Dave’s Picks Volume 34: Jai Alai Fronton, Miami, FL 6/23/74

Back to product page

Post reply Log in to post comments

April 21, 2020 - 9:32am

2,197 replies

clayv

Joined:
March 14, 2018

"To my ears, the best Dead shows are those that not only fit the criteria that make them amongst the best of a year, but that are also completely unique for their era—shows that fit perfectly into their year of performance, but also fall somewhat outside of the norm for that year. Harpur College, Veneta, Cornell, Cape Cod, and Augusta are all shows that are objectively excellent, and if they are not the best from their respective years of performance, they are certainly unique. Miami 6/23/74 falls into that category: not only one of the very best shows from this outstanding year, but also one of the most interesting and unique. It’s certainly worthy of many, many deep listens." - David Lemieux

¡Ándale, ándale! ¡Arriba, arriba! We're back with a hot one from Miami, F-L-A. DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 34 features the complete show from the Jai Alai Fronton, 6/23/74, one with unparalleled sound quality due in equal parts to the Wall Of Sound and the beautiful sonic clarity of Kidd Candelario's tapes. The first set is chock full of dynamite takes on classics like "Ramble On Rose," "Mississippi Half-Step," and "Cumberland Blues." The second set delivers on the JAMS - one leading into a gorgeous "Ship Of Fools," one rare instrumental version of "Dark Star," and a "Spanish Jam," this is Miami after all! The show also offers up a "first" and an "only" - the former, a Seastones set featuring Phil and Ned Lagin and the latter, the sole Grateful Dead performance of Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock."

Limited to 22,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOL.34: JAI ALAI FRONTON, MIAMI, FL 6/23/74 has been mastered from the 7.5 IPS reel-to-reel tapes to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman. ¡Agarrarlo mientras esta calientito! (Get it while it's hot!)

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

Subscribed to Dave's Picks? With this release, you'll also get a bonus disc with selections from Miami 6/22/74. Excellente!

Comments

sort by

Recent

Recent Oldest A to Z Z to A

Reset

May 9, 2020 - 1:20pm

#1451

FiveBranch

Joined:
October 2, 2014

An enjoyable time this…

An enjoyable time this afternoon with the second set. Dark Star Jam goes much deeper and further than I was expecting. Dark Star *lite* it is not! High point of the listen was Jerry searing the heck out of Spanish Jam. Killer. Made me think of the Donna quote about how GD is not benign. Out of curiosity I threw in DaP #2 7/31/74 for comparison. In context, of course (Truckin’>MLBJ>Spanish Jam). But I suppose you really can’t place Spanish Jams side by side because each is always going to be unique to their particular placement.

As to the Bonus Disc, Playing is a great addition to the collection. For the rest, they sound a bit out of sync with one another. Very unlike the 23rd.
May 9, 2020 - 12:57pm

