an album to do over at Fantasy Records. I said to Jerry, ‘You helped me develop these tunes, you might as well come and do them.’” [6]

Not only was the material much of the same stuff they were performing live, Garcia also gave Saunders some needed moral support when making the albums. As Saunders said, “Jerry always encouraged me to write material for the group. [The record label] Fantasy was saying stuff like, 'The music is great, but these words about ecology and whatnot, you gotta tone 'em down.' I said, 'I like the words.' And Jerry's attitude was, 'Yeah, fuck 'em! Do what you want, Merl!' He was really my inspiration to do things the way I wanted to do them. I would maybe be leaning toward giving in to the record company and he'd say, 'Merl, you wrote these songs from the heart, so fuck 'em. It's your music, man. Put it out the way you want to.' And I needed to hear that.” [7]

As well, Saunders said, “He also got me singing. We’d come off a tour and he’d say, ‘Man, you gotta help me out singing.’ I didn’t think I could sing, but I figured if Jerry could sing, I could sing. He’d say, ‘You hear how bad I can sound; you don’t sound any worse than I do.’ I said, ‘I guess I don’t.’ We used to laugh about it, but that’s how I started singing.” [8]

The Garcia/Saunders band also played on Tom Fogerty’s second solo album “Excalibur” in 1972. (At the time, Fogerty was more or less a member of the band.)

http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2012/03/excalibur-tom-fogerty-jerry-garcia.html

Much later, Garcia also helped Saunders record his “Blues From the Rainforest” album in 1989.

Old And In The Way, technically speaking, probably does not belong in this post. Garcia started the band informally as a way to play bluegrass in public with some friends – David Grisman recalled, “We just got together one time in Jerry’s living room and started playing bluegrass and Jerry said, ‘Wow, we ought to go play some gigs.’ Me and Pete [Rowan] probably needed the bread.” [9]

It was a blip in the careers of Garcia, Grisman, Rowan, and Clements. Nonetheless, their album became a bestseller and extremely influential in the bluegrass field, exposing many new listeners to the music. (It’s even arguable that Garcia is a more important figure within country and bluegrass music than in rock music.)

Garcia was asked in 1991, “Is Old & In The Way still the biggest-selling bluegrass album?”

“That’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know where those statistics come from, but I think that’s tremendously flattering if it is. Although kind of unfortunate. I mean, what about those guys who spent their lives playing this music? They were certainly great at it.” [10]

The Round Records label would not have existed without Garcia. While a couple of the Round albums would no doubt have been made on other labels, it is pretty safe to say that without Garcia steering the label, there would have been no Keith & Donna album, no Seastones album, and no Diga Rhythm Band album – all of which he played on and helped produce. (Garcia was frequently involved with Mickey Hart’s solo efforts through the early ‘70s, as you might expect, but I think that’s a subject that falls outside this post.)

Robert Hunter would also most likely not have recorded his first two albums, “Tales of the Great Rum Runners” and “Tiger Rose,” which Garcia produced.

These are familiar Dead-related names, but in Round Records’ brief history, Garcia also got a chance to step into the bluegrass field, with the Good Old Boys’ “Pistol Packin’ Mama” album. Garcia gathered together a group of some of his favorite bluegrass musicians to make the record, which he produced. Unfortunately, given the troubles of Round Records, it quickly went out print and sank into oblivion. If the label had continued, though, it’s possible Garcia would have continued to do sessions like this for other musicians he liked.

It’s also worth mentioning that Garcia had a direct financial stake in these albums – when they failed, he lost money. Round Records was basically formed to protect the rest of the Grateful Dead, as a home for “financially dubious solo projects,” and Garcia and Ron Rakow were the sole owners (and apparently sole overseers) of the label. As the JGMF blog notes, “It really speaks to how committed Jerry was to the other GD members, the Family, etc. He was not only subsidizing their solo projects (did anyone really think that Diga or Seastones or Keith and Donna would sell?), but also taking on disproportionate risk… Jerry was pretty much carrying everyone and everything.” [11]

[These posts also provide more detail on Round Records and the various album projects:]

http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2013/02/album-economics-round-records-1974-76.html

http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2012/08/album-projects-recorded-at-mickey-harts.html

Sometimes Garcia also helped out on other musicians’ projects that fizzled out.

Garcia & Grisman played on a demo session for a prospective Peter Rowan solo album, but the album was never made and the tracks weren’t released til 1980.

http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2011/10/april-10-1974-record-plant-sausalito-ca.html

Garcia had played on studio sessions with the Rowan Brothers back in 1971 or so – he was excited enough about that band to rave about them in a Rolling Stone interview, which backfired when his comment that “they could be like the Beatles” was used to promote their album, creating many disappointed listeners. (Audiences were also unimpressed when they opened for the Dead.)

One session Garcia did that wasn’t heard for many years was with Bill Cutler in 1975 – which wasn’t released until 2008. Cutler had encountered Garcia at Matt Kelly’s studio sessions: “In the course of seeing him around, he heard a bunch of my songs and said, ‘If you ever make an album of your stuff, I’d be happy to help out.’ Which was a pretty exciting offer, of course! In fact, I’m not sure I even believed it at first… Jerry heard that I was going in to record and told me he wanted to play on the tracks. Because the Dead weren’t touring then, he actually had some time and he came by, rehearsed a little with us, and we recorded about half an album with him. He seemed really comfortable in the group… The plan was to cut a bunch more tracks at some point, but what happened is the Grateful Dead went back out onto the road and then they got so busy that there was just never an opportunity to do more, so I literally put the tapes in a closet and they sat there for many, many years.” In 1993 Cutler bumped into Garcia again: “He asked me about what had happened to the tracks we’d recorded at Heider’s all those years ago. He said, ‘We should finish that album!’” [12]

There may be more ‘lost’ sessions with other musicians we don’t know about if they haven’t been released

Garcia also encouraged and frequently participated in Ned Lagin’s music. Aside from Lagin’s appearances at Dead shows, Garcia also went out to play with Lagin at a couple “Seastones” shows (most notably 6/6/75), though they parted ways after that. In this case, Phil Lesh participated more than Garcia in what there was of Lagin’s solo career. Lesh said in 1980: “Ned went his own way after that, although we still communicate… We essentially did a benefit for him and got him a computer and a synthesizer.” [13]

Garcia also made a dramatic reentry into David Grisman’s music in the 1990s. Grisman reconnected with Garcia after years of not talking, and in 1990 Garcia ensured that Grisman received a Rex Foundation cash grant (which would help fund releases on Grisman’s label Acoustic Disc). Grisman recalled, “Later I found out that Jerry was responsible and I called him to thank him… Jerry came over to my house one day, checked out my home studio and asked me, ‘How about putting out some more Old and in the Way tapes?’ I said, ‘Frankly, Jerry, I’d rather see us put out something new. We can put out the old tapes when we’re in wheelchairs.’” (Garcia would idly muse about getting Old & In The Way back together, but it never happened.)

Garcia returned to Grisman’s house with an acoustic guitar: “He just walked right in and said, ‘We should make a record and that would give us a reason to play.’ …When I told him about my small record company [Acoustic Disc], he said, ‘Great, so we can do it for you.’ When I asked, ‘When do you want to start?’ he said, ‘Now!’” [14]

Per deaddisc.com, “The Garcia and Grisman partnership also gave Grisman the finances needed to continue his Acoustic Disc record label. As Grisman noted in another interview, ‘Jerry kind of takes care of the profitable part.’”

In a smaller role, Garcia played pedal steel for various artists in numerous studio sessions from ’69 to ’73. This isn’t the place to list them (see http://deaddisc.com/GDFD_JGPerformer.htm ) but it’s notable that pretty much all these sessions were for musicians who were his friends & acquaintances. (That is, he wasn’t an in-demand session man for those outside his circle.) His contributions are generally limited to one or two songs, so he clearly wasn’t heavily involved in the recording process, just being called in for a solo or two. Sometimes his parts weren’t even released, so his role on some albums is unknown. Frequently he was an anonymous player, not listed in the credits. (For instance, Steve Stills omitted Garcia’s name on his albums. Also, on Lamb’s 1971 album “Cross Between,” he played on some tracks but wasn’t credited – instead there was a note on the back cover: “Special thanks to Jerry Garcia.”)

It’s also notable that the most famous notes he ever played were from one of his first guest sessions, CSNY’s ‘Teach Your Children.’ As such a well-known song, and one of the most recognized pedal-steel tracks ever, it can start bitter quarrels about Garcia on pedal-steel forums to this day. (“Mediocre” is the general opinion.)

John Dawson remembered that Crosby and Nash “came up and sang Jerry and me 'Teach Your Children,' and they asked if he'd play pedal steel on it. They were at Wally Heider's in San Francisco working on their second album, and so Jerry said, 'Sure, man, yeah. Absolutely.' So we went over there…and we went into Studio D, at the back end of the hallway. They set Garcia up in the studio, played him the tape two or three times, and then Crosby said, 'OK, let's roll some tape.' So they did a take, and then another, and then Garcia said, 'Let's roll it again,' and Crosby said, 'Nuh-uh. That's it. That's perfect. Get out of here.'” Garcia’s part was done in two takes. [15]

Garcia later said, “Nice tune. Nice note. I got one good note in on that tune! One good note makes it worthwhile! [Laughter]” But he added, “I really think the nicest thing I did during that period was on Crosby’s solo album… I particularly like the pedal steel on ‘Laughing.’ That was some of the prettiest and most successful of what I was trying to get at at that time.” [16]

Garcia was asked in 1983 about creating a definitive Garcia discography. “I’ve done so many sessions, I don’t keep track…I just don’t think of it in [completist] terms, because during the period of time when I was doing lots and lots of recording sessions, from about ’69 to ’73 or ’74, right around there, I did a lot of sessions, and the reason I did them was because I wanted to get more studio experience in, and because I liked the problem-solving mentality that you get into. People would call me in because they wanted what I could contribute to the session. That was my function. That was the reason I was there. And that was the way I perceived the work I was doing. In those moments I’m interested mostly in the music, not in myself. I don’t do those things for my own career! I do them for the music at hand and because at the time I really enjoyed doing sessions… There were so many things. We all got involved in all kinds of little side projects and odd little one-shot things… There have been some things I played on where I’m not credited at all… Some of those I just don’t remember. Sometimes they were very weird experiences, like, for those I didn’t know what records they were for or anything.” [17]

After the Round Records era, Garcia stopped playing on other people’s sessions for a long time. From 1987-1995 he would do occasional guest appearances again, mostly on the albums of friends or musicians he liked. I don’t have much to say about these (they could be a post of their own), but they show that even when the demands on his time were most intense, he would still go out of his way to spend time playing for the musicians in his circle, adapting himself to what they wanted on their tracks.

There is also a parallel in his jamming habits. While he was insatiable for opportunities to play with others, he would not always take the lead, but was just as happy to stay back and support others in the jam, sticking to rhythm backing and letting them direct the music. Garcia would sometimes say that he was happiest being a sideman – for instance, in bluegrass music: “I don’t really want to front a band. I would rather play in a bluegrass band as a banjo player, like in Old & In The Way, and let somebody else front it… I don’t think of myself as a lead singer. Gimme a couple tunes in a set, and I’m perfectly happy. And I love singing parts… I think of myself as an accompanist. That’s my field.” [18]

This could be another topic of its own.

There are many stories of Garcia encouraging other musicians:

Martin Fierro recalled, “Jerry encouraged me to bring in new tunes. Oh, man we were playing all sorts of stuff…He was always up for anything. I asked him one time, ‘Do you mind if I play to my heart’s content?’ and he said, ‘No, man, I want you to. It makes me play better when you give your all, Martin.’ You play with some guys and they don’t want you to play a lot and you can’t really express yourself, but it was never that way with Jerry. We were all on the same page and we were all equals.” [19]

Peter Rowan recalled, “Jerry had this quality of reciprocal enthusiasm and the ability to give off a kind of light. If you tickled his fancy, he would just come forth with so much loving energy that everyone would do better. When you played with Garcia, he could make you rise up to your full capacity. He could make you do that and I think it was reciprocal… I never experienced any ego when he played. He was against any discursive criticism of the moment. He could make every player feel that whatever part they had to contribute was part of the overall experience. He was generous.” [20]

Michael Lydon, who was then a Rolling Stone reporter hoping to become a musician, spoke to Garcia in 1969: “When I confessed to him my own musical hopes, his instant, smiling response was, ‘Yeah, man, do it! Whatever I am doing, you can do it too!’” [21]

Garcia’s support of others wasn’t just outside the Dead, though. Though he was reluctant to act as the “leader,” a lot of things that happened in the band were the result of his decisions. In particular, he frequently encouraged the other members to step up more and sing their own songs – whether it be Pigpen, Brent, Weir, or Donna. He was eager for the others to take on a bigger role in contributing material, and seems to have been supportive of whatever was brought in.

https://archive.org/post/1010365/garcia-in-the-background

For instance, in 1974 he was already complaining, “To me, just because of default, I've fallen into the role of being the main writer in the band. And I'm not really a writer, I'm not really a composer… But these are roles, and since the band has needed them I've fallen into them, just like we all have. But it's been on me to be the guy who's developing the material. And frankly, I'm tired of my own writing, I'm bored with it. Since it's sort of an artificial situation, I'm not an inspired writer. It represents work.” [22]

This was an ominous foretelling of Garcia’s future decline as a songwriter. By the ‘80s Brent Mydland would be writing more songs for the Dead than Garcia was, to Garcia’s steady approval. Blair Jackson writes that “Garcia liked Brent and his songs, and went out of his way to encourage him to write more.” Garcia said after the “Built to Last” album, “It was Brent that had the good songs – I mean, more of ‘em… It’s nice to be able to show off what he can do on a lot of different levels. And his contribution to this record is really outstanding all over. Not just his tunes and vocals, but everything else – all the keyboard parts and just ideas and general stuff.” [23]

If Garcia hadn’t asked Robert Hunter to write songs for the Dead, it seems unlikely that Hunter would have become a songwriter: “I had written lyrics on and off since I was 17, but I fancied myself a serious writer, and rock & roll wasn’t exactly what I had planned for myself.” [24] “Without the GD I’d be just another guy who didn’t get a chance to develop what talent he had.” [25]

And of course, we would probably never have heard of Phil Lesh if Garcia hadn’t asked him to play bass for the band: “I know you’re a musician – you can pick up this instrument so easy.”

Lesh later mused, “If I had never taken this road, who knows what I’d be doing? It’s so impossible to even consider it… I don’t know. I probably would have left music forever. I already had.” [26] 

*

NOTES

1. http://www.dead.net/features/grateful-dead-hour-no-41

2. Voyage box set liner notes

3. ibid. 

4. Jackson, Garcia p. 185

5. Jackson, Garcia p. 228

6. Greenfield, Dark Star p. 138

7. http://blairjackson.com/chapter_twelve_additions.htm 

8. Troy, Captain Trips p. 160

9. Greenfield, Dark Star p. 152

10. Jones & Pickard, “Crazy Fingers: Jerry Garcia & The Banjo,” Relix 19, 1992

11. http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2010/07/jerry-garcia-and-round-records.html

12.  http://www.dead.net/features/dead-world-roundup/bill-cutler-lot-help-his-friends

13. “Phil Lesh: Reddy Killowatt Speaks,” Comstock Lode 9

14. Jackson, Garcia p. 400

15. http://blairjackson.com/chapter_ten_additions.htm

16. Hunt, “Jerry Garcia: Folk, Bluegrass & Beyond” pt II, Swing 51 #7, 1983

17. ibid.

18. Jones & Pickard, “Crazy Fingers: Jerry Garcia & The Banjo,” Relix 19, 1992

19. http://www.dead.net/features/news/general-news/rest-peace-martin-fierro

20. Greenfield, Dark Star p. 154

21. Lydon, Flashbacks p. 96

22. http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2012/12/november-1974-garcia-interview.html

23. Jackson, Garcia p. 383

24. Gans, Conversations with the Dead p. 23

25. http://www.hunterarchive.com/files/mailpages/mailbag6.12.96.html

26. Gans, Conversations p. 201

The Europe '72 Overdubs (Guest Post)

Europe ‘72
Notes on Song Selections and Overdubs for the Original Album and Volume 2
By Steven Seachrist 

The final show of the 1972 tour of Europe tour took place on May 26 in London. Then the band, their crew and families headed back to the New World, armed with a huge stash of two inch wide, sixteen-track audio tape containing nearly every note played on the tour. This is saying a lot: there were about 2000 pounds of tapes, or as recording engineer Bob Matthews estimated, 17 miles of tape to listen to. Plenty of previous Grateful Dead shows had been taped in multi-track, but never on this scale. Twenty-two complete shows now rested comfortably in the vault back in California, and a live album was planned. It was originally called Steppin’ Out.

