Grateful Dead

So, according to that article from Jambase, "Pinkus...confirmed a collection of 80 soundboard tapes recorded by the famed Betty Cantor-Jackson have been added to the vault." Also according to that article, "the Grateful Dead recently unveiled a 50th anniversary edition of their 1967 studio album [and] Pinkus confirms a similar set for Anthem Of The Sun is coming [in 2018]." That means a couple of things: 1) The upcoming releases will be Betty Boards, which range in date from 1971-1980 at the latest. That means there is no need to come on any thread on the Grateful Dead website and start bitching and moaning about the lack of representation of latter era Dead. You all already know that, for the foreseeable future, the embarrassment of riches known as the Betty Boards will largely be mined for releases. 2) There will be no '68 box in 2018. From a basic marketing standpoint, it makes absolutely no sense to re-release a '68 album with (most likely) '68 live material and THEN turn around and release a '68 box separately. Not going to happen. Whatever box they do release this year will be from some other year, and it's a pretty safe bet it's a year between 1971 and 1979. I say all this as someone who rarely posts but often reads the Dave's Picks threads, and who is often dismayed to see the same old complaints from the same tiny vocal minority. I"m not part of some mythical "70s mafia," I'm just telling it like it is. Please don't come on here and bum everyone out by bitching and moaning about not getting what you want. The Dead are just about the only classic rock act cranking out release after release of archival material like clockwork. We're lucky to have so much material to choose from, and in such frequent quantity. And there's always the archive site to satisfy the remainder of your listening desires.

listen up at dead of the dayhttp://gratefuldeadoftheday.com/03-31-1968 load down at the midnight cafe Lossless Bootleg Bonanza: Grateful Dead – San Francisco, CA (03/31/68) 19_300a_lg Grateful Dead 68-03-31 Carousel Ballroom San Francisco, CA Download: FLAC/MP3 https://themidnightcafe.org/2017/03/21/lossless-bootleg-bonanza-gratefu… Recording Info: SBD -> (4 Track) Master Reels -> Dat (44.1k) This is a tagged version of shnid: 108995 Transfer Info: Dat (Sony R500) -> Adobe Audition v3.0 -> Samplitude Professional v11.03 -> FLAC (1 Disc Audio / 1 Disc FLAC) All Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller charliemiller87@earthlink.net June 13, 2010 Set 1: d1t01 – Turn On Your Lovelight d1t02 – Beat It On Down The Line d1t03 – Dancing In The Street d1t04 – Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) -> d1t05 – Feedback -> d1t06 – And We Bid You Good Night Notes: — There is a lot of audience mixed in with this soundboard — Date and song order are uncertain (I’m going with Dick’s notes on DAT) — This is the same Caution>Feedback>AWBYGN as I put on 1/22/68 (Per Dick’s notes) — Cut in the beginning of Turn On Your Lovelight — Severe mix changes during Dancing In The Street — Beginning of Caution is missing — Thanks to Rob Eaton for lending me his Dats — Thanks To Joe B. Jones for his help with the pitch correction

listen at dead of the day March 31, 1973 http://gratefuldeadoftheday.com/03-31-1973 Memorial Auditorium Buffalo, New York The night is tremendous from top to bottom, including everything from a perfectly rendered Box to a raging Playin’. However, the boys turn it up a notch further still in the latter portion of the second set. The He’s Gone leads the way, as the boys strut through, throwing all their emotion and verve into the playing and vocal vamping, before heading right into a boundless Truckin’. A plucky little jam after the Truckin’ - with some hints of Nobody’s Fault - provides a little change of pace. But then Billy takes us in a different direction altogether, thundering forward and powering through a segue into a monster Other One. TOO blisters out of the gate and then finds some slower, less traveled territory, summoning the bullfighters, paisanos, and flamenco of a Spanish Jam that they meld with the Other One theme for a while. Finally, TOO is left behind completely and they strike out into an extraterrestrial space, exploring distant galaxies before gathering into a bluesy country ramble that leads right to, quite unexpectedly, Rider. The Rider surges and soars, but holds on to a real bluegrassy feel throughout. After a pause, the band fires away with a full-bore Sugar Mags to put a rocking cap on the set.

someone decided to huck a beer bottle at Bill's drum set that night during Comes A Time.

....always look on the bright side of life. Never tried fentanyl. Not a fan, thanks to recent news. How was it?

In a way, the old threads are more interesting and more like an acid test than new ones regarding recently announced product, where there is a bit more continuity to the posts. My last 72 hours have been surreal. Took the family up to Keystone Wednesday night for a Thursday day of tubing/skiing. Good times. Rocked Michael Schenker later that night at Cervante's Masterpiece Ballroom, a notable Dead-themed venue. Seeing Michael in there was a bit weird but not unpleasant. Went back to work Friday, and unexpectedly became ill and barfed into the wastebasket next to my desk. No one was around, fortunately I was able to change the bag and get it outside before grossing anyone out (except you, sorry). Took the rest of the day off, went home and was basically couch-bound until it was time for Davy Knowles, which I made it through. Was just a 24-hour stomach bug, I guess, my oldest son got it about 10 hours after I did. Davy Knowles is a young guitarist/singer from the Isle of Man over yonder 'cross the pond. He is amazing; just a mind-blowing talent. See him live if you get a chance. This morning, just after breakfast I experienced a massive attack of unbearable pain in my side and abdomen. Finally the wife drove me to hospital. Kidney stone. It took three shots of Fentanyl to take the edge off along with some other drugs. Eventually, they gave in and pumped me full of Dilaudid and sent me home. Couple of hours later, I passed it rather uneventfully. And now the Doc sent me home with a couple dozen more Dilaudid. I'm one of those people who can do just about anything without becoming dependent, so I think I'll save them for later, or, God forbid another kidney stone so I can ride the storm out without the trip to the E.R. Back in the saddle, just in time for an Easter gathering tomorrow here at the casa. Feel like I just came out the other side of the rabbit hole.

