Grateful Dead

I was concentrating on blues-specialist Sonny Landreth in the Blues tent at jazz fest, when I noticed a young lady twirling about ecstatically in the aisle to my right. I looked again and then, on the opposite aisle, noticed and swore to the bud I was with, that there was none other than Dick Latvala!!! The dervish was with him and I kept turning and looking at him watch her - I couldnt' bring myself to say, "hey, are you Dick?" And then they were gone. Awhoa. 7541, hut, is in the area.

Now the Benedum Center is a beautiful 2,800 seat venue built in 1928. Originally constructed as "a movie palace version of Versailles." In 1987 it was masterfully renovated at a cost of $43M and reopened as the Benedum Center. The acoustics are amazing, it's a great place to see music. Wikipedia states King Crimson and War played there in 1974, Frank Zappa played 2 sets in 1978, and Bob Marley played his last show there in 1980. The Grateful Dead played six shows there between 1969 and 1981. I guess a few of the Wikipedia contributors love Good Old Rock and Roll (and Reggae too). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedum_Center Heinz Hall is another spectacular Pittsburgh venue. Similarly built as a movie palace in 1927, it seats 2,600 people and is home to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Somebody in the PSO management must had a thing against the GD because they never did play there (although Warren Haynes did sneak in backed up by the PSO in 2013 for 'A Symphonic Celebration of Jerry Garcia'). It also boasts excellent acoustics and I somehow managed to front row seats to see Steely Dan there this fall (RIP Walter Becker). I have seen a few acts there, Dylan I think.. Anyway.. Pittsburgh was a major driver in the Industrial Revolution (Carnegie, Melon, Heinz, Westinghouse) and high society loved their theatres. The Stanley Theatre kicks ass and there were some excellent Dead shows played there including 12/1/79.. Thanks for shining the light, Wissinoming.

can someone with a scanner please upload a picture of the dave's picks #26 liner notes for those of us who import the discs into iTunes? -thanks. -----

re: no covers on bonus disc...I think it's a lawyer technicality thing: either "giving away" the technically "free" bonus disc creates complications as to how to pay the writers, or it's just easier and cheaper to jump through all those hoops for one release instead of two. Either way, I don't mind the reordering at all. Actually, the order they used on this release is a more likely setlist than the one they actually played (i.e.: Ramble On Rose to open set 2?). Though Yes I reordered mine to the original order on my computer (and I too amazingly avoided erroneous data input which causes a mess - 4 fields to check for each track). Now the "Which show is better?" debate begins. VERY similar setlists = easy to compare. I'm guessing 12/14 gets more votes just for the grease factor, but I wouldn't bet against 11/17 based on the 11/15/71 show and how well they were gelling in November overall, which I know thanks to Doc.

Stanley, Pittsburgh, Pa12/1/79 Why not not choose this show for Dave's Picks 27.

Given the ABCD Enterprises arrangement and the likely plethora of mid- to late-70s shows in the Betty stash, and the last two boxes being '78 and '77, I have a feeling TPTB may opt for a '76 box this year. I'm not casting asparagus, as Curly would say, but I in fact disfavor '76 and may again begin banging my tin plate on the prison dining room table for '73. No complaints here, with two huge '71 shows delivered to my door. Happy camper, just saying vespers for a '73 box. And, if it's to be, why not make it five big shows?? No, "it" (speculation) never ends, as Sam Kinison might say. (Hmmm... mixing a Three Stooges' quotation with a Sam Kinison comment... I always ignore the "check engine" light on the inside of my eyelid.) Glad to see ForensicDoc rise from the dead to remark on the Dead...

Saw the Dead at the Fox Theater in Atlanta way back in April of 1980. That place is the coolest place I have ever seen a concert, or a movie, or anything. The ceiling is a planetarium, the sun set as the show started and the dawn was breaking as the last notes of the encore were still echoing thru the joint. What a place, the bathrooms were still the exact same as they were in the 1920's, very long urinals made of thick porcelain that started about your face with a very ornate handle and continued all the way to the floor. The floor was decorated with these little pieces of tile in a very trippy style, very art deco. The seats were extra plush and had plenty of space for dancing, the walls were covered with thick red drapes that went from ceiling to floor. The sound in the place was absolutely incredible. I recommend a small venue every time, but that place was the best. I saw Furthur in 2010 at the civic center in Asheville, NC, place holds about 4500, very nice, great sound, they played Silvio and Pride of Cucamonga along with a killer Stella and an Unbroken Chain, liked Furthur because they played those songs that the Grateful Dead didn't. And they did them well.

Double Post

Right on Doc.. my bad. I did look it up on the archive, as I did the correct song order for 12/14 (which I used the Miller). I must have conflated the source for these two. Same process though, but my memory of the detail was flawed.

Yo rockers!!! Unless I totally missed something, the esteemed Mr Miller never re-did 11/17, probably because the "masters" were so poor. Cotsman's remaster from Lanum's tapes does list Ramble on Rose as the encore, but I think that's an error. On the circulating old tapes, there are no audio clues either at the start or the end of Ramble On Rose. HOWEVER. After the NFA reprise, why would Weir say, "That's all the time we have tonight folks, we'll see you later"??? There weren't always encores back then. I think that in this case, TPTB got it right. Enough of the Dead, back to the dead.............. Doc