Grateful Dead

Aaaaaaaa? That’s way to existential for here lol. Generally, was obsessed with all things R&R, and wanted to see everything I could. First show was Kiss and the Rockets in January of 78. Don’t laugh, Hey, at least I’m honest! Told about big stadium Fleetwood Mac etc here before. Saw Eagles, Clapton with Muddy Waters opening. Now I had no clue who that was at the time, but boy I’ll tell you they fried my 15 year old brain....completely blew Clapton away. Also some others during that year... Meanwhile I was into a bunch of stuff, but still held Zep, Hendrix and Dead near the top. I told here the story of an April 78 day when for some reason the skull fuck version of Johnny B Goode just suddenly floored me, made my friend play it over and over. JBG was a R&R standard in those days and so I was familiar with many good versions, especially Hendrix.... So it just really resonated, and comparatively blew away all the other versions....they changed me that day. I was also being fed tapes and guitar lessons etc from Dave Homal of later known Homal Alaniz sp? Band (he went out with my friends sister). He worked hard to indoctrinate me. So the dead was creeping up the list in my mind, but there was one thing left that needed to happen..... Unfortunately, they hadn’t come to town since the famous 77 show, and my folks weren’t about to let us travel to other cities yet to go to concerts, which dear old mom was already scared shitless about us going to.. (“they’ll stick a needle in you and you won’t even know it!) lol! Finally, the Dead was coming to town, but Shea’s is a very small theater and it was promoted by Buff State so tix were near impossible for a high school going lad such as myself. Luckily a school buddy and one of the very few other Deadheads at the time in my school, had an extra ticket. I believe face value was like 5 or 6 bucks, but it was 3rd row and a tough tic so wood chuck wanted 20 bucks, which of course I paid and glad I did because it totally changed my life. Seeing them live like that just blew me away. From then on there was always the Dead, and then everything else..... It was funny cause pops had to pick us up, So often he would chat up the cops at the door of concerts and get them to let him in for free. So he was in for the end of the show, and to this day talks about how much he dug Sug Mag, too funny.... Anyway, 1-20-79, barely 16, all the way until 7-9-95, and the rest as they say is history.....one of the greatest days of my life!

...Jimmy, i was waiting for you to reference this monster of a show as soon as you started down the path of "missing reels from Spring 1978". Well done. I agree/concur/hope/proselytize as well! This show is one of my favorites from '78 for sure. Sixtus

I don't know let me think San Francisco!

Had been enjoying the first few Dead LPs, but somehow managed to miss them both in 72 and 74, when I was still living in France. Fast forward 2 years, I decided to visit the US with no plan, just a roundtrip ticket to New York. I arrived at JFK, and looked at the departures screen, it was a choice between Nashville and San Francisco. I picked the latter, arrived in SF around 5:00am; checked in a cheap hotel, sat down for breakfast, grabbed the SF Chronicle, went straight to the entertainment section, lo and behold, the Dead is playing with the Who the next day..10/9/76. Had such a great time, I decided to move to SF permanently the next year, in time to catch my 2nd & 3rd show on 12/29 & 12/31/77. After that I attended most bay area shows up until the end.

Always enjoy your anecdotes about seeing early 70s shows in California mhammond12. I would have loved to have caught just one, and it seems like you and some others around here had the privilege of seeing quite a few over those years. I was born in '79 so I never got the chance to see the band in the Jerry years. The closest I can get is archive.org and these official releases of full shows, which I seek out with a somewhat reckless abandon. I would love a Capital Theater '71 box almost as much as i'd like a fall '73 box. Come on already Dave. We're dying here for something, anything, to hold us over. Agreed the MUATM is decidedly underwhelming this year. Not sure why they couldn't dust off something that no one has seen. What are they waiting for?

I had fallen in love with the Grateful Dead and the whole "hippie" thing when as a 13 year old boy living in very rural area of southern Indiana I read an article in my Dad's Time magazine in 1967 about hippies and the "Summer of Love" in San Francisco. In the article were photographs of the Dead playing a free concert in the park and some beautiful braless hippie chics dancing. My 13 year old male brain filled in the blanks and I decided I'd be a hippie. Started fighting with my parents about hair and clothes and stuff. Fell in with the small hippie community in town and was introduced to marijuana and psychedelics. When I graduated high school I went to college on the west coast and caught the Dead first chance I got 12/15/72 Long Beach Arena. Unlike most stories of this nature reality far surpassed the fantasy. The Dead were great, the people were great. I was on the bus 100%.

give it up for the impostors, now copying dead box set releases too. phlogging a dead horse..

I'd be fine with 1989 or 1980, but last years box was from 89.. just reading the tea leaves, and they are not spelling 1989 in the cup I just finished drinking. I am seeing '71 or '73 with an honorable mention of '76 but who knows.. I applaud your enthusiasm, however.. nothing wrong with that. For what it's worth.. TIGDH, Lemieux played something from the Spring of '78 (I know it's not Spring, but...). He made specific mention that nothing from the first ten shows in April have been released, that the master reels were not in the vault. He said they are returned and will "get drawn upon sometime in the near and distant future." Sort of a tell that we are getting a Spring '78 Dave's Picks over the next year. My hope is Huntington WV, 4/16/78.

How bout a Dave’s from 1-20-79 with set 2 from 1-10-79 as disc 3......

Nailed it!Once again you have so eloquently described what I was trying to convey! Yes Dave has favorites, and yes he gravitates toward them, but he is open, and gives the rest a chance..... I personally agree with the live versus other source comment too. The streaming etc is awesome, (if I had usable internet, hurumph....) and it sure is nice to sit on the big leather couch, with the loo steps away, the fridge even closer, so I can drink quality ale, not stadium swill, with a pause button so a, I can step outside and check the air in the ole tires ahem. And the big plasma and McIntosh audio are hard to beat! But there is nothing like live sound, like being there etc....the Absolute Sound Magizine describes TAS as the sound of live, unamplified acoustic music,....that is their point of reference for all audio gear. Mine is the sound of the GD live, through the Meyers Ultra-Sound PA circa late eighties. That is what I use for my reference when evaluating equipment and music. (What ever your opinion of the music was then, the PA then was the greatest of all time!) So like Dave, I love to hear these bands live, and do so when convenient, but don’t normally listen at home.....so little time, so much great music etc. But like he says, when he does “I am usually (though not always), pleasantly surprised by them.” The point is, he does not just dismiss eras, bands etc, out of hand. He at least attempts to listen and understand the music. This is evident by the great reviews of all kinds of different music he gives us. Does he like it all, probably not? But he tries...... Ok, don’t mean to beat this to death. I just feel we all could enjoy, and perhaps get turned onto other stuff by sometimes stepping out of the old comfort zone. And besides, just like the people we love but see all the time, it’s nice to take a time out and perhaps “miss” the ol standbies and favorites... Thanks again Dave!