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    heatherlew
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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.

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  • JimInMD
    Joined:
    Re: Jack Straw Musings
    thanks so much for adding.. makes me want to go grab a pint at Jack Straws castle. Interesting stuff.
  • SkullTrip
    Joined:
    Subjectively Objective
    Peachy still gets my vote for the most intriguing and engaging posts thus far. While everyone else is tirelessly treading the same old tired ground of 70s vs 80s vs Blah-Blah vs Wah-Wah, the Peach is busy hammering out steady-flow prose that would make Willam S. Burroughs one proud papa.
  • KeithFan2112
    Joined:
    Steamer Trunk
    Yes icecreamconekid, I acquired a steamer trunk for the E72 set I pieced together, one show at a time (at first). I was into the Dead when E72 came out, but I wasn't the rabid fiend I am now, and I didn't buy it. After the bug hit me, I ordered them one at a time off of dead.net (before they were all sold out) for about two weeks, and then 2-3 at a time. Once I had all of the shows, I tried to make my own "steamer trunk" by purchasing one of those CD holder brief case thingies, and affixing Dead stickers all over it. That almost worked. The stickers kept peeling off, so I bought fabric glue to prevent that from happening; but the deal breaker was that those CD brief cases still scratch the CDs when you remove / replace them a lot. Plus, I NEEDED the steamer trunk and books. I have it all now, except for the sticker - wasn't there a rainbow foot sticker that came with it? I have to say - as exciting as it must have been to unpack that entire steamer truck, I had a great time ordering them piecemeal and checking the mailbox once a week for a new Grateful Dead Europe '72 CD shipment (especially if it was "Dark Star" week). But I don't keep the actual CDs in the trunk, only the CD cases. Because we all know the cases scratch the CDs, and even if they didn't, they get worn out and ripped if you take the CDs out frequently. So I also bought a bunch of 30 Trips crates to use as CD holders (probably off of the record store guy who posted). I put all of my individual Dead CDs in those white paper CD sleeves, and store those in the 30 Trips crates. I store each crate on it's own shelf in the entertainment center, which conveniently has these cubby-like shelves that are just big enough to put a 30 Trips crate, either length-wise or width-wise. This allows me to arrange them so that I can see all 4 pictures and all band member names. And I have a big dog to protect them, a home alarm system, and some guns;-)
  • Mr. Jack Straw
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    Touch heads
    I always understood the term of derision to be directed toward those that latched on to the scene when the band’s popularity exploded, came for the party and only the party, drunkenly stumbled around, and shouted for Touch of Grey at the top of their lungs, only to be disappointed when it wasn’t played. I don’t think it’s directed at those who were introduced to the Dead because of their top 10 hit and who came to love the band and it’s music. These fans generally integrated themselves well, and added to the subculture. Regarding the break up of the box; I’m ambivalent. As a collector and Deadhead, it causes me physical pain to imagine the beautiful set being ripped apart. On the other hand, this is America, and you’re entitled to do what you want to with your purchase; even light it on fire. Just don’t expect people around here to sympathize with you.
  • mustin321
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    TouchHeads...
    None of you are real fans unless you've seen Pigpen in concertAccept that and just start following Umphrey's Mcgee and the world will be a better place.
