Grateful Dead

Mr. Ones, I appreciate your sentiments regarding the fact that I got my copy before you got yours, but with all due respect I don't really think it is important who gets their copy first. It is not a race after all. In normal times, all domestic US punters should receive their copies within a few days of shipping. European customers would normally expect to receive their orders around two weeks after the shipping date. There will always be glitches and sporadic problems which one cannot do anything about. Unfortunately all that I have just said does not seem to apply to Warner/Rhino/dead.net and their chosen shipping method. Whether this is down to ineptitude on the part of the sender, the postal services or the chosen shipping method (Mail innovations) I cannot say but it turns the whole experience into a stressful lottery. The VAT situation for International customers is something that cannot be avoided. Each country has different rules on this. Fortunately here in the Netherlands the price of a Dave's Picks is below the limit where VAT is levied so I have never had to pay this on a Dave's Picks. Unfortunately I think the limit is going to be drastically reduced in the near future so EU citizens will suffer the consequences. Taxes are an unavoidable fact of life that sadly have to be suffered. Remaining optimistic, one has to assume that anyone who orders this stuff is sufficiently well off to be able to afford it.

My DP37 was listed by USPS as delivered, though it never was. I didn't hear back from customer service (I assume they're understaffed and slammed in this COVID world of ours), so I went ahead and reordered another copy ($40). Good thing I did, cause it sold out. I thought about waiting to hear back from customer service, but I was aware that it would likely sell out while I was waiting. Still haven't heard from them.

Curious if USPS claims something was delivered, but it never actually arrived at the proper address, is that a loss the buyer takes? Or does Dead.net usually send a replacement copy? No judgement, just curious. I'm a day-one customer on pretty much every release and this is the first time my shipment was lost or mis-delivered.

Thanks for the advice! I really like the price of the Rooful, but I like the BluRay aspect of the OWC Mercury... hmm. Perhaps I will pick up both, as I could use the Rooful in my classroom (if I ever return...)

Thanks again, and Happy Friday!

Peace

so the other day I put on 'Scarecrow' by John Mellencamp; I used to listen to that one a lot in high school, but I hadn't listened to it in its entirety in like 25 years probably.

What I found very cool was (A) how relevant many of the songs were TODAY, especially given the wacky political climate; they really spoke to me in the current; and (B) how, even after not hearing this album in literally decades, as soon as one song would get to the end, my brain automatically started signing/playing the next song in my head as if I recalled exactly the sequence of the songs (which of course I did). That's some cool Pavlovian shit right there.
And, finally, the tunes on there are all pretty decent, especially some of the lesser-known songs that didn't really get airplay.

Thx Jeff for the hi res scan as always and I do hope the folks who continue at the mercy of the broken shipping process will find some light at the end of the tunnel sooner than later.

Happy Friday Deadfreaks.
Sixtus

Enya about 1x per year

I have my reasons...

....Britney Spears. Sorry not sorry.

I find it tedious when people grump on here about customer service. But now I know why: The responsiveness is a joke, perhaps non-existent. I have now submitted 3 inquiries over 3 months about my annual-sub DP36 - still no delivery. And this is not an international shipment - I'm in Massachusetts. When I reach out, I get a auto-response "we're working on your request", but then no follow up. I am beyond annoyed and insulted at this point. So much for being "savvy pros" who know they're doing. If you're not gonna send me the DP36, then send me back my money. But do SOMETHING!!! ANYTHING! When you you take our money, then don't ship and ignore subsequent inquiries, EXPECT us to be pissed off!! Well, I'm royally pissed off.

Lesson learned: Only buy things on this site if you don't mind them taking our money without shipping the product, and them not giving a crap about us when asked about it.

Guilty pleasure? Don't really feel guilty about it, but Taylor Swift's 1989 gets a lot of play in my house. It helps that the wifey gets a break from what she has been calling "Grateful Dead quarantine" during the pandemic, and it is a pretty damn good album, IMO. I even got it on vinyl...

