"When it came to 1973 Dead, I was always drawn to the big second-set jams, 'Dark Star' or 'The Other One,' and all of the places those songs could go that year. One week during my initial stint with the Dead, Dick was spending a lot of time listening to 9/8/73, and he could not stop raving about it. He was very intent on pointing out that despite the absence of the 'Big Two' from 1973, every song, every solo, every moment was out-of-this-world excellent. He played me the first set, giving a play-by-play of each song and what made it special. In those listening sessions, Dick taught me a lot about how to listen critically and objectively. Of course, the subjective self always creeps in, those moments when you whoop and holler at how good a performance is, but that objective listening is critical. After many days of listening, Dick moved to other eras, as was his wont, since he carried the responsibility of selecting the best Dead shows from all eras to represent the Dead’s recorded legacy. But he made it clear and inarguable that he felt 9/8/73 was one of the best-played shows from one of the Dead’s best years." - David Lemieux
Despite the gloriously blustering artwork above, the forecast for DAVE'S PICKS VOLUME 38: NASSAU VETERANS MEMORIAL COLISEUM, UNIONDALE, NY, 9/8/73 is blazing hot! With a double endorsement from archivists Dick Latvala and David Lemieux, you know it's a MUST HAVE. This one's got inspired playing from start to finish, with soon-to-be-minted Wake Of The Flood classics, a first-ever "Weather Report Suite," Keith polishing his chops on "Let Me Sing Your Blues Away," Jerry tapping into era-defining sound with his Wolf guitar, and we'd be remiss if we didn't mention Bob's exquisite playing too.
Among our 2021 Dave's Picks subscribers? The subscribers-only bonus disc featuring nearly an hour and a half from 9/7/73 is coming your way too. (P.S. there's 35 minutes of 9/7/73 on Dave's Picks Vol. 38, to boot)
Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, DAVE'S PICKS VOLUME 38: NASSAU VETERANS MEMORIAL COLISEUM, UNIONDALE, NY, 9/8/73 was recorded by Kidd Candelaro and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman.
Didn't subscribe? You'll want to jump on this one now as it is guaranteed to sell out.
*2 per order. Very limited quantity available.
Hurts Me Too Fans
I'm listening to 5/13/72 and the Hurts Me Too is particularly good. Jerry has some great solos in there.
11/4/77 Colgate University
Dave's Picks 12. A fine little show if you ask me. Give it some love, Dave.. The Jones Brothers Band..
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? ok, sure, whatever.. have fun.
Grand Funk Railroad
Per Homer Simpson
Alright Hamilton!
Good call Jimbo. DaP 12 is the first Dave's Picks that I didn't have to buy off of eBay :D
Shows vs releases gets a litttle dicey, but I think of DaP 12 as one show in my head, even though all of Disc Three is from Seneca. Daverock I highly recommend it - this thing's a powerhouse, especially if you gloss over Roses and Sunrise. Stella Blue has this ethereal intro like nothing I've heard.
Colgate University
A fine show indeed. The only misstep is that it should have been the 13th release. Colgate folks will know why. A very interesting backstory on how the concert came about if you haven’t already read it.
Our daughter will be attending that fine institution in the fall. A tough grab for a college with an already low acceptance rate in a year when applications for admission more than doubled. I played 11/4/77 for a week straight after we got the news. It felt like scoring NYE tickets back in the day.
She could not be happier and we could not be more proud. I’ve already told her that I will be wearing my DaP 12 T-shirt on drop off day. She’s less than thrilled about that.
Awesome AJS!....
....congratulations! I also own a Dave's 12 tee. I don't bust it out too much anymore because signs of wear are appearing. Besides! I got my Dave's 38 shirt today. Going into rotation. Dave's 12 tee is sized a little small, but this new shirt is like a glove.
Colgate T
First.. a huge congrats, AJ. A huge win.
