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    clayv
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    Pacific Northwest ’73-’74: The Complete Recordings Boxed Set

    WHAT'S INSIDE:
    6 Complete Shows On 19 Discs
    • 6/22/73 P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C.
    • 6/24/73 Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
    • 6/26/73 Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA
    • 5/17/74 P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C.
    • 5/19/74 Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
    • 5/21/74 Hec Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
    Mastered in HDCD from the original master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering
    Masters transferred and restored by Plangent Processes
    Original Art by First Nations Artist Roy Henry Vickers
    Photos by Richie Pechner
    Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 15,000

    Includes an immediate digital download of "Eyes Of The World (P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada 5/17/74)"

    "We were in the Pacific Northwest...between somewhere in Washington and some other where in Oregon. The road took us to the lip on a ridge, from where we could see around us for many miles in all directions … It was breathtaking to behold, but as we watched, we had a firm realization that we were witnessing something even more beautiful than our eyes could ever take in … Life causes life. Heaven and Earth dance in this way endlessly, and their child is the forest. And so there we were, epiphanously watching that grandest and most glorious dance of life—of which we are just a tiny part—awed by a magnificence without beginning, without end..."

    Bob Weir, “Sell Headwaters—Everyone Wins,” San Francisco Chronicle

    The Pacific Northwest offers up a rich feast of land, sky, and water. It is ripe with influences, abundant with symbols, deep and spirited. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the Grateful Dead played some of their most inspired shows on these fertile grounds. It does, however, sometimes take a breath for the elements to re-align years later. It seems for us, they finally have and we are able to present not just a glimpse of the band's extraordinary exploratory tour through the region, but a two-tour bounty as the PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS.

    For PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS, we've paired two short runs made up of six previously unreleased shows - P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C. (6/22/73); Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (6/24/73); Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA (6/26/73); P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada (5/17/74); Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (5/19/74); and Hec Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (5/21/74). Each show has been mastered in HDCD from the original master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. The transfers from the masters were transferred and restored by Plangent Processes, further ensuring that this is the best, most authentic that these shows have ever sounded.

    PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS comes in an ornate box created by Canada’s preeminent First Nations artist Roy Henry Vickers (more on this tremendous artist soon). To complement the music, the set also includes a 64-page book with an in-depth essay by Grateful Dead scholar Nicholas G. Meriwether and photos by Richie Pechner.

    Due September 7th, this release is limited to 15,000 individually numbered copies and available exclusively from dead.net. You'll want to grab a copy while you can and sit back, relax, and enjoy all the exclusive content we'll be rolling out over the next few weeks.

    Looking for something a little more byte-sized? The collection will also be available for HD digital download in FLAC and ALAC, exclusively at dead.net, on release day. You can pre-order it now too.

    Get it while you can.

