Grateful Dead-Portland Memorial Coliseum

This is a six record set of the entire show in Portland on 5/19/74. This show is just two nights before the 46 minute “Playing In The Band” record I listened to yesterday that was recorded in Seattle. It’s a typical show from the Wall of Sound shows with the first set consisting of their more country influenced songs and covers like “Big Railroad Blues”,”Me And Bobby McGee” and “El Paso”.Also in the set is “Scarlet Begonias” not yet paired with “Fire On The Mountain” and “Money,Money” which was only played three times,the day before and the day after this show. They end the first set with “China Cat Sunflower”>”I Know You Rider” already different than the way they played it in earlier years. The second set has a great “Weather Report Suite” a 20 minute “Truckin'” with some nice jamming and a great “Not Fade Away”>”Going Down The Road Feeling Bad” ending with “One More Saturday Night” and “U.S. Blues” Altogether a good show but there is some vocal dropout and generally bad sound on four or five songs in the first set including “Sugaree” and “Jack Straw”. This show could have easily fit on five records as three of the sides are less than 10 minutes long. I bought this in 2018 it was about $120. There are many multi record sets of their shows available on vinyl all around $100 plus. Because of a snow day from work I was able to listen to all twelve sides.

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