Dick's Picks Volume 16

A complete show from 11/8/69

Set 1:Good Morning Little School Girl, Casey Jones, Dire Wolf, Easy Wind, China Cat Sunflower->I Know You Rider, High Time, Mama Tried, Good Lovin', Cumberland Blues

Set 2: Dark Star->The Other One->Dark Star->Uncle John's Band Jam->Dark Star->St.Stephen->The Eleven->Caution->The Main Ten->Caution->Feedback->And We Bid You Goodnight (Filler is a Lovelight from the night before)

Pros

-Great second set, especially the Dark Star and the UBJ Jam

Nice Lovelight filler

Cons

-Most of the first set is very rough in many spots.

-Most of Caution and Feedback

Overall: 8/10

The first set is, quite frankly, not very good. Late 1969 was a transitional time for the dead, as they were switching from Psychdelic Rock to Roots-Rock. Caught in the middle was the keyboardist Tom Constanten, who while he contributed greatly to songs like Dark Star and The Eleven, as evidenced by disc two, was out of place on songs like Dire Wolf and Cumberland Blues. The former is way too slow for my tastes, and the instruments sounds like they are out of place. The latter features horrific vocals and missed cues, and is a very weak way to end a set. Casey Jones and High Time also sound like they don't belong, although Pigpen's covers, GMLSG and Good Lovin' are more bluesy and therefore are much better played. The China->Rider is also good. However, overall, this is not terrific Dead, and can be painful to listen to at times.

Thankfully, the second set is much better. It starts off on a great note with a shorter than normal Dark Star, that is very delicate, and features Bob and Jerry in particular feeding off of each other, while Tom, the drummers, and of course Phil, add to the ambience of the piece. Dark Star makes its way into The Other One, another major jam vehicle for the Dead during the late 1960's. The drummers do a fantastic job the whole way through, as the mood changes from intense to mellow to intense again. Then, the Dark Star theme appears briefly, before making it's way into an Uncle John's Band Jam that is very thrilling, especially how incorporates such a great country-esque toon into the psychedelic beast known as Dark Star. Finally, the second verse of Dark Star is sung, and the common St.Stephen->The Eleven follows, which is played very well. The third disc, while better than the first, still pales in comparison to the genius of disc two. A LONG Caution that approaches thirty minutes features Pigpen's only performance in the second set, and rather than the light and peppy nature of Lovelight, another Pigpen song that was usually featured in this spot, Caution is very dark and evil sounding, with a Main Ten (think the beginning of Playin') theme in the middle. Overall, I believe it goes on too long, and the terrible feedback that follows makes me feel a little sick. However, the AWBYGN is sweetly sung and makes me feel good again. The filler is a Lovelight from the night before, which was average for the time, but is still nice to listen to from time to time.

The first disc of this set never needs to be listened to again, quite frankly, but the second disc is why I keep coming back to this great pick. I think if they released it as one disc only, this would be considered one of the best Dick's Picks's out there. As it is, it's simply great.

8/10