I can understand how Tony's first impression came to be? I think a lot of it has to do w/ the visual image of the band which has become ingrained in our heads (two drummers, Wall of Sound, gigantic venues, etc, etc?.) But once you dissect the chronology of the band, you realize that the mickey was out of the band for the whole WOS duration, and the band sounded HUGE when they were in small venues like the Fox, Boston Music Hall or the Fillmore.
Contrast that with the studio recordings where the focus was on fidelity, soon to be destroyed by early digital transfer, and the ambience of the concert hall was void. I never liked Garcia's vocals on studio versions, especially when compared to shows from the same era. Even live recordings like Steal Your Face sound thin due to what they say was incompetent engineering? nothing is perfect, but there are plenty of diamonds in that mine? Im having a blast going thru YouTube uploads right now!?.
