Set Lists

Road Trips Vol. 1 No. 4: From Egypt With Love (October '78) 

Road Trips Vol. 1 No. 4: From Egypt With Love, was released around the same time as Rocking the Cradle, which features the Grateful Dead's September 1978 Giza, Egypt performances. The well penned liner notes by Blair Jackson explain the background of the title, From Egypt With Love. Following their three performances in Egypt the Grateful Dead booked five evenings at Winterland, and the concerts were billed From Egypt With Love. This two disc edition of Road Trips offers highlights from that Winterland series; 10/21 on disc 1, and 10/22, on disc 2. Both discs include material from their respective first and second sets.

The rest of 1978 was busy for the Grateful Dead, with a long tour from 11/13 through 12/31, starting in Boston, MA, gigging on the East Coast, making their way south, through Texas, a few gigs in Southern CA, and finally back to Winterland for The Closing of Winterland.  

The first disc, is taken from the Oct. 21st performance. Four tracks from the first set start things off. The two Jerry songs are great listens. First, "Sugaree" is very well jammed, audience splice and all, while "Stagger Lee," an early version, emphasizes Jerry's vocals. Bobby's "I Need a Miracle," the set closer, has a strong conclusion in this rendition.

The material that represents the remaining part of the disc is the complete post "Space" portion including the encore. It begins with a rare jam and song, a Muddy Waters 1956 composition, "Got My Mojo Working" that includes guest harmonica player Lee Oskar. I didn't find this terrible interesting. It had me preferring hearing Muddy himself or something more familiar by the boys. It did lead to good things though. While the tracks that followed are standard fair. "The Other One" is not to be missed, teasing, aggressive, and climatic; and that leads to a definitive version of "Stella Blue." There is a tape splice for the concluding minute or so and that does detract some from the listening experience, but reels do need to be flipped. On the "Stella Blue" topic, I find 1978 to be a top year for that track, the version on the compilation So Many Roads I recall being quite tasty too. 

Also worth noting is that the bonus disc for early orders included most of the remaining material from 10/21's set 2, except for "It Must Have Been The Roses," "Drums," and perhaps some lead up to the "Mojo" jam. 

The second disc begins with "Ollin Arageed" (I've seen this spelled at least four different ways, but this is the way the 1978 LP, Eclipse, from Hamza El Din spells it) that has a cool flow and lick to it that flows into "Deal." That is followed by two other first set songs performed to perfection, highlighted with a superb "Jack Straw." Moving into second set material, we get the beginning and end of the set. An excellent "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain." The closer is upbeat rock and blues riffs, nearly 30 between "NFA" > "GDTRFB." There is a reel flip during "GDTRFB" where you can here the quality change during the splice. It includes a guest, the late John Cipollina for "Not Fade Away."

Road Trips Vol. 1 No. 4 does a fine job of providing a sampling of the Grateful Dead's last two performances of this Winterland run. The sound quality is nice aside from several audience splices, and there are some outstanding performances. A key variable of the release is the blues noodling with "Got My Mojo Working" and long "Not Fade Away" being prominent. The more you like that style the more you'll enjoy the release. I find the "The Other One" > "Stella Blue" to be the best part of the release, with "Scarlet" > "Fire," in the discussion.

By Barry Small
Grade B+

Order: GDM

Sugaree
Passenger
Stagger Lee
I Need A Miracle
Got My Mojo Working (with Lee Oskar)>
The Other One>
Stella Blue>
Sugar Magnolia
US Blues

Disk Two - 10/22/78

Ollin Arageed>
Deal
Peggy-O
Jack Straw
Scarlet Begonias>
Fire On The Mountain
NFA (with John Cipollina)>
GDTRFB

Bonus Disk (Limited Time)

Released - Aug. 2008
Mastering - Jeffrey Norman 
Produced by David Lemieux and Blair Jackson
Booklet essay - Blair Jackson
Recorded - Betty Jackson-Cantor
Photos - Ed Perlstein
Package Design - Steve Vance

The fourth release in Road Trips series.

Prior to the release, a listening party showcased the complete second disc.

· Two CDs of music drawn from two of the five Winterland shows – October 21 and 22, 1978 that followed Egypt.