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  • Vguy72
    Joined:
    Hold on hendrixfreak....
    ....I need to make some more popcorn and mescaline.
  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    Noon-ish is not the best time to catch a full-blown show.....
    My memory has clearly telescoped events, because I almost think I remember rolling over in my sleeping bag and, for breakfast, snorting a pile of 'chocolate' mescaline off one of those mini-cereal boxes. I definitely took some blotter. But even if we'd 'slept in,' it must of been 10-ish or something. Surely we'd had some water and a snack, probably provided by a merciful neighbor. We were still 15 and we looked like what we were: goddamm-near children! Ah, so I was saying, we dropped acid and snorted mescaline and fired up the pipe with Numero Uno and, hey, is that freakin' Jerry on stage? Wait, Bobby. Phil. Bill. The piano guy. Jer kept dipping his cigarette into a brass ashtray and, when he re-lit it, it flared up. I didn't hit the blow til '75 but later, I thought, freebase. I hope someone can clarify this, but I think I recall the band starting just a bit after NOON(!). As far as I was concerned at the time, they fucking rocked the place for hours. I do recall, as I often feel, feeling goofy about a camera while tripping. But I managed to snap off three shots, of which two survive, which catch the three guitarists blasting away on Playing in the Band, then turning towards each other to converse more intimately, finally arriving in a tight circle and sending tides of sound across the crowd. I think this was the time I experienced Phil's bass as physical, purple pulses in my chest and the realization that vibrations, rather than corporeal reality, were at the heart of existence. I clearly remember the gospel treatment at the end of He's Gone and at the end of Sugar Mag, Weir thrust his arm skyward for stop time, ran back to his amps, downed the rest of a Heineken and raced back to the mic for the coda. Still, I was 15, down front at one of the biggest gatherings of humans in history. I did look back over the crowd, but, as usual, there wasn't much profit in looking back. Not with the Grateful Dead killing it in front of me.
  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    The Soundcheck
    The Allmans rocked big time. They'd slayed us at RFK after the Dead when, exhausted and dehydrated, we had retreated to the shaded overhang of RFK and been simply psychedelically rolled over by the ABB. They smoked the Dead that day. Back to the Soundcheck. I got up and hiked around the scene while it was still afternoon. A very loose scene with lots of elbow room, cool air, breathing. I returned to our space, easily located, for The Band. It was nearly sunset when the Grateful Dead took the stage. We had all the room we needed. I started the soundcheck boogie-ing upright, shakin it to the rock 'n roll. I had snorted some mescaline and taken maybe a half tab of the blotter. Everyone knew this was unprecedented in GD history. Here we were, groovin' on a cool pine forest evening, high but not pressed and our favorite band was blasting away on the finest sound system we'd ever heard. I do not recall individual songs, just the transition between comprehensible songs and jams that had us smiling for reasons we knew not. [Beautiful Jam from So Many Roads is blasting in the background as I write these words.] I do clearly recall the feeling of complete ease as I nestled down into my sleeping bag, head on cool gallon jug, looking up at the band just jamming away. We rode it out after the band departed and the next thing we knew, it was morning and the crowd was bustling, hustling, and by noon it was show time all over again.
  • icecrmcnkd
    Joined:
    Hendrixfreak
    I hope you are writing these in a word processing program and saving them.You probably should combine your memories and pictures and put it out on the internets where it will hopefully be forever preserved. Maybe upload the final version to the archive someday.
  • Trainwrecked
    Joined:
    5/9/77
    Any headphone listeners out there? Or maybe you don't need them. I find the bass on this GSTL recording overwhelming. Bertha and Help On the Way are good places to start. I don't get the same thing with the SB I have if this show. I think Jeff Norman boosted it somehow. Anyone else notice it? Garyfarseer - what kind of medicine?
  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    The greatest missed show on Earth
    Long story shrunk to size... We had to get home on 10 June 1973 because we were exhausted, dehydrated, broke, without tickets, food, water, anything, so we thumbed back and tried to blend into humanity. I was 15. I lived with my parents, of course, and they needed to see some evidence that I was alive. They never even said a word about my setting out for a multi=day excursion in jeans and a t-shirt. We just did it. We heard the 10 June show was smokin' and we were pissed. We were NOT going to be caught short like that again. No effin' way. So when the news broke of a show with all three of the greatest rock bands of that time -- the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers and The Band -- we were on it like white on rice. Tickets cost $10.50? We had 'em. And we'd just seen the Allmans at Madison Square Garden in, May? I smuggled in a bong. A young cop caught me. An older cop said, "Let him go. It's a bong. Don't worry about it." Jesus, this whole law enforcement thing was confusing! But my view was broadening... Late July 1973. The older brother of a hot schoolmate of ours was driving to Watkins Glen. We signed on. Me, Mark L, David W, and a few others. We brought our backpacks. We had a little food. A shit-ton of Numero Uno. No alcohol. I had a sheet of blotter. Someone's adept use of the map enabled us to skirt around the worst of the traffic and we actually accessed the grounds in fine fashion, probably 12 hrs ahead of the hoo-ska-boo that eventually developed. The van's inhabitants split into units and we never saw our driver-host again, until a week later, just before the 31 July - 1 August shows back at Roosevelt Stadium. (Biggies, waiting for release...) So we hike over to the "gate," passing food trucks that specialized in big scoops of weed. We snickered, fully equipped. We were still 15. We entered the gates around midday and for some reason no one took my ticket, so I immediately doubled back to the chain link fence and passed my whole ticket to a have-not. Instinct, communal instinct. Later, my parents said that friends of theirs in Europe had seen footage that included my entrance into the concert site. The stage was perhaps 2/3 of a mile away. As we walked down the gently sloping hill towards the stage it was obvious we were a bit early. In earlier shows we were leery of getting too close because of the physical crush, the volume and the collective high that sometimes ... got a bit hairy. But fresh off missing 10 June, we marched down and claimed a beautiful space about 20 yards from the stage, just a bit left of center. On our way, we'd grabbed a few one-gallon water jugs that were set out free by Bill Graham in response to the scene at RFK in DC 6 weeks earlier. I found myself high on mescaline, laying on my sleeping bag with my head resting on a cool one-gallon jug of potable water and passing a doobie when the crowd sputtered and roared. It was late afternoon and the Allman Brothers had just taken the stage.
