Grateful Dead

Maybe the shot of tequila I dropped in... but I digress... Never realized the limited choices, though staggering, for a summer '73 box. All told, June-August, 'only' 12 shows. So Dave has to figure out if a small box works, yet leaves enough shows for the future. I've heard the call for PNE 6-22-73, but never checked it out, or the setlist. But if you look up the setlists for 6-22, 6-24 and 6-26, I'd have to make that my dream box. That leaves Dave the opportunity to release two 'iconic' shows (6-10 and 7-27/28), plus the three-show run in Universal City and the two-fer in Jersey City. Ultimately, 6-9 and 7-28 -- both daytime shows -- might be a tad weak for release, I cannot tell from the tinny versions out there. But the three-show NW tour looks spectacular! With the 45th anniversary upon us, I bet on Summer '73 NW tour. Three really long shows...

>>>>> I don't know what it's like to wrangle the sums of money tenured bands deal with, but if I had a chance to get a seven-figure sum, I would freakin' do it. Agreed because I know shit about Large Green and Band Egos, BUT, I would think release it, cost you nothing, you will make some amount of money, but to me, more importantly, you're leaving some of your art for all time. I wish I could create something, anything that can stand the test of time after I'm gone. But what do most of us leave, at best kids, nothing so great there. (they are mass produced by unskilled labor) I doubt ANY of the faucets I've installed will be around in 10 years. Maybe the classic 66 corvette I've worked on will have my handy work untouched for years.

I have been wondering about the next box set myself, thinking there might be an announcement soon. A larger '70s box in the spring, and a smaller '80s-'90 box in the fall would be about perfect, like they did last year with the Cornell box and the RFK box. The July '78 box rocks. I have returned to that box on a number of occasions, probably returning to the Arrowhead and the Omaha shows most frequently, but they were all good. That Arrowhead show is fantastic, a nice tight, short show, and always fun to imagine the crowd at Willie Nelson's summer picnic grooving to the Dead as things got weird later in the show. The artwork on that box is also probably my favorite out of all the box sets.

RFK June '73 remains a great experience 45 years later, BUT I only caught the first day. The second day was a Sunday and I had to hitch back home to go to school Monday. Worst decision of my life, outside of not buying FW'69 when it came out... oh, and getting married. The GD played the afternoon show, a seriously hot day, with temps reaching 100, at least. I was 15 and we were taking four-way blotter, which partly explains who I am today. (No digressions here, pleeez.) I've got a few stories, which I think I've shared before. There was a long break, then the sun eased up on us and we retired from the field to the seats for the ABB's closing set and man, probably the best ABB set of that year, of which I caught four. Just plain powerful. Oh, yes, we did re-up on the blotter for the ABB. That re-upping on the same day is a young man's sport, to be sure. (Maybe it was the second piece of that four-way paper that made me who I am today? Ooops a digression.) I can say, having heard the Watkins Glen jam as we eased out of that crowd 6-7 weeks later, we do not need the post-show jams. Those guys were hoovering massive amounts of blow and drinking heavily, according to my ears(!). Instead, I'm sure that, as with the ABB's Feb '70 FE release, the GD have probably given the ABB the tapes of 6-9-73 and 6-10-73, if anyone ran tape on the "other" band. So the ABB would be in a position to release something. And I'm sure that someone is looking at an archival ABB release schedule, now that Gregg has departed. At least, I fervently hope so. There are two sets from '71 FW scheduled. And the '73 ABB was the best of the post-Duane IMHO. A standalone 6-10-73 across four discs could make a killer lure as the 2019 DaP 30 w/bonus disc; the full 6-10 with 6-9 filler. (Hate filler unless I was at the show, but I digress... aarrgghhh!) Then this spring's box could provide other, 3-disc summer '73 shows. Yep, I'm still gunning for a March-April announcement for a '73 box to be released in May, timed to the 45th of that fateful summer and its fresh Alice D. Those '73 shows tended to be long with 2-3 song encores, so maybe it's just (3) shows, (9) discs, to keep price within reach. (An even $99.99?) On the 8-31-78 Red Rocks show, the 6-song first set seemed disastrous at the time; they cut it short and huddled (got ripped) before coming out to jam the second set to the max. They had recorded an LP and not been performing for a month or so and those two shows, 8-30 and 8-31, we considered quite weak after the 7-7 and 7-8 Purple Dragon-driven sets earlier that summer. Jeeez, 40 years since Red Rocks '78 and 45 since summer '73. One step closer to the coolin' board. Coffee good today...