Set Lists from Deadlists.com

10/17/1978
One - The Promised Land [4:15] ; Friend Of The Devil [7:59] ; Mama Tried [2:31] > Mexicali Blues [3:31] ; Tennessee Jed [8:15] ; I Need A Miracle [6:21] ; Stagger Lee [5:50] ; Jack Straw [6:25]

Two - Scarlet Begonias [9:35] > Fire On The Mountain [10:50] ; Estimated Prophet [11:45] > Eyes Of The World [13:#37] > Drums [11:52] > Space [8:49] > If I Had The World To Give [7:07] > Around And Around [9:10]

Encore U.S. Blues [4:46#]

10/18/78
One - Sugaree [#13:32] ; Me And My Uncle [3:06] > Big River [5:48] ; Peggy-O [7:45] ; Looks Like Rain [8:16] ; Stagger Lee [6:15] ; New Minglewood Blues [5:53] ; Candyman [6:52] ; The Music Never Stopped [8:06]

Two - Bertha [7:13] > Good Lovin' [6:05] ; From The Heart Of Me [3:48] ; Ship Of Fools [6:36] ; Samson And Delilah [8:19] ; Terrapin Station [12:06] > Playing In The Band [10:#49] > Drums (1) [9:30] > Space (1) [5:58] > Wharf Rat [11:#33] > Truckin' [11:21]

Encore I Need A Miracle [4:20#]

Comments (1) with Lee Oskar on harmonica, appears at 4:48 into drums.

10/20/78
One - New Minglewood Blues [5:05] ; They Love Each Other [6:52] ; Cassidy [5:19] ; Dire Wolf [3:51] ; El Paso [4:21] ; Tennessee Jed [8:39] ; It's All Over Now [6:58] ; Loser [7:12] ; Lazy Lightnin' [3:33] > Supplication [4:33]

Two - Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo [9:03] > Franklin's Tower [10:49] ; Dancing In The Street [19:47] > Drums [7:#32] > Space [5:01] > Not Fade Away [7:25] > Black Peter [10:44] > Around And Around [9:09]

Encore Johnny B. Goode [4:16] ; Shakedown Street [7:04]

Date 10/21/78
One -  Ollin Arrageed (1) [18:30] > The Promised Land [4:32] ; Sugaree [13:04] ; Passenger [4:13] ; Ramble On Rose [7:03] ; Looks Like Rain [8:12] ; Stagger Lee [7:08] ; I Need A Miracle [7:26] 

Two - Bertha [7:13] > Good Lovin' [7:27] ; It Must Have Been The Roses [6:46] ; Estimated Prophet [14:45] > He's Gone [10:20] > Drums [16:#19] > Space (2) [1:56] > Got My Mojo Workin (2) [10:34] > The Other One [7:32] > Stella Blue [11:53] > Sugar Magnolia [8:12] 

Encore U.S. Blues [5:30] 

Comments (1) with Hamza el-Din who also played two solo songs of 2:37 and 2:30 respectively prior to Ollin Arrageed. (2) with Lee Oskar on harmonica.

From the Grateful Dead website
Road Trips Vol. 1 Number 4

Since we’ve all been in deep Egypt Mode the last couple of months preparing the new Rhino release Rocking the Cradle: Grateful Dead, Egypt ’78 (which you can learn more about and order here), we thought it would be cool for the new Road Trips (that’s Vol. 1, No. 4 for those of you keeping score at home) to be a companion to that release, compiled from the band’s famous October 1978 “From Egypt With Love” shows at Winterland in San Francisco, just a month after their return from the desert.

Here’s the deal: The group was feeling totally jazzed when they got back from Egypt, and Bill Graham, who had been on the trip abroad as a spectator, rather than as promoter, wanted to give the band’s hometown fans a taste of the Egypt experience by hosting a series of five shows at Winterland that would include a slide show depicting the group’s amazing adventures in Cairo and beyond. As it turned out, the Dead Heads got more than that, too: At two of the concerts, their good friend Hamza El Din (a Nubian musician living in the Bay Area) reprised the Egyptian song he’d sung at the Sound & Light Theater in Gizah—called “Ollin Arageed”—which had been a jumping–off point for some fascinating cross-cultural explorations between the Dead and a host of native singers and percussionists. It proved to be magical at Winterland, too, as the crowd joined in clapping the song’s unusual and hypnotic beat. War’s exceptional harmonica player, Lee Oskar, dropped by the last two nights of the run, and the final concert brought a surprise appearance by ex-Quicksilver guitarist John Cipollina.

This new Road Trips was culled from the the last two concerts of the series, October 21 and 22, 1978. There’s plenty to dig here, including a really dynamic extended take on the aforementioned “Ollin Arageed” which eventually lands at “Deal” (of all songs!); a stunning sequence featuring "Got My Mojo Working">"The Other One">"Stella Blue"; a generous and free-flowing “Scarlet Begonias” > “Fire on the Mountain”; and a “Not Fade Away” > “Goin’ Down the Road” combo that’s sparked by the presence of Mr. Cipollina and his vampire bat Gibson SG, and which goes into some very interesting jamming spaces between songs.

The limited edition Bonus CD contains a number of other hot numbers from those shows, from a charged "Bertha">"Good Lovin'" to a typically hot take on the "Estimated Prophet">"He's Gone" sequence, as well as one of only three live versions of "If I Had The World To Give" ever performed by the Grateful Dead. Clearly, this band was inspired! As always, too, the discs have been mastered in HDCD.