GRATEFUL DEAD Listening Party: Road Trips Vol. 4 No. 2 (April Fools 1988)

Three-Disc Set Chronicles Two Nights At Brendan Byrne Arena In East Rutherford, NJ On March 31/April 1, 1988

Dead.net, the official Grateful Dead web site and online store, continues its exclusive Road Trips series in 2011 with its fourth volume. Issuing quarterly in February, May, August and November, Road Trips puts a spotlight on different tours and series of shows and includes rarities from the deepest corners of the vault and many rare and never-before-seen photographs. Each three-disc set includes a beautifully designed booklet that contains an essay about how the music on the discs fits into the Dead’s long history.

Road Trips Vol.4 No. 2 [$23.98] offers up the entire April 1, 1988 concert from the Brendan Byrne Arena (called “the Meadowlands” at the time) in East Rutherford, NJ, plus the entire second set and a few first set highlights from the previous night’s performance (the middle show of a three-night stand). The April Fools’ show is a real barn-burner, with a first set that includes a “double-opener” of high-octane versions of “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” and “Jack Straw,” a rare and nearly perfect take on “To Lay Me Down” (played for just the second time since 1983), followed directly by the second (and final) Grateful Dead-only version of Bob Dylan’s “Ballad Of A Thin Man.” Disc Three contains Set Two from April 1st.

GRATEFUL DEAD
Road Trips Vol. 4 No. 2
LISTENING PARTY:
QT | WMA
1. Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain (3/31/88)
2. Dear Mr. Fantasy > Hey Jude (3/31/88)
3. Throwing Stones > Not Fade Away (4/1/88)
4. To Lay Me Down (4/1/88)

A few nuggets from the 3/31/88 first set are tucked onto the back side of Disc One, including a superb “Let It Grow,” and then that night’s second set fills Disc Two with classics including “Scarlet Begonias,” “Fire On The Mountain,” “Terrapin Station,” “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” the coda of The Beatles “Hey Jude,” and a rendition of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” before an encore with another Dylan tune, “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”. All selections are previously unissued recordings except “Ballad Of A Thin Man,” which appeared on Postcards Of The Hanging, a compilation album by the Grateful Dead consisting entirely of Bob Dylan covers.

Beginning with its inaugural release in November 2007, the Road Trips series of albums is the successor to Dick’s Picks and are created using two-track soundboard recordings. The production of the CDs is supervised by vault archivist David Lemieux, with mastering by sound engineer Jeffrey Norman. Like the later Dick’s Picks, the Road Trips albums are released in HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) format.

GRATEFUL DEAD

Road Trips Vol. 4 No. 2
CD 1:
1. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo>
2. Jack Straw>
3. To Lay Me Down
4. Ballad Of A Thin Man
5. When Push Comes To Shove
6. New Minglewood Blues
7. Cumberland Blues
8. Deal
9. When I Paint My Masterpiece
10. Let It Grow
11. Brokedown Palace

CD 2:
1. Scarlet Begonias>
2. Fire On The Mountain
3. Samson and Delilah
4. Terrapin Station>
5. Rhythm Devils>
6. Space>
7. Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad>
8. I Need A Miracle>
9. Dear Mr. Fantasy>
10. Hey Jude>
11. All Along The Watchtower
12. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

CD 3:
1. China Cat Sunflower>
2. I Know You Rider
3. Estimated Prophet>
4. Eyes Of The World>
5. Rhythm Devils>
6. Space>
7. The Other One>
8. Wharf Rat>
9. Throwing Stones>
10. Not Fade Away

Produced for Release by David Lemieux & Blair Jackson
CD Mastering by Jeffrey Norman
Recorded by Dan Healy
Cover Art: Scott McDougall
Package Design: Steve Vance
Essay by: Gary Lambert

GRATEFUL DEAD
JERRY GARCIA: Lead Guitar, Vocals
MICKEY HART: Drums
BILL KREUTZMANN: Drums
PHIL LESH: Electric Bass
BRENT MYDLAND: Keyboards, Vocals
BOB WEIR: Rhythm Guitar, Vocals

(Photos by James R. Anderson/photog.com)