Grateful Dead

Interesting that you have got more into the band as you have got older. I have been listening to them in various ways ( and in various states) since 1974. One of the reasons they have endured for me, when so many other bands have bitten the dust, could be the sheer range and scope of the music they played over thirty years. My first two albums were Working Mans, followed by Anthem of the Sun, which were so massively different. There music seems to have a depth and variety to me that other rock bands simply don't have. Or maybe the other rock music I liked was more fitting to a teenage lifestyle. I loved going to heavy rock concerts between 1972 and 1976, and then punk between 1976 and 1978. But as time passed, I went off them. But the Dead have continued to fascinate me.

Does not do too much for me anymore.

on 85 GD I have 11/20 21 22 on disc. haven't listened for a while (years) 11/20 today while Ubering. Fun. Worth a listen. Not a E72 show, but fun. started 11/21. oddball songs (Big Boy Pete, e.g.) eras, shmeras. JUST LISTEN. an interesting synchronistic moment: 11/21 Brown Eyed Women. "Bigfoot county" line at a stoplight. Look in my mirror. in the car behind me, the passenger (don't you hear me) had her bare feet up on the dash. I love stuff like that.

I highly suggest you obtain the 78 Box as soon as it’s financially feasible.

Volume 8: Fox Theatre, 11/30/80 – this show surprised me more than almost any. I’m not usually a 1980 kinda guy and I wasn’t crazy about the idea of a matrix. But I love this show. They were firing on all cylinders on this tour because the 1980 TTAS show is also great. Grade: B plus One of three in a 3-way tie for "Numero Uno" of the series this far. Don't agree with your grade, but def agree with your sentiment about dat Gators '80 gig. The Dave's series is still w/o a "Shakedown Street" iirc !!!

What about it......?

I too enjoy the earlier GD "eras" the most, specifically around august 68-june 69 but really 1966 through to the end of 1970. Though there are certain things about pretty much every year that make them worthwhile imo. When it comes to Brent, I do actually enjoy most of his tunes with the exception of 'Never trust a Woman' which may be the only song the Dead played that I do not like at all. I also personally enjoy most of the occasional rants and debates on here, I almost always find something humorous or interesting in them, or even just how they are worded. Sure we got some that are prone to hyperbole, and there have been a couple instances where people have tried to deflect using adhominems and character attacks when they noticed their own arguments shelf life was about up. But in comparison with almost any other site on the web, the disagreements on here are extremely mild and usually over very light topics such as cds and music.

