Grateful Dead Live at Fillmore Auditorium on 1966-01-08 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive (original) (raw)

Reviewer: Daniel Evensen -favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - September 9, 2021
Subject: Excellent

This is a great tape, dripping with early Grateful Dead blues, and surprisingly easy to listen to. Aside from the chaotic first and final tracks, it's easy to hear the music, easy to figure out what is going on, and is quite nice on the ears.
This is one of my favorite versions of Death Don't Have No Mercy. I'm surprised that so few other commentators bothered to mention this one. It steals the show, in my mind, though it's a shame that the ending is cut off.
Aside from that, I'm A Hog For You is excellent, the early Caution is fun, and King Bee is a strong track.
A few years ago, Michael noted the existence of a video copy of this. You can find it on YouTube. This is a copy that is currently up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txJyktFLeuI ; however, if that is taken down, it's not hard to find another one. Just search for video of Grateful Dead acid test performances. This particular one is mislabeled as a 1965 show on YouTube, but a quick listen will confirm that it is actually this show.

Reviewer: Ben DeUrso -favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - February 8, 2021
Subject: Pre-Primal Dead Enjoyment

I feel so lucky to be able to listen to the boys from the beginning. I wish there were soundboards of the handful of shows preceding this one, but this is a true gem. One thing I noticed is that "Death Don't Have No Mercy" is the first tune in which I can hear keyboard. We get Pig's vocals, albeit very quiet in King Bee. Young Jerry in I'm A Hog For You is adorable, and the harp starts ripping, for Caution with Pig's vocals running the show. But then we finally get keys in DDHNM. Now, we know Pig wasn't drinking the Kool-Aid...maybe he just forgot he played keys or the soundboard didn't accommodate until DDHNM? I'm curious about this.
Otherwise, a fun listen. I wonder why they cut off the ending of DDHNM before the Star Spangled Banter, and Caution is the first indication of primal dead in my opinion.

Reviewer: rillathe -favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - November 15, 2016
Subject: 5 5/5

5 5/5

Reviewer: njpg -favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - January 8, 2014
Subject: -

The Dead played a good show here!

Reviewer: InfinityOE -favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - November 5, 2011 (edited)
Subject: The Grateful Dead: Show #5

Acid Test 5 of 19.
According to Dead.net this is the 5th show as "The Grateful Dead" with the date listed as 1966-01-07 and 1966-01-08. This is also the first GD show on Archive (for the time being).
As good as the Acid Test's come with chaos and dread confusion... Plenty of stage banter. Loved the set otherwise also. Great Death Don't Have No Mercy. Classic Dead.

Reviewer: lestatkatt -favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - March 18, 2009 (edited)
Subject: three Different Audio Versions/mixes of 1/8/66

