Grateful Dead

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First my condolences for our friends across the pond. Increasingly sounds fubar.
That being said this years picks have been pretty good. #29 Swing is great. #30 is great except the vocals are all isolated far right but this is still a great release. #31 is listenable. Not bad for an archival release series in its 10th year. I am going to buy in again no doubt.
An unrelated question...Does the location of the instruments in the mix ever bother you? Or is it just me? I've noticed in a lot of 73 recordings (Winterland 73 being a perfect example) Bob's guitar is isolated hard left, a place he never was in 73. Am I too anal?

I find placement weird sometimes and there's nothing wrong being anal :-) In the end the recording is the recording and unless you're Charlie Miller it's pretty damn hard to change.

My kid sent me this one and I thought about our polite friends across the water and DaP31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTnZIRnNlRI

....Dennis. That was awesome! I've liked that song for quite some time. Now I like it even more! Time to share.

The Mind Body Spirit Festival sounds like the perfect environment to listen to this music. As I understand it, Rainbow Dome Music was a foundational influence for The Orb and the chill out/ambient music of the late 1980s-early 1990s. Steve Hillage and his excellent bands/recordings were effortlessly ahead of the curve. His music, from 1969 up to the first System 7 album in 1991 is beautifully chronicled in the Searching for the Spark box set.

I have just had a look online to see about the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival-I have never been to one, although I vaguely knew of them. Apparently it is still going.

OK so UPS turned up today with my CD's wanting £73.92, which I refused to pay. They took the cd's away. I have spent almost an hour on the phone to UPS, and the charge is not for duty or taxes as indicated on UPS Tracker Comments but for shipping said UPS Person 3, but apparently applied by Customs and not UPS (said Person 4) ). I was told that £73.92 was to correct charge by UPS Person 3 and I should have checked the calculator.

I see from one retailer web site they offer 3cd's using UPS Worldwide Express/Saver for $59.99 (aproc 30% cheaper that the current invoice). So Rhino have signed up for a studidly expensive postage service?

A lot of hassle and no futher forward except i now have "the receiver does not want the product and refused the delivery" on my UPS tracker - which is not quite true - I want the package but as I have already paid postage to Rhino I shouldn't have have paid any more for the delvery as the charge is for shipping and not Duty or Taxes.

**** **** ****

Today UPS delivered Vol 31 without any further charges in the second attempt! Goin' to listen to the music right now after so many problems and lots of trouble!

Are things finally being sorted out?? My tracking has just changed from "Your package will be held at a warehouse until it is released by the clearance agency" to "This package is being held for a future delivery date / Delivery will be rescheduled". Still asking for the fee to be paid though.

Dave’s Picks 31 NOT sorted in the UK. I refused to pay the £73, and emailed UPS to explain that Rhino should pay. UPS say they know nothing about this, and they will only hold DP31 for 10 days.
I have also emailed Dr Rhino 2+ days ago, and have not had any reply. A complete fiasco so far.

Thru UPS

UPS used to have (maybe still do) a slogan

"What can Brown do for you?"

Many possible snarkys

Ups color theme is brown

A connection to Woodstock's brown acid is easy to see

"UPS: the brown acid of the shipping business"

Ultimately UPS is the culprit
And
Whoever thinks charging 90$ in shipping fees FOR A PACK OF 3 CD'S is acceptable, needs...something.

DP31 has just been delivered to my buddy in Northumberland, UK, by Royal Mail & without additional charges. I have still heard nothing from either UPS or Dr Rhino. At this point it would just be nice to get some honest answers as I feel the silence from Rhino is deafening!

is working hard on slaying the relevant dragons here and getting things fixed. In the meantime, the official advice is to refuse the shipment. So sorry for all this. One way or another...

thanks you marye,
hope everything will be some kind of exactly perfect over here in europe with the delivery of this pick.
perhaps next week?