The idea was to present songs that either were completely new, or ones that had not been previously released in live form. This philosophy continued with Steal Your Face, the live album recorded in 1974, and even with Reckoning and Dead Set, the next contemporaneous live albums, recorded in 1980. The idea of repeating live song versions must have seemed ill advised at the time.

As they had with the 1971 live album Grateful Dead (commonly referred to as Skull and Roses), the band decided on some studio doctoring of the tapes. Today, this seems almost sacrilege, as we accept the raw edges of live Grateful Dead recordings just as we would at a concert. But back in 1972, the band and/or their record label wanted to present polished excerpts from the tour. They even edited out almost all of the stage banter and crowd reactions at the tops and tails of songs, making the Europe ’72 album sound even more like a live/studio hybrid.

In all, seventeen songs made the final album cut, if you count the transitional jams “Prelude” and “Epilogue” as songs. Others were considered and even overdubbed back home, but were later dropped. There are some clues as to which songs and versions almost made the cut.

In 2011, Rhino released a box set of the entire tour called Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings. No information was provided regarding which live tracks were supplanted by overdubs performed in the studio after the tour. Sometimes Jeff Norman, the audio engineer, used the studio-dubbed vocals; in other cases he recovered the original live vocals. Some of the differences are obvious, some are only apparent when comparing to circulating tapes, and others can’t reliably be sussed out. Unless Norman wants to tell what he knows, we may never be able to untangle all of the details, and I suspect he has been sworn to secrecy.

About the same time the big box hit the streets, Rhino also issued a 2-CD compilation product titled Europe ’72, Volume 2 that attempted to represent a sequel to the original album. This effort is very well thought out, and contains excellent versions of songs not present on Europe ’72. They did break the rule of “no songs previously released on earlier-recorded live albums,” but at this point no one cares about that. It’s a great listen and it really does seem like an extension of the original album.

The box set mix was used for all songs on Volume 2. No performances from earlier archival releases (Hundred Year Hall, Rockin’ the Rhein, Steppin’ Out and the 2001 remaster of Europe ’72 with bonus tracks) were used on Volume 2.

Since there is little information on exactly what overdubs were done for the Europe ’72 album, and which of them were kept on the box set, a post gathering all the known details has been needed. Here is a breakdown of what we can tell about the origins of the recordings, given the available clues. A single asterisk * indicates the version was used on the original album released in 1972, and a double asterisk ** indicates the version was used on Europe ’72, Volume 2, the compilation released in 2011. The reason I am including this later release is that some overdub work was done on at least one song that did not make the original cut.


Vocal Overdubs

April 7, 1972

Me and My Uncle ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Not Fade Away ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Not Fade Away (Reprise) ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.


April 8, 1972

Cumberland Blues * It seems the vocals were overdubbed on this, as they are significantly more polished than other live versions from the tour. The overdubbed vocals are apparently used on the box set mix. (The original vocals have never circulated on tape; and though David Lemieux has said that they weren’t erased, they were not used for the box set.)


April 14, 1972

Bertha ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Black Throated Wind ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Chinatown Shuffle ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Loser ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Brown-Eyed Women * This lead vocal was definitely overdubbed, as a different vocal appears on the box set mix.


April 26, 1972

Dire Wolf ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Good Lovin’ ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.


May 3, 1972

Sugaree ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

China Cat Sunflower * This lead vocal was definitely overdubbed, as a different vocal appears on the box set mix.

I Know You Rider * The harmonies here are tighter than other versions on the tour, and it follows that these were probably overdubbed. The doctored vocals appear on the box set mix. The only vocals here that don’t have harmonies are on the “train” verse, and Garcia sings that in a voice that could either be live or not, no telling. The guitar playing on this song is so perfect that I would not be surprised if it had studio help, but again there is no way to know unless a live-to-two-track version exists somewhere.
Jeff Norman has said that he kept Garcia’s original “China Cat” vocal on the box set. Although Garcia’s original vocal for “Rider” was also still on tape, Norman used the overdub on that song because of the different harmony phrasing. (The original harmony vocals were most likely erased, while Garcia put his own vocal on a new track.)

Tennessee Jed * This lead vocal was definitely overdubbed, as a different vocal appears on the box set mix.

Greatest Story Ever Told ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Jack Straw * This is one of the more interesting vocal overdubs. From its inception until the performance on 5/10/72, all of the verses in “Jack Straw” were sung by Bob Weir. On that date and forevermore after that, Weir and Garcia traded verses in call-and-response fashion. But this version from 5/3/72 has the two singers trading off, so they were obviously overdubbed. Listen very carefully, and I think you will hear the “ghost” (reflections and bleed) of Weir’s voice during Garcia’s verses. This is not obvious on the original album but can be heard on the newer mix. The original live tape of this song has never circulated.
Jeff Norman has said that Weir’s guitar part was also replaced for the album; his new guitar track was put on Pigpen’s empty vocal track. (Norman also mentioned that you can hear Weir’s vocal bleedthrough when Garcia sings.)


May 4, 1972

Deal ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Next Time You See Me ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Sugar Magnolia * It sounds like there is some doubling of Weir’s vocal (either deliberately or as a remnant of the original vocal bleeding into other mics) and the harmony vocals are almost certainly overdubbed. Donna appears in the coda on this version and was likely overdubbed since this is an anomaly not found on the other live versions from the tour. The overdubbed vocals were used on the box set mix. The original live tape of this song has never circulated.
On the album the Dead included the last ten seconds of “Dark Star” at the start of the song.


May 7, 1972

Dark Star ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

Drums ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.

The Other One ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs. It is of interest to note that while this version did transition to “Sing Me Back Home”, a different version of that song was used on Europe ’72, Volume 2. This is probably because the 5/26/72 version was pulled for possible inclusion on the original album and overdubs were made to it, and the producers decided it was the better of the two versions.


May 10, 1972

He’s Gone * Hearing the 2011 box set mix, it becomes glaringly obvious that the original album version was sped-up and thus pitched about a half-step sharp. The newer mix rectifies this. All the vocals were overdubbed for the album, and the studio vocals were also used on the box set. (Typically, Norman would have used the live vocal if it was salvageable, but here it is likely the overdubbed vocals were recorded over the live vocal tracks. Lemieux has confirmed that the live vocals on the multitrack were erased. The original performance circulates on tape, though.) The backing vocals – not present on this version when it was played live – are included on the box set mix, which is similar to what was done with “Sugar Magnolia” and its coda. In the original live performance, the Dead instrumentally fade out at the end.
Keith’s piano in this song is entirely overdubbed on the album, adding a lot of embellishments. The Dead changed this song the most in the studio, probably because it was the newest song and the early live versions sounded rather primitive.
Blair Jackson wrote in the CD liner notes: “The vocal coda on “He’s Gone” – “Oo-oo-oo, nothin’s gonna bring him back” – was not from the 5/10/72 Amsterdam show that the album version was purportedly drawn from; indeed the coda did not appear on any of the six versions of the song played in Europe. Rather, it was introduced July 16, 1972, at Dillon Stadium in Hartford, Connecticut… But the vocals on the “live” album were added in the studio when Matthews mixed the tapes, long after the Europe tour.” (Blair may not have known when writing this that it would be the overdubbed mix that appeared on the box set. Technically, Norman did not even need to include the studio vocal coda, since it was simply sung over the original instrumental ending.)


May 16, 1972

Beat it on Down the Line ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.


May 23, 1972

Mr. Charlie * This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.


May 24, 1972

You Win Again * This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs. A lot of reverb was added to the vocal, though, which is true of many of the vocals on the album.

It Hurts Me Too * Keith's piano was definitely overdubbed on the album. His part is much fancier than what he played live. The original live piano was included on the box set mix. The rest of the performance is apparently undubbed.

Playing in the Band ** This is apparently completely live, with no overdubs.


May 26, 1972

Truckin’ * Most of the vocals seem to be live, as very little difference can be heard from the original vocals. However, there are some slight changes – for instance, the “sometimes the light’s all shining on me” bridge at 4:15 is sung more smoothly on the album – so evidently some or all of the vocals were redone. After 5:00, Weir & Garcia’s “get back truckin’ on” vocals were overdubbed on the album, and this new vocal coda was also used on the box set. The original performance had different, shorter ending vocals. (As an aside, this “Truckin’” is rare for the time in not returning to a vocal reprise.)

Epilogue * This is the jam out of “Truckin’” and is apparently completely live. The album track ends at 5:00 with a studio-added reverb effect in Phil’s little solo, just before he starts playing chords in the live performance, snipping out “The Other One.”

Prelude * This is the jam into “Morning Dew” and is apparently completely live.

Morning Dew * The lead vocal was overdubbed for the first two verses, as Garcia sounds hoarse on the box set mix, and not on the album. The live vocal for the rest of the song was left as is. On the album, the end of the song cuts just before the return to “The Other One.”

Sing Me Back Home ** The lead vocal was certainly overdubbed, as there are audible reflections of the original vocal on the box set mix. Also, Donna’s final gospel vocal yell (“come alive”) is only heard as a reflection, unfortunately. My theory is that her original vocal track was overdubbed upon and thus erased, and she did not sing this part during the overdub session. The circulating tape of this show has the original vocals, which are quite different.

Ramble On Rose * This lead vocal was definitely overdubbed, as a different vocal appears on the box set mix. Keith's piano was also overdubbed on the album, and the piano overdub is on the box set mix.

One More Saturday Night * Though it’s almost impossible to tell, Weir redid at least some of his lead vocal – the chorus from 2:20-2:30 is slightly different on the album compared to the box set mix – but in general the vocal inflections are so identical it’s hard to spot any difference, and harder to tell why he took the trouble. Backing vocals were clearly overdubbed at the end, since these were not on the live tape. Pigpen’s organ was omitted from the album, and Keith's piano was overdubbed. The piano overdub is on the box set mix.


Organ Overdubs

There are no organ overdubs on the album.

Although Merl Saunders isn't on the Europe ‘72 credits, a few sources still indicate he was part of the overdubs: McNally's book briefly mentions it, the deaddisc.com discography also lists him on the album, and Merl himself said in an interview, “I played on four or five tracks of Europe ’72.”

But evidently, they were mistaking this album for the Skull and Roses album in 1971, where Saunders did do organ overdubs on several songs. After reviewing all original E72 album mixes, the newer box set mixes of the same takes, and the circulating tapes (plus other takes of the same songs), I see no reason to believe Merl Saunders overdubbed any organ at all.

Pigpen played fine organ parts on the whole tour. He was not flashy, but he was quite reliable and not at all intrusive. There is considerably less organ used in the 1972 album mix than was actually played at the shows. (For instance, the organ was mixed low on “Truckin’,” minimized on “Ramble On Rose,” and omitted on “One More Saturday Night” and “Tennessee Jed.”) In contrast, the 2011 box set keeps the Hammond simmering, presumably any time Pigpen had his hands on it and the volume pedal pushed down. These newer mixes are good in that way. (Often, the piano gets buried, but that is another story for another day.)

There are no Saunders overdubs anywhere to be found. On every song on the original album where some organ is audible, the organ parts on the album are identical to what Pigpen played live, and very similar parts are played by Pigpen on other versions during the tour. There are certainly songs where his organ parts were minimized or completely muted for the original album mixes, but none where a new organ part appears. So the sources stating Merl Saunders was on the Europe ’72 album are clearly wrong! I think it is possible that Saunders simply mis-spoke and was instead remembering his contributions to Skull and Roses.

As far as the other instruments, Keith overdubbed piano on at least several songs - "He's Gone," "It Hurts Me Too," "Ramble On Rose," and "One More Saturday Night." "It Hurts Me Too" is the only one of these where the original live piano was used on the box set mix, which indicates that Keith's live track was usually erased by the overdub. On some performances (mostly the Paris shows) it isn't possible to check since we don't have the undubbed live tapes.

I did not detect any guitar overdubs, but there may be some.


The Sub Reels

The Dead considered more songs for the original album than could be included, along with many candidates for the best performance of each song. One step in the preparation of the album was to select the best tracks from the shows and put them onto sub-reels for final consideration.
David Lemieux explained in one interview: “A lot of the songs were physically cut out from the master reels and put onto another reel for consideration for Europe ’72… They listened to the whole tour, pulled out the best four versions of each song by physically cutting them from the master and putting them on another tape. That was the sub reel of the versions that were being considered for Europe ’72.”
http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/purely-about-the-music-the
This meant that for the box set, many shows had to be reassembled from the various reels as the songs were put back in their original place.

Lemieux spoke to Blair Jackson about some of the selections on Volume 2: “We ended up including several songs that the band had pulled from the master reels for the original Europe ’72 but which, for whatever reason, didn’t make the cut. That was really the impetus to get this thing rolling—that there was a lot of stuff on the cutting room floor that the band had slated for the original album at some point. Off the top of my head, I can give you three: “Beat It on Down the Line” from Luxembourg [5/16], “Next Time You See Me” from Paris [5/4], and “Sing Me Back Home” from 5/26 [Lyceum]… My guess is that when they made the original album, the big ballad was going to be either the “Morning Dew” or this “Sing Me Back Home.””
http://www.dead.net/features/live/more-europe-%E2%80%9972-vol-2-few-minutes-david-lemieux
As we saw, “Sing Me Back Home” did receive complete vocal redubs for the album before it was put aside. Since the dubbed version was used on the box set, the original vocals may have been erased on the multitrack.

“Two Souls in Communion” from Frankfurt 4/26 had also been selected for possible inclusion on the original album, but ended up as a bonus track on the 2001 CD reissue. Lemieux said: “That song was actually slated for inclusion on Europe ’72. The reason we know that is because everything that was originally going to be included on the album was put onto these sub-reels. That didn’t make it, and Beat It on Down the Line, of all things. Those two songs were going to be included but didn’t make it. On some of the tape boxes it’s called Pig’s Tune and on the rest of them it’s called The Stranger.”
http://www.musicbox-online.com/dl-vault1.html

We see from the tape box images in the hardbound box set book that certain songs were taken from the master reels and spliced to at least nine sub-reels for consideration for inclusion on the album. These include the following:

Mr. Charlie (4/29) – This version was not used. The version from 5/23 was.

China > Rider (4/29) – This version was not used. The version from 5/3 was.

China > Rider (5/3) – This is the version used on the album.

Beat It on Down the Line (5/3) – This version was not used on Volume 2. The version from 5/16 was.

Tennessee Jed (5/3) – This is the version used on the album.

It Hurts Me Too (5/3) – This version was not used. The version from 5/24 was.

Truckin’ (5/3) – This version was not used. The version from 5/26 was.

Jack Straw (5/3) – This is the version used on the album.

Ramble on Rose (5/10) – This version was not used. The version from 5/26 was. There is also a note on this tape box of the second set saying, “This is dynamite,” apparently meaning the whole reel or whole set.

Chinatown Shuffle (5/26) - This version was not used on Volume 2. The version from 4/14 was.

China > Rider (5/26) – This version was not used. The version from 5/3 was.

Sing Me Back Home (5/26) – This version was used on Volume 2. This tape box has a note saying, “We’re all really stoned now.”

One More Saturday Night (5/26) – This is the version used on the album. A note on this tape box says, “The Last God Dawg Gig.”

Unfortunately, we don’t get to see all of the tape boxes. More clues would reside there. The 4/24 tape boxes, seen in the Rockin’ the Rhein release, appear to have no songs selected.

(As an aside, several of the newer songs apparently did not yet have their titles finalized during the tour. The titles used on the tape boxes are “Don’t Expect No Help At All,” “Chuba Chuba,” “He’s Long Gone,” and “Strangers.”) 