  • Thin
    Joined:
    80's, dreading
    I can't resist taking the era bait.... 80's fan - you wrote: "I can't understand the folks who completely rule out any era. Lots of good stuff over 30 years...expand your horizons!" OK.... who "completely ruled out any era"? Assuming that people here 1) don't like the 80's at all, or 2) haven't even tried the 80's is just kinda funny - and smacks of "deader-than-thou". I hope for mostly-70's releases, but that didn't keep me from heavily digging an Alpine Valley '89 show earlier this week, or recently acquiring some '82-'83 shows. I agree with fellow-80's-advocate Spacebro that the vast majority generally "love it all" - it's just that some eras are MUCH more loved than others, as dreading's post re: 30 Trips sell-thru clarifies. Re: Dreading: I agree that mass-reselling releases seems ticket-scalper-unsavory and that a 5~ unit limit should be set, HOWEVER the underlying business model (limited run, ship all-at-once, no capital tied up in shelves full of inventory - eezy peezy) works well, as the success of this series proves. But this model REQUIRES a secondary market for those who missed the window = eBay. Thousands wanted to buy the individual 30-trips shows, and Dreading and others fulfilled that demand. No one's purchase was blocked and no puppies were harmed by his buying multiple units (was available for weeks), and he provided a distribution service to hundreds of people looking for individual shows. When you build a business that relies eBay, that type of behavior is par for the course. BUT I agree a 5-unit limit would help to keep a healthier relationship between sales and actual end-demand. (And how do we know you're one of us, Mr Reading, and not just doing market research for your CD-scalping... er "reselling" business? Your post was all business with no indication of any GD knowledge or passion.... sorry, wouldn't be a GD scene without a little paranoia... ;)
  • ckcoffman
    Joined:
    A few more musings on Jack Straw
    ... just because it's one of my fav's, too. I don't have time to do proper research on this right now, but a few observations: Regarding @hseamons's point about the Woodstock video (which I haven't seen in ages): My memory is that when Garcia (or whoever) uses the term "jackstraws", he's talking not about the people there, but about the cars scattered on and alongside the roads leading to the site. "Jackstraws" is another name for Pick Up Stix, so he's looking at the traffic / parking disaster from a helicopter flying over, and seeing that random arrangement of "parked" vehicles, crowds, and detritus reminds him of the mayhem of the dropped sticks at the start of the game. But it's interesting that he'd use the term "jackstraws" for the game--it was always "PickUpStix" to me (and my older family members) on the East Coast growing up, but maybe different for Garcia's (and Hunter's) generation out west(?). Anyway, my earlier guess about Robert Hunter having a pint in Jack Straw's Castle during his 1970 trip to London is just my speculation, although I think not entirely impossible. We'd have to check with him to find out (if he remembers). Dodd of course has lots of info in the Annotated Lyrics book, and also a blog entry right here: http://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-storie… . The Steinbeck suggestion he makes seems a false lead to me, in terms of the composition (if not the performances) of the song. I've never seen the movie of Of Mice and Men, but I've read the book, and the pair of men in the book are hardly the ne'er do wells of the song. So the Steinbeck thing seems Depression-era context for Weir, provided after he was making the song his own in performance, but not something that would've shaped Hunter's creation of the song's characters. Dodd's book does something really useful in pointing to a folk ballad (the Child ballad "Edward") for a lyrical source. That ballad doesn't mention Jack Straw at all, but with a very little bit of digging I learned there were some old ballads that refer to the historical Jack Straw who rebelled with Wat Tyler and others against Richard II in the late 1300s. At least one of these old ballads seems to have been preserved, in the "Garland of Delights." That is a collection of ballads attributed to the 16th-century balladeer Thomas Delone (or Deloney). The earliest print copy I see listed anywhere is a duodecimo from 1681, allegedly the 30th edition, that is part of the Pepys library at Cambridge University. To me, this is really interesting, because I think it would make the folk heritage of "Jack Straw" possibly more ancient even than those of "Terrapin Station," "Cold Rain and Snow," "Peggy-O," and "Jack-a-Roe." Anyway, our old friend the Internet Archive has a copy of Deloney's collected works. You can see the ballad in question starting on page 413, here: https://archive.org/stream/worksofthomasdel04delouoft#page/412/mode/2up . Too much, man, too much.
  • Sixtus_
    Joined:
    Discussions...
    A lot of interesting stuff percolating here. I am pleased that for the most part, All Things remain civil and it seems that respect is being handed around fairly. The Sandbox can accommodate! The 30 Trips situation being discussed is clearly a hot topic. I can see it both ways, man. Part of me hurts to see/hear these treasure chests broken up; on the flip side as other have noted - it was a lot of coin on the spot so I can also see the inherent, but perhaps obscured altruism in there which allows others who may not have had the means to still be able to participate in the history of acquisition, one by one. Jimbo is ALWAYS on "the good guys side", whomever that may entail. Not a bad or mean bone in his geeky plasma sack of a body. And i completely concur with the appreciative labeling of geeks with spreadsheets. As Kyle smartly declared, we definitely need to put more emphasis on mathematics, because....engineering! Smart stuff! Problem solving! all of this is spot on. And also coming from a self-declared math-struggler...during AP calculus I was so slow that my teacher used to let me come in after school to finish my quizzes and exams. She also tutored me for the AP exam - which I thankfully scraped by with a barely passing grade of '3' - which, incidentally, made it so I NEVER HAD TO TAKE MATH AGAIN, even while at UVM and getting a Biology degree...so yeah, math = important! But, so is listening to your favorite band and gaining an entirely new perspective on life, the cosmos, love, sharing, and how to groove. Sixtus
  • icecrmcnkd
    Joined:
    If I recall correctly
    Once we had Boxilla some people who would generally avoid the 80/90’s commented how surprised they were at how good the 90’s shows were. And the 89 show too, which is one I had previously on cassette and was waiting for in Full Norman glory.
