Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

I'm a little surprised this is still available.

I would have thought these be gone in a heartbeat since the cd's of 1 go for so much>

....I actually house the vast majority of my Dicks/Dave's/Official GD Releases in numerical then release order within my 1/3 scale British Telephone Call Box....the red version of the Dr. Who TARDIS; it's about 4 feet tall. It serves as my GD time-machine, capable of exploring the greatest depths of the known musical universe.

The other myriad artistical boxes are displayed all around the house in various, notable locations.
Sixtus

Good comments Spacebrother. My era for shows was this as well, 1988-95. I have gotten through most of the first night and it sounds just like a solid GD show from the era. I like this as a change of pace from the St. Louis box. Nice show, so far (halfway through Dew). Can't wait to hear the rest.

My first 4 shows were Alpine Valley (when is Dave going to release Alpine 89 in video and audio) and then went to Tinley Park in 1990-- first and third shows for us. The venue sucked from the parking lot to the acoustics. It all had a bad vibe. The first night at Tinley was a good show, the third night was fine but not stellar. We were in the pavilion that night and even 31 years later I remember we all noted how Brent looked that night (bugged out eyes a few times on the big screen). Come to find out he was not well in mind, body and spirit.

I was also at the blues summit show at Alpine (Clapton, SRV, Cray and Buddy)-- first night of two. That was my first time seeing SRV and he blew my mind. I walked out saying he sold me all his cds. Just a stellar show. Then I heard of his passing on the radio. I really don't listen to SRV too often, it makes me damn sad. It was very foggy the night of our show, too. I remember my buddy driving and ending up on the wrong side of the highway at a spot where a divider appeared. The fog got SRV the next night.

Just got my copy of #40 today and to my disappointment Disc 3 was scratched up along the edges. I've already written emails requesting for help but now I turn to y'all and ask if anyone can send a FLAC file of Foolish Heart. It's the only song I'm unable to burn due to the scratches and it's a favorite. A massive thanks and a small gift will be given in return. Thank you and hope everyone is having a great day!

10213 arrived right on time today! Looking forward to listening.

I'm really impressed with different approaches to shelving. I proudly display on my office shelf Dead by order of release for DP, DaP, Road Trips and Garcia releases. Box sets are displayed on the office shelves wherever they fit. I moved recently, and don't yet have a shelf unit for my non dead cd's, except for a few in a shelf in the dining room.

A few years ago I purchased two used library card catalog units, which cassettes fit perfectly if you take out the center rod. When I moved, I got rid of one of the units, and most of my cassettes. I held on to the cassettes I recorded myself at a show, and they live in my office card catalog. I am slowly digitizing my recordings and plan to upload them to Archive.org. My LP's have had a hard life, they were ignored for 20+ years, living in the garage. They are in bad shape, in plastic boxes in the current garage, and I hope to clean them and store them better some day.

... in Deer Creek!

Just received #40, listened to the first two discs. A really good show! Enough so that I feel I've probably been missing out by not listening to more 1990.

I think I'm always going to prefer the early '70s, when they were still playing theaters rather than arenas: I always get the feeling, with these really big shows, that the Dead feel obligated to keep things moving and deliver a rockin' good time, whether they feel like it or not, and I kind of prefer the more intimate feel of smaller places where they seem like they felt they could just relax and play whatever.

You can hear a little bit of what I mean at the end of disc one of this set, when they do the final a cappella chorus of 'Rider.' In a lot of the best (IMO) versions, they take the dynamic way down at that point, sometimes slowing the tempo, and sing it quietly and kind of wistfully before they bring the volume back up for the final chords. In this case, it sounds like they were thinking of doing that, but then the crowd was hooting and stomping so loud they can't slow down or ease up. But it still winds up being a pretty good China-Rider.

Seems like a very welcome addition to the collection, and I haven't even listened to discs 3 & 4 yet, which are supposed to be the better show! Clearly, I need to rethink my bias against the '90s.

I just opened the mailbox and what do you know, dap 40. The first disk is sounding good. Thismikebenz, yes it dr.demento. He is now 80 yo and still kicking. I just bought his book on great blues players of all time. He was a big blues fan. He writes about leadbelly, srv, blind lemon, and others. The book came out in 2000 and he signed it twice with his real name Barry hansen and dr.D.. The book was also a rhino release. For twenty clams you can get one on his site. Good quality paperback too.

My CD rack was getting full when the DaP series started. That rack now holds DVDs, Blurays, and non-GD CDs.
GD CDs are all stored in plastic storage boxes where they are protected from sun, dust, dog drool, etc.

