Road Trips Volume 4 Number 3 is a live album by the rock band the
Grateful Dead. Subtitled Denver '73, it contains the complete concert recorded on November 21, 1973, at
Denver Coliseum in
Denver, Colorado. It also includes three songs recorded the previous night at the same venue. The 15th of the Road Trips series of archival albums, it was released as a three-disc
CD on April 26, 2011.[1][2][3]
A bonus disc was included with the album in shipments to customers who had pre-ordered all four 2011 Road Trips albums.[4] The bonus disc was recorded on December 6, 1973, at
Public Auditorium in
Cleveland, Ohio.
Writing in The Music Box, John Metzger said, "So, why is it that with all of the music that the Grateful Dead has dispensed, it took until 2011 for the band to issue its performance at the
Denver Coliseum on November 21, 1973? Beautifully presented along with a handful of selections from the show that was held on the previous night, Road Trips, Vol. 4, No. 3: Denver '73 is, to put it quite bluntly, the best release that the Grateful Dead has issued in a long time.... Good fortune undeniably was smiling upon the audience... Not only did the band deliver a musical performance that was rock-solid, but it also assembled a well-paced show that peaked in all of the right places. Much as the cover art... suggests, the Grateful Dead galloped across the Wild West with guns a-blazin' as it painted images of outlaws on the run from life and love."[5]
Liner notes essay "Rocky Mountain High" by Blair Jackson
Set lists
Following are the full set lists from the November 20 and 21, 1973 concerts at Denver Coliseum.[6]
Tuesday, November 20
First set: "Ramble On Rose", "
Mexicali Blues", "Don't Ease Me In", "Black-Throated Wind", "To Lay Me Down", "
The Race Is On", "They Love Each Other", "
Me and Bobby McGee", "Tennessee Jed", "
Big River", "Row Jimmy", "Weather Report Suite Prelude" > "Weather Report Suite Part 1" > "Let It Grow", "
Casey Jones"
Second set: "
Promised Land" > "Bertha" > "Greatest Story Ever Told", "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" > "Dire Wolf", "Looks Like Rain", "
China Cat Sunflower" > "
I Know You Rider", "
Truckin'"* > "The Other One"* > "Stella Blue"* > "Sugar Magnolia"
First set: "
Me and My Uncle"*, "
Sugaree"*, "
Jack Straw"*, "Dire Wolf"*, "Black-Throated Wind"*, "Big Railroad Blues"*, "Mexicali Blues"*, "They Love Each Other"*, "Looks Like Rain"*, "Here Comes Sunshine"*, "Big River"*, "Brokedown Palace"*, "Weather Report Suite Prelude"* > "Weather Report Suite Part 1"* > "Let It Grow"*
Second set: "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo"* > "
Playing in the Band"* > "
El Paso"* > "Playing in the Band"* > "Wharf Rat"* > "Playing in the Band"* > "
Morning Dew"*, "Truckin'"* > "Nobody's Fault but Mine"* > "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad"* > "
One More Saturday Night"*
^Scott, John W.; Dolgushkin, Mike; Nixon, Stu. (1999). DeadBase XI: The Complete Guide to Grateful Dead Song Lists. Cornish, NH: DeadBase. p. 31.
ISBN1-877657-22-0.