The Grateful Dead in Egypt

-

Words By J-man

In 1978 The Dead made their way to Europe for a tour across the globe. One of the stops on their European tour was Egypt. The result was a magical experience that included three nights of music near the Sphinx and Great Pyramids. The initial plan was to release the three night run as a live album, but after the first night's sound issues, the idea was quickly scrapped.

In the official recording's place, we bring you Owsley "Bear" Stanley's recordings...

Grateful Dead Live at Gizah Sound and Light Theater on September 14, 1978.



Ollin Arrageed*-> Not Fade Away, Me & My Uncle, They Love Each Other, Minglewood Blues, Peggy-O, Beat It On Down The Line, Deal Sugaree, Samson & Delilah, Scarlet Begonias-> Fire On The Mountain, Truckin'-> The Other One-> Drums-> Black Peter-> Around & Around

Where as many are critical of the Dead's performances over the course of the first two evenings, I feel that yes the songs are loose, but overall the performance was solid. The experience of seeing the Dead in such a special place far outweighs any sound issues that may have occurred.

The show was adventerous and deep with the highlight of the first evening for me being the "Scarlet>Fire". With the run's second performance comes sound improvement and a continuation of the magic...

Grateful Dead Live at Gizah Sound and Light Theater on September 15, 1978.



Ollin Arrageed*-> Promised Land, Friend Of The Devil, Mama Tried-> Big River, Loser, I Need A Miracle, Stagger Lee Jack Straw, Ship of Fools, Estimated Prophet-> Eyes Of The World-> Drums-> Terrapin Station-> Sugar Magnolia

The second night brought so much magic. If you listen closely, the crowd is buzzing and there was a lot of talk of the lunar eclipse that would take place the following evening. Highlights for me include "I Need a Miracle" and "Eyes of The World". Bill Graham has been quoted as saying "One of the great experiences of my life was dancing to 'Sugar Magnolia' in front of the Great Pyramid".

Night three would bring an other worldly experience as there was a full lunar eclipse during The Grateful Dead's performance...

Grateful Dead Live at Gizah Sound and Light Theater on September 16, 1978.



Bertha-> Good Lovin', Candyman, Looks Like Rain, Row Jimmy, El Paso, Ramble On Rose, Minglewood Blues, Deal, Ollin Arrageed*-> Fire On The Mountain-> Iko Iko, I Need A Miracle-> It's All Over Now, Sunrise, Shakedown Street-> Drums-> Truckin'-> Stella Blue-> Around & Around, One More Saturday Night

The highlights of evening three came in the form of "Ramble on Rose", "Deal" and "Fire>Aiko Aiko".

Eventually the Egypt recordings were released as a compilation of the three night run. The collective experience of the Egypt run in one that will go down in Dead history as one of the highlights. Thirty plus years later, we hope you enjoy the magic!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Livetronica Sampler 3.22.11

-
Image
Words by Greg Molitor ( ReMIND Photography ) Ozric Tentacles This British group has proven innovative throughout the years offering a space-rock meets psytrance sound that remains alive to this day. Though never having a major record label, Ozric Tentacles has produced 28 albums of diverse psychedelia throughout its career. The band met at the Stonehenge Free Festival in 1983 and truly fathered livetronica music with its use of sequencers and synthesizers. Simply put, there would be no livetronica without Ozric Tentacles. www.ozrics.com Octopus Nebula Colorado’s Octopus Nebula has certainly hit its stride as of late with its constant touring and increased festival interest. The group expands on the deep sounds of highly regarded acts such as STS9 and Shpongle but also carves a path of its own with its fresh takes on synthesizer tones and sampling in the live setting. Octopus Nebula Live at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom on March 26, 2010. <--- Direct Archive Link www.octopus
Read more

Buckethead: Gimmick or Guitar God?

-
Image
Words & Photos By Nicholas Stock ( phatphlogblog.blogspot.com ) At what point does the gimmick overshadow the performance? The obvious answer is Buckethead. The man is an amazing guitarist but something is not right in this world. The idea a performer who dons a KFC chicken bucket on his head for a concert has always intrigued me, and some of his side projects such as Colonel Claypool’s Bernie Bucket of Brains have been huge successes. However his performance last weekend in Fort Collins simply left me perplexed. From his robotic dancing, to his nunchuck display, to the fact the he performed with an iPod rather than a band all added to my confusion. Going into the show I was ready to be blown away, despite rumblings of disgruntled fans from the previous night’s show at The Gothic. Buckethead had had some sound issues and some missed cues in Denver but I was still trying to be positive for the show in Fort Collins. It did go off without a hitch technically but that was the least
Read more

Billy Strings 4.18.19

-
Image
Salvage Station Asheville, NC Words by Jason Mebane Photos by J. Scott Shrader Photography When asked to write a review of last week's Billy Strings show at Asheville, North Carolina's Salvage Station I almost passed on it. I just wrote a review of his last Asheville show a few months ago and I thought it may be hard to come up with another set of words to describe to the readers exactly what a Billy Strings show is all about. I am sure there are a plethora of other reviews that other people have written focusing on how well he has mastered his instrument. I suppose I could recycle those thoughts and just sit here typing out a few adjectives describing each note Billy and his superb backing band played this past Thursday night, but that wouldn't be fun for me. Additionally I'd imagine a review like that wouldn't keep your attention either. Instead I have decided to focus on a few random parts of the Billy Strings show that seemed interesting to me. One: B
Read more