Band Grateful Dead
Venue Thelma Theater
Location Los Angeles, CA
Date 12/10/1969 - Wednesday posters tickets, passes & laminates
One [1:29:55] ; China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider [#4:29] ; [2:32] ; Black Peter [10:53] ; [1:17] ; Me And My Uncle [3:13] ; [0:19] ; Cold Rain And Snow [4:43] ; [0:11] ; Mama Tried [ 2:40] > High Time [7:16] ; [0:56] ; Easy Wind [6:11] ; [1:42] ; Casey Jones [4:41] ; [0:36] ; Good Morning Little Schoolgirl [11:04] ; [3:33] ; Morning Dew [10:00] ; [0:51] ; Black Queen [11:04] > Turn On Your Love Light [2:56#]
Two [26:09:00] ; Cryptical Envelopment [2:03] > Drums [6:13] > The Other One [12:14] > Cryptical Envelopment [5:14] > Cosmic Charlie [0:51#]
Comments Stephen Stills plays guitar on Casey Jones, Schoolgirl and Morning Dew, and sings Black Queen. The sequence listed in SET 2 is probably not from the same set as the material listed in SET 1, though it is possible. Which set came first is even more obscure.

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Tapes of 12/11/69 & 12/12/69 have been in circulation for at least 25 years. Often they used to be mislabeled "Kaleidoscope Theater, LA," but the Thelma Theater venue was established as the correct labeling more than a dozen years ago and probably there are few tapes left now labeled with the wrong venue. Parts of 12/11/69 still circulate mislabeled "12/10/69," though, and other misdatings among the three shows also occur.

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There is a 45-minute cassette side in circulation for at least 20 years often labeled "Thelma Theater 12/10/69" but sometimes also "Thelma Theater 12/11/69," usually circulated in connection with other tapes from this run. It begins with a copy of the 12/11/69 Dark Star which cuts immediately after "transitive nightfall of diamonds" and splices into the tape of That's It For The Other One > Cosmic Charlie listed in SET 2.

This turns out _not_ to be the 12/11/69 sequence, as previously assumed. T.C.'s keys make it '69, the long Drums date it to September or after, the expansive Jamming points to the end of the year, and the micing sounds like the other Thelma Theater tapes, so we might as well call it 12/10/69 since that is far the most plausible date under which it circulates. On this tape, Cosmic Charlie breaks off after 23 seconds. There is a strong Cosmic Charlie tease at 2:19 into the Cryptical reprise.

Curiously, a substantial fragment of this That's It > Cosmic Charlie forms part of another of the oldest bogus tapes in circulation. This tape has been around since the mid-70s at least, and goes by many names, including "Haight St. 3/3/68 II", "Winterland 4/3/68" and "San Francisco 6/8/68." This 90-minute cassette consists of an unknown venue 1970 Good Lovin', followed by the San Diego 1/10/70 China Cat > Rider, Cold Rain and Hard To Handle, followed by the Avalon 4/6/69 That's It For The Other One > Death Don't. Death Don't breaks off incomplete, splicing to the last 3:06 of the Drums of this tape of That's It > Cosmic Charlie (the same master) and cutting off after 51 seconds of Cosmic Charlie. This fragment times 21:01 total: Drums [#3:06] > The Other One [11:57] > Cryptical Envelopment [5:07] > Cosmic Charlie [0:51#]. There is a brief cut at 1:01 into The Other One ; probably very little is lost here. In some versions of the tape Cosmic Charlie concludes the cassette ; in others, the tape concludes with Satisfied With My Gal and The Rub from the 1964 Folk Fest (Garcia, Pigpen & Friends, acoustic).

Eaton lists:

12/10/69 Thelma Theatre, Los Angelas Ca - xcerpt
4.8, 092min, Sbd, A1D0, Reel M->Cass 1->Dat 0, 48k,
7inch Master Reels@7.5ips 1/2trk->Tascam 122mkIII Cass 1st Gen->3800 x 0
Recordings 90 SB 45 FM 26:09 AF
Master recording source(s): 7inch Master Reels@7.5ips 1/2trk
Download Sources
Contributors Jim Powell Rob Eaton
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