Description
The Grateful Dead – Without A Net (2CD/LongBox)
Label: Arista – ACD2-8634
Format: 2 × CD
Box Set, Album
Country: US
Released: 1990
Barcode: 7822-18634-2
Tracklist:
First Set
1-1 Feel Like A Stranger 7:46
1-2 Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo 8:00
1-3 Walkin’ Blues 5:44
1-4 Althea 6:55
1-5 Cassidy 6:36
1-6 Bird Song 12:57
1-7 Let It Grow 11:54
Second Set
2-1 China Cat Sunflower / I Know You Rider 10:24
2-2 Looks Like Rain 8:03
2-3 Eyes Of The World 16:04
2-4 Victim Or The Crime 8:04
2-5 Help On The Way / Slipknot! / Franklin’s Tower 18:57
2-6 One More Saturday Night 4:50
2-7 Dear Mr. Fantasy 5:44
Recorded By – Le Mobile, Mixed At – Club Front
Design – Carolyn Quan
Illustration [Cover Illustration], Artwork By [Pull-Out Poster & Picture CD] – Rick Griffin
Credits:
Performer – Bill Kreutzman, Bob Weir, Brent Mydland, Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh
Producer – John Cutler, Phil Lesh
Notes:
Live Recordings from the October 1989 – April 1990 tour.
Manufactured in the U.S.A. for Arista Records, Inc.
This album is deadicated to Clifton Hanger
CD’s, inlay and Long Box in very good condition. With labelsticker on front of the long box.
Reviews:
nr. 1 Live DeaD albums are cause for both celebration and consternation. Onstage, the Dead boys are free to indulge their instrumental wanderlust, at the same time, in-concert releases like this one can only approximate the exploratory ebb and flow of a good risk-laden night. This two hour plus set comes damn close, though. Enriched treatments of good ol’ CHINA CAT and Bob Weir’s VICTIM OR THE CRIME alternate with strolls through BLUES FOR ALLAH’S opening medley, and EYES OF THE WORLD, a sixteen-minute chunk of that Dead-Marsalis jam. The saxman blows sweet and right too, proving that with the DeaD, you don’t have to know the tunes to ride the music. ROLLING STONE, 12/90
nr. 2 The DeaD go on forever. Well, the DeaD don’t really make record any- more. They slap out state of their art missives, sloppy where-are-our- heads-now (man) documents. WITHOUT A NET showcases Jerry Garcia’s cool guitar picking- the grey fur bundle still keeps the strings moving, cruising into a variety of US backbone roots styles and replaying them through the staggering Grateful Dead. Garcia is the single best thing of the band- the rest is functional stadium tosh. But it’s the warmth that oozes out, a bunch of old players who knew each other styles, complementing each other and riding the muse. Pretty much what they probably will play in Wembley , their first Brit gig this century! After about one hour you’re either lost inside it or completely bored, depending on your chosen mood inducement. Like the sage said, the 90’s became the 60’s by turning the 6 on its head, and in the context of this triple mindblower, who could possibly argue with that? * * * * JOHN ROBB, SOUNDS, NOV. 1990
nr. 3 WITHOUT A NET gathers together the most memorable moments of their 89/90 US tour and acts as a musical monument to keyboards player Brent Mydland, who recently died through drug abuse. As you attempt to shift through these six sides, the feeling that begins to bite is that the DeaD are significantly much more than some ’60’s rock relic who have miraculously managed to beam down into the ’90’s. They are keen (and always have been) to experiment with a wide range of styles. I could personally do without yet another interpretation of Weir’s SATURDAY NIGHT ( a song that seems to crop up on every live DeaD album) but the majority of WITHOUT A NET is near heart-stopping stuff. Particularly enjoyable is the freeform jazz version of EYES OF THE WORLD where a saxophone playfully duels with Garcia’s gossamer guitar playing; Weir’s darkly psychotic VICTIM OR THE CRIME and the Dead’s version of Traffic’s DEAR MR. FANTASY with Mydland doing his best Steve Winwood impersonation to produce a fabulous finale. If the band are in fine form as this for their Wembley concerts at the end of the month then we’re in for a treat. rating: 8 Edwin Pouncey, VOX, nov. 1990
nr. 4 Live albums are their stock in trade – they once released two double live albums within six months – and these recordings from their most recent tour give collectors the chance to snap up first-time-live recordings like CASSIDY, a closing cover of Traffic’s DEAR MR. FANTASY, and the most commercial moment, a version of EYES OF THE WORLD. Sadly, no TOUCH OF GREY though. Generally it’s three songs a side and even if the focus occasionally goes fuzzy, there is always a cheery, melodic warmth and the feeling that, for all the Deadheads out there, this band does it for their own beatitude.No net required. * * * PAUL SEXTON, SELECT, DEC.1990
