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"We left with our minds sufficiently blown and still peaking..."
We're headed back to that peak with the newly returned tapes from Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena, Binghamton, 11/6/77. The Grateful Dead's last touring show of 1977 finds them going for broke, taking chances on fan favorites like "Jack Straw," "Friend Of The Devil," and "The Music Never Stopped," carving out righteous grooves on a one-of-kind "Scarlet>Fire" and a tremendous "Truckin'." An ultra high energy show, with a first set that rivals the second? Not unheard of, but definitely rare. Hear for yourself...
DAVE'S PICKS VOLUME 25 features liner notes by Rob Bleetstein, photos by Bob Minkin, and original art by our 2018 Dave's Picks Artist-In-Residence Tim McDonagh. As always, it has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman and it is limited to 18,000 individually numbered copies*.
*Limited to 2 per order. Very limited quantity available.
Get one before they are gone, gone, gone.
Arrived!
The four winds have blown #126 to its new home...
Lowest number i've received by about 800 or so! Ive been listening with the help of a good friend after he got his on friday, what a show!
Edit: did anyone else get a copy without that clear "discs made in mexico" sticker? Mine didnt have that on there this time. Wondering if they switched manufacturers again
Baked 10/10/17
On the inside of the CD sleeve.. there is a picture of reel 2. There is a piece of blue painters tape on, likely indicating some sort of processing status (I don't think blue painters tape was around in 1977). There is also a sticker that says "Baked 10/10/17."
I wonder what that is all about?
Baking Tapes
Magnetic tape from a certain period back in the 60's and 70's had an issue where the magnetic backing can detach from the plastic tape so the tapes must actually be baked at a low temp in an oven in hopes that everything will reattach.
JimInMD
They actually bake the tape...
http://audio-restoration.com/baking.php
Mustin
I heard that and wondered if that was the part you were talking about. It was more like the drummer(s) doing it a bit more aggressively than usual, because they followed the same pattern for a few measures. Usually if it was a mistake, you hear the self-correction measures. Bottom line - you didn't like it.
Pulled this
From the page:Request: Individual Shows
It’s in line with many past discussions, but not sure how many people visit that page, so I pasted it here.
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January 29, 2018 - 11:55am (new) #1
markscalise
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Joined: Jul 6 2007
criteria for releases
Seems like it should fall around the following:
1. Is there a complete, high-quality version in the vault?
2. Does the show already circulate in high quality?
3. Was there something exceptional about the show compared to others in the same time period?
4. Has this time period already been well represented in the stream of releases, or is it lacking? Certainly some time periods will merit a larger number of releases.
5. From a sales standpoint, is there a perceived desire for a particular release? This one gets rather subjective.
...mediocre ?
...not in my space & time at least. I'm a true believer of miracles and this show exceeds musical boundaries creating a musical testament of pure, unbound joy . A pure expression of joy, like the feeling of being at home. the Sun - the sound for the concert, done by Healy, was at his best with this show. Just listen to Betty's recording on this release, simply beautiful! This mix is quite frankly Stunning to say the least. Everybody is heard in pristine quality in all the right and wrong places...I'm love'n it more and more each day, :)
...justice for all :)
...Great album! 'Ride The Lightning' one of my favorites...Sorry to stray off topic for a second ! My bad folks.....
one last thing before i head home
ever heard Squidward's "mediocre?"
if you have you'll know what I mean.
if not, oh well.
"frayed ends of sanity", baby.
Contaminated ears
Stoltzfus, maybe GD would sound better if you weren’t contaminating your ears with metal.Just saying....
Kind of like saying to Vguy that the Golden Knights are riding on beginner’s luck......
Oooooohhhhhh......
Them’s fightin’ words....
:)
Even though i live in Vegas....
....i don't believe in luck. Wanna fight?
Just remember
The FL Panthers won the cup their first season then slumped......
MinasMorgul
You're right about me not liking it but you got me all wrong...
...I fucking love it. Just because one song is sloppy at the end for a little bit, that doesn't mean I'm not gonna listen to the show repeatedly. Beauty lies in the imperfections, I guess, because I'm addicted to the music. I got my copy on Saturday and I'm 3 listens in already...I'm just getting started.
FOR YOU AUDIO FREAKS OUT THERE......