  • 80sfan
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    thin
    Thanks Thin. My comment was directed at the folks who won't give the time of day to shows from the 80s and 90s which in my opinion is more prevalent on this board than among old heads. I know a lot of heads too and so I think it might be an age/generation thing - the people I know listen to it all because the band was still around and evolving in real-time as they were seeing shows. Those shows and that era are tied to real life memory and experiences. Newcomers have the luxury(?) of having the entire history of the band at their fingertips and seem more likely to just listen to what they feel is best era.
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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.

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...is derived from the I Ching, yes? Mercy, the punishment must fit the offense, or.... what? I regard the song as a voice (Hunter's?) speaking about values, rewards, maybe particularly American but maybe not. Could Hunter have been alienated by the band's evolution to arena scale music act to the point of calling out "playin' cold music on the barroom floor". Regardless, for me it was the last A+ Grateful Dead song, as great as any.
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Fire on the Mountain is one of those songs that could be amazing, but could also be incredibly tedious when they weren't gelling. I remember being at a party in college ('86-ish?) and an early 80's bootleg with the most insipid, dirge-like version of this song was CRANKING. This girl I was with looked at me: "so you LIKE this stuff?" - I admit that for a moment I seriously questioned my loyalty (she was really cute....). I felt like the old joke of the guys at the GD concert who ran out of dope and suddenly say "OMG - these guys suck!" But then you'd catch a show... live.... a version that's the polar opposite - brimming with tension and intensity.... like the recently discussed 10/14/94 - the grey matter from my brain is still somewhere in MSG's rafters. Amazing to me that these could be the same song. FOTM - choose carefully....
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I know many might have a bit of '77 fatigue after the GSTL box and Dave's 25 (which I love), but this one is worth a listen today. Great show from start to finish. A unique jam out of Eyes and the same with Dancin' in the Streets. Just a beautiful listening experience. Enjoy! https://archive.org/details/gd77-03-19.sbd.chinacat.255.sbeok.shnf/GD77…
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Very good point thin.. First, I find myself mostly in agreement with danc.. it is one of the last truly great/epic songs coming out of the cannon. As for tedious.. I always used the term 'strung-out' to describe your point. When it was on, it could be spellbinding or more simply put great. I have seen a few versions where it just went on forever without achieving lift-off, Garcia stuck in a transfixed stare at Persian carpet during the jams, barely lifting his head to rest his nose on the microphone for the lyrics, than back to the same transfixed stare and repeat for the next 19 1/2 minutes. Still.. my overall opinion is it's a great song and usually a treat or a high point of the show so take this as a mostly positive comment with some dark edges between the layers. I hope that's fair enough to say. It's been a while since I listened to 3/19/77.. so I am taking some good advice and getting my daily medicine from the wise Old Chief Smokem.
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Thanks for the heads up on the Hampton 79 show. Your own comments, combined with everyone else's silence, suggest that this is one show to avoid. I like the idea of those FTV shows on vinyl, too. The reviews on Amazon for the first are really good, so I will have a look and see how available it is. And how much it costs.
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One From the Vault can be had at around $60- a damn good price for vinyl. Volumes 2 and 3 run around $80-100 each. I just found the Houston 11/18/72 show (a Bear recording of most of the second set) for $35 on Barnes and Noble's website, but if it's out of stock, you can also grab that from discogs for about $50 +shipping. I love vinyl, but it gets expensive and fast. Anyway, happy listening. Just finished 3/19/77- just love it.
