I remember getting my mountain parka (below) in 1979 from Eddie Bauer in downtown Chicago at the old location on Wabash Street under the "L" tracks. I remember going to the store with my father after a cross country meet in Grant Park by Lake Michigan. I wore this jacket with everything from sweaters to tweed jackets, at home and abroad. It still hangs in a closet at my parents home, and I wear it along with some old Maine Hunting Shoes from the garage, if the weather is chilly or wet when we visit.
All these thoughts about the Mountain Parka stir other old memories of some fine recordings. The five shows below are my picks for the winter 1978 tour:
1/18/78 Civic Auditorium, Stockton, CA
I've had this recording for quite some time, and the tape has suffered in the lineage somewhere. However, it features one of the strongest Terrapin Stations>Playing in the Band ever played. It is massive. Worth. a. listen.
1/22/78 McArthur Court, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
The word 'legendary' is used a lot about the Dead, but this show truly is just that. I received a cassette of set 2 of this show first back in about 1981. It contains, hands down, my favorite Terrapin Station, and a roaring Other One is followed by a Garcia solo that features the Close Encounters film theme will caffeinate you without drinking a thing. This show exists in a crisp soundboard linked above, and a fine audience recording by Reinhart Holwein here. The matrix mix of this has spent a lot of time in the car recently.
1/31/78 Uptown Theatre, Chicago, IL
Not enough good things can be said about this show. Set 1 is a corker and set 2 contains just about all one could wish for: A well jammed Scarlet Begonias>Fire on the Mountain, and a Terrapin>Playing in the Band>Jam>Drums>Black Peter>Truckin' sequence that contains some mighty fine exploratory playing. The Midwest was pounded by two large snowstorms in late January and early February of 1978, and I can only imagine what it was like getting to these Midwest shows. After the storms left the Midwest they carved a swath through the East Coast.
2/3/78 Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI
This show and the one below have both been officially released as Dicks Picks #18. It's worth seeking out, as the soundboard recordings aren't streamable on the Internet Archive. A very good audience recording is, however, linked above. Set 2 of the Madison show contains an excellent version of Estimated Prophet followed by a beautifully energetic Eyes of the World. The Playing in the Band>The Wheel>Playing reprise features some of the finest improvisational playing of the tour. Hypnotic.
2/5/78 Uni-Dome, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA
One can only imagine the cold and snow in Cedar Falls, Iowa in the winter of 1978. This show, however, will warm you up with a very hot Scarlet Begonias>Fire on the Mountain. It is huge and overpoweringly satisfying. Perfection. Because this has been officially released the soundboard is also unstreamable, so the excellent audience recording is linked above. It is for all practical purposes almost as good as the soundboard. It has that feeling of being there - and you know that's a good thing.
