Grateful Dead The Shrine Auditorium Jefferson At Royal, Los Angeles 8/9/10/11 November 1967 CD1 1. Viola Lee Blues (naah lewis) 14:38 (Nov. 8, 1967) 2. Good Morning Little School Girl (sonny boy williamson) 10:30 (Nov. 9, 1967) 3. Alligator Jam (grateful dead) 34:00 (Nov. 10, 1967) 4. That's It For The Other One (grateful dead) 14:24 (Nov. 11, 1967) CD2 1. Turn On Your Lovelight (scott, malone) 11:25 (Nov. 8, 1967) 2. Death Don't Have No Mercy (rev. gary davis) 7:32 (Nov. 8, 1967) 3. It Hurts Me To (elmore james) 3:52 (Nov. 8, 1967) 4. Morning Dew (dobson, rose) 6:31 (Nov. 9, 1967) 5. Caution (grateful dead) 10:54 (Nov. 10, 1967) 6. Alligator Drums Jam (grateful dead) 29:04 (Nov. 11, 1967) Jerry Garcia: lead guitar & vocals Bob Weir: rhythm guitar & vocals Phil Lesh: bass guitar Bill Kreutzmann: percussion Mickey Hart: percussion Ron "Pigpen" McKernan: vocals, keyboards & harp Transcribed from the booklet: "The challenging part is coming up with structures that have the element of looseness to them, which means they can expand in any direction, go anywhere from anywhere or come from anywhere - but also have enough form that we can lock into something." Jerry Garcia Attempting to write about the "magic" element of looseness in the music of the Grateful Dead is not an easy task. Their music can hardly be described with words let alone trying to explain the feeling it conveys when the Dead reach what Garcia calls "escape velocity during their live sets; rather, it is something which ought to be sensed and experienced rather then scrutinized and analized. It would be impossible (and beyond the scopes of these notes) to take into account everything in the environment which made the Grateful Dead what they have been for over two decades. In this context, it may only be suitable to focus the attention on a limited number of facts which had occured by the time the Dead played the Shrine shows in November 1967, so that may provide the listener of this disc with a better and wider perspective of this time. Spring 1966: After that Acid Tests have come to an end, the Warlocks change their name into "The Grateful Dead" and move to LA, where they live for some time at Owlsey's; June 1966: they move back north to Marin County; September 66: they settle in S.Francisco at 710 Ashbury, just before LSD is officially declared an illegal drug (October 1966); January 1967: they record their first official album for Warner Bros on a 3-track machine at RCA studios in LA; June 1967: Monterey Pop festival marks the start of the short-lived "Summer of love", soon corrupted by the uncontrollable influx of young people and by slick attempts to exploit the spirit of the Haight-Ashbury scene from profit. October 1967: shortly after getting busted for drug possession, the Dead (who are rapidly changing from a local dance band to a highly creative unit) take on Mickey Hart as their second drummer. The Grateful Dead are now ready to start working at their second LP :Anthem of the sun", and they decide to record their new songs live over a period of shows, while simultaneously working (along with Tom Constanten) at studio versions of the same songs, eventually to be combined with the live takes into one flowing piece of music. The four consecutive shows which they played at the Shrine Auditorium were among the first ones they recorded for this purpose, and several excerpts from these sets were used in the "Anthem" album (the location is credited as Shrine Exposition on the album sleeve). They gained access to an eight-track machine for these recordings, which accounts for the amazing sound quality of the cuts in this disc, each selected from different nights. Indeed, a lot more was about to happen: from the self-conducted brief experiment of running the Carousel Ballroom (subsequently take over and renamed Fillmore West by Bill Graham to the obscure imagery of their second LP "Aoxomoxoa", from the ethereal heights of "Dark Star" to the gradual withdrawal of Pigpen,, from departures of Tom Constanten and Mickey Hart to shift towards the country feel of their 1970 masterpiece studio albums. Far more intense and powerful then their semi-official SUnflower live albums, the Shrine Auditorium tapes show large evidence of early "magic" in the music of THe Grateful Dead. They are among the Dead's most legendary and sought after recordings in the world of tape collectors, and this compilation of vintage songs will undoubtedly provide Deadheads everywhere with a fine taste of that ongoing experiment which started over 26 years ago: there is STILL nothing like a Grateful Dead concert.