Music files on HDs are in chronological order and in AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, and AAC formats; backed up extensively.
ALAC files are played in the living room from an iBasso DX120 connected to the stereo.
AAC files at 320 kbs are played in the car from a USB drive.

Vinyl is stored in tie-dyed Victrola record storage cases.
Interesting fact: when I was buying the Victrola storage cases (I have 7 currently) there where a lot of different colors and patterns, and tie-dye was the lowest price. Score!
I think that most people don’t want tie-dye. All the more for me.

Because #10,337/25,000 is playing now. It arrived yesterday but - GASP! - I waited until tonight to rip and listen because we had people over who aren't really musos. I know, letting riff raff like that into the house... blame my wife.

After indulging in that last box set from St. Louis, then seeing Dead & Co. on the Rocks last month, and now this two-show set arriving, I realize how much I like to mix up all the eras to keep the ears fresh. Dave does a masterful job of era surfing. I know he can't please everyone, but I have zero complaints about this series from day one.

30 days of Dead is a nice little pre-holiday gift every year as the days get shorter and the nights get longer.

I lined a basement wall with bookshelves, each of them different sizes and styles. I picked them all up used off Craigslist or whatever when we moved in here, I said, that wall in the basement will be my wall of sound. There's dozens of rock and roll books and cds and music dvds, blu ray etc. Box sets are stacked along the top along with Germanic beer steins, old absinthe bottles, decorative skulls, signed baseballs, and other random tchotchkes. My guitar cases and amps fill a hallway next to them, with two full stage racks of electrics lining another wall.

The cd's only get played on a boombox when I work out on Sunday mornings or in the garage when performing some manly task... the rest of the time all that shit just sits there, except for the guitars. My kids are getting older and moving their scene down into the basement gradually, trying to bust in on my space. I worry about their idiot friends getting their hands all over my shit but haven't been into boxing it up or anything. I guess we'll see how that plays itself out.

Never had enough vinyl to fill up more than a couple of old fruit crates (thank God) or I'd need a storage locker.

Out in the garage there still remains an old hard-sided suitcase that looks like something out of Kerouac, filled up with unboxed cassettes and 45 rpm singles. My last friend with a cassette player in his car has finally moved on to a smoother ride, so it looks like those cassettes are headed to the grave at long last.

Last 5:

Rolling Stones - Tattoo You Deluxe cd (none of the 'new' songs are worth a shit, but the original lp remains a classic)
Grateful Dead - Dave's Picks 40 (show one, as bad as Brent looked he still sounds great)
Dire Straits - Love Over Gold (more people need to make that choice)
Various Artists - The Metallica Blacklist (eclectic as fuck and not half bad)
Elle King - Love Stuff (Sassy!)

\m/

When I was a teenager I had a friend whose dad had worked at an FM radio station in the 70’s, and had a basement full of vinyl, with some rare stuff.
My friend was constantly stealing albums and trading for bud.
I remember that he took a Sgt. Pepper’s picture disc.

Also,
Did you enjoy D&C?
I recall that you (I think it was you) always thought that they played too slow. I didn’t think it was that slow, but this fall I’ve been watching the first song previews on utoob, and they seem to have slowed down even more. It really is too slow now.
Maybe it’s the headphones that John now wears.

And why is he even wearing those? They switched sides of the stage and now he can’t hear?

Thanks for the heads up on the Demento Blues Book, I just ordered it...do you have his "Barry Hansen" Specialty Records LP he compiled? It's Called "Doo Wop" from 1968 and is killer diller (LP only)

Side One Sweet & Dreamy
–The Chimes - Pretty Little Girl
–The Monitors - Our School Days
–Larry Williams - Bad Boy
–Vernon Green & The Phantoms - Sweet Breeze
–Jesse & Marvin - Dream Girl
–Marvin & Johnny - Flip
–The Four Flames - Wheel Of Fortune

Side 2 Outrageous & Contagious
–Roddy Jackson - Moose On The Loose
–Bob "Froggy" Landers* With Willie Joe And His Unitar - Cherokee Dance
–Roy Montrell - That Mellow Saxophone
–Jimmy Liggins & His 3-D Music - Drunk
–King Perry & His Pied Pipers The Animal Song
–Rene Hall And His Band - Cleo
–Joe Lutcher - The Traffic Song

I am surprised it's never been released on CD (I think)

I also just ordered two illustrated books on the blues by R Crumb & William Stout ...excellent drawings of the older artists with a quick bio on each one...They are dirt cheap and available at book outlet if you're interested...thanks again for the heads up on the good Dr...