Peace

EDIT: @Thin - I am sorry to hear about your struggle with customer service. It's always a bummer to hear about, but especially when it comes from a long time friend of these boards. I hope things get cleared up ASAP, and I can definitely understand your frustration.

I do enjoy "Shake It Off" a lot. And I've gotten a bit hooked on "Gaslighter," the title track to the latest Chicks (formerly Dixie Chicks) release. "Mmm-Bop" always puts a smile on my face.

Plus, Little River Band, Al Stewart, Abba, lots of cheesy 70s hits really rock my world sometimes. "Brandy"!

Brutal Thin.

Check your PM.

we all had the cahonas not to subscribe or buy from dead.net until this shipping stuff gets solved.

I couldn't boycott; I'm in too deep (balls deep, as my offspring would say). FOMO, or even TOMO (T = terror)

Also, if I would bother to figure out how, I would make copies for those who are "still waiting...I-I-I'm still waiting..."

37 finally arrived today with no warning. I checked my tracking email last night and it still said USPS hadn’t received the item - then there it was in the mail box today. So I guess the one thing I learned is not to put too much faith in the tracking systems at USPS these days.

Love Al Stewart, have both Time Passages and Year of the cat.
Played em a couple weeks ago....like Otis said, gotta keep the wifey happy!

It seems strange, given the messages posted here by others, but customer service responded to an email I sent today only two or three days after I sent them mine. I requested that they cancel my order for Daves 37, and hey presto-they have. So they do read messages, but obviously don't always respond. Which might be worse than if they didn't read them at all.
I cancelled my order after reading a few reviews on here, and decided it wasn't really for me. I think I would probably only want play it once and would then shelve it. No criticism of the choice of show, though - just maybe not to my taste. I hope everyone gets there ASAP and digs it fulsomely.

The Cars
Sometimes pop, always with the hooks, but if you can source out some of their live club recordings from 1978, where they turned it up to “11”, some tunes just knock your fillings out!

The needle to “Route 66” is stuck on San Bernardino for my DaP 37. But lots to play while I wait...

* Spins Wheel* Boston '93

They cool

My spin o" the box set wheel sez

79

Cannibal Corpse

92-95 Grateful Dead

Ditto.

I can dig some Cars. Saw it was listed as a guilty pleasure, but I enjoy their first & second albums quite a bit. Ironically, most of my favorite songs are sung by Elliot Easton. As a 9 year old when the MTV age came along, I always associated Ric Ocasek as the lead singer. It was years before I realized Elliot sang anything. I think Ric was the man for writing those great songs and handing them over to Elliot; that has to be tough as a singer / writer, but I think speaks to his maturity as a band member.

I think everyone knows my guilty listening pleasure. Shock Me

I have the new '78 cranking on the headphones now. First listen. I haven't read any reviews but was surprised to hear you cancelled your order Daverock. I'm only 4 minutes in, but they sound tight and the mix is perfect, other than being backwards (Bobby on left, Keith on right; even though they appeared that way onstage, most of these two tracks have them in opposite channels.

Candy-O. Great song. I grew up to the cars.

....Panorama. One of the first 20 something records I ever purchased. I still possess it.
I get shit for Britney. No one I know shits on The Cars.
BuT, tHEn agAiN, I doN't KnoW a loT Of peOplE.

With each listen I hear stuff I missed in the previous listens.
And what I did hear previously sounded even better this time through.

Keithfan - I was in two minds ( as is usually the case) about this release. Somebody-I forget who-said on here that Dave's remit was to pick representative shows from an era - and not focus necessarily on the best shows. That made me think - we have already had two from April 1978-I have a pretty good recording of 4/16/78 and there are several other official releases from Spring 1978, too. They are variable to me - okay - but not shows I overplay by any means.
1978 is okay by me-my favourites are 1/22 and 7/1 plus Red Rocks 7/7and 7/8 in the box. And if they released the October Winterland run as a box I wold get that. But not more Spring 1978. I wonder why Dave had focussed so much on this era - and completely ignored 1968 or the first 11 months of 1969 ? I think he has completely different taste to me, that's for sure !

