Grateful Dead

So good to have you.
Vielen, vielen Dank
Cheers
G.

We all wish we could... Have been there.

An interesting pick, much like '81 is an interesting year. I think Jerry was in a transitional period during this time. Sort of his beginning guitar god era. He seemed to focus a lot of his playing on harder, but often shorter jams in songs like Deal, Passenger, etc. The old feel good jazzy anthems could still be found, but more and more of the punk influenced, harder edged Jerry really started to fly in 80 - 81. Substances might have influenced this as did guitar modifications and sound system changes, but I think most of it was Jerry listening to what was around him and absorbing some of what he heard and letting it come through in his playing.

By 82 they had like 4 1/2 minute The Other Ones and the days of 4-hour shows were pretty much over. And so begins 1980's Grateful Dead. There is nothing like pre-hiatus GD, don't get me wrong. But I like the 80's, and I like my 80's GD loud and proud. Althea was especially good during this period, and it's a twofer, which seems to be part of the release model these days. Two for the price of one.

I wasn't a fan of the magnets; they were pricy and I had no place to put them.

I bought them all, got there too late today and I guess I will not be getting the last (hopefully) of the magnets!!

Damn!

Maybe a hatchet next year?

It sure feels like Christmas today! I've been hoping for Europe 81 shows for a very long time. I had most of the Europe 81 tour on cassette years ago. All of them were unbalanced, with mostly keyboard and bass, almost no Jerry or Bob. But we really enjoyed them anyway!

My pet theory has always been they were part of a multitrack. Or was it just a mistake? For a whole tour, without anyone noticing though? It's a bit confusing.

And, to top it off, Dave was strangely mute about that well-known factoid. He mentioned "more to come" in his chat. So, is that 1981, or Europe, or both?). Perhaps the liner notes will shed some light on this too.

another post-hiatus Europe release (a la 55)

let's listen, baby!

Jim, MD, isn't that a TV show? Seriously, good insights on Jer's style. The evolution of the band and its individual members is indeed a fascinating, multifaceted topic. On the one hand, these guys couldn't deliver Dark Stars ala Feb/Mar '69 forever or they would've been faking it or repeating themselves. As Jer once said, he doesn't play any song's riffs the same twice because, he said, he could never remember how to do that. In reality, he was too good to repeat himself and treated the songs in any particular show as something new and unique. Then there's the players' choice of instruments, which changed. Setlists changed. And, as Jim astutely pointed out, there's the cultural and greater musical context that was always changing. Also, if you spent the mid-60s to the mid-70s often in outer space, shorter and punchier must have been an attractive option. A four-minute Other One served as an exciting transitional piece rather than the visiting-another-planet option. Side note: In the 12-26-81 show I prattle on about, I think it might be Red Rooster, Bob takes a shaky turn on slide per the usual, then Jer takes over on slide and pretty much steamrolls Bob -- maybe a little tension release after too many Bob slide "moments," since no one would tell Weir to cool it? Heh heh...

And we go out with a four-disc, two-show bang. I'm pleased. (Like that matters...)

Okay now I'm babbling, cheers, HF

P.S. Hats off to marye. Love your easy-goin' style and glad we're all back in a forum again.

A real good one!'
PLAY DEAD
PLAY DEAD LOUD
PLAY DEAD PROUD

This release gives me hope for another European show, 1981-10-13, Rüsselsheim, close to Frankfurt.
44 years ago, yesterday.
I was there and very close to the stage. The venue was pretty small and the sound was outstanding clear.
Very good memories...............
Cheers G.

A little over three years before my first show. The only shows I caught outside of the USA were at Copps Coliseum in 92. I imagine they were special engagements in Europe in person.

I remember driving through Arkansas in March of long ago with the Maxells sounding mighty fine. These are going to be good, very, very good. As they say, thanks in advance.

Just got home from a long day at work and no cell phone. Dave does it again. Another surprise for sure. I guess they did have some good sounding recordings of E81! Fantastic, can't wait. Hope it sells out quickly.

According to my receipt for the Dave's Picks Subscription for 2025, the official release date for DP56 is 10/30/2025.

And don’t know if I’ve ever listened to the copies on my HD.
So, new to me.
I like ‘81, and listened to 3-9-81 vinyl a few days ago.
And 4 CD’s too.
Thanks Dave and Co.

And, Let’s Go Red Wings!

How many are made? They do sell out quick.

Will NOT be mid in these shows. Nice finale from Dave this year.

