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
Oo! Oo! Mr. Kotter!
"Great snakes" is from 4/22/71!!!
Another show from Acid Month!
Better Call Saul
I'm about half through the current season (5) and it is as good as the past seasons. On a GD note, I have be relistening to Jerry Garcia Band from Winter- Spring 1980. The After Midnight>Eleanor Rigby>After Midnight is as good as it gets. I think I like the early March 1980 from The Stone versions better than the official release from Keane College. The Oswego 2/17/80 show is excellent and I just love The Positively 4th Street.
Something different
Anyone check out Zorn's Gnostic Preludes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BS_yx-Wfs8
Some relaxing tunes with an interesting lineup that really works well - Bill Frisell on guitar, Kenny Wollensen on Vibes and Carol Emanuel on harp.
Vinnie Stoltz with the win ...
... but you forgot to claim your prize by going with one of your own. Slow Dog stepped in and claimed it for you though!
And the answer to that one would be none other than Bobby introducing Truckin at the Academy of Music on 3/21/72!
That makes it my turn again:
"Hey hey y'all up on the balcony, the management has requested that you kindly don't hang off there"
This Whole Thing
"This whole this is a fraud. We're really clever androids."
Stage Banter:
...who
....where
...when
- Sixtus
Studio albums
Keith...its what we listened to in the 70s. I still think Anthem is amazing - one of the definitive albums of its era. It still sounds great to me. The original mix is the one-but the remixed one is worth hearing too.
The other one that stands out for me is Blues For Allah, with honourable mentions for the first and Aoxomoxoa-the original mix. The remixed version of that one always sounded very flat to me.
And American Beauty, too, of course. Beautiful album - although I haven't played it for a year or two.
Re: Clever Androids
Phil, Watkins Glen, 1973-07-27 just before Birdsong.
Do I get a prize?
Edit: Crap, cone kid beat me to the punch.. "Missed it by that much."
Wilfred for the win! And Vguy too - why not!
But you didnt claim your prize .... Sixtus did though!
Edit: missed it by that much more!
Icecream gets it. I'm going with 8-6-74 for that one Icecream but I am not totally sure so I am not going to claim the prize.
They are coming too fast to keep up!
Deadvikes - you're were right on my quote but I retracted it because after I posted I saw that Icecream got it before I did. It's free for all fun though so 35 points to you too!
8-6-74 is correct
But I didn’t have the words as Bob actually spoke them.
There might be a barbed wire comment on Big Rock Pow Wow Road Trips too.
Whats the difference between a hippo and a zippo?....
....one is really heavy, and the other one is a little lighter.
ba-dum-dum-tshhhh
Here's a fun quote but it is actually in the song
Phil says after "what a long strange trip it's been", Howard Cosell said that!!! good luck Bob t
Keith Europe '72
A couple of people asked about my "great piano controversy of Europe '72" comment. Keith is low or inaudible on most of the shows in the box set. I noticed it as I began picking up these shows back in 2014 one at a time. To be clear, he's just fine in the mix on the previously released E72 material on Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead and Rockin' The Rhein. Hundred Year Hall not so much.
But let's forego subjectivity and go with empirical observation, as this is the cornerstone of the scientific method.
The best way to "show" you what you're not hearing on a large part of the E72 box set is to have you compare Greatest Story Ever Told from Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead with the E72 box set version, which is on the 5/7 Bickershaw Festival show. On the box set version, there is some banter about fireworks at the beginning of the track before they go into the song, so the time stamps we're going to compare are different, but they're the same parts of the song.
On the E72 box set 5/7/72 Bickershaw GSET, you can hear Jerry fiddling with the wa wa pedal at the 1:30 mark, and then Phil launches into the song. After the first "left-handed monkey wrench" verse, there's an instrumental break from 2:47 - 3:10. Notice there is no piano whatsoever in that 23 second clip. Now fast forward to the "cool clear water well you can't ever tell" verse from 4:09 - 4:32. Hear any piano? Me neither.
