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What's Inside:
•144-page paperback book with essays by Nicholas G. Meriwether and Blair Jackson
•A portfolio with three art prints by Jessica Dessner
• Replica ticket stubs and backstage passes for all eight shows
•8 complete shows on 23 discs
•3/14/90 Capital Centre, Landover, MD
•3/18/90 Civic Center, Hartford, CT
•3/21/90 Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, Ontario
•3/25/90 Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY
•3/28/90 Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
•3/29/90 Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY (featuring Branford Marsalis)
•4/1/90 The Omni, Atlanta, GA
•4/3/90 The Omni, Atlanta, GA
Recorded by long-time Grateful Dead audio engineer John Cutler
Mixed from the master 24-track analog tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Bob Weir's TRI Studios
Mastered to HDCD specs by David Glasser
Original Art by Jessica Dessner
Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 9,000
Announcing Spring 1990 (The Other One)
"If every concert tells a tale, then every tour writes an epic. Spring 1990 felt that way: an epic with more than its share of genius and drama, brilliance and tension. And that is why the rest of the music of that tour deserves this release, why the rest of those stories need to be heard." - Nicholas G. Meriwether
Some consider Spring 1990 the last great Grateful Dead tour. That it may be. In spite of outside difficulties and downsides, nothing could deter the Grateful Dead from crafting lightness from darkness. They were overwhelmingly triumphant in doing what they came to do, what they did best — forging powerful explorations in music. Yes, it was the music that would propel their legacy further, young fans joining the ranks with veteran Dead Heads, Jerry wondering "where do they keep coming from?" — a sentiment that still rings true today, a sentiment that offers up another opportunity for an exceptional release from a tour that serves as transcendental chapter in the Grateful Dead masterpiece.
With Spring 1990 (The Other One), you'll have the chance to explore another eight complete shows from this chapter, the band elevating their game to deliver inspired performances of concert staples (“Tennessee Jed” and “Sugar Magnolia”), exceptional covers (Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” and the band’s last performance of the Beatles’ “Revolution”) and rare gems (the first “Loose Lucy” in 16 years) as well as many songs from Built To Last, which had been released the previous fall and would become the Dead’s final studio album. Also among the eight is one of the most sought-after shows in the Dead canon: the March, 29, 1990 show at Nassau Coliseum, where Grammy®-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis sat in with the group. The entire second set is one continuous highlight, especially the breathtaking version of “Dark Star.”
For those of you who are keeping track, this release also marks a significant milestone as now, across the two Spring 1990 boxed sets, Dozin At The Knick, and Terrapin Limited, the entire spring tour of 1990 has been officially released, making it only the second Grateful Dead tour, after Europe 1972, to have that honor.
Now shipping, you'll want to order your copy soon as these beautiful boxes are going, going, gone...
Cover is heavy --- cover has magnets!!
There are MAGNETS in that there heavy cover. I noticed that the square piece that comes out to reveal the coin has two little pieces of metal embedded in opposing sides, cause one of mine fell out. I reinserted and went to put the square piece back in place, and noticed it pushing back. When turned 90 degrees, the square seems just practically pops itself back in. You still gotta push it to get it all the way in. Try taking it out and putting back rotated by one side. It feels like a pretty strong magnet.
That's gotta account for some of The Weight.
Album Art
I have scanned all the album art and uploaded to share. Please feel free to use until dead.net release the high res images. You can find the images in the link below.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eelkoku1d50mo0v/AAAyC92mAec9BHympT3RAjlha?dl…
Hopefully this share works. Let me know if anyone has trouble accessing.
It's a box!
We and our 2-year-old(#3088)would like to welcome into our home #3655. It's so cute and I'm about to change its first disc.
Thank you clihar
... for doing that work for us, I was able to download your scans easily.
complete tour?
If I'm not mistaken aren't Desolation Row and One More Saturday Night from the Knick (3/24/90) still unaccounted for?
3-24-90 complete
@Walt- Desolation Row from 3-24 was released on Postcards From The Hanging, and One More Saturday Night was released on Without A net. So, between that, Dozin', and the bonus tracks from the 3/26 show on the first spring 90 box, 3-24 has been released in its entirety.
