Grateful Dead

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Shouldn't be surprised with a '71 release... First six releases from the previous series: Dick's Picks: 73 71 77 70 79 83 Downloads: 77 70 71 76 88 68 Road Trips: 79 77 71 78 90 68 Dave's Picks: 77 74 71 ?? .. .. Curiously, this year there was no Spring vault release. There wasn't one last year, either, but considering they put out the E72 that is understandable.

Hey cmd, I am going to check out some of the shows you listed.thanks for the tip. I know there were some good shows in that relatively weak period. I was really trying to point out that the 70's were so hot that it is not surprising that releases are so heavy to the time period. I have listened to the entire Europe 72 box set and I struggle to pick a best or worst show. They were all so great. Back to back killer shows. I am so thrilled with that set. If they were to release a set of 20 or so consecutive shows from the 80's.....I would not be able to bring myself to pay $450 for it. I would purchase great shows from the 80's and even maybe two or three consecutive shows if the reviews were good. But I would not have confidence in anything too large. If they want me to put down another 450 and have the music be from the 80's the only thing I could imagine is a set with two of the best shows from each year. That might open my wallet. Once you hit 89>91 my wallet would open for a large Europe run. Thanks for the show recommendations I will have to check some or all of them out

Hey cmd, I am going to check out some of the shows you listed.thanks for the tip. I know there were some good shows in that relatively weak period. I was really trying to point out that the 70's were so hot that it is not surprising that releases are so heavy to the time period. I have listened to the entire Europe 72 box set and I struggle to pick a best or worst show. They were all so great. Back to back killer shows. I am so thrilled with that set. If they were to release a set of 20 or so consecutive shows from the 80's.....I would not be able to bring myself to pay $450 for it. I would purchase great shows from the 80's and even maybe two or three consecutive shows if the reviews were good. But I would not have confidence in anything too large. If they want me to put down another 450 and have the music be from the 80's the only thing I could imagine is a set with two of the best shows from each year. That might open my wallet. Once you hit 89>91 my wallet would open for a large Europe run. Thanks for the show recommendations I will have to check some or all of them out

But certainly something like Dick's Picks 21 — it couldn't have been an accident that Spoonful, Gimme Some Lovin', She Belongs to Me, and Gloria, had not been officially released before. That was a happy accident. That was a great show. And again, 1985 is a year where there are a lot of tape problems. The master tapes we have on cassette. And then we've got the PCMs, the Beta tapes, starting with the New Year's run of '82 up until about New Year's '87. We've got these digital tapes that are Betamax videotapes with no video on them, just an audio-only track. The earliest digital audio we have is from 1985. Early digital had real bass issues. It's really bass shy. We looked at quite a bit of it from that era. For instance the bonus material on Dick's Picks 21 from Rochester 9-2-80 with the tremendous Iko Iko — we thought about putting on the Space>Werewolves of London>The Music Never Stopped medley that opened the night before, and a lot of people said, "Why didn't they do that? They had 40 minutes." The reason is that the tape really lacked bass. It literally had no bass in the mix. It's those sorts of issues that rendered that specific tape unusable. So with '85 there were a few shows that I won't say we rated higher than Richmond 11-1-85, but that we equally valued, and they just didn't hold up as far as the sound quality goes. And the performance at that Richmond show is pretty amazing energy, and I think the energy that the band brought that night is what caused such an incredible set list. I don't think it was the set list that caused the energy. I think it was the band playing so incredibly tightly on that whole tour — that whole year really — that something magic happened that night and they probably walked on stage and said, "Let's mess it up a bit tonight." Hence, we got two Jerry ballads before Drums, and then the post-Space is stellar. So to get back to your question, no we didn't say, "This is a cool set list." We don't go through DeadBase looking for unusual set lists. I know the set lists as well as anyone does. I know which shows are the sought after ones. We've done polls. I'm a tape trader myself so I know what's going on, and there are quite a few people involved in the process who [provide] input. Dick's Picks 21, specifically, was both a really good show and highly sought after. It happened to be a really good sounding tape, and it was very popular. With so much circulating now there's not really much left in the way of surprises. You know the criteria used to be: performance, then sound quality, then sound mix, and then the song selection. The fact is at number 22 in the Dick's Picks series we're not going to really find much in the way of songs that haven't been put out. Read more: Interview from the Vault - A Conversation with David Lemieux (Part One) http://www.musicbox-online.com/dl-vault1.html#ixzz1yj7okLIA

That pretty much takes care of this whole debate about why other eras have not been released. Sad, really, that the band had so many issues with recording their own performances. They had such a gold standard set by Betty Cantor. They should have paid somebody to be on tour to do what she did (I know, Healy was that person and he screwed up) if they didn't want her around anymore. Don't know what the story was there and don't want to, just sayin'.

That's a great interview, thanks for the link darkstartheotherone. One of the more revealing comments to me is that a multi-track show takes about 8 weeks to mix properly. This is a bit of a glimpse into how much effort went into the Europe 72 Box. And the result- A lifetime of treasure.

I've been trying to figure out why they went so cheap on the production end of the E72 box. From that comment it looks like they blew the budget on mixing the shows. If Norman was the man he must have reaped on that project! I can live with the cheaply constructed (no felt?) box that has bowed in already but the cheap cardboard and cheap quality CDs are unforgivable. The holy grail is the holy grail though.

It never bothered me that the Dead releases were always 72-78, my favorite period, but I know lots of folk who never heard the 70s Dead and would like a 80s show, right? Did they not record the eighties? I mean, you think that recording devices would improve as time traveled. When did Betty Cantor Stop? I have seen good videos from the eighties, so i know they still sounded good, in ways better in ways worse.

More like 4 days in this case! Listen to Jeffrey Norman tell us about the treadmill me was on the mix E72. He was on a schedule to mix one song per hour! http://www.dead.net/features/news/checking-again-europe-72-mixing-engin…

All three of the current Dave's Picks circulate in pristine form in the trading community. While I tend to steer clear of post 82 shows myself the folks at rhino are seriously neglecting a large % of the fanbase by their selections. Honestly, the level of excellence in the online community now precludes any need for "official" releases imho.