Now go to the Steppin' Out version, which is the same recording (Disc 1, track 2). The firework banter is removed from the beginning, so the time stamps are different as I mentioned, but rest assured, it's the same performance, as stated in the liner notes (and you can still hear Jerry fiddle with the wa wa pedal, which he doesn't do on any other E72 version of GSET). If you go to the same spot after the first "left-handed monkey wrench" verse, which runs from 1:13 - 1:36, you are now listening to the same 23 second instrumental break, but voila! There is a kick-ass mother f****n' piano solo from the man with God in his name, rolling down the keys at the end of it all because he OWNED that 23 seconds. Then again after "cool clear water well you can't ever tell" verse from 2:34 - 2:57, you'll hear the same thing happen (literally ;-)
So....it was Rockin' The Rhein and Sunshine Daydream that MADE me KeithFan2112. Imagine popping on 4/7/72 and barely being able to tell there's a piano player in the band. Grrrr. Now interestingly, they appear to have used at least disc 3 from the Rockin' The Rhein version IN the E72 box set. I know this because Sugar Magnolia appears here, which is THE performance that made me a Dead Head, so I listened to the two side by side and believe me, I would notice if as much as an audience cheer was missing. The only difference besides the removal of the 5/24 bonus tracksis the place in the middle of the medley where they put the track separator for Wharf Rat; the mix itself is identical (I would bet my own left nut on this one). I am reasonably sure the whole E72 show was culled from the Rockin' The Rhein mix, but a fellow poster here believes only discs 3 & 4.
Regardless, what I find adds insult to injury for my boy Keith, is that the E72 liner notes taut his performance on 4/24 as though he had an exceptional night setting the keys on fire; the fact of the matter is he plays like that every night but simply can't be heard on half the set. When you listen to the Rhein version of Dark Star, it makes me shudder to think what we may be missing from the box set versions.
I gave one example, but it's pretty pervasive. There are spots that aren't as bad. Today's 4/17 show has a fairly loud Keith, as did yesterday's. But take a showpiece like Playing In The Band and compare most of these E72s to Veneta, Houston, or Berkeley (or really most of the two-tracks from the latter half of '72), and you'll hear the difference.
This was all bitched about at length when The E72 Complete Recordings were released:
You Guys Are Good
Clever Androids...that's always been a fav of mine; it's said with such whimsy.
I'm impressed (but not surprised) how good This Collective is at the game.
"I'm moving to Australia"
Sixtus
Clever Androids
And I just listened to that the other day, crap.
I have the whole 8/6 show on Soundboard, and the quality was good, so I uploaded it to my phone a few years ago, suited it up with some album art and titled it the exact verbiage, "Don't Climb on the Fence Idiot!"
Red Rocks 78 Sixtus
Don’t remember which night.
And I certainly don’t know what was meant by that comment.
Aussie Bobby
That's 7/8/78 just before they launch into the big second set jam.
How about this one: "Hey wait a minute, wait a minute, one of the tahrs did already fall down so I'd like you to cool it from the wahrs and the tahrs. Just dont mess with the wahrs and the tahrs and things is gonna be just fine."
So close, yet so far from Gainesville
Week of April 20-26, 2020
Welcome back to the Tapers’ Section, where this week we have Grateful Dead music from 1973, 1979, and 1980.
Our first stop this week is from the Dead’s only show in the west Texas town of El Paso, on 11/23/73, where we have Eyes Of The World ; Around And Around > Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad > Casey Jones, Johnny B. Goode.
Next is the opening of the second set from the Dead’s 11/25/79 show at UCLA, where we have this terrific sequence of Shakedown Street> Bertha; Looks Like Rain ; He's Gone > The Other One.
Lastly this week we have the start of the second set from the opening night of a four show tour of Florida and Georgia. These were the first shows after the three-set extravaganzas at the Warfield and Radio City Music Hall in September-October 1980. From 11/26/80 in Pembroke Pines, FL, we have Cold Rain And Snow; Samson And Delilah ; China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider > Estimated Prophet >Eyes Of The World > Space.
Be safe, and check back with us here next week for more music from the vault.
David Lemieux
https://www.dead.net/features/tapers-section/april-20-26-2020
Bob T's stumper
I don't know when Howard Cosell may have said that or when Phil says Howard said it. My guess is that it was during the Heineken years though.
Dimensionally transcendental- Playing
Dennis - yes, I like that. I am also reminded of the last two lines from Box of Rain-"Such a long long time to be gone/And a short time to be there."
Bobby's travelling alligator comment
In the days when everyone was requesting Alligator, it was standard shenanigans when Bobby tells the Radio City Music Hall crowd it's not a request; there's a real alligator between rows double E and double F.
But then the other night I was listening to one of the Europe 72 shows. Somebody must have hollered for Alligator, and he starts talking about the alligator in New York between rows double E and double F. He's not nearly that entertaining now.....
Wadeocu.... another hint to help with Howard Cosel
The year was 2 years before the Thrilla in Manila!!! bob t
Hey Daverock
I just read your comment about how those Studio records or what you listen to Back Then. Yeah I'm driving that's why all the capital letters are coming up in spelling mistakes. Anyway I'm sure I would have loved those Grateful Dead records, probably to the point where I think I would have followed the band around. I posted my concert history of just Spectrum shows not so long ago, which was just a drop in the bucket. And there were repeat concerts with repeat setlists all over the place for bands like yes and rush and The Who. If I encountered the Grateful Dead when I was 18 years old and live dead it just come out. Forget it, I would just be in a coma at this point. Probably a blessing in disguise. Eventually I'll get into the studio records but for now I am in all in listener and I'm just still working on the live 60s and 70s, and they keep me infused with it like an IV.
