• 3,418 replies
    heatherlew
    Default Avatar
    Joined:

    "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.

Comments

sort by
Recent
Reset
  • JDSept
    Default Avatar
    Joined:
    There is much good stuff from
    There is much good stuff from the 80s and some in the 90s even, though way less. I do gravitate to the late 60s and early 70s though, perhaps my so liking Pig.
  • ckcoffman
    Joined:
    Jack Straw name?
    @JimInMD: I always assumed, as you have, that Hunter got "Jack Straw" from his time in London in 1970. I have it in my head (source?) that his preferred stomping ground in that burg is that space between Hampstead Heath and Regent's Park, which puts him in walking range of (the now sadly defunct) Jack Straw's Castle, which was until its close one of three of the most notable pubs in Hampstead. Rather than being named after a '70s politician, this establishment must have taken its name from the rebel Jack Straw of English folklore and 14th-century history. In short, my speculation is that his rambling landed him in the pub, and the name inspired him to make an American folk character out of a British historical legend. That's my story, but I'd love to hear a clarification/correction if anyone has better source notes on this than I do.
  • PatrickJP07
    Joined:
    Is this venue the same as Broome County Forum ?
    I saw Phish there in 1992, and remembered the building had amazing acoustics. Like the Bushnell in Hartford, or the Beacon in NYC. Is it the same place with a slight name change ? I also agree with M Pruner about 1977, it was a great time for the band, possibly even their water mark, but enough's enough. How about Brendan Byrne 11-10-85 ? Out of the 40 shows I saw, it was easily the best. They put the Cassidy from it on "So Many Roads", how about the rest ?
  • danc
    Default Avatar
    Joined:
    pre Lewiston 1980....
    I am surprised more has not been selected for release from the vault. There are great snippets of board recordings on the archive (e.g. 5-10, fantastic show). The year seemed fabulous for Jerry, I bet fans would love to hear much more. As for Lewiston, I think it should be released, if possible, as an aud if that's all there is.
  • Lightfoot510
    Joined:
    KyleHarmon
    Dont forget the raw jelly beans
  • icecrmcnkd
    Joined:
    Haven’t listened to this show in months
    Looking forward to the Full Norman (hopefully not too much added bass).This show was in regular rotation when I had it on cassette, so I know it well but am still psyched to get a Normanized version. I’ll listen to it many times. We’ll have enough ‘77 when we have it all..... Keep the 80’s and 90’s coming as mini-Boxes.... We’re due for some Bruce! How about 10-31-91?
  • mustin321
    Joined:
    1982
    I love the Road Trips show from 1982 --- Really good sound quality. The Dicks Picks from Alpine 1982 is such an amazing show but it's probably the worst sounding official release out there, IMO.
  • Dark-Star
    Joined:
    great pick
    If the powers-that-be read this, I would lobby for continued 60s and 70s. I have several friends who feel the same way, and I know from discussions with people on the message boards, that a lot of people are very pleased with this run of shows in Dave's Picks. I don't think they would be up to 18,000 copies per pick if every year featured two 80s and 90s picks. It's just not their prime, and and not their best stuff. I'd rather have 20 shows from 1977 then a mix of 80s and 90s with the 60s and 70s. That's my feeling and I'm sticking to it. The musicianship and performance by all band members is superior in the 60s and 70s by far. As far as this subscriber is concerned, there is no need to go into the 80s or 90s for this series. This series represents the very best of the Dead, and not just performance, but audio quality, and you guys are doing an awesome job.
  • claney
    Joined:
    Road Trips 1982
    Hey Jack Strawberry, I like 1982 also. A peak year for Brent's greasy organ sound, and the Playin's have some flashes of primal dead. In addition to the aforementioned DP32, there is also the outstanding Road Trips 4.4, April 6, 1982. Great show, actually pretty good sound quality too, and with killer filler (Playin > Ship > Playin) from the previous night. But best of all, it has what might be my favorite version of Terrapin. Should still be able to find it, or you can listen to it on Spotify. Enjoy! PS - as Jim says, nice screen name
  • daverock
    Joined:
    Happy Days
    I like shows from 1977-the box set last year from May was great-and 1976, 1978 also have a lot to recommend them. But for me, the peak years are pre-retirement, with the absolute pinnacle being 1972. Everything about that year ( almost everything-I am not so keen on the extended "Good Lovin's) is exceptional. Even songs that have been heard countless times sound sparkling and somehow new. But we are spoiled now, as was said on the other website. Compared to life in the 80s and 90s, when all I had were some very dubious cassettes, these are golden days indeed. I can't throw my cassettes away, either, though. They remind me of another time, long gone, when I would drive to a mates house, and we would listen to tapes, as he generously made copies. Happy days then and now.
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