Several songs are missing from the circulating tapes of the shows, evidently because they were spliced out of the master reels to put on the sub-reels. These include:

4/8/72 Cumberland Blues
5/3/72 China>Rider, Tennessee Jed, Jack Straw
5/4/72 Sugar Magnolia

On the circulating tapes, these songs are patched from the Europe ’72 album. As a result, we do not have the original live performances to compare to the overdubbed mixes. They may well still exist on two-track copies in the Vault, though. Multiple copies of these shows were made at the time; as Betty Cantor said in an interview with John Dwork, “In Europe I was doing the 16-track and simultaneously running a two-track of my monitor mix. I made cassettes at the same time.” (Deadhead’s Taping Compendium vol. II, p.17)


The Overdub Process

In an interview with Blair Jackson, Bob Matthews explained the decision to redo the vocals on the Europe ’72 live tracks: “The band was almost never happy with their vocals on live recordings. We had overdubbed vocals on ‘Skull and Roses,’ too, but the band was very unhappy about the fact that it sounded like it had been overdubbed. Actually there were some discussions about whether we were even going to do Europe ’72, because of vocal issues, so that’s when I came up with the idea of trying to make [them] sound more live.”
Jackson wrote, “They recreated the positions of [the speakers] with loudspeakers in the big room at Alembic [Studios], set up the singers and their monitors in the same positions they had been onstage, and then played back the instrumental tracks to approximate the actual live performance, as the singers laid down new vocals.”
Matthews said, “Everybody seemed to like that fine. The band wanted the albums to sound as good as they could make them. They weren’t purists at all.” (Grateful Dead Gear, p.119)

These were the track assignments on the Europe ’72 16-tracks:
1. Bass Drum
2. Floor Tom
3. Snare
4. Overhead
5. Hi hat
6. Bass
7. Bass
8. Lead guitar
9. Rhythm guitar
10. Jerry vocal
11. Bob vocal
12. Phil vocal
13. Pig Pen vocal
14. Organ
15. Piano
16. Aud/Sync

There were not many tracks left over if the band decided to overdub vocals in a song. Usually, Pigpen’s vocal track would be empty, and sometimes his organ track, and the band seem to have used those tracks sometimes. But quite often, we see that the original vocal tracks were wiped when recording the new vocals. (On some songs, though, if you listen carefully, you can hear the room echo of the original live vocals under the studio vocals.) The audience track was probably not used for dubs, though it was mixed so low on the album that any audience presence or original room sound is barely detectable. (Plenty of reverb was added to the vocals, though.)

Some live vocals on the multitracks were lost due to the Dead’s method of snipping out the selected tracks from the master tape and recording directly onto them. The original performances survived on Betty Cantor’s two-track tapes, though, many of which leaked out into circulation. These are all apparently still in the Vault. Lemieux said in one interview, “Fortunately, they were running two-track of virtually all the shows to cover any cuts on the multi-track. They were only running one multi-track machine, so if the multi-track did cut in the middle of the song, there was about 20-30 seconds missing of that song, but we do have the two-track recordings that were made simultaneously [so] that we can fix it. We’ve had to do that a couple of times, not too often.”
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/grateful-dead-archivist-david-lemieux-talks-europe-72-box-set/ 
 
Most shows were intact, and some had no songs cut on the multitracks. The Dead were using extra-long 14-inch reels on the tour in order to minimize tapeflips, and the Alembic crew was usually adept at flipping between songs; so hardly any cuts are seen on the available tape boxes. (“Big Boss Man” on 4/7 is one example of a song partly lost because there was no two-track running for that show. This may also be one reason that show never made it into circulation.) The two-tracks were certainly never used for the original album; it is not clear just where two-track tapes were used to patch flips on the box set.

There are just a few cases where tracks are circulating that are missing from the box set: “Casey Jones” at the end of the 4/7 first set, the 4/21 soundcheck of “Loser” and “Black Throated Wind,” and the 5/11 encore of “One More Saturday Night.” (On the other hand, the box set turned up a previously unknown soundcheck on 5/16 of a rare “Big River” and “Sugar Magnolia.”)


Speed Changes

Many of the songs on the album were sped up to varying degrees, and thus are pitched sharp. The box set mixes are pitched correctly. Comparing the song timings allows us to see exactly how much the speed varies from track to track on the album. (Speed changes of more than 1% are noted.)

                               Box Set / Album
Cumberland Blues      5:47 / 5:39  [2.4% fast]
He’s Gone                    6:31 / 6:20  [2.9% fast] *
Saturday Night           4:45 / 4:44
Jack Straw                  4:47 / 4:46
You Win Again           3:53 / 3:53
China > Rider           10:38 / 10:31  [1.1% fast] **
Brown Eyed Women 4:43 / 4:36  [2.5% fast]
Hurts Me Too             7:16 / 7:16
Ramble On Rose        6:07 / 5:59  [2.3% fast]
Sugar Magnolia          7:01 / 6:58
Mr Charlie                   3:39 / 3:36  [1.4% fast]
Tennessee Jed             7:09 / 7:08
Truckin’                       5:06 / 5:01  [1.7% fast] ***
Morning Dew            11:50 / 11:19  [4.5% fast]

* The timing is to the last vocal “he’s gone.” For the full performance, the box set lasts 7:09 and the album 6:54, showing a speed change of 3.6%. (This wider discrepancy in timing is because the box set mix includes a bit more of the performance at the end than the album track, which fades earlier.)
** China > Rider – individual times: box set 5:36+5:02, album 5:32+4:59
*** This timing goes to the last sung line of “get back truckin’ on.” The full timing:
Truckin’ > Epilogue – box set 17:58, album 17:42 [1.5% fast]

Timings are for the song itself, not the length of the CD track, since the album and box set are tracked differently. Some of these timings may be off by a second or so, so the speed percentages may not be exactly precise, but the pattern is clear. Many of the tracks are unchanged, others are sped up almost to chipmunk-vocal levels. The reasons are unknown.


Conclusion

The vast majority of obvious overdubs are found on Jerry Garcia’s lead vocal tracks. Maybe he felt more critical of his performances, or maybe they actually needed the most help because of missed lyrics or other phrasing stumbles. It’s true that his overdubs generally resulted in stronger lead vocals than his live takes. Songs with big vocal harmonies also received bolstering in the studio. Keith also replaced his piano part in several songs with more lively, embellished playing. These live tracks are typically pretty good throughout the tour, but I suppose the temptation to sweeten them was irresistible. On the other end of the scale, Pigpen’s vocals sound entirely live; Lemieux has said that no Pigpen vocals were overdubbed. Of course, he typically delivered very confident lead vocals, even if his pitch was not always spot on. There may also be other reasons why Pigpen was apparently not involved with studio overdubs at all.

Jeff Norman has said that he used the original vocals on the box set where they had not been obliterated on tape by overdubs, and there is no reason to doubt this. However, he did use overdubs on backing vocals where none were sung live, for example on the end of “He’s Gone” and “Sugar Magnolia.” Norman spoke a little about his mixing to David Gans during the box set project: “Wherever there’s an original vocal remaining, I’ll use it.”
http://www.dead.net/features/news/checking-again-europe-72-mixing-engineer-jeffrey-norman

Let’s not forget that big chunks of this tour previously appeared on the archival releases Hundred Year Hall (released in 1995), Steppin’ Out (a compilation of songs recorded on this tour in England, released in 2002), and Rockin’ the Rhein (released in 2004). Also, the box set The Golden Road (released in 2001) and the later individual re-issue of Europe ’72 contained bonus tracks from the tour. Astute listeners will notice that the mixes on these earlier releases is much more refined in terms of dynamics, equalization, reverb, and other sonic niceties than it is on the 2011 box. Keith Godchaux in particular receives more attention to detail on the older mixes. On the 2011 mixes, there is even a distortion issue with the vocals on every show up to the first Paris show (5/3/72) that then pretty much clears up for the rest of the box. Obviously the mixing budget for Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings did not allow for the “extravagance” of the earlier, higher-fidelity mixes.

The only earlier, superior mixes used on the box are Discs 3 and 4 of the 4/24/72 show, previously released as Rockin’ the Rhein. For an unknown reason, these songs were not newly mixed for the box, but the first two discs of this show were. I cannot begin to guess why, except that it saved a few hours of studio time. No other earlier mixes were used anywhere on the box set.

The first song released from this tour was a 24-minute excerpt of “Dark Star” from 4/8, which Garcia and Bob Matthews mixed in a London studio in late May 1972 for the Glastonbury Fayre album. This is one case where we can compare an original Dead mix from the tour with the two recent mixes of that jam, on Steppin’ Out and the box set.
See http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2011/09/dead-glastonbury-fair.html 
For more observations on the box set mix, also see this older discussion:
https://archive.org/post/401638/keith-is-low-in-the-mix

As a final note – I may have missed some overdubs, so please comment if you’ve found anything not mentioned here.

Eyes of the World: A Field Guide (Guest Post)

EYES OF THE WORLD: A FIELD GUIDE
Guest Post by Kell C. Mercer

“Eyes of the World,” with lyrics by Robert Hunter and music by Jerry Garcia, was first performed live by the Grateful Dead on February 9, 1973, at the Maples Pavilion at Stanford University. [1] “Eyes” was performed live by the Grateful Dead 381 times. [2] The song appears on the studio album “Wake of the Flood,” released on October 15, 1973. [3] It was the second single from the album, and was also released as a promo with mono and stereo mixes. [4] “Wake of the Flood” was recorded between August 4 and September 1, 1973. [5] The recorded performance of “Eyes” on “Wake of the Flood” includes guest Benny Velarde [6] on timbales. [7]

I. Musical Origins

Some believe that “Eyes” musically grew out of a thematic jam, known as the “Tighten Up Jam,” which was frequently played during “Dark Star” and “Dancing in the Streets” during 1969 through 1971. [8] Good examples of this jam are found in Dick’s Picks No. 2 during “Dark Star” [9] and Dick’s Picks No. 8 during “Dancing in the Streets.” [10]
The “Tighten Up Jam” comes from the song "Tighten Up," performed by Archie Bell & The Drells.
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wro3bqi4Eb8 ) Archie Bells & The Drells hailed from Houston, Texas. Their single “Tighten Up” was written by Archie Bell and Billy Buttier a/k/a Billy Butler. “Tighten Up” reached #1 on both the Billboard R&B and pop charts in the spring of 1968. It is ranked #265 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is considered to be one of the earliest funk hits in music history. While the rhythm and tempo of “Tighten Up” and “Eyes of the World” are somewhat similar, the chords and melody are different. Thus, any connection to “Tighten Up” may be coincidental.
Some also note the similarity between “Eyes” and the Bob Weir-led Kingfish song “Hypnotize,” from their 1976 album Kingfish. [11] ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnnl1VFVg3Y )

Blair Jackson asked Hunter and Garcia in 1991, “I gather ‘Eyes of the World’ was an older lyric when the Dead got around to recording it in 1973.”
Hunter: “I’m pretty sure ‘Eyes of the World’ was from Larkspur…”
Garcia: “I don’t remember writing ‘Eyes of the World,’ but I do remember that basically it wanted a samba feel, which it still sort of has. It was kind of a Brazilian thing.”
Hunter: “It has so many lyrics it needed a fast tempo to get them all in.” [12]

Garcia had also been asked about the song in 1977 by Adam Block: “Which songs feel too dated to perform any longer? For instance, when ‘Eyes of the World’ was released, it caught flak from critics for being ‘hippy-dippy.’ Hunter said he agreed, but that, after all, the lyric was five years old when you got around to using it. The song is dated, but you still do it.”
Garcia: “I’ll tell you why. That had been sitting around my desk for years. I would notice it and think, ‘That is such a nicely conceived thing, all the ideas and the way they’re linked together.’ I tried all different ways of setting it to music, none of which I liked very much. Finally I thought of a good way to do it, and it was like, it didn’t matter to me whether it was dated or not. It was an idea that was there, and whenever I did it, I knew I had to do it. It was already in my head, so it didn’t matter what the sense of it was, or whether it communicated that idea to anybody or not.” [13]

II. Lyrics

For the lyrics, see http://www.dead.net/song/eyes-world [14]

Lyrically, the last verse has a notable similarity to a verse from the American folk song “Goodnight, Irene” which was originally recorded by Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter in 1933. The verse:

Sometimes I live in the country,
sometimes I live in town
Sometimes I take a great notion,
to jump into the river and drown.

Whether this is intentional or not is unknown. A portion of the same verse served as the title to a Ken Kesey novel, “Sometimes a Great Notion,” published in 1964. [15]

The chorus may also refer to a line from Blaise Pascal’s 17th-century Pensees: “The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.” [16]

Garcia faced some challenges in setting these lyrics to music. The chorus is set to a kind of jaunty march that clashes with the natural rhythm of the words. Notice that the first verse has more lines and comes to a different melodic conclusion than the next two verses. It was also a feat to set, to an identical melody, verses with two completely different rhythms and syllable-counts, which is evident if you speak the lines:

“Right outside this | lazy summer home
You ain’t got time to call your | soul a critic, no”
“There comes a redeemer | and he slowly too fades away
There follows his wagon | behind him that’s loaded with clay”

“Right outside the lazy gate | of winter’s summer home”
“The seeds that were silent all burst into bloom | and decay”

The lyrics have been ridiculed, for instance in Rolling Stone’s original review, where the chorus was quoted: “The lyrics on much of Flood plumb new depths of dull-witted, inbred, blissed-out hippy-dippyness… Jonathan Seagull would blush.” [17]
Hunter has written, “What people can't readily understand in my work has been written off as hippy dippy tripping. ‘Eyes of the World’ is a good example -- a young song about resolution of the subject-object conflict with overtones of Santayana.” [18]

Hunter said in the ‘80s, “‘Eyes of the World’ was quite mystical and, I think, a very right song for the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Looking back on it now, it’s kind of dated… It’s a song about compassion, as I understand it. Being able to see things from someone else’s point of view. It’s always a right message, but I think it can be overdone. It can be made corny. Of course, there are eternal verities. You can’t avoid those too much if you want to say something.” [19]

For one lyric interpretation, see Eric Wybenga’s book Dead to the Core, p.100-102.
The meaning of the second verse is discussed by Paul Glass in his chapter "Buddhism  Through the Eyes of the Dead" in the book "The Grateful Dead and Philosophy:  Getting High Minded about Love and Haight." Glass believes that "Eyes" makes reference to one of the "central images of Mahayana Buddhism."  Glass interprets Robert Hunter's "redeemer" as a "bodhisattva bringing all sentient beings to nirvana in a great wagon."  Glass sees the "seeds" in the verse as "karmic seeds" "extinguishing their karmic debt and ending the cycle of rebirth." [19a]

III. Performance History

From its debut in February 9, 1973, except for a brief period coinciding with the touring hiatus from October ’74 to June of ’76, “Eyes” was played regularly through ‘95. The song was played most frequently in ’73, with a total of 49 performances. According to Dead Base, the following represent the number of times played in each year:

‘73 – 49 shows
’74 – 23 shows
’75 – 1 show
‘76 – 11 shows
’77 – 20 shows
’78 – 25 shows
’79 – 22 shows
’80 – 18 shows
’81 – 21 shows
’82 – 13 shows
’83 – 13 shows
’84 – 13 shows
’85 – 16 shows
’86 – 10 shows
’87 – 15 shows
’88 – 17 shows
’89 – 17 shows
’90 – 17 shows
’91 – 15 shows
’92 – 8 shows
’93 – 11 shows
’94 – 17 shows
’95 – 9 shows

In ’73-’74 “Eyes” was frequently paired with “China Doll,” with a total of 24 performances of Eyes> China Doll. Also in ‘73, “Dark Star transitioned into “Eyes” ten times. [20] Two excellent versions of this transition are November 11, 1973 and December 6, 1973. The November ’73 transition includes a “Mind Left Body jam” between “Dark Star” and “Eyes.” (This has been released on the Winterland ’73: Complete Recordings box set.) The December 6, 1973 performance of “Eyes” at Public Hall, Cleveland, Ohio, follows a 43+ minute “Dark Star” that teases “Wharf Rat” before going into “Eyes.” (This Dark Star> Eyes was released on the Road Trips 2011 bonus disc, out of print now.) [21]
In ’73, “Eyes” more commonly came out of “Truckin’” or “The Other One,” with eleven Other One> Eyes and thirteen Truckin’> Eyes in ’73-74. These pairings would become very rare thereafter, done only a few times in later years. Another common combination in ’73-’76 was Eyes> Stella Blue, which was played 10 times. [22] After ’76, “Eyes” would never again be paired with “China Doll” or “Stella Blue.” [23]
In ’76 and early ’77 the Dead were very flexible in where they placed “Eyes,” but this changed in May ’77. After the debut of “Estimated Prophet” in ’77, Estimated> Eyes was paired 172 times, by far the most common Eyes combo, and the reverse Eyes> Estimated was played 13 times. The Estimated> Eyes> Drums sequence was played 149 times. In 1990 the Dead started becoming more flexible again in “Eyes” placements, and the “Estimated” pairing became rare in the ‘90s.

