50 years ago today, a momentous grateful dead show at @capitoltheatre. 5 big debuts, ned lagin on keys for the whole night, mickey hart’s last appearance ’til ’74, the 1st ESP experiment, the 1st real betty board. now “american beauty” discs 2 & 3: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lfh_RT65TOOBmLKQNGQzb0Tl407NhPY2A [1/15]

betty cantor-jackson’s 2-track mixes of 2/18/71 were among the 1st tapes circulated in the ‘80s when her storage unit was auctioned. her amazing recording of this end-of-era show became a tape trading cornerstone, but jeffrey norman's for-real multitrack mix is incredible. [2/15]

2/18/71 port chester: on audience tape only, fresh from LP sessions, new riders are poppin', especially nelson & dawson. debut of marmaduke’s new LOCHNIVAR. difference between ex-drummer hart & new drummer dryden audible on tighter HONKY TONK WOMEN. https://archive.org/details/nrps1971-02-18aud.weiner.25813.sbeok.shnf [3/15]

the dead arrive at @captioltheatre with betty cantor, bob matthews, & a 16-track seemingly intending to make a new live album over the 6 nights with their new songs & covers. absolutely does not go as planned & the 7-piece dead on night 1 is a future left hanging. [4/15]

show opens with 1st BERTHA, bright & bouncing, but with more hopped-up 2-drummer dynamics. lagin’s mostly on clavichord for the show, maybe B3 on LOSER’s debut, but hard to tell. both songs rehearsed with crosby & co. in recent months. [5/15]

GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD is 1st of 2 new weir/hart/hunter songs, built around rhythm of water pump at mickey hart’s barn. missing the bridges, but big bass! weir’s rock scream doesn’t quite launch. song doesn’t really end, so shifts into JOHNNY B. GOODE, standard in ’71. [6/15]

to close 1st set, a moondusted 26-minute DARK STAR > WHARF RAT > DARK STAR > ME & MY UNCLE. 1st DARK STAR since november, only played in these months with ned, here on chiming clavichord. kreutzmann is quiet & nearly free on kit, hart’s last on only hand percussion. [7/15]

DARK STAR dissolves amid clavichord clouds into 1st WHARF RAT, major new garcia/hunter song, all in place. instead of a big solo, they slip back to DARK STAR by way of bright theme & resolution, 1-time occurrence later aptly named BEAUTIFUL JAM on the “so many roads” box. [8/15]

when i had this on tape, i wondered what the bell-like tones were, but only became apparent later that lagin was there the whole night & had been planning to play more if not for band shakeup that week. nice dissolve to ME & MY UNCLE, its 1st time as a DARK STAR chaser. [9/15]

2nd set features debut of weir/hart/hunter’s PLAYING IN THE BAND (possibly helped by @thedavidcrosby?!), after 2 years of jams on hart’s early instrumental riff, THE MAIN TEN. despite jammy roots, it’ll be a bit before the song gets a real jam & becomes weir’s signature. [10/15]

also in the 2nd set: dr. stanley krippner begins his 8-night (successful!!) pilot study in dream telepathy, projecting slides behind the band with instructions for the audience to telepathically send the images to sleeping recipients in brooklyn. https://stanleykrippner.weebly.com/a-pilot-study-in-dream-telepathy-with-the-grateful-dead.html [11/15]

naturally, some lovely comedy occurs around the ESP experiment slides.
lesh: “that ain’t no rembrandt, that’s a dali! idn’t it?”
weir: “yeah, that’s a dali.”
cute off-mic discussion about the name of the dali painting in question. [12/15]

great on the jams, lagin’s clavichord sometimes sounds a bit too chiming/thin for me on the songier songs like CANDYMAN & ME & BOBBY McGEE, almost an acoustic prototype of the dyna-rhodes. [13/15]

27-minute ST. STEPHEN > NOT FADE AWAY > GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD FEELING BAD > NOT FADE AWAY > UNCLE JOHN’S BAND is dense with conversation. bass bombs en route to NOT FADE AWAY, twin keys by mckernan & lagin, some fun peaks. almost a 1st draft for the post-’76 band. [14/15]

and after the show, mickey hart disappears from the grateful dead stage until late 1974, though is kept on salary. stories differ. kreutzmann’s more recent memoir "deal" has the most straightforward version, calling it a firing. #deadfreaksunite [15/15]

some heads’ memories & a rare review of the dead at the @capitoltheatre on 2/18/71.
http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2019/08/february-18-1971-capitol-theater-port.html