I noticed long ago that Latvala listed the 11/19/66 Fillmore tape as 3/17/67 Winterland. (It was noted in the Deadheads Taping Addendum book.) I'm still not sure what to make of that. Perhaps the 3/17/67 master is in the Vault & Latvala was right. Or perhaps he was repeating a mislabel from when he got the tape way back when.
I wrote a comment comparing the tapes on my blog earlier this year: Dick Latvala claimed that the 11/19/66 show is actually Winterland 3/17/67. He presumably had access to the original reels, but otherwise there's no evidence for this. It's hard to tell from comparing the tapes of 11/19/66 and 3/18/67, as the two shows sound different, but the songs in common are arranged more or less the same. Comparing the two shows, I've noticed there are some serious speed differences in the various copies. It may seem that the Dead were much more energetic on 3/18/67 & played faster, but that's deceptive - in some copies, the '66 show is slowed down & the '67 show is sped-up, which naturally makes the '67 show sound much brighter...but Garcia's guitar tone & the tempos should have been about the same on each night. The different mixes also affect how we hear the shows. The '66 show is in stereo, so it's a bit "deeper" and more spacious in sound - Pigpen's organ is also loud & up-front. The '67 show is in concentrated mono, with Pigpen more in the background & less bothersome. So the tapes are deceptive - the band probably sounded about the same on each night. Playing-wise, I think the two shows are comparable. Garcia is playing a bit better on 3/18/67. That show also has a more appealing setlist, with a greater variety of songs including Viola Lee, Morning Dew, Golden Road etc - and comparatively, a lot less Pigpen, who dominates 11/19/66 with his R&B songs. When they do the same songs, though, they're not that different. Cream Puff War is almost the same on each night - 11/19/66 is longer (more to love!), but the intro & ending are done better on 3/18/67. Dancing in the Streets - 3/18/67 has the advantage in being complete; otherwise very close. Smokestack Lightning - 11/19/66 might be a little better, but they're very similar. The Same Thing changed the most - 11/19/66 has an organ solo in the middle, 3/18/67 doesn't. (11/29/66 also doesn't have an organ solo, so that's a rare arrangement.) The jam is much better in '67 as Garcia really takes it somewhere. (Taken from a comment on http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/01/deads-1966-songs.html ) I was comparing various circulating copies - but it's very interesting that Gans says, "The audio quality, mix, etc. seem quite consistent between the 3/17 and 3/18 recordings on this DAT." They were not very consistent in what I heard, so Latvala's DAT may be much better quality than what we have.
