30 Days of Dead
It's a Dead Head's most wonderful time of the year! Welcome to another 30 days of unreleased Grateful Dead tracks from the vault, one for every day of the month, selected by archivist and producer David Lemieux. The tracks are yours, 100% free gua-ran-teed, but the real fun is taking part in the challenge for the chance to win some sweet swag from the Dead.
Those of you who know what to do, feel free to skip right on ahead. For those of you who need a refresher, here's the drill:
You know your Ables from your Bakers from your C's, but can your finely tuned ears differentiate the cosmic "comeback" tour from a spacey 70s show? Each day we'll post a song from one of the Dead's coveted shows. Will it be from that magical night at Madison Square Garden in '93 or from way back when they were just starting to warm it up at Winterland? Is that Pigpen's harmonica we hear? Brent on keys? If you think you know, lob your answer in and you just might find yourself taking home our daily prize of a 2025 Grateful Dead wall calendar or the grand prize – a copy of limited, numbered, FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL '78 boxed set!
And sometimes a problem
yesterday...with a little help from my friends. Agree with all of you that the chatter has gotten too loose this year; driftin and dreamin no need to lighten up - the search should be fun, and flat out giveaways ruin the hunt (and maybe keep us from finding some other show that we never heard before). Giving hints can be part of the fun, if done right (try to be clever, not obvious). Actually really appreciated smalz hint yesterday, as I got crossed up (recognized the sound of the era right away but inexplicably went off earlier and went backwards in time), so searching for the confluence of venues got me to the right spot.
Interesting sequence here, with Let It Grow much faster than late '73 (poking around yesterday I enjoyed the WRS>LIG from Denver Coliseum 1973-11-20). Much easier search today, with the guitar echoes at the start. Looking forward to listening to the rest of this show. Onward!
This excellent Dark Star has got me searching in DeadBase. Found a DS at the Avalon Ballroom on 1-26-69, which also has an incredible Clementine. DeadBase lists only three (3) complete proper performances of Clementine, not including a "Clementine jam." Really only three? Super rarity. The studio version on the Golden Road box set was a revelation to me back in
Reeeeally hoping to hear a great Jack Straw before the month is out. Thanks. :)
I was just listening to this show yesterday... which made it super easy for me. yes, great run!