Set 1:

Casey Jones [1] , Beat It On Down The Line , Hurts Me Too , Me And My Uncle , Cold Rain And Snow , Hard To Handle , Brokedown Palace , Johnny B. Goode [2]

Partial Set 2:

China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider

[1] introduction by Ken Babbs before

[2] First known performance last known performance on 1969-09-07 by Jerry Garcia - Misc as guest

 

January 22, 1971 – Lane Community College, Eugene, OR

On January 22, 1978 the Grateful Dead played one of their best shows of the year in Eugene.  If you haven’t had an opportunity to check that one out, you should.Today’s recording from the same city, 7 years earlier, is a partial show, and it doesn’t seem like anyone has any idea if the songs as presented here are in the right order or how much of the show is missing.  It’s also not a good soundboard recording, although there are certainly worse.Having said that, this is still 1971 and the band is, for the most part, playing well.  (Brokedown Palace is not great).  Tonight is also the return of Johnny B. Goode, which hasn’t been played since 1969.  Everything else we have here is short and relatively sweet – Casey Jones is quite good, Hard to Handle is solid, and China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider is a short but satisfying ride.As the notes on the recording say, this one is for completists only – there are better shows afoot on January 22nd.  But this recording does give you a good hint of the Dead having fun in front of a very receptive audience at a peak time in their career. 

 

• Cryptical70 Only a small portion of theOnly a small portion of the show circulates. According to the local college paper, the Dead played almost three hours to a sold out house.  
• hockey_john Introduction by Ken Babbs,Introduction by Ken Babbs, Casey Jones, Beat It On Down The Line, It Hurts Me Too, Me & My Uncle, Cold Rain & Snow, Hard To Handle, Brokedown Palace, Johnny B. Goode China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider Must be more to this show. After all its in the land of the merry PRANKSTERSSSSSS. Is all I could find online  
• stoltzfus I have only the first set...it's worth hearing.Is there a pristine copy of the entire show out there somewhere? PLEASE??

 

Jan 22, 2013

January 22, 1971: Lane Community College, Eugene

GRATEFUL DEAD SLATE BENEFIT AT LANE

The Grateful Dead, one of the early San Francisco bands, is scheduled to appear in LCC's main gym Friday, Jan. 22. The dance-concert will start around 8:00 p.m. and end when the Dead (and the people attending) get tired. The Grateful Dead was one of the first bands to "make it" when the rush for the "San Francisco Sound" began back in 1966-67. Along with the Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, the Sons of Champlain [sic], and a lot of others, they were "discovered," signed by recording companies, and labeled by some as America's answer to the British invasion. Of the dozens of bands from this area, the Dead is one of the few to survive all the hype putdown by the record companies and music commentators. The Dead's music has consistently been in the forefront of all the trends of the public. They were psychedelic when no one knew what the word meant, and two albums ago they made a switch to a folk-flavored country-rock sound. The albums WORKINGMANS DEAD and AMERICAN BEAUTY, on Warners Reprise, best show where the Dead are at right now. Michael Lydon, in ROLLING STONE, talks of one of the albums: "WORKINGMANS DEAD is just about as good as a record can be. Easy on the ears from the first listening, it gets mellower as it grows on you; a lot of different rhythms but one sure pulse." Appearing with the Grateful Dead at Lane will be Notary Sojac, a group from Portland. Approximately 20% of the profits (after expenses) from this dance-concert will go to LCC's student financial aids program, while a larger percentage will go to the Eugene White Bird Clinic. The Dead's concert at Lane will probably consist of three sets. One of the sets will be acoustic, and will hopefully be, as ROLLING STONE put it for a recent appearance at the Fillmore West, "music soothing to weary hearts and hard-driven minds because it understands that state of mind only too well." A second set will be more country and western. This set features songs like "Six Days on the Road," and will be performed by the New Riders of the Purple Sage. This group is comprised of members of the Grateful Dead and some friends. The third set will be the old, semi-psychedelic Dead. Along with the Dead's three sets and Notary Sojac, there will be a multiple-image slide presentation on Woodstock. It is not known at this time whether this will be shown in conjunction with the Dead's show or in a different room on campus, but it WILL be there. Tickets for the Dead's concert are $3 - cheap for two good bands and a slide presentation. They will be available at the door and at the Information Desk in the Administration Building at LCC.

