Grateful Dead

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It was not Dan Healy's decision to stop sending Betty on tour with the band to make a separate recording mix. Just trying to be fair here.

With a 77-74-71 arc, I don't think Volume Four will be an early release. It's tempting to toss the Zenith show from 10/27/90 into the mix, or perhaps the Berkeley show from 11/2/84. Maybe 9/18/87 from MSG. I think any of these three are more likely than an early release for Volume Four. The exception though is if there's a recent Box Set announced. Like Spring of 90 for example, or an early 80's Box. Then all bets are off, and it would seem more likely Volume Four is a release from 68-69.

True, I do include the individual E72 releases. If we take those out of the equation and just count it as one, because yes, I did get the big box, then that breaks down to of 25 releases, 20 of them are from the same time frame. I listen to the 5 non '71-'79 releases disproportionately more ofetn than all of the the other 20 releases. I just wish I had as many choices commercially available to enjoy as outside of that bubble. On another point brought up, there are plenty of great sounding recordings post '79. Certainly by the time they upgraded to the digital beta format in the early '80s, or even the famously leaked video feed recordings all sounded immaculate to my ears. Certainly better fidelity than the Dillon Stadium Hartford '74 release. It just feels to me that as a fan of post '79, myself, or anybody in my particular demograph are being mostly ignored in favor of those who couldn't get over Brent being brought into the band. Back when the E72 box was announced, blairj had entertained the idea that Spring '90 would make a great box, and I fully agree, but if they were to do that, there would be a ridiculous amount of flak from those who wanted a Fall '77 box, or a Fall '72 box or whatever. I am beginning to think that the prospect for a Spring '90 box release is slim to nil. Thanks to Archive.org, the tape snobs have no control over whats traded, or what I want to stream. Now it feels like their negative energies are directed towards influencing TPTB to only release one small 7 year slice from a 30 year pie. At this point, I would have preferred a '95 release over yet another one from '71-'79, even with me joining the consensus that it very well is the worst year for the Dead, just to have something different. Imagine the complaints if and when TPTB do decide to ignore the tape snobs and actually release something outside of the bubble and release something from a year like '86 or '95. In regards to the time frame of studio album output vs concert recordings, true, they did only release two albums of new music over the last 14 years. But they also released 3 great studio albums before the '70-'79 bubble. If it's a matter of fishing for rarities and uncirulated items, it seems that '65-'69 is a potential treasure trove, which is almost equally and disproportionately under represented as '80-'88, and those Owsley boards are every bit as good if not better than the Betty boards, or whomever else handled recording duties during the '70s. I was really hoping that the DaP series would be more representive of the Dead's history on a whole, but it appears not to be the case, at least so far. If the 4th and final installment of this years subscription falls after '69 and before '80, I very well may opt out in 2013, unless there's mention that those 4 sets, including any bonus disc, will be concentrated on any decade, except the '70s, then I won't hesitate to renew. I don't doubt that the real top shelf cream of the crop shows surface has barely been scratched. Most of these '71-'79 releases just feel like a whole lot of filler to me. bambini asks - "The last 16 years there were two albums written and produced with nearly half the songs being Brent's songs. Can any fan honestly compare the latter songs with the pre 1980 songs from the band(?)." I'll say yes, the post '80 studio albums are fantastic, especially Brents contributions and in my less than humble opinion, Go To Heaven, In The Dark and Built To Last are equally as great as everything else they recorded. I actually prefer In The Dark to Shakedown Street. Brents writing had way more depth and emotion than Donna's contributions. Heck, almost everything Brent contributed was oozing with real raw emotion. He seemed like an emotional guy. I like all era's. My wishes are for more variety. The shows from '71 and '73 that bambini mentions are all great, but we already have plenty of releases from those years/eras. There are other years with equally as great, and with maybe even better shows, that are completely unrepresented/ignored. Thats why I'm considering opting out for a while. The lack of variety is becoming unappealing to me.