Grateful Dead

@stoltzfus,

I remember the words.
Good ol' Frank was always ahead of his time!
Another hero.

Dogon, you are not alone, my tracking on the box terminated on the 28th March, and since then nothing. UPS says that the tracking number is incorrect even though it is tracked on their system until the 28th. I need to wait for 14 days before contacting Dead.net, it may well be buried under a mountain of post at Customs.
Daverock, I'm glad the guns have been packed away, scary stuff. '72 Europe, it's my intention to watch the Copenhagen concert today, I must confess that I have never watched the full show, although I did listen to the show yesterday from the Box, keep safe all.

Last tracking information from UPS was that it arrived in the Netherlands on April 2. I guess it was passed to PostNL so I don't expect to see any further updates from UPS. Unless it arrives today nothing is going to happen for a few days, this being Easter weekend. It will have to be dealt with by customs before it can get any further but surely it must be getting close.

So instead of repeating myself, I will content myself with a dig at Fogerty. The excellent Live at Woodstock album that finally came out last year took so long to see the light of day because (allegedly) Fogerty would not let it be released because he claimed the performance was poor. Its not. To then diss the Dead about their performance suggests that he is simply a serial whinger and nobody likes a moaner. Go suck another lemon, John.

Sydney Prentice,
same here, March 28 was the last UPS status saying box has arrived to Germany.
As far as I understand, box changes national to carrier Deutsche Post DHL.
DHL accepts same tracking number but says they expecting further data.
The delay probalbly has to do with the actual coronavirus situation.

(Jerry photo was taken Oct. 13, 1981, Ruesselsheim, Germany)

On the UPS Tracking site, after entering the tracking number, you can then check "shipment progress" or "shipment details". Under shipment details there is an alternative tracking number. Entering this number in the PostNL tracking site results in a message saying that I can pick up my package from a PostNL agent that is only 150m from my house and that the package has been there since last tuesday. Additionally I have to pay €36.05. The million dollar question is why did they seemingly not try to deliver it to my house (I have been home all week) or put a note in my letter box? As soon as I've finished my coffee I'm off to the PostNL agent's shop. Fingers crossed.

#4064 was indeed waiting for me at the shop round the corner. I guess the postman was either too busy or too scared to actually try and deliver it to my house. PostNL (and probably postal services everywhere) are really busy lately due to the massive increase in online purchases by people who don't dare to go to physical shops anymore.
Others should try the alternative tracking number on their postal service's site. Maybe you'll get a pleasant surprise like I just did.

Whatever. I got mine and it looks really nice.

It's amazing how hard it can sometimes be to talk these releases down out of the flux, but it's always damn well worth it. Onward!

I'm getting a bit wary of getting things delivered through the post these days. All sorts of advice knocking about as to how long the virus lives on paper/plastic.

Off the radar...5/5/77 playing as I write. I had overlooked this to the point of forgetting its existence-I was going to play 5/7/77 from the box - but this one popped out. Great first set Sugaree and Tennessee Jed. Its all good though.

Been watching it this morning!!! On the It Hurts me Too... Quick work story from the past... We were out in Boston it was 1996... I was working on a desk... trying to make it out in the field.. I left the table to go to the bathroom. I left my Walkman, yes with the foam headphones at the table. I come back and the president of the company had my walkman on... Oh I just wanted to hear what you listen to, I didn't know you like the Blues.... It Hurts me Too , from this show!! He said who is this... I said Grateful Dead... he was shocked... not that I liked the Dead, he didn't know they did songs like that... Thanks for letting me tell a story.. bob t

Good news: 1976 on the stoop around the corner!!! Although the postage import taxes are exorbitant!

Enjoy the coffee and music.

BTW (=VAT) was €23.05 and handling charge was €13.00 The first is just about acceptable, the second comes under the category of legal theft.

The description of the box set on the customs invoice was: other clothing of other textile materials. I want some of what he obviously took.

Edit: Just now I received a card informing me that my package can be collected from the agent's shop around the corner. Normally the postman puts this in your letter box if he cannot deliver the package. This card arrived by letter post suggesting that no attempt had ever been made to deliver it to my house. Strange solutions for strange times.

