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Flights booked. Tickets secured. Some around here might say giddy up.

Go back to where you found the one point and look again! It sounds like a spot that might go back to paleo. Look for broken rocks, straight edges and odd colors. Bring a stick so you can give ‘em a flick without having to bend over. You’ll look at more potential finds that way. Morrow mountain and Hardaway style points originated from your area. I read 1491, nice read. There’s a lot of spirituality involved with their ceramics and the crafting of the points, tools. Bannerstones are supposedly related to one individual for a lifetime. 9 out of ten that are found are broken, many repurposed into other tools or ornamentation, used by the descendants of the original user. I have a Adze that was repurposed as a sinew stone. Darrin Lowery told me that was really special to someone. ( It’s a hand me down….) A small flat stone with various grooves along the edges and a wear area near the distal end. They would run deer Sinew through the grooves to make it into string for their bow. I started looking closer at all the broken rocks on the beach and a LOT of them are actually expedient tools that were used for processing food or working with wood. A bunch of flakes with a worn edge or a cobble with an abrasive edge. It’s like they were scaling fish. Maybe I will learn more tomorrow during the full moon low tide. Hang it up, see what tomorrow brings….

Thanks for the kind words, Mr Crew. Indeed, my exploration morphed into a full blown essay... A Treatise On Garcia’s Flirtation With Dylan’s She Belongs To Me Although mostly lost to history, there’s evidence The Dead played this gem in early 1966. No tapes exist, so we don’t know who sang it or how often. Bob Dylan’s masterpiece LP “Bringing It All Back Home” was released in March 1965, and She Belongs To Me was also included on side two of the single. Jerry no doubt had plenty of exposure to it out the gate dating to The Warlocks era, so it’s no surprise it could have shown up in the repertoire. The song’s beguiling combination of joy and pathos suggests it would pique Jerry’s interest; a mysterious woman, who contrary to the title obviously belongs to no-one, at once alluring but possibly dangerous. As Dylan compositions go there’s an economy of words, and the enigmatic imagery it presents almost makes it seem Robert Hunter could have penned it for Garcia himself. Fast forwarding to 1985, Jerry tackled it both with the Dead and in acoustic performances. Throughout ’85 and early ’86 it was sprinkled a half dozen times into Garcia/Kahn duets, along with nine Dead appearances. Ultimately lasting longer outside The Dead, it showed up again briefly in Jerry’s acoustic orbit in two May ’92 Garcia/Grisman shows. A video of Weir, Lesh, and Garcia was filmed at Club Front that fall, likely in late September or early October, playing She Belongs To Me acoustically. Bobby and Jerry traded verses. It was recorded for playback at Dylan’s 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration, held 10-16-92 at Madison Square Garden. Jerry was scheduled to perform but had to bow out due to his summer health meltdown. Owing to the oft wild and woolly nature of 1985 Grateful Dead material/set-lists, Jerry both broke out and retired the song over just seven months, despite playing it nine times. For that precious short time, it was “in the rotation.” It never settled into any particular slot. The bust out was in the middle of the first set, while the other versions ranged from pre-drums (3) to post-space (2) to encores (3, all of which were part of double encores). Perhaps part of Jerry’s dilemma was he couldn’t figure out where to put it. That may be a stretch, but one is left to ponder why such a deep, delicate, beautiful ballad came, was well nurtured, then left, all so fleetingly. Jerry and the band were feeling both passionate and outside the box when She Belongs To Me appeared; other ballads those shows include Morning Dew, China Doll, and Comes A Time (twice), while various rarities include Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?, Satisfaction (twice), a Lost Sailor / Saint of Circumstance split by drums and space, Gloria, Revolution, Midnight Hour, Big Boy Pete, and Walking The Dog. My spark to investigate the nine Dead renditions with a fresh ear was the Dave’s Picks Volume 49 release, featuring both complete ’85 Frost shows. On day two She Belongs To Me closes a double Garcia encore. My general observations going through each version reveal solos in different spots relative to verses and verses in different spots relative to each other. I’m not positive the song saw the exact arrangement twice! While The Dead are rightfully known for never playing the same song quite the same way, this isn’t that. It’s Garcia never quite settling into his vision of the song’s structure. Regardless, while the Providence bust out April 4th was a bit rough and even missing complete verses, vocal stammering and dropped lines were few and far between from there on, and one could count on two sweet, heartfelt solos every time out. Those generalities said, here’s my run down on Jerry’s stabs at this ethereal beauty, including the sonic qualities of the sources in my collection… Rough edges aside, it must have been one of those “thank god I’m here” moments for the seasoned Head to hear She Belong To Me come seemingly out of nowhere in the middle of the first set at the April 4th Providence show. The show opened with the only iteration of Alabama Getaway -> Jack Straw, so something unique was afoot out the gate. The first Garcia/Kahn acoustic appearance wasn’t until 5-23, so even the most hardened Garcia freak could never have seen this coming. The Oade taper section Schoeps recording is a bit boomy, but the cassette board is nice. This is the only time Garcia would insert She Belongs to Me into the first set and one can see why. Wherever it belonged (pardon the pun), somewhere later in the show strikes me as that place. Garcia clearly felt this newfound Dylan muse, playing it again two shows later on April 7th in Philadelphia. This time it was in the pre-drums segment, innocently sandwiched between Samson and Women Are Smarter. It’s several minutes longer and feels more