The July '78 Box is one of the best things they've released, from the artwork and packaging (bookshelf size, thank you) to the performances and the sound quality. Jim, you mentioned that 7/8/78 might be the best, but is not your go-to. Not sure if you mean Arrowhead, but that is by far the one I go-to most in this stellar box. It circulated only as an AUD before (a really fun Bob Wagner tape I think). I think if it had been available in Betty Board glory it would be as famous as 7/8. But, this could also be my predilection for "weird shows with truncated sets at festivals." (It's a specialized genre). One of my favorite shows of the '80s is 9/5/82 from the US Festival. Talk about a weird show, opening with Playin' > Shakedown > Minglewood. What-the-wha? And at 9:30 in the morning too. The Dead playing to a crowd of mostly non-Deadheads, at 9:30 in the morning, what could go wrong? https://archive.org/details/gd1982-09-05.sbd.miller.113746.flac16/gd82-… Set 1 Playin' In The Band-> Shakedown Street-> Minglewood Blues, Samson & Delilah, China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider Set 2 Sugaree-> Women Are Smarter, Truckin'-> Drums-> Not Fade Away-> Black Peter-> Sugar Magnolia, E: U.S. Blues, E: Satisfaction*

it should be fewer than 5000, no less than. the selling of the 5000? Jerryroll will drive you stone mad. as will jellyroll.

I’m banking on the ‘pre-hiatus only’ folks to make the sales volume larger. They wouldn’t have bought the 78 Box. The RFK 89 Box ‘less than 5000 left’ banner went up before the box started shipping, or around shipping time. The banner will stay until sell out. Of course, the ‘no Brent’ crowd isn’t going to buy that box.

Mind Left Body, this one's for your efforts. I saw someone post this a little while back, and I've shamelessly recycled it. So regarding your post: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8X_Ot0k4XJc 80sFan - you said in a couple of sentences what took me way too long to articulate. Prehiatus + 1977 = insta-sell. Posthiatus = you better think about your marketing plan carefully, lest you "lose sight" of what truly matters.

20k units when the 15k unit Red Rocks box is still FAR from sold out??? To quote Austin Powers "I used to think you were crazy, but now I can see your nuts." I recall some overzealous '80s enthusiasts saying the same about the 89 RFK box: "It'll sell out instantly [because I'm so excited about it!]". And now Rhino has FIVE THOUSAND (!!!) unsold boxes, just taking up valuable space. That's $300,000 of capital tied up in inventory that they'll be sitting on for a very, very long time. If that fact gets brought up in a Dead/Rhino meeting and then someone pipes up and suggests 20k units on the next box, I think they'd be thrown out of the room. But I could be wrong. Granted Cornell box sold out fast, but that's freakin' Cornell. The Red Rocks box had much more mystique and mind-share than does 6/10/73, imo. I get your enthusiasm for 6/10/73, but just ask the Rhino stockroom manager who can't even see the Farrah Fawcett poster on his office wall anymore for all the cardboard boxes stacked floor-to-ceiling around him.

I don't think 7/1 circulated (not sure about 7/3). 7/5 circulated as a wonderful sounding AUD (speaking of great AUDs) by one of our own posters (who also has an amazing story from attending some of the shows). My (probably over simplified) theory on why it hasn't sold out is that no post hiatus year (aside from 1977) has enough mainstream hype around it to sell out quickly. Even the late era years we all consider to be very strong. Spring 90 TOO which is as great a box as they ever put out only sold out just over a year ago I think. And as previously mentioned, a 2-show affordable mini box from 89 is still available. Anything pre-hiatus will sell out very quickly. Put a summer or fall 73 box out and it will be gone in 24 hours. Put a box out from fall 79 and watch it sit for a while. Doesn't bother me personally since I will buy it the day it's posted, but I do hope that it doesn't deter Rhino from agreeing to box sets from less "famous" years/runs.