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    clayv
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    "Cause it's always like that with the Dead, you know - it's always the whole thing." - News Journal

    As we close out the 2019 Dave Pick's series, we deliver on our promise to give you the "whole thing" with the complete performance from The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA 3/24/73 and what a show it was! An upstanding "musical eulogy" to the recently departed Pigpen, the Grateful Dead conducted a potent study in contrasts on this bittersweet night. They found easy balance between tidy jams like "They Love Each Other," "Wave That Flag," "Playing In The Band," and introspective moments on "Stella Blue," "Sing Me Back Home," and a poignant "He's Gone." It was all laid down with a discipline and a polish unheard of in any of the truly exceptional shows that had come before it. Yes, you might say, they cleaned up nice to carry on the legacy as Pig would have wanted.

    Limited to 20,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 32: THE SPECTRUM, PHILADELPHIA, PA 3/24/73 has been mastered to HDCD specs from the 7" and 10" reels by Jeffrey Norman.

    GET IT WHILE YOU CAN

    *Limited to 2 per order. Very limited quantity available.

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  • carlo13
    Joined:
    Blair jackson

    I think he entered the new warehouse to check up on our missing boxes and never came back.

  • musicnow
    Joined:
    waiting...

    still no shipping notification (subscription) for Dave's 32. Good thing I now have 10-12-68 to keep me high. Truth...it's a MONSTER!

  • Oroborous
    Joined:
    Marye & 10/30/73

    She delivers our discs on an old school Schwin, she baby sits our arrested development arses and generally keeps this place honest, aaaaannnd she was involved with Golden Road....You go Girl!
    And Thanks for all you do!

    10/30/73, looks tasty, need to check that out. Dammit Jim, you enabler!

  • bob t
    Joined:
    Jim good call on Kiel 10/30/73

    Dave played it on today in grateful dead history but couldn't listen to it. Have it on now. THanks for reminder. Bob t

  • marye
    Joined:
    speaking as the proofreader of the Golden Road
    I concur of course!
  • Oroborous
    Joined:
    Blaaaaaiir!

    I love Blair, felt like in the old days at least, like he was one of us, as compared to one of them 😉 meaning just a head, and not an employee if that makes sense? Remember when there was no internet, (BOOOO HALLOWEEN, I just scared the shit outta the youngsters!) and usually very little media coverage.......we so looked forward to the Golden Road!
    Rock on Brother!

  • marye
    Joined:
    Blair
    hey, I just saw him over the weekend. He's over at Classical Guitar Magazine these days: http://classicalguitarmagazine.com/author/blairstringletter-com/
  • DeadVikes
    Joined:
    Blair Jackson

    Hey Jim, thanks for the info.

    I thought his departure was within the last couple of years, but I could be wrong about that.
    I thought he wrote some of the early Dave's liner notes, #1 and #7. I also thought he was listed as co-producer on Dave's 1, or maybe that was the Winterland 77 box. I always thought it was odd that to introduce the series for Dave's Picks, the liner notes were written by Blair and not Dave. Anyway, I miss his writings and his knowledge of all the tours and music. Where did he go?

  • JimInMD
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    Blair Jackson?

    I have been wondering that for a long time. He disappeared from here in 2011 when either he ended his writing relationship with Rhino or they pulled the plug on Blair's Golden Road and other contributions on official releases. I don't recall him writing for any of the 30 trips shows or anything else since? Has anyone else noticed something I missed??

    His Golden Road blogs are still here at dead.net, albeit a bit hidden.
    https://www.dead.net/tags/blair-jackson

    Note that his absence corresponds with the low point in sales for archival releases (the Road Trips rock bottom). This came about half-way through their $10M ten year contract with the band for release rights from vault recordings initiated in 2006. It also corresponds with a turning point in releases, clearly focused on stimulating more demand and most certainly trimming costs. They opted for letting out bigger box sets (E72 anyone) and migrating to the limited release model (Dave's Picks and limited #'s on boxes). Get em, pull the trigger or forever be a slave to the secondary market. (From their perspective, this worked btw.. we went from 12k copies to 22k copies in nine years).

    So Blair went by the roadside replaced with David Dodd's The Greatest Story Ever Told, which I also miss. It didn't last all that long, but was a great read.

    https://www.dead.net/tags/david-dodd

    The GSET was replaced by … well, nothing. There's no direct proof I can find that Blair disappeared to cut costs, but I have to suspect this was at least partly the cause. I do miss his monthly blog. The whole thing sort of got replaced by us.. and we're quite free.