Something like
Bobby- "Its what they call in music circles as a cheater." Jerry-"Its the vulgate." Something like that.
Keith's "too-low-in-the-mix" piano on the Euroupe 72 Complete
I remember signing up for The Europe 72 Complete Box Set when it was announced. . .. And then came the production "hiccups." It was clear way back then that corners had been cut due to underestimating the cost of delivering what they were selling. The productions values were compromised from what I remember reading on the forums back then.
Having said all of the above, what was the cause of Keith's piano becoming so low in the mix? As noted by KeithFan here there are single releases of those same shows, Steppin' Out, Rockin the Rhein, that do have keith's piano just exactly perfect in the mix. Does anyone here remember what went wrong back then?
Maybe GD.net should remix them and show Keith some respect!!! And then mail the new mixes on silver pressed cds to those of us who bought the Big Steamer Trunk back then? I guess I will not hold my breath . . .. Still I love that big box set and all these releases.
as heard during 'Dead Air'
Bob: 'Jerry with his acute sense of timing is going to light up another cigarette before this next number. Hopelessly strung out on the evil weed, tobacco' Phil butts in: 'Haven't you wished that someone would invent a cigarette that would go out as soon as you've taken one puff of it and put it down? I know I have.'
I heard a great Bobby quip today
during a virgin listen to a show
I will relisten and post
See if yall can get it
Two palate cleanse recommends
both by the band Sleep
Holy Mountain
Dopesmoker
Do _you_ have what it takes to listen to all of Dopesmoker in one listening?
Jim, 9-18-87
“Just as soon as my little buddy over here gets his act together”
Alligator
I haven't read through all the older posts, surely the Alligator stories from AMC came up..
Something Daverock wrote got me thinking.. I took a little soak this morning, a quickie.. and got in the Terrapin>PITB from Arrowhead, 7/1/78. It was just another Playing in the Band.. but in just under 9 minutes they made it to Jupiter and back, in time for dinner. Quintessential Grateful Dead, just like every PITB they ever did.
Edit: For the record, those Spring 72 versions might just be the high water mark.
This Next Set
This next set is respectively dedicated to all the little mice and rats who are trapped in labs and factories all over the world.
If you can come up with this one, several gold stars and a cheers to you!
Different versions and sound on Europe 72
Very illuminating posts on the sound of the different Europe 72 releases, and Keith's relative placing in the mix. It never occurred to me that the earlier releases could be superior to the ones on the box. I haven't listened to them since the box came out. Those archive posts were interesting, too.
Jim..I am also thinking that the these Europe 72 Playing's could be my favourite versions. Genuinely exploratory, and a perfect example of the music playing the band. I would also say that these first sets and finale's seem to be played more in the spirit of rock n' roll...as in 1950s style...than in any era before or after.
To Jupiter I Go
May this trip have not been oversold :D
I love the Spring PITBs as much as the next guy...but are Summer and Fall not the exact same thing but longer? I come from a mind set where anything worth doing is worth overdoing. I don't really sense a change in style or sound in latter '72, just PITB jam length. Summer / Fall '72 brings us the esteemed 18 minute 8/27 Veneta version, the 25 minute 11/18 Houston meltfest, the 17 minute 8/25 Berkeley performance (which I think gives Veneta a serious run for its money); and it been some time since I put on the 30 minute juggernaut from Dave's Picks Trip to Oz (you know the name, look up the number ;-).....okay, I just finished that one up and immediately repeated. It is indeed The Odyssey from Oklahoma. Don't think for a second 30 minutes means it's overcooked.
Yes, I'm now back from Jupiter and it was well worththe trip.. That Terrapin => Playing In The Band from Arrowhead delivered the goods Jimbo, and then some (Estimated => Other One => Wharf Rat).
Donna fan I am, but I wish she sat out of the post-hiatus Wharf Rats. There's something in the solitude of Jerry's lone voice that brings the lyrical content to life. August West was having a personal moment in the story that took form in a vocal soliloquy. Adding a second singer, any singer, turns those verses into an ensemble and zaps me right off that dock and back on to my couch.
Whew, that Wharf Rat thing's been on my mind a while.... "Bariste! Another French Roast please!" (do I tell her several buttons have come loose and I can see her breasts when she leans over to add the cream and sugar?) Taking sip and placing mug back on table. "One more spoonful of cream please, and just a small dash of sugar at a time if you would; I don't like it too sweet." I probably shouldn't embarrass her about the buttons......