Second.. I bought two Colgate T's.. one I have worn and one I will wear when this one wears out. I get nonstop shit for the CD's and T Shirts I buy. I don't get it.. if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad (not to be played in front of a heroin junkie crowd)..
Anyway.. a huge congratulations are in order and an even bigger one when she graduates. Great news.
Vguy and Sir James
Thank you both. Downstairs listening to the show again right now. One of my favorite versions of BEW and Let It Grow.
I love that T-Shirt and get comments on it all the time. I purchased two as well and the size does run small. The Large barley fits me.
Not my home, but where I reside right now...
First bus stop in Raleigh, where this kid got his start. Glad they're coming. Not sure I'm in.
We'll see...
AJS-congrats. What a proud pops you must be.
:O)
11/4/77 - maybe okay after all
Those that did -thanks for highlighting this show - obviously it got lost in the shuffle a bit with me. I'll check it out again soon. With 1977, I start each year playing available shows, but I rarely get passed June - maybe September.
I should also say that some Daves Picks, post 1974, late Keith shows, do appeal - 2/26/77, 5/25/77 and 1/22/78 come to mind. One of the April 78 shows is pretty good, too,
I'm not really into the "rock n' roll hall of fame" or whatever its called. Maybe the best rock n 'roll band I saw in the 80s and 90s were The Cramps -clearly in a different orbit from award type bands. Similarly Hawkwind in the 70s.
I always liked the quote by Memphis musician Jim Dickinson -
" The best songs don't get recorded, the best recordings don't get released and the best releases don't get played." If you win an award - at anything - you are clearly doing something wrong.
And coincidentally, since typing the above, I have received an email to tell me that the North Mississippi Allstars, featuring Jim Dickinson's sons, have their 2020 show in London, of which I have a ticket, rescheduled to June 2022. Worth staying alive for.
May 14th of the year twenty-twenty-one....
....a day that will live in infamy. Masks no longer required at my workplace!
Too bad I don't recognize my co-workers now.
re: Colgate
Cavity Creeps?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeuJ-cBw1Hg
My bad. That was Crest.
Be Well People!
Sixtus
@ Jeff - Cover Art
As always, thank you for the awesome service of getting us heads those cover art scans.
Looking at them all together...
Best cover art - Volume 26 - Albq. 11/17/71
Worst - Volume 4 - W&M 9/24/76
Love to hear your thoughts!
Peace
Edit: Other tops: Vols. 8, 10, 20, and 27 - Other bottoms: 4, 13, 17, 21, 22 - Best Bonus - 2018 (along w/ my favorite cover) - Worst Bonus - 2015 (Sorry, I made a whole list and I couldn't resist...)
Best DaP Covers
The best is a tough one, and my choice is a dead heat (pun intended) between Vol 31 - Chicago, and Vol 32 - Philly.
It’s hard to pick a “worst”, because these artists really are masters, but I’d say maybe Vol 13, Winterland.
Bonus Discs - Best was 2018, the worst was 2015.
the ambiguously dentally hygienic team
some snug outfits there, y'all.
Bobby W would approve...
Too Many...
...beards on Skeletons. That's my only complaint. On the bright side.. at least we didn't get any skeletal under arm hair or hair down there.
In all honesty I liked McDougall but he's long gone. More on the Road Trips and E72 than the Dave's Picks. I liked the Dave's Picks 10 guy too, wasn't that Tony Millionaire?? Colors are good in some of the later ones. Ok.. you can dist the cover art for DaP 13, but the quality of the show underneath should be enough to absolve the skeletal skaters..
It must be happy hour somewhere.. time to catch up.
Box me Dave
Box me
And us
I would love to have it for summer break
But probably for return to school in the fall
Cest la vie
6 18 74 plays currently
Eyes of the World
DaP 13
I like the DaP 13 cover, but not really any of the others by that artist. Also like Tony Millionaire covers DaP 9 - 12 are all great. He also did the Grateful Dead ship in the ocean, which I think was an RSD cover.