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March 19, 1966http://gratefuldeadoftheday.com/03-19-1966 Carthay Studios Los Angeles, California Grateful Dead at the Pico Acid Test - 3/19/66 From http://gdlistening.blogspot.com Track List: 1. Viola Lee Blues 2. One Kind Favor 3. I Know You Rider 4. You See A Broken Broken Heart 5. It's A Sin 6. PA Complaints 7. Beat It On Down The Line 8. PA, Etc. - Stage Banter 9. Heads Up (Instrumental) 10. PA, Etc. - Stage Banter 11. Next Time You See Me 12. Ice Cream Break 13. Stormy Monday Jam 14. //Death Don't Have No Mercy 15. In The Midnite Hour// Total Time: 66:20 The next installment of the Merry Pranksters trip was the Pico Acid Test held at Carthay Studios in Los Angeles. Their house band, the Grateful Dead, were of course on hand for the event. The actual date of the recording is, like much of 1966, up to some speculation. The tracks circulate as both 3/12 and 3/19. For lack of an exact date and with the stage banter and PA problems, I felt as though the show is probably 3/19 at the Acid Test. Listen for yourself and let me know your opinion! The Dead on this night were on. The "Viola Lee Blues" to begin the set is intense, and is a great introduction to live versions. If it is a harbinger intense jamming, I am quite excited to experience more of Viola Lee's! Jerry's roving guitar riffs during the song reminded me of Bear Stanley's initial reaction to hearing Jerry play. He said that he felt overwhelmed by the experience because of, "Garcia's guitar, which seemed to come out of the universe and try to eat me alive" (McNally 118). The quick, wild quality with which he plays brings to mind a bridge to another universe. Another interesting note of the show is that it contains the only known performance of Pigpen's song "You See A Broken Heart," according to David Dodd (Dodd 12). Download as 3/12/66 at https://themidnightcafe.org/2016/10/31/lossless-bootleg-bonanza-gratefu… Grateful Dead Pico Acid Test Danish Center Los Angeles, CA 03/12/66 Download: FLAC/MP3 Source: ??? > CD > EAC > CDWave > SHN This is flac encoded & tagged version of shnid: 1593
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Grateful Dead Live at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on 1973-03-19by Grateful Dead https://archive.org/details/gd1973-03-19.141309.patched.sbd.mr.miller.f… Publication date 1973-03-19 Topics Soundboard, Charlie Miller Collection GratefulDead Band/Artist Grateful Dead Resource DeadLists Project Set 1 Promised Land, He's Gone, Mexicali Blues, They Love Each Other, Looks Like Rain, Wave That Flag, Box Of Rain, The Race is On, Row Jimmy, El Paso, China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider, Around & Around, Tennessee Jed, Playin' In The Band Set 2 Loose Lucy, Me & My Uncle, Brown Eyed Women, Big River, Mississippi Half Step, Stella Blue, Jack Straw, Truckin'-> The Other One-> Eyes Of The World-> China Doll, Johnny B. Goode, E: Casey Jones Notes Notes: -- Nobody's Fault But Mine jam in Truckin' -- Two sets of masters were used to make this show complete -- Thanks to Rob Eaton, Matt Smith and Dick Latvala for the recordings -- There's a 2 second patch in PITB (13:09 - 13:13) patched with shnid=123987 -- All reels were Dolby decoded -- This file set is 16 bit Performance: The Grateful Dead Dead send off Pigpen (September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973) LENNY KAYE Posted Apr 26, 1973 12:00 AM It had to happen: even the Dead have gone glitter. Resplendently suave in Nudie-type sequined suits, the group appeared on the stage of this comfortably-sized Long Island arena as formal gentlemen, playing before a sold out and devoutly clamoring Monday crowd who nonetheless held true to their flannel shirt and dungaree colors. The music was consistently superb and was delivered with a professionalism and class that might even be taken for granted were it not so historically precarious, caught as it is in the double bind of massive anticipations and internal complexities, good nights mixing inevitably over the bad. Still, instead of wrestling with the hyper-reactions of their audience -- as was once the case -- the Dead have resigned themselves to that unquenchable factor, even to the point of enjoying it, learning ways in which it might be manipulated and controlled. Their technique here involved pacing -- stretching out the four hours of their pair of sets so that the crowd moved with, rather than against them. The long breaks between songs served the dual purpose of relaxing the audience as well as the band. The audience had been warmed early in the evening by the pedal steel dominated sound of the New Riders (replacing the Sons of Champlin who opened the first two nights of the stand), high-pointing with "Willie and the Hand-Jive" and a lovely country version of Billy Joe Royal's "Down in the Boondocks." Producer Bill Graham also was on hand, nostalgically tussling with the crowd. "I know this is Long Island," he said at one point, attempting to gain breathing room for those unlucky souls piled up in front of the stage, "but let's try it anyway." No one budged and, of course, Graham threw up his arms and stalked out. The Dead came on to the usual mass eruptions, played a quick western shuffle and closed it off before Garcia took even the glimmerings of an extended lead. They moved deliberately into "He's Gone," Jerry leaning to the microphone in the evening's only apparent reference to