I love to hear everyone’s opinions on each show, so I thought that I would grade the series so far from my perspective. Especially since we’re at the nice round number of 25. Volume 1: The Mosque 5/25/77 – A great start. Not my favorite May ’77 show but May ’77 shows are like pizza. Even when it’s not your favorite, it still is… well, pizza. Grade: A minus Volume 2: Hartford, CT, 7/31/74 – My favorite of the DaP ’74 shows. Maybe because I’m from Connecticut and I’m biased? Maybe… But probably more because of the MLB -> Spanish Jam Grade: A minus Volume 3: Chicago, IL, 10/22/71 – Ragtime Dead. Love this show. Lots of fun sing-along tunes. The filler might just be the best part... Grade: A minus Volume 4: Williamsburg, VA, 9/24/76 – I’m usually a big fan of ’76… the sound is so different from all other years. This is not one of my favorites, though. Hard to explain why. I just don’t reach for it very often. Grade: B minus Volume 5: Pauley Pavilion 11/17/73 – one of my top 3 from the series. Love the HCS then my favorite of the Playin’ Uncle Dew Sammiches. Grade: A plus Volume 6: San Francisco 12/20/69 & St. Louis 2/2/70 – I should listen to this more often. GREAT Casey Jones and two Dark Stars. I usually skip the 35 minute Lovelight. Sshh… don’t tell HendrixFreak! Grade: A minus Volume 7: Normal, 4/24/78 – I like this show better than most based on the reviews that I’ve seen. Bobby’s slide can be brutal at times but he had it goin’ on this night. One of my favorite Scarlet/Fires. Grade: B plus Volume 8: Fox Theatre, 11/30/80 – this show surprised me more than almost any. I’m not usually a 1980 kinda guy and I wasn’t crazy about the idea of a matrix. But I love this show. They were firing on all cylinders on this tour because the 1980 TTAS show is also great. Bring on Gainsville… Grade: B plus Volume 9: Missoula, 5/14/74 – This is probably blasphemous but 1974 isn’t my favorite year. I can’t explain it because it should be right in my wheel house. That being said, There are parts of this that I love. One of my favorite Bertha’s of all time. Grade: B minus Volume 10: Thelma, 12/12/69 – Love how intimate the venue seems. Love the transition from psychedelic to cowboy. If you add in the bonus disk, there’s something here for the whole family. Alligator AND Caution…. Wow. Grade: A Volume 11: Wichita, 11/17/72 – One of my top 3 from the series. My favorite Cumberland of all time and an awesome Bird Song. Every song played to perfection. Grade: A plus Volume 12: Colgate University,11/4/77 – I’m a 1977 junkie. I do however like the spring shows better than the fall shows. This one has merit because its so different. Maybe even slightly strange. The Brown Eyed Women is awesome. Grade: B Volume 13: Winterland, 2/24/74 – Seems to be the favorite DaP for many… I can see why but the sound bothers me more than it probably should. I know that it gets better when it counts but… Grade: B plus Volume 14: Academy Of Music, 3/26/72 – It’s weird that I don’t like this as much as I should. Hardly ever reach for this anymore. Warm up shows before E72 but it sounds starkly different to me than E72. Grade: B Volume 15: Nashville, April 22, 1978 – Great 1978 show – the steel drums and groovy beginning to NFA makes that hair on the back of my neck stand up. Epic Wharf Rat but I like 11/6/77 slightly better. Grade: B plus Volume 16: Springfield, MA, March 28, 1973 – my choice for the most underrated DaP. Jerry is on absolute fire throughout. This show is a monster. Possibly my favorite DaP. Grade: A plus Volume 17: Fresno, CA, July 19, 1974 – not my least favorite DaP but probably second. I don’t reach for this often. Monster Playin’ though. Grade: C Volume 18: Orpheum Theatre, July 17, 1976 – This show seems to be very polarizing. People either love it or hate it. I am definitely on the love side. It has such a unique quality to it… both shows flow so nicely. They’re so laid back but in a great way. Grade: A Volume 19: Honolulu, HI, January 23, 1970 – Another pick that I don’t listen to much anymore. Not my favorite Dark Star and the Lovelight is over the top. Not crazy about the early Dancin’. Too bad about the Casey Jones… great start to it and I love the slinky King Bee… Grade: B Volume 20: Boulder.CO, December 9, 1981 – Far and away my least favorite of the series. Still not sure why it’s a pick. Listened about 3x and retired it. Oh well… Grade: D Volume 21: Boston Garden, April 2, 1973 – Lots of shorter songs all played extremely well, then an epic HCS that melts your face. Grade: B plus Volume 22: Felt Forum, December 7, 1971 – Lots of fun sing-along songs but not a ton here that’ll melt your face… and who doesn’t want their face melted? Grade: B Volume 23: Eugene, OR, January 22, 1978 – This rounds out my top 3. Super high energy, Close Encounters, incredible St. Stephen… top to bottom classic. Grade: A plus Volume 24: Berkeley, CA, August 25, 1972 – LOVE this show. More than I thought I would too. I was bummed that they didn’t release 8/21 but now I’m glad they didn’t. Maybe we’ll get the rest of the run in a box? Grade: A Volume 25: Binghamton, NY, November 6, 1977 – surprised at the average reviews of this show. All-time great 1st set... 3 GOAT songs for me in one show (1/2 step, Truckin’ and Wharf Rat) This one might be suffering from the hype but I’m certainly on board. Grade: A Sorry for the long post but I don’t post a lot so I guess this kind of makes up for it.

ANNIVERSARY PORT CHESTER 2/18/71!! Everyone listen before midnight ahhhhhhh!

