Grateful Dead

Your feelings about early 1971 are almost exactly the same as mine. I thought Skull and Roses was great when I first got it-about 1977-but as the decades have gone by, and I have heard more and more shows, this album and the era it comes from have dropped in my estimation a bit. I've heard quite a few shows from this era that are well regarded-the Portchester run from February and the Fillmore East shows from April, for example. They all seem well played....but the real high spots seem a bit few and far between.

A different story when Keith joined in October, of course. Then we had the best of all worlds-short songs, jams-we had lift off again!

From the Owsley school of medicine, of course. I seem to recall a few of you were in my class.. but only seemed to show up for the tests. Must be a bright bunch..

Funny - I always assumed he was from Maryland rather than a doctor. Perhaps a doctor from Maryland then?

To take off on Jim, MD (where DID you get your medical degree, Jim?)............

We've been mighty focused on the returned Betty Boards because they're great, they are many, and they have formed the bulk of all releases for 2-3 years.

But recall that Mtn Girl also returned a batch of tapes and it was said at that time that there WERE surprises among them. I can't say whether anything has been released from that batch, excepting 4-18-70 tape of "Mickey Hart & the Heartbeats/Bobby Ace" at the Family Dog, which provided an hour-plus of acoustic material by the whole band. The highlight was (6) songs by Pigpen. This fall 2013 release quickly followed the tapes' recovery.

Lemiuex in the liner notes said: "Imagine our surprise when, in mid-2013, M.G. called to say she had a few reels of Grateful Dead shows from 1970 and 1971 from Jerry's own stash. A quick listing revealed performances that we'd never heard or even knew had been recorded."

So far, I know only of the 4-18-70 release from this stash. Though I'm curious whether the DaP 30 liner notes will state that 1/2 and 1/3 1970 were from the M.G. stash as well.

Now I'm just raving. Thankfully, this is a safe space for that! Guess it's March and I'm itchy to hit the backcountry with a fresh batch of GD 'tapes' at my disposal. The 6-7 hour drives are perfect opportunities for full shows.............

...this just came across my desk....whoever wants to channel Jerry via a beenie based on his awesome poncho outfit during that somewhat infamous Playboy After Dark segment...

https://www.garciafamilyprovisions.com/product/JYCH15/jerry-garcia-afte…

I'm done here for today!
Sixtus

So I'm going thru the setlists for that hot period in Sept '72 and notice pretty frequent He's Gone>Truckin'>Other One across a lot of unreleased shows. Might be a tad repetitive to release them together. Dave likes to do boxes with consecutive shows and, recently, with a geographic focus. Then it hit me:

The Grateful Dead in Texas '72! A unique geographical focus that's downright jarring to contemplate, with four unreleased shows. And the setlists for those shows are mighty strong:

11-19-72, Houston: Dark Star>Weather Report Suite>Dark Star>Mississippi Half-Step

11-22-72, Austin: He's Gone>Truckin'>Other One (plus 1st set Candyman)

11-24-72, Dallas: Not Fade>Goin' Down the Road

11-26-72, San Antonio: Dark Star>Me & Bobby Magee

Four shows, 12 discs, what's not to love?

I will try to "let it go." No promises!

I know I will forget a couple.. I think for box sets, they set the bar pretty high for sound quality.. the obvious choices to come seem to be:

- Ark '69
- Capitol Theatre, Portchester '71
- Fall '72
- Summer '73
- RFK '73
- Fall '73

(not sure if they can put together anything from '74 that's box centric or not??)

- Palladium '77
- Beacon '77 (perhaps to be combined as NYC '77)
- Warfield/Radio City '80 (not likely, I don't think they have the material)
- Alaska '80??
- Fall '89
- 91 and beyond, the DAT recordings
- Greek Box
- New Years Box
- Palo Alto Box
- Alpine Box
- 3/4, 5, 6 & 7/69 Fillmore West Multi-Tracks (the other FW 69)
- Europe 73 the complete recordings

Did I leave something off?? You could almost attach a random number to each one and release them in order, lowest to highest one per year. Your guess is as good as mine.

I do recall when the missing reels were recovered, I had a back and forth email chain with Lemieux and specifically asked if there were any downright surprises, shows we did not have, set lists do not circulate and the like.. he said "No, nothing we did not know existed or did not circulate.. he did say some of the stuff recovered, especially from '71 and '72 is of much higher quality that what does circulate." That corresponds to some of the recent releases like 11/17/71 and 8/25/72.

As for the tunnel we are digging under the vault.. we had lots of people working on it; Zuckfun, wjonjd, OneMan, rdevil, GussWest, dantian, .5 mi from tuscon, Syracuse78.. and none of them are replying to PMs or post anymore. We can only assume that Rhino is on to us, which should only strengthen our resolve.. They must have a double, top secret new weapon.. Hippie Kryptonite or something and a dungeon next to the vault where they are keeping our old friends.

Agree, Sixtus.. the recent vibe is civil and pleasant. well.. back to my other full time job, keeping hippies off my lawn.

JIM “el chapo” MD: 😃 careful down there!

H.F.; speculation perhaps, but your logical deduction is sound. Mr Spock would approve “live long and have a prosperous dead collection” mi amigo.

Early 71; this is perhaps another of those eras I need more exposure too? Ironically Skull Fuck was a major influence on my early indoctrination, but years later with Ladies and gents and some of the other shows I’ve heard I don’t recall being blown away? I’ll have to listen up? I’ve come around big time to later 71 (thanks Doc! Hope your well if your still lurking?), but not sure about early 71?

81: wade, check out 3/13/81, this one is way under the radar. Was there in the first row but hadn’t recalled thinking it was that great until some what recently when I finally got around to checking it out....”goes to show, you don’t ever know...” 5/17/81 is another smoking show that no one seems to know about...

...I think I am indeed on Sixtus' Picks XII at this point....they just haven't seen "the release" via the interwebs. In fact, my man Chastason (oh mighty keeper of said server) has been MIA for quite some time; last I heard he headed out into the Cambodian bush to film a documentary and he's never been heard from since. I jest, but in fact it's been a while since I've had a sighting. This doesn't mean he's not lurking like the rest....

As for Box Speculations, gimme something with a round, silvery disc inside with Grateful Dead music on it, and some cool artwork, and I'm a happy camper.

Sixtus

I have been delighted recently to dig in deeply with some favorite early 1981 shows.

In particular the excellent Glassberg recordings and the matrix releases utilizing them.

The MSG shows from 3/9 and 3/10 a truly remarkable and the Glassberg audience tapes are equally so.

Also check out the matrix releases using Glassberg's tapes for the Uptown Theatre run: 2/26,27 and 28.

I love the sound of these tapes!