My guilty pleasure would be The Cramps. My current friends don't really like rock-or rock related music. They know I like The Dead, and this fits their image of me, I think. I lent one of them "American Beauty" last year. Country rock, as they see it. In fact one of them lent me an ancient copy of "Desperado" by The Eagles a few days ago. What they would make of The Cramps heaven alone knows. I've got everything they ever recorded and many bootlegs.

Yo!! Rockers!!!!

Magic Sam-West Side Soul
Joni Mitchell-For The Roses
Commander Cody-Family Dog 1970
Nick Curran-Doctor Velvet
Traffic-Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

There's more, of course, but we won't go there just yet...............

Rock on, rockers!!

Doc

Efficient delivery this time. 12 days from the initial shipping notice, 8 days since the package actually started moving and only 4 days since it arrived in the UK. Even better it arrived with no demands for VAT. Now all I need to do is play it. Stay well everyone.

I'm impressed. The recording quality is great, not that I expected anything else from Betty. The performance is also top-notch. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this. Well worth releasing this one.

Loved the Cars, those first two 8 tracks were essential listening (in my uncle's Camaro) back in the day. The deep cuts (It's All I Can Do, Dangerous Type, You're All I've Got Tonight, etc) are underrated as the radio never plays them. I could go the rest of my life without hearing "Shake It Up" again. It was Benjamin Orr who sang on the hits Ric Ocasek didn't, RIP Mr. Orr the real rock star of the band. Elliot Easton put down some of the best pop/rock guitar solos of all time, compositions in and of themselves, not unlike what Neil Giraldo did on those Pat Benatar records. Steely Dan-esque in their brilliance.

Guilty pleasure? The Beach Boys and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

Mine has not been shipped per Daniel 2/4/21 @ Dead customer service, can't seem to get answer as to why, if i don't get a tracking number by next week, contesting the yearly subscription charge with bank. Service with Dead.net has gotten worst every year since i started 7 years ago. Sad way to run a business.

Glad to hear the Cars resonate so well with the assembled. I thought they were always a kick ass band, and Elliot Easton an underrated guitar slinger.
I stand corrected. My Guilty Pleasure would be the Doobies - borders on yacht rock, but I could wear the grooves out of Toulouse Street and The Captain And Me.

And who among us can ever hear "Moving in Stereo" without thinking of a certain perfectly formed young woman emerging from a southern California pool?

I'd suggest that Dave's "remit" is whatever he decides it is, as long as the series sells out each time. Now they're selling out 25,000, which is a pretty healthy number for an arguably non-marquee year such as '78. (I.e., it's not '68 or '69.) With, say, 2,000 shows in the Vault, Dave probably cannot afford to rush to release the creme de la creme. So he's leavening the release schedule with arguably second tier shows, which in the GD's case, are pretty damn good if, perhaps, a bit inconsistent. (How many bands can play high-risk music for 3 hours and stay at an insanely high level throughout? A: only the GD.)

It would be interesting to look at the number of ABCD-related shows released since the Betty Boards came home. I suspect that a) there's a plethora of '77 and '78 among the tapes, and b) that there's an agreement between Rhino and ABCD to release a certain number of returned Bettys over a certain period of time. That enables Dave some flexibility, but also requires a fair number of releases, so you go with the years you have the most tapes for.

Also, I think it's apparent that when a period/tour of performances is known to be hot, you go back to the well, which are shows adjacent in time to some widely appreciated, on-fire release. They'll never top Euro '72 in that department, but think of the 5-show tour and box from July '78 that you mentioned. Or May '77. Spring '90 x 2.