I have an R.Crumb Heroes of the Blues deck of trading cards.

The blues book is definitely worth the $20. The signatures make it even cooler. This book has a lot of hardcore blues guys. The book is very informative, and has some major hitters that most people never knew existed. I have not heard of doo woo of 68, but will look it up. Thanks. If it were not for these black blues legends, we would probably not have rock and roll. Motown too. Bo carter - banana in your fruit basket is from 1931-1936 is probably the coolest name for an album.

Those cards you mention are what the book is made up of including his Jazz & Old Timey Country cards....also included with the book is a CD of a lot of the old timers playing...
"R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country..." CD included
"William Stout - Legends Of The Blues"

There'd have been no Spooky Tooth if it hadn't been for the blues.

My bro-in-law is a Spooky Tooth fan, likes a lot of the UK blues, starting at Mayall on down. I did see ST guitarist Ariel Bender playing with Mott the Hoople during his short stint with them, circa 1974. I was disappointed to miss Mick Ralphs, who departed by then, but Bender/Grosvenor was no slouch.
Speaking of Mayall - who is pretty incredible “live” himself - has a new album coming out. Or as the youngens like to say, “dropping”. Not big on that expression. You “drop” dishes, not albums. You “release” albums, you never “drop” them IMO.

Bet he wares em instead of in ear monitors either because he likes the fit/feel and/or the sound of the cans better?
Probably isolates better from the on stage noise, especially when Bob gets loud with that super thin and distorted sound he likes these days.

This would have been a really fabulous recording, except for the crowd noise.
Bad form once again, Healy.

37 years ago today I was at the B.C.T. to see the good ole Grateful Dead. They played some songs they don't normally play, Gloria, Why Don't We do it in the Road and Down in the Bottom. This was a fun run of shows, might be a box set one day. A very cool Rick Griffin poster came out for these shows.

Let’s see, we’ve got drop tuning, drop biscuits, drop cloths, drop dead gorgeous babes, the Dew Drop Inn, drop leaf tables, drop off laundry, drop kicks, mic drops, and drop zones. Seems like I’m missing something?

Regarding audio on DaP 40, I’ve only listened to the first two discs, but there is indeed a fair amount of audience noise that filters in occasionally. Which is No Big Deal, just tends to remind the listener that they were playing a big venue. More bothersome to me (but still no big deal) is this weird echo that happens with the vocals at several points. No idea how you’d get that. This was an outdoor venue, right, so it’s not an echo off the back wall?

Just to be clear: the audio quality overall is very good, and this is NOT meant as a gripe, just an observation about an oddity in this recording.

That Mike - congratulations on seeing Mott The Hoople in the 70s - something I missed out on. I had a ticket to see them in 1974-Queen were the support band - but it was cancelled. I did see Hunter/ Ronson circa 1975, and then, this century, two celebratory shows by Mott - one with the original lineup( minus Buffin) and one with Luther Grosvenor on guitar. Both great nights.

Incidentally, a great album worth checking out with Luther on is "Supernatural Fairy Tales" by Art from 1967. Same band as Spooky Tooth before the name change. An album with a beautiful psychedelic cover, which disguises the muscular nature of the music - which is more blues rock crunch than chocolate box psych.

Maybe if you didn't leave 3 minutes of the crowd clapping and chanting "You know our love will not fade away", you could have fit the encore.

The vocal echoes were intentionally done by Healy. He did that frequently and rumor has it that messing with Bob’s vocals is one of the reasons that Healy was fired.

Crowd noise between songs was added so that there wasn’t silence. Dave states this in the seaside chat.

What about balls?

....sorry. I'm new here.

De pressure drop Mon?

DaveRock - We had a friend in high school that was really hip to music we didn’t know - he was the guy that got me into the Dead, along with Byrds, Burritos, etc etc - and he got us in our group to listen to Mott. I remember Ian Hunter was a great showman, good with the crowd, and Morgan Fisher was on keys, along with Overend and Buffin. They were pretty hot shit then, touring in support of “Mott”. A great show, although the crowd was all Glam, and we were a bunch of hippie high school kids in jeans and long hair.

Sounds like you saw some great “splinter” acts from Mott! Ronson was an underrated guitarist, and producer (Roger McGuinn). Bowie was lucky to have him.

PS - “… more blues rock crunch than chocolate box psych.”. The Best line I’ve read in a long time!! Haha!