  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    RFK, June 1973
    Throughout the fall of 1972 and through the winter-spring of 1973 I had ingested numerous psychedelics, including the wonderful agent known as mescaline and naturally a few substantial doses of the Lady Herself. At one point, with my buddy Moose, we were sitting atop a van-sized boulder in a 2,000 acre wooded preserve near home and we focused on the visual margin between the rock beneath us and the ground in the background and felt that we had lifted the boulder upon which we sat perhaps several inches into the air, then lowered it again to its natural resting place. But I digress... June 1973 and me and David W are hitching to RFK in DC about 200 miles away for the 9-10 June 1973 shows. It's summer. So obviously we go in t-shirts, jeans, sneakers, with a ticket and few single dollars/dead presidents in my pocket. Next to the sheet of oval 4-way blotter. A little smokum in the sock, in case we got stopped. Look, we're 15, okay? 16 was months away. We were just up for adventure, loud rock 'n roll and, um, a closer look at the scene. I remember that some of the serious traveling hippies with LSD-dead eyes were there selling pipes, but also passing them around. We had long hair but we were little kids! These folks looked 50 but were probably 20, i.e., impossibly old, grizzled and of unknown origin. But no one actually bothered us, nor was there any attention. Everyone treated us as adults. So we slept on the ground on the grassy parts outside the stadium that night. No water, no food, no equipment. The next day, temperatures climbed towards 100. We were smoking a joint by the grate that blocked one entrance and a black cop motioned us over. We approached cautiously. "Hand me some of that, will you?" he asked. "WHAAAT???" was our initial reaction, having already experienced the pleasure of being cuffed and harassed by the cops for having a beer in the park. Turned out, cops can be cool, too. We burned two with the cat and we bid each other a good day. He was clearly amused by the scene, but in a groovy way. This was 1973 and racism and violence over the Vietnam War made longhairs outcasts, just like minorities of every stripe, then and now. Short story long, me and David split a 4-way and the Dead played that afternoon, opening for the ABB that night. The lines for water were long. We survived on The Lady, a little water and some "Numero Uno" substance we thought was hash but turned out to be opium. Worked for us that day, though, the heat was excruciating and I'm sure a lot of folks needed help in the heat. I got up close for Chinacat at the end of the first set. I was mesmerized. Bobby played a Gibson SG, which in my mind meant "bass guitar." Phil was playing a big possibly semi-hollowbody bass that said to my untutored eyes, "rhythm guitar." But I was already a huge Phil fan (being a Jer fan was too obvious) and this had me confused. At some point some idiot hurled a lit M-80 onto the stage (June 9, right? obviously in close proximity to July 4??) and it rolled up to Jer. In that day, he had a stage mannerism of sort of shuffling in place and I saw him move his right foot forward in perfect time and using the tip of his cowboy boot sent the live M-80 back out over the crowd. I don't even recall hearing it explode. The music was pretty loud.
  • icecrmcnkd
    Joined:
    Nice warmup HF
    Patiently waiting for the grand finale....
  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    Backstory and launch....
    The briefest of backstories: Six years old in 1964, persuaded my mom to buy me a Beatles LP at the checkout counter of the local discount store. Played it on monaural phonograph with one 12" speaker output. Rocked as child. 13 years old in 1970, convince mom to drive me and a friend to a Chambers Bros concert. We dug the music but were too young for 'action.' 15 years old, summer of '72, catch The Byrds and New York Rock 'n Roll Ensemble at college outside Saugerties NY where The Band rec'd Big Pink five years earlier. We drove by Big Pink. (Still Pink.) We were 15. (An older brother was actually driving...) Since 1971, been spinning American Beauty and Skull & Roses LPs on the same phonograph as in 1964, only now it's in the basement where our ping-pong table and hang-out couch are located. 19 Sept 1972, I jump in a car full of older heads with an ounce of hash in my pocket, 33 days after my 15th birthday, and we proceed to the Roosevelt Stadium in lovely Jersey City, New Jersey, and catch my first Grateful Dead show. I had already been 'experienced,' but did not drop at this show; too chaotic, large crowd, determined to survive and catch my ride home. I listened for familiar songs, jams, anything -- nothing! Everything was different. Records, shme-cords. This scene was crazy. Maybe 10,000 people screamin' high groovin', freakin', dancin', gyratin', handing you things you knew best to pass along... I was alone in the giant crowd with the music louder but sweeter than anything I'd ever heard before. The music rocked, I just couldn't grab onto a big Jerry jabbin' guitar riff that would remind me of Skull & Roses. Obviously, this was no American Beauty. As Jer once said, recording in a studio is like building a ship in a bottle. Playing live is like being on the ocean in an open rowboat. And that's kinda how I felt -- out there, surfin', knew I'd have to get home ... 3 hours into the show, I do remember saying to myself, "Well, all righty then, damn good show, YOU CAN STOP PLAYING ANYTIME, I'M GOOD. GOTTA GET SOME REST... MUST SNAG RIDE HOME..." Part II, coming ...
  • icecrmcnkd
    Joined:
    Thanks dmcvt
    The photos of the stage show how high it was. Need safety railings to keep the musicians from falling off.
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Pacific Northwest ’73-’74: The Complete Recordings Boxed Set