Yes, Thanks Marye, there will no doubt be an awful lot of people who have their fingers crossed that a small(ish) packet
arrives in their letter box in the next few days or so.

Having sent back my CD to UPS warehouse, I emailed Dr Rhino. Today, UPS guy came back with my precious parcel, with POSTAGE PAID scrawled on it in blue felt tip. Thanks Dr Rhino for sorting this out.

the complete opposite of polite version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGV1xYJFAEI&feature=youtu.be

I’ve just ordered the Hillage and Gong box sets. I resisted the Hillage for some time because we have all the studio albums on vinyl and cd and some of the live cds as well. I looked at it again and the book and other live cds made me buy. The flying teapot trilogy albums by Gong are amongst our 1000 or so top ten albums ( who can have 10)

2nd time thru 12 3 79 official release

Perfectly awesome show

I don't think you will be disappointed with Searching For The Spark. Its actually got two books-one a very well produced hard back. If you order from the planetgong website-you also get a poster signed by Steve and Miquette.
There is the little matter of postage, of course, buying off them.
I have also ordered the Gong box set off planetgong, which includes a massive poster of the picture on the back of "You", also seen to the left of this post. This may have been a bit rash-it cost £20.00 in postage, and I am not sure what I will do with the massive poster. Still.
Yes, those three Flying Teapot albums are the ones. But I would also include "Camembert Electrique" as being indispensable too. And their contribution to the live Glastonbury Fayre album from 1971 has to be one of the maddest recordings ever made. It is, or was, available as a stand alone release a while back.

Been through it once and most of it twice. Enough to comment.

Perfectly fine show. Not fantastic, but not awful either. As a fan of Althea & Scarlet, the lyrical disaster on both songs is disappointing. But hardly some anomoly in GD shows. Heck, they had to stop doing St. Stephen & Help because Jerry couldn't keep the lyrics straight & those songs need the verses in the right order.

I do like the fact that Dave was willing to go for a cassette master. Sound quality, even with the patches, was not an issue for me. I am sure that opens up more shows for selection. Though those types of issues are easier to swallow with an exceptional show. Which this is not in my view. Still, there are high points (Music!).

But I get where Dave is coming from. Variety, for me, means more than just the year of the release. It means the type of release. Every release cannot be a show that is widely acclaimed & widely circulated. If that was the case, anyone could pick them. Part of the fun has to be to pick a show that is not as widely acclaimed/circulated, that you think rocks, & turn people on to it. Hey, give THIS a listen.

In my view, then 12/4 stuff is not appreciably better. Or worse. Same ballpark.

FWIW, 12/3 got 3 votes for Fav show of '79 in DB50. Which put it in a tie for 22nd-30th. They did 75 shows that year. Second quartile show. Now, perhaps it rated lower if it is not as widely distributed as others. Or perhaps other nights would be ahead of it. YMMV.

The problems with the unfortunate issues European heads are having may not be all Rhino/ WB's fault. For 70 years the world has been slowly and in fits and starts moving toward free trade. As I'm sure most know the basic idea is to remove blocks, jams bureaucracy interfering with trade between countries. The improvement for the world economy and the people has been for the most part phenomenally good. 1 extreme benefit is the fact that in 1950 70% of the world didn't have enough calories to eat to even hope for a chance at a semi heathy life. Now that number is 5%. Asia has been fully removed from the list the only area left is Africa. The point of my long-winded post is we still have a long way to go before trade and distribution look like the EU let alone between the various states. Tarrifs, distribution rules, bureaucratic rules, union rules still mess things up thus the mistakes or even the way things are currently designed ie. supposed to work are what's responsible for the issues our European brothers and sisters are frustratingly dealing with. Unfortunately in the past several years we have been speeding backwards on trade

....yet China has been ripping off other countries for decades.
My one yuan.

Could be, but my guess is someone screwed the pooch and paperwork wasn't filled out correctly. Then again, we are all speculating.

