Dick's Picks 8: Harpur College Binghamton Ny May 2

If there were a college course taught on Grateful Dead bootlegs (and if there isn t one, there should be!), the concert preserved on Dick s Picks Vol. 8 would occupy a prominent place on the syllabus. That s because this evening at tiny Harpur College in upstate New York was for years probably the most highly touted and sought-after single show on the tapers circuit (Jerry Garcia himself later singled it out as a memorable performance); and it appears here, complete save for one song, on this 3-CD set. The first disc offers one of the most beguiling acoustic sets the Dead ever performed, full of gems ( Dire Wolf, Black Peter, Uncle John s Band ) from the already-recorded-but-not-yet-released Workingman s Dead, plus a passel of old folk and blues tunes highlighted by a beautiful, slow-burning version of I Know You Rider; it s doubtful the band ever harmonized as beautifully as they do here, and the off-the-cuff atmosphere is simply charming. Discs two and three present the (very) electric Dead at their most probing, with a healthy dollop of greasy soul n blues served up by Pigpen; highlighted by Garcia s guitar and Phil Lesh s bass spiraling ever upward in a lengthy solo section, the version of The Other One in the 40-minute medley that opens the second set is unsurpassed, and the third set s Viola Lee Blues sports not one, not two, but three mind-warping crescendos, while their version of the rarely-performed James Brown tune It s a Man s World is as gritty and gutbucket as the band got. The closing We Bid You Goodnight is twice as long as usual because the delirious crowd wouldn t let them go out of print for years and a must for any self-respecting Dead library.