Is there really that big of a difference on these MOBILE FIDELITY SOUND LAB recordings that are floating around out there of "CLASSIC" albums. I figure this would be a good group of folks to ask this question to. I appreciate any input.
Unlike some....
....I don't have the hearing of a canine. It all sounds good. Easy to pleasy to my inner ear. No help here. Sorry (~};)Good to hear icecrmcnkd got his. Crank it to 11!!!
ps. The Florida Panthers have never won the Cup. Let alone in their first year. You're high....
Mysteries of the universe...
1. Dark Matter. Completely invisible to telescopes and the human eye, it neither emits nor absorbs visible light (or any form of electromagnetic radiation), but its gravitational effect is evident in the motions of galaxy clusters and individual stars.
-Scientific community
2. Light like a feather, heavy as lead. How can you ever give your more to receive your less?
-Bob Marley
3. Why can't my wife/girlfriend stop talking for even 5 minutes? How about just for the first 60 seconds when I walk through the door after work...just let me take my shoes off and throw my keys on the dresser before you start in. Is that really too much to ask?
-Dantian, and every other male ever born.
Mobile Fidelity LPs...worth the price...yes..and no!
I have been buying Mobile Fidelity Lps for years. Started off with The Beatles box set a long time ago. Mobile Fidelity uses virgin vinyl and half-speed mastering from the original sound tapes. They spend a lot of time getting everything "just right." To me, at 71, nothing is more satisfying than a well made LP, a tube amp, and a "good" cold beer and a bowl of pipe tobacco in a well carved Grateful Dead meerschaum pipe.
Getting back to the issue...if you are use to listening to Mp3 stuff and think it sounds great then I would suggest you do not bother. If you have a "good" stereo/headphones then by all means buy the dead on Mobile Fidelity. If I remember correctly some of the Dead's Lps are done on virgin vinyl. One has to look carefully at the notes on the covers.
If you have a "favorite" dead LP then spend the money and treat yourself to a wonderful sonic experience. Life is short!
The other question is how do they sound compared to all the new MQA/high digital downloads. I don't know and probably never will. Vinyl has a sound that is, to me, just sweet. I like holding the cover(s) in my aging fingers and reading the liner notes and reading about how the music was made. Lp people tend to want to sit down and "listen" to the music. It is a pain-in-the-butt to get up, every twenty minutes or so, and flip the lp but the satisfaction I get from it is worth all the hassles.
If you are always in a hurry and are updating your facebook account every twenty two minutes than Lps are not for you. LPs, are for me, a way of taking the time to absorb the music experience. And yes...I do listen to Cd's. I have thousands of them. They sound good/great but the "experience" is NOT the same as listen to an LP... at least for me.
It does my heart good to see people getting back to LPs...especially young people. One writer commented that the thought LPs were a spiritual thing.
So, to answer the original question from and earlier post, there is a big difference between normal pressed Lp's and Mobile Fidelity Lp's. Is the price difference worth it...that is for you to decide. I have!
Mr. Pete------>
aging hippie
Vinyl
I haven't bought any Mobile Fidelity L.Ps., but I have been buying more vinyl recently-and as you say, the experience of taking a record out of its sleeve, placing it on the turn table, and devoting 20 minutes to it is great-unique. I started buying albums in 1972, and its surprising to me how good most of them still sound. Also surprising that I though cds sounded better when they first came out. The powers of suggestion!
Two L.P.s I have bought recently are the Jimi Hendrix double "Freedom"- the live show from Georgia om 4th July 1970 and Cream's "Wheel of Fire". They both sound very powerful, and seem to fill the speakers more than cds do. The cover of "Wheels of Fire" by Martin Sharp is also brilliant. The detail of this art work simply cannot be adequately replicated on smaller mediums like cds.
I'll keep my eye open for Mobile Fidelity albums and see whats available.
Dinged Spines
My last several Dave's Picks have had creases, buckles, or dings on the spine. Not sure if they drop them or pull the wrap too tightly, or the post office crushes them. And I buy 3 each year for people. One I shipped to my buddy this time, and his has a folded in edge along the top of the spine. The two I received were in different packages. One has a buckled spine (you know, as though something heavy was on top of it and it creased in the middle). The other one has a mused in top corner. Three different packages, no good cases. For whatever reason, this is happening now but not in the past. My Dave picks one through 18 are fine. I guess in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal, but I do have these on display in my family room, so of course I notice it. Anyone else have this?