Similar tunes and lots if different songs here too. April 6, 7. 8, 1985. Always looking for a release of these shows too.

Listen to the performances on this frickn masterpiece my gawd!!! Althea is STUNNING! Promised Land is also one for the ages. This was when Jack Straw was Jack Straw, just ripping (minus a minor vocal flub that Bobby acknowledged :) US Blues is also one for ages but unfortunately not included. Desolation Row oh my gaaaawd if that's not one of Weir's best performances I don't know what is. I've always been partial to the second night as I was lucky enough to have patched into to a kind taper's Nakamichi shotguns and just think it's the better of the two shows.

First night I distinctly remeber starting the clapping during Morning Dew, yup that was me, probably pissed some old heads off, but many others joined in. Help>Slip>Franklin's ALWAYS a joy. China>Rider is in my top 5 of GD tunes and Brent is going crazy during the transition but this is not my favorite version (please see 8-4-89 Cincy, front row center from GDTS certainly didn't hurt!) As most know, Brent passed just a couple weeks later RIP BRENT. Terrapin was played smoothly and powerfully. The Weight had minor vocal flubs too but is really special to me -- first and only time I heard the GD do it and just a special tune.

Jumping around a bit but Playin' from night two holy McCoy that is the real deal! UJB is quite possibly my favorite all-time GD tune and this one is performed well (minor vocal flub by Jer Bear in second verse). The vocals these two shows were just beautiful.

On the Dave's Pick version, the clarity and separation of all the instruments, guitar interplay, and definition of Brent's keyboards is unbelievable how it brings it forth better than old audience recordings. My transfers from analog to digital of 7-19-90 have survived but this release is on another level. Thank you Dave and GD (~):} ! Only other complaint is the digipak as I'd prefer regular quad plastic jewel case. But super fast shipping and receiving for this custie Touch Head and I'd gladly do it again!

That Mike - Mott the Hoople were more of a mainstream band in England, having 4-5 hits between 1972 and 1974. They straddled the pop-rock divide, appealing to both the long haired rock crowd as well as the fashion conscious 14 year old.

The Dead were much more obscure in my world-I only found out about them through reading a music paper in 1974-the N.M.E. There was a great feature on them by Nick Kent, who basically wrote them off as being flag bearers for the hippie era. Sounded fascinating to me! It was a good example of what I think of as the "reverse effect syndrome" whereby someone inadavertanly promotes something, and makes it more interesting, by critizing whatever it is they are writing about.
The reverse is also true-the more someone praises something, often, the less attractive the thing they are praising comes across. Dave Lemieux take note!

DaveRock - I get what you mean on reverse effect syndrome. For me, it is sometimes the “who” that is doing the writing or talking about that catches my attention. These are often the so-called “musicians musicians” you hear about, that the public didn’t care about (like that matters anyways), but the artists are absolutely fantastic when you dig into their catalogue, guys like Richard Thompson, Buddy Miller, Townes Van Zant, Ry Cooder etc. The Dead were such a band in a way, a niche audience. Growing up, it was all Led Zep and Van Whaling and Aerosmith for most of my contemporaries; the Dead were an acquired taste, but once you had it, well, here we all are all these years later!

PS - I passed that info on the Art album to my bro-in-law who is the Spooky Tooth fan, and wow, that is quite the trippy album cover. I also learned Gary Wright - friend to George Harrison, and ST guy - was American. I never knew that, I’ve always thought he was from England. For my next trivia night…

On my copy of disc three, at about 6:20 on Desolation Row, the vocals get extremely distorted for a couple seconds, and then it happens again at about 6:40. Anybody else have this problem?

I’ve mentioned that there’s a strange echo on the vocals on several tracks (including Desolation). If this is something Healy was doing on purpose, well, no wonder he got fired. We’re not talking about a little reverb or anything like that. It sounds like the kind of echo you hear when a band is playing a large space and the vocals are bouncing off the back wall about half second later. Which is not THAT much of a problem, you kind of get used to it. But this distortion I’m getting at 6:20-6:45 is very distracting, really jerks you out of the mood of the tune. Is my disc 3 defective? (Haven’t got to 4 yet, 1 and 2 were fine.)

It’s Healy

Not so sure that was a wise trade.

Tuch for Eichel? Are the GKnights still mad about Tuch not lifting the puck against Holtby?

Eichel is expensive and always hurt.

....that trade sucks ass. My 2 cents. Trading for a guy with a broken neck. Ugh.