    Blair still appears on Jerry Garcia Band liner notes. I think he is one of the best, and his liner notes are a joy to read.

    Got my shipping notice today.. Tuesday? Hopefully before.

  • DeadVikes
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    Dave's 32

    Shipping notification landed today. Delivery by next Tuesday 😢.

    I am sure this had been covered before, so my apologies for not remembering, but happened with Blair Jackson?

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"Cause it's always like that with the Dead, you know - it's always the whole thing." - News Journal

As we close out the 2019 Dave Pick's series, we deliver on our promise to give you the "whole thing" with the complete performance from The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA 3/24/73 and what a show it was! An upstanding "musical eulogy" to the recently departed Pigpen, the Grateful Dead conducted a potent study in contrasts on this bittersweet night. They found easy balance between tidy jams like "They Love Each Other," "Wave That Flag," "Playing In The Band," and introspective moments on "Stella Blue," "Sing Me Back Home," and a poignant "He's Gone." It was all laid down with a discipline and a polish unheard of in any of the truly exceptional shows that had come before it. Yes, you might say, they cleaned up nice to carry on the legacy as Pig would have wanted.

Limited to 20,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 32: THE SPECTRUM, PHILADELPHIA, PA 3/24/73 has been mastered to HDCD specs from the 7" and 10" reels by Jeffrey Norman.

GET IT WHILE YOU CAN

*Limited to 2 per order. Very limited quantity available.

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As I sit here listening, smiling--midway thru Disc 1 Jack Straw--I'm thinking to myself, "Ya know, I'd order a five-year Dave's Pick subscription if they offered it tomorrow"....then I thought to myself "ya know...shit, I'd order a life-time Dave's Pick subscription if they offered it tomorrow!!" Time for another beer.....

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6 years 11 months
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Vinyl arrived today and already spun through once...this is an instant classic for me and will get multiple spins...all 3 discs are excellent, but highlights for me are Lay Lady Lay, Mountain Dew, and Don’t Think Twice it’s Alright/Understand Your Man outtakes.... but this whole set is one that I could listen to over and over!

#32 arrives tomorrow!

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In reply to by CaseyJanes

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Would love to hear more about how the sound quality is. Will not have mine in MN until Tuesday ☹️. For some reason, all year on the Dave's Picks for me have been 5 to 6 days past release date. I was lucky with the Giants Box, it arrived on the release date.

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16 years 6 months

In reply to by DeadVikes

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Don't know how they do it time after time. This is possibly especially nice. I just finished it. It was great

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10 years 6 months

In reply to by CaseyJanes

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Got mine yesterday, at first, I thought it was another LP as it was a very small package for 3 pieces of vinyl, the format package reminds me of the gatefold covers of olde. Argent's "Ring Of Hands" and Johnny Winters " Live "
It is a great set of vinyl, even 'ere indoors ' commented on the Johnny Cash, my favorite part of the set are Sides 1 and 2 at the present time. DaP 32 may not arrive for another 3 weeks, so there is plenty of time to revisit this.

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To these rock-n-roll damaged ears, I thought the sound quality was outstanding....side note: my delivery order notice says/ and still says, "Monday-by the end of the day".......maybe I'll get two??....LOL

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My DP32 arrived today but only one of the two copies I pre-ordered was included. Prior to the warehouse transition I've always got what I ordered on time. Now nothing but delays and missing or damaged goods.

Now I play the waiting game, will they respond to customer service ticket?
I've already had several other tickets for orders go with no response yet in two weeks...

I guess I will hope for the best that I will still get what I paid for but they will probably be out of stock by the time they even read my customer service ticket. Someone needs to fix this mess..

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11 years 11 months
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Am I the ONLY one, or is anyone else SICK and TIRED of the goddamn yellow box on the side telling you to get on the LIST???!!!

I'm on the fuckin' list already!

One fuckin line of code,,,, Is customer on list? Don't post yellow box! Seems like simple coding!!!

Good day all,,, time to rip in Bob for work tonight.

:-)

Thanks for feedback gents. Can't wait to get it next week.

In the meantime Winterland 73 has been getting a workout. Enough said on how great this box is. If any of you have missed this one, you can still get a used one on eBay or Discogs for under $150, which is well worth it.