MFSL
These lp's are the best sounding lp's ever made, period. I got into them back in the early 80's and have many of them. The process they use is unique and brings out the best sound available from the master tapes. I started with the Beatles lp's and just went wild with them, will never forget that time we got back from a concert and were quite out there, put on the White Album and listen to it in that state of mind, it was about the 4th time listening to that particular side of the lp and the sound was unbelievable. Found out later that it takes 3 or 4 plays before the needle gets into the groove at just the exactly perfect place and it is just pure joy. The song that still sticks in my mind is Revolution, the slow version, wow, you could hear them breath and you could hear their fingers on the strings sliding up and down, it was uncanny. There are still many available and they make new ones occasionally, if you still or are just getting into lp's, these will make you think you are right there, with the band sitting right in front of you. They did put out American Beauty on MFSL, Dark Side of the Moon, Clapton, The Band...all the heavies, unfortunately, they are limited so if you don't get them when they first come out, you might miss out of some exceptional sounding recordings. Mr. Pete, I agree with you, lp's are the way to go and I find myself going back to mine a lot more than cd's. (a lot of my friends got rid of their albums, I kept all of mine) glad I did. Most lp's sound better than cd's but there are a few exceptions, Blue Oyster Cults' first lp is way better sounding on lp that on cd, and these new cd's by the Dead sound real good too, but we don't have an lp to compare them with. Back in the day, you could get an lp for 4 bucks or so, where as the MFSL lp's were about 18.00, which was a lot back then, but well worth it. That Beatles collection was great, Sargent Peppers never sounded so good.
MSFL - Yes!!
I have a few of these, they all sound amazing; best ones in my opinion were released in the 80s: The Band 1st LP, the Stones & Beatles box sets, American Beauty, Mars Hotel, Elvis in Memphis and the Sinatra box set. Highly recommended!
Beatles box on MFSL
This box is remarkable for its quality, certainly worth chasing for a great well-preserved copy. In 1982 a friend of mine recorded the set for me on his high end system, unfortunately to cassette but fortunately on a solid dual capstan deck (Yamaha, I think). Those cassettes, particularly Revolver, Sgt Pepper and the White Album, were among my most treasured belongings for many years. Analog sources wear out... if I had the set and the means I would make a few different reference copies, including on reel tape, for repeat enjoyment.
Disappearing Jerry
Spun through this show a few times now; as others have noted it's a pretty high energy show and a very solid first set. Second set is good too; I probably enjoy the Fire on the Mountain and Wharf Rat the most; I did have one audio observation though (I think?) - does Jerry leave the stage or just stop playing immediately after the final line of Scarlet Begonias? He hits that one note, then he seems to disappear from the mix until about seven and a half minutes in; during that period the transition just sort of plods faintly along between Bobby and Keith mostly, until Jerry seems to reappear. I assume this happened from time to time, but was more curious if that is indeed what happened, or if I am just missing him in there in the mix. No mention of this in the liner notes, but perhaps someone has a recollection or other feedback in retort...
Ahh, the mysteries of the listen.
Sixtus
#10309 just arrived
Smokin first set, ok Dave, now we have the smokin first set release, how about a great second set release, unreleased Dark Star time? I usually steered clear of shows that had a sunrise in the set list, just seemed to me to bring down the entire vibe in the arena. Back in the day, Jerry was know to "disappear" from time to time, go back stage and ?. Who really knows what he was doing, except maybe the rest of the band and Parrish. I can see it now, Jerry sees an opportunity to take a quick break, and does, and the show just gets better after that, but this time, I think the "pink Peruvian" might have got the best of him.
Disappearing Jerry
I catch him disappearing at approx. 5:13 into Scarlet and re-appearing almost exactly at 7:13, at a low volume. If you rewind a bit.. something is off during the first jam at about a minute into the song too, he's almost absent in the beginning of the first jam.
Perhaps there was something he didn't like with the sound. I wonder if he mucked with the tuning or if the newly refurbished Wolf wasn't playing nice with some of the effects? My guess is he was getting his magic tricks and effects together and prepping for a transition into the land of the Mutron which he seems to have pretty dialed in by the time Fire On The Mountain starts.