#1452

Oroborous

Joined:
June 19, 2007

Re: AJS & Sir James

Ah, the good old bad days! Lol. Too funny, reminds me of Hartford 83.
So this guy Tim we know works with his grandfather at his repo business. The shows rapidity approach and none of us losers has a safe enough car to make the trip. (Hell some of us still didn’t have a car yet at all). So Tim some how says we can use this giant Chrysler New Yorker that’s been repoed from some third rate Bills player. Of course being young, dumb and desperate (hey, the dead will make you do stupid things sometimes) we never consider legal ramifications of using a repossessed vehicle for our own insidious highly illegal adventures, ahem, but I digress.
So here we are cruising in style across the NYS Thruway thinking how cool we are, and how if we don’t push it, no cops are going to shadow this luxurious grandpa car, and the day is going well except were running a tab behind schedule, not late, just behind schedule. We even find a big roach in the ashtray that we of course spark right up, hey why not, our luck is through the roof so roll with it right? Well by the time we get to like Albany the cars acting weird? It’s running but eventually it won’t get out of second gear (auto transmission). So things are starting to get weird and not in a good way. Increasingly, my old buddy your moving much to slow indeed! Of course all five of us are let’s say not in the best of condition to be dealing with such problems etc. So we just soldier on: “hey, if we can just make it there, we’ll deal with it later”....
Now in those days we were anal about trying to drop exactly an hour before they started playing, which meant guessing when that would actually be, 14 minutes late, 20, ? certainly never saw em start early, maybe on time, but never early..So we know we’re going to be cutting it close getting there, especially cause we hit traffic in this giant turtle etc., so after much deliberation finally decide to drop. First time I believe doing red sweethearts my all time favorite; “made with only the finest ingreadients” and our source was getting it like week old fresh etc. Very clean and enjoyable.
Finally we’re almost there, but late and more traffic and freaking out as things are already getting too interesting, but we’re not sure where to go or park, and forget about finding a hotel now, so we end up just pulling into the venue/mall?...some structure just to get there NOW!
Well ended up getting in and gettin off just in time, like a perfectly coreagraphed water ballet! and having one of my best shows ever, even better than St Steve’s the next night. But of course the show must end so now here we are, 5 hopelessly stoned teenagers, with no clue, little money, and a probably illegal car that barely moves. Well some brave bastard decides he’ll try to drive us to get a motel. So off we go but can’t find anything, and freaking out as the car won’t do more than about 30-35 and now we’re on the interstate and just like that basically in the country and no relief in sight. So what to do? ....back to the dirt lot near the venue where Tim sleeps in the large front seat, I get back seat due to? Senority maybe? So that leaves Opium, Burnout and Druggles out in the cold. Not sure where 2 ended up but I know my cousin opium joe ended up sleeping in the bushes of some downtown office building. Mere steps from morning foot traffic and no one the wiser! His accommodations must have agreed with him because he stayed there again in 87 lol, while we hung in the park all night.
Well luckily nobody/cops etc messed with us that night or we’d of been totally fucked. Next day we eventually find transmission place: “sorry, completely booked etc” and we have like zero extra money, and it’s a repossessed car for fugs sake. But we get him to at least take a look. Says “some kind of seal/leak just keep putting in transmission fluid and you might make it home”.
At this point we say screw the motel etc we’ll just leave after the show and crawl through the night and hope we don’t lure some board ass trooper trolling for idiots like us.
Well turns out the second night is a real Bobbie Dazzler too, complete with second St Stephen since 79 etc, and though I don’t recall much of the long/slow ride home we obviously made it and nothing happened. Did find out later that it was something stupid with the car and if any of us dumb ass children had a clue we wouldn’t have had to go through all that, but hey, sometimes the shows that had the most adversity turned out to be the best. Like the gods were testing us, or making us earn it?

Little Rich: May the four winds blow you safely home” thanks for all you did!
May 9, 2020 - 12:52pm

#1453

Cousins Of The…

Joined:
September 10, 2009

Daverock

The Girl Can't Help It is unavailable on DVD in the US, as far as I know...although I heard it may be included in a Jayne Mansfield box set.
Some clips are on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqz6Y9aHGIQ
May 9, 2020 - 12:31pm

#1454

carlo13

Joined:
April 26, 2017

Bob

This Dap *ucking kicks ass. The first disk rocks and that row Jimmy, let it rock,and cumberland makes me feel like I'm at the old keg parties we used to have. Also the pics. from doc are sweet.
May 9, 2020 - 12:20pm

#1455

bob t

Joined:
November 21, 2007

Carlo13

Good to hear!!! I am on my 3rd listen!! bob t
May 9, 2020 - 11:59am

#1456

carlo13

Joined:
April 26, 2017

10353 arrived

Wow, crystal clear sound. Only on first disk. Thanks dead.net. cardboard box is much better.
May 9, 2020 - 11:20am

#1457

daverock

Joined:
September 1, 2014

So did I.