Hello everyone! I've been reading and enjoying these boards for a couple of years now and thought I should introduce myself and, I don't know, maybe contribute constructively to the vicious squabbles -- err, I mean the lively debates contained herein. Lol. Full disclosure: I am a relatively recent Head. By which I mean, even though I was born in the '60s and I'm currently on the far side of a half-century, and even though I saw the boys twice in the '80s (10/84 in Syracuse -- good show -- and July 4 1987 at Sullivan Stadium outside of Boston -- truly a wretched show, and sharing the stage with Bobby Dylan in his fullest "I don't give a shit" phase didn't help any) and Jerry solo once in Boston in 87 (?) or '88 (?) -- despite all of that, and despite the band being just ubiquitous at the earthy-crunchy college I attended from 1981 t0 84 -- I just never was all that much of a Head. (Whew -- that was some sentence. Congratulations if you made it all the way through.) Tl; dr: I used to like the Dead OK. Now I'm obsessed with them. I wonder why? And I wonder if any others on these boards have experienced the same. To be blunt, I find it kind of astonishing that Garcia (and Hunter) were able to write songs in their 20s and 30s that really only started making sense to me in my 50s... There is just such a sense of perspective, of understanding the long view of life and how we all try to live it as best we can. I'm thinking of "Sugaree," "He's Gone," "Brokedown Palace," Althea," "Bertha," "Ship of Fools," "Terrapin," too many to name really. FWIW, Bobby's songs don't do it for me nearly as much. Sorry if I'm rambling. Hey, I've I've been waiting to talk about this to someone (not my wife, heh heh) for the past 3 years... This is only my 2nd year subscribing to Dave's. I've been able to grab a few on ebay but not many. I have about 2/3 of the Dick's Picks and most everything else released officially, plus the Winterland '73 box and GSTL. I wouldn't mind picking up what I'm missing of course, so feel free to PM me if you have anything you're looking to part with. And now, the important issues and topics that touch us all: 1. Eras. I like everything to some degree or other, but I am fond of Pig, so early stuff is most exciting to me. Two from the Vault is an astonishing release, as is just about anything from that era that features St Stephen/The Eleven/Death Don't Have No Mercy/King Bee/We Bid You Goodnight or any combination thereof. Love Mountains of the Moon too. Pig's raps on Heard to Handle, Lovelight, Good Lovin etc make the band what it is, IMO. The 70s are great too, no argument with 72 or 77 or whatever your fave year is. The 80s were spottier. As I mentioned, both my shows were from the 80s, and one was great. I would love to see that Syracuse show released officially (there's a pretty good soundboard on the archive, and it holds up.) The 1987 show was dire. "Touch of Gray" to start off, downhill after that. I remember standing there in the sun (it was a hot afternoon) and just feeling the energy vanish out of the crowd. Seriously, they never got it back. Even Charlie Miller can't make it sound good, though props to him for trying: https://archive.org/details/gd1987-07-04.sbd.miller.101650.flac16/gd87-… 2. Brent or no Brent... Ahh, I'd have to say no Brent. He was a good backup vocalist when he wasn't overdoing it. And he could be a great keyboard player. But I never liked his songs much ("Gentlemen, Start Your Engines" ? "Hey Pocky Way" ? Seriously? "Tons of Steel" is just flat dull.) And whoever said that he sang like a Bob Seger wannabe was exactly right. That said, there are some good late-era recordings out there that I keep revisiting. DP 17, and Crimson White and Indigo both come to mind. I agree with Spacebrother that we need more variety in the Dave's selections. (Although I must admit too that I haven't bought the RFK box. I just don't have the cash and the songs I've samples aren't compelling enough... Sue me. Don't have the July 78 box yet either, that's next on the list.) Anyway -- I think I have rattled on LONG ENOUGH. Geez, it's taken me an hour to write this... All while listening to RT 4.4, the 1982 Centrum show that someone mentioned recently... Great show. Thanks everybody. I'm off to sign the 6/23/73 RFK petition now.