So I'm over on the SH Forum on an Allmans thread about that band's new 5-CD career anthology. Very little rare material if you already have a solid ABB collection, but it does have a brief Mountain Jam with personnel listed as follows:

"Mountain Jam (July 28, 1973 Watkins Glen) - approx. 12 min and very good sound quality, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Robbie Robertson as guests."

That says to me -- the eternal optimist/naive fool -- that the ABB and the GD are not oil and water and this sort of cooperation could pave the way for more releases such as 6-10-73, when ABB members played on the Dead's last set or the best of Watkins Glen, guests or not.

Waiting for, say, 2023, for a 50th anniversary reason to release is crazy. I went to those shows that summer and I'll be 63 this year, 66 in 2023. And I don't foresee having the kind of "music money" in the future that I've had in the past.

Maybe if I stamp my whiny feet and cry loudly?

I still wonder why Dave hasn't honored Pigpen by getting his personal tapes out along with Pig tracks from the early, incomplete shows that might not otherwise see the light of day. There is some great stuff on Rare Cuts & Oddities and Birth of the Dead, to be sure.

This concert footage on YouTube that everyone's talking about comes and goes, I guess because of copyright laws.

It's taken some repeat listens over the years, but I finally caught the vibe on these 1972 Other Ones. I always enjoyed The Other One theme and verses, but the Space and Meltdowns usually lost me. At first I could only fully tolerate the Deadbeat Club version. Then I caught on to Hundred Year Hall and Dave's Picks Berkeley. This year it's New Castle 4/11/72 (which BTW flows very nicely into Comes A Time). I totally get why Billy stated on The Long Strange Trip documentary that he often forgot what actual song they were playing once they got in the middle of one of those super jams - this Other One has Feelin' Groovey....but sometimes it's in Dark Star.....or in '73 it started appearing in China Cat. Of course he's not going to remember where things started, being all buzzed on weed with a head full of snow.

hendrixfreak - I've had the same thought, that the ABB release of the Watkins Glen jam w/ Jerry and Bob might reflect a reciprocal agreement has been reached between the 2 organizations that allows the Dead to release 6-10-73, whole enchilada, with Set III jam. Add in 6-9 and that would be a sweet small box, maybe a second box for this year. Posted a short comment on this a month ago or so. Love to see it - here's hoping.

I too am an optimist that a Watkin's Glen Complete Box will happen. As we all know "We are not getting any younger."

Don't Wait. Now would be exactly perfect to get to work on this one.

@simonrob
you've got it. Good! I'm still waiting.
Happy Easter

I'm on the Europe 72 bandwagon. I was just listening to Playing in the Band reprise section about as high as the car volume goes when all the sudden I heard some really really cool feedback from what I assumed was either Jerry's guitar. Then it morphed into the rest of Donna's scream. Gotta love her, truly, I am a Donna fan. Honestly I think she was just trying to sing like Janis. Somebody once said that the issue with her was not the scream itself but the volume of it, but they went on to say that the volume is only that way on the old recordings that didn't have a multi-track to turn her down in the final mix. I believe that because her voice sounds great even the screams on these Europe 72 shows. And supposedly that's the way it sounds in the concert hall through a real mixing board not a double track tape that was never intended to be released to the public. Anyways just wanted to share that funny story cuz I got a chuckle out of it when it happened and I do love Donna. Especially when she wasn't wearing a bra which was probably all the time :-)

The joyous wail never bothers me; she's just expressing exactly how we all feel when the Playin' ship returns to Planet Earth after traveling to the far reaches of outer space . . .

Hey, European deadheads,
do you experience the same?
Dark, clear blue skies, like never before? No condensation from Aircraft.
I've never seen Europe in these beautiful intense colours.
I was always fascinated by the colours and the light of the Western skies in the US.
Density of air traffic here in Europe/Gemany makes the sky usually hazy.
But now, we have surprisingly same true colours, due to aircraft shutdown.
Good for our planet and us deadheads
Keep On Trucking

Yes, its beautiful here in Lowestoft on the East coast of England at the moment. Wonderful moon the other night, too. It seems very peaceful without all the traffic. In fact, I was thinking earlier on, if you could divorce the atmosphere outside from its reason for being the way it is, you could say that it is almost idyllic. The only sound outside now is that of the birds nesting. Which sounds very musical in its own right. The world is most probably benefitting from the reduction in human activity.

is that I'm only about a month behind! Ah, but I'm catching up. Look in your rearview mirror!