Like Little Richard-a total blast. I have just been listening to my old (comparatively) 1980s comp on Ace Records, "His Greatest Recordings" and that original version of Keep A Knockin' still sounds like one of the most demented records ever made.
Great clips of him in the film "The Girl Can't Help It." The first 5 minutes of the film are definitive-where a middle aged Tom Ewell starts pontificating on the new music, and is drowned out by a Little Richard record and gets surrounded by kids jiving. There is also a great shot of him miming to one of his records in a very white middle class looking night club. The crowd are politely clapping along and tapping their feet-and Little Richard just goes nuts. Must be on youtube.
May 9, 2020 - 8:40am

#1458

icecrmcnkd

Joined:
October 20, 2015

Lemmy liked Little Richard

https://youtu.be/9rnZriMDlx4

So did Dave Grohl, he mentions it in a Lemmy documentary.
May 9, 2020 - 8:38am

#1459

Vguy72

Joined:
June 29, 2007

RIP....

....Little Richard.
May 9, 2020 - 8:21am

#1460

Cousins Of The…

Joined:
September 10, 2009

RIP Little Richard

Good Golly!

John Perry Barlow

John Perry Barlow

Forums

Dead Store Products

"To my ears, the best Dead shows are those that not only fit the criteria that make them amongst the best of a year, but that are also completely unique for their era—shows that fit perfectly into their year of performance, but also fall somewhat outside of the norm for that year. Harpur College, Veneta, Cornell, Cape Cod, and Augusta are all shows that are objectively excellent, and if they are not the best from their respective years of performance, they are certainly unique. Miami 6/23/74 falls into that category: not only one of the very best shows from this outstanding year, but also one of the most interesting and unique. It’s certainly worthy of many, many deep listens." - David Lemieux

¡Ándale, ándale! ¡Arriba, arriba! We're back with a hot one from Miami, F-L-A. DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 34 features the complete show from the Jai Alai Fronton, 6/23/74, one with unparalleled sound quality due in equal parts to the Wall Of Sound and the beautiful sonic clarity of Kidd Candelario's tapes. The first set is chock full of dynamite takes on classics like "Ramble On Rose," "Mississippi Half-Step," and "Cumberland Blues." The second set delivers on the JAMS - one leading into a gorgeous "Ship Of Fools," one rare instrumental version of "Dark Star," and a "Spanish Jam," this is Miami after all! The show also offers up a "first" and an "only" - the former, a Seastones set featuring Phil and Ned Lagin and the latter, the sole Grateful Dead performance of Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock."

Limited to 22,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOL.34: JAI ALAI FRONTON, MIAMI, FL 6/23/74 has been mastered from the 7.5 IPS reel-to-reel tapes to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman. ¡Agarrarlo mientras esta calientito! (Get it while it's hot!)

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

Subscribed to Dave's Picks? With this release, you'll also get a bonus disc with selections from Miami 6/22/74. Excellente!

Nappy/Bear’s Sonic Journals

NAPPYRAGS, so happy to hear your good news!! There’s so much cancer going on in my tiny circle of friends, it’s frightening. I’ve lost 1, another has months to live, and a 3rd is doing well. I love to hear good news!!
Also, thanks for the hot tip on Bear’s Sonic Journals. I’m on it!!
Lastly, I was going through and playing some Janis Joplin cds recently, and was quite surprised to see that the 1968 Carousel Ballroom show released in 2012 states at the top: Bear’s Sonic Journals Presents....so that’s yet ANOTHER B’s SJ to collect. It also comes with rather strange instructions on speaker placement to enhance your listening pleasure. Crappy cover art, but a nice photo in the gatefold.
Less than 48 hours to go, my skin’s getting clammy & I feel nauseous......

Sorry Billy but

I forgot to mention the Cody releases on the 24th of this month...

Nappy Rags/ Comander Cody

I bought two copies, one for me and one for my brother. July 24th is right around the corner, lots of great music coming soon, two Garcia# 14s , two WMD next week, and a Dave's Pick from 9/20/70 or 10/9/82 on August 1st. What a great time!