nr. 5 The fourteen immaculately produced songs were recorded on their West coast tour earlier this year. The bands essence has rarely been captured on their studio recordings, so in the light of their forthcoming Wembley dates this is the perfect appetiser. It almost goes without saying that it’s a free flowing improvisational set carried along on the back of Garcia’s mellifluous lead. Meandering lazily through the folds of Mydland’s rolling keyboards, and Weir’s choppy rhythm and vocals, he drifts from the jazz-tinged approach of HELP ON THE WAY and FEEL LIKE A STRANGER through the blues boogie of HALF STEP TOODELOO and WALKING BLUES, and orchestrates spectacular play offs on BIRD SONG and LET IT GROW which moves south of the border for a Mexican shoot-out complete with Tijuana horns. Also an scorching rendition of CASSIDY and the only absolute disaster; MR FANTASY. Otherwise an essential purchase for Deadheads old and new. * * * * GRAEME KAY, Q nr. 50, nov. 1990
nr. 6 Presumably named for their forte – taking songs that sound like Hermann Hesse novels translated into clusters of haiku and lovingly improvising them into regions only jazzers like Coltrane ever dreamed of – the image drawn from tight-rope walking is entirely apposite. The DeaD are their own most stern and astute critics. Imaginatively compiled by (so much more than a) bassist Phil Lesh, NET is a beauty, the band playing with an energy, inventiveness, enthusiasm, intuition and telepathy comparable to their last truly momentous live recording, the triple EUROPE ’72. There are times here when the playing is so high it’s psychedelic and simultaneously so intricate it’s jazz (CASSIDY and BIRD SONG). Garcia is experimenting with sounds like never before, and CASSIDY, in particular, recalls the outer limits of DARK STAR, still their finest ever sustained interstellar moment. Here and throughout Brent Mydland, who many of us had problems accepting as a Dead menber, proves himself brilliantly sympatico, a firing component when the engine is stoking. I now realise it was his overwrought vocal and the sentimentality of his lyrics we couldn’t stand, but as a cascading pianist, he rivalled his predecessor Keith Godchaux and as a percussive organist he could match the late lamented Pigpen. NET is testimony to his considerable talent as a team player. NET offers a pulsating LET IT GROW and a mesmeric EYES, the latter featuring a walk-up by saxophonist Branford Marsalis whose warm improv fits the song like a glove. A stomping ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT, and there’s even a rigorous reassesment of the Dead’s infamous CHINA CAT/RIDER fusion, the bridge between the two affording a giant leap into the cosmos, Garcia’s tart ALTHEA and a truly vicious VICTIM OR THE CRIME? where the Kreutzmann/Hart axis conspires to produce something resembling the sound that surely emanates from the heart of erupting volcanoes. On this form, the DeaD are alive and well and kicking as(s)teroids. STEVE SUTHERLAND, MELODY MAKER, 10/6/90
nr. 7 The same familiarity that enables the players to communicate telephatically also prevents them from heading anyplace new. They’re not quit as sloppy they once were, but they’re not really as much fun either. A package like this only makes the non-believer question why legions of fans follow these ageing musicians.
nr. 8 Without A Net – GD (Arista AL 8634) a live album recorded during the Spring, 1990 tour, with some vocals redubbed in the studio. Released September 25, 1990 as a three record, two cassette, or two CD package, this is
the world’s grandest, largest, best live recording (or so the sticker on the release package says). On the cassette and CD releases, “Bird Song” follows “Cassidy”, while on the record, “Bird Song” precedes “One More Saturday Night”. The album is deadicated to Clifton Hanger (a.k.a. Brent Mydland). The probable performance dates are: “Feel Like A Stranger” (October 9, 1989), “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” (March 21, 1990), “Walkin’ Blues” (October 23, 1989), “Althea” (March 15, 1990), “Cassidy” (February 25, 1990), “Bird Song” (March 25,
1990), “Let It Grow” (March 14, 1990), “China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider” (April 1, 1990), “Looks Like Rain” (March 28, 1990), “Eyes Of The World” (March 29, 1990) (vocals probably overdubbed), “Victim Or The
Crime” (March 21, 1990), “Help On The Way/Slipknot!/Franklin’s Tower” (March 30, 1990), “One More Saturday Night” (March 24, 1990), and “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (April 1, 1990). I. W. Slabickey