Garcia talked about the Estimated> Eyes transition in 1988:
"The interesting [transitions] are the ones that have a lot of interim playing possibilities, like 'Estimated Prophet' into 'Eyes of the World' - even though that's one we do a lot. They have an interesting key relationship to each other. You can play an E-major 7th scale against the leading F-sharp minor in 'Estimated Prophet' without changing a note. So it's the same intervals exactly, it's just in different places on the scale. That makes it so you can play through a lot of places. And while we're making that transition we can go from, like, B-minor to C-sharp 7th, to a little E-minor, a little C-major. There are all these possible changes, so that just by changing one or two intervals, all of a sudden they'll work; but sometimes we have to discuss them because they're not all that obvious. It's not obvious what the leading tones are. Also, the rhythmic relationship is very 'off.' So I can find a pulse in there that'll be just a perfect tempo for 'Eyes of the World' regardless of what tempo 'Estimated Prophet' was at, and that makes it interesting for me 'cause it's wide open... If there's a formula that works...we tend to repeat it and do it to death. It depends how many shows you go to - you start to think, 'These guys sure love this transition. They're doing it all the fucking time!'" [23b]

Through the late ‘70s and ‘80s “Eyes” was almost invariably placed in the predrums slot; the Eyes> Drums sequence was played 195 times. Typically the music would trickle out into spacy tinkling to make way for Drums; sometimes in the late ‘70s there would be more full-blown “Spaces” after “Eyes,” and sometimes in the ‘80s there would be little Weir or Brent jams after Garcia left the stage. Starting in 1990, the inevitable transition to Drums became much less common as “Eyes” was more often played earlier in the second set, allowing more varied segues.

“Eyes” was almost always a second set song. “Eyes” was a second set opening song 6 times in the ‘70s (mostly, but not exclusively, pre-hiatus) and 33 times in the ‘90s. Interestingly, in the ‘80s, “Eyes” was never a set opener. The following shows feature a rare first set “Eyes”:
September 8, 1973 – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
October 29, 1973 - Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Mo.
June 18, 1974 - Freedom Hall, Louisville, Ky
August 6, 1974 - Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, N.J.
September 21, 1974 - Palais des Sports, Paris, France
October 19, 1974 - Winterland Arena, San Francisco, Ca.
August 13, 1975 - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, Ca.

The following shows feature an even more rare “Eyes” encore: [24]
October 19, 1973 - Oklahoma City Fairgrounds Arena, Oklahoma City, Ok.
June 26, 1974 - Providence Civic Center, Providence, R.I.
September 14, 1974 – Olympiahalle, Munich, W. Germany

And then there is the most rare, a first set opening “Eyes” on June 17, 1991, Giant’s Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.
https://archive.org/details/gd1991-06-17.mtx.dan.31606.sbeok.flac16

Following the death of Garcia, the song has remained in the regular repertoire of each of the surviving members’ projects, including Ratdog, Phil Lesh & Friends, Mickey Hart Band, Seven Walkers, Rhythm Devils, Furthur, the Other Ones, and The Dead.

IV. Structure

Intro [25]

First Verse/Chorus

First jam

Second Verse/Chorus

Second jam

Third Verse/Chorus

Third Jam

Coda (‘73-‘74)

V. The Coda

In versions played in ’73 through ’74, the third instrumental section would usually conclude with a coda with a different melody, rhythm and tempo. (This coda first appeared in the song’s second performance on February 15, 1973.) Dead scholar David Malvinni describes the coda as featuring “dramatically framed chord changes (accentuated by the bass), and a disorientating pentatonic-based riff in E-flat minor in a 7/8 time signature, phrased as 7+7, yet that ends in 7+6 as the tonality descends by half step to D minor.” [26]
Some have compared this coda to the similar “Stronger Than Dirt” section of "King Solomon’s Mines" from Blues for Allah, but it is a different riff. (On August 13, 1975, an actual “Stronger Than Dirt” follows “Eyes.”) Others have compared the coda to "Slipknot!" Interestingly, on June 20, 1974, the coda segued into an early version of “Slipknot!” and then into "China Doll."
https://archive.org/details/gd1974-06-20.sbd.remaster.105427.flac16
"Eyes" also transitioned into "Slipknot!" on October 20, 1974, at the last of the pre-hiatus shows. (“Slipknot!” would make its next appearance almost a year later, on June 17, 1975, sandwiched in its familiar spot between “Help on the Way” [27] and “Franklin’s Tower.”) The “Eyes” coda was dropped after the October 20, 1974 performance.

David Malvinni provides a detailed analysis of the “Eyes” performance on August 1, 1973, at Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, NJ. Malvinni argues that the best “Eyes” were performed during ’73 and ’74, in part because of the coda. (See Malvinni, Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation.) [26] In the August 1, 1973 version, the coda begins at 16:24.
https://archive.org/details/gd1973-08-01.sbd.sirmick.patch-12222.92478.sbeok.flac16
This version, well played from beginning to end, follows a great Dark Star > El Paso, and certainly demonstrates and includes what can be excellent in a ’73 “Eyes.” In the comments at archive.org, it is labeled “one for the ages.”

In addition to dropping the coda, after the hiatus the Dead also dropped the lengthy final instrumental jam sequence with its minor-key chord changes. In the June ’76 versions, most of the jamming takes place before the first verse, with the intro jam generally being about 6 minutes; while in contrast, the outro jam is quite brief or turns immediately into space. Over the next few months, the intro jam shortened again, typically to 2-3 minutes; but the final jam was not expanded again, and never regained its former splendor; instead the Dead generally moved quickly to a transition.

Occasionally “Eyes” would end without a transition to another song, but this was very rare in the '70s. Sometimes in ’76-77 there would still be a separate transitional jam – for instance, on July 17, 1976; September 28, 1976; or December 30, 1977. Sometimes “Eyes” would lead into a lengthy “Space” section, which could be either gentle, or a chaotic freakout – for instance, December 4, 1973; June 30, 1974; September 11, 1974 with Ned Lagin; March 19, 1977; October 29, 1977; January 14, 1978; August 12, 1979; October 25, 1979; November 29, 1979; or September 12, 1981. (Fall ’79 features a few of the noisy meltdowns, which were uncommon after ‘74.) [28]

VI. Tempo Changes

After the hiatus, in addition to losing the coda, the song’s tempo started increasing in June of 1976, [29] until returning to a more languid pace in the spring of 1990 and beyond. (The Dead switched back to the slower tempo in the March 25, 1990 performance.) For a comparison of the different tempos of the song, see the following examples:

November 23, 1973, County Coliseum, El Paso, TX (original pace)
https://archive.org/details/gd1973-11-23.sbd.miller.112801.flac16

April 8, 1978, Veterans Memorial Coliseum (post-hiatus speed up)
https://archive.org/details/gd1978-04-08.sbd.miller.4088.sbeok.shnf

May 10, 1986, Frost Amphitheater, Palo Alto, CA (very fast pace)
https://archive.org/details/gd86-05-10.sbd.hinko.19962.sbeok.shnf

September 17, 1991, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (return to slower pace)
https://archive.org/details/gd1991-09-17.senn-ME80.wklitz.94213.flac16

VII. Track Length

The album version is a very compact 5:20 in length. Versions in ’73 and ’74 could exceed 20 minutes.

March 15, 1973, Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY (20:47)
https://archive.org/details/gd73-03-15.aud.vernon.13468.sbeok.shnf

June 10, 1973, RFK Stadium, Washington, DC (21:17) [30]
https://archive.org/details/gd1973-06-10.sbd.miller.tobin.patched-89730.90979.flac16

June 30, 1974, Springfield Civic Center Arena, Springfield, MA (23:43)
https://archive.org/details/gd1974-06-30.sbd.tiedrich-skank-andy-stern.216.shnf

Versions in the ‘80s could be well under 10 minutes. In ’86-88 in particular, the average “Eyes” was less than 9 minutes, with some less than 7 minutes long. (October 4, 1987, is perhaps the shortest-ever live version, with Garcia finishing in under 6 minutes, though others come close.)

October 10, 1981, StadtHalle, Bremen, GE (7:43)
https://archive.org/details/gd81-10-10.sbd.jim.12998.sbefail.shnf

February 21, 1982, Pauley Pavilion, Las Angeles, CA (6:41)
https://archive.org/details/gd82-02-21.sbd.dodd.16247.sbeok.shnf

September 3, 1988, Capitol Centre, Landover, MD (6:38)
https://archive.org/details/gd88-09-03.sbd.miller.27749.sbeok.flacf

In the ‘90s, "Eyes" could again exceed 15 minutes. There was a particular resurgence of lengthy versions in ’94.

June 17, 1990, Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA (16:00)
https://archive.org/details/gd1990-06-17.aud.savage-wklitz.96420.flac16

September 18, 1990, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (17:33)
https://archive.org/details/gd90-09-18.schoeps-fob.sacks.9772.sbeok.shnf

October 17, 1994, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (25:11)
https://archive.org/details/gd94-10-17.sbd.carr.14615.sbeok.shnf

VIII. Notable Performances

First performance – 2/9/73, Roscoe Maples Pavilion, Palo Alto, CA
https://archive.org/details/gd1973-02-09.sbd.finney.10361.shnf

Second performance, first with Coda – 2/15/73, Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI
https://archive.org/details/gd1973-02-15.112812.sbd.arf.flac16

With Joe Ellis and Martin Fierro – 9/12, 15, 17, 20, 24, 26/73.
Ellis and Fierro had both played on Wake of the Flood and toured with the Grateful Dead during the month of September 1973. Fierro had played with Garcia and Howard Wales on the Hooteroll? album released in November of 1971. Fierro played later with Garcia on solo projects, including Legion of Mary.
William & Mary College, Williamsburg, VA
https://archive.org/details/gd73-09-12.sbd.sly.14010.sbeok.shnf
Providence Civic Center, Providence, RI
https://archive.org/details/gd73-09-15.aud-sbd.cotsman.16174.sbeok.shnf
Onondaga War Memorial Auditorium, Syracuse, NY
https://archive.org/details/gd73-09-17.sbd.cotsman.14473.d3fixed.sbeok.shnf
The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
https://archive.org/details/gd73-09-20.aud-sbd.cotsman.11618.sbeok.shnf
Pittsburgh Civic Arena, Pittsburg, PA
https://archive.org/details/gd73-09-24.sbd-aud.cotsman.11620.sbeok.shnf
War Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, NY
https://archive.org/details/gd1973-09-26.sbd.mtx.tobin.82879.sbeok.flac16

With Ned Lagin – 9/11/74, Alexandra Palace, London, England
https://archive.org/details/gd1974-09-11.sbd.partial.cribbs.121207.flac16

“Eyes” was played and recorded during rehearsals on May 28-30, 1976, while the Grateful Dead were preparing for the return from hiatus tour which began on June 3, 1976. (Track 9 here is a basic instrumental “Eyes” jam; track 14 is a full vocal take; and track 15 is a mostly instrumental intro jam that cuts off after the first verse.)
https://archive.org/details/gd1976-05-28.rehearsals.gems.82947.flac16

First post-hiatus, sped-up version - 6/9/76, Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA
https://archive.org/details/gd1976-06-09.sbd.miller.95399.sbeok.flac16

Last with Donna and Keith Godchaux – 2/10/79, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS
https://archive.org/details/gd1979-02-10.sonyecm.walker-scotton-miller.82239.flac16

First with Brent Mydland – 5/4/79, Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA
https://archive.org/details/gd1979-05-04.sonyecm.walker-scotton-miller.89120.flac16

Longest Brent Mydland performance (over 22 minutes) – 11/5/79, Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
https://archive.org/details/gd1979-11-05.nak300.sharpless.89053.sbeok.flac16

Last with Brent Mydland – 7/22/90, World Music Theater, Tinley Park, IL
https://archive.org/details/gd1990-07-22.sbd.fix.walker.scotton.miller.115497.flac16

With Branford Marsalis
3/29/90, Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
https://archive.org/details/gd1990-03-29.123925.fixed.mk4.flac16
12/31/90, Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA
https://archive.org/details/gd1990-12-31.prefm.gans-bucholtz-abrams.GEMS.90102.sbeok.flac16
12/16/94, Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA
https://archive.org/details/gd1994-12-16.set2.sbd.lemieux-vernon.34551.sbeok.flac16

With percussionist Airto Moreira -- 2/11/89, Great Western Forum, Inglewood, CA
https://archive.org/details/gd1989-02-11.fob.french.sirmick.76125.sbeok.flac16

With Clarence Clemons -- 6/21/89, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA
https://archive.org/details/gd1989-06-21.sbd.walker-scotton.miller.83718.sbeok.flac16

First with Vince Welnick – 9/8/90, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
https://archive.org/details/gd1990-09-08.sbd.miller.92241.sbeok.flac16

Three good versions with Bruce Hornsby, who brought a return to the jazzier feel of the Godchaux era versions.
3/20/91, Capital Centre, Landover, MD
https://archive.org/details/gd1991-03-20.mtx.seamons.111794.flac16
3/31/91, Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, NC
https://archive.org/details/gd1991-03-31.mtx.south.99386.flac16
9/8/91, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
https://archive.org/details/gd1991-09-08.mtx.haugh.99108.flac16

Final performance – 7/6/95, Riverport Amphitheatre, Maryland Heights, MO
https://archive.org/details/gd95-07-06.NEWsbd.30888.sbeok.shnf_shn

For a listing of recommended versions in order of popularity, see:
http://headyversion.com/song/90/grateful-dead/eyes-of-the-world/ [31]

[More below the break.] 

Hard to Handle 1969-1971

In the beginning was Otis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEO4snTS1ps

The Dead had long been fans of Otis Redding – in 1966-67, Pigpen was performing his ‘63 song ‘Pain in My Heart.’ (Though the impetus to cover it may have come from the Rolling Stones’ version.)
Redding came to the Fillmore in December ’66 – musicians were clamoring to Bill Graham that he needed to book Otis. When he came, according to Graham, “Every artist in the city asked to open for Otis. The first night, it was the Grateful Dead. Janis Joplin came at three in the afternoon the day of the first show to make sure that she’d be in front… Every musician then into music came.” *
The Dead opened for Redding on 12/20/66; the next two nights, other bands opened. (The Dead went to play in Santa Clara.) Bill Graham was permanently impressed: “By far, Otis Redding was the single most extraordinary talent I had ever seen. There was no comparison, then or now... That was the best gig I ever put on in my entire life.” * Janis also mentioned that Otis was a particular inspiration to her. (I believe Ralph Gleason also wrote a review of one of the shows for the Chronicle, which I’d like to see.)
When Garcia & Lesh appeared on Tom Donahue’s FM show in April ’67, they played Otis’ cover of ‘Day Tripper’ and reminisced about the show. Otis had an 18-piece band with him, and Garcia recalled that Otis did his standard show, “where the band would get up and play some numbers, and a girl singer would come up” and warm up the audience before Otis appeared.
Lesh: “It was kind of scary to work with Otis… He tore it up!”
Garcia: “Otis is really heavy… He tore the place apart… When he came on stage, it was like the whole place got about six times as big, and the band just got real snappy – it was so fine, and the music was really good.”