Cowbell = Dark Star

The Christopher Walken cowbell skit from SNL. Replace cowbell with Dark Star and that's where I'm at. I got a FEVER. And the only cure is more Dark Star. 8/30/69.

Nappy rags-congratulations !

You mentioning your scan reminds me of one I had done about 12 years ago. It was amazing looking on the screen - I never knew it, but it seems I have a psychedelic light show inside my body. And there was me thinking it was all in my mind.
Talking of cellos, 50 years after the event I got round to buying Mick Farren's "Mona (The Carnivorous Circus) last week. You wouldn't think a cello solo would fit on a version of Bo Diddley's Mona-and it doesn't! Sergeant Pepper had a lot to answer for. Still, its different, I'll give it that.

25 years ago today...

Long live the Grateful Dead

* New & more Grateful Dead!

FOR THE COMMITTED
AND THE CURIOUS
Gather round every Thursday as we tell the tales of Grateful Dead days of yore! The Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast, the first official podcast of the Grateful Dead, is devoted to exploring the music and mythology behind one of the most enduring, progressive, and influential bands in the history of recorded music. Here, we invite you to delve into the band’s enormous mythology in digestible chunks. Think you know it all? We'll probe corners of the band’s history you never knew existed. No topic will be off limits.
Hosts Rich Mahan and Jesse Jarnow will take the lead, picking up special guests from the Dead universe along the way. Upcoming episodes will feature interviews with Dennis McNally, David Lemieux, David Nelson, Bill “Grateful Red” Walton and Trixie Garcia, amongst many others.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of WORKINGMAN'S DEAD, we're kicking things off with an eight-episode arch that examines each song on the album individually.
May the long strange trip continue across the pod!

*** Nappy Rags-…

*** Nappy Rags-“Congratulations !” Always grateful to hear grateful news! Peace be with you my brother, have a grateful day filled with lot’s of Love & Laughter! God bless my man!
🙏❤️💀🌹

Nappyrags

Great, great news! You must of been freaking out waiting....had similar situation with the misses a couple years ago. In her case we wouldn’t know anything until after surgery, and then wait for lab results, which they weren’t sure about, so then on to mayo or other advanced labs......finally all was good, but my god I thought the poor gal was gonna croak just from the stress of waiting! I can’t imagine how difficult that must be?
Rock on brother, and enjoy those awesome new tunes!

25 years ago today...

IWT! Long live the GD! :-)

Liking this podcast dead.net....

....thanks. Grate news nappyrags!!! Good news these days is nice to hear. 25 years ago, the bus ran out of gas. Thank you Jerry.

Great news, Nappy!

But not good about Morricone. I think I have a disc of John Zorn playing the music of Morricone; I'll have to dig that out . . .

Finally got to the second half of 5/19/74 on a road trip this week. Wow. I had been underwhelmed by the non-Vancouver 1973 shows in that box, and was not thrilled by the 5/17/74 show or the terrible-sounding first disc of Portland, but the last two discs of Portland are very special, as all of you knew long ago . . . I already know about the 5/21/74 Playin'. That was the first show from the box I listened to, on its anniversary after the box came out.

Jim--no shame on the Workingman's axe! I just received my Garcia jigsaw puzzle. :)

WTJ & KCJ

WTJ: yassss, sad but true..say my last Garcia show 25 years ago today....😞

Hey, thanks for the McCoy Tyner tips. Ripped Inception/Reaching Forth, Tender Moments, The Real Mccoy, and Sahara yesterday, great stuff! Going to add one with Stanley Clark and Al Foster today...can’t believe I didn’t have any of him yet. Thanks for the tips!

KCJ: please check your PMs

Great News Nappy!

Congrats...Keep on truckin’ dude!!!

Jim and Billy

Thanks, cool you were there Billy. I'll have to check out Dicks Picks #5 Jim.

Hey OROBOROUS!!!!

Check out 1972's "Extensions" by McCoy Tyner....amazing, and one of my fave LP covers to boot....the band is kinda good too...