The announcement today said there would be 25,000 numbered copies. Don't know how many will be available for the 2026 subscription. That remains to be seen.

was my exact thought after I opened the email this morning (was grooving on the 2/26/81 Set I from the Uptown in the Tapers'). All in on this one!!

Gotta love it!
Also another foreign shores release in the Dave's series, the second in a row & one of only two. So far,.....

2 fine shows - however, I hope we get the two final nights next year as I think they are the better shows.. In another 2 weeks or so - we shall know vol. 57 - maybe spring 1978.. BW to all from Copenhagen..

Danehead - there speaks my mind - although I may be partial. But any show that opens with Mississippi Half Step - Franklins has a lot going for it.

It was March 1981 that Paul Morley interviewed Jerry for the N.M.E. Morley spent the whole interview trying and failing to upstage him with his misguided attempts to appear cool.

Curiously, in 1981 in England, there was a so called psychedelic revival going on. New bands like The Teardrop Explodes, Echo and The Bunnymen and The Soft Boys all released great albums that owed more to the 13th Floor Elevators and The Doors than Iggy and The Stooges. The night before I saw The Dead, I went a club called, if I remember rightly, The Groovy Cellar. Packed to the rafters with young people dressed in paisley shirts, mini skirts, granny glasses, all dancing to records like Paint It, Black and Somebody To Love. Good fun - but it was a fad and the following year it was replaced by something else.

Thanks for getting the ball rolling Marye. I'm pleased with the selection. Especially so that it's a two-fer! I'm tempted to get a head start on the Sacrlet>Fire>Sailor>Saint, but I think I'm gonna wait for the "cleaned-up" version.
This is always a fun time of year. The last Dave's pick, the next year's subscription notice, and the 30 Days starting on 11/1.

I have no idea why I didn't go to these shows. I was living quite close by at the time. I saw some great shows by great bands at The Rainbow, just not these.

First, thanks for the Twofer! Really appreciate it!
Only fair to accentuate the positive and not just the negatives…
Again, my beef is with the horrible service and lack of empathy etc
But love all eras, as long as their top shows, and sonically good. (But sorry, oversaturated on 77 ; )
That being said, in the spirit of fun and DH discourse, I’m with Danehead, I found these good, but thought the other Two jolly old England shows superior, Perhaps RJ even? Caveat being as I try to hear them all I don’t always go deep, so looking forward to doing that.
But really appreciate that he’s hitting years that have, comparatively, been underrepresented. But I bet we’ll see those other two along with more spring 81 at some point as Dave seems to have a pattern of filling in holes trying to complete most of certain worthy tours.
Now if we could get some primal/68, 85, and perhaps late summer and fall/Philly 89 ; )
Oh, and 69 and 70 lol. Still really digging DaP 43! (and 49) Would give up my front seat in hell for some of the superior shows I was at ; )
(I know, I’m a greedy Ho)

Oh, and once again, nice job Jimbo. I’ll just add with the GD ALWAYS filtered what was current musically in their own Alembic/distillation alchemy kinda way.(Any musician who listens to a wide variety of music usually does, it’s kind of unavoidable!)
Often subtlety, but sometimes more obvious i.e., the CSN American Beauty type acoustic vocal oriented era, or even a little disco lol, influencing so much music during those times.
Ya know, “come hear uncle John’s band, PLAYING TO THE TIMES”…yet another truly great thing about the band: their ability to try to keep it fresh and not let old standards get stale.
Always drove me bat shit crazy when the press etc would just spew the misinformed “non evolving, stuck in nostalgia, stuck in the sixties” complete BS!
God bless tiny Tim and the GOGD!
ONWARD!…through the fog

Would any of you in the know care to comment on the choice of these two shows at the start of the four show run as opposed to the third and fourth shows? I have not heard any of them so I will need to do some listening. We know Dave’s dictum about quality of performance over set list. But the set lists on night three and four definitely look a little more interesting on paper.. anyone here familiar with the quality of the playing on these four shows. And given that there are four, would all of them together have made a fine box set?

Just did ; )

True! I will need to start listening to these on the archive in order to get a sense of the detailed and nuanced differences between the four shows. I guess I’ll start with the fourth one.

Also kind of a silly question and impossible to know because he probably won’t tell us, but is it possible that David Lemieux has listened to every show in the vault? And if there are shows that he doesn’t know, are there shows that nobody knows?

Played set 2 of the vinyl release last night.

....I finally found it! Saved to my favorites. Why? Because this one of my favorite sites on the interweb!
RIP Ace Frehley. Fell and hit his head. Brain bleed. That sucks
Most talented KISS member imo.