....I felt pressured just reading that!

Buddy Cage on BOTT, from A Simple Twist of Fate by Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard (Odegard played on the Minneapolis sessions for the album): --- Which is how, one night late in September 1974, Buddy Cage found himself alone in the vastness of A&R’s Studio A, perched over his pedal steel guitar, listening to Bob Dylan’s amazing new songs. If working with Dylan wasn’t a daunting enough prospect on its own, Buddy was further impressed to find Phil Ramone, probably the hottest producer in the country at that time, working as the engineer. “The Blood on the Tracks session was the first time I met Bob, “says Cage. “We went in there, just the three of us, and Bob says, “Where are the tunes for him, Phil?” Phil just pops it into gear and, like, sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen, somewhere in that region, masterpieces come out! I was, like, What the f***!? Dylan says, ‘Well, can you do anything? Would you like to start with one?’ I said, ‘Bob, the best thing I can do to help you is to pack up my guitar and go home.’ He said, ‘Well, thanks, man, but don’t you think you could play on one?’ then turns to Phil and says, ‘Phil, roll ‘em again.’ “Phil played ‘em over, and more in exasperation than anything, I said, ‘Maybe this one, or that one.’ I guess I did about three or four of them – but in any case, ‘Meet Me in the Morning’ was the one he kept for Blood on the Tracks. I was way out in this huge studio that could hold a full orchestra, a really large room, and I’m in the middle of it – just me, my steel, and my amp. I’d been doing sessions as long as I can remember, and the way I saw it was that Phil was going to run this thing, ‘Meet Me in the Morning’, for me and I was going to do a few takes - I usually get the best hits in the first two or three times through. An old Grateful Dead thing is never to stop recording it, and try to record more than you erase; so that was my approach: Let me do it two or three times, and you’ll have it – I’m that quick – and he can plug them in wherever he wants, the choices would be up to him and Bob. But that’s not what Dylan wanted, apparently: He ended up flashing the light time after time after time, and I found myself having to do six or seven takes.” Worse still, there was little guidance as to what was wrong with the interrupted takes. “Not only was my wrist getting tired, but there was no conversation, no instructions, no nothing,” Cage recalls, “just ‘Do it again, do it again.’ I was getting really uncomfortable. Then finally the door to the control room opened, and Dylan comes striding out, walks straight up to my steel, and sticks the toes of his cowboy boots under my pedal bar. I don’t know why he did that – maybe for emphasis. Anyway, he does that and says, ‘The first five verses is singin’ – you don’t play; the last verse is playin’ – you play!” plunks his toes out from under my pedal bar, turns, and strides back into the control room.” During the evening, the control room had begun to fill up with well-wishers and hangers-on, and as the shock over Dylan’s rudeness turned into anger at the singer’s disrespectful treatment of his instrument, the public humiliation spurred Cage to the brink of rage. “At that point, in the control room, there was him and Phil Ramone, Mick Jagger, my road manager, my crew chief, my limo driver and bodyguard, and John Hammond Sr., had come in to hear what I was doing,” says Cage, “and at that very instance, for about ten seconds, I was embarrassed to the bone marrow. But as I mentioned before, I was a punk-ass, and that just kicks in; that’s always the way it’s been with me, and I thought, ‘Well, you little f***, I’m taller than you, and you’re not gonna get away with that!’ Phil came on the phones then – he was clearly uncomfortable too – and he said, ‘You wanna practice one?’ and I said, ‘No – print it!’ “So the red light came on and I just did one take. I played lightly over the five verses, but the one where he wanted me to get major was on the verse with ‘Look at that sun, sinking like a ship.’” And get major he did. Fired up with fury, Cage peeled off a searing break that uncoiled through the song’s closing stages like an angry snake, providing a piquant counterpoint to the number’s relaxed, bluesy tone. Buddy knew he’d nailed it, and without waiting for any further intervention or possible humiliation, he stood up from his instrument with an air of brusque finality. “I had the picks and the bar off my hands and I was walking away from the guitar before the track was finished, striding into the control room,” he recalls. “When I busted into the control room, he was laughin’ his ass off! I looked at Ramone, and he was shakin’ his head, sayin’, ‘That was beautiful!’ John Hammond said, ‘Man that was unbelievable!’ I just looked at Dylan and said ‘F*** you!’ and he just laughed – he said, ‘Well, we got it!’ ---

Thanks for posting the Glendale Train, LMG. I've been on a mini NRPS kick here, mostly listening to their Veneta set in the car. Felt like it was a necessary piece of history to accompany the Sunshine Daydream release. Here's a full concert from just a few months earlier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZWw87UgrwI I didn't realize Garcia was actually on their first album, I knew he started it but didn't know that made it to record. I do like Buddy Cage, there was a great story of how Dylan pissed him off to get that mean pedal solo on Meet Me In The Morning on Blood on the Tracks. It worked.

Extra greasy 7 CD release.Wait. 7 CD’s only constitutes a mini-Box. We’re due a full-size Box. Extra greasy 7 show Box. Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. PTB, please have a 1 Box order limit for the first 72 hours, and give us a (Dead) Heads up in advance of the on sale time. Please give everyone a chance to score a Box of thick-cut, smokey, extra greasy bacon.