Grateful Dead

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Is this box now sold out? They list it, but it seems like that is just some old data. Great set. I love it, but I don't have it physically. Not a huge deal, but it is very lovely.

I just received my edition of the Northwest Complete Recordings 73 74. Showed up without tracking or any email confirmations . So Glad You Made It. Can't Wait.

I have the vinyl too. Grate companions to the CD Box.

I keep going back to this box - superb. Especially the 1974 shows. I went so far as to get 5/19/74 and the Playing in the Band from 5/21/74 on vinyl. There are a few problems with vocals on both, but this matters not a jot. The playing, as you say, from all band members, is absorbing. After 1970 they only needed Bill on drums.

I also agree with icecrmcnkd - a box of October 1974 with bells and whistles would make a great release.

But it’s now time, Dave, for the Complete Winterland October 74 Box - audio, video, and bonus material.
Bring it on.

... just wanted to share how delighted I am with the music in this set, and encourage anyone who’s not taken the plunge to just go ahead and get it already.

There’s been some chatter in another thread about how long it’s taking to sell out this box, and all I can say is that, as much as I love ’73 and ’74, I didn’t order mine till Rhino put it on sale. Maybe some people are settling for the 3-disc version, which is understandable, given the difference in price and given that they did manage to include some very high highlights (including the 45 minute PITB!) in that set.

Also causing some hesitation for me was the packaging. Don’t get me wrong: it’s beautiful! The art work is amazing. But speaking as someone who already has problems finding shelf space for my CDs, I wasn’t sure where I’d put this giant box. (In case anybody upstairs is listening: I thought the June 1976 box really hit the sweet spot between packaging that was elaborate enough to make the box feel special but also small enough to not cause problems.)

Anyway, the music. The MUSIC. For me, this era was flat out the best the band ever sounded, and it’s an incredible joy to hear them in such fine audio. There are a few “surprises,” the kind of vocal drop outs and oddities in the mix that would’ve rated a “caveat” back in the Dick’s days. Mostly, these are very temporary, and in all cases the sound is really really good once everybody settles in. As usual, Jerry’s louder than Bob, but you can hear them both very distinctly, and they constantly (constantly!) are playing their asses off. Phil’s on fire throughout. And BK? He makes a solid case here that the Dead never needed another drummer. Keith comes through nicely, and plays well. I suppose we could say that the vocals were erratic during this period, and I would admit that’s true here. But the singing is mostly good to great, and man oh man, the band sounds fantastic!

I’ve only listened to each show once so far—given the complaints about missing discs and whatnot, I felt like I should make a point of listening all the way through to make sure nothing was amiss—so I’m not really ready to call out a favorite show, or even favorite tunes. But I will say that the PITBs, the Bird Songs, the Eyes, the China-Riders are all, for me, as good as they get. Their playing was so spontaneous, so open, so powerful, so much soul, so imperfectly perfect.

Yes, I suppose there are other, equally worthy eras. But man, ’73 and ’74 were beautiful.

The hour or so of music from He's Gone through the end of Wharf Rat is one of the top 5 hours of music the dead ever played.

There, I said it. This box is worth every penny for that hour of music alone.

Pacific northwest show disc 1 song 11 Jack straw four minutes and 35 seconds there is a skip defect in the disc. Is there any way getting a replacement cd for the box set I bought.

Testing with Lossless Audio Checker shows the June 1976 FLAC download in 24/192 format ( https://store.dead.net/music/digital/june-1976-flac-192-24-1.html ) and the Pacific Northwest '73-'74- The Complete Recordings FLAC download in 24/192 ( https://store.dead.net/music/boxed-sets/pacific-northwest-73-74-the-com… ) to be "Upsampled." I have notified Jeffrey Norman and Rhino. I sent Jeffrey the logs of the LAC test results showing 80% of the June 76 files being upsampled. While he was very nice in his response, he had no explanation for the finding. Rhino has not responded to any e-mails. It is important to note that the files on both test “Clean” after downsampling to 24/96, which, likely, means the files, were originally digitized at 24/96 or digitized at 24/192 and downsampled to 24/96 for mastering. Whatever the case Rhino needs to disclose this fact on their web site or change the files for sale to 24/96.

Check out Rhino for sale through this weekend