Free trade or not.. they were charging $89 US Dollars for 'shipping' for a $25 product that was purchased, shipping included. I believe this has little to do with trade policy and more to do with a clerical error.

Speaking of which.. my UPS guy tracked me down in my back yard today working my table saw to make me sign for a rhino delivery. It was a "small", pink JLo It's my party 2019 tour T Shirt with a wacky 4 page packing list and WMG Container List sheet that I think says it was supposed to be Grateful Dead / Terrapins Greek. Whatever that means.

I think these good folks, for whatever reason, make mistakes from time to time.

Both these issues sound like a snafus no matter how you look at them (no pun intended). Somebody f'd up.. sending me a small, pink, JLo T-Shirt.. Ha.

As for free trade and tariffs, I'm happy to go on for pages and hours, but another time another place perhaps.

Happy days all, may we all get our music tariff and UPS duty free. As it should be.

I finally finished my first listen, but all this talk about economics has warn me thin, perhaps tomorrow. Lets just say it is not the Frankenstein release it was made out to be.. but not a goldilocks either . It was exactly as I expected it to be.. December 79 at it's finest.. love it or leave it. The reality is, the Betty Boards from this period have been plucked and every show cannot be 2/26/77 or 1/2/70. Expect releases to come from these years from time to time.. it's the way things are going to be for some time to come.. and in hindsight, 2019 was a very good year (with one left to go).

With all the bad hype about Althea, for example, I found Garcia's finger picking extraordinary.. Purposeful tones and great, subtle dexterity and clarity of notes.. even if he was high and the song was played a little slow. Vocals aside his picking was true to form. What a great song, perhaps because of the clean, finger picking style he used. Have we lost the ability to find the diamond in the rough? It was as we should have expected.. a decent release and every now and then we will get a 79 show. As it should be.

Just this second, finished my 3rd listen.....1st thought after reading recent posts....right on Jimbo and also JWild.....Can’t really add anything to that except for the 3rd disc is worth the price of admission alone. I mean seriously if you can’t get into Lost Sailor>SOC>WharfRat>Truckin as its played here then I guess you just can’t get into it, but man....dude......it’s pretty fuckin good! And then the bonus material for 12/4....The prophet is good and I’m a sucker for all Franklins, but that jam......dude?

Edit: can’t find my damn blue Sox?

2nd Edit: I do hope all the heads over the pond get a copy quickly without additional hassle...sound like a clusterfuck...But I think most will enjoy once resolved

I have heard from reliable sources that upon finishing your fourth listen, Rhino will send you by post, duty and shipping free, a hot pink, extra small Jennifer Lopez 2019 tour t-shirt.

Wear it wisely.
(I feel this might be a ploy to keep deadheads from getting elected into public office, it just takes one selfie and it's over)

:D

Edit: It took some time, but this is the shirt Rhino sent me. Again, size = small, color = quite pink. Classic, especially if you knew me, I am 6'4

https://store.jenniferlopez.com/apparel/t-shirts-and-tanks/chambers-t-s…

Ha.

On the bright side, at least it didn't cost me $90 cash due upon delivery. Then.. because I am cheap, I would have felt obligated to wear it. In public. Several times. Until I felt I got my monies worth. Perhaps there is a god.

....until my 3rd listen. (On the tape I got back in 1990.)
All Good Things In All Good Time.
-Capt Trips.
Being picky must be a downer.
These are the Days Between....

Damn it Jim...I hope your right on the 4th listen part...I can’t possibly afford the additional $30 on top of this recent box, but I have to have this shirt for the Suds and Buds party at Sixtus’s new crib in Sudbury, with the new Dead End Sign, and the box that rocks...starting my 4th listen now!