(by John Tennis, from the LCC Torch, January 19 1971) 

 

Reviewer: simonbabbs -   Subject: Origins of this recording.1/14/2023 update! Someone sent me this link again, I listened to it, I think the transfer from the original reel to reel I did is better so I will find that and upload that.

This sounds like the recording my dad made of the show onto a reel to reel he brought and recorded with. Now the problem with it is the reel to reel tape he used was a previously used tape and that is why the tape doesn't sound so great, but it does get better as you get more into the tape. I did transfer this to digital a few years ago about 99. I'll have to listen to this to verify for sure.

Reviewer: DeadCoMule -   Subject: Muddy magic.I just gave this my first complete listen, and can say without a doubt it’s sure to be a favorite of mine for a long while. If anything, I think the incompleteness and murky sound add a certain appeal. It’s good old Grateful Dead, and it’s very good, and very old. The Casey Jones opener has Weir all in a tizzy, and the next 4 songs are all equally enthusiastic performances of tunes that have been crowd pleasers since ‘66-‘67. The Pig songs are bluesy as all hell, and the Brokedown Palace is unhurried, heartfelt, and genuine, with a gorgeous guitar solo and the gentle tape hiss sounding like a breeze passing through a weeping willow by the bank’s green edge.

It’s difficult to hear the drumming, but otherwise this is a fine recording of the Warlocks lineup plus Mickey, setting the tone for 1971 in front of a smoked out, prankster-heavy PNW campus crowd.

Reviewer: Doug1950 -   Subject: Was thereThis was my first Dead show. I was a junior at Oregon State University and a bunch of us drove down from Corvallis. New Riders of the Purple Sage opened for the GD. Ventilation was poor as I recall and the smoke was thick. Before the concert a promoter announced "if you are having a bad trip look for someone with a white arm band. They are from White Bird and can help you". Later in the evening I saw White Bird carrying out a guy with a white arm band on! I still chuckle about that. Anyways it was my first of many Dead shows and my last one would have been in Eugene in 1992 but it was cancelled due to Jerry Garcia's health.

Reviewer: JamsOnly - Subject: ListenableNo Highlights

Reviewer: perrinyone - - July 23, 2013 Subject: Unfavorable reviews are helpfulI just have to address something I see alot here....people complaining about unfavorable reviews.

The Dead, god bless 'em, were FAMOUSLY an inconsistent band. If ever there was a band that sometimes delivered one-star shows, it was this one! They also delivered plenty of ten star shows! But having the "negative" reviews is very helpful to the person who wants to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I agree that it isn't the Dead's fault if a tape is poor quality....but if a tape is particularly trying, I can understand it getting a lower rating. For instance, I was listening to a 1972 show in which the mix was just so bad (no Phil, no Keith, lots of bass drum mixed on the right channel, etc....) that, if I was to rate it, would definitely have factored into how many stars I'd give it.

(on the other hand, I do think people go way overboard with giving a stellar show a poor rating because there's hiss on the tape, or because the mix isn't exactly the way you like it - my comments above notwithstanding).

I appreciate a thoughtful review that says "the band wasn't clicking this show".....having attended many Dead shows where the Dead weren't clicking, I can immediately understand what the reviewer means! (though, it's all in the ears of the beholder, ultimately!)

Reviewer: njpg - - January 23, 2013 Subject: Cloudy recording, but good chow.Check,,,

Reviewer: jjf47 -   Subject: I don't get it!I don't get some of the deadhead reviews below. The sound is distorted. Doesn't sound good. Wow. Big deal. It's the music behind it you're listening to that we're rating. You rate the music not the sound quality, or that's how I see it anyway, and as far as I'm concerned the music sounds great. You got to go beyond the recording to the music. How you can judge the qualify of the music based on a recording and give it a low rating is beyond me.