Alice Coltrane _ Harp
Wayne Shorter_Tenor Sax
Gary Bartz_Soprano & Alto Sax
Ron Carter_Bass
Elvin Jones_Drums

The band is kinda good too

Lol, yeah, that’s a hell of a line up! Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to snag it next go round.

China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider. 12/28/83. S.F.Civic

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NgjtIHDke9w Big fun! The Dead were rocking.

* podcast , Im lov’n it to the bones! 💀🌹

*June 25, 2020 - 3:26pm#207
LOVEMYGIRL
RE/ News
... I’ve been told to expect some news very shortly that will make ALL types of Grateful Dead fans, I promise you that! A magnitude
Of humanity back in business on both sides. Prepare for special treat my friends !
(This was the big news too. ) have a grateful day everyone! Be safe be kind & be grateful, we are the most spoiled fans in the world Dig it, far out! Keep on trucking all you Grateful Dead fans & freaks! 🙏❤️💀🌹

Dave’s 35

Just got the email that Dave’s 35 is going to be 4/20/84 at Philadelphia Civic Center. I thought Lovemygirl said it was going to be 6/20/80.

DaP 35

It’s not Alaska

1984--Nice!

I was hoping for an 80s or 90s show. Someone here the other day mentioned how much she/he likes this "Holiday" show from 1984.

4/20/84

Thank goodness for Dave's Picks. This announcement is some much needed good news in these times.

4/20 no doubt.

Alaska

Those shows deserve their own box. There's also that Gainesville show that pops up in discussion.

As big of a fan of Brent and that era, I'm happy with anything that comes out. I have nothing but time on my hands and looks to be the case through the foreseeable future.

#35 Yeah

I like the setlist. My copy is so so. I HAVE to believe an "official" copy will be better. I like the cover. Thought this be one me and mine were at, but we appeared to have got east and north this tour. Long Island and Rhode Island. Guess we took and Island tour that year.

Re: 4/20/84

What a surprise, this 1984 show has been on my radar for many many decades. There's a fantastic epic Scarlet > Fire, I used to have an audience version of this show and man The Crowd Goes absolutely berserk during that sequence. Very happy to have some more 1984 Dead.

Hope everyone is well.
Sixtus

Dave's 35

They must be saving 7/13/84 for a box set.

Oh well...DaP # 35

I'm a bit under whelmed by this show...we shall see...

In the corner stands a boxer . . .

From the Wikipedia page for the Philadelphia Civic Center:
"The Championship fight scene for Tommy 'the machine' Gun played by real life boxer Tommy Morrison for the 1990 movie Rocky V was shot there."

I think I've seen only the first Rocky film . . .

DaP 35!

Hey All! So I have been doing a trip into the summer of 1985 so this release slightly, I mean ever so slightly, disappointed me on the choice. Again this is only because I have been going through (and loving) the summer 85 tour so I had this hope that one of those shows may get to see the light of day for #35. Despite that, my disappointment is miniscule in comparison to my excitement. I am really looking forward to hearing this one. I am sure it will offer up some great jams.

I checked out the setlist for 4/20/84 over at Deadlists real quick and it looks pretty good. I am sure the playing is top notch. I can't help but express how much I like this variety of years/eras in the releases and such. Between the 1976 box set, the 3 Dave's Picks, the 2/21/71 show on Workingman's and then all of the later era great shows from the Shakedown stream there is so much goodness in all of this. Definitely, this goodness is needed now more than ever for a lot folks.

Plus it's crazy to think that we still have the 50th reissue of American Beauty, DaP 36, 30 Days of Dead and possibly another box all on the way. I thankful for all of this. Hats off to Dave L. and the crew !

Dave's 35

My 5th birthday! I was not one of those toddlers fortunate enough to have parents hip enough to bring me to a dead show. That would have been a cool 5th birthday present. Instead I probably got a He-Man or something. But i digress.

