I need to begin this post with an apology. At the beginning of this project I said that I would try to preserve sequence pairings. However, for this song I just can’t. I used to loathe Sailor/Saint. Guaranteed skip button for me. In the past couple of years Saint Of Circumstance has grown on me, but I still can’t stand Lost Sailor.
Dick’s Picks, Vol. 21 contains both, but they are broken up by drums and space. Of all the officially released live versions this was the closest I could come to a standalone Saint of Circumstance so I went with it so I could include the song in the project without having to subject myself to Lost Sailor. There should be around 80 versions of Saint not attached to Sailor, but if any have been officially released I missed them when going through my collection.
DP21 is the only official release from 1985 and listening to this reaffirmed that 1985 is due for some type of release. The summer shows in June and July are phenomenal and none of the tapes I’ve heard suffer from sound issues that would prevent them from being released. Hopefully some of these will see the light of day soon.
I think 5/7/80 Barton Hall on RT3.4 is the only unpaired stand alone on an official release.
You’re right! I just double checked and there’s a Lost > Sailor on disc 1 and a standalone Saint after space on disc 3. I thought I was missing one, but I must have just seen the first disc and moved on without looking more carefully. Good call.
Lunchbox, I’m not an umpire or a judge but if I were I’d rule that this Saint is totally acceptable to appear here on it’s own.
If memory serves, there was a discussion on this pairing when Dave’s 8 was announced and I’m surprised a little by how many do not like Lost Sailor. I like the song a lot and like the two songs connected. Had I been going to shows in the early 80s maybe I’d feel differently since the two were played so often. I remember playing some trivia game once and discovering what the “dog star” was and it only made me like Lost Sailor even more.
I do think that Saint of Circumstance is the better song and it continued to get better as the years went on. I honestly feel that Saint, along with Standing on the Moon, is one of those rare songs that actually got better into the 90s–I love Brent but I think the best versions of Saint were played after he died–it sounded a little more powerful somehow, or maybe they played it with more confidence if that’s possible. Maybe two keyboard players gave it a more full sound.
I have mixed feeling about 1985. I like it and there are some really cool set lists but the Dead seemed to me to be pretty inconsistent that year. My opinion is biased, though, from my tape trading days. I remember being excited about many 85 shows, then getting the tapes and thinking they were “speedy” or somehow recorded wrong. At some point I had most of what was circulating and I think it was 1985 tapes that finally made me throw my hands up and back off from a very busy routine of taping and mailing.
Mike – I don’t know if I’ve heard (m)any post-Brent Saints. I’ll have to check a few out.
Re: 85 – A lot of people seem to be pretty high on the late June/early July shows, and the Greek run, if I recall correctly, is pretty solid. Honestly, I think those are the only 85 shows I have, and maybe one from November, so I don’t have as large of a sample size. But what I’ve heard is pretty good and would be worthy of some type of release. I guess we’ll see!
6-14-85 was a big favorite of mine for a long time, at least partly because of the sound quality. That was the 20th anniversary show so who knows, maybe we’ll see it released next year.
To this day Keep on Growing is one of my favorite songs. I had the Derek and the Dominoes album for years before hearing this show but never fully appreciated it until then.
I was at this show…of course it was the one that I took my high school buddies to, after telling them about all this cool music I was listening to in my 1st year at University of MD. It was a little slow for their taste, what with a 2nd set that had High Time, He’s Gone, Spoonful and Comes A Time. I got a couple of them to come with me to RFK ’86, but that turned out to be a low point for Jerry so not the best follow-up! Oh well, I had a grand time in ’85 and ’86…My longest run was the Hampton & Philly shows in ’86 and the second longest mini-tour for me was SPAC, Hershey & both Merriweathers in June/July of ’85. REALLY good times!
LOL, as I type this, a hidden track of Scarlet -> Fire is playing. Wonder where it’s from…
I really like a lot of those summer 1985 shows. I’m surprised something from the Greek or that east coast/midwest run hasn’t been released yet. Something wrong with the source tapes, perhaps?
Weir is happy to get to his postponed second half of this little suite. He sings with lots of enthusiasm as the others try to remember the changes. A few uncertainties creep in, but for the most part the song survives and practically thrives. The little jam segment is not fully formed, and the return to the main changes is a bit forced, but here we are anyway. Jerry and Brent growl the backing vocals like champs. The ending is uncertain and very stumblingly arrives at “Gimme Some Lovin'”.