Thanks Rhino, Dave, Grateful Dead Productions
Fantastic release, worth every penny! I was fortunate enough to attend the March 28 and March 29 concerts. Looking back, as a former New Yorker now living in Northern California, I really appreciate that I got to experience these two significant shows along with the other Upstate New York concerts held during my Syracuse University years along with the many Madison Square Garden, Meadowlands, and 1979 Nassau Coliseum shows... Thanks!
#1302 just arrived.
Finally! Got to my town (Dallas) 3 days ago and has gone from UPS to a couple of different USPS stops before it finally got to it's final destination. Glad it made it!
Magnet
I just noticed Boblope's little poem, where he says "This box has magnetic personality -surprises abound".I tried placing the dice around the magnetized parts of the box lid, thinking that maybe they're made to roll to the DEAD sides, and I tried them against other magnets, but the dice do not appear to be magnetic.
Anyone know any other surprises?
Downloads
Someone on this forum asked if you can now get a download of the first Spring 90 box. Dead.net are not flagging this option up too well but the answer is yes. Go to the Digital option on the store bar at the top of this page, click on it then click on the Spring 90 box option - ignoring the scary $200 price tag. This will take you to the correct page. Again ignore the Sold Out sign - that only applies to the physical version - and look down for the download options. At present you can get the Apple Lossless version for $120 with a Flac HD choice coming later. There is a help page, set up for the May 77 box, if more info is needed.
Spring 90 downloads
And, keep in mind that if you prefer flac but don't believe you gain anything with the HD option, you can download the 16 bit apple lossless files and convert to 16 bit flac lossless with zero change in quality. There are lots of tools to do this, many free. If the ones you have or find don't have a direct conversion, you can convert the apple lossless to wav and then from wav to flac. You could also burn the apple files to cd, and then rip the cd's directly to flac, or to wav and then convert to flac. Anyway, in the end, the resulting flac files should be just as perfect as the original apple downloads. Also, keep in mind that the 16 bit downloads should be exact duplicates of the CD's in the box set. The HDCD encoding should be there because that encoding protocol uses an algorithm that allows 20 bit recording to be encoded into the 16 bit format. I'm not 100% sure that the HDCD code will make it through the conversion process to wav and/or flac. That probably depends on the conversion tool used and would need to be tested.
Put a Bolt on It!
Things I love about this box (#3452 of 9000): Jessica Dessner art, coin, magnetism, dice, song selection, performance quality, audio quality, backstage passes, context by Blair Jackson, Portlandia reference! That's a lot to love, especially for a 70s snob like me.
Artwork & downloads
Ok. I will admit it to you all, I am an old fart who has some computer knowledge, but since it is all self taught, it is limited. (My friends think I am the computer wiz so that shows how things are relative!) I uploaded all of the TOO discs into my iTunes. Clihar was nice enough to give us all of the album art. Now how do I get that into my iTunes albums?
And while I am confessing to my short comings here, I have downloaded numerous shows from Archive.org in to my iTunes. Now I have forgotten how to do it! Please someone help out an old Head here. It sure is tough to get old. Lol!
Rock on
Got it!
So glad that i sold some of my mineral collection to buy this album. Good bye huge tourmaline, Hellllllo 8 awesome shows. Enjoying reading the book and listening to the shows, killer sound quality. Love everything that Dave L has been doing for releases. Now just listening to 1990 till its time for caves picks volume 12!
Opening the Box is a Hoot
Just lovin opening this up. I was bummed about the first box artwork being folded and a doodle pagework. I'm gonna get these framed up and on a proper place on the music room wall. Kids trashed the corners on my first box cover. I need to take better care of this one. The whole thing is a piece of art! 6896 coin. I wonder if it will pay passage to the ferryman?
Thank you for the scans! Gonna try to rip with CDex for the first time? Has anyone used that before?
3-24-90 Artwork
Listening to Spring 90 TOO and it does sound fantastic! I am presently assembling the 3-24-90 show from my archives as I rock out to the 3/21/90 gig.
Have any of you creative Deadheads made some artwork for this show?
or
Can we expect Rhino to piece it together for RSD with artwork?
or
Can TPTB provide some cool downloadable artwork?
Great times listening to these shows
Art Into iTunes
Here's how I do it. Right click on the first song of the album. Get Info>Artwork>Add>Browse. Find the artwork file and select it. Hit OK, and the art should ride along with all songs on the album from that point on.