the recent death of Ron (Pigpen) McKernan, reeling out the final chorus: "Ooooh, nothin's gonna bring him back . . ." The improvement and strength of the group's vocal harmonies was readily apparent; no more do their voices quaver up and down the scale trying to find the right series of notes. Joined by Donna Godchaux, the blend registered chorally near-perfect, if a shade eccentric. The group then opened into their repertoire, which has become so large as to be in the main unrecognizable. Alternating between Bob Weir and Garcia, the band offered such things as a sharp clicking rendition of "Mexicali Blues," matched by "Looks like Rain" (perhaps Weir's finest composition), "The Race Is On," Marty Robbins' "El Paso," and finally, the first semi-oldie of the night "Box Of Rain." Instrumentally, they were in high form, Phil Lesh bottoming well, Bill Kreutzmann hale and hearty, Keith Godchaux wrapping piano fills around Weir's and Garcia's tone-perfect guitars. It was the longer songs that got them into trouble, but not by much. "China Cat Sunflower" began the launch into what has become the Dead's extended trademark, and as they took it in a roundabout way to "I Know You Rider," it seemed as if the night was sure to be tinged golden. But later, over the hump of "Around And Around" and "Tennessee Jed"'s sing-a-long chorus, it proved to be a false start. The big song of the set, "Playin' in the Band," never quite caught the handle they were searching for, gears touching but never completely in mesh. The rest of the night belonged to Garcia. Returning from a short intermission and several filial descendants of "Cumberland Blues," he forcibly led the band through a combination of old and new material, capped by a beauteous ode to a woman named Stella Green. A long jam around "Truckin'" was successful in parts, as was a follow-up slice from "The Other One," and with the band now beginning to group around Kreutzmann in a semicircle, concentrating on making contact, they finally got what they wanted in a long, jazz-oriented piece I'd never heard before, the sound very free, gunning and spooking each other in a continuous upchurned spiral. They left the stage after "Johnny B. Goode," all those hours of playing not diminishing its strength. To call them back, the audience set off a few matches in the orchestra, a few more responding along the balconies, expanding outward until the whole inside of the arena was lit by matchpower. The Dead returned with "Casey Jones," responsive puffs of smoke rising from the banks of amplifiers, the band chugging along as a revolving mirror-ball refracted minispots around the audience. [From Rolling Stone Issue 133 ó April 26, 1973]
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"...capped by a beauteous ode to a woman named Stella Green." Now ain't that something! I wonder if she knows Suzy Blueberg... :)Happy Monday all! Peace
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Since the release of One from the Vault, I've purchased the vast majority of the shows released by the Dead. Along with those, I can, of course, also cue up a great Charlie Miller remastered show at my leisure. None of that has stopped me from obsessively clicking on this website over the past few days for official news of the next box set release or even the official release of Da26, even though we now those shows already. I think I have developed an obsessive compulsion for new releases to listen too, even though I never have enough time to properly listen to all the releases I already have. I need serious help!!!
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you are not alone. like mr. stoltzfus says, "gooble, gobble . . . "
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....join the club brother! We all suffer from the same "illness"....
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Announce that to everyone in your party when you park at the festival. Hell, who hasn't lost their car? I once lost mine with a passed-out date inside and thanked my lucky stars we found her first. Down at my first Mardi Gras, our host wrote her address and phone number on slips of paper and handed them out to all of us at the beginning of the adventure. Priceless... nearly every one in the party used that to get home. Cab, walking, whatever - nobody remembered a goddamn thing. We were somewhere just a block off St. Charles but it could have been a million miles away. Not a safe city, but a beautiful, elegant, time machine. I am married to the city of New Orleans forever. Vacation in the French Quarter, if you can. Personal fave: Olivier House Hotel. Not far from The Dungeon. \m/
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The other day a box arrived with the following CDs in it:Garcia Live Vol. 10 Dylan Bootleg Series Vol. 13 Stones: Get Your Ya-Ya's Out! (2002 Akbo) Alabama Shakes: Sound & Color Amy Winehouse: Lioness--Hidden Treasures Furtwangler Conducts Beethoven (4 CD wartime recordings) Woo-hoo! A while back some people on here were extolling the virtues of Amy Winehouse, so I picked up her Back to Black album and loved it. Now I'm trying more of hers. In this box was also Philip Roth's American Pastoral, which someone here recommended. When someone here recommended A Prayer for Owen Meaney, I bought it and loved it. I loaned it to my dad, and he loved it, too. Dear Wonj--I'll let you know if the Furtwangler versions of those symphonies get my juices flowing.
