China Cat Sunflower -> | 1970-10-23 | Grateful Dead

1:30:28
Rating:
7.82 / 24 ratings
Taper:
Cary Wolfson
Transferrer:
David Gans and Cary Wolfson
SHNID:
gd70-10-23.aud.wolfson.15080.sbefail.shnf
Source:
Audience
Lineage:
AUD > Sony TC-124 (MCass) > DAT > DAT > CDR > SHN
Taper Notes:
View NotesSource: AUD-MCass>DAT>DAT>CDR
DAT speed-corrected by David Gans
Various glitches edited out by CW

posted to abgd 11/2002

SBE's on all tracks except d2t03

Cary Wolfson's notes:

My friend Norm Sartorius and I had seen the Dead for the first time at the Fillmore West in April 1970 after driving cross-country in (of course) a VW microbus. This was the run where Miles Davis opened for them. We came back to Baltimore (where I grew up) babbling to friends but we didn't have anything to play for them except Live Dead and, when it first came out, Workingman's Dead. Then we heard that they were coming to Georgetown U. After work on a Friday we loaded up whoever would fit into Norm's VW bus and took off for D.C. The place (a big, very hot gym) was packed when we got there. At the 4-12-70 show I was leaning against the stage (right in front of Pig), so there was no way were going to be in the back bleachers. Besides, I had this new Sony TC-124 tape deck. So we wormed our way up the aisle to the front. They were actually trying to keep a fire aisle open across the front. We bribed the security guy with a hit of mescaline and he let us in. We ended up maybe 15 feet back from the stage. I stood there the whole night with my hand in the air. The New Riders played and Garcia joined them. I taped this, too, but trust me, you don't want to hear it. The sound was awful.

There was a long break, during which people passed water jugs up to the stage and some of the crew would fill them up with water and pass them back -- it was so hot and crowded. Finally, they got everything set up. The announcer says, "Once again, the Grateful Dead," which led one writer to speculate that maybe there was more to this show, but he was just referring to the Riders set with Jerry. It's a short show, but Wow! BTW, the guy making the most noise on the tape is NOT me, but this goofy guy who'd been on the California trip with us. Still, you can hear me say at one point, sarcastically, "You think they've got it on tonight?" and this guy respond, equally jokingly, "Maybe half-lit." Hey, we were all well-dosed and enjoying a Grateful Dead concert the way it was supposed to be.

As far as taping went, I really didn't know what the hell I was doing. This was way before Maxell XL-IIs came in vogue and I was using one no-name "assembled in Mexico" cassette and one Mallory Duratape (taping over the first Hot Tuna album). The TC-124 didn't have a pause button and, like other tapers of that era, I hit the stop button a lot between songs to save tape. In spite of that, this still sounds pretty damn good, even 32 years later. Supposedly there was a radio broadcast, but no copy of it has ever materialized.