Never accept a $3 bill or a player in a trade with pending back/neck surgery - see Nathan Horton.
Buffalo - 1
Vegas - 0

Now where is my DaP #40!?!?

I would rate this above average Dap. It really gets grooving. Jerry was definitely having a good time. I now know to shut my gob when it comes to the 90s shows. I've seen them at all the boston garden 90s shows and remember jerry smiling at most of them, Until the day i had wrist bands for tickets for the the 95 shows but never got to use it. I am even getting emotional thinking about it. What a horrible day it was. I kept that wristband on till it fell off naturally. Even my mom cried. Long live jerry.

Crow, looks like you got your answer, but yes I get distortion around the same time and about 10 sec later.
Ha! Desolation Row is not on my hit list, but I remember thinking this is a really nice DR, I’m groovin on this..then the equivalent of a record needle traveling across a record jolted me out. Ahh well.
Otherwise some great stuff so far!

You should check out the 91 Boston Garden shows, especially the 26th!
Good sheet Mon!

Big fan of both Dylan in general and the GD's take on Desolation Row. How did bobby remember the words?

He had them written on his shirt cuff!

we got 9/25/91 instead

wtf

(yes, that's a whine)

I’ve often wondered if that line about “playing electric violin on Desolation Row” was about John Cale, who Dylan would have met while hanging around with Edie at the Factory.

It’s a fine Desolation Row on #40, even in spite of the [BLOOOOSH!] audio oddities [KER-BLOOMP!] that pop up around the 6:30 mark. Healy, you bastard!

Really really liked 7/18/90, it might become my “go to” when I want to hear Brent. The next night is at least equally good in terms of performance, I just like the set list the first night better. To nitpick a little: seems like they could’ve edited the lengthy Drums>Space to find time for that missing US Blues. I’m pretty sure Drums has been edited in previous DaPs.

Praise be to Nero’s Neptune! the Titanic sails at dawn.

I don’t recall the show dates but he would also distort Bob’s vocals during The Other One. It kind of worked on that song to make it a little weirder (Weir’d-er), but overall it was unnecessary and detracted from the music.

Received DaP40 about a week ago and have had time to digest it. Very good selection, but I’ve come to realize that Dave & I have different tastes! He states in the Seaside chat that if only one show were released, it would have been the 2nd night. IMHO, the first night is FAR superior, in both play and song selection. All in all, best “late years” pick yet!

Will do. Thanks.

50 years ago today…..

November 6, 1971
Harding Theater, San Francisco, California

Set 1: Bertha-Me And My Uncle-Sugaree-Jack Straw-Tennessee Jed-El Paso-Loser-Playing In The Band-Cumberland Blues-Black Peter-Beat It On Down The Line-Deal-Mexicali Blues-Sing Me Back Home-One More Saturday Night

Set 2: Ramble On Rose-Me And Bobby McGee-Cryptical Envelopment>drums>The Other One>Cryptical Envelopment>Comes A Time-Sugar Magnolia-Brown-Eyed Women-Not Fade Away>Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad>Not Fade Away

A solid, well played show, with a blazing Bertha opener, nice first set versions of Black Peter and Sing Me Back Home (the last SMBH of 1971), a complete Cryptical/Other One/Cryptical suite (which sweetly goes into Comes A Time [an unusual coupling]), and a typically November-nice NFA suite (according to Dick Latvala himself, “One of the most exciting versions.”).

Definitely recommended!!!

And, incidentally, dedicated to Hugo Winterhalter….

Rock on!!

Doc
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions…..

Hello all, I bought 2 Get Shown the Light box sets way back when they were originally released ... I hate the packaging, hate the way the discs slide in and out of those way too big cases ... for a long time I've kept the second box unopened, thinking it might be valuable someday (then they released the all music edition) ... so I've struggled with the 5 5 77 show for years, the second disc simply will not play ... so I opened the second box today, went right to 5 5 77 disc 2, and lo and behold, same exact thing, defective, won't play ... disc 1 plays fine, but the 5 5 77 disc 2 from both copies of the box set I bought will not play ... I can't imagine that I'm the only person with this issue, given my 0 for 2 performance on the same disk from 2 different box sets ... This is beyond frustrating. Has anybody else had issues with 5 5 77 disc 2?

DaP #40 has just been delivered to me in the UK by Royal Mail.
Strangely, Royal Mail tracking stills tells me they are expecting it from Switzerland. They have been saying this since 28th October.
The important thing is that it is here and I should be able to play it tomorrow.

I responded on the Subscription page.