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Various thoughts- @daverock-that Hampton, May'79. show was the first Dead show I attended. It did not put me on the bus. I've got a decent Aud off the archive of it, but it was Brent's 4th show (+/-) and is just OK. @Highstrikerjay- Don't fight it bro. You're never coming down. I prescribe you do some deep breathing and listen to Crazy Fingers; "Life may be sweeter for this, I don't know, Feels like it might be all right..." I'm Still listening to DaP 25. Usually I've moved on by now but this one does it for me. Others have mentioned the possible GOAT status of Miss 1/2 Step and Truckin' and I concur. But I also nominate Me & My Uncle. This is a tune I'll frequently delete from a set list with it's mate Big River (too much Cowboy stuff for me), but on this one Jerry is definitely not mailing it in. He's just tearing it up and it feels like Bob is working hard stay with him. None better. Seems like this is the thread to vote on 'What's Next'. So, bearing in mind that TPTB really prefer the 70's I'll vote for any '73. Gives '77 a run for the money. I hear '73 as a slightly more mature '72 but with better set lists, as they've added Wake of the Flood stuff.
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The only Dave's Picks comments threads still active are:2018 Subscriptions; DaP 25 (11/06/77); DaP 13 (02/24/74); DaP 14 (03/26/72); DaP 15 (04/22/78); DaP 16 (03/28/73). DaP 17 thru 24 are currently have been taken down, they're gone.
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They often change things up on here as they prepare for a new release. Today's the Spring Equinox. I'd say it's a high time for an announcement. Edit: Cooking some bacon in preparation for the 7 show 68 PigBox that Fourwinds correctly identified (despite the fact I don't eat pork). Announcement at noon PST, give or take? Or am I being too optimistic?
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Thanks for the warning on Hampton 79. My attention has wandered off it again ,thankfully, and yesterday, this show arrived-the vinyl version. Phenomenal! I cant believe I didn't but it on its release date. I remember the post from Highstrikerjay asking about great Phil moments. This is full of them-another amazing New Potato Caboose and-the absolute peak-Alligator into Caution. If you haven't got this show, I would drop everything-forgo other shows- and place an order immediately
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....sense a disturbance in The Force.
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I concur. I have posted many times here about that show.. and how Phil blew out my rather nice car speakers during my first listen to that show. I'd call that a Phil moment and it's a terrific show. I'm so glad they recorded that on multi-track. It's one of the best shows in the box. I think Phil was at the height of his powers pre-hiatus too. There was a Jerry/Phil connection in the earlier years and Phil was as much a lead player and laying down the tempo and providing support in those years. Great that it came today, Dave.. great show and a great vinyl offering.
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Dropped my phone and sustained heavy damage to the screen. This phone has the Grateful Dead's entire library on it, plus soundboards. Company phone, opening an IT ticket now...
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Yes, an almost perfect show from beginning to end. I love the way it starts so well, with Viola Lee Blues, moves through other well played and sung blues, into the Anthem material and that incredible crescendo on the last two sides of the album-Alligator and Caution. Its an album that starts great..and then gets better. I am very impressed with the sound , too. I have also had the vinyl DP8 delivered today, but I am going to leave that for an hour or two out of respect for what I have just heard.