OK. Back in 1990 when the first edition of this 'film' was first being sold from Ken Kesey on VHS for $35.00 I was one of the first people to order a copy. Later in the decade a remastered edition on VHS was announced. I purchased a copy of that. Eventually a DVD edition was being personally burned and sold directly from Zane Kesey, so I picked up a copy assuming it was an upgrade, or the same as the remastered VHS. It wasn't.
After really breaking down these three recordings, I found that each one was a different audio and video edit, each having their own little excerpts that were missing from other editions, mostly the audio was different, but the color quality of the video was a major upgrade on the 2nd VHS, and a Different edit is now on the DVD. I don't know if any other versions are on DVD, or if Zane is only selling the final "3rd" version.
The first VHS was stereo and was about 55 minutes. This version has the Best quality audio for the music sections, and does NOT have any talking (ken babbs) over the beginning notes of "I'm a King Bee".
The second was in Mono!, but had a much longer intro from Ken Babbs and extra talking and harmonica and stuff before and during the power rap, AND different edits at the end (after the music). during "The test is over" section.
The DVD edition seems to be a hybrid of the two VHS audios, with a lot of over-dubbing of talking audio over the seperate sections, I assume to make it sound more "trippy", but it's not as complete as the 1st or 2nd VHS versions. I still believe the 1st VHS has better high end on the audio, especially for the music sections of the Dead performing.
I would love to hear the raw tapes, but I doubt they will turn up for circulation. I spent two nights making CDs from the three different versions, and then breaking them down into tracks where every single edit is on all three versions! One version had 52 different segemnts of edits.
(A long process, but it was worth it to break it all down and figure out how to make an "Ultimate edition". However, it's pretty hard to do since there's a lot of overlapping audio on versions two and three making it kind of hard to piece them together seamlessly.
The music sections of the Dead are all the same, except for version two that has more of the intro with harmonica from Pigpen while ken babbs raps over it during the "Power rap" section that is Not on the DVD edition or on the 1st VHS in 1990. The end section when the cops show up have two different audios from the same time sections, making it a 4 track recording(?), or two seperate stereo tapes running at the same time. I wish I knew for sure, but it's very interesting. You can hear the other in the background on each, so it's easy to tell they were recorded during the same time. The audio from version one is perfect if you wanted to make a stereo version of the "King Bee" sequence in the unreleased film Sunshine Daydream. (I'm surprised no one has done this yet. - On a side note, who ever did the stereo upgrade on the film Sunshine Daydream added too much reverb and it just doesn't sound like the usual 1972 Dead audio with all of that reverb added, and it would be nice if 'someone' would work on a completely new stereo upgrade of the film using either of the three existing audios made on 8/27/72 (4 track film version, the 4 track Betty Board, and the 16 track master reel version), but i'm going off the subject......) I think this really breaks it down, without typing up a complete list of all the seperate edits. (I did it for my iPod the other night, but I haven't made a normal text file yet.
Also note that if you are a freak into the Acid Test Footage, there's also a 20 minute Black & White Film circulation on the bootleg Dead in Egypt DVD that has a lot of footage Not used on any of the three Acid Test Videos. It was first posted on the traders den a couple years ago, but It wasn't mentioned in the notes. I had it on my list, until Zane emailed me asking me to remove it from the web, which i did right away..... but it's still available online for download in many places. The audio under it is Not from the shows, (sounds like a early '69 show) so there's really no way to confirm if that footage is from the fillmore, or from a different acid test. I would love to know for sure! Where's the audio from the 12/65 Acid Tests anyway?
That's all.
If anyone would be interested in upgrading the Sunshine Daydream film with the correct audio, contact me.
I've come across two different copies of the Sunshine Daydream film. One was sourced from the 16mm film and had a intro, and outtake footage of China/Rider and as mono except for the China/Rider segment, which seemed to be in stereo!
The other is the upgraded stereo version with all that reverb. I like the Original better.
- Michael

Reviewer: oh_uh_um_ah -favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - February 21, 2009
Subject: The GRATEFUL DEAD "Live On Stage" January 8, 1966 at the Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

|||||||||||
<><><><><><
|||||||||||
Here's an ACID TEST from the Fillmore Auditorium in 1966.
Blues performed by the GRATEFUL DEAD.
A real treat for us Pigpen fans since 3 of the 4 songs are Pigpen songs, so I am giving it 5 stars.
Rockin' show that's raw, energetic, emotional and crazy!
"yeah, arrest everybody, but dont' hurt any of the equipment you know, it's our livelyhoods"..Bob Weir
Eat Drink, Be Merry and listen to the GRATEFUL DEAD.
Thanks for the Love

Reviewer: SkyDawg -favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - October 23, 2008
Subject: More Power

Listening to Bobby Weir on the first track makes me laugh..some things never did change over the years did they?. Here is Bobby in January 1966 at an acid test telling everyone that there are equipment problems and that everything is not just exactly perfect! That never happened ever again, right?
The bit at the end is pretty funny too when the band is singing The Star Spangled Banner. The cops had decided enough was enough and started closing down the Test. Accounts from those that attended say that Weir had climbed up a pole and refused to come down for the police. They sang the National Anthem because that is what TV stations played back then when the days programming ended and the station was going off the air and signing off for the night.

Reviewer: lpoe -favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - September 7, 2008
Subject: help

how do you download this music to your computer or itunes cuz i cant find out how im just new to this so if you could help me out id appreciate it

Reviewer: UncleJon1984 -favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - March 12, 2008
Subject: Great Historical Value

The quality inst always great since they are having problems with the mic's, but this has great historical value. worth checking out indeed. pass the electric kool-aid!
realized my shitty ex was writing reviews under my other name! lol

Reviewer: JamminJerome -favoritefavoritefavorite - March 9, 2008
Subject: interesting, but nothing all that special

the caution here is pretty good and the boys get silly with the national anthem. worth a listen but no more than one.

There are 11 reviews for this item. .