I feel so lucky. The 2 artists (well 2 1/2 Jerry is of course separate) that if nothing else existed I could live in audio bliss forever all have excellent release programs. In addition to all the wonderful Dead and Jerry stuff Zappa continues to blow me away. Looking forward to the 78 Halloween shows coming out next week

I just did my annual. Huge amount of tests every single one is excellent. I have no right to be this healthy after the life I’ve lived. Yo really can abuse the crap out of yourself for 65 years then spend a few years cleaning up then the next 5 reaping the benefits. NO not really just lucky but I’m healthier than guys on my crew that are 40 and call me grandpa🤣🤣. My biggest fear is falls I have neuropathy ( not sugar -88 A1c 5.4 back surgery from loading airplanes a good part of my life. Now I hand out pieces of paper and tell others to do it 😆. It takes a lot of people my age and up. Joe Lieberman I think last year.

I've never been a Kiss fan, but I gotta respect their success.

....not very familiar with this run, so Im excited. '81 Jerry shreds his axe.
The rainbow bridge dragon cover is very cool.
But I like dragons and rainbows and the GOGD, so very biased. A print would be neat.

Space ACE!

I've never met a Brown Eyed Woman I wouldn't at least take out to dinner.

A great song.

Yes, I realize it's not on this release, It just popped into my head. Wishful thinking.

Thanks for the heads up. Not sure why I don't get email about these things?

Order the 78 box from the Frank site, they had the other 3 (73, 81 and 77). I got the 77 back in the day,,,, going for 300 bucks on franks site!

What surprised me was if you bought 78, you could get 66% off 73 and 81!! Didn't have so at the price reduction, send them!

The wife will not be happy!!!

never a kiss fan but Ace had chops, rip. John Lodge, what can I say, another great has passed. Rip John, you will be missed.

Interesting to consider, as Daverock did, that there was something of a psychedelic revival happening in some cities back in '81.

In California there was this thing we called the Paisley Underground, with bands that were heavily influenced by Love, Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, and other '60s groups. Some of 'em I really liked (Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green on Red). Some of 'em got pretty big (the Bangles, Opal (in the form of Mazzy Star)). A cool little scene for a short period of time, didn't realize it was also happening in England.

Anyway, I'm starting to realize '81 was a better music year than I realized. Finally got around to listening to the Hartford '81 show in the big box and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It was one of the very last shows I got around to mainly because it starts off with perhaps my least favorite GD song, Feels Like a Stranger.

BUT ... the rest of 3.14.81 is really enjoyable. Definitely a more concise, higher energy version of the Dead. So now I'm looking forward to hearing those Rainbow shows. Although it probably would've been even cooler if the Dead had jumped on the Paisley Underground trend and treated us to Cream Puff War or at least Viola Lee.

The Moody Blues: AWESOME band

from Rock Show, Paul McCartney and Wings

Crow - both Cream Puff War and Viola Lee Blues would have been more in synch with what was happening in Britain in 1981 than anything off Go To Heaven. The two albums that would have chimed most with the times may have been the first album and Aoxomoxoa. Nobody was getting within spitting distance of Anthem.

The other aspect of psych music around circa 1981 was represented by psychedelic compilations. Mainly of garage or what became known as psych beat the first of these was Chocolate Soup For Diabetics. It was a collection of rare tracks from 1966-1968. It was basically a bootleg - the sound quality wasn't that great, and the compilers took liberties like adding the spoken intro to Arthur Brown's Fire to a totally unrelated track. It has been surpassed 100 times over by better albums with the same remit, but at the time it was indispensible. I wouldn't part with my copy for love or money.
The contemporary album of modern psych bands available at the time was called A Splash of Colour. The cover was good...but it wasn't a patch on real 60's music.

How about ordering more magnet ticket stubs.

I agree!

We should see this drop this week and the announcement of #57.

What will they lead off with this time?

2/17/79 & 4/22/79, double release. Probably not, but it would be cool.

Any 79 would be welcome Billy.

I would lean towards that late fall run. A lot of great shows to mine.

5/18/77

3/29/68 & 3/30/68? Right?

My 2 cents is that all the raw stuff has been released

So many hot shows are not releaseable for whatever reasons the PTB see as legitimate

Welp...I'll enjoy what I have and hope for more heat

God bless the Grateful Dead

....pretty neat! Especially the back of the helmets.
They are asking everyone attending that game to wear tie-dyes.
I'll be watching that game.