Listen to Pig on vocals and Jerry's guitar on Har to Handle.

It's five stars, guys, for that alone! The others are like icing on the cake.

Brokedown Palace is pretty damn cool too. I think you guys ought to listen to the music and quit judging the recording it came from. That's not the dead's fault.

Reviewer: cryptical70 - favoritefavoritefavorite - December 27, 2012 Subject: Not the complete showToo bad the entire Lane Commmunity College show doesn't circulate. According to The Torch, the school's newspaper, the Dead's set went on for over 2 1/2 hours, ending at 2AM. "Fantastic but Crowded" was the headline. Unfortunately no songs are listed besides the opening "Casey Jones." So we are only left with the fragment.

Reviewer: John Paulso -   it  was liveMy first Dead show, rumor was they oversold the venue which is why we were packed, SRO, unable to dance or even shuffle, little room to breath. New Riders opened and, as the auditorium packed tighter and tighter, the sound board cranked it up louder and louder. When the Dead came on they took up, volume-wise, where the New Riders left off. At some point the sound had me in physical pain; I looked around and I wasn't the only one covering my ears. I'm pretty sure this show is one of the reasons I wear hearing aids today. Well worth the price.

Reviewer: damianf74 -  -   dleIf you read your history lesson you already know that the campus they played at was in the Pranksters "back yard"...with that said i believe that what you hear is the band straight "trippin-boo"!!! They are clearly exploring their own psychadelia. Sounds raw and full of ideas to me!!!!

Reviewer: Alek Flensat - favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - August 6, 2008 Subject: It Hurts Me TooAmazing... simply amazing... much emotion and well played.

The sound quality is not that bad really.

5 stars XD

Reviewer: familiarfan  -   the initial onslought of Jerry Garcia's solo. It's reminescent of a train rolling down the tracks. I recommend it for that alone.

Reviewer: dstoup -   Subject: Hmmm . . . Not that badOk, I don't review many shows, usually just ones where I feel that I have something different to offer. This happens to be one of those times. Sure the sound isn't that great, but it's still better than most of my old boots from the 70's-80's, and with about 1-2 minutes with a crude, unsensitive eq, I was able to make this quite listenable. Furthermore, I'm not sure what the other reivewer meant by uninspired, I didn't see that either. Perhaps he just couldn't here the music through the low sound. Brighten it up, and the music turns out to be quite good too. During the HTH solo, Jerry tries to break it down, not fumble and restart, and the rest of the band follows along. There is a period of about 3-5 seconds where they seem to bring it down lower than they though, which they quickly (at Phil's insistance) correct. I think others may be missing some of what it is that attracts many people to the Dead's music. It isn't perfect because they make every effort to make it expressive, and different than the night before. Also, one of the things that make their music so wild is they could lose the theme to a song, break it down to nothing but feedback, and from the ashes, resurrect the jam, song, or hit into something else entirely. Sorry to ramble, but i don't think this show deserved the harsh criticism of the last reviewer. I would give this show 3 stars for sound (not good, but mostly enhancible) and 3.5 for a 71 performance (too many other fabulous shows this year to count). I give it 4 stars here only to offset the 0-1 star reviews.

Reviewer: Polka - favorite - February 4, 2005 Subject: MudI read the txt file before dl'ing so I knew I was in for a muddy time of it, but I didn't expect such an uninspired show to boot.

The HTH is awful. Jerry has to keep restarting his leads in the jam because nobody is in sync. The "theme" falls apart after 2 or 3 rundowns, so Jerry backs off and Phil leads into it again, only for the same fallout to occur. Thoroughly disappointed in the show, irregardless of the quality.

Sound: C- Show: C- (at least they showed up...)

Reviewer: ocean - ..??well, historically this is wonderful- especially for family who have lived in Eugene... but, as for sound quality... uhhh... not exactly built for the high-fi, this one...

Reviewer: cousinkix1953 - Subject: DISTORTED Just listen to the Ken Babbs introduction. It all sounds this way. Don't bother downloading these files. I won't award any stars; but we are forced to do so...