During the mid-1970s, the Grateful Dead saga was unfolding like a Greek classic. The Sisyphean Wall Of Sound had nearly broken the band. From it spawned a Medusa head of countless side projects, all deliciously fruitful but woefully not the same as the whole. The chorus lay in wait, pondering the reemergence of their heroes, and wondering if "THE LAST ONE" had really been it...
But in early 1976, Apollonian light and healing would shine upon our intrepid wanderers once again. No more epic battles for the people with cops and lines and tightness, the Dead would return triumphant in smallness, playing intimate theaters and renting equipment along the way. No more ticket scams and greedy promoters, they'd give back with first ever mail-order ticket program, one that had a few kinks to work out but eventually served the fans well.
Musically, June 1976 signaled a Golden Age of harmony and prosperity for the Dead. It marked an Odysseusian-like return for Mickey Hart. Donna Jean was in lock-step with the sirens' call. Jerry and Bob delivered orphic delight with solo musings like "Mission In The Rain" (the only tour they ever played it on), "The Wheel," and "Cassidy," emboldened by group effort. There was fresh repertoire from Blues For Allah, breathing new life to the Dead's continually morphing sound - as Weir once said of the '76 tour, they wanted to play "a little bit of all of it." Old favorites were re-envisioned with cascading tempos and unique sequencing, making the crowd question if they'd ever heard these songs before. And there was comfort and joy in the familiarity of watching the band make it up as they went along. By all means, it was clear that the bacchanalia of live Dead would reign on.
And now the revelry from this epoch, evidenced by the near-studio quality sound captured on two-track live recordings by Betty Cantor-Jackson, lives on, bolstered by Jeffrey Norman's HDCD mastering. It's housed for posterity in a handsome box featuring original art work by Justin Helton. It’s documented in liners by Jesse Jarnow and photos by Grant Gouldon. And it’s ready for a spot on your shelf.
As part of our pre-order for this Dead.net exclusive boxed set, we'll be delivering downloads of each listening party - one for each show included in JUNE 1976 - to purchasers from now until the March 20th release. Order at any time before release and you'll receive all the listening parties to date.
Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 12,000
What's Inside:
- 5 Previously Unreleased Complete Shows On 15 Discs
- Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA 6/10/76
- Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA 6/11/76
- Beacon Theatre, New York, NY 6/14/76
- Beacon Theatre, New York, NY 6/15/76
- Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ 6/19/76
- Sourced from Two-Track Master Tapes, Recorded By Betty Cantor-Jackson
- Mastered in HDCD by Jeffrey Norman
- Restoration and Speed Correction by Plangent Processes
Legend Indeed
Rock on Betty.
Anyway.. she had an incredible ear for music. A tip of the glass and a sincere thank you.
In no small way, she changed the world. That is her legacy.
All Hail Betty
Good choice Carlo. You don’t want to have to go to eBay later.
Seventy-Sixtus prefers the Boston run, which I also like, but 6-14 has been one of my favorites since I first heard it on cassette. Some people claim 76 is too slow. For me the slow Cosmic Charlie from 6-14 is just exactly perfect.
Mission accomplished:
Wrapping up a complete spin of 2-28-69 vinyl, which follows on the heels of 2-27-69 vinyl last night.
Cosmic Charlie
It's funny that CC was the reason I decided last night to get the box today. It's a rare treat that puts this box over the top. And st.stephen.
Betty’s
That’s the biggest unknown to me, and most surely it’s purposefully unknown. Any surprises, unknown shows etc....and there may be many more- We obviously know more now- July ‘78- but this was a secret (to me at least) until the box set. Red Rocks I hoped, but those first 3 shows were far from my Betty radar. I’m fairly certain that 2/27/77 and 6/4/77 are the 2 shows from this year that will be forever missing from the vault (except for one reel from 2/27/77 with that Dew). Then there’s shows that Rex recorded and Betty had- just have no idea. And maybe I misunderstood, for some reason I thought Dave said they negotiated a deal for all of the tapes. Can’t say I know if there’s a third party still holding out, but there’s a long list of things I don’t know. So yeah, that Stan story never happened- big surprise there. But Douchebag #3 seemed good enough reason for a quick story.
St.stephen
I just remembered when we were kids there was a church called st.stephens in a town where we went night fishing and we would always get a cassette ready with a live st. Stephen and pass by the church yelling out the windows "ST.STEPHEN"! like fools. It did not matter to me because I have always been an atheist. of course we had a lot of beer and goodies to nosh on while fishing.
