4/11/72 Newcastle City Hall, Newcastle. England
This disc kicks off with a 10 min version of Playing In The Band. Key of D.
Next Time You See Me. Pigpen. Quick change to 4 chord. Key of A. Some good harmonica and guitar solos to cop some licks from. At the end you can hear the audience yelling out requests.
Brown Eyed Woman is evolving into a favorite tune. Jerry’s solo perfectly mimics the melody-as Hank Williams said “the melody is always a good idea”.
There are lots of chords in this song. Will take some effort to figure it out. I believe it’s in E
Looks Like Rain is next. Jerry on steel guitar as I think is common for this song. This feels a little slower than they normally play it.
Big Railroad Blues rocks! The band is really going on this one. Jerry again mimics the melody with an awesome groove being laid down by the rhythm section.
Casey Jones is next. Phil does some really cool stuff here. I’ll use the term melodic bass. This ends the second set. But not this disc.
Good Lovin. This song opens differently every time I hear it. Pigpen again. Jerry is trying some different stuff in his solo, more modal. Less melodic. But the rhythm section is cooking!
Like an earlier version from this tour, Pigpen does some vocal improvisation. Modal vocal if that’s a thing. Stealing and modifying some lyrics from other blues tunes in his oeuvre. There is some awesome improv by other members of the band going on behind him.
Halfway though this 15 min song Jerry solos again.
With about 5 min left it seems like the song is ending. But then there are hints of a bass solo to bring it back in. At about the 4 min mark Pigpen starts up again. This, folks, is jam band music.
2:21 left starts the journey to bring this home.
Ramble On Rose. I love what the piano is doing here. Key of D. Jerry again borrows heavily from the melody in his solo. Detect a trend yet?