There's at least one good aud of this on the archive. How cool would it be if they did a matrix with the healy tapes and a good aud? The sound quality has been the main thing holding shows from this period back and it'd be nice to see them get creative with some sources, Dave's Pick #8 style.

4/20/84

Dooooaaaahhh, was at the 16 & 17th so missed it by that much! Have a tape of 4/21 but guessing since I don’t recall it I mighta been underwhelmed? But that’s the 21, sounds like the 20th is hot?

DAVES=Multiple years, for good or for I’ll, I also have appreciated the effort to mix it up and cover more years with Dave’s. If only we could get 1/60s, 1/70s, 1/80s, and a 90s a year. But don’t see that happening...
Hopefully at least 1 80s or 90s a year. I think it’s doable and fair.

EDIT: Matrix,...what Slow dog said!

Yahoo!!!

Excellent choice, Dave!!!

Doubters, doubt not. This is a gooooood choice.

I promoted it recently on this here site. Coincidence? Hmmm...

DaP 35

I was there on 20 April 1984 in the old Philly Civic Center and saw the Grateful Dead. All of 27 years of age, I don't remember too much of the show, but the audience tapes I have sound quite well, but somewhat obscures this fine performance.
Great Dew!

Also

The first Dave's picks versions of:

My Brother Esau
I Need A Miracle
Keep Your Day Job

I know how pumped everyone is for the first Dave Picks Era Day Job.

Where's Bolo24?

I have not been following the comments of the releases here on dead.net for a while. Just reading through these recent comments on this Dave's Picks 34, I have not seen anything from our friend, Bolo24? About when was the last time he (or she) posted?
Anybody ever meet up with Bolo24 beyond the dead.net messaging system? He generally used to give us some odd clues about what he thought the next release is or could be.
So where is Bolo24?

Keep Your Day Job

My favorite song. Yeah, sure. My favorite, totally pumped for this one.

Day Job

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I think Day Job is a really cool tune, I dig it!

I thought it was going to be 4/21...

...78. Totally capitalizing on the holiday here. Anyone do track timings? Any chance for filler? I hope they do something special (Matrix maybe?) Fingers crossed. Definitely a bold choice...

Slow Dog Noodle # 1 sense of humor

Slow Dog, you crack me up, you are really funny, what a great sense of humor! I' m still laughing about your story about dipping your whole body in hand sanitizer. Keep it comming, it's fantastic!

By the power of Gray Skull

He-Man!

Keep your day job till your night job pays...

I too like "Day Job"...lyrics are fun ....what I wasn't a big fan of was the use of "Don't Ease Me In" either as a 1st Set closer or encore...always thought it was kind of flat with no real oomph in the playing, nothing special...

Day Job & Ease Me

My touring partner used to called the blow job and don't sleaze me in. He wasn't a big fan :-)

At least kydj and demi are short-n-fast tunes

Unlike LLR....

- Snarky the Sailor

And...

Wasnt demi one of their first singles?

"Demi Moore
back in the day
mighty nice
hey hey hey"

- Lil CPAP

Look! Here comes Professor Vasdeferenz...

"Don't Ease Me In vass der firsht GD sinkle back in 1966"

Thank you, Professor.

Alaska

Ha.. false prophet my ass!

Taping Compendium on 4-20-84

Anyone who wants to get a preview of what our fearless leader Dave L. will be probably be saying next Thursday check out the Taping Compendium. Tom Ferraro has some pretty interesting verbiage on his take of 4/20/84 . Although I am very interested in firing up this show I think I will wait the few weeks for it to come out. I have a feeling we are going to be told not to get caught up in the setlist but for an "84 show" they were firing on all cylinders. We shall see.

On another note someone posted this HILARIOUS video montage of The Music Never Stopped and it was one of those days I needed a good laugh so if you are having one of those days here ya go....God I miss Jack Tripper
https://youtu.be/RHf6tiFkr2s

081227909352

Product Magento URL

https://store.dead.net/special-edition-shops/dave-s-picks-store/dave-s-picks-vol-34.html