7 years 11 months

"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.

user picture

Member for

10 years
Permalink

Incredible clip of Tom Waits singing Rain Dogs. I haven't come across anyone else in music who approaches things quite like he does. Hats off- a true original.
user picture

Member for

17 years 2 months
Permalink

....I sense another Partridge Family / Brady Bunch debate forthcoming.
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

13 years 7 months
Permalink

Who had the better Consigliere? Mr. Kincaid? or Alice The Maid? I wonder who Jerry liked or disliked more?
user picture

Member for

6 years 8 months
Permalink

No debate there, man. The Partridge Family all the way. They had instruments that they almost played. And a quasi-psychedelic bus. And Reuben Kincaid! Those Bradys were just a canned act. Cue audience applause -- now!
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

13 years 7 months
Permalink

Yeah but I sill love Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!
user picture

Member for

6 years 8 months
Permalink

I'm with you there. Though Laurie Partridge held her own. At least until Charlie's Angels came along.
user picture

Member for

10 years 1 month
Permalink

Here is the live Tommy mp3 I spoke of yesterday or the day before, but forgot to post. A good friend reminded me. This is most of Tommy. I omitted Fiddle About, Cousin Kevin, and I think Tommy's Holiday Camp (Keith Moon would throw a FIT!) This is comprised of the best versions from Live at Leeds, Isle of Wight 1970, and Woodstock (Live at Hull had not been released yet). I think I doubled up on Sparks for very good reasons. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gvnDVUzNQyjrs9XpNzKqkhGazTbb9cJI Let me know if it's properly accessible. For you audiophiles it went like this: CD => WAV => mp3 (320kbps); so while technically lossy, the word I've heard (read actually), is that the loss at 320kbps is in frequency ranges out of our hearing capability and metadata. When it came time to rip my Dead library digitally, I took the Pepsi Challenge on headphones and the big stereo, and Icannot distinguish between WAV and 320kbps mp3. Unfortunately, the Tommy WAV is MIA, sorry about that. Size = 101MB
user picture

Member for

14 years 9 months
Permalink

...as in, "Knockin' On Heaven's"... Sounds like ol' Jer might be figuring out how to plug in his MIDI from beyond the pearly gates! Either that or the "Space" from 7/8/78 that I broadcast into the universe from SETI's Allen Telescope Array a few years back is finally being acknowledged/answered by our alien brothers and sisters!
user picture

Member for

10 years 6 months
Permalink

Manzarek might have once asked Pigpen if he could use his organ and Pigpen didn't know this guy from Adam and refused him. From that you get what reads much like an over-wrought, heavily embroidered "story" about the GD from some skinny griper from LA. As a writer, it sounds like one or two molecules of memory and 99% BS larded on because poor little Ray's sensibilities were offended. Early '67 and a giant "support system" of blah blah blah? Sounds more like little Ray was intimidated by the general scene. Please pardon me, folks: F*** Ray Manzarek and his tight-ass LA BS.
user picture

