Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

I see where you're coming from to a degree; I had to balk at the cost of the entire 22 shows. I've now acquired 11total of the shows (and 2 of those, Dusseldorf, and Hundred Year Hall, I had prior). I'm not too critical though of the GD's business necessities. Also, I think there is still an abundance of music out there. Still too much; back in the '70s I got a lot more mileage out of the LPs I did buy. I read Relix, but never tape traded because I didn't have any tapes to trade! I've collected a few of the "Picks" but feel guilty I don't have time to listen to them more. Some, I have yet to listen to a second time, they just get downloaded & shelved. I have to be choosy about what I buy/acquire, being happy with less, especially considering how much listening I did of their released LPs in the '70s (not to mention my desire to listen to more than just GD).

So here we are, approaching the 40th anniversary of one of the most celebrated tours, one commemorated with a triple album that everyone seems to have purchased. Definitely something to celebrate, especially if you have hundreds of dollars in disposable income to listen to the shows. That's right, cause if you don't then you are #@*^% out of luck, cause NONE of these shows from the Europe 72 tour are available to stream at your leisure on archive.org. At the risk of ranting, I'll just let others share their thoughts on the subject. I'll I can say is I'm disappointed because this goes against the very heart and soul of the deadhead ethos of sharing the music. I remember reading an interview with Jerry in Rolling Stone, where he said, when asked about the Dead's mellow policy about recording their shows, (paraphrase) "When we're through performing, it's as much theirs [deadheads] as it is ours [the band]. They were part of making it happen afterall." Indeed!