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!
What a great Box of Rain. Certainly one of the better versions.
As for winning the daily contests, I've been doing this since the 2nd year and especially in the early years would get a high percentage correct, up to 80 or 90%. In the past few years closer to the 60-70%. In all these years I may have one a daily once, a long time ago, but that's a may and if I did I did not receive anything. This is not complaining as I enjoy this very much and it's all a gift. Just a grounding... to ease my soul.
Is hard to come by these days, very expensive.
And all really good!
Agree with driftin and dreamin - the vocals on Box of Rain are well blended and the most beautiful of any version I've heard. And Phil! Man, I just love those thick, full bass tones during this period that seem to fill our bodies. Am I imagining or did he strum the first few notes of The Music Never Stopped during the bass doodling after Rain ended?
What a rockin' Mexicali Blues as well, Bobby really clean, Jerry at breakneck pace and rollicking - my kind of polka! But then it just ended, no jam? Oh well.
Like others, two sources came up empty but a quick search using the third led me to the right place. Another setlists whiff?!
This may not have been one of their standout concerts, but much thanks to David for pulling out the gems!
I suggest purchasing a DeadBase 50. Handles these November days like a dream.
before they come to take you down.