Member for

6 years 11 months
Permalink

KeithFan I downloaded it okay. WOW. I've only ever heard the Tommy LP and this is WHOA NELLY!!! I can't believe my ears. Do you have a list of which songs came from which albums? Just a comment on the thin Doors - isn't it possible that the thin live sound is due to the recording quality? I mean, if you listen to '74 Dead, it's thin, but only because of the limitations imposed by the WoS rig, inasmuch as recording the music is concerned. There's no question that in person, the Wall of Sound was much fuller than what we got on tape. There is, of course, no substitute for a bass guitar in rock n roll, but if bass pedals and bassy low end organ is being played at the live Doors gigs, I imagine their sound would have been rich enough in person. But I'm guessing. I've never seen the Doors or heard a live record. Thin, I was not offended by anything you wrote, but commend your handling of the situation in subsequent posts. You are an officer and a gentleman. or was it a gentleman and a scholar? Laurie Partridge might be the most beautiful brunette of the 70s. The blue eyes, the bell-bottom jeans, the plaid button down shirts, the feathered hair style (did I miss any 70s attributes?) Oh yeah, I was reminded of the bra-less nipples through the t-shirt look, and the hairy armpits.
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

6 years 6 months
Permalink

I hardly ever listen to The Doors (anymore). That being said, I think L.A. Woman is up there in the pantheon of great studio albums. It's not Blonde on Blonde or Abbey Road, etc., but it is solid and definitely worth a listen.I think it is their studio album that has the most chance of appealing to a music-lover that does not otherwise consider themselves a Doors fan. Really looking forward to DaP 26! Still kind of wondering why they didn't go 12/14 and 12/15/71 (so as to get a Dark Star and that Lovelight medley on 12/15 - also back to back nights). But I hope it's because 11/17 was just too darn smoking and too much of a sonic upgrade to pass on.
user picture

Member for

13 years 2 months
Permalink

..purportedly made the brown acid at Woodstock. I guess that explains those freaky eye shades he was always wearing on tour. It's a toss up. Checking the weather in Vancouver.. perfect windy weather to record the box set release video... That Bolo video reminds me of the beginning of Close Encounters of the Third Kind..
user picture

Member for

10 years
Permalink

I had forgotten about the old supposed split in ideology between San Francisco bands and L.A ones. I always assumed THAT was BS-but thinking about it, maybe in the mid 60s the bands from LA made better records, but the bands from SF were better live. LA bands like The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Love-all made brilliant records in 1966-67-but all were apparently less impressive live. With SF bands the reverse may have been true. Although Electric Music For The Mind and Body by Country Joe and the Fish was a classic. And After Bathing At Baxters was good, too. So maybe what I am saying is BS.
user picture

Member for

8 years 11 months
Permalink

I have some Doors concert recordings, will have to go back and check if they sound ‘thin’. Doors had a keyboard player who faked bass. Rush has a bass player who fakes keyboards. I like both Doors and Rush. But I like Grateful Dead best!!!!!
user picture

Member for

6 years 8 months
Permalink

Gotta transport those rockets somehow...
user picture

Member for

8 years 11 months
Permalink

Rockets are too big for the trunk. But what about Love and Rockets?
user picture

Member for

6 years 8 months
Permalink

...are so alive. They pretty much power themselves.
user picture

Member for

9 years 7 months
Permalink

Daddy's home
user picture

Member for

6 years 8 months
Permalink

Daddy's drunk. Again.
user picture

Member for

8 years 11 months
Permalink

Moe’s was having 3-for-1 specials all night long.
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

17 years
Permalink

By the end of the 60s, Sly and the Family Stone, Santana, Steve Miller Band, Creedence made GREAT music in the studio, much of it equal to or surpassing that of the popular L.A. bands. And where does the brilliance of the Mothers figure in this comparison? Great, original, loved and reviled....
user picture

Member for

17 years 2 months
Permalink

....(cue Obi-Wan). "Now that's a name I have not heard in a long, long time."
user picture

Member for

6 years 5 months
Permalink

finally listened to Wake of the Flood all the way through since it came to my house in the Beyond Description box set. and I haven't listened to a studio album in a long while. "we need a box set announcement now! YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF FUCKING ANIMALS!"
user picture