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I was at that show.. The lead-up started much earlier.. Phil had a mic, but didn't use it. For a while, perhaps back into 1985, I don't recall.. one day he had a mic.. Then he started to sing harmonies, but just barely.. he would lean his mouth up the mic and sing a little.. Then he started singing songs, I don't recall if this was the first song he sang lead in after retiring his mic, if I have time today I will look into it. I remember it being hot inside that night, everyone was red faced after a few songs and beads of perspiration were flying around or coming off the ceiling.. the place was packed.. it was the first set closer and Bobby said something before the song like "Practice Makes Perfect" or something like that.. Then the opening chords of Box of Rain were played but it didn't sink in, we just looked at each other in disbelief.. until Phil stood up to the microphone and belted out the Look out of any window opening, then everyone went nuts. It was complete frantic chaos inside for the next minute or so. The Eyes of the World was sweet too. A good show for the period. I think we got a Visions of Johanna the night before and a Roadrunner (Bobby on Vocals), Duprees opener and a Supplication>Jam>Let it Grow to close the first set the next night. Perhaps one of the better runs that year. Goosebumps.. I loved that little coliseum, I have some great memories there. This might have been the night we didn't have a room and the group of us (plus about a hundred of our closest friends) ended up sleeping on the floor of the ballroom at the Holiday Inn. ..at least until the heat arrived just before dawn, just after folks starting getting some shut eye. :D ..but that's another story and one I am not very proud of. Sorry about the phone KF..
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Daverock-- enjoy those two gems. I'll be spinning the Shrine vinyl upon my return home tonight- can't wait to hear that first bomb into Viola Lee- that show just grabs you from the start and doesn't let you go. If I smoked cigarettes, I'd definitely fire one up after listening to that one. The art for that one is awesome too. Poster/ t-shirt? I'd buy em both. I'm told that today is the first day of spring, but the weather says another Nor'easter is heading towards the Philly area, so my snow day show, DP8, will be hitting the turntable tomorrow. Looking forward to a long listen (with the wife and kids this time) a nice fire in the stove and some leftover Guinness from St. Paddy's. Not a bad way to start spring if it's gonna snow a foot. Happy Spring, y'all!
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9 years 1 month
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I was there too. Just before they started it Bobby did say "this one proves practice makes perfect". I was on the floor, a bit in front of the soundboard. When they started, the place did go crazy. It was so loud that for about 30 seconds after Phil started to sing I couldn't even hear them. It was a special moment. I slept at the Holiday Inn as well (always the Holiday Inn when in Hampton), but I had a room. So that worked. The next night they did start with Roadrunner. In the second set they finished the Playing they started the first night (which I missed, so no Visions or Quinn for me). To finish the third night they played Sugar Magnolia - my notes show that Bobby climbed the speaker bank during it. He was in full on crazy Bob Rock Star mode. Good for you to see all three Jim, Always felt bad I didn't find a way to get there a night earlier to see the whole run. But the middle night was the winner.
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14 years 10 months
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My notes, composed whilst working my way through the TTATS box, have this entry for 1967:"A++: Might be the Grate-est Dead EVER!!"
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13 years 5 months
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Too funny.. you have to be my favorite tour buddy I never met. I bet there's a dozen or more shows we shared and it appears we even frequented the same hotels.
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15 years 2 months
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March 20, 1970http://gratefuldeadoftheday.com/03-20-1970 Capitol Theatre Port Chester, New York This is the late show from this date at the Cap. There was also an earlier show, which is out there in circulation, but is not available on Archive. First ever Friend of the Devil and second Deep Elem, not played since December 1966 at the Matrix. Capitol Theatre website has a nice t-shirt https://the-capitol-theatre.myshopify.com/collections/t-shirts/products… and dose of the dead poster for sale https://the-capitol-theatre.myshopify.com/collections/poster/products/d…
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Dead of the Day: March 20, 1971http://gratefuldeadoftheday.com/03-20-1971 Iowa Field House Iowa City, Iowa Though there is good stuff from 1977 and 1970 on this day, we head to March 20, 1971 for our Dead of the Day. The band’s playing is tight throughout, and Jerry throws out some fiery jams, but Pigpen owns this show. He is lurking about through the Truckin’ opener and Loser, but comes to the fore in the gritty Hard to Handle. It is not like the rest of the band is slouching, though. They get everything out of that tune, with Garcia leading the way and Phil busting a great bass line and throwing in some funky bombs. The boys also play a very fine Bertha, Uncle John’s, and just about everything else. But, again, Pig provides the highlights in the Good Lovin’ and, especially, the closing Lovelight. At various times throughout the show, the vocals sound slightly off-key in the recording. But it is not really clear whether it is the boys or the tape, especially because there are parts, like Jerry on Bertha and Pig’s ragged blues intonations in the Hard to Handle, where the vocals are just perfect.
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We surely were at a lot of the same shows together. And a lot of good ones. I guess you brought good karma. Hampton "88 was another run I enjoyed. Bobby and Phil engaging with the crowd that was demanding Phil, and then giving in to the "wisenheimers" with Box of Rain for a "Hampton redux of the breakout" was fun.
