Grateful Dead 11/20/1970
The Palestra, U. of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Source Summary
flac24/48 - AUD (Bob Stone) > ?? > Beta HIFI > 24/48 wav > Flac by Alan Bershaw
flac24/48 - AUD (Bob Stone) > ?? > Beta HIFI > 24/48 wav > Flac by Alan Bershaw
The Grateful Dead
November 20, 1970
The Palestra, University Of Rochester
Rochester, NY
Original Source: Bob Stone’s Stereo Audience Master Cassettes (equipment unknown)
Lineage: Stereo Audience Master Cassettes > ? > Beta HiFi (Sony L-750 ES, dubbed in the late 1980s by David Bernis) > Sony SL-HF400 Super Beta HiFi VCR > 24/48 wav (transferred two times by Doug Rice AKA BFOQ -12/2025) > LogicPro (level and speed adjustments, DC offset correction, 3 patches utilizing other source, dropout repair utilizing transfer #2 and sequencing by Alan Bershaw 12/2025) > 24/48 wav > FLAC
Set 1 (trt 1:17:19)
1 01 Cold Rain & Snow 05:28
2 02 Me And My Uncle 03:57
3 03 Next Time You See Me 04:24
4 04 China Cat Sunflower > 06:01
5 05 I Know You Rider 04:34
6 06 Cumberland Blues 05:40
7 07 Candyman 08:08
8 08 //…drums > 09:54 (partially patched from other source)
9 09 jam > Good Lovin (reprise) 12:09
10 10 Sugar Magnolia 05:39
11 11 Friend Of The Devil 03:55
12 12 Mama Tried 02:39
13 13 Casey Jones 04:45
(“We’re gonna take a little break now folks..”)
Set 2 (trt 46:31)
1 14 Truckin’> 07:30
2 15 drums// 01:38
3 16 //The Other One > 04:13
4 17 St. Stephen > 06:14
5 18 Not Fade Away > 03:43
6 19 Going Down The Road Feeling Bad > 07:32
7 20 Not Fade Away > 02:29
8 21 I'm A King Bee 07:13
9 22 Uncle Johns Band 05:55
Set 3 (trt 45:24)
1 23 tuning up* 01:35 (patched from other source)
2 24 Its All Over Now* 07:00
3 25 noodling intrumental* 01:32
4 26 Jam > * 11:38
5 27 Darling Corey > *# 05:04
6 28 Jam // ** 02:56
7 29 //Jam ** 10:47
8 30 tuning ditty 1 * 00:13
9 31 tuning ditty 2 and false start* 00:19
10 32 Around And Around* 04:16 (end patched from other source)
("We'll see y'all later")
* with Jorma Kaukonen - guitar
# with John Dawson - vocal
** with Jorma Kaukonen - guitar (and possibly with Jack Casady - bass)
Notes:
This may only be of interest to the hardcore Grateful Dead collectors out there - especially those who love their 1970 era. Thanks to my friend Doug, who has been scouring and preserving private collections in the Rochester, NY area for many years, we're sharing this newly discovered source of Bob Stone’s hand-held audience recording of the November 20, 1970 Grateful Dead concert at The Palestra. Unlike what has been circulating for decades, Doug's new transfers are NOT sourced from Marty Weinberg’s reel copies, but from an alternate and substantially different sounding Beta HiFi tape copy that had never been transferred or circulated before.
While generally inferior to the known source and not without issues of its own, this new transfer has several things going for it, including additional material unavailable on previous versions of this show (including more of ‘Cold Rain And Snow’, ‘St. Stephen’ and 'King Bee') and it was not EQ’ed during playback. The source of this Beta tape suffered from vacillating speed issues, some of which were extreme. These have largely been corrected, but some speed instability issues remain. It does not suffer from any “radio interference” or several other anomalies that have been noted on previously circulated copies and it is sequenced differently, which I believe makes more sense and is closer to being accurate.
The Jefferson Airplane performed at the War Memorial in Rochester that same evening. Following their concert, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady (and according to some accounts, Grace Slick) headed over to the University of Rochester campus, arriving around 2:00 a.m, as the Dead were winding up their 2nd set. Their arrival motivated a 3rd set of oldies and spontaneous jamming, with Jorma joining in on all of it (and Jack possibly joining in for some of it), which according to first hand reports ended in the 3 to 3:30 a.m. range.