Member for

17 years 2 months
Permalink

....what are ya gonna do about it! What are ya gonna do about it! What are ya gonna do about it!." Morrisons rants aren't like Pigpens, but they get the point across....box set please?Welcome Terrapin Moon. I like your style.
user picture

Member for

17 years 2 months
Permalink

....your plane is crashing into the waters off some uninhabited island. You have a crate of every Who song ever recorded. You also have a crate of every Doors song ever recorded. Which one do you attach the parachute to? Answer wisely. Doors. (this is an unbiased poll. No "but I have a cargo ship of every Dead song ever recorded" answers.) I admit. It was a tough call for me ;)
user picture

Member for

6 years 5 months
Permalink

it's the only thing I know about him. Animals was my second real pink Floyd album (I won't count Echoes). I special ordered it at a record store in February '02. there's nothing that can replace special ordering an album at a record store and picking it up
user picture

Member for

8 years 7 months
Permalink

Have to go back to 23 and then all the way to 19 for a similar result. Topical and inspiring. More of same for awhile please!
user picture

Member for

6 years 5 months
Permalink

I think id take the doors and I don't even listen to the doors. I have a bit the who I just don't listen to em anymore and I think I like Who's Next out of what I have. but all this Doors talk is making me think of that Kids In The Hall skit about being a Doors fan
user picture

Member for

8 years 11 months
Permalink

LOVE Animals, my favorite Floyd album.Love Echoes too. By the way, which one’s Pink? I’ll jump out of the plane with The Who collection. Alternatively, I’ll throw both collections out of the plane and maybe the plane will keep flying until I reach my destination on the deserted island of Club Dead.
user picture

Member for

11 years 1 month
Permalink

Thanks for the help with the Janis folks.:o)
user picture

Member for

6 years 5 months
Permalink

unpopular request but, i'm hoping for some spring '92 to get released at some point. could make for a nice mini box.
user picture

Member for

6 years 8 months
Permalink

Bolo's back on the bacon. Or mayhaps not. Seems it could go either way.
user picture

Member for

6 years 8 months
Permalink

...charade you are.
user picture

Member for

10 years
Permalink

I always thought Roger Daltreys scream towards the end of this song was copped from Jim Morrisons in When The Musics Over. Not a bad thing-its one of the best Who records.
user picture

Member for

8 years 11 months
Permalink

7-27-73 2 CDs7-28-73 4 CDs 7-xx-73 1 CD Seven 7’s in the dates, and 7 CDs in the Box.
user picture

Member for

13 years 2 months
Permalink

The Ice Cream Kid makes a valid point, 1973? I suspect 1973 represents a large portion of the newly returned tapes and it fits with recent focus on returned reels. I was going through my collection this morning. The shows directly after Pig's passing (3/8/73) are the Spring '73 Nassau Coliseum shows. Excellent shows btw. 03/15/73- Nassau Coliseum - Uniondale, NY 03/16/73- Nassau Coliseum - Uniondale, NY 03/19/73- Nassau Coliseum - Uniondale, NY I went to add up the # of discs it would take, etc. and realized my 3/19/73 started with the last song of the first set, Playing in the Band. The soundboards for the first set were incomplete when I pulled this down from the archive all those years ago. Then I looked back out at the archive and sure enough.. there is a new Miller seed that has the complete show. It was added less than a month ago, on March 11th, 2018. Big Man, Pig Man (no Pig Man). HaHa.. Charade You Are. When Dave's Picks 13, 2/24/1974 was released.. on the release video (the one where he narrowly avoided being mauled by the group of bad tempered, LA sound grooving, rabid seals) Dave said this should have been released a long time ago but it was overlooked, because... "it was just too obvious." 1973 is just too obvious. I still think it's a Summer '73 Box, but Spring seems to fit the clues a touch better. The closer we get to nailing this, the more likely Dave will be to dust off his log rolling shoes and drag himself out on the rocky beach to dodge surly sea lions and record for us a release video.
product sku
081227931742