Looking for some assistance with digital downloads. I have three from nugs.net, Download series 1, which is the 77 Palladium show from 4/30, this show kicks ass by the way, Download series 9 and 6.
All in ALAC loaded to iTunes and played through my Sonos system. All the songs have a 10 second audio out at the end of the songs, super annoying. Does anyone know how to get rid of that 10 second pause?
Much appreciated.

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17 years 3 months
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Had a tape of this show, then a digital SBD copy from Archive (before SBD downloads were verboten). The sound on Dave's 32 is an improvement. What a GREAT show!

I don't know if it's the luck of the draw, but I've had few problems with my orders over the decades. A few bad discs, that were promptly replaced. I don't gamble, but perhaps I should try my luck in Vegas (kidding, all the flashing lights in casinos spook me).

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9 years 1 month
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Arrived today, ahead of schedule, spinning Cumberland on disc 1 now. Sounds great, it's the Dead, it's from '73 - what more could I ask for?

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12 years 11 months
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..Has landed! Great show, sounds awesome! ;)

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17 years 4 months

In reply to by Moses Quasar

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....that's how they attract. Like moths to a flame. Will never find a clock in a casino either.
Good to see Moses Quasar is still here.
Also, good to see Cumberland representing. My ears definitely perk up when that comes on.

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12 years 11 months

In reply to by DeadVikes

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I can usually eliminate any long pauses in GD shows by doing the following, keep in mind I have an older iTunes program.

1. Highlight the 1st song - unfortunately you'll have to do this individually for each song.
2. File > Get Info OR Right Click > Get Info OR Command/ 'I' All info for that song should appear.
3. There are 6 tabs at the top; choose 'Options'
4. The 'STOP' box with the song length should be there.
6. Check the small box to the left and adjust until it's exactly perfect.
7. Check the small box for 'Remember Playback Position' to the right of 'PLAYBACK'.
8. OK

Hope this helps, but like I said it's an older program.

DaP 32 has arrived today, and #991 to boot! Glad to have this one hassle free and really looking forward to spinning it as Spring 73 is the band's absolute pinnacle in my opinion. Shaping up to be a perfect autumn Saturday, cheers!

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7 years 6 months
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Ho boy!! Now the weekend is complete. Ok, beer, check. Cigars, check. Dap 32, check. Pretzels, check. Good times.

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16 years 11 months
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Everything that you think that is going to be good listening to this is!!! Here Comes Sunshine, Playing in the Band, China>Rider, the stand alone Stella, He's Gone>(all of Disc 3).... Loser, Me and Bobby McGee, and Row Jimmy sort of stand out also!!!

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9 years 1 month
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BobT is right. Finished a first listen and there is a lot of good stuff here, and that whole disc 3 smokes.

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14 years 9 months
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Hooray!!!

Heres 2 fasst delivery 4 everyone

Thank you for the info on this Dave, I appreciate it.
Gave it a shot, unfortunately no change.
It is 10 seconds of dead air, no audio at all at the end of the songs. We always want to hear the transitions to the next song, very important. Maybe this is why the download series was short lived?

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7 years 6 months
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I was thinking last week that you were probably the last guy to change his profile pic. And look at you now. Aren't you afraid that it might change your luck by getting rid of the lucky 7. If your going to play craps this week put me down for a two two on the hard four. $100 bet.

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17 years 4 months
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I downloaded all the Download series releases as they came out. I cannot remember precisely what I did but they were certainly downloaded to a Windows computer and burned to CD using EAC or Nero (I cannot remember which). Tracks are contiguous i.e. no 2 second gaps or 10 second gaps between tracks. I did not use iTunes or anything Apple at any stage of the process. The Apple part could be what is causing you problems.

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10 years
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Anyone else in the US that was a subscriber not receive a shipping notice for 32 yet?

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17 years 4 months
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Here trying to re-rip some of my GD collection and I'm noticing disc 1 of Rocking the Cradle is not ripping for me. I looked at it and noticed incredible scratching on the disc surface. Funny thing is I took a glance at the rest of the set and they look relatively pristine! Help! :-)

P.S. Buses

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17 years 4 months
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Is the one skipping most badly. I've scoured some of my backups and most of my archived copies seem fine except track 8. Anyone have that one track in FLAC?