Gettin’ Funky
As long as the turntable was powered up I decided to palate cleanse with Parliament Live - PFunk Earth Tour on vinyl.
Work Out Dead
Woke up this morning at some ridiculous hour, 3:45 I think.. the curse of aging, you lose the ability to sleep in. Anyway.. with 4" of fresh snow on the ground, schools cancelled and more snow on the way I decided to pick some good workout music and spin my IPod, shovel a bit get it finished before dawn and transfer to the good wireless headphones, hop in the outside tub just as the sun comes up and vegetate in warm water with giant flakes of snow swirling down from the sky at a steady pace and ree laaax. Sounded like a good plan.
So what to play.. what to pick.. always the nagging question, what show. ahh.. it's been years.. 11/30/80, Dave's Pick #8 Fox Theatre it is.
I love early 70's Grateful Dead.. don't get me wrong.. but it doesn't always lend itself to working up a sweat. There have times trying to get a workout on my bike, jamming to some 72 second set.. and riding my bike during a 45 minute jam just to snap out of it and realize I have just left the driveway and peddled like half a block. Turtles and sloths are lined up behind me trying to pass. It's dark and my buzz is gone. What day is it? (the mind got a good workout though, so there's that).
Some of the late era stuff on the other hand can blow out your aorta before you finish tying your sneakers and leve the house.
My point.. I shoveled everything imaginable in no time, drank a pot of coffee, got some extra chores finished and in the tub about a quarter till dawn just as the excellent Scarlet Fire entered my ears. Man.. that is one all time epic Scarlet Fires, but the whole show is Grade A. One of the Better Dave's Picks in my humble opinion.. and makes for some excellent workout music. Worked a full day, Piper at the Gates of Dawn during lunch.. it's been 10 years since I listened to that in it's entirety. How did they fit all that psychedelia on a 45 minute LP?
Jazzercise my ass, give me 1980's Grateful Dead.
Sorry for the long post. Back to your regularly scheduled 1974 Seastones>Eyes of the World.
Leap year Dead
Looks like the Dead never played a show on February 29th. I could be wrong, but that's the way it looks.
Led Zeppelin/Grateful Dead
There is a great story, about when the Dead encountered Led Zeppelin in 1969 and Pig Pen took some target practice. If you hav'nt heard it, type in Led Zeppelin/Grateful Dead and it should come up. It's a cool story.
*Re/ 2020 vinyl releases...
...besides the RSD release, there will be a plethora of other vinyl releases this year!
2020 is going to be a grateful year indeed, have a grateful weekend my brothers & sisters; peace be with you all, and remember to Smile Smile Smile! Let there be songs that fill the air! 🙏❤️😎💀🌹
Betty, etc.
Betty's locker was auctioned off in 1986. I believe she did let the band know that she was losing the locker and what was in the locker. Jerry of course was in bad shape in 1986 and we are all damn lucky he made to 1987.
At that time I don't think anybody realized how valuable these reels were, certainly not the band.
LMG posted that link last week to more Dick's 33 for sale and that inspired me to listen to that one again. It had been over a year and it was actually better than I remember. Just love those Franklin Towers and Scarlets from 1976.
And the sound quality is perfect. A serious gem!
Enjoy the weekend everyone!
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Jim,
Maybe that should have been the hot tub sunrise soundtrack.
(Not that the Scarlet>Fire wasn’t a good choice).
Anyway, I just read your post after I was looking on my music player for some Pink Floyd to go with my morning coffee today. When I put the Floyd Mini-Boxes on my music player I grouped tracks in folders according to the date played.
Just finished 12-2-68 BBC, now on 6-25-69.
A great Saturday morning palate cleanse.
Real Gone
For those who might have missed the excellent Road Trips 3.2 from 11/15/71 it is also available through Real Gone Music, looks like they are getting back on track on the re-releases of the Road Trips series. Looks like most of Road Trips from 3.2 on are available from Real Gone now, with a couple volumes sold out.
Didn’t think of that Carlo
I did listen to the Pink Floyd studio soundtrack for Zabriske Point, that was nice and mellow for my Saturday morning.
Then ran errands, with 2-24-74 Dark Star to Baby Blue as my driving music which was quite nice.
Now back on the couch with another cup of coffee as I try to caffeinate myself prior to working on some high octane beer (Hopslam specifically).