One thing that can be very screwy is the album titling. Before importing, I select each song and in Get Info type in one consistent title for each album (e.g. Spring 1990 TOO 3/21/90). That way, they all come in with similar titles and will sort accordingly.
Incidentally, I rolled the DEAD dice and they do not seem to be loaded! I was really hoping they were.
Number 7356....
....is posed nicely with number 4183 in an alcove off the mantle. They look good together. I haven't even spun a track yet, but I'm already impressed. The box is beautiful. I'm assuming a tiger is on everyone else's coin....it's on mine. We heads are a spoiled bunch.....you have to admit it.....
I noticed....
...that the track listing font on the discs are eerily similar to my handwriting....Wonderful!!!
50 Year Anniversary Banner
Anyone else think the banner on the website would make a great bumper sticker or wide rear window decal? I haven't had a dead sticker on my vehicle in years but would definitely sport this one!
Cover Art
#122 Lands in Oakland, CA. Cover art is clever (paint by number morning sky, wolf from Cassidy, 20 hounds etc.) Stumped on the following: Duck on 3/21; Lobsters on 3/29; Bee on 4/1; Turtle and Tambourine on 4/3) Think everything else is explainable and clever....
Trancendental bliss
This lucky head unpacked # 5907, loaded 3/29 into the old Denon cd changer, set the controls on the Carver Sonic Hologram Generator to narrow listening aperture, and settled in to enjoy the ride. Relax, turn off your mind , and float downstream.
Thank you , Jeffery Norman and TRI studios , for doing justice to these glorious 24 track live recordings.
Thank you, Rhino Records and David Lemieux, for giving us aging Deadheads the chance to take that ride again. This is as good as it gets, the real deal, shining brightly.
Those loaded dice are pretty cool too !
1990 Too Box Set
Hello from beautiful Montana everyone!
I had a curious thought. It would be interesting to know where the 9000 box sets went by state. You know, a cool color coded map....I don't know, I was just thinking the other day, wondering how many of these boxes made it to Montana.
Thank you, for a real good time!
My favorite
This is easily my favorite release, especially since I've worn out several copies of Without a Net on tape, CD and vinyl. I like this mix better than Without a Net. It seems a bit more dry and with great separation. What I really want to say is if you want this better get it now!!! I bought one for my friends 40th birthday. For me this is the best release ever, although I am biased as this is my era!!!
Those [R] letters in some sentences of Meriwethers piece
Who can tell what is with the [D] letters of some sentences. do we copy them all and discover some sort of code or what??
just asking
Branford
I'm lovin' this Spring 90 TOO set! But, am I the only one who finds Branford's comments about the Dead a little condescending? It seems he thinks the Dead were pretty much simple pop music. Hey,spring 90 is my least favorite era of Dead. I'm usually in the role of post-hiatus basher. But shit, when the Dead jammed in 1990 they were brilliant, especially PITB and Space. The Dead jamming in 1990 were every bit as brilliant and uncompromising as anything Branford has ever done in his entire career. I really don't get the condescension. And I love Branford. I saw his group a few years ago and it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. The 3/29/90 show is probably the greatest post hiatus Dead show. But jeez Branford, show a little more respect! dang musicians egos!
The sound
While I won't start bashing the sound of the first box - there is a different feel to that one and I thoroughly enjoy it as well - I will say that this new one sounds just amazing, and one huge advantage of that is that you can really clearly hear what all 6 guys in the band are doing all the time. And that's when it becomes even more obvious what a great tour this was - pretty much everything that everyone was doing was just spot on. It really is amazing how good they were playing during this 89-90 period. I think when Brent died it just crushed Jerry at least from a musical and professional standpoint. For them to have achieved this level and then lose a key guy, well, I guess he talked about it in Rolling Stone, and it lead to badness.
I Don't Get It
What did Branford say that was condescending? I certainly didn't take anything he said that way. What I heard him say was that most pop bands are not flexible and anyone sitting in has to adapt to that rigidity, but the GD were the opposite -- they were so fluid that there was room for everyone to meld. I mean, I'm not trying to start an argument, but where is the put-down in what he said?