WHAT'S INSIDE:
6 Complete Shows On 19 Discs
• 6/22/73 P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C.
• 6/24/73 Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
• 6/26/73 Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA
• 5/17/74 P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C.
• 5/19/74 Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
• 5/21/74 Hec Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Mastered in HDCD from the original master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering
Masters transferred and restored by Plangent Processes
Original Art by First Nations Artist Roy Henry Vickers
Photos by Richie Pechner
Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 15,000

Includes an immediate digital download of "Eyes Of The World (P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada 5/17/74)"

"We were in the Pacific Northwest...between somewhere in Washington and some other where in Oregon. The road took us to the lip on a ridge, from where we could see around us for many miles in all directions … It was breathtaking to behold, but as we watched, we had a firm realization that we were witnessing something even more beautiful than our eyes could ever take in … Life causes life. Heaven and Earth dance in this way endlessly, and their child is the forest. And so there we were, epiphanously watching that grandest and most glorious dance of life—of which we are just a tiny part—awed by a magnificence without beginning, without end..."

Bob Weir, “Sell Headwaters—Everyone Wins,” San Francisco Chronicle

The Pacific Northwest offers up a rich feast of land, sky, and water. It is ripe with influences, abundant with symbols, deep and spirited. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the Grateful Dead played some of their most inspired shows on these fertile grounds. It does, however, sometimes take a breath for the elements to re-align years later. It seems for us, they finally have and we are able to present not just a glimpse of the band's extraordinary exploratory tour through the region, but a two-tour bounty as the PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS.

For PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS, we've paired two short runs made up of six previously unreleased shows - P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C. (6/22/73); Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (6/24/73); Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA (6/26/73); P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada (5/17/74); Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (5/19/74); and Hec Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (5/21/74). Each show has been mastered in HDCD from the original master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. The transfers from the masters were transferred and restored by Plangent Processes, further ensuring that this is the best, most authentic that these shows have ever sounded.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST ’73-’74: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS comes in an ornate box created by Canada’s preeminent First Nations artist Roy Henry Vickers (more on this tremendous artist soon). To complement the music, the set also includes a 64-page book with an in-depth essay by Grateful Dead scholar Nicholas G. Meriwether and photos by Richie Pechner.

Due September 7th, this release is limited to 15,000 individually numbered copies and available exclusively from dead.net. You'll want to grab a copy while you can and sit back, relax, and enjoy all the exclusive content we'll be rolling out over the next few weeks.

Looking for something a little more byte-sized? The collection will also be available for HD digital download in FLAC and ALAC, exclusively at dead.net, on release day. You can pre-order it now too.

Get it while you can.