I'll be really interested in what Dave chooses to release for the 3rd and 4th DPs this year. (As well as this year's box.) I almost think (probably because it's self-serving) that after releasing two mid-, late-80s last year, that he might drop in a random '69 show this year. But this year's box, my man -- WHAT'S IN THE BOX?? (Isolation fever, kicking in...)

That said (ad nauseum), I'm happy with this release.

and that pool emergence....ooohhhh...

Vguy, you like BS only because she hot.

:)))

Today is the day for 3 21 73

....i cannot deny that, but i think she's pretty talented too. Saw her here during her residence in Vegas during the normal times.

Ooooo, some weird opposing feelings there, like part turned off, but turned on at the same time LOL
“Mommy, how come I feel all butterfliey in my tummy?”

On further review I like, but I like 4/15 better. Imho Dave got that right as it is great/generous bonus material, always a plus! Don’t think it sounds quite as good either. It sounds fine, but 4/15 sounded really good. Wonder if they give the full treatment to the extra stuff, or if theirs that much difference between original recordings?
Waiting for right time to roll through 4/15 again...

On a true stellar roll again. This one starts with an immediate lyrics screw-up - just the kinda thing you want preserved for posterity forever if you're a musician.

Access to all the tapes and the best you can come up with is crowd noise on the last and an immediate fuck-up on the next.

Good grief, Charlie Brown

Just curious what would be your preference? Not being confrontational, just curious what you think would be more appropriate or what’s been released that you like?

Phil Lesh himself said the GD has zits

Lighten up, bro

Had to let it warm up after brining it in from the mailbox before putting disc one in the player; it's struggling to get up to zero Fahrenheit today here.

Only listened to the first song, but it rocked my world and put a big smile on my face!

Enjoy it.

I am showing -25 below with the wind chill at my house.
Even the dog doesn't want to go outside for too long.

Hoping to have mine by the end of next week.

Antarctica is warmer today than it is where you are now.

8 10 82 on right now

GD82 was a very good year

in Seattle currently

I recommend 3 21 73

And it will be even colder tomorrow Jim. 48 sounds sweet Proudfoot

..said in my best WI accent.

"Ohhh, it's a Clipper."

And it's heading our way. With a little luck it will drag up some moisture from the Gulf and give us some snow.

I really enjoyed this one. It definitely has a vintage sound to it. Donna was pretty good too.

So I have given this about 3 solid listens and oveall I think this is another fine release from Dave L. and Co. 4/15 is true to form for what I think of for 1978 Grateful Dead. Most of the first set is fine. Half Step and Let it Grow are really good, and Deal is a fun closer. As much as Dave mentioned Passenger as, I can't recall exactly how he phrased it - almost losing it or something, i didn't think it was too rough. Now Brown Eyed Women was bizarre. Many times it sounded like the drummers were playing a different song than the rest of the band. I seriously thought my disc was skipping the first time i heard it. Anyway there will be screw ups like that so that one song certainly didn't ruin things for me.

The 2nd set is very solid and it begins with high energy playing. The jam sequence if Playin' > Rhythm Devils > NFA > Morning Dew is great. To my ears the NFA almost transitions back into a Playin'-like jam before going into Morning Dew. The Around & Around and Saturday Night are nice finishers. Although during Around (I think), I swear there is another bought of that out of sync playing that I heard in Brown Eyed Women. The filler from 4/18 is also very good. I love the Sugaree and the Scarlet > Dancing was really cool.

Getting back to the idea of 1978 Grateful Dead, what really stands out to me is that the overall playing isn't as sharp as the previous year of 1977. I am not saying its bad, but the band seemed like less patient to let a jam build to crescendo or to lay down a solid rhythm at times. I have every 1978 release that has been put out except for the Road Trips one from Winterland (which I will get when Real Gone produces it) so I don't think it's a bad year. I just think I am personally stuck in that because shows from this year are chronologically between 1977 and 1979 (with introduction of Brent) I predispose myself to think that these shows will be like those years. They are not, they are different, but they are still good.