Like all other copies, the initial pre-drums portion of ‘Good Lovin’ is missing, as is part of ‘The Other One,’ which are presumed not to have been recorded or lost during tape changes. Bob Stone either did not record the New Riders Of The Purple Sage opening set, or possibly recorded over it, to facilitate recording everything else. In an effort to save tape, Bob also paused recording between individual songs, which allowed him to get as much music as he thankfully did.
While this alternate source will primarily appeal to completists and those who can still enjoy 1970 audience recordings, this also has portions that I find superior to previous versions, like the “Jam > Darling Corey > Jam” sequence with Jorma Kaukonen joining in, which sounds more natural than the heavily EQ’ed version everyone is familiar with. The entire recording also has better low end.
My sincere thanks to Bob Stone, who originally recorded this, David Bernis, who made the BetaHiFi copy back in the late 1980s, and especially Doug Rice, who discovered this Beta tape and meticulously did two 24/48 transfers of it, so that I could work it up to it's current state. For 1970 hand-held technology in a school gymnasium, it's a surprisingly listenable recording from the woefully under-recorded Fall 1970 tour. If nothing else, this new source can be used to patch several missing parts on the only other source.
I hold out hope that Bob Stone's master cassettes still exist and may even surface someday. If you have any leads on that, please get in touch.
Happy New Year!
Alan Bershaw (January 2026)
01 Cold Rain & Snow.flac:eeb807f20e651f84a0025715976afa1c
02 Me And My Uncle.flac:e544ed095f91ef2ace70478ae3e6ab32
03 Next Time You See Me.flac:2049f242fe80dbf87427f4389f0203bc
04 China Cat Sunflower.flac:35ad6ec648ffba343c267aa181ecc193
05 I Know You Rider.flac:736e903a11d7193a7a6270570715922b
06 Cumberland Blues.flac:86443d653fbb08dad548f44685fcadc2
07 Candyman.flac:771fa346906ba781598bacc234ee47f6
08 drums.flac:86fb186ec815bee215a04143e0bf8c86
09 jam Good Lovin (reprise).flac:96cf28570520d3c376cb01e0df025722
10 Sugar Magnolia.flac:ff5e11d26e9ce2c6b0cd17c0ba66b369
11 Friend Of The Devil.flac:99ec231ddf62bc48ecfc4657e1ddd61b
12 Mama Tried.flac:ba2afb56c1a966aad747355b931d99d2
13 Casey Jones.flac:f9cfb37ccbb6b5635689e19e7e122bb8
14 Truckin'.flac:108c7430a8f7c49297ec73622b40a8b2
15 drums.flac:c6db224b555cb97afdb4c5a84fb16b3a
16 The Other One.flac:f52f5eb6851114847209b58a95896928
17 St. Stephen.flac:c3b7a24c8455815983eeca55bc648c39
18 Not Fade Away.flac:5f8d983bee53d17c6fda493d89a5364e
19 Going Down The Road Feeling Bad.flac:b7fa547f332fedc047d1a24799a906cd
20 Not Fade Away.flac:32dd22cca252659794317f4192c9806a
21 I'm A King Bee.flac:facd78016ae0539dfd57960737395537
22 Uncle Johns Band.flac:f0286857fc42f28a664f3d3a12b4d025
23 tuning.flac:c4e5a9a63fde069f1fbd5089cb91d061
24 Its All Over Now.flac:d14479309117748f5745e9b06e82f4a7
25 noodling instrumental (Jorma).flac:664fede5c11734d1c352b9fd910f358a
26 Jam.flac:8d44543d764f9e70c73a9708e39958b2
27 Darling Corey.flac:65dbcb90a0a7100a81ae03633098caf5
28 Jam.flac:979abd5cdc30689566634429ecfdd763
29 Jam.flac:fa6f12c20b0dbe644c19636dce913442
30 tuning ditty 1.flac:794ded891532c725d459a83f640c13f1
31 tuning ditty 2 and false start.flac:86eb15dfa245749a7f1077c2e1e336a7
32 Around And Around.flac:b20993d83a5940245d394b6e31dbe7e9
November 20, 1970
The Palestra, University Of Rochester
Rochester, NY
Original Source: Bob Stone’s Stereo Audience Master Cassettes (equipment unknown)
