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Grateful Dead Look Back on ’71 Show

The Grateful Dead will look back on its ’71 tour on Road Trips Vol. 3 No. 2. The archival release captures the band’s November 15, 1971 performance at Austin, TX’s Municipal Auditorium, including early versions of “Jack Straw,” “One More Saturday Night,” “Mexicali Blues,” “Ramble On Rose,” “El Paso” and “You Win Again.” The show look place early in keyboardist Keith Godchaux’s tenure in the group, before his wife Donna Jean joined as a vocalist.

As scribe Blair Jackson explains, “The reason this show is so revered among hard core fans is a pair of remarkable stretches of improvisatory genius—one in the first set, another in the second. On Disc One, you’ll find an amazing sequence of tunes that moves from ‘Dark Star’ (a relative rarity in ’71) to ‘El Paso’ (perfect for a Texas audience, of course!), back into more deep space, and finally landing at ‘Casey Jones.’ And at the end of the show, on Disc Two, the Austin crowd is treated to what is, in my humble opinion, one of the best-ever versions of ‘Not Fade Away’ > ‘Goin’ Down the Road’ > ‘Not Fade Away,’ loaded with beautiful and surprising musical turns and propelled by the can-do confidence of a band reveling in its new-found power. It’s prime Dead, for sure.”

Like the other Road Trips installments, the show will come with a bonus disc featuring highlights from the previous night’s performance at Fort Worth’s Texas Christian University. Highlights from that show include “China Cat Sunflower> I Know You Rider” and a run from “Truckin’” into the “The Other One,” “Me & My Uncle” “Other One” reprise, “Wharf Rat” “Sugar Magnolia”

Road Trips Vol. 3 No. 2 track list include:

DISC 1

1. Truckin’
2. Bertha
3. Playing In The Band
4. Deal
5. Jack Straw
6. Loser
7. Beat It On Down The Line
8. Dark Star>
9. El Paso>
10. Dark Star
11. Casey Jones
12. One More Saturday Night

DISC 2

1. Me And My Uncle
2. Ramble On Rose
3. Mexicali Blues
4. Brokedown Palace
5. Me And Bobby McGee
6. Cumberland Blues
7. Sugar Magnolia
8. You Win Again
9. Not Fade Away>
10. Jam>
11. Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad>
12. Not Fade Away
13. Johnny B. Goode

Bonus CD (11/14/71)

1. China Cat Sunflower>
2. I Know You Rider
3. Sugaree
4. Truckin’>
5. Drums>
6. The Other One>
7. Me And My Uncle>
8. The Other One>
9. Wharf Rat>
10. Sugar Magnolia