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13 years 5 months
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...there ain't one hell of a lots of us left in this world.. Sudan, the last male White Rhinoceros, died today. RIP Sudan. That leaves two left on the planet, both female. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/northern-white-rhino-male-s… https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/worlds-last-male-northern-white-rh… Adrian Below: The Lone Rhinoceros #SAD!
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14 years 11 months
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what a fn bummer
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17 years 6 months
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3/20/92 Copps Coliseum A show I attended, and was happy to see included in TTATS, but feel it should have been released into higher circulation instead of limited to the 7,500 box sets and 1,000 lightning bolt USBs. Surely, Spring '92 wasn't as enegetic and powerful as Fall '91, but this show is a standout for possibly being the best of '92. A definite must have for serious collectors. On another anniversary note, those two Hartford shows from 3/18-19/90 are a couple of great ones. So glad they released them.
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Loved that run despite the disastrous one and only Stir It Up! (it was fun though, and spontaneous). I think we caught that wonderful Merriweather flood in '83 too.. one of my all time most fun shows, primarily because apparently I survived it. I am sure we passed each other on the freeways countless times. I was the one driving very carefully, wearing the tie dye with the bumper stickers on my Toyota. After all, you can't be too careful driving too and from shows.. especially when the speed limit was 55.
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14 years 11 months
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when you look at it buuuut... always look on the bright side of life
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15 years 2 months
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But it's really GREAT shit, Mrs. Presky!
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13 years 5 months
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I hear it's natures Viagra. Better than the dust from ground up Rhino horns, the Chinese had it all wrong.
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9 years 1 month
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Don't get us started. If the lightning didn't get us the rampaging waters of the flooded stream surely almost did. I do admit I made the MD to Hampton run very quickly several times. Never got a ticket, never got stopped. But I never traveled with anything illegal, so the driving I was sometimes reckless (in "90 I drove to Albany to see one of the shows at the Knick through a snowstorm. Sick wife in the seat next to me, barely able to see through the windshield, but we got there and it was sunny the next day for the show.)
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8 years 4 months
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I'm one of the Amy Winehouse fans here. I think you'll like Lionness. Back to Black is considered her classic album, but Lionness has a wider range of tunes, not as influenced by the black dog that was dogging her throughout B to B. A version of Girl from Ipanema on Lionness that she did at age 17 IIRC twists the normal melody like I've never heard it sung before, and she throws in some vocal scatting that makes it unlike any lounge lizard version heard in every cabaret from here to Rio. A lot of the background instrumental music on Lionness was filled in after she died, and can be a little spotty in places. Her voice still shines though. She could feel a song like few others - Ray Charles, Mavis Staples, Billie Holliday, Richard Manuel and Leon Russell come to mind who had a similar natural feel. On Body and Soul, she slurs words, growls, and powers through other lines clear as a bell. Kind of like Garcia drawing out a range of such different sounds from his guitar in the Scar/Fire of 5/8/77, but making it all work, with feeling. While the tone of her voice is soulful and unique, she knew jazz singing and how to make a song work, at least when she was sober, in spite of her seeming carelessness and ne'er do well. Listen closely to how she and Tony Bennett mix it up on Body and Soul - they weave in and out of each other, effortless switching between one of them moving from the lower to higher register on a stanza, and vice versa.
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10 years 4 months
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Saw your comment about me and my uncle being one of your favorites from Dave's Picks 25. I was going to suggest you also try Dave's Picks Volume 11, that little Trip to Oz with the Grateful Dead we took a few years ago, from 11/17/72. Jerry's guitar solo - it just, JUMPS right out of the amp at you.
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10 years 3 months
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..on Shrine 67. Deadheadbrewer-I agree with your notes. Maybe the reason they are being reticent about the release of the commemorative Anthem is that they have already released the two best shows which formed the basis of the album. Then again, maybe they haven't! DP8 tomorrow. Maybe the acoustic set tonight.
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6 years 11 months
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The 30 Trips 1992 show is not a hot seller on the secondary market, where it it sells for normal retail prices ($35 - $55) and still has many available every week. If the 7500 in circulation don't sell for normal prices, then that's all there is to the story. I agree, it's a good show, but the only way they were selling 7500 of these was as part of the 30 Trips box.
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