Of course, Redding wasn’t just playing to an audience of worshipful white musicians – Bill Graham mentioned that it was a “mixed audience.” It’s been said elsewhere that the Fillmore was in a largely black district, and most of the audience would probably have been blacks from the neighborhood, not hippie kids.
Tom Donahue remembered the weekday shows not drawing very well: “I thought he would do better here than he did… I don’t think he had the number of people that he could’ve had.” Garcia thought, “Maybe not too many people knew about it.” (There were a couple different color posters printed, one in ‘psychedelic style’ for the hippie crowd, and a plainer one apparently for the black audience which just lists “The Otis Redding Show” with no mention of the opening bands!)
As for Otis himself, he found San Francisco a jolt. According to Redding’s manager Phil Walden, “When Otis played at the Fillmore, Otis had a funny reaction to it. He said, ‘Oh, these fucking hippies, man. They’re smoking dope and shit like it’s legal out here. See, everybody’s high!’ This was a cultural revolution for these black guys from the south.” *

The Dead then saw him close one night at the Monterey Pop Festival, 6/17/67 with Booker T & the MG’s and the Mar-keys horns, following the Jefferson Airplane. The Dead had played a show in Hollywood the night before, and would play at Monterey the next day, so had the evening free to watch the various bands. This would turn out to be Redding’s most famous set – a Billboard reviewer wrote, “When Redding came on, it took him exactly four beats in two seconds to get 7,500 voices screaming and chanting with him.” The Mojo Navigator R&R News wrote, “Otis, bouncing out on stage, in about five seconds had the whole audience completely with him – he’s got some kind of incredible, dynamic magnetism that just reaches out and grabs you: dipping down, screaming, bouncing and trotting all over the stage, he socks it right to ya! …It’s really a gas to watch him.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XybbF5AKjAc

For his part, Redding was aiming for a new, larger white audience. Redding’s manager was happy to come to the Fillmore: “We thought it was something that would be to our advantage, because in those days, our exposure to the white market…was very limited.” * (Redding had also played the Whisky a Go Go in LA back in April ’66, but I don’t know to what kind of crowd.) Apparently, when performing for white audiences, Redding would do a more up-tempo set; when he played for his usual black audiences, the set would be filled with more slow, pleading-type songs.
At any rate, we don’t know what he thought of the San Francisco rock bands; but musicians from the rest of the country tended not to react very favorably to the music there. For instance, Columbia producer David Rubinson said: “I came out to San Francisco in December 1966… The best band out here then was Moby Grape, bar none; Moby Grape and then Steve Miller. Big Brother was terrible. The Airplane was terrible… The Grateful Dead were terrible. All these people, they were horrible. They couldn’t play. They couldn’t tune their guitars. And they were doing what to me was the ultimate injustice. They were doing Elmore James badly… These incredibly untalented, unmusical people were getting up and doing stuff they had learned off some old Kent or Chess record which I had loved since I was 15 years old… It was laughable to me. I watched these San Francisco bands play blues that they couldn’t play.” *
Redding was asked by Hit Parader in ’67 whether he liked the Rolling Stones’ blues: “No. I like their uptempo songs…I like their original things better. They can’t do anybody else’s songs.” When Steve Cropper & Booker T suggested ‘Satisfaction’ to him, “I hadn’t heard it. They played the record for me and everybody liked it but me.”

Redding recorded Hard to Handle in late 1967, shortly before his death. It was released as a single in June 1968. By 1969, it was being covered by a number of people, and surprisingly, the Dead seem to have been one of the first. If anyone were to think of the least likely groups in ‘69 to cover some funky new R&B, the Dead would probably be on that list. They hadn’t shown any interest in picking up new R&B covers since mid-1967, when they started doing Lovelight – since then, they had focused on their original ‘acid-rock’ material. Many old covers dropped out of their setlists, and from summer ’68 through winter ’69, their shows were almost exclusively devoted to Anthem & Live/Dead suite material, with a few new Aoxomoxoa songs dropped in.
But by March 1969, they seem to have felt the need for something new – the Live/Dead album was in the can, and their repertoire had not varied much in months. Aside from a couple sluggish, misbegotten renditions of Hey Jude that winter, Hard to Handle was their first new cover song in over a year. Over the course of the spring, they would gradually bring in more cover tunes, bringing back many songs they had stopped playing in previous years, and the shows would start to reflect a wider set of influences.
Pigpen probably emulated Otis, and of course this song would have matched his strutting stage persona; it may have been his idea to cover it. The Dead must have known they could not recapture the tight, snappy Stax horn sound of Redding’s original, and they didn’t even try. Instead they adapted it to their loud, heavy, lumbering two-drum, two-guitar style – of course adding a big guitar solo. Pigpen had a set way of singing the song from the start, closely following Redding’s phrasing, which would vary little over the next couple years; but the band would go through some dramatic changes in the way they played the song. (The next year, a bit lighter on their feet, they would also attempt James Brown’s ‘Man’s World’ – not one of his funkiest efforts – but would only play it for about five months.)

1969

The Dead debuted Hard to Handle at the Black & White Ball, 3/15/69 – the very first song of the show! In their eagerness to tackle it, they perhaps neglected to rehearse it a few more times… They have trouble keeping together in the precise arrangement, and sometimes stumble around erratically before syncing up again. Garcia plays swooping slide throughout, but seems to have little idea what to do with it, so there’s not much of a solo and they just sort of stagger forward aimlessly for a while. Pigpen is also a little confused about the verses. At the end the band thinks Pigpen’s finished, but he continues with another verse, so they bring it to an abrupt end.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-03-15.sbd.kaplan.28798.sbeok.flacf [5:02]

I’m not sure what Garcia’s intent with the slide was, but he stuck with it despite being very amateurish. It doesn’t help that he stays behind the beat with it, making the band sound off-kilter. The next performance, on 4/5/69, is if anything even messier as the band is barely able to stay in time; Pigpen loses his place in the middle with a misplaced verse. Garcia musters up more of a solo this time, but he’s erratic throughout and his slide playing basically sounds like random squealing!
https://archive.org/details/gd69-04-05.sbd.miller.18701.sbesok.shnf [5:50]

4/11 follows the same pattern…Pigpen remains uncertain about where the verses & where the breaks are (perhaps he forgot the words), and the last verse is just omitted. Garcia again wanders aimlessly through some kind of solo. The rest of the band seems to be getting more confident, though; Weir & Lesh generally stay pretty solid.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-04-11.sbd.cotsman.15404.sbeok.shnf [5:20]

4/15 sounds tighter – Pigpen finally has his verses set – though Garcia has not improved and the band has yet to work out a synchronized ending. 4/18 is the most solid version yet, without any notable flubs, and they finally have the ending down.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-04-18.sbd.miller.88867.sbeok.flac16 [4:58]

Hard to Handle was frequently used to open the show in mid-‘69 – the Dead must have thought it made an effective opener.
In this first month of performance, Pigpen and the band adjusted the arrangement in a couple ways. Vocally, there were two lyric verses to work with: “baby here I am” and “actions speak louder than words.” Redding had done three verses (repeating the first), but the Dead extended the length of the song, so Pigpen had a lot more repeating to do. Initially he would do three verses at the start of the song, as Redding had done; then would go on a little rap (“give it to me, I got to have it,” etc, derived from Redding’s ending), and after the solo would repeat a verse again. (Sometimes he’d do the “actions” verse to end the song, sometimes “baby” – in those cases the first verse would be repeated three times!) He was skilled at ad-libbing, so sometimes he’d change a few lines on the fly, and only the close listener would notice. (For example, check out the third verse in the 3/15 performance; he also replaces forgotten lines more confidently in later versions.)
At first, the band would play through the whole song as a series of verses & breaks; they didn’t have a clear idea of how long Pigpen’s rap should run, or how the solo space should be structured. So for instance, in the first three performances he repetitively raps for quite a while, over the equivalent of two verses. (On 4/5 the effect is worse since he mistakenly starts the rap in verse three, then sings the first verse again, then restarts the rap in verse five!) Also in the first three performances, the solo would end with a return to the refrain (“boys and things will come by the dozen”); on 4/5 and 4/11 the rap would also be treated as a verse ending with a refrain – sometimes instrumental if Pigpen forgot to come back in.
By mid-April they’ve ironed that out and gotten rid of the extra refrains. Pigpen raps briefly at the start of the solo, then makes way for Garcia (sometimes calling out “play a while!”), and the band vamps for an indeterminate time while Garcia solos. At this point there wasn’t a clear structure or climax to the solo, so Pigpen & the band often start the last verse at some random point while Garcia’s still twanging away. Only sometimes, as on 4/21, will Garcia come to a definite stop and the music return to Weir’s lead riff, signalling an end to the solo.

By now, after some road practice, the band has settled into consistency and can stay in the groove, more or less sloppily. The drummers are more locked-in and can add little fills, and Pigpen doesn’t make any more screwups. Garcia remains the weak link – on 4/21 and 4/23, for example, the band almost finds itself in a jam during the solo, but his limited slide playing keeps him from really interacting well with the other guitars. Though more confident, his soloing is still just random caterwauling.
4/25 is amusing, since Pigpen gives way to the solo with his usual “Go on, play a while!” but after a minute, cuts back into Garcia’s solo with the last verse, as if to say ‘that’s enough.’
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-04-21.sbd.miller.88465.sbeok.flac16 [5:26]
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-04-23.sbd.miller.98968.sbeok.flac16 [6:06]
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-04-25.sbd.miller.97392.sbeok.flac16 [4:25]

5/10 is notable since Garcia finally drops the slide! (TC provides the high-pitched sustain in its place.) The band plays an extra instrumental refrain again, and it’s nice to hear a natural-sounding guitar line in the break. The solo doesn’t get more focused since Garcia doesn’t really have any part worked out, but the sound is improved considerably – no more screeching! However, the power cuts out in the middle of the solo as they’re heating up, and Pigpen sings the last verse over drumbeats.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-05-10.sbd.tzuriel.1336.sbeok.shnf [5:30]

5/16 is pretty funny since Garcia starts out with no idea where he is in the song, so his fills are badly timed, confusing Pigpen. Pigpen gives up after two botched verses, and we get a very short solo, mostly Pigpen’s usual rap, before Pigpen rushes into the last verse. At four minutes, one of the Dead’s shortest versions.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-05-16.sbd.clugston.6316.sbeok.shnf [3:55]

On 5/31, Garcia sounds very awkward, but he is still figuring out his parts. The solo is also quite brief, in fact Garcia hardly plays one, apparently lost for ideas, so Pigpen just starts the last verse early again. Also four minutes, and one of the shortest versions.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-05-31.sbd.oleynick.76.sbeok.shnf [3:57]

5/23 was a bit ramshackle, but has a nice, more focused solo – Garcia has a better idea of how to handle it, and Hard to Handle at last has his standard ‘rock’-style soloing. [Road Trips 4/1, 4:31]
6/5 is a huge improvement – the band is starting to catch a groove in this song and it’s almost danceable; they’ve ironed out the drags. Garcia finally has a nice tone and his slinky playing fits in better. The solo doesn’t hit any climaxes – actually it just peters out abruptly and the band seems to get lost for a moment – but it’s still engaging. (Also, due to the mix, Constanten can be heard better than in previous versions.) The best version yet, pointing to future performances.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-06-05.sbd.cotsman.15204.sbeok.shnf [5:00]

6/13 is a bit sloppy and confused in comparison as it starts out; but Constanten uses a really nice Rhodes-like keyboard tone which is quite unlike him; and Garcia steps up nicely in the solo, which feels more relaxed than usual.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-06-13.sbd.barbella.7775.sbeok.shnf [5:23]

6/22 sounds like it would be a good version if we had an SBD; even in a poor AUD it stands out as being pretty tight. However it’s very short, less than four minutes with a very concise solo – not a moment wasted.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-06-22.aud.hanno.8836.sbefail.shnf [3:39]

7/3, in contrast, is a sloppy mess in which Garcia sounds particularly off, though he still manages a passable solo.
http://www.dead.net/features/tapers-section/july-29-august-4-2013 [4:56]

By now Hard to Handle has reached its ‘classic’ format, the way it would remain through 1970 – some versions are still clunkers, but when the band’s on, the playing is strong and Garcia’s fills sharp. So far they’re not yet stretching out the solo into a real jam, but it’s become noticeably more structured with a clear ‘ending’ and return to the main riff. (5/23 is a good early example.)
Also, in mid-May the band streamlined the song a bit by dropping the third verse, so now Pigpen would just sing two verses before the solo (one reason the song became shorter in May). By July he’d consistently end the song with the the “baby here I am” verse.

7/4 has a nice, relatively extended solo, with Garcia playing off Constanten’s trills, which comes to a natural endpoint. (Also notice how Garcia keeps playing fills in the three-chord riffs after the verses, which is very rare – as a rule he just plays the chords.)
https://archive.org/details/gd69-07-04.sbd.sirmick.remaster.29294.shnf [4:29]

7/11 is a bizarre oddity – Garcia switches to pedal steel for Hard to Handle. This leaves kind of a hole in the sound – maybe Garcia was trying to return to the slide arrangement, since it’s similar. The pedal steel doesn’t mesh too well with the band in this tune, though, sounding rather weak and tinkly.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-07-11.sbd.hanno.4644.sbeok.shnf [4:02]

There is a gap of almost a month before our next Hard to Handle; and by the August versions, the solos are much longer than they had been in early July – the band is now exploring the jam potential of the song.
Constanten is very loud in the mix on 8/2, and Garcia is faltering at the start – Garcia cuts out as he starts the solo and we get a TC solo before he returns, then the longest Garcia solo yet, meandering but not that great. (The song is over 7 minutes long.)
https://archive.org/details/gd69-08-02.sbd.miller.30651.sbeok.flacf [7:14]

8/3 is in very unbalanced sound and hard to enjoy, but it has a striking guest fiddler who joins in the solo. He doesn’t do a whole lot, mostly sawing out one repeated line before giving way to the others. Garcia’s following solo falls completely flat. Though this performance is a failure, just the possibility of the Dead playing with a more talented (or prepared) fiddler is enticing. Unfortunately, it would never happen again.
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-08-03.sbd.miller.30652.sbeok.flac16 [5:48]

8/23 cuts in before the solo, so it’s a partial Hard to Handle, but a standout. Garcia sounds eager to stretch out, as this is an extremely long solo for the time, full of ideas that would be played out in later Hard to Handle jams. Not until 8 minutes into the solo (longer than any entire Hard to Handle so far) do they reach the final climax and return to the last verse. A little repetitive, but remarkable.
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-08-23.sbd.2196.sbeok.shnf [/9:07]

Here we have a two-month gap until our next Hard to Handle; but there weren’t any more changes in format. By now, most versions are very similar to each other, and the solos have gone down in length again. Constanten’s part has grown a bit by the fall; he used to contribute rather stiff rhythmic stabs, but is now more at ease and fits in nicely, swirling around all the instruments and adding a nice counterline in the verses. (Also, after 10/26 Hard to Handle is bumped from its typical first-song slot.)
10/26 has a long, smoldering solo, Garcia patiently feeling his way around; it never catches fire, but is enjoyable. At the end, Pigpen seems to come back in at random.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-10-26.sbd.fink.9509.sbeok.shnf [6:38]

11/1 is a bit tighter; Garcia’s solo is really sweet, and Constanten is clear with a nice tootling tone.
https://archive.org/details/gd69-11-01.sbd.cotsman.6298.sbeok.shnf [6:15]

11/7 is quite nice – I like the extra ‘room sound’ in the mix, which enhances Garcia’s guitar tone and helps the band blend together. That said, the solo is extremely short for this period, just a couple minutes long, but it’s fiery.
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-11-07.sbd.miller.119628.flac16 [5:13]

At this point there’s no need to cover every version, as they are extremely similar, the only difference being in how hot the band is. It’s notable that the song shrank in December, most versions less than five minutes long, as Garcia reduced his solo time.
The best versions from early December are from 12/11 and 12/13. 12/11 is really good and snappy (aided by the audience sound), and shows how the Dead had put a lot more rhythmic kick in this song than earlier in the year. 12/13 is very quick and spirited, featuring a nice wiry solo.
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-12-11.fob.brady.motb.91109.sbeok.flac16 [5:37]
https://archive.org/details/gd69-12-13.sbd.clugston.5583.sbeok.shnf [4:43]

