Today in Grateful Dead History: November 14, 1973 – San Diego International Sports Arena, San Diego, CA

Sometimes, when I read through a setlist at the start of the day, I’ll see a particular sequence of songs that just stands out as something to look forward to.  This morning, I saw this: Truckin’>The Other One>Big River>The Other One>Eyes Of The World>The Other One>Wharf Rat, and I was immediately excited for what the Dead had in store for me.  UPDATE:  Upon further review, I’m not alone in my excitement – this show is 1973’s entry in 30 Trips Around the Sun.

The band didn’t disappoint.  This run of tunes opens the second half of the Dead’s 1973 show at the San Diego International Sports Arena (go Clippers – but not in 1973), and it is a very unusual set of songs indeed.  I can count only a couple of other times that Big River ever followed a stand-alone The Other One, and I’m having a hard time locating any show that has an Other One that is interrupted twice before resolving.  So in and of itself, this setlist would be pretty epic, but it’s what the band does with the music that’s really important today.

If you’ve listened to even a fair number of Dead shows, especially ones from the 80’s and beyond, you’ll know that it’s sometimes difficult for the boys to transition between songs that are not normally paired together.  (This was not as a much of a problem in these early 70’s years when Billy was the only drummer, but it still came up).  Well, today those transitions in The Other One work spectacularly well, starting with the windup from Truckin’.  Unfortunately, Phil is not turned up very high in the mix, so we’re not treated to the thunder that often accompanies the start of The Other One, but the Dead slide into it like a warm bath anyway.  Likewise, after a very open jam, Jerry picks up the chortling beat of Big River and the band takes off immediately – there’s no hesitation and no train wreck, nor is there a problem devolving (on the beat!) back into The Other One at the conclusion of the song.  In between, the band is rocking and rolling through Big River with a special verve, as if they know they’re coming back to the spacey jamming soon enough.  The second part of The Other One basically keeps the pace from Big River, but we can tell that the band is looking for a more melodious space, so into Eyes of the World they go.  Like most of my favorite Eyes, this one does not linger on too long and it’s filled with lots of neat back and forth playing before we’re once again in The Other One for my favorite part of the night, the wind-down into Wharf Rat.  I can’t really explain what it is about this that hit me so hard, but the gradual transition into such a tender tune was pretty cool.  And the playing on Wharf Rat is top of the line.  At the end of the song, the band barely riffs on Dark Star with hints of Feelin’ Groovy, but the song slows to a gentle close instead, capping a great hour + of music.

This special passage is clearly the heart of the show, but don’t let that keep you from the first set, which has several ripping moments of its own.  For instance, Here Comes Sunshine is a little messy, but you’re not going to hear Jerry Garcia jam on this tune any harder than he does tonight – he’s bringing the fire.  The whole band gets into the act two songs later with a fast, free for all version of Cumberland Blues that barely hangs on to reality.  And the China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider is at its 1973 best.

This is an all-time gem of an Other One.  Listen here:  https://archive.org/details/gd1973-11-14.sbd.miller.79049.flac16