Grateful Dead—Ace’s Studio, Mill Valley, January, 1975
First known Blues for Allah session
In October of ‘74, the Dead retired from performing after a five-night stand at Winterland. The following January, they met at Bob Weir’s home recording studio to start laying down the tracks for what would become Blues for Allah. Outtakes from these sessions have been available on the Archive for some time. A few years back, a new studio reel emerged of remarkable quality and historical significance. Labeled “The First Day,” the recording contains what audio engineer/archivist Allen Bershaw believes to be the first 1975 Grateful Dead studio session.
The tape is a treasure. We only get 22 minutes of music—Blues for Allah/Stronger Than Dirt/Blues for Allah—but it’s a glorious fragment with pristine sound. The group synergy is palpable, and the playing is admirably weird, dense, and beautiful. The fully instrumental cut only has the core members of the Dead present on the recording. According to Bershaw, it’s the earliest tape-record for what would become the “SNACK Jam,” that they’d soon begin rehearsing with additional musicians (Ned Lagin, Merle Saunders, and David Crosby) the following month. Although a fine set piece, this particular sequence would only be played twice in a live setting: Kezar Stadium on 3/23/75, and Winterland on 6/17/75. Both these tapes are worth checking out if you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing them.
In a late-seventies interview with Jerry Garcia, he shared: "We kind of made a ground rule for that record: ‘let's make a record where we get together every day and we don't bring anything in.’ …the whole idea was to get back to that band thing, where the band makes the main contribution to the evolution of the material. So we'd go into the studio and jam for a while, and then if something nice turned up we'd say, ‘well let's preserve this little hunk and work with it, see if we can't do something with it.’ And that's how we did most of the album."
This session documents the fertile period of exploration the band was engaged in during their “retirement.” In a larger sense, the Dead’s choice of material for the album indicates that they were busily carving a unique path that no one expected. Do yourself a favor and spend a bit of time with “The First Day.” I can’t imagine that you’ll regret it for a damn second.