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You are probably right about most of your post.But one issue I'll never change my opinion about: the Dead were mediocre in the '80's and into the '90's (a great show was rare) and that is when their popularity soared.
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I'm almost through the first complete chronological listen. I'm up to the massive Seattle 74 Playin', scheduled for tonight's listen. Wonderful sound overall. On first listen the 73 Vancouver has a better mix than the other two 73's. The 74's sound better than the 73's. I chalk that up to their perfecting the Wall configuration(s) in 73. True also the first sets have many repeated songs, but they are played so well! Every show has really strong jazzy jams that were the hallmark of 73-74. Most of the shows have a strong Bobby presence, which I really love. I love to hear the awesome wierd imaginative chords he plays. However, I'm listening to Seattle 74, and he seems lost in the mix, kinda there, but not prominent. Funny thing happened on the way home with my box. My box was delivered to work. I was on the train coming home with the box on my lap, and a guy sitting across from me was eyeing the box and said: "Pardon me, is that a box of smoked salmon?"
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compared to any other live shows in the 80s there were few bands worth seeing more than once a tour as most popular bands played the same exact show every night for the whole tour. now most of the SBD recordings of that time are flawed and because of the nature of the mix the flaws become accentuated, but a good AUD allows you to hear what the people in the concert heard and it is not as bad as the SBD tapes make it seem.
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I saw the dead regularly in the 70's 80's and 90's right to the end in '95, and they were rarely mediocre. I will admit Jerry was AWOL a little in the latter 90's. But musically show after show, run after run, they were guaranteed to be the funnest, best shows in town, over and over again. All those shows I attended people everywhere around me were bopping, dancing, swirling around if there was room. Clearly people enjoying the music. They grew and grew in popularity due to their allowing tape recording of their shows, massive tape trading, and a reputation for great shows. Then along came MTV's "Day of the Dead", and "In The Dark" with their radio hit "Touch of Grey", and that bumped their attendance up a lot. Some would say too much, as they began losing some of their coolest venues. That is the true downside of their growing popularity, the parking lot scene got way out of hand, and even when the show was happening inside, there was a huge group of folks outside who just came for the parking lot party. Mediocre? Hardly.
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A rare person will agree with me, so let's just say to each their own."bopping, dancing, swirling"...so what? It's easy to dance to any music with a beat. I listen INTENTLY to every note of the music - Jerry's guitar and how the band interacts musically. Not just the "funnestness" of it! LOL! Is that a word? Compared to their earlier music, they were truly mediocre in the later years. I compare them to their own best music, not to what else is out there at the time. It would not be hard to beat what was happening musically in those later years, but they could not compare to what they themselves did earlier. And by the way, MTV destroyed music. When they came onto to scene, music became showmanship and true music was lost. "I will admit Jerry was AWOL a little in the latter 90's" Yeah, he was dead.
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First of all, I completely respect your opinion. At the shows, I also listened intently to all the players, how they interacted, and especially Jerry's solo's and his singing. I surrounded myself on the floor with 20 friends who were all silently listening and enjoying song after song. The band continually changed, adding new songs, changing older ones, reworking their sound, and the 80's versions of the band were different than the 70's and 60's, and clearly not your cup of tea. I respect that. Perhaps they were still musically interesting to the careful listener, like myself, even in the 80's and 90's. I appreciated all the versions, and listened to each one.
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To me the Dead were all about the free form, experimental, jam music.At one time Garcia was the greatest improvisational guitarist. He just couldn't keep that up as the years went by and he got caught up in hard drugs, due to keeping the Dead going. Some people like the "songs". They are okay as filler to me, but it's his jams that I wanted to hear. Even the jams later on became kind of rote. I'm all into things like disk 2 of Dick's Pick's #8, to give you the best example. That is the greatest Dead ever, and they never lived up to that again. As I've said before, I wished they had quit after 1977 and Jerry could do solo stuff and maybe lived longer. He died trying to keep the Dead machine alive because he was employing too many friends and didn't want to quit on them. Anyway, I'll stop. To each their own.
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I dig '80' Dead, it's just another chapter in the book. Things can change with age and still be good. For example, I find that the ageing of Jerry's voice makes some of the later era versions of Black Peter just that much more poignant, and some of the '80-'90's drums-space sequences were awesome vehicles for some improvisational jamming and wicked transitions from space into whatever came next. And yes, relatively speaking, the Dead were the best game in town in the '80's, a decade in which there seemed little to excite me musically. As far as the parking lot scene, I dug that too - who doesn't like a big, mellow, party before a show? There did seem to be a little more of a frenzy about the scene later, but I attribute that to the increasing difficulty in getting tickets due to the increase in demand, and perhaps a lack of discretion amongst some of the eager partier's in the parking lot. Really the only show that I left disappointed was a '94 show at the Meadowlands in NJ, that one I left bummed. On another note, deadnet can't seem to decide if I'm a robot or not - took me like 3 tries to get that captcha to work.
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..on 5/21/74-every minute justified. I wondered, with all the talk of its signifying length, whether that would be its main recommendation. But its not-a fantastic jam is a fantastic jam, whether its 6 minutes or 46 minutes. I wasn't that aware of individual instruments during this jam-just the amazing wash of sound-but as soon as US Blues fires up, I find myself listening to Keith again-so maybe he doesn't feature so much on Playin'. After all that-now 10/26/89 from 30 Trips is playing. Possible the first time I have listened to an 1989 show this year-way out of my comfort zone. But it sounds pretty good. Nice contrast to the epics in the box-yin and yang and all that. Short first set, too-its just ended.
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Wow, Harpur College 5/2/70 - the radio broadcast was the show I played over and over in summer 1972 and convinced me this was a cool band I wanted to see again. I loved the entire electric sets.