12/28 is the most famous Hard to Handle of the month, a forceful, clattering rendition. Pigpen’s usually brief rap is longer than usual (similar to his later Good Lovin’ raps), ending with an especially good transition from the rap to Garcia’s solo. Garcia stretches out as the band jams up a frenzy – this solo could almost be mapped, as it calms down then heats up again, Garcia switching to a more trebly tone as he builds to a tremendous climax. (The song is 7:30 in length, a considerable jump from the previous versions. Compare to the short 12/26 version, which is nice but seems to stop in the solo just when it gets going.)
https://archive.org/details/gd69-12-28.sbd.cotsman.8999.sbeok.shnf [7:29]

12/29 has another long rap, a bit less effective. This version starts out more laid-back and the solo takes a while to get going, but Garcia hits a crest and stays there, peaking til he has to put on the brakes to return to the song. (As a result this version stretches over 8 minutes.)
https://archive.org/details/gd69-12-29.sbd.8044.sbeok.shnf [8:14]

12/31 does not build on the momentum. From the start the band sounds a little off, or lazy, and Pigpen sounds tired. Garcia abruptly drops out during his solo (broken string?), and the band quietly vamps til he returns; but the rest of the solo is pretty disjointed and goes nowhere.
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-12-31.sbd.miller.95420.sbeok.flac16 [6:16]

Having reached the end of the year, we can take a brief look back. From an unpromising beginning, the Dead slowly reworked Hard to Handle into a rock tour de force, dropping one element after another that didn’t quite work, and with practice growing tighter in their delivery. The performances from spring & summer are much sloppier than the fall versions. (One small thing to notice, for instance, is the repeated three-chord riff between verses – the second time it’s repeated, there’s a slight delay so the chords are played just behind the beat. They don’t always hit this in unison, but it took a lot of practice to get it so that part actually swings – it would have been a lot easier to just play it on the beat. Another thing to notice is all the little fills that Garcia or the drummers might play during the “mama I’m sure hard to handle” break – though improvised each time, there is a lot of attention to detail there.)
In general, Garcia’s solos get hotter through the year (though of course with nightly variations), as he finds the right tone and style to use. By December the band’s hard, driving 1970 sound is quite apparent as the three guitars mesh in the solo, turning it into a bristling mini-jam. Weir takes some compliments here since at times, he’s effectively co-soloing with Garcia, just with angular chords and counterpoint lines. Lesh of course is always ready to respond to anything. One thing Dead fans might take for granted is that Garcia will play a different solo every time, and it’s certainly true here. Though he does repeat some specific riffs and techniques, and the picking style remains the same, each night he takes a different path to the climax (sometimes wandering around without direction, sometimes stumbling off in failure).

1970

Hard to Handle entered 1970 in a tight, concise form – for instance the first version of the year, on Jan 2, is quite barebones, wrapping up in under five minutes. (No long rap or extended jam.) Though they could have stretched it out, at this point they generally preferred to keep it at ‘pop’ length. Constanten’s swirling organ in the jam here is actually very similar to Pigpen’s style.
https://archive.org/details/gd70-01-02.late.sbd.hanno.12624.sbefail.shnf [4:43]

The rest of the versions that month mostly follow the same brief guideline. They’re all good. By now the Dead played this song consistently enough that there are no weak versions from this month; you could pick strong ones at random. The tempo is generally the same in each version, but the Dead now play it with enough easy authority that it often feels like they’re sprinting briskly through the song. They’re more limber, but also play more tightly than in the often-sloppy ’69 versions. (Also in this period, Hard to Handle is usually the third or fourth song of the show.)
I’ll link the Jan 3 version – at little over 4 minutes, it’s about as short as they could get, but it’s very energetic, and Weir is high in the mix so it’s a good example of his rhythm playing:
https://archive.org/details/gd70-01-03.sbd.ret.19440.sbeok.shnf [4:10]

1/16 is notable for a longer solo than usual (the song is 7 minutes) – it gets quieter in the middle, and you can clearly hear the guitarists working together. This is also an instance of Garcia getting stuck in a repeating phrase, when he doesn’t want to let go. (He generally cycles through a few repeated licks in the Hard to Handle solos in this period; it was a favored pattern of his. For instance, on 1/10 he really leans on what I think of as the “bop-shoo-wop” line from ‘Boys.’ Perhaps it was part of a transition to a more direct Chuck Berry/rock & roll-influenced soloing style.)
https://archive.org/details/gd70-01-16.sbd.popi.7111.sbeok.shnf [7:07]

Though January ’70 SBDs have a lot of clarity, Constanten usually doesn’t have a strong presence on them – it’s like the band is already transitioning to a guitar-only sound. These were his last two versions – on 1/23 he can barely be heard; on 1/30 he is inaudible. (1/23 is also notable for an excited Garcia solo.) So, in a way, you can hardly tell when he’s actually gone – a bit of sustain and warm chirpiness missing, but the guitars fill plenty of space on their own.
https://archive.org/details/gd70-01-23.sbd.fixed.connor.18153.sbeok.shnf [5:27]
https://archive.org/details/gd70-01-30.sbd.vernon.10546.sbeok.shnf [5:26]

The first post-TC Hard to Handle from 1/31 is notable for having a rather brutish solo, which builds from a quiet beginning to a slam-bang climax – the first one, I think, in which Lesh stomps on a repeated chord for emphasis. (Phil apparently busted his amp during this song, though you can’t really tell.)
https://archive.org/details/gd70-01-31.sbd.cotsman.7045.sbefail.shnf [6:31]

On 2/2, recently released, there’s a nice moment when Phil prods the band into a climax with a repeated high note in the middle of the solo. (Also note that Pigpen sings the second verse a beat ahead of the band, but they catch up smoothly so it doesn’t sound too jarring. In early ’70 he’d sometimes jump into the second verse too early, usually stopping himself – also see 5/1 and 6/5.) [Dave’s Picks 6, 5:22]

The next month doesn’t really offer any notable variations; the solos get a bit longer and wander a little more, and the song is typically over 6 minutes. Interestingly, the versions from February are somewhat less exciting, since the solos become less forceful. (For instance, on 2/27 Garcia just sort of ambles along at length without reaching any peaks. Or the 2/4 rendition, well-known from the TV broadcast, which also wanders without being really memorable.)

2/13 could be considered an average version – while the solo’s not remarkable, the stereo sound is pristine and you can easily follow the interaction of the guitars. (Also notice Garcia’s repeated figures again, familiar from other solos.) Constanten’s absence is striking here; the band’s sound is very clean and direct.
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-02-12.sbd.sssb.murphy.5932.sbeok.shnf [6:12]
The next night’s version is better. (It was chosen for the Bear’s Choice album in 1973.)
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-02-14.124495.cooper-berger.flac16 [6:06]

2/6 is interesting for its sparse sound – Weir simply drops out after the verses, so we get a barebones solo that’s just Garcia, Lesh & drums – a Hartbeats-style Hard to Handle, almost. (Weir comes back near the end of the solo, for a dramatic before-and-after effect; clearly it suffers from his absence, and doesn’t really rise to any heights.)
https://archive.org/details/gd70-02-06.sbd.bean.3913.sbeok.shnf [6:40]

In the reverse situation, on 3/20 Garcia breaks a string & drops out near the start of the solo, leaving Weir & Lesh to carry on by themselves. They do some hot rhythm comping, foreshadowing Weir’s later chordal solos in this song. Pigpen resumes his rap; but when Garcia returns they decide to forgo his solo and head for the last verse.
https://archive.org/details/gd70-03-20.sbd.late.hamilton.14287.sbeok.shnf [6:08]

Hard to Handle gets shorter again in our tapes from March & April, and these months don’t have standout versions. 3/1 is better than 2/27, but still very laid-back; 3/8 has a nice solo but sounds rushed and is very short; on 4/3 Garcia’s spirited solo seems to be interrupted by Pigpen coming back in early; and 4/15 sounds promising, but the tape cuts mid-solo! (A pity – it sounds like it would have been a smoking version.)

5/1 stands out as the best version in three months, as Garcia plays an excited, roving solo with Lesh pushing him along. The playing sounds very fresh, like they are finding new ideas. Garcia isn’t relying so much on the same repeated licks as in early ’70, but is stepping out with different variations.
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-05-01.sbd.gans-miller.85322.sbeok.flac16 [6:37]

5/16 is another very charged version – Garcia blazes through the solo, and there’s some good, stomping Garcia/Lesh unison work at the climax. The AUD sound is interesting, since Pigpen’s vocals are buried and Garcia’s guitar is way out in front of the rest of the band (it also gives him a different, more Hendrixian tone).
https://archive.org/details/gd70-05-16.aud.cotsman.17027.sbeok.shnf [5:18]

5/15 is not that good, but notable since Garcia steps back for a bit and Weir plays a brief dual solo with him. (Pigpen also plays a bit of organ during the solo, which is rare.) 5/24 has a similar climax to 5/16, but the solo overall isn’t as good (and the sound quality is harsh).

Garcia’s style changed noticeably by May – his solos feel different than a few months earlier. This could be related to his switching guitars (he’d played a Stratocaster from September ’69 to April ’70, and in late April switched back to a Gibson SG). But in early ’70 his solos in Hard to Handle had been steadily rhythmic and closely tied to the song’s meter, in a percussive way. (This is somewhat similar to, say, the way he played Other Ones in ’68.) In May his lines start to sound more fluid and free; he leaves a bit more space in his soloing and doesn’t use the same repeating patterns so much, but is finding more varied motifs.

6/4 and 6/5 are a study in contrast: 6/4 is taken extremely fast, and the solo is nice but kept quite short, less than two minutes – the effect is a very compressed Hard to Handle. 6/5, at almost the same tempo, sounds sluggish; the band’s timing is off from the start (and Pigpen keeps coming in at the wrong place). The solo is very laid-back and lacking fire – it improves toward the end and almost takes off, but they’re struggling to get there. So despite almost two extra minutes of jamming, it falls flat compared to the previous night – a good example of how the Dead’s delivery could vary from show to show.
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-06-04.123799.mtx.olsen.droncit.dusborne.flac16 [4:40]
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-06-05.sbd.bunjes-evans.28653.flac16 [6:32]

Our next Hard to Handle comes a month later, on 7/4. It’s a great fast-tempo version we’re lucky to see on film. Garcia is really into it, and digs into some sweet melodic lines in the solo, a new development for this song. (Note how he reprises the opening solo melody near the end of the solo – we’ll be hearing it again a few times in the fall, since Garcia will use it frequently.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axunhqUCXIM [5:47]

There’s a gap of three months til our next Hard to Handle, on 10/5. This is a very subdued version, with Garcia using a rather pinched tone, and it never takes off. (On a second listen, the solo sounded more spirited & buoyant to me, but still understated & restrained.) However, there’s a new change in the song’s format – after Pigpen’s little rap, Weir now starts off the jam section with a solo of his own, as in Easy Wind. Tonight it’s pretty short, only 30 seconds before Garcia takes over; but Weir’s initial solo would remain in the song for the next year. (Also notice that Garcia uses the melody line from 7/4 at a couple points.)
https://archive.org/details/gd70-12-23.sbd.vernon.10376.sbeok.shnf [6:30]
[Selections from 10/4-5 have circulated under the false dates of 12/17 and 12/23/70.]

10/10 is much more jammed-out – 9 minutes long, it’s considerably longer than any previous version that year. (The longest versions since December had been 6:30.) Weir solos for over two minutes, with Garcia backing him nicely – Weir’s lead style is more odd and abstract and less melodic than Garcia’s.
Garcia opens his solo with the melodic line from 7/4 again, but goes in a totally new direction this night. The difference starts to become apparent around 6:00 – until now, all Hard to Handle solos had basically been played on one chord. In the spring, sometimes there were hints of opening it up (briefly on 6/5, for instance). But here they’re suddenly playing a four-chord pattern, which sounds very much like a Darkness jam, or perhaps Dear Mr Fantasy. It’s a thrilling moment, with Garcia’s guitar singing a recognizable melody. At 7:30 Garcia signals a return to the regular solo mode. There’s no further climax, it just trickles out; but the whole jam feels more like an extended journey than any previous Hard to Handle.
https://archive.org/details/gd70-10-10.aud.hanno.7590.sbeok.shnf (fair AUD quality) [9:06]

On 10/17, the audience tape cuts in midway through Weir’s solo. Lesh is strongly emphasizing a four-chord pattern again, but drops it once Garcia starts. (It’s not the same as on 10/10, which was a unique jam – this pattern is almost identical to the St Stephen chords, and will remain in the song.) Garcia’s solo is really fine, propelled to a climax by a bass drone. (Nice smoky AUD sound, too.) After that the solo seems to end abruptly.
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-10-17.aud.linton.miller.119329.flac16 [/4:29]

10/23 is an excellent version in very nice, warm AUD quality. Weir shines in his quirky two-minute solo. After 5:30 Lesh starts stomping on the four-chord cycle again, and Garcia switches to a sharper tone and hits an ecstatic climax, then eases off.
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-10-23.aud.wolfson.motb-0004.85071.flac16 [7:20]

They played Hard to Handle twice on 10/31. The first show has a very tepid version. Weir seems reluctant to start soloing (Pigpen encourages him: “Go on!”), so the jam section starts with an interesting interval of both Garcia & Weir playing rhythm for a bit. Weir keeps his solo short, just a minute; and they move into the four-chord pattern but without much result. Garcia is really restrained, stays in a lower register and they never lift off. (However the end of the solo after 6:45 is unusual as Garcia briefly slips into an unexpected country-style passage, almost sounding like Clarence White.)
In the late show, the band is a bit sloppy; Weir skips his solo altogether, and Garcia’s solo lacks urgency, but he manages a passable climax with Lesh. One reason it sounds thin is that Weir drops out for most of the solo – guitar trouble? – so it’s another Garcia/Lesh duet. Garcia ends his solo by hammering away at two repeated notes. Oddly, when Weir comes back in he then plays a short solo after Garcia’s! (It’s interesting to hear Garcia transition into backup-R&B mode with choppy chording.)
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-10-31.122042.sbd.deluca.Digitalrbb.miller.flac1648 [7:53, 7:17]

11/5 is much more energized. Hard to Handle starts the show, as in ’69, and they start it with a unique drum intro, clearly raving to go. They ease into Weir’s solo (he’s back in good form). Garcia’s solo is standard without being especially striking; he stops abruptly when Weir breaks a string at 7:40, so they head back to the song.
https://archive.org/details/gd70-11-05.aud.warner.17182.sbeok.shnf (good AUD except for persistent bass distortion) [8:16]

11/11 is in too poor quality to really enjoy, but in the murk you can hear Garcia hit three separate wild climaxes in the extended fiery jam, the last one perfectly timed at the end. Another long 9-minute performance, this would be one of the major ’70 versions if we could hear it properly, and easily one of their best ever. (Also note that in the second verse, Pigpen doesn’t sing “mama I’m sure hard to handle” but lets the audience sing it.)
https://archive.org/details/gd70-11-11.aud.sirmick.31154.sbeok.flacf (poor AUD) [9:12]

11/16 is a unique version since Steve Winwood plays organ throughout. Since he’s there, the Dead play it more loosely; this is a less focused ‘party’ performance. (Someone occasionally plays a ‘knocking’ percussion too.) Winwood seems to pick up on the Dead’s arrangement right away; he’s very prominent at the start of the jam, then lays back. There’s some shuffling around as they figure out who’s going to solo – Weir skips his turn, then Garcia just takes a brief solo, then Winwood steps up for a bit, then back to Garcia for a sharp final climax. (The melodic line from 7/4 shows up again near the end.)
https://archive.org/details/gd70-11-16.sbd.winters.17361.sbeok.shnf [7:55]

12/12 is nothing special, partly suffering from a poor mix. Pigpen raps for a little longer than usual, over a minute – generally his standard rap would be about 30-50 seconds, no longer, and he hadn’t stretched it out since a couple December ’69 versions. (He’d just started the extended rapping in Good Lovin’, but Hard to Handle would never get that treatment.) Weir skips his solo, and Garcia’s is average. There’s no climax; the solo comes to a very quiet finish, with Garcia slowly fading out and lowering the volume til Pigpen jumps back in. (After 6:00 Garcia plays the familiar melodic line again, and repeats it at a few later points.)
https://archive.org/details/gd70-12-12.sbd.clugston.5985.sbeok.shnf [6:54]

12/27 starts off pretty sluggish and subdued. Garcia persists, turning up the heat in the middle of the solo, and switches to a more stinging Roy Buchanan-like tone; the rest of the band responds by swinging harder, til the end of the jam becomes very raw and jagged, with Lesh shoveling chords out and the drummers bashing away. Very interesting to hear how they tackle by brute force what isn’t coming easily. (The song ends up over 8 minutes long.)
https://archive.org/details/gd70-12-27.sbd.miller.23530.sbeok.shnf [8:34]

Hard to Handle ended 1970 much more jammed-out than when it started. The Dead dramatically rearranged the jam section in fall ’70, adding Weir’s solo and the four-chord passage. (A later parallel is when they added the Feelin’ Groovy four-chord sequence to the China>Rider jam.) One result is that the performances start getting much more different from each other than before, as there’s no predicting where the jam might go. But the overall structure is the same in most jams – Pigpen raps for a minute or so before laying out; Weir will play a wiry, nonlinear solo; then Garcia comes in with a more smoothly-flowing solo; Lesh pushes things along with a repeated four-chord stomp, and the band heats up; hopefully they come together in a climax at the end of the jam, but often not. On good nights they’re able to follow each other in unison through the different jam movements, even when throwing each other spontaneous curveballs. (Which they often do.) They’re also good at covering up for flubs – when one member drops the ball, the others quickly recover, and the audience may never have noticed.
Though the format of the song was fixed, as we’ll see Hard to Handle still had some twists and turns in 1971. The Dead were still experimenting with the jam, Garcia’s solos could be unpredictable, and the song still had its lowpoints in performances. Compared to the tapes of late 1970, early ’71 also offers many superior SBD tapes, though the guitars can sound thin in some of them.