It doesn't seem like two minutes is enough time to completely disappear or go off the stage, and they were pretty fresh off the set break, so I doubt of he needed to spark up or anything. I doubt if we will ever know for sure. Then again, we could set the dials for 11/6/77...
Disappearing Jerry
I like to think he found himself in the middle of Scarlet Fire not quite good and high enough, and decided to wander offstage for an attitude adjustment.
Just arrived Tampa
Finished first set and it’s sounds great. Funny I got number around 17800 for my subscription and 8000 for one I ordered when individual show went on sale.
Not really sure why I ordered an additional show. I did the same thing for 2015, ordered two subs. It’s hell to get old. 50 years ago saw first show at Thee Image in North Miami Beach.
Looking forward to vol 26. Any year is fine with me.
Disappearing Jerry
I'd put my money on it having something to do with drugs...I know there were instances around this time where Jerry would be "missing" from other Scarlet>Fire jams as well.
Here is one example from 5/13/77
www.youtube.com/watch?v=voPrY55qiP0
Maybe, just maybe....
....he had to drop the Browns off at the Super Bowl. When you gotta poop, ya gotta poop...
Off Subject as always....
quick note - mobile labs 1/2 speed masters sounded great.
I received a goodly chunk of stuff from someone here, was a lot of really nice stuff there. Most amazing though was a group called Everyone Orchestra. As my friend commented to me when I forwarded show to him, "where have these guys been hiding". You can check out their wiki page. But if I understand right. This guy who arranges these things must know a lot of people, but he assembles a group of top shelf musicians, they hook up for some "show" somewhere, without any rehearsals, with only meeting that day maybe, they create songs on the spot out of whole cloth, words and all apparently. The words are simple, but the jams can be GREAT. They are on the archive, but here is the link to the show sent to me,,, give a listen.
https://archive.org/details/everyoneorchestra2017-03-11.matrix.flac24
Sorry for the interruption of DaP 25 talk,,,, and no mine hasn't gotten here yet, damn!
re: Beatles MFSL
That box is great, however the first 3 LPs have that hard stereo separation, with no middle: vocals left, instruments right. Still sounds great, but the mono versions of these are the best; I highly recommend the Beatles Mono box set that came out a few years ago, it's the best source.Same thing for the Stones, the mono versions of their LPs up to(and including Satanic Majesties Request) are superior to their stereo counterparts.
While we're at it, the mono version of Moby Grape's first LP is also better than the stereo; same for the Dead's first LP, mono version is much punchier than the stereo(it's a shame that the 45 reissue series did not use a mono Golden Road 45...)
DP #25...and 1977
First off, DP #25 is a good solid release. The first set is some of the best playing of 1977 for the boyz. It may well have the GOAT Miss 1/2 Step, and Jack Straw, Jed, and Dire Wolf are top notch.....but for this release to be considered so "legendary" like Cornell, 7/8/78, and/or all of May 1977 seems a bit of a stretch. I realize the GD has back the missing BBoards, and these releases were the obvious choices from the returned tapes....but 11/6/77 is good not great- Sorry!The Scarlet is half ass at best....one verse in, Jer realizes he is out of tune, and literally tunes mid song- I just don't care for that. His solo is good, then into Fire transition is ok...but mot May 1977.
The show is somewhat typical of what setlist had become towards the end of 1977 especially in the 2nd set....again I like it, and the 1st set really smokes. Bottom line IMHO- I just think even as great a pedestal as 1977 is put on, it time to move on from the repetitive shows from: 1977, 1974, and 1972.
Why not give the 1980s a chance at least for the next 6-8 releases...the myth that a lot of the soundboards from the 1980s (early 1980s in particular) don't sound good is just BS. I know this is not the consensus, and don't really care.....but haven't TPTB just about overdone it with 1970-1978...
Re: Maybe, just maybe...
Read this while sipping coffee, and promptly snorted it out of my nose as I laughed.
mono
Another album that sounds much better in mono is "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" by Pink Floyd-although I have always liked the channel switching at the end of "Interstellar Overdrive" on the stereo version. Both versions are essential-but the mono is the one I play most.
I am hoping my copy of Daves will arrive next week some time. The response seems a bit muted, on the whole. Great first set, but nothing spectacular after that, seems to be the theme. We shall see.
product sku
081227931742