Anyone interested in some trippy lounge music?
Give this a try.
Zabriskie point
Heart beat pig meat right? There was a dead song too. I forget which one.
Dicks 33 and 36
Dick's Picks 33 and 36 are real superstars.. or more aptly, supermodel current girlfriends. Is it safe to assume we all have them? If not.. these two really shine and they are must, must have's. Both are capable of providing multiple aha moments.
As for Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast (AHM in general).. There was a period when I was flying coast to coast at least once each week for work.. always redeyes when flying East. I'm a bit of a big dude (not VGuy big, 6'4" and not super thin) and sleeping on the plane is sort of like sleeping standing up for me.. (nearly impossible). That album became my mandatory tune to pass out too.. two Nyquil's capsules, perhaps a glass of red (but alcohol usually just keeps me up) and Atom Heart Mother. This was about the time IPods first came out, before the iPhone.
To this day.. if I can't sleep, it's Atom Heart Mother but if I'm in a heady state of insomnia it might just take me to the last track to nod off (Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast). Great tripping and super stoned out music, in my humble opinion. The full symphony in the beginning, to me at least, is interesting. to this day the whole album puts me a stoned out, cough syrup, cold medicine daze frame of mind.. like if somebody asks you something and you can't quite focus enough to decode their question, they ask again.. awkward pause, you look up.. mouth open, shallow eye contact, another awkward pause and the only thing you can think of to say is, "what?" and the cycle repeats. Evidence of a misspent youth perhaps... hope I'm not the only one.
Check out Jam of the Week 10/23/73 Bloomington MN
Question for everyone, what is Keith playing, or doing, during Truckin? You can also hear it in a few of the Indy songs from this tour?? It is a very unique sound that you only hear on this October tour...
Atom Heart Mother
The song is a big favorite of mine. I know the members of Floyd feel the orchestral parts were somewhat rushed and that it didn't completely work, but for whatever reason, it's right up my alley. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast was the only track I could never get into. Summer '68 is a terribly underrated gem about a one night stand, that for some reason they never played live. Maybe it was the fact that the horns were needed, though they did some shows with a choir and orchestra for Atom Heart Mother that summer of '70...
Guess after I wrap up Winterland '73 for the first time in a few years, I'll dive back into Pink Floyd The Early Years. I wonder when we will get and what will be in the The Middle Years box. The Later Years box has little appeal to me.
Another time machine answer: on 2/14/70, The Who played Leeds University, and exactly two weeks later Pink Floyd played the same room, and where The Who played Tommy in the middle of their set, Floyd played an early version of the song then known as The Amazing Pudding. Hanging out in England for 2 weeks to catch those shows (and might as well squeeze in 2/15/70 at Hull University) would be quite the experience.
Final fun fact: Pete Townshend's first acid trip he wandered into a Floyd show at the UFO. They had a quadrophonic speaker system and visual projections, and it blew his mind.
Pete Townsend/Who....
....getting prepped to do a residence at Caesars Palace in the City Of Sin. The Who Sell Out? Perhaps, but tickets are reasonable so perhaps not? Catch them while you can. Vegas is a strange, yet beautiful beast. One of a kind.
Scored sixth row seats for the Golden Knights game tomorrow vs the LA Kings thanks to a generous co worker. For free. I might be dumb, but I'm not stupid.
Ha..
I might be dumb, but I'm not stupid. Where I come from, Senator, we call that electable. :D
I think we should all run for office.. I bet deadheads make better politicians than the talking heads running the show today.
Did a nice backcountry ski in Canaan Valley WV with my 11 year old today. Cold, I think high of 10 degrees with 35 mph wind, but once you got in the trees it was fine and in the winter where there was no winter, I will take it.. at least there was light, fluffy powder. Home.. a bit stiff, did a nice soak and thanks to I think BobT, listened to the better part of Winterland 2/24/74 soaking in the tub. Man, that is a special show. The Dark Star, sublime, the Morning Dew.. poignant and powerful, and as was mentioned the Bertha>WRS>Row Jimmy, exactly positively perfect. Perhaps my favorite Dave's Pick.
Thanks for the encouragement Bob, made for a special end to a really good day.
It looks as though tomorrow I'll do pretty much the same.
I'm just here to involve/evolve....
.....gather round.
Seriously. That's some good stuff.
Happy February 29th. An anomaly for as long as I can remember.
https://youtu.be/qttI6oytqpw
....and the jokes on you. Courtesy of The Blue Oyster Cult.