As for Donna's PitB scream, I caught this in concert in '72 and '73 at large outdoor shows and in real time, it appeared to serve as a wake-up call and rouse and roil the crowd who'd mostly dosed and just put through the PitB "dream sequence." I mean, I've been to GD shows where the jamming was so intense that when it ended, there was virtually no applause. Just 10-20,000 seriously tripped out freaks wondering what had just happened. That could be PitB or another space vehicle like DS. Case in point, Jer's birthday, 8-1-73. Granted, we're all crispy from the Glen ~3 days prior and the show the night before. They play DS and segue into El Paso, I think. (This is NOT from memory, but from the setlists, though I clearly remember them breaking out some 'ordinary' song in the middle of a spacey jam.) They glide out of interstellar space into like West Texas and with the closing chord returned to intergalactic travel. With the music that loud and with its momentum, we were putty in their hands. I recall looking at my companions like "what just happened?" and then a series of doors slammed shut behind us and we had no opportunity to ponder. A great Prankster technique they adopted to simply obliterate any sense of sequential time. It almost sounds cheesy or contrived on paper, but man they pulled those moves off like great magicians.

Gotta love that band. I always thought that if Jer seriously objected to Donna's screams he'd have put the kibosh on 'em. He didn't. And she sang in one version of his own band, which I think included Kreutzman, Keith, Donna, John Kahn and someone on keys. Might have been spring '76. Terrific way to misspend my youth.

who thinks that Jer's slow ballads on GD '76 box sound pretty freakin' close to the feel of his solo band at the time? (I.e., spring '76?)

Diggin' 6-15 right now.

Nah!

Put Don't Let It Go, Jer 24 May 1976, on the burner. Call me. Jer/May '76 > Jer/GD/June '76.

It came to me in a dream.

Watching now, starts off with some grease.

Needs to be included in the American Beauty / Working Man’s 50th Box.

I think that you are experiencing the intended effect of the June 76 Box.

Happened to listen to 6-15 myself earlier tonight.

Yeah, I was digging through a box of DVD-R’s tonight, so last 3

7-12-76 soundcheck (playing now)
8-30-70
10-9-89 disc 2 (tuning thru Drums)

So Dave, about this 7-12-76 soundcheck I’m watching. Is that in the vault? Got the whole show?

....thats the one with the St. Stephen -> NFA -> Stella Blue and the purple art correct? (checks box) Why yes. Yes it is. I think we accidentally decided Sunday's Listen Of The Day.

Mentioned on here recently. I haven't played that for a while, but I listened to Vancouver 6/29/66 the other day, which came out on cd with the remastered first album a few years ago, and as record store day release on vinyl a bit later. Its a great album. It sounds like a different band from the one in I had just been listening to in the Europe 72 box. With one salient difference- Pigpen ( to my ears) sounds exactly the same ! The highlight of this album, for me, though is the "Cream Puff War". Pity they dropped it so soon.

Thanks for the heads up about 8/30/70. On the one hand I want to say I've never seen it; on the other hand, the red slider bar on YouTube indicates I watched the entire thing at some point. I love the Gibson SG Jerry used in this video. As far as I know it's all he used in '69 / '70 (and probably earlier). I have a feeling it was the guitar that brought us Beautiful Song on 2/18/71 as well. In Jerry's hands it had this distictive half blues / half rock / half baked tone that was.....well to me, invocative of Townshend's idealized "one note" (at least that's the way I envision the one note; this is a reference to Lifehouse's Pure and Easy, which among other things alluded to the search for a undiscovered note that is THE note of all creation, the note that all musicians subconsciously seek). But I'm getting sidetracked - the point is that the tone Jerry evoked from the Gibson SG shined brightly when he soloed in the upper registers: St. Stephen => The Eleven transition 1969; Dark Star 5/15/70 at the 15 minute mark; Dark Star 9/19/70 around the 13 minute mark; and I would bet somebody else's left nut it's still the SG on 2/18/71 during that Dark Star, Pt. 2 (aka "Beautiful Song"). Maybe that's the night he used it for the last time. Maybe after Mickey left he didn't need a loud guitar to cut through two tight snares.