1971

1/22 starts off the year with a very different version. Weir’s solo has developed since the fall, and he’s playing more melodic lines, closer to Garcia’s style. The transition from Weir to Garcia’s solo here is imaginative, seamless and well-done! Garcia’s solo moves through distinct phases – he switches to a slower, sweeter interlude at 5:45, then after 6:50 turns it down to an even softer style. The jam is quite experimental; similar to 12/12/70, here Garcia seems to deliberately bypass the expected climax and get steadily quieter, so the jam ends on a hauntingly calm, reflective note, very unusual in this song. (It’s a long version, at 9 minutes.)
https://archive.org/details/gd71-01-22.sbd.cotsman.12592.sbeok.shnf (9:06)

1/24 is average. Weir’s solo is short, just a minute; Garcia’s solo goes through the standard slow build, with the band moving naturally into the four-chord section. It never gets explosive; but after 6:20 Garcia apparently retries the tactics of 1/22 and switches to soft, quiet picking. The band then quickly builds this up into a rough chordal climax. (Small note: as on 11/11/70, Pigpen leaves out the second-verse “mama I’m sure hard to handle” again, but this time we can’t hear the audience so it sounds like an awkward dropout.)
https://archive.org/details/gd71-01-24.sbd.lai.6247.sbefail.shnf (8:23)

2/18 is Mickey Hart’s last version before leaving the band. It’s also distinguished since Ned Lagin plays clavichord accompaniment (!), which can be faintly heard as a background tinkling for the first three minutes, before he apparently stops. His presence doesn’t seem to affect the band much; but Weir’s solo turns into an interesting passage of Garcia & Weir playing excited dual rhythms. Garcia’s solo is standard, and follows the same pattern as on 1/24, getting quieter at 5:30. (You can hear that familiar melody line still being used as a centerpoint of the solo.) No climax here; the jam ending is again quiet and minimal.
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-02-18.sbd.miller.111793.flac16 (7:50)

The drumming is noticeably less busy on 2/20, now that Kreutzmann’s on his own. This version sounds distinctly unenthusiastic, and the jam is downright plodding. Garcia’s playing has some interesting spots, and the band tries to rev things up near the end, but it rapidly runs out of steam.
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-02-20.sbd.miller.116617.flac16 (7:38)

2/24 has an even more lifeless performance; everyone sounds tired. (There’s a telling moment after 3:50 when the band almost stops playing mid-song.) With Mickey gone, they seem to have lost their groove in this song, and the playing is perfunctory. The jam is saved from total disaster by a mild climax in which Garcia clings onto that repeated melody line while Lesh stomps out some chords.
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-02-24.121065.sbd.miller.digitalrbb.flac16 (6:38)

The band has recovered some spirit on 3/3, and turns out a decent version with a nice, even-tempered Garcia solo. It’s still pretty average & straightforward (though on a second listen it sounded a bit more cracklin’). Perhaps the highlight comes after 8:00 when Lesh moves into a drone and briefly adds some tension to the jam, but they can’t achieve a real climax, and soon collapse awkwardly back into the main riff.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-03-03.sbd.lai.6248.sbefail.shnf (7:07)

The band is back in form on 3/14. Pigpen’s in a vocal mood and raps for a bit longer than usual, concluding, “Bobby’s gonna play guitar!” Bobby slashes out a nice two-minute chordal solo. Lesh is loud and frisky. Garcia is slow to get going; he seems distracted and doesn’t have much of a flow at first. There’s a tapecut at 6:35, and the rest of the solo improves immensely as Garcia pours out a fluid torrent of hot notes, barely keeping up with himself. Check out the crowd exploding after the immense sustained chordal climax at 8:15 – Garcia doesn’t stop there but plunges ahead to a second climax, which is perfectly timed to conclude the jam.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-03-14.sbd.cole.6115.sbeok.shnf [9:47]

3/20 is not nearly as hot. Weir’s solo drags a bit; and Garcia’s solo is nice but never soars. (Note his more intimate guitar tone.) Rather than building to a climax, he again gets quieter in the last minute, so the jam ends inconclusively.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-03-20.sbd.barbella.5582.sbeok.shnf [7:46]

3/21 is a good version, but doesn’t seem exceptional. The AUD quality makes it harder to appreciate, but Garcia’s solo sounds standard without any distinct variations. (But note how the band moves easily in and out of the four-chord riff.) It builds nicely to a well-done climax.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-03-21.aud.cotsman.12074.sbeok.shnf (decent AUD) [7:58]

3/24 is an impressive version. Kreutzmann’s drumming has recovered its flair since February, and Weir has a long standout solo. Lesh slams out the four-chord riff, and Garcia builds quickly to a great, hot protracted climax that, like a rocket, burns through several stages, finishing about 7:30. Really great so far; however, they then spend the next minute stumbling their way back to the song. Weir resumes the main riff, but Garcia wants to keep the jam going and keeps soloing on; then Weir drops out for a bit and the rest of the band seems confused; but soon after they return to the jam, Garcia abruptly halts and rather weakly signals a return to the main riff. (It’s kind of a letdown after such a strong jam; but sometimes Garcia had trouble intuitively finding the right point to transition back to the song in the heat of the jam, as his fingers ran away with him.)
This version is a favorite among many Archive reviewers. One reader comments, “3/24/71 remains a personal favorite for me…the sound of the whole thing is irresistible to me; Bob's guitar sounds the best and his solo is the hottest; like 8/6, the groove is almighty and unrelenting; I personally don't think Jerry's solo peters out as much as it climaxes and takes its time finding its way out.”
https://archive.org/details/gd71-03-24.sbd.miller.25313.flac16 [9:10]

We now enter April ’71, a legendary month for Hard to Handles. The Dead played it at most shows on tour this month, and a number of their best versions come from this tour.
By now Garcia has generally returned to playing fast, nonstop solos, going for the fireworks – the quiet sections of early ’71 are no more. They still vary in how they play the jam, but in general the structure remains the same each night (with the odd exception).
They were still making little tweaks in the song – we’ll see how the jam becomes more locked-down by the end of the month. But there could also be tiny changes that only the players would notice: for example, you’ll notice that in April, Garcia usually plays a quirky bent chord under Pigpen’s “mama I’m sure hard to handle.” This had been introduced in February – previously Garcia had played a dramatic little high lick. He must have liked the new effect; for in February & March the two different parts would alternate within the song, and by April Garcia usually just plays the chord backing.

4/4 – A strange version. The jam starts out more like a Good Lovin’ jam as Pigpen raps for a while and Garcia gets on wah-wah, a unique touch for this song. Weir’s solo rambles on; Garcia’s solo is disjointed and not very energetic, though it’s certainly unusual to hear him play it on the wah pedal. In the last minute of the jam, Garcia sort of sputters out and stops soloing, and the music slowly disintegrates. As they start wandering adrift, Pigpen comes back with the verse at a totally random moment.
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-04-04.sbd.miller.110325.flac16 [7:46]

4/7 – Lesh is rather low in the mix. Weir drops out during Pigpen’s long two-minute rap, so Garcia starts the solo without him. Interesting to hear the Dead as a trio! Garcia manages quite a nice solo in that condition; but Weir comes back after a couple minutes, and Garcia immediately steps aside so Weir can take a short solo. Garcia’s final solo starts out sweetly, but lacks fire – the others try to rouse him with the four-chord riff, but Garcia quickly peters out and there’s no attempt at a climax, they just quit.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-07.sbd.orf.119.sbeok.shnf [7:33]

4/10 – They sound tired at the start, and the jam starts off hesitantly. Weir’s solo goes nowhere; but Garcia adds some pep when he enters with a fine solo. The band builds up some heat moving into the four-chord climax; but then they abruptly stop dead and return to the main riff.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-10.sbd.willy.8674.sbeok.shnf [7:57]

4/12 starts out as a very hot version, with Lesh especially perky. Unfortunately the tape cuts out 30 seconds into Garcia’s solo (shortly after he pauses to tune up mid-jam); so we don’t know how the jam turned out.
4/13 – There’s a strong groove here, in the best version of the month so far. Pigpen gets into his rap; Weir has an adventurous solo (but a little repetitive, going over two minutes). He and Garcia slash out rhythm for a few bars, then Garcia takes over dramatically. There's a fine Garcia solo, and they go wild in the middle of the jam – Kreutzmann stands out on drums, and Lesh has a thick, thundering bass sound. There’s a quick, beautifully intense final climax that tumbles back into the main riff.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-13.sbd.unknown.32015.sbeok.flacf [8:25]

4/14 – The momentum continues with another excellent performance! This has a longer, emotional Pigpen rap; Weir’s solo is better than usual, and in the transition to Garcia’s solo, they slash out chords together in a fascinating passage, Garcia launching marvelously into his solo. The jam is long, charged and exploratory, and has some different touches – aside from the four-chord riff, which is extended over a few cycles as they move in and out of it, Lesh finds a couple new bass lines to play (momentarily throwing Weir off). Garcia’s solo is exemplary, and it comes to a relaxed, satisfying climax.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-14.sbd.lai.6250.sbefail.shnf [9:23]

4/17 – Slightly less energy here. Pigpen rambles a bit in his rap; Weir’s solo is rather weak; and there’s an awkward pause before Garcia takes over. Garcia starts off quietly; the jam builds up steam during the four-chord riff; but there's no climax afterwards, the jam just trickles out. Overall this one's just average.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-17.sbd.nayfield.121.122.sbeok.shnf [8:20]

4/18 – Weir plays a stinging solo. Garcia’s solo starts out laid-back but soon gets more intense with a lot of repeated figures, and he switches to a sharper tone; the four-chord riff is played very heavily. The final climax is abrupt and undramatic, though, and Weir totally misses the return to the main riff.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-18.sbd.fink.7112.sbeok.shnf [7:45]

4/21 – Although the intro is messed up (rare in ’71), the jam is very engaging. Weir’s solo follows the same course as usual, while Garcia strums a bouncy muted rhythm that Lesh picks up on. The four-chord section is excellent – one thing they start doing in this performance is to put little tension-building drone intervals between the chord cycles (similar to the later Mind Left Body jams), which work very well here. The climax is amazing with Lesh & Garcia egging each other on, Garcia flashing high notes as Lesh pounds away. One of the best final climaxes so far.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-21.sbd.kaplan.8227.sbeok.shnf [9:00]

4/22 – Pigpen raps longer than usual, for a couple minutes Good Lovin’-style. The jam is long and blazing, going through the standard sections. Unfortunately, the climax is seriously muffled as Weir drops out right at the peak for some reason, forcing the others to stop.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-22.sbd.clugston.2176.sbeok.shnf [9:46]

4/24 – This one’s quicker and more concise. (Weir’s solos have generally been less than 90 seconds in recent versions.) Garcia starts out crisp and energized, but seems to lose his focus somewhat since he plays with less force as the jam goes on, despite Lesh’s prodding. The climax is unusually drawn-out, with Lesh pushing hard but Garcia less fluent than usual. (Still worth a listen.)
https://archive.org/details/gd71-04-24.sbd.lai.2579.sbefail.shnf [8:07]

We now reach the five Fillmore East versions. All are a cut above the earlier April versions. They are very similar to each other, the jams structured identically, differing only in nuances. (For instance, the final climax comes in the exact same section each night: they repeat the four-chord cycle twice, then hit the raveup.)
We can hear how they’ve worked on the jam over the last couple months, gradually improving it and adding little tweaks, til by the end of April it runs like clockwork. For instance, the drone intervals they added on 4/21 are significantly used in these performances. And, new to these Fillmore shows, starting on 4/26 Garcia adds a pause and tonal shift in the middle of his solo, as a new transition into the four-chord passage. (Up til now, they’d always moved right into it without pause.)

4/25 – The Fillmore East works its magic, as this one is better than any of the previous versions. “Go on Bobby, play your guitar!” Pigpen shouts. Weir’s solo is sharp and well-played, more flowing than usual; Garcia’s solo is very exciting, really spine-tingling stuff, with the four-chord passage done to perfection. (Notice Garcia’s old familiar melodic line reappears around 5:50, reconfigured.) Lesh is aggressively punchy, stirring Garcia to greater heights; and they hammer out an amazing, jaw-dropping climax – Garcia wailing away on two repeated notes that veer perfectly back into the main riff.
http://archive.org/details/gd1971-04-25.sbd.matera.113038.sbeok.flac16 [8:25]

4/26 – “Go on mama, play on!” Very perky Weir solo, one of his better ones, this one two minutes long with Lesh supporting nicely. The band stays in a powerful groove through Garcia’s solo. He tries a couple different approaches (note the Berry-like descending passage after 5:20), pausing midstream and shifting to softer dynamics after 5:40 – and for once, he actually plays the St Stephen melody briefly over the four-chord riff. There’s a very similar finish to the night before, but not quite as good.
http://archive.org/details/gd1971-04-26.113839.sbd.smith.boswell.flac16 [8:00]

4/27 – Pigpen extends his rap a bit. Weir’s solo seems more tepid this night; once again he and Garcia play rhythm chords together for a while after his solo. Garcia doesn’t let us down – his solo is fast, crisp, exciting and hard-rocking. There's a cool dynamic shift at 6:16 (Weir dropping out for a bit), and they storm into another great climax. Garcia spins out the end differently this night, ending his solo line while the others return to the main riff, and joining them with perfect timing.
http://archive.org/details/gd1971-04-27.sbd.boswell.smith.114094.flac16 [8:33]

4/28 – The jam is extremely similar to the previous nights. Garcia’s solo starts with a low-key, countryish passage. As in the last two nights, there’s a dynamic shift to the four-chord sequence after 6:00, a little hastier tonight. Garcia is wilder in his notes in the final climax; and the rhythm stomps harder – actually Weir & Lesh are sloppier, not as well-synchronized, and they lose track of each other in the last chord cycle. Garcia ‘steps over’ the end of the jam (as on 4/27), and continues to solo for a little longer – as the others return to the main riff, Garcia keeps squealing away at the peak of his solo, and takes a few moments to rejoin the others.
http://archive.org/details/gd1971-04-28.sbd.miller.106099.flac16 [8:54]

4/29 – This has long been the most famous, ‘canonical’ version from this run. It’s very smoothly done, building tension nicely with each part flowing neatly into the next, until the perfectly-executed climax. On the other hand, Garcia’s solo sounds much more subdued (or gentler) than previous nights, and they’re more careful tonight – this performance is more bouncy than aggressive. (The AUD tape of this performance is too poor to hear any different nuances.)
Parts to notice: the small shift to a quiet, familiar little melody at 5:00; the great drone passage after 5:50; the way Lesh starts bubbling before the 4-chord sequence; the part after 7:00 when Garcia is hanging onto a couple notes while Lesh drones, which transitions nicely into the next 4-chord cycle; and the whole climax after 7:40, the way everyone times the ending perfectly.
One reader comments: “Garcia basically coasts through the jam and plays it safe…I don’t hear any new ideas here…I like the riskier-sounding versions myself.”
http://archive.org/details/gd1971-04-29.sbd.multitracks.miller.114350.flac16 [8:50]

5/29 – A fine version, but the poor audience quality makes it hard to appreciate this one. (The band is pretty murky: Lesh is very quiet, but you can make out Garcia & Weir, and Kreutzmann’s thumpings.) Weir’s solo is exceptionally long, three and a half minutes, but undistinctive – almost nothing happens in it, mostly just a groove. Garcia finally starts his solo 6 minutes in, full of energy (note how he uses a feedback note in his playing after 6:15). The final jam sequence is structured just like at the Fillmore shows; Garcia seems to extend the end of his solo over the main riff again. It sounds like it would be pretty good, if we could hear it properly. (Hopefully the SBD of the first set will appear someday.)
One reader comments: “You can hear it if you EQ it a little. I actually think this is a pretty great version. The peak of the jam really cooks and Garcia stretches it out in a really fun way.”
https://archive.org/details/gd71-05-29.aud.cotsman.19153.sbeok.shnf (poor AUD) [10:06]

6/21 – A little out of practice, the band pulls together a nice version on a French lawn. Weir doesn’t have much to say in his solo and wraps it up more quickly tonight. (Lesh is lower in the mix than usual for early ’71.) Garcia has a fine, hot solo with the band cooking away. They pull off a dramatic little climax at 6:13 just when you think they’re heating up; then after an odd stop-&-start break, the jam resumes with the four-chord sequence. (Garcia seems to remind the others of it by playing a little St Stephen lick.) This heads to a protracted double climax, rusty but neat.
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-06-21.sbd.miller.94356.flac16 [9:05]

The internal structure of the jam devolved a bit after the spring shows - after three months with hardly any shows, the summer versions are shorter, more straightforward & streamlined. Though the structure of the jam is the same, Garcia’s solo is much shorter and the band seems to rush into the four-chord jam finale. The Hard to Handles of July & August are extremely similar to each other, all following the same pattern without much exploration.

