30 Days of Dead

30-days-of-dead-2024

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!

Hint:
Paired since 1969, it's hard to imagine either of these songs without the other
day22_OEYTZMsSukmfCEa_china_sunflower.mp3
830 comments

  • Default Avatar
    jeff4682
    3 days 11 hours ago
    Texture! … and Sportatorium Set 1

    Today’s CR&S is so THICK with those chugging notes and chords laid down by Phil- you can feel his bass. Truly the only hint needed- if you listened to every version of that song you could pick today’s right out…

    ON THE ROAD AGAIN and THE RACE IS ON were played in the same show (and set) 11 times- ten of these were acoustic sets. The 11/26/80 show was the only time both were played in an all-electric show. What a treat for those Floridians who didn’t get to a show opening with an acoustic set! Forty-four years after the fact and I still regret not getting to Radio City for one of those shows…

  • Default Avatar
    WeepingWillowGtr
    3 days 12 hours ago
    Drop outs

    @thismikebenz The drop outs are definitely in the source file, but the sbd copy of the show I have does not have any drop outs.

  • JoeyMC
    3 days 12 hours ago
    Glitchy

    It is.

  • LeeBob802
    3 days 13 hours ago
    Phil's playing clued me in to the era immediately...

    ...before I ran my song lists checks with my sources. I can't say more without giving away too much info, but suffice to say that I was at this show, and so many around this time, that I recall dreaming I was at shows in my sleep. Drop outs are unfortunate, maybe they can be fixed, but even if they can't, there are other good sources out there. We were taping off our masters every morning after the shows, comparing different mic set-ups, getting all techno-geeky in the aural landscape.

  • thismikebenz
    3 days 13 hours ago
    drop outs

    I wonder if the drop outs are part of the source material, or just results of bad connections. Weird.

Yesterday's answer...
Morrison, CO, Red Rocks Amphitheatre
The final Grateful Dead show at Red Rocks featured this excellent first set closing sequence with Cassidy sung by Bobby, Far From Me sung by Brent, and Phil singing Box Of Rain to end the set
Yesterday's Winner...
Jared
Marlboro
MA

Past Dates

Missed a day? You can go back and grab downloads here.

Enter the Contest

By entering my information, I acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy, Terms of Use and Official Rules and I agree to receive marketing messages from Grateful Dead (from which I can unsubscribe at any time). No purchase or payment necessary to enter or win. A purchase will not increase your chances of winning. This sweepstakes is offered only to legal residents of the United States (excluding Puerto Rico) who are located in the united states (excluding Puerto Rico) and have reached the age of majority in their state of residence at the time of entry.