Anyway Happy Easter. I left this morning's choice up to the power that be: I put the whole Dead library from 30 Trips '67 - Jan 10th, 1979 on shuffle play.
Some high-quality audio sound boards are included in this mix that I shuffled. The song was soundboard Bird Song 10/2/72 (aka Spaced Out in Springfield, complete with skeleton space suit moon landing cover art). And now it shuffled along to Dark Star 5/23/72, which is absolutely fantastic, transitions into a morning dew, and still somehow gets largely overlooked that's one of the upper echelon DS's.

Oh.... I think the Easter Bunny came......it appears he forgot his roach clip..... better tuck that away before the Easter egg hunt starts.

The powers to be guided me this morning to 10/9/82!!! Favorite audience tape!!! I have to listen to it over the soundboard!! I have all the shouts and screams memorized especially from Set II.. Throwing Stones>Touch of Grey so cool..... bob t

9/17/82 is also a great audience recording, with some song debuts and no Brent vocals because he did not have a microphone onstage for unknown reasons. Probably the best Dead show I attended.

I didn't like them at all - until I saw video from that TV studio on the E72 tour and I could SEE what she was doing. It suddenly made sense to me. Her wails were completely from the heart, and charming in that way. So I try to cut her a lot of slack these days.

I kid you not, I was watching 8-30-70 yesterday as well, starting with my man on Easy Wind.

And I said to myself, "Man, they outta include this in a 50th box."

I'll skip the "strike me dead if I'm lyin'" part for obvious reasons, but it happened.

EDIT: Vguy, only made it to the end of the first disc. This show really grooves after the opening "Promised," in the way that 6-10 grooves. Embarking on the Saint Stephen tonight.

It's 34 degrees and snowing here in Saint Paul, Minnesota . . .

Listened to disc 3 of 4/8/72 (Wembley) last night for the first time (with Fuller's London Porter in hand), so that I could get to 4/11/72 (Newcastle) on its birthday (with Newcastle in hand). Ms. Brewer usually wants us to watch "the telly" after the boys are in bed, but last night she insisted that I go to the listening room and get caught up on the Europe tour. What a partner! I had explained my E72 plan to her a week back, and she's been checking in to see if I'm keeping up on my tour.

Bottom line--I HAD written in my notes that D2 from 4/7/72 (Truckin'-->Other One-->Wharf Rat) might be the best hour of Dead EVER, but then I wrote that same remark AGAIN for the Dark Star-->Sugar Mag-->Caution from 4/8/72! One of the things I love about 1972 is that they somehow find their inner 1968 again from time to time, all while deeply rocking the cornucopia of songs pouring forth.

February 18, 1971 was the last time I saw Jerry play his Gibson SG. The following nights he played one of his two Alembic experimental “peanut” guitars. Keith fan, very observant to pick that up by ear.

Hendrixfreak mentioned the JGB: Kreutzman, Keith, Donna, John Kahn
Made me think of this odd 1981 JGB gig in Fairfax, in a very small venue billed as Jerry's birthday; lotsa' pretty rowdy locals running around smashing pieces of cake in each other's face.
Also unusual, was Phil sitting in on bass instead of John Kahn, and John Cippolina manning the soundboard.

Hi. I received my June 1976 box here in Ticino, Switzerland, on 4/8/2020, three weeks after shipping date. Had to pay CHF 30 and waited 48 hours before opening it, but it was worth the waiting (and the additional payment)!

I am glad that I am not in Minnesota. It sounds like being on "The Russian Front" even in May. Cold, cold, cold. Upper 50s might get to low 60s fahrenheit here in New York City. The sun was out this morning and the weather looked great but the clouds have rolled in.

Happy Easter and Passover to those who are observant of them.