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So Harpur College is the best show of all time? Well to each his own.Stopping after 1977 as well? No '85? So The Europe'72 tour was all just a waste of time and money. And speakin' of great boxed sets that's the one. 9/21/72,9/17/72,9/27/72, 6/10/73,3/24/73,3/15/73,3/16/73 none of this is worth it to you? As far as '74 nothing there either? Nothing in '76 or '77 Huh? And nothing at all in the '80's? I will say after Brent passed that was the end of The Grateful Dead.The '90's were horrific. Harpur college was a great show no doubt about it,but the BEST,nah. But that's just me.
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Harpur College, 1970.That concert was so amazing, Garcia was completely beside himself. I loved my bootleg so much that I tried to convince Dick a number of times to choose that concert for the next Dick's Picks. And he did! I got a letter acknowledging my input. Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One. Nothing better than that version. Hands down. By the way, don't put words in my mouth. I never said anything else was a waste. Not as good, but not a waste. At least not until after 1977.
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anyway, 5/17/74 strong show 5/19/74 potent show 5/21/74 first set is tasty interesting thing: listening to disc three of 5/19/74. After Saturday Night it went to start of disc (Truckin'). "huh? oh well. complete recordings must not have included the encore" I look at packaging and see US Blues. I put disc back in go to track 6 and there is US Blues. WOW.
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there used to be a coffee shop in Seattle called Sir Real EspressoThursday nights were GD nights many good times the proprietor always wore a Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey hat he played 5/19/74 at least 5 times over the 3 years of that one night he moved by trippily right as the Truckin' Jam went into NFA a treasured memory
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....is a segue for the ages. But the best part, the BEST part is the segue from NFA into GDTRFB. And better than that, is how they end the GDTRFB. That whole sequence will never get old. Disc 16 is pure gold. And sounds amazeballs....I'm gonna put in on again right now in fact.
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It was my favourite show for years and years, from when I first heard it on a tape, round about 1988. Now, it seems like something of a final peak of the psychedelic years, before they concentrated more on songs and perfecting the more country based material. They seemed to start doing this during the second half of 1969, shorter songs interspersed with the jams-and this carried on during 1970. Binghampton seems like something of a final blow out for one particular version of the band. And although I think of it as a peak-I can't think of another show that is really like it. Its a killer alright. Incidentally-its a topic that has cropped up before-but I wouldn't say Jerry died because of trying to keep the band together. He died because he made poor health choices. Whether this was due to trying to keep the band together or not is open to conjecture. No one thing leads to us becoming addicts or to making poor lifestyle choices.
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I have noticed that quite few people who used to post on here no longer do so. Maybe they failed the "I am not a robot " test.
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13 years
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In the never ending debate about the "best" era of Dead, I think it is fair to say to each his own. But I would push back strongly on the idea that post Keith & Donna Dead was mediocre. It certainly was MUCH better than that. Now, there were certainly some low points ('83, '84, '86, and the last couple of years in the '90s for certain). Even then, there was some spectacular moments (Unbroken, etc). I think the Songs vs. Jams camp is easier to see. Jams camp is gonna say '69 is tops. No later than '74. Songs camp will say later. Bobby thinks '89-'90 was tops for many the songs, and I tend to agree with him on a lot of tunes. Certainly, there was much better variety in the 80's with less repetition. Maybe lost some jamming, but anyone who listens to the Hornsby era and says no interesting jams is not paying attention. Ditto late Brent. I will say that the quality of the mixes declined a lot in the 80's. That is no in dispute. Get a good AUD tape (or a matrix) and you are better off than with a SDBD.
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17 years 3 months
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As I mentioned earlier, having paid UPS a ransom to get them to release my box, I subsequently received an invoice from them for the same amount in the post. Amongst other things it said that this amount should be paid immediately and threatened sanctions and surcharges if I failed to do so. Today I called UPS customer service to hear what they had to say about it. It only took 12 minutes on hold to get through to a human. The friendly woman on the other end of the line was quite happy to explain that I had indeed already paid and didn't have to pay a second time and that the invoice was purely for my personal bookkeeping. She also added that the wording on the invoice is "confusing". Right. Why send an invoice when a receipt would have been somewhat more appropriate?
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7 years 6 months
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What a trip.. My guess is if we ever got to the bottom of it, the letter was generated by an eager, yet ill equipped person trying to work their up at UPS International, most certainly having the title Financial Analyst II. Their resume now reads, "Targeted and developed outreach program that identified for collection €13M from Import Duty avoiding hippies." Hopefully by the year they will reach their lifetime ambition of being a Financial Analyst III. We can only hope... ________________ Did someone mention Dicks Picks 8, Harpur College? Yes.. a worthy a show, incredible. I'd imagine it periodically floats to the top on lots of peoples favorite show list. It's currently half-played on my phone (which I use in my truck).. currently on pause in the middle of It's A Mans, Mans, Mans World. .but it wouldn't mean nothing, nothing, ..without a woman or a girl. Love that tune.. love that show. Explosive.
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9 years 3 months
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could it be a faulty translation from US english to EU english?
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16 years 7 months
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After paying $ 63.98 for shippimg and handling when ordering, I had to drive two hours to the next UPS depot and pay about $ 70 for tax and UPS fees to get my salmon box. That's really a lot, I think, for even this box. (And by the way: Though liking 73 and 74 a lot, but so many songs without vocals is no fun at all. Sorry.)So to those in command: please, please, please no UPS morning glory delivery no more, please never ever! Nevertheless looking forward to the next Dave's Picks, the 2019 subscription and the next 2019er big box.
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7 years 6 months