7/2 – A standard version. “Go on, it’s all yours Bobby!” Weir takes an engaging, choppy solo; but Garcia sounds less inspired tonight and the jam has shortened considerably. The four-chord passage seems a little forced, but they push it to a driving climax, where Garcia almost screeches off the rails. (Then Pigpen re-enters in the wrong place, but the band does an instant recovery.)
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-07-02.sbd.clevenger.lai.fix-128.6193.sbefail.shnf [7:17]

7/31 – The band sounds more energized here. Weir introduces the song: “The dog-suckingest man in show business, Pigpen!” The jam chugs along nicely; standard climax, extremely similar to 7/2. The four-chord sequence sounds even more St Stephen-like than usual. The band draws out the last song chord for the cheering crowd. [Road Trips 1/3, 7:20]

8/4 – The bass is very loud in the mix (as with much of the rest of the month), making this a particularly throbbing version. Weir’s solo ends quickly, and Garcia also hastens to the finish, making this the shortest rendition in a long time. Garcia’s solo has many similarities to the 8/6 version (for instance, the notes after 5:00, and the final jam chords), though it’s much less intense – the band is not as strong this night.
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-08-04.sbd.miller.95308.sbeok.flac16 [6:38]

8/6 – My own favorite version since it was imprinted on me by Fallout From The Phil Zone. It's so tight & driving, and Garcia’s supersonic solo is one of the Dead’s most revered moments. Garcia is stoked; he seamlessly takes the baton from Weir and blazes a relentless path to the immaculate chordal climax; and the band meets his energy in the churning jam.
The audience tape helps, of course, the way Garcia and the crowd play off each other. Garcia is emphasized in the AUD, but the SBD brings out the rhythm more – hearing the SBD, where Lesh is way up in the mix, makes it clear what a driving force he is in the jam, pushing Garcia along. But as often happens, the AUD may capture the band’s actual sound better than the SBD does, making the performance a lot crunchier and more dramatic. (The audience reaction is of course barely noticeable on the SBD.)
A couple small notes: Ironically, Pigpen himself shows a little vocal fatigue, sounding strained in the verses (particularly the second). Also, it was rare for Garcia to end the jam in a series of chords, as he does on 8/4 and 8/6 – somewhat similar earlier examples of chordal climaxes were 1/24 and 3/14/71.
http://archive.org/details/gd1971-08-06.GEMS.Smith.Kaslow-Todd.109430.flac24 [7:33]
[SBD on Road Trips 1/3 bonus disc]

8/6/71 Sidenote:
It has been rumored for years that Garcia dropped to his knees at the jam climax. Phil Lesh wrote of the audience, “I don’t remember why they were so excited – maybe Pig was doing some strange dance.”
The only place I've read a possible eyewitness report is in the intro to the Golden Road box set booklet, by James Austin, who says he'd been attending shows since '69:
"One night (8/6/71) during their performance of Hard to Handle, Jerry dropped to his knees. Walking to my car, I was dumbfounded as to how they could play with such fervent exhilaration." (However, given that the writer is a Rhino PR person, he might not be utterly truthful here!)
There are a number of reviews on the web by people who were at the show, and none of them mention Jerry dropping to his knees. One witness on dead.net even says, "I watched Garcia intently that night...I don't recall him dropping to his knees." Another reader reports, “I talked to one person who is confirmed to have been at the show and he claims that he does not recall Jerry dropping to his knees during the solo.”
So, alas, it seems this story is an unconfirmed Dead legend, and must be consigned to the myth bin...

8/7 – It's interesting to hear the 8/7 Hard to Handle next to 8/6 - I think it falls flat in comparison. Though so close in style & note choices to 8/6, the jam just chugs along for most its length without much oomph, though Lesh (loud in the mix) tries to nudge it up by slamming down some power chords. They finally start wailing a bit in the climax, and Jerry tries repeating the same ending as the night before, but it comes off a little mangled.
If you hear it on its own without 8/6 in mind, though, it's still pretty good! Listening to this in the context of the other summer versions, it sounds much stronger in comparison, even outstanding. While not nearly as explosive as 8/6, Garcia’s playing is sharp and exciting, and Lesh is very active.
One reader comments: “I actually think that 8/7 has some amazing passages. Those extra licks Garcia throws in at the very end are especially titillating! Phil is so far up in the mix that it's hard to hear the rest of the band sometimes. And there is a pretty fat sloppy part in the middle. They stitch it up nicely for the climax, but it probably does pale in comparison to the night before.”
http://www.myspace.com/gratefuldead/music/albums/dick-s-picks-volume-35-8-7-71-san-diego-ca-8-24-71-chicago-il-11687130

8/14 – A great, propulsive version and another Phil-dominated mix. (He’s louder than Garcia.) Lesh’s busy prodding and Garcia’s very melodic playing make for an entrancing (if short) jam, particularly after 5:00 in the section before they plunge into those satisfying chords (where Garcia clearly quotes St Stephen). The band drives hard through the end of the jam - though messy, it’s a standout.
https://archive.org/details/gd71-08-14.sbd.ladner.21268.sbeok.shnf [7:21]

8/26 – The last one. (Til 1982, anyway.) The SBD has some bad sound glitches during the jam and a shifting mix, and Lesh drowns everyone out; but the AUD sounds good and pretty clear, so it may be preferable. It’s striking that after all this time, Weir still can’t string together a consecutive solo, but still seems to jab at random for a couple minutes. This jam is cut from the same cloth as the other summer versions – Garcia’s in good form, but doesn’t pull any surprises. (The average final climax sounds seriously garbled on the SBD! A little easier to hear on the AUD.) A standard version, but a good way to go out.
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-08-26.sbd.fixed.miller-rolfe.32351.sbeok.flac16
https://archive.org/details/gd1971-08-26.aud.weinberg.berger.100292.sbeok.flac16 [7:24]

Pigpen fell sick the next month; when he returned later in the fall tour and ‘72, the band didn’t revive Hard to Handle. Perhaps he didn’t feel like singing it again, or they didn’t want to rehearse it, or it got lost under the shuffle of new songs.
In any case, the Dead didn’t play it again until the end of December, 1982, when they brought it back for two versions with Etta James and the Tower of Power horns. The horns bring it closer to Otis Redding’s original, but the best that can be said of these final performances is that they’re wretched and painful to hear. 12/31 is the more rehearsed version; but Etta goes on an extended (and dull) rap, and Garcia is asleep. He is more present on the 12/30/82 version, with a little solo and some Mutron backing. But these versions are best forgotten.


COMPARISONS

Since then, Dead fans have had a delightful time debating which are the “best” versions of Hard to Handle. 4/29 and 8/6/71 usually get singled out as the top two, and close comparisons are made; though there have been some voices in favor of 4/28/71 and others as well. Hopefully this list will help people find other favorites – there are many excellent versions that are never mentioned. (For instance, 4/25/71 with its truly awesome climax is certainly one of the best, but it's a relatively unsung version because it was never in wide circulation, so it was little-known until recently.)

But I’ll close this post with a compilation of reviews comparing people’s top versions, taken from these discussions (which are actually where this post originated) -
http://transitiveaxis.forumup.us/viewtopic.php?t=1070
http://archive.org/post/419307/grateful-dead-shows-on-this-day-in-history

One 4/28/71 champion wrote:
“I like the way that Jerry bends, squeezes and vibratos all the juice out of the sour-sounding note he hits way up at the top of the neck just as the song peaks… One thing that I like about 4/28 is the way they transition in and out of different phases of the song -- especially the part where Garcia's jam changes from the single chord (B minor blues) to the four-chord riff (B - A - D - F#) that begins the wind-up of the song. He just feels it so perfectly and the entire band just flows right into it. I agree that the final peak is a little messy, but I love how Jerry never gives in and drives and bends that B note right into your skull… He may actually be trying to bend an out of tune string back into tune for the finish. Reminds me of some of those really frenzied versions of Viola Lee Blues from ‘67. That whole part gives me goosebumps, and neither of the other versions we're talking about here really peaks like that. I also really like the groove Phil gets into that night. I also think Pig sounds much better on 4/28 than on either 4/29 or 8/6. Pig tends to get lost in discussions of H2H, but it matters to me how the actual song is executed.”

A response from a 4/29 enthusiast:
“I think 4/28 & 4/29 are very close. Have to wonder whether I prefer 4/29 just because I've heard it more times (that can happen) - but I think the last couple minutes of the climax on 4/29 are better… I really don't think the 4/28 H2H holds up to 4/29...it just sounds more meandering, less purposeful to me, and doesn't get really intense til the last minute or so of the jam. Also, the climax, though wild, sounds somewhat botched to me - Weir goes back to the main riff while Jerry's still in climax mode, which is fun to hear but a little bumpy. While the 4/29 climax is perfectly done…
You may be right that the playing on the 4/28 H2H is more exciting than on 4/29 – Garcia does sound more charged-up. It may be that I just prefer the smoother execution on 4/29…
One version that's very similar to 4/28 is (no surprise) 4/27 - Garcia's solo is very exciting…he also ‘oversteps’ the climax a little bit, but times it better… 4/28 is a great version, no question, but I think I may like the 4/27 H2H even more, at least the second half of the jam…
8/6 leaves a smoking crater of the other versions. It seems tighter to me, and Garcia goes supersonic - though I will say, 4/29 is more of a whole-band climax, whereas on 8/6 Garcia dominates.”

Others weighed in on the 8/6/71 debate:

“I'm going with 8/6/71. 4/28-29 are jammier versions with more of an ebb & flow to the music, whereas 8/6 just bulldozes forward. Jerry's solo feels like a solo, not a jam, and his climax on 8/6 is easily the most satisfying to me. From start to finish, they cut such a deep groove and keep such an iron grip on it... and Phil is a total monster on that one, which ultimately may make it as much for me as anything else. So funky!
Personally, I prefer groove to group improv in a tune like H2H: I want a throwdown rather than a roundabout trip, and 4/28-29 both take in the scenery a bit on their way to the top. I'm having a hard time picking between 4/28 and 4/29 as the "better" version: 4/29 is much more smoothly executed and was definitely the right choice for an official release, whereas 4/28 has a couple more bumps and raw notes, but has moments that are a bit more exciting, imho; Jerry's playing is more fiery, but the band doesn't quite get there with him, so it's a toss up.”

“I go with 8/6. The peak is just tremendous and I like the way they all land on it at the same time. They start the song strong and they stay that way through the whole tune. It's a rocker from the first note on. The audience reaction gives it bonus points. I don't even want to hear the sbd. It's cool to hear everyone getting turned on. It's almost like an instrument.
The groove on 4/29 is definitely there and Phil drops some tasty bombs. And you can hear the crowd react in the background when they hit the peak, but the flow is just a little off if you take the whole song into consideration. By that I mean, you can hear Pig trying to get into Pig mode but he doesn't quite get full blown. Bobby starts off good but then kind of melts back. It's almost like he didn't want to solo or the others were giving him a little space. Jerry's solo is great too, but it takes him a few to warm up before hitting turbo.
4/28 just doesn't make the landing so to speak. During Jerry's final solo they kinda miss "it". He's still got the solo going up high when the others come back in. They don't all come in like they do on 8/6 or 4/29.”

“Compared to 8/6, 4/29 is more locked in and driving and bluesy, with powerful depth and darkness to it. 8/6 has a looser feel; they're both "wild," but 4/29 is more "born to be wild," while 8/6 is more on the the edge of spinning out of control and just going off crazily into the stratosphere. It goes "way up" while 4/29 goes "deep down," if that makes sense… On the whole, I think the 4/29 H2H is more consistently intense all the way through. I'm not a musician, but I'm guessing a musician would say that 4/29 "gels" more. But basically they're just going to different places.”

“I honestly can’t believe so many people are picking 4/29 over 8/6. The way Jerry jams 8/6 is absolutely perfect, building up to a high crescendo and maintaining it before leading everybody back into the riff. His licks on it are absolutely furious. It might be my favorite Jerry "solo" ever.
The 4/29 jam is longer, sure, but I feel the arc of the jam on 8/6 is much more powerful and he seems to be playing with so much more ease throughout. His flow of ideas is so much more seamless imo. He was definitely channeling something in that performance, whereas there’s moments in 4/29 where it feels like they're trying to find the groove.”

“I do think the quality of the tape and the crowd reaction pushes 8-6-71 over the top. I was disappointed when I first heard the soundboards as part of the bonus on the RT1-3 release, I thought it sounded kind of flat. Sbd to Sbd I like 4-29 better, but that Aud...”
“I was disappointed by the 8/6/71 SBD at first, as well. I've come to like it more, though; and it's fairer to compare SBD to SBD... I think the band's intensity still comes through, just without the crowd.”

“The 4/29 rendition is superior to that of 8/6. While Jer's soloing on 8/6 is phenomenal and definitely among his finest efforts, in spite of the off the hook energy, the performance is rather one dimensional in comparison to the Hard to Handles of late April of the year.”

(See also http://headyversion.com/song/110/grateful-dead/hard-to-handle/ for another listing of favorites. The most popular picks will be no surprise!)

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This post just scratches the surface of Hard to Handle, but at least it’s a start. Musicologists could write about these jams in more technical ways, using a much different language than I have. (For instance, see the ‘Hard to Handle and Deadness’ section of David Malvinni’s book “Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation.”) Different analyses examining other aspects of the Dead’s performances, or coming to new conclusions, are certainly still possible!
My evaluations may seem a little harsh sometimes. The early versions from mid-’69 do require a forgiving ear. There are actually very few weak versions from 1970-71 – when listened to on its own, usually any one version will sound really good; but when listening to them all, not every one stands out and the average ones sound, well, more average. Also, as is obvious, I tend to judge a Hard to Handle by how well they do the jam climax (the song part itself does not vary as much). But a performance can sound quite different the next time you hear it, as the music transforms itself over time and becomes new again…


* - Quotes at the start are from the book Bill Graham Presents, p.172-176