Yes, Daverock in south France too, big blue sky and black birds singing in the garden. The first big difference after one week quarantine as I went walking for bread, it smells differently, no oil in the air...in Marseille as the fishermen stop activties orcas go nearer to the coast and I saw a picture of North India where they can see again the Himalaya Mountains wich did not happen for 30 years!
Did you receive your box? I am still waiting, here it comes by mail service usually. I am afraid everything stay in storage somewhere. and this the right time to listen to June 76...Today barbequeue for two, when we usually are 10or 20 for Easter,
Stay safe home evererybody.

I also saw pictures of the Himalaya as seen from the plains of north India. I had also seen a photo in the online edition of the Kathmandu Post, taken from a hill above Kathmandu, where the mountains on the border with Tibet could be clearly seen. I could compare it to a photo I took from a similar hilltop location last november. In that picture one couldn't even see as far as the edge of the city, let alone the high Himalaya. The Kathmandu Post photo brought back memories because I had seen those mountains from Kathmandu in the 1980's but rarely since then. Kathmandu is now one of the most polluted cities in the world, or it was a month ago. Just goes to show how rapidly things improve if people are taken out of the equation.

Sheik...I haven't ordered this box...as yet. I notice other people in Europe have received theirs though, so hopefully you won't have to wait much longer for yours.
Hope you enjoyed the barbecue-it sounds good where you live.

I think this song was a classic psychedelic tune that was in line with other songs like 'pigeon toed orange peel' and the moody blues 'legend of a mind'. I wonder why this tune faded away.

Anyway what already came with june 76 is very good; Dave P28 Passaic, and Rtrips from Boston 6/9 wich is my favorite of the RT serie. I have a soundboard of Beacon 14/6, It seems like Jerry vs Keith, one channel each, like the two drummers, and Bobby between both! The piano seems a bit high in this mix but Keith is so good. At this time Jerry plays more swing than "mean" guitar. Sure many people in Europe received their box so I am not really in hurry now. I just listen to other box like 78, and I am not sure there is a show in the new box that will shadow Red Rock 7/8 in term of energy.
Yes it is a nice place to live here, temperature up to 80 Farenheit yesterday.
stay safe reading & listening good old gd.

..and The Golden Road for that matter. Agree. The strength of the guitar work in that song, wow.. it does stand on it's own.

I think I read or perhaps listened to a Garcia interview at some point where they talk about those songs why they don't play them anymore and Jerry said something to the effect that those songs don't work anymore, that they fit the time they were played but things are different. ...something to that effect.

Too bad.. I got to see it with Further and I think once with Phil.. Widespread Panic has played it the most. All these later incarnations are bittersweet, would have liked to see the Good Ole Grateful Dead play it a few times too.

A tip of the glass to Bear I guess.. we owe a lot in that era to him.

The one played at FTW 7/4 was really fun.

Not getting played. I think the band is kind of embarassed by those songs.

Golden Road, IIRC, is a song they threw together quickly after the record company told them they did not hear a strong single from the songs on the debut album.

I remember hearing Jerry describe himself as a "jive" lyricist once. I think he viewed his lyrics as such and thus did not to play those tunes much/ever.

I can also remember Weir saying something along the lines of it taking him a bit to realize words/lyrics could be more than merely a handle with which to carry a tune.

Anyway, it just seems to me the band felt those early non-Hunter lyrics (Golden Road, Cream Puff, Born Cross-Eyed, etc) were pretty thin/nada and stopped playing that stuff pretty quickly.

Other than Caution and Cryptical/Other One, I cannot think of one Garcia/Weir original lyrics that lasted much more than a year: Mindbender, Only Time is Now, Can't Come Down, Cardboard Cowboy, Standing on the Corner, Tastebud, You Don't Have to Ask, Cream Puff, Golden Road, Born Cross-Eyed).

New Potato lasted a couple years, but that was a Peterson tune (like Unbroken Chain).

Man, this box is great. I just started a new workweek here in the man-cave. I am so lucky to be able to work from home. And jam the dead at above office-level volumes. Set I of 6-11-76 is playing right now and it sounds so good. I just get the feeling that they're happy to be back with fewer constraints - no longer lugging around the WoS and having a year to recharge and get away from everyone and everything. It just sounds like they're really relaxed and taking their time, and this spirit really comes through in the jams.

I love that tune
as well as Mindbender
and Can't Come Down
and Cream Puff War
and Early Morning Rain

Yes