In a nutshell that's my point. The perfect world endpoint of free trade is there won't be special papers to sign tariffs to pay etc. So yes Rhino possibly/probably filled out the wrong form, that form is there because we (the world) have many foolish impediments to trade that raises costs and slows the economy

If you make it to chez sixtus.. I will come too.

snafu, I think if you filled out the wrong paperwork here (in the US) for just a domestic transit.. they would screw the receiver also and ask for a ridiculous amount for COD. The difference is these packages are sent (almost) half way around the world, through many countries, possibly different carriers (not sure) and god knows what else.. dropping things from country to country simply costs more, even with open boarders and free trade. There are legitimate reasons to prevent a couple kilos of Fentanyl slipping from country to country.. and god forbid a joint or mushroom cap, but ….

For the record, I am a free trade person all the way, don't let my liberal stripes fool you. But I think this is just a case of someone fucking up some paperwork really badly, and less to do with nefarious geopolitics and global shipping over-regulation. Countries have different laws, and parcel is more than a small part of that. As per usual just my opinion and I reserve the right to be fall flat on my face, absolutely, smack daddy wrong. Certainly, no hard feelings meant.

Well sounds like we better get going on logistics...Sixtus, What’s your new address? Oh wait, maybe we should decide on a guest list first? We know that Jim and I will be there....I’m sure Mrs Jim and Mrs Casey might want to come as well. How many rooms do you have? I’m sure there will be many others who are interested after this post. Good thing you are buying this new house, as you are going to need the extra space for this little shin dig you got goin on....i can’t wait! Went ahead and bought the J-lo T-shirt that Jim suggested. What else can I bring?

KCJ

Just noticed that Luxembourg will be the first country in the EU to legalize cannabis for recreational use.

Started the day listening to the second half of the 3rd cd of 6/7/77 from Winterland. Starting with Morning Dew. I don't know if its me listening with more focus, but the final 4 songs of this set sound much better played than all the songs preceding them. Great Dew, this one. The actual sound is good too. Bodes well for the next two shows.

I tend to overlook this June 77 box. By the time I have worked my way through all the April/ May 77 releases, we are in September, and its time to go to Englishtown.

Hoping for a small package of something good today. That won't cost £73-92.

Could this be the cause of our DP31 delivery problems…

https://www.whathifi.com/news/open-letter-from-40-independent-record-st…

From this article: "In an effort to streamline operations, the majors and the largest independent distributors moved their services to a company called Direct Shot"

Subsequent reports of delays, missing shipments, incorrect invoicing, no system in place for rectifying the mistakes, etc.

Some observations...

1. The dead.net store has a message saying they are in the process of moving their warehouse and that there may be some delays.
2. Direct Shot are based in Franklin, Indiana.
3. DP31 was shipped from Franklin, Indiana rather than the usual Louisville, Kentucky.

Seems the Doc is finally making it just exactly perfect as DP31 number 12615 just arrived on my desk at work here in the UK with all fees paid.

Sent from Warner Music Group, 2001 Commerce Pkwy, Franklin, IN, 46131-8811 (or if you prefer Direct Shot Distribution, 2001 Commerce Pkwy, Franklin, IN, 46131-8811).

Only had half an address on the package - my name and my employers name with no city or postcode - so surprised it made it here at all!

Still waiting for mine, and have a new message from UPS re-stating outstanding import payment. I can't understand how some UK deliveries have gone through & other not??

Also have a blood-curdling message from UPS US saying the Woodstock box set is being returned to sender because of a lack of invoice.

To Mary E or anyone in charge of Dead.net.

What will happen about getting their money back to the subscribers who paid UPS the £73.92 they demanded when they came knocking on their door. I paid it on 1st August.

I have replyed to Dr Rhino's email that was sent on 31st July with the order number & tracking number but haven't received an answer yet.

Thanks.

Bill, UPS had tried to deliver mine twice over a week ago but would not leave it as the fees were outstanding. Their tracking seems to be less than useful as my delivery still had the outstanding UKP73.92 charge on it when I checked an hour before it was delivered today with all fees paid. Best advice would seem to be to ignore the invoice demand as suggested by Marye.