mature. The Oade Schoeps taper section effort sounds better, and the cassette board is nice as well. Six shows later was that second day at The Frost, April 28th, where it found its way into the encore slot, as a double encore following US Blues. The new Dave’s Picks release sounds quite nice, and there’s a Bob Wagner front of board Nakamichi 700 recording that sounds fantastic. Those Frost FOBs could really deliver. It’s nice enough, and even appears on the album “Garcia Plays Dylan”, but I don’t understand why the producers made that choice. Not to be outdone by The Frost, there’s an even better version two shows later on June 15th at The Greek. Again it’s in a double encore slot, this time preceding US Blues. The finale features the kind of Garcia vocal embellishment I live for, when he announces, “You know she can take the dark out of the night time!” The Oade tape from the Greek is good not great; there’s a digital board I much prefer. There’s one rendition on the summer tour, August 31st in Austin. This is the only instance a soundboard isn’t available. The front of board Oade Schoeps tape is stunning; one of those great, wide open, outdoor recordings where Phil’s amazingly visceral and Jerry’s vocal and guitar presence are breathtaking. But it’s wistfully marred by an outrageous amount of talkers and whoopers - drunk Texans? Whatever the case, it’s a sad thing. This is the final time in the encore slot, again part of a double encore with Saturday Night, and fortunately by this point in the show the crowd’s annoyances have mostly abated. From a sonic perspective alone, this is my favorite take. Jerry has some great vocals inflections, and as mentioned Phil sounds magnificent. Watch your woofers! Next up is Chula Vista, an odd and one off venue for The Dead; a small college football stadium south of San Diego. This show is a quintessential example of how The Dead often delivered their best in the strangest of places. She Belongs To Me was now pre-drums again in a set featuring Scarlet -> Fire, Comes A Time, a set closing Satisfaction, and seven (!) songs before drums. A remarkably unique second set. There’s a great digital board, providing perhaps the best sonics of any version. But there’s also a fascinating audience tape, with parabolic microphones spaced 40 feet apart! I love these peculiar types of captures when they work. The openness on this recording is thrilling. This is a lilting, near perfect rendition. I say “near perfect” because in the climax Jerry only delivers two “paints the daytime black” rather than the customary three (the third of which is typically the line that drives it home). I liken this to Simple Twist Of Fate. You gotta have that third, emphatic, “blame it on that simple twist of fate!” The fall ’85 tour saw two takes, both stunners. The most famous of which is November 1st in Richmond. Dick Latvala chose it for Dick’s Picks Volume 21, released way back in 2001. This show finds She Belongs To Me in the post-space ballad slot for the first time, and it launches into a raucous Gloria to end the set. It’s a potentially reference version, again featuring a subtle but great Garcia vocal embellishment to close. “WELL, she takes the dark out of the night time.” Both the official release and the Oade Schoeps are fine listens, although I prefer the Dick’s Picks. The second and final post-space iteration is a week later on November 8th in Rochester. Again, there are good listening options in both the cassette board and the Oade tape. While I hesitate to name this the GOAT outright, it’s definitely an under the radar gem. What I’ll say unequivocally is it contains the best notes from Jerry’s guitar you will find on this song, and in the first jam no less. Garcia lays down a series of piercing, gorgeous, plaintive notes that are the stuff of goosebumps. The final appearance comes back in California later in the month, November 21st at The Kaiser. This is quite the show, opening with the first and only Big Boy Pete since 1970, closing with Midnight Hour, and encoring with the final Walking The Dog after a brief ’84/’85 revival. There’s a worthy audience with vintage Uher microphones along with a very nice digital board. This version is particularly soft and soulful, with a great vulnerability to Jerry’s vocals. While lovely, had it picked itself up with a powerful finale I’d be more fond of it. Alas, Jerry comes in late on the final verse, and just as in Chula Vista there are only two passes of the closing “she takes the dark out of the night time.” In fairness, this may owe itself to the song melting into a quick little jam before yielding to the Rhythm Devils. Just like that, it was gone, and, as with many things in The Dead’s sphere, bringing up more questions than answers. Foremost of course, what caused him to abandon it? Jerry tackled Visions Of Joanna a couple times the next spring, with its mind boggling plethora of lyrics and difficult phrasing, and he even brought Visions back in ’95 (in fairness, the teleprompters likely had plenty to do with that). Baby Blue came and went a few times before settling back into the encore slot in the early 80s. When I Paint My Masterpiece left the JGB rotation only to reappear as a Dead cover with Bobby at the helm. It Takes A Train To Cry seemed a one off with members of the Allman Brothers in 1973, before unexpectedly showing up again 18 years later in a pairing with CC Rider. But She Belongs to Me merely slipped away, like the dark out of the night time.

DSO played liberty after I got out of lock up. Asheville show. I balled. There was that wharf rat at jubilee. The Stella at penns. DSO and this music has brought me to my knees several times. Booked a kick ass Airbnb for this one. Giddy up

Yes Tea…I totally get you…I love the moments in life when things we’ve never seen will seem familiar… Peculiar glimpses into something difficult to put words on…happens a lot within the Grateful Dead experience, thank goodness 😉

nspiration, move me brightly Light the song with sense and color Hold away despair More than this I will not ask Faced with mysteries dark and vast Statements just seem vain at last I don’t know if this was hunters intent, likely not, but this line makes me think the narrator just dosed. This pretty perfectly describes a heavy dose coming on.