Road Trips: Vol. 1, No. 4 – From Egypt With Love

Review by PHILIP S WOLF for Road Trips: Vol. 1, No. 4 – From Egypt With Love
Rating:
Right after The Grateful Dead, returned from Egypt in September of 1978, it was announced that the band would play five nights at Winterland, San Francisco. The desert weirdness was coming to the city by the bay!

Volume 1, No. 4 of the: “Road Trips” series features the highlights from this last stand of The Dead at great arena before it’s December 1978 closing. The shows I have heard from this year of touring have their highs & lows, but the: “From Egypt With Love” stand from Winterland, are one of the great moments of GD magic.

Most of the music spread over these two CD’s comes directly from the second sets of 10/21/78 & 10/22/78. Some first set magic is captured as well with Sugaree and Stagger Lee. A bit of the Egyptian music section is one here as Hamza El Din, and his Nubian singers and percussion army perform: “Ollin Arageed” as a taste of sounds found on the Nile River on any day of the week. The Dead, takes Ollin Arageed and morphs the tribal chants of the ancient river into a savage rendition of: “Deal” a journey from The Great Pyramids to an old west card game.

“Passenger” takes The Dead, as close to the Punk bands of the day, as they will ever travel. “Sugaree” is streched out in some different directions with some fine slide guitar. “Sugar Magnolia” is a wild ride in a Jeep right down the middle of California’s deltas between Fresno and Manteca on a warm summer afternoon.

The drumming onslaught of: “Not Fade Away” shows what the band had learned from the tribal chants and drum circles of Egypt. A fine: “U.S. Blues” raps up the music of disc one, and a excellent rendition of: “Goin’ Down the Road, Feelin’ Bad” concludes disc two.

The band sells this at their Official Web Site, for much less cash than it is offered here, and that is the place to seek it out. But, you need to purchase these sets early to receive the third bonus that is only available for a limited time before the vendors are the only ones selling this set in it’s complete form.

The graphic work featured here is amazing, and makes for a very attractive package to house this music in. The music speaks loudly of just what The Grateful Dead, are all about. Musical journeys that span the globe and a thousand centuries. The live music of The Grateful Dead, as only they can produce.

This is great: “Live Dead”

4.5 Stars !!!