Road Trips: Vol. 2, No. 2 - Carousel 2/14/68 Review

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(More customer reviews)I had somewhat overlooked this Road Trips series until I saw some of my favorite shows released on it - 6/16/ and 6/18/74, and now this - so I'd say this is an even more worthy purchase than Dick's Picks Vol. 22, being that 2/14/68 is probably the Dead's best show of the year. The first half of the performance includes nice early versions of what would become the Live/Dead material; much of it is still in the embryonic stage, but it is rewarding none the less. But during the 2nd set (dedicated to the memory of Neil Cassidy who recently died) we get a start to finish live performance of Anthem of the Sun, the Dead's Live/Studio hybrid, including near definitive versions of New Potato Caboose, and as other reviewers have mentioned, Alligator. THE Alligator, folks, the one that is actually used for the live portions of Anthem. And The New Potato is bested only by the absolutely EPIC version on Two From The Vault. Not to mention, there is a GREAT Phil Lesh (bass) dominated version of Spanish Jam tossed in the middle of the Anthem Suite that is one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. Get this only if you are prepared for one of the wildest rides in Dead history...a bit of hyperbole perhaps, but I challenge you to find a better performance of early Grateful Dead.

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Valentine's Day, 1968 in San Francisco's legendary Carousel Ballroom was an extraordinary experience, and it's all captured here - as the first complete show in the Road Trips series. Thanks to a trusty 8-track tape machine, we can enjoy this magical performance that catches the band at a pivotal moment in the exploration of their own sound. It was a night where the band tried out all their newest songs - ones that we now know as classics!
The package includes an essay by Blair Jackson with some amazing anecdotes about Neal Cassady's powerful impact on the band.
All discs are mastered (in HDCD) by Jeffrey Norman.
Track listing:
Disc 1
1. Morning Dew
2. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
3. Dark Star
4. China Cat Sunflower
5. The Eleven
6. Turn On Your Lovelight
Bonus tracks from January 1968:
7. Viola Lee Blues (1/20/68 Eureka)
8. Beat It On Down the Line (1/23/68 Seattle)
Disc 2
1. That's It For The Other One
i. Cryptical Envelopment
ii. The Other One
iii. Cryptical Envelopment
2. New Potato Caboose
3. Born Cross-Eyed
4. Spanish Jam
5. Alligator
6. Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)
7. Feedback
8. In the Midnight Hour

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