Music is The Way
BOC
I think that might have been my first live concert.. Don't remember much of it except that I was very young and that might have been the first time I smelled that much pot smoke.. What were my parents thinking, that this was ok.. I was probably a freshman in HS, this was downtown DC. I hope it was a weekend??
Good times.. but paled to the first time I saw the GD a year or so later. Three or four steps into the venue.. in a dark corner some zenster politely and quietly asked doses?? we politely, softly, yet enthusiastically asked how much.. and so it began.
Dead stories
In 1981, I hitch hiked up to Oregon from the S.F. Bay area to see the Dead. After the show in Portland, (8/15/81), I hitched down to Eugene to catch the show down there at Mcarthur Court. I arrived about 7am and the marquee on the theatre read, "An Evening With The Grateful Dead and LSD". The Dead's equipment guys were there in the morning unloading the trucks, and they were all pointing up at the marquee and laughing. The sign disappeared later in the day. Ken Kesey and his friends showed up later with the thunder machine, it turned into quite a evening. It ended out in the graveyard across the street, with fireworks blasting everywhere.
BOC
Stonking good live band back in the day. "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees" is one of the best live rock albums from the 1970s...or any era, come to that. A version of BOC is supporting a version of Deep Purple in London later this year, which is a date worth keeping. I am surprised though. If BOC are even a shadow of a band they once were, they are much too powerful to be supporting anyone.
Still off the point...that first Cactus album is superb. Incredible high energy guitar playing. In the unlikely event that you haven't heard them, Mr Ones, I highly recommend them! In the same vein as Grand Funk, and then some.
re: 10/23/73 Bloomington MN
The 'Wang Dang Doodle' Organ Jam - if memory serves me right - was actually the band and crew trying to get, what we all thought was the House's Wurlitzer, on stage and put through the PA.
This was all I could find. Looks like they wanted Keith to play some blues.
https://archive.org/details/gd1973-10-23.sbd.miller.92792.sbeok.flac16/…
Pull your car up in my driveway rider
Cut your
Bright lights
Way down low
Way Down Low
BOC
Great band, have loved them since their first lp, trippy lyrics and awesome power with killer lead guitar. Saw them in 73' right after tyranny and mutation was released. They were second on the bill which included ZZ Top (openers), BOC (original line-up), Savoy Brown (Jack the Toad had just been released) and Deep Purple headlining who had just released Who Do We Think We Are. They played both lp's and just ripped it up, blasting the crowd and whipping us into a frenzy, after it was all over, they drove a Harley up on stage and cranked it up and played the Steppenwolf classic "Born to Be Wild" as an encore that brought the house down. It was also interesting that the band had a loyal following even back then, they were all dressed in black leather, shirts and pants, had long hair and the chicks were also dressed in leather, very scantly I might add. Big fan of their first LP and Secret Treaties. The last time I saw them was at the House of Blues back in 2000, they had most of the original band back together for that tour and it was lots of fun, they did most of the first lp that night. They are on tour now but only 2 of the original members are with the band but I hear they can still tear it up. Saw on their website that they will be playing a lot of state and county fairs this year, with a stop at Bayside Stadium at Sea World Orlando for the Seven Seas Food Festival in April. Then out west for some gigs with Grand Funk (we were just talking about them) Jefferson Starship and Styx then to Las Vegas in August. Catch them if you can, sure to be a real blast from the past.
Daverock, if you liked that first Cactus lp, wait till you hear One Way of Another, most excellent, Sonic Rock they called themselves. Killer version of Long Tall Sally on that lp.
Blue Oyster Cult
Saw BOC in May of '75 at the then run-down Capitol Theater in Port Chester. The show was pretty much "On Your Feet or On Your Knees" from start to finish. Super loud in that small venue, and Buck Dharma was amazing. Oh, and by the way, the opening act was the mostly unknown Canadian trio, Rush, supporting their new album "Fly By Night". After Rush played, we all knew they were going places.
Per Carlos’ suggestion
Spinning Atom Heart Mother 180g vinyl.
Just flipped sides, and on the couch with a fresh cup of coffee (super dark roast Columbian Supremo).