Favorite might be DaP 1. Great colors, great show, and great tie-in to historical date of the show. DaP 10 might be my favorite too - love the Alligator and those colors. Oh, and Close Encounters with the Grateful Dead. Dave's Picks 23!
Least favorite...hmm. Maybe 14, 15 or the bicycle one.
AJS - congrats on your daughter's acceptance - great stuff. What is the significance of 13 with that show?
Cover art clean-up
Late to the party. Hope these are worthy:
Best Dicks Covers....
....partial to Truman's, but I enjoyed Tim's work in comics long before Dead releases.
Does the July '78 box count? Because that one is the bestest.
Sigh.....reminded me of the Arrowhead show. Going in.
Cover Art
26 is the best for sure.
Top 3 would be: 26, 30 and 23
Bottom 3 would be: 20, 13 and 17
Keithfan - thank you for the kind words. Colgate has a unique affiliation with the number 13. Founded by 13 men, mostly Baptist ministers, who each contributed $1 to fund the college, who then said 13 prayers. The University still celebrates the number 13 today. It just would have been cool if it were DaP13.
Excellent Footage 2/4/70
Stumbled upon this on on YouTube. I didn't know this kind of really good footage existed. I've seen a couple of short clips similar to this in various documentaries, but certainly never this. This is from the Download Series:
To think they played those awesome shows at the Fillmore East a week after this.
AJS - speaking of Fillmore East, I am a big fan of the Dave's Picks 30 cover art. Very original, and cool that it's the Fillmore East. Definitely one of my preferred covers. 26 is cool too - very relaxing and original as well. I forgot about the bonus disc art the number 26. I like that one a whole lot. There are some really good ones. I forgot about Dave's Picks 6 - that's pretty good for having a skeleton. I kind of dig 17 too, with the Wall of Sound skeltons in coattails (but the Road Trips Wall of Sound cover is better looking to me). Thanks for the info on Colgate, that's a really cool story actually. I'll have to check it out on a map one of these days. My whole extended family is spread out across different areas of New York.
A Voice From on High 5/15/70
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvTW5s9_Pk. One of my all time favorite shows , thank goodness they still have the recording. 5/15/70, 5/2/70, & 9/20/70 are all killer acoustic sets, hopefully 9/20/70. will be released someday. The box set should be out anytime now, I hope it is something from 1969 or 1970
.
Old cover art
Coming on here regularly, its hard to forget what a great cover Skull and Roses has. In fact a lot of those album covers were great. I remember they used to stand out when I flipped through record sleeves in shops, back in the early 70s, before I knew who they were.
Acoustic 1970
Billy the Kid it's really funny that you mention the acoustic stuff, because five minutes ago I put on Dick's Picks 8 Uncle John's Band as a prelude to the electric set on an hour-long car ride. The funny part is I've never listened to acoustic Dead before, except for that1980 PBS video. I don't know why. It's one of those deals I guess where I've been catching up on electric Dead for so long that I was just waiting for the right mood to hit me. This is a great Uncle John's Band!
Agree Daverock, the Dead had outstanding album art in the 70s. Tough to pick a favorite there. I guess I would go with Shakedown Street, and Blues for Allah as a second choice.
5/15/77 St. Louis
It's been awhile since I've listened to any 1977, but I've been hitting these May shows from the original box set. Shows seem to sound better when I listen on their anniversary date.
First Estimated => Eyes on this one. I love when those opening chords to Eyes of the World kick in. I'm going with Dick's Picks 18 as my favorite (more for the Estimated Prophet than the Eyes). It was also the first Estimated I ever laid ears on, and the only one I had until they released To Terrapin: Hartford '77. Actually, come to think if it, I first heard it in person at JFK 7/7/89. I'm declaring it National Estimated Eyes day. Who has a favorite Estimated => Eyes?