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17 years 4 months

In reply to by wilfredtjones

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....notice would say Monday, so I’d stroll on down to the ole PO, and usually on Saturday there’d be a key in our box for one of those package boxes, and there it’d be, a new Dave’s or whatnot, in all its glory......last several releases, the torturous bastards haven’t been doing that, just the slip in the box, which one of us now has to try and get down there during their banker hours (when we’re supposed to be at work), and then stand in line for usually between 10-20 minutes and wait. Plus instead of having alllll day today to enjoy, I already know I’m not going to have enough time to sit down and actually LISTEN to the whole thing until next weekend, uugghh!.....really like to do that at least the first time, ahem, sorry, I’m whining like a little beeaatch, and yes I’m am jealous of all y’all that have or are going to wallow in the Golden yummy splendor of this magnificent gift from yee ole GD Gods!! Fuggin 73 Mates!, 73! Well, cheers to all you lucky Chil-rens that got yours, Enjoy!

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6 years 11 months
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Finished this one up in the wee hours of the morning and man is it good. Sound quality is pristine. There are so many great shows in this series now that it gets tough to rank them, but this one jumps immediately into my top 5!

Highlights for me:

Disc One:
Cumberland
Box of Rain
Row Jimmy
Wave that Flag (fun to see the early workings & development of this one)
Disc 2:
Here Comes Sunshine
Me & Bobby McGee
China Rider
Stella Blue
Disc 3:
The whole damn thing fucking smokes.....gonna have to put it on again right now!!!

Enjoy this one dead peoples.....it really is something special...we are a super lucky group of robots!

Happy Sunday Funday!!!

KCJ

Oh and for those interested, here are the timing sequences for the songs on Disc 3:

He's Gone> (13:52)
Truckin> (10:04)
Jam> (22:30)
Dark Star> (4:10)
Sing Me Back Home (10:03)......(I really love this version)
Sugar Mags (9:43)
JBG (3:55)

I have the Download Series but no 10 sec. gap during any songs on any of the releases - anyone else have/don't have gaps with the Download Series? I'm using a MacBook Pro and just the usual time between songs with audience noise/clapping.

Well that's encouraging news. Thanks KCJ.

I think the next show (3/26, Baltimore) flows nicely after listening to this one. If it were me, I would release them back to back (or at the same time somehow). Fond memories of these two, so glad half the duo finally got the Full Norman.

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Got mine yesterday even though the tracking info said end of day Monday. Pleased to get it on the weekend, but like many of my fellow adult Deadheads, not enough free time to listen to it all yet.
First impressions from giving it a test drive while running errands around town:
Bertha - Fair to middling opener with funny blown "cue" by Jerry; average version.
Beat It On Down The Line - Oof. This is rough. The off-key Donna vocals are in full force. Hoping for better from Bobby on later tracks.
Don't Ease Me In - God, I love this song. Not a great version, but so nice to hear a young Jerry singing this.
The Race Is On - Pretty solid '73 version, nothing remarkable.
Cumberland Blues - Surprised to read so many positive comments about this version; didn't make an impression.
Box Of Rain - Quote from headyversion.com: "Seriously, this is awful. The only listenable versions are Sep 17 1970, and the two "breakout" versions in March 1986 (20 and 24)." Sounds about right.
Row Jimmy - Okay version. Doesn't have the shimmering quality of some of the Winterland '73 performances, but pretty good. Donna damages it, of course.
Jack Straw - Quality drop-off from the '72 versions, but not bad. Unremarkable.
They Love Each Other - First big highlight of the show. I love the bouncy versions of TLEO, and anything slower than the studio version on Reflections sounds like a dirge to me. This is a pretty great one with no notable fuckups.
Mexicali Blues - Better than the other Bobby performances so far; good version.
Tennessee Jed - Decent but, again, unremarkable.
Looks Like Rain - Jerry seems to have found a way to replace the lap steel from Europe '72 with a weepy guitar sound; unfortunately, this version is marred by Bob's vocals ranging from too quiet to too loud, and I had to adjust my volume up and down multiple times; background vocals predictably off-key.
Wave That Flag - Another pretty good version, as this develops toward becoming U.S. Blues.
El Paso - Okay version to end disc 1 on a bit of a thud (unless you're a HUGE El Paso fanatic); overall impression of this first disc: I might pop it in to hear the TLEO again some time, but that's about it.
CD 2
Here Comes Sunshine - Really nice, tight version; under 9 minutes, so it leaves me wanting more; some of the guitar work toward the end sounds distorted, but I can't tell if that's Jerry or the tape.
Me and Bobby McGee - Second surprise highlight after TLEO. A very solid version (although the drums at the beginning are surprisingly weak and plodding...weird); Jerry's bg vocals are priceless, and make me wish for more bg vocals from him and less from Phil and Donna.
Loser - Man, who doesn't love Loser? A very solid version. Jumped over to headyversion to look for comments on it, and there are none! Someone who posts there should give this bad boy a vote.
Playing In The Band - This is where my listening had to end. What I've heard so far sounds pretty good, but only made it a few minutes in before I had to bail.
Looking forward to the rest, but hoping for fewer (or lower-in-the-mix) Donna & Phil harmonies. The high ratings for Sing Me Back Home lead me to believe she may have actually hit a few on-key notes during the course of the show.
Will try to post more later in the week when I get a chance.