Regarding Branford
If you read Nick Meriwether's fine essay on the topic (starts on page 54 of the TOO booklet), you'll quickly discover that Brandon's attitude was the opposite of condescending. He pretty much gushed about his experience the night of 3/29, going so far as to tell the band, "I had the best time I've had in my entire life. "
By the way, that booklet is a terrific companion to the music. Huge kudos to Nick and Blair!
I very rarely post, but I
I very rarely post, but I have to for this box set. I mean WOW, the quality is terrific. Band sounds great and the collective set is a pleasure to own. Thanks so much for this. Love it so far. Makes my ride to work a pleasure!!!
booklet cover
Anyone else notice the lightning bolt in the fur of the tiger? Was just reading bolo's post and looked down and it caught my eye - had not noticed it until now...
Awesome!
I'm in the process of moving to a new residence and have been traveling a lot, and finally had a chance to delve into the first show from 3/14/90 Cap Center, and WOW!
I'm listened to many different sources from this show, the first time being while in Atlanta during the 4/1-3/90 run. My buddy and I took in a stray Deadhead who had lost his friends at these shows, and he also happened to be on tour and taping them at the time. The guys name was Jeff. He actually hooked us up with a bunch of tapes from this tour that we listened to on the drive back from the final show on 4/3/90.
Over the last 24 years, I've become well acquainted with many of the circulating sources of 3/14/90, but this new multi-track mix just blows me away. Jeffrey Norman has truly outdone himself!
The Playin' > Uncle John's > Playin' is trance inducing.
I've read the Landover and Hartford parts of Nick Meriwether's essay and it is one of the most thorough and well written pieces I've seen in a Grateful dead release.
Now about this coin, "Golden Ticket" to the vault business, I'll be in California from Sept 24th through the 29th traveling through San Francisco, Fresno, Santa Monica, San Diego and Tarzana. I would so love to hear the non-circulating source recordings of my first show from 7/1/84! ;)
The duck isn't a duck... but
The duck isn't a duck... but is actually a Loon... common on the lakes of the muskoka region a couple of hours north of Hamilton / Toronto... and throughout most of Canada for that matter.
Fall 89 Multitracks
Given the astounding SQ of this release, and knowing the have multi tracks of the Fall '89 tour in the vault... that would sure get my vote for a future box release... and sooner rather than later please :-)
Branford
Thanks bolo, point taken. I guess I was thinking of when Branford said "The Dead have some incredibly tricky tunes, but for the most part, popular songs are quite simple. People don’t want to go to music school when they’re listening to their music." I guess I was over-reacting. In any case he sounds great with the band. I do remember an interview with Branford years ago when he was asked about what is was like to play rock and roll with the Dead and he said "those guys are beyond rock and roll". That was a cool compliment.
Thanks for the artwork
Thanks dead.net team for the individual show artwork!
Thank you for a real good time.
This is an exceptional box set. The mix and mastering are second to none. Thank you Jeffery Norman! In so many ways this was my tour. I turned 18 on 3/14/90 at the Cap center and went on to see another six shows including the 3 Nassau shows. What a fantastic document to remember and relive what was a truly defining moment in my life. And having lost all my ticket stubs years ago I have to say I got a little misty when I saw the reproduction mail order glitter tickets...just perfect.
Bad Vibes
UPS says they gave it to the Postal Service and the Postal Service says they never got it. No box in the mail and I have to wait another couple days before I can request a replacement. Hopefully I'll be listening to this box sooner than later...definitely leaning toward digital in the future.
Am I missing something?
"For those of you who are keeping track, this release also marks a significant milestone as now, across the two Spring 1990 boxed sets, Dozin At The Knick, and Terrapin Limited, the entire spring tour of 1990 has been officially released"
Except that I don't see "Desolation Row" or "One More Saturday Night" from 03/24/90 at the Knick.
Am I missing something? Where are those tracks?
Cobbling together 3/24
It takes a little effort to pull together the 3/24 show, but you'll find Desolation Row on Postcards of the Hanging (I just purchased the track from iTunes) and the OMSN from Without a Net. Listening to it in its entirety, it sounds a bit odd, since you often hear cuts fade in/out awkwardly. Also, as we've heard here, the mixing is significantly different across these 4 different sources. Since I'm a bit of completist, I found it worth the effort, though. It's a marvelous show.
product sku
081227958688