Day 230: Scarlet Begonias, 10/14/83

Mega Suite Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Today I’m going to try something a little bit different. Over the next four days I’m going to go through what I call “the Mega Suite.” The combination of Scarlet Begonias, Fire On The Mountain, Estimated Prophet, Eyes Of The World all played in sequence at the same show. In total the Grateful Dead played the Mega Suite 28 times. The table below lists all of the dates (save for today’s show).

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In addition to Dick’s Picks, Vol. 6, one more Mega Suite has seen official release on Download Series, Vol. 5.

When I was in undergrad I drove a 1990 Chevy Astro van. This was a vestige of playing in a band, but it was good for hauling around friends. The van had a tape deck in it and I had a 60 minute Maxell with Scarlet Begonias/Fire On The Mountain on side A and Estimated Prophet/Eyes Of The World on side B from this Dick’s Picks. So this Mega Suite is scorched deep into my brain because I would leave tapes in the tape deck for weeks or even months at a time.

Stop by tomorrow for part 2 of this Mega Suite!

The familiar tones of Scarlet Begonias amble by your ears and one of the first things you notice is the Caribbean vibe Brent has going with his keys. (At least I assume that’s Brent? Someone correct me if I’m wrong.) Once Jerry starts singing he quickly converts to a straightforward keys sound though. That Caribbean vibe is awesome though. Jerry’s first solo is well paced and methodical. It’s quite a lengthy instrumental break, especially this early in the song. As such it’s a nice way to ease into the second set. The outro section brings the dynamics down and Brent returns with the Caribbean keyboard patch. Jerry really stretches out here early on. He’s not in a rush to get where he’s going. Phil follows close behind, not wanting to be left out of the conversation. Jerry finds a nice little theme to play around with around the 8:40 mark or so. In the 9th minute Brent and Bob appear to be playing off each other a bit. An interesting repartee. The entire transition jam maintains a very relaxed feel. So much so, that it almost feels like you’re dropped into Fire On the Mountain all of a sudden.