Lineage: Stereo Audience Master Cassettes > ? > Beta HiFi (Sony L-750 ES, dubbed in the late 1980s by David Bernis) > Sony SL-HF400 Super Beta HiFi VCR > 24/48 wav (transferred two times by Doug Rice AKA BFOQ -12/2025) > LogicPro (level and speed adjustments, DC offset correction, 3 patches utilizing other source, dropout repair utilizing transfer #2 and sequencing by Alan Bershaw 12/2025) > 24/48 wav > FLAC
Set 1 (trt 1:17:19)
1 01 Cold Rain & Snow 05:28
2 02 Me And My Uncle 03:57
3 03 Next Time You See Me 04:24
4 04 China Cat Sunflower > 06:01
5 05 I Know You Rider 04:34
6 06 Cumberland Blues 05:40
7 07 Candyman 08:08
8 08 //…drums > 09:54 (partially patched from other source)
9 09 jam > Good Lovin (reprise) 12:09
10 10 Sugar Magnolia 05:39
11 11 Friend Of The Devil 03:55
12 12 Mama Tried 02:39
13 13 Casey Jones 04:45
(“We’re gonna take a little break now folks..”)
Set 2 (trt 46:31)
1 14 Truckin’> 07:30
2 15 drums// 01:38
3 16 //The Other One > 04:13
4 17 St. Stephen > 06:14
5 18 Not Fade Away > 03:43
6 19 Going Down The Road Feeling Bad > 07:32
7 20 Not Fade Away > 02:29
8 21 I'm A King Bee 07:13
9 22 Uncle Johns Band 05:55
Set 3 (trt 45:24)
1 23 tuning up* 01:35 (patched from other source)
2 24 Its All Over Now* 07:00
3 25 noodling intrumental* 01:32
4 26 Jam > * 11:38
5 27 Darling Corey > *# 05:04
6 28 Jam // ** 02:56
7 29 //Jam ** 10:47
8 30 tuning ditty 1 * 00:13
9 31 tuning ditty 2 and false start* 00:19
10 32 Around And Around* 04:16 (end patched from other source)
("We'll see y'all later")
* with Jorma Kaukonen - guitar
# with John Dawson - vocal
** with Jorma Kaukonen - guitar (and possibly with Jack Casady - bass)
Notes:
This may only be of interest to the hardcore Grateful Dead collectors out there - especially those who love their 1970 era. Thanks to my friend Doug, who has been scouring and preserving private collections in the Rochester, NY area for many years, we're sharing this newly discovered source of Bob Stone’s hand-held audience recording of the November 20, 1970 Grateful Dead concert at The Palestra. Unlike what has been circulating for decades, Doug's new transfers are NOT sourced from Marty Weinberg’s reel copies, but from an alternate and substantially different sounding Beta HiFi tape copy that had never been transferred or circulated before.
While generally inferior to the known source and not without issues of its own, this new transfer has several things going for it, including additional material unavailable on previous versions of this show (including more of ‘Cold Rain And Snow’, ‘St. Stephen’ and 'King Bee') and it was not EQ’ed during playback. The source of this Beta tape suffered from vacillating speed issues, some of which were extreme. These have largely been corrected, but some speed instability issues remain. It does not suffer from any “radio interference” or several other anomalies that have been noted on previously circulated copies and it is sequenced differently, which I believe makes more sense and is closer to being accurate.
The Jefferson Airplane performed at the War Memorial in Rochester that same evening. Following their concert, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady (and according to some accounts, Grace Slick) headed over to the University of Rochester campus, arriving around 2:00 a.m, as the Dead were winding up their 2nd set. Their arrival motivated a 3rd set of oldies and spontaneous jamming, with Jorma joining in on all of it (and Jack possibly joining in for some of it), which according to first hand reports ended in the 3 to 3:30 a.m. range.