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..sort of. If you need a break from the box and want to try something different, this show's unique (oxymoron I know... but). It's a Charlie Miller, relatively recently seeded show (less than two years ago). There are two unknown guests sitting in, a sax player and a fiddle player. Listening to the interplay on Dark Star, they seem to have a deep understanding of the music. We wouldn't hear noises like this on Dark Star until the midi days 20 years later. As an added bonus, the sound is quite good for the era - definitely release worthy. David Gans brought it up on The Golden Road yesterday which piqued my interest. https://archive.org/details/gd1969-08-03.137365.sbd.miller.eaton.flac24… 08/03/69 Family Dog at The Great Highway - San Francisco, CA Set 1: Hard To Handle Beat It On Down The Line Hi Heeled Sneakers High Time Mama Tried Dark Star Alligator Drums Alligator Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) And We Bid You Goodnight ok.. back to our regularly scheduled 1973 and 1974 flavored programming.
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17 years 3 months
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Indeed there are sometimes enormous differences between US English and EU English but no, this invoice was entirely in the Dutch language. It is apparent to me that something went catastrophically wrong during the development of the Dutch language, making it nigh on impossible to express things as one would like to. Even most Dutch people seem to have great difficulties with it. The grammar is mostly impossible for mere mortals to master. Hey, didja see that I slipped in a cool bit of alliteration there? And on a Monday, too.
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7 years 7 months
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Which are, of course, Purple, Priest, and priorities. Saw Purple and Priest last night with some band called, The Temperance Movement. Amazing, amazing singer like a young, snarly Chris Robinson. Decent band, could use better songs. Next was Priest. I say they are tighter without tired, old-ass Glenn Tipton. Richie Faulkner is a metal god. At 67, Rob Halford has lost absolutely nothing, and he stands as the finest metal singer of all-time. There is absolutely no arguing that point. At 73, Deep Purple's Ian Gillan has lost much of the power he commanded right on through the 1980s. He was a shrieker for the ages. However, he uses what voice he has left wisely and he delivered a fine performance. People say his voice is shot, well, no, that would be Ian Anderson and Don Dokken. I now accept Steve Morse into the band. The only knock being, he isn't Ritchie Blackmore. Ritchie can't play his way out a wet paper bag these days. He's even more faded than Ian Gillan. It has to be said, Ian Paice remains a monster. My God, how he still flies around the top of that Paiste kit is a thing to behold. Oh yeah, last, priorities: if your priority is to avoid endless postal/shipping hassles on official Dead releases, move to the United States.
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15 years 8 months
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Excellent Book, much better than the movie, though I like the grundgy movie and Daryl Hannah is hot as Pris and Rutger Hauer was an awesome villian... LedHed, never heard of the 3P's - Back in my college concert production days we used 7 P's: Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance Sorry to hear that you get to experience the "Stamp Tax". As the Bostonian in me that drives by the site of the Boston Massacre, the snarkiness in me says "payback' a bitch" - but only in jest... As KG pointed out, maybe worthy to get the digital medium. Just like last night's Family Guy, I am kidding, it's only a joke ;) I see the point of all people's comments (opinions/personal preferences) regarding era's, song evolution, jamming. I'm from the camp that wants the "creme de la creme" put out there regardless of era. I want the best recordings of the best shows no matter the lineup. I trust Dave in his deadication to putting out what's worthy while dealing with all the variables & requests he has to juggle while working a business model that will continue for years on end while letting some very worthy shows see the light of day. I forgot who mentioned the point of the Dead retiring after 1977. My Favorite JGB era is 1978 - I love Donna and Maria singing with Jerry. I wish more releases would see the light of day from that tour. The Capitol show someone mentioned a few years back was awesome. Seems like they're more into the artwork releases. I'd be psyched if they'd do another Pure Jerry run (re-release) so I could fill in the blanks of the shows I passed on at the time... I would love each and every show was given the plangent treatment. Still loving the new release but still stuck on repeat on the early shows, which is not a bad thing ;) Anyone make it to the hidden vault to get the golden key?
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17 years 3 months
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What's with all the international shipping cost gripe posts? Is anyone really surprised that it costs an arm and a leg to ship one of these things around the globe and none of these transactions are ever executed smoothly? Haven't you people read any Kafka? I'm willing to debate more topics than most on this board, but the peccadilloes of shipping firms international tax and fee policies is where I draw the line. Good day sirs.
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11 years 7 months
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I'm gonna be broke this coming November...what with Nov 2nd being the release of the More Blood More Tracks box set by Dylan and on Nov 9th both the Electric Ladyland and White Album box sets will be released and of course next year's subscription payment will be due....this is why I can't retire yet!
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15 years 11 months
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I just don't think people should come here to tell what to listen to how to listen. Music is an art form and is subjective. You like what you like let others like what they like don't come here to blast people.
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17 years 1 month
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I have the same issue with 5/19/74 and assumed it was just the source tape, but someone has posted in the latest "jam of the week" that the digital copies don't have that dropout. I have an email in to customer service about it. Have you found anything else out? Regards, Yusef
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17 years 3 months
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I am interested to know exactly what Kafka had to say about international shipping costs. As for the gripe posts, as far as I am aware, domestic customers have the options of standard or expedited shipping whereas us aliens have no choice. Normally international shipping is by USPS, the cost is reasonable and the shipping time is 2-3 weeks (depends on where on the planet one lives, naturally). Fortunately, these transactions are normally executed smoothly. Occasionally, for reasons best known to themselves, the powers that be choose to use someone like UPS. This results in a far shorter shipping time which most on here have praised, but the downside is that that shipping costs are much higher which nobody is happy about. However, everyone who ordered this box was prepared to pay that. The complaints posted on here have mostly been related to the inconsistencies regarding the level of duty levied by UPS in the United Kingdom and other ineptitudes in the UPS system. We also often see complaints from domestic customers on here who whine that there delivery has taken what for them is an illogical route and is going to take one day longer than expected. This is the age of instant gratification and if people do not get exactly what they want at the exact moment that they want it and for the price they want to pay, they will complain. That is the nature of the 21st century beast unfortunately. Toodle pip!