I was standing in my driveway yesterday when the USPS truck pulled up and the guy handed me a DaP 32. I told him that tracking said delivery on 11/5. He said that it did in fact arrive on 11/5 but he thought that I should have a weekend to enjoy it so he borrowed Jim’s John Deere and brought it to me on 11/2.
So, thanks Jim.

Made it through the whole thing yesterday and didn’t notice any skips or defects.
Listened to CD3 again last night once I was nicely marinated and holy smokes!! Smokin’ playing there and sound quality is amazing. The Jam has bits and pieces of just about everything you would expect from that era and then the quick Dark Star proper and a smooth slide right into Sing Me Back Home.
Pretty sure I listened to CD3 at least twice, but that’s where it gets a little fuzzy......
.......woke up at 11 am today, took the dog out, started making coffee, then realized that it was only 10 am.
Crap, forgot about the time change, could have slept in longer. Oh well, coffee is already brewing (super dark roast Columbian that I roasted myself - another thanks to Jim for convincing me to buy a roaster a few years ago) Might As Well take advantage of this extra hour and get started on a second listen to DaP 32.

Yes, an excellent choice Dave. Mighty fine mastering Norman.
Quality playing (currently on Row Jimmy) and excellent sound. Lots of Phil, had the house rattling yesterday. Drums seem at an appropriate level, no excessive kick drum like in 74.

Oh yeah, just remembered that last night after a Donna wail I concluded that I would take any Donna wail/scream over Wave To The Wind any day.

Credits:
Recorded by Rex and Kidd.
10” tapes provided through the assistance of ABCD Enterprises.

Thanks again ABCD!!

Here’s the story on ABCD for anyone who doesn’t know.

http://www.legalnews.com/detroit/1457673

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9 years

In reply to by icecrmcnkd

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We must be listening to different shows because I didn’t detect any of the negativity that he seemed to find.
Probably because I went into this with an open mind and open ears. Wasn’t trying to compare it to other 73 releases, and I don’t pay attention to what is written on heady version.
We’ll have to wait for Vguy to give his verdict on Cumberland since he’s a big fan of that song.

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17 years 4 months
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Thanks for helping! :-)

Hilariously Deader-than-thou response. Did I really just read a post implying that I don't go into a release with an open mind and open ears? Did this smug person read my post with an open mind?
The irony is so thick, you could cut it with a knife.
Yeah, man, we must be listening to different releases. Hooooo... (eye roll).

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10 years 8 months
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Can't be sure what show arrived for Mr. Heartbreak, because we listened last night to the first set, Bertha thru Playing, and to our ears, this show (3-24-73, right?) is outstanding! The playing was so engaging and the sound quality so amazing, this is rated top shelf in my world. No work to listen, the band was in the zone and the well-articulated parts meshed perfectly. This show is in that top tier where there's no call for ranking anything. It's in the pool of those shows where it sounds effortless and that attracts the ear. As I said, no work on the listener's part to enjoy.

If any of this show sounds "meh" to you, may the gods have mercy on your soul.

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14 years 9 months
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Would reeeeeeeeally like 3/21/73 to join this March/April constellation.

No complaints from me at all.

Following up 3 24 73 with 7 7 78, an O.T. show. Original Tape from the early 80s.

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6 years 8 months
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Don't have mine yet. Is Donna having an exceptionally bad night, or is she on par with her usual sound?

I was thinking Dark Star would be the defining track on this set...but looking at the timings, its only just over 4 minutes long! I notice the jam leading up to it clocks in at over 22 minutes though. I think of Dark Star as being a jam more than a song anyway, so maybe its not so clear when the so called jam ends and Star begins.

Looking forward to getting it however the dice falls.

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17 years 4 months

In reply to by Trainwrecked

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....I don't play craps anymore. But when I did, it was 6 & 8 all day. Hardways are a sucker bet.
....edit. just as I posted this, daverock posts a comment of letting the dice fall. Amazing!!

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