Seems that Direct Shot is about as competent as those yahoos in Crozet.
Anyone remember the fiascos that came with shipping from Crozet?

Good move Rhino/WMG with outsourcing your responsibilities. That’s how you get quality workmanship.
Kind of like manufacturing your CDs in Mexico to take advantage of lower labor costs and free trade. What could possibly go wrong?

At least it’s not as bad as getting your API’s from CRO’s in Asia and then having the FDA ban the sale of your drug because it contains toxic impurities.

On the bright side (of the road), at least WMG hasn’t so far burned down the Vault like Universal Music did to theirs.

Just out of interest did your tracking change to out for delivery or still show it was in the warehouse? Just wondering if it’s pointless for me to carry on checking the tracking

Tracking showed the package in the UPS Dundee warehouse for the last week. At 10:30 this morning it was still saying there was the fee to pay despite being scanned at 5:57 when the status changed from "Exception" to "In Transit".

08/08/2019 11:33 Aberdeen, United Kingdom Delivered
08/08/2019 5:57 Dundee, United Kingdom Destination Scan
07/08/2019 13:16 Dundee, United Kingdom This package is being held for a future delivery date. / Delivery will be rescheduled.
07/08/2019 13:16 Dundee, United Kingdom This package is being held for a future delivery date. / Delivery will be rescheduled.
07/08/2019 5:59 Dundee, United Kingdom Your package will be held at a warehouse until it is released by the clearance agency.
06/08/2019 6:03 Dundee, United Kingdom Your package will be held at a warehouse until it is released by the clearance agency.
05/08/2019 5:50 Dundee, United Kingdom Your package will be held at a warehouse until it is released by the clearance agency.
02/08/2019 5:59 Dundee, United Kingdom Your package will be held at a warehouse until it is released by the clearance agency.
01/08/2019 12:23 Dundee, United Kingdom The receiver doesn't accept C.O.D.s and refused the delivery. / We'll contact the sender or receiver about this delivery.
01/08/2019 5:36 Dundee, United Kingdom Destination Scan
31/07/2019 11:19 Dundee, United Kingdom The receiver doesn't accept C.O.D.s and refused the delivery.
31/07/2019 8:26 Dundee, United Kingdom Destination Scan
31/07/2019 8:03 Dundee, United Kingdom Arrival Scan

Everything OK?

that shade of pink really brings out the steely grey of his eyes. Women seldom notice because of his incredible height, but when given the chance to use a step stool they swoon. Could also be the Dudley Doright wrist watch.

KCJ...too funny - party logistics are indeed in order! We can start a lottery system after the VIP list is compiled.

You ask where we'll end up: it's on the west end of Sudbury down Rte 20, sort of across from where the Wayside Inn is, but cross Rte 20 and up the hill back in there.

Interesting fact about the Wayside Inn: It's the oldest continuously operating Inn in the USA.
Another interesting fact: Henry Ford once owned it, after the turn of the century, he tried to create a dam and aquifer system to supply running water to the Inn by damming off a stream on the hill near our destination house; apparently the dam is like 30 feet tall and randomly in the middle of the forest up there. I saw it on Google maps a few weeks ago when I was checking out the new property from satellite view and was like, that's weird, 'Dam' is randomly labeled in the middle of the forest in our side yard? Did a little research and found that historical nugget.

The house will be quite large enough for hosting fun times....we were bursting at the seams in our current place so the additional space to Blast Dead will be welcome.

KCJ - where are you located? I also saw takimoto (sp?) drives through those parts regularly as well...

Sixtus

As I said the other day. My tracking changed to in transit at least 36 hours before the CD was delivered. The tracking showed £73.92 to pay up to the van turning up outside the house and delivering it with no charge. A few minutes later tracking showed it as delivered.

So, UPS attempted delivery for the first time today. Tried to pressurise my 21 year old daughter into paying the so-called 'freight charges', and told her that on their return tomorrow that if it is not paid, that they will return the package to the sender. So, she has been instructed to advise the UPS thieves to get sending it back... .