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9 years 3 months
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It must be from the R Crumb edition.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introducing_Kafka domestic buyers had the preorder choices of regular or expedited, but preorders all ship at the same time so it's a waste of money to expedite a preorder. until the boxes are officially on sale they are willing to take the added fees from people willing to give it to them on the preorder to make sure it's working as an option on the page when it moves from preorder to on sale. if there hadn't been a monday holiday, i would have gotten my standard delivery on the day of sale, instead i got it a day later on saturday, which is usually an added cost delivery option. those VAT taxes, added taxes on the COD shipping fees and usury charges definitely make the digital option a more economic choice.
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10 years
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Your comments would only be credible would be if you yourself paid higher international shipping costs than others in your country. maybe you have been reading the wrong Kafka.
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17 years 3 months
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If we're talking Robert Crumb, then I'll take Honeybunch Kaminski over Kafka any day of the week!
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9 years 11 months
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My disc 5 starts skipping at China Cat. There is a visible scratch. I contacted Dr. Rhino last Monday and received an email on Thursday that a replacement disc would be sent out ASAP. It seems like the condition of the discs in these box set releases are getting worse and worse. The majority of my discs had fingerprints and small superficial scratches on them but luckily only one disc skipped.
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6 years 8 months
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Does anyone know if the Eyes of the World from the Long Strange Trip release was remastered? It would be cool if there's a sound Improvement over the Dick's Picks 31 release.
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6 years 8 months
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Which songs have low vocals on CD but not digital download?
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6 years 1 month
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YIKES. Donna gets a little feisty here. Was jamming to the first Scarlet Begonias I've heard from this set and suddenly I get assaulted. She has her ups and downs.
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17 years 2 months
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I know that no Dead recording is perfect, but the Pacific Northwest seems to struggle the most in terms of recording quality. Numerous cuts have the vocals almost complete absent. Others have the guitar almost inaudible while the piano and drums are out front. Like I said, no Dead recording is perfect, but this seems to be the most inconsistent box set I remember; and I have them ALL. Anyone else feel this way, or am I just being too picky?
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6 years 10 months
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She howls on that one like she sat on the remote control with no panties on. WhoaaaaAAAAHAHHAHOWWWWW@! I love her. I believe the people who saw them and said she wasn't loud like that on the house mix. Jerry wouldn't have tolerated it. Ned, guitar's low on the 73 shows. Some of it's still great, like the big Truckin and the Bird Song.oh well, what can you do. Better than nothin I guess. But the 74 stuff is hands down awesomeness with a bong hit on top. Theres a couple tracks where the vocals disappear, but it's like hearing an instrumental of Jack Straw. You're definitely not nitpickingbon the 73 shows though, that's a little disappointing in places to have Jerry so low.
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17 years 2 months
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....Skull & Roses was released 47 years ago today. And no Donna for those that don't enjoy an occasional nail on the chalkboard.
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14 years 11 months
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The official GD calendar is not quite perfect. It was released on October 24th.
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17 years 2 months
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....hint to the general public. Don't believe everything you read on the internet.
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15 years 5 months
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Skippys Andoaragain has just arrived. It looks and sounds amazing, 3 cds, great liner notes, re-release of the year?Yep.
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15 years 5 months
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I have loved Oar for 45 years, only now listening through the outakes I realise that in an alternate reality, Oar would have been a fine starting point for another record;: Workingmans Grape?
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13 years 10 months
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When should we expect a new Dave's Picks? Mr. Pete--------> aging hippie
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9 years 3 months
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November right before they announce the 2019 subscriptions. hopefully the announcement will include a new addition to the series of "Now with Plangent processing" or maybe announce a 2nd subscription series. Däve's Choice Cuts, the new Plangent Processed Betty Boards subscription series. THANKs for the reminder Dogon. Andoaragain is still a preorder in the US, but i'll have it on friday the day of release.
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10 years
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Its a pity, what with all these vocal fade outs that Donna never seems to get faded out. Very strident throughout-she really comes in strongly at the end of Playin' on 5/21. Maybe they could have faded her out a bit and pretended it was a problem with the original mix (only joking). I've just been listening to 5/19/77, and she sounds fine on that. Shame. I don't think Bob is at his best vocally on these sets, either. A bit shouty-none of the warmth and depth he had in 1971, for example. Still a great release, though.
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10 years
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I'm probably the only person on here who doesn't know this, but where do the bonus tracks at the end of the second cd come from ? Wharf Rat and Around and Around are presumably from the night before-but Not Fade Away? There doesn't seem to be any info in the box saying where they are from. This isn't a release I have played very often - something of an oversight, it now seems.
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