Grateful Dead

Chock full of great shows

One of the highlights of going to London for me is being able to go to physical record shops, and vinyl reissues are what I now look out for, too. Three I bought this morning on 180g vinyl, all of which sound superb, are Station To Station by David Bowie, Larks Tongues in Aspic by King Crimson and Blue Train by John Coltrane.

I prefer the 1973 Winterland box to the PNW one that came out last year. Its obviously a lot smaller, but the 1973 Winterland is my favourite box after the Europe 72 one-taking into account the fact I missed the Fillmore West 1969 box. Incidentally, was also hoping and expecting 2/28/69 to come out on vinyl this upcoming RSD. But going back to the 1973 Winterland , the set lists and sound are great, but I also just enjoy the playing more.

That's what I thought you wrote at first Jim, I was like huh? But seriously that is great logic. Dead for Dead. I would take out a second mortgage if I could just get all of the Grateful Dead stuff now. 5000 bucks for the rest of the library in Plangent.

I tried that video Sixtus, but just can't get into later Grateful Dead. I suck. Every now and then I do a retry, but it's always the same.

Most has been said already but don't forget Loose Lucy, which oozes slink and sleaze like no other version I've heard :-)

Exit Stage Left, I may have to try this one on for size.

Obscured by Clouds, did you know Richard Wright sings lead vocal on Stay? I always thought it was Gilmour until recently.

After Obscurred By Clouds I went to Animals, also 180g vinyl.
Excellent way to round out my Saturday start-up. My 2nd favorite PF album followed by my favorite.
A few months ago I decided to buy 5 or 6 Floyd albums on 180g vinyl, to complement the Animals and DSOTM that I already had. Was totally worth it.
As a wise person from this site told me at the time, “those albums were designed for vinyl (with the requirement to get up and flip it half way through), especially Wish You Were Here”.

I bought a turntable about 11 months ago because I bought 2-27-69 on vinyl on RSD 2018, and was hoping that all of FW69 would come out on vinyl.........
Well, apparently not for RSD 2019......

I initially tried buying used vinyl but it always sounded like crap, and wasn’t even worth the $3-5 I was paying. So, I’m picking up new 180g reissues here and there (Rush, Exit Stage Left is on 200g vinyl), as well as GD new issues.

After my vinyl palate cleanse I hit the yard for some springtime yard work. Mid-60’s today, mid-30’s tomorrow. WTF?
Spring has sprung.
Beer in hand now, grilling in my near future.

Glad Daverock and Peri got to feel some Dead vibes last night.
D&C should really do a European tour to share the fun with our friends there.
No it ain’t the same, but as Daverock pointed out, last night brought fellow Dead freaks together, which is what we all need now and then.

Now, crosswalks, cars, buses, traffic lights, fire hydrants..........hey, ground score!

The Winterland 1973 box set blows the trio of PNW '73 shows out of the water, especially in terms of sound quality. There is no unevenness to the recordings like PNW has (excessive tape hiss, symbols and hi-hat coming in too loud., Jerry's guitar disappearing frequently). On Winterland '73, the guitars are crisp and the sound is full throughout, with barely a hint of its analog sourcing. Others have spoken about the merits of the setlist already so I will skip that. None of this critical assessment applies to the 1974 shows in that box set.

In all fairness the Pacific Northwest box set has that awesome Bird Song and some awesome Truckin' jams. And the Dark Star ain't too shabby. Not to mention Box Of Rains and an outstanding Black Peter.

While shuffling thru the endless chore of music management, coffee in hand. I re-discovered folders I have buried down the in billbored section, Whitburn R&B. Of which I have for different years. I was once again shocked at the amount of music in these four folders. My quick goog revealed this guy whitburn, who, "deadbased" every r&b record ever done. I guess someone stated collecting all these cuts and I got 4 years worth of them. Any whitburn experts out there?

Hell, any billboard experts?

Amazing how many breakdowns.

Funny thing,,, don't see dead on a lot of them? :-)

Recently fell into huge amount, huge I tell ya, of these "time-life collections". One was EVERY hit the 60's, cross broken down by, early, mid and late. One night at the store we listened to 8 hours of 60's, knew every fuckin song! Along about 7.5 hours I look up and more co-conspirator and quipped "greatest hits of the 60's without 1 Beatles song!!!!!!" :-)

Guess they wouldn't sell the songs or time-life couldn't afford. Good chuckle anyway.

More Dead, so you can save money.. and with the savings buy More Dead.

I always liked Wot's uh the Deal from Obscured too.. Floyd never played it, but Gilmour revised it a few years back and it appears as bonus material on one of his DVDs.. (forget which one).

One other Winterland 73 item worth considering.. The PNW box does not contain Morning Dew, and Winterland has remarkable version buried in the middle of an hour long jam. What's not to like about that?

Hard to argue with Charlie on this one.

What a fantastic album and fantastic way to open a Saturday! So underrated and obscure, especially given that it was released between Meddle and Dark Side, but is so completely different from anything on those apart from Fearless sounding like it could fit in and Obscured by Clouds> When You're In being similar to Any Colour You Like.

I've just got back from London, where I saw Live Dead 69 last night. Fantastic nights music. The first set started with Tom Constanten on his own, on piano. The first song Dylan's Frankie Lee and Judas Priest, which was unexpected. He played a few more, and then the whole band came on, opening with St. Stephen as per Woodstock. Pleasingly, they went into The Eleven before going into Mama Tried, as The Dead had done in 69. The whole set was good...well played...but something seemed a bit lacking - to me. They seemed like what I guess they are- a very good cover band. Everybody around me was talking during the 10 minute Dark Star, which was annoying, and none of the vocalists really had the bottle to pull off Lovelight. In a way, they seemed a bit upstaged by the material.

They went off for a while, and when they came back, to me, they seemed like a different band! They opened the second set with a great and jammed out Cold Rain and Snow, followed by Bertha. The audience seemed synched in with the band who seemed synched in with each other, and the joint was really rocking-all as one person. Everything they played in this second set worked like a dream-Easy Wind was played and they finished the set with a tremendous Franklins Tower. As Peri said, they then did We Wish You Good Night as the encore.

Everyone was grinning ear to ear as we filed out. That was the other great thing-many friendly people there who were happy to talk about The Dead and their experiences. I wish I'd gone on the first night now, as well!