What's peculiar here, given my reading of comments posted, is that some folks are still being asked to pay a charge, whilst others have had a delivery with no charge being made. I hope this doesn't mean that Dr Rhino is resolving this on a case-by-case basis, in which event it would suggest that you need to communicate the issue with 'him' first. I have, but others may not and still be expecting their case to be resolved.

Of course, I've had no proper reply to the three e-mails I've sent, and the silence as they say is deafening, so who knows.... .

Update regarding your Dave’s Picks Volume 31 shipment:

We apologize for the tardiness of this email.

We have made numerous attempts to confirm (or refute) with UPS that your delivery fee has been paid.

Today, UPS advised that they are in the process of releasing your shipment and it should be delivered soon. You will not have to pay any delivery fees. However, at this time they still have not provided an estimated date of delivery.

To ensure you get your copy, we are also having a quantity of replacement stock shipped to the Rhino office within the next 2 weeks.

If your shipment has not been successfully delivered by this time, we will personally ship you a numbered copy of Dave’s Picks Volume 31, via DHL.

We are very sorry for the delay, inconvenience, and runaround associated with this shipment.

We thank you for your patience and understanding.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Dr. Rhino

Well, as a UK resident who has heard nothing at all & had no communication from UPS or Royal Mail to date (it was RM that delivered my pals copy a few days ago, sans additional charges) I would like to thank Dr Rhino - and Marye also, for the reassurance that everybody should eventually receive their copy. I guess at the back of my mind, and I suspect many others too, has been the "Sold Out" notification against DP31 on the web site.

Haven't heard from LMG in a while myself. Hoping all is ok.

Everything is not OK. Check the Giants box board.

Ouch. Wishing you well.

Anyone else notice the poor transition from AUD source back into SBD source during Fire? Hilariously enough, the line Jerry's singing as Dave's transitions back to soundboard is "takes all you got just to stay on the [beat]"...and they didn't. Difficult for me to count out while listening, but I think it totally skips two beats

I’m in KC metro area on the Kansas side but very close to the MO state line. City is Overland Park, and no, believe it or not I’ve never seen a tornado....(everyone hears KS and they immediately think Wizard of Oz). I’m 42, a 76tus like you I believe? My first kinda dead show was a Furhur Fest at Sandstone circa 1997 or maybe 1998. Memory is fuzzy. I liked the Dead back then, but just the studio basics...Skeletons from the Closet, Europe 72, American Beauty, etc. Funny thing is, I had no idea what Furthur was back then. I went with a bunch of “out of circle” buddies who were all dead heads and hippy types. I was more of the jock type, clean cut, with good grades and such. Hard to believe if ya know me now. Fuck....what happened?.....I digress...back to the concert. I thought I was just attending a music/concert festival and had no idea there was a connection to the Grateful Dead until the music started to play....i do have 2 distinct memories from that day. One, the Furthur bus was there at the show in the parking lot. I had not ideas what it was, but my buddy did and this was the first time I ever heard the term Merry Pranksters...” the Merry what? who the hell are they”?!?! The 2nd thing I remember is coming into contact with a gentleman walking the concourse between the lawn and the seats. He was in full costume and his face painted like some kind of weird clown or mime. I remember being in total awe of this person, as my friend and I stopped to gawk at him while he danced his strange spinning dance. I remember my friend warning me not to take anything from him for fear of getting dosed. We were already dosed but looking back I wish I would have ignored his advice. Anyhow, I wouldn’t think about this man again until just a few months ago when I received my copy of DeadHead Stories. I think the man that I ran into might have been none other than Joseph McCord, otherwise known as Merlin. I can’t be sure and have thought about trying to message him to see if he remembers being at that show, but I doubt he would remember, probably having 100s of shows under his belt. I lost my way with the GD shortly after that, and didn’t attend another show until this past summer....a lot of missed time, but glad I finally made it!