Rocking The Cradle: Egypt 1978
(Rhino)
The standard line on the Grateful Dead's 1978 gigs at the foot of the Great Pyrmaid of Gizah - postulated by the band itself - has always gone something like this: in one of the most mystical settings on the planet, with a backdrop of no less than a full lunar eclipse, the Grateful Dead played mediocre music but had a damn good time doing it.
This two-CD/one-DVD 30th anniversary release is evidence enough to confirm the latter and disprove the former. Granted, these were not the best circumstances: drummer Bill Kreutzmann had a broken wrist before the shows; Jerry Garcia (wearing pigtails) was in one of his heroin periods; the band had already decided to cut loose pianist Keith Godchaux and his vocalist wife Donna (though both appear on this release). Yet the three hours of music on the CDs, and especially the hour-plus-long film on the DVD, portray a band that, outside the usual flubbed lyrics, sloppy endings and missed cues, was muscular, pumped-up and well-synced.
The "Bertha" "Good Lovin" that starts off the DVD is as stomping as any ever played; the back-to-back "Candyman," "New Minglewood Blues" and "Looks Like Rain" propel the Garcia-Bob Weir-Phil Lesh axis to stratospheric heights, and "Fire on the Mountain" -- emerging from the only true Egyptian-themed music played, a piece titled "ollin Arageed" featuring Nubian musician Hamza el Din and all sorts of tar drumming, hand-clapping and chanting - is exactly the kind of transcendent music you'd expect to hear from the Dead as the Sphinx looks on. If there is any major disapppointment here, it's that here isn't more like this, rather than yet another "Row Jimmy" and "Truckin'." Although the video quality is no match for the crisp audio, it's nonetheless fascinating to watch both the reactions of the locals to this music, and-- on a bonus bit titled "The Vacation Tapes"-- the Dead and entourage taking in the sights. As alien as Egypt must have been to these rock tourists, one can only imagine what the Bedouins made of the Grateful Dead.
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