Like all other copies, the initial pre-drums portion of ‘Good Lovin’ is missing, as is part of ‘The Other One,’ which are presumed not to have been recorded or lost during tape changes. Bob Stone either did not record the New Riders Of The Purple Sage opening set, or possibly recorded over it, to facilitate recording everything else. In an effort to save tape, Bob also paused recording between individual songs, which allowed him to get as much music as he thankfully did.
While this alternate source will primarily appeal to completists and those who can still enjoy 1970 audience recordings, this also has portions that I find superior to previous versions, like the “Jam > Darling Corey > Jam” sequence with Jorma Kaukonen joining in, which sounds more natural than the heavily EQ’ed version everyone is familiar with. The entire recording also has better low end.
My sincere thanks to Bob Stone, who originally recorded this, David Bernis, who made the BetaHiFi copy back in the late 1980s, and especially Doug Rice, who discovered this Beta tape and meticulously did two 24/48 transfers of it, so that I could work it up to it's current state. For 1970 hand-held technology in a school gymnasium, it's a surprisingly listenable recording from the woefully under-recorded Fall 1970 tour. If nothing else, this new source can be used to patch several missing parts on the only other source.
I hold out hope that Bob Stone's master cassettes still exist and may even surface someday. If you have any leads on that, please get in touch.
Happy New Year!
Alan Bershaw (January 2026)
01 Cold Rain & Snow.flac:eeb807f20e651f84a0025715976afa1c
02 Me And My Uncle.flac:e544ed095f91ef2ace70478ae3e6ab32
03 Next Time You See Me.flac:2049f242fe80dbf87427f4389f0203bc
04 China Cat Sunflower.flac:35ad6ec648ffba343c267aa181ecc193
05 I Know You Rider.flac:736e903a11d7193a7a6270570715922b
06 Cumberland Blues.flac:86443d653fbb08dad548f44685fcadc2
07 Candyman.flac:771fa346906ba781598bacc234ee47f6
08 drums.flac:86fb186ec815bee215a04143e0bf8c86
09 jam Good Lovin (reprise).flac:96cf28570520d3c376cb01e0df025722
10 Sugar Magnolia.flac:ff5e11d26e9ce2c6b0cd17c0ba66b369
11 Friend Of The Devil.flac:99ec231ddf62bc48ecfc4657e1ddd61b
12 Mama Tried.flac:ba2afb56c1a966aad747355b931d99d2
13 Casey Jones.flac:f9cfb37ccbb6b5635689e19e7e122bb8
14 Truckin'.flac:108c7430a8f7c49297ec73622b40a8b2
15 drums.flac:c6db224b555cb97afdb4c5a84fb16b3a
16 The Other One.flac:f52f5eb6851114847209b58a95896928
17 St. Stephen.flac:c3b7a24c8455815983eeca55bc648c39
18 Not Fade Away.flac:5f8d983bee53d17c6fda493d89a5364e
19 Going Down The Road Feeling Bad.flac:b7fa547f332fedc047d1a24799a906cd
20 Not Fade Away.flac:32dd22cca252659794317f4192c9806a
21 I'm A King Bee.flac:facd78016ae0539dfd57960737395537
22 Uncle Johns Band.flac:f0286857fc42f28a664f3d3a12b4d025
23 tuning.flac:c4e5a9a63fde069f1fbd5089cb91d061
24 Its All Over Now.flac:d14479309117748f5745e9b06e82f4a7
25 noodling instrumental (Jorma).flac:664fede5c11734d1c352b9fd910f358a
26 Jam.flac:8d44543d764f9e70c73a9708e39958b2
27 Darling Corey.flac:65dbcb90a0a7100a81ae03633098caf5
28 Jam.flac:979abd5cdc30689566634429ecfdd763
29 Jam.flac:fa6f12c20b0dbe644c19636dce913442
30 tuning ditty 1.flac:794ded891532c725d459a83f640c13f1
31 tuning ditty 2 and false start.flac:86eb15dfa245749a7f1077c2e1e336a7
32 Around And Around.flac:b20993d83a5940245d394b6e31dbe7e9
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