“If I go insane, please don’t put your wires in my brain”
@Billy The Kid and others
...thanks for the tip on the Pigpen Zep story...Funny...As for Atom Heart Mother...wow...we went to see Pink Floyd in October of 1970 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium...we had 8th or 9th row center seats...during the first set someone in the orchestra pit stood up with his hands over his ears screaming "STOP!!!" ...it was (I believe it was during the intro to "Careful...") pretty nutz with Waters walking to the edge of the stage and trying to talk the guy down, his buddies walked him out after a bit...when Floyd came back for the 2nd set they had the orchestra and choir for Atom Heart Mother...what a fun ride home!!!
pretty good sounding boot here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vdomGLs9ug
Also around this time the bus stop bench by my house had the cover for AHM on it...the whole back of the bench was the open gatefold cover...I always wanted to go up the block in the middle of the night with some wrenches and make off with that puppy...sorry I didn't....
3/1/69
St Stephen ending> The Eleven Phil Lesh is the God of Thunder. Wow. I was gonna complain about The Eleven being short, but Phil plays so amazingly well, who cares. Dark Star has a great jam starting around 11:30. The opening That's It For The Other One is my favorite version of the whole suite. Jerry kills the extended Cryptical ending.
The Blue Oyster Cult....
....one of the first bands that I really, really got into when I was young after hearing Burning For You on the radio. Went and bought Fire Of Unknown Orgin with my allowance money. I think that was around the same time I bought Zenyatta Mondatta and Wish You Were Here. My mom used to take me to a place called Odyssey Records when i was 12-13. I remember the clerk telling her once, "Your son has excellent taste in music for being so young." Of course, he could've just been hitting on her.
By age 15, I was obsessed with heavy metal. The Dead wouldn't be a factor until age 19 or so.
Fire of Unknown Origin
Had that on cassette in freshman or sophomore year in high school, picked it up on CD recently. Good stuff, still dig that album, some gems on there. Not a huge BOC fan, just have a greatest hits and the Fire of Unknown Origin album.
As far as the Police, I still have Ghost In the Machine and Synchronicity on vinyl from the early '80s when I first started hearing the Police on the radio. Late high school, around the same time I got turned on to the Dead.
Fair Warning....
....my next last five might just include some BOC.
Charlie3. You should check out their first three releases. The black and white trilogy. Hard to pick a bad song on any of them.
Fun fact. The long island boys were originally called the Great White Underbelly. Ended up having one of the coolest logos in rock. Right up there with the SYF.
They just played here in Vegas, but it was on Feb 14th. I didn't even bother asking Mrs. Vguy if she wanted to go. Like I said earlier, I'm dumb sometimes, but I'm not stupid.
Fire of Unknown Origin
That was BOC's most recent album when I first saw them back in the early 80's. I have always liked that album, and they were great live. I remember them playing Roadhouse Blues, as well as Born to be Wild at the end.
But those first three albums, with" On Your Feet Or On Your Knees" are the best ones for me too. The last time they came to England, they played the whole of "Agents of Fortune" to begin with. That was okay, but once that was out of the way, they really let rip on the older material and blew the roof off. Deep Purple must be feeling very confident to have them as a support band.
Peer Pressure
That's what I'm going to blame when I start picking up those BOC albums. Also probably the reason that I'm finishing up listening to FW 3/1/69 after reading all of the anniversary listen comments. I think 3/1/69 and 2/27/69 are my favorite from the FW 69 box, although to be fair that could just be due to JiminMD's last listen principle. I spun 6/22/73 from the PNW box yesterday and marveled at the fact that box is still available. That show just smoked from start to finish, full of that nice jazzy, jammy '73-'74 sound.
Comes a time when you need a Shakedown Street
So I fired up 7-9-89 from that wonderful GS Box.
Used to be the ❤ of town....
....dont tell me this town ain't got no ❤. Just gotta poke around. Womp, womp, womp. Womp wa whatta womp. Lol.
Cactus Etc.
Great discussions on this thread for days and days now.
DAVEROCK-thanks for the Cactus advice. I actually picked up about 12 years ago from Rhino Handmade 2 double live cds, Cactus-"Fully Unleashed-The Live Shows". Shortly after that, Rhino HM released a Vol.2 of Fully Unleashed. So, 4 discs of Smokin' hot live Rock & Roll. I almost always prefer live to studio. Rhino did release the studio stuff too, as "Fully Contained".
Now, thanks to all you good folks, am going to try and dig out both sets. It will make my Monday work day go much smoother., and put a big smile on my face.
What to listen to is not a problem, so much as where is it, and how can I make time to listen.
People should have my problems!
Music is the best!!