Dave's Covers
I've been impressed with just about all of the artists' efforts on the Dave's series. They've each applied their own styles to the Grateful Dead mystique. It's interesting to read how some folks favorites make other's 'worst list' and vice versa. I thought it was pretty cool when the artwork for Dave's 18 (Orpheum 7/17/76) continued on the 2016 Bonus CD – together they sort of echo the opened up Skull & Roses cover. And, altho some have them on their 'worst of list', I always kinda liked the painterly, melty, trippy approach Micah Nelson took with Dave's 13-16. Like the music they contain, my favorite cover art is usually on the Dave's I just looked at. . .
Nicely done Copperdomebodhi! Thanks! You inspired me to go back and add a little more Gaussian Blur to my Dave's 38 attempt. The fine linework in Helen's original art (hair, clouds, etc.) look like jagged lightning bolts when you zoom in on the printed separation on the CD cover. Your balance between sharpness and blur is spot on!
Onward.
Estimated Eyes
Keithfan, not sure if it's my favorite, but I gotta shout out the filler on Dick's 10 from 12/30/77. Love the jam between the tunes. Garcia builds and builds the tension like some great bird trapped in a tall glass building, slamming against the glass as he flies higher and higher until finally around the 9:50 mark he breaks through. Reminds me of Coltrane in the first act of Love Supreme.
Oh, and the eyes is followed by a nice St. Stephen.
Estimated Eyes
The July 5th '78 Omaha version is no slouch. I haven't really give much thought to my favorite. I think you might have to open up the discussion to Eyes > China Doll and really make it interesting. There's a few Eyes Estimated's that rank too. We could be here all week on this one.
Estimated Eyes
I like the one from 9/15/78 at Egypt. Heard by me on the bonus disc of Rocking The Cradle.
Estimated>Eyes
The Estimated>Eyes from 9/2/83 might just be my favorite. 10/29/77, 4/12/78, and 11/26/80 are also very good. There’s just something about 9/2/83 that I really enjoy. The Estimated is probably the better of the two; extra jazzy and funky. Good Bob vocals. The Dave’s mix for the show is alright, but the Hunter Seamons matrix for the show is much better as far as sound quality, but both are good. There’s video for 4/12/78 too.
Good List of E/Es
The only one mentioned that I know well is Rocking the Cradle bonus. My first dead.net post was to see if anyone knew of another '78 Estimated Prophet other than DP 18 and DP 25. Was interested in '78 because Jerry extended his solo that begins around the 3:30 mark from 20 seconds to almost 2 minutes. At the time, Rocking the Cradle bonus and Road Trips were the only other '78 versions. There are many now. We've come a long way. Going to listen to these tonight.
E>E 5/15 St Louis
KF - though 5/15 has long been a favorite I did not realize that was the first pairing of Estimated > Eyes. Thanks for that bit of history.
Hands down my favorite cover art of the Dave's series is No. 11 - 11/17/72 Wichita, KS. Tony Millionaire knocked that one out of the park.
Jim Eyes / China Doll
Eyes=> China Doll I'm going with DaP 17 from July '74, Selland. The Eyes of the World is top-shelf 1974 (the vocal mix on this show I recall being exceptionally awesome). The China Doll has a beer bottle clinkering around at one point. You can almost see a dark alley with misty rain under a distant street light, when tragedy strikes.
Bluecrow, when I was writing up favorites my daughter said she liked the Wizard of Oz cover best. That one's a classic.
Lebowski, that's an enticing description of the DP 10 version. I haven't put that release on in ages.
Eyes > China Doll
4/2/73 Dave’s 21……..you can hear a pin drop during China Doll…..haunting version
Oh Dear
All the 1970s talk and I didn't pay homage to Road Trips 5/15/70. Time to get on it. I threw all of the electric stuff together in the order they played it. I recall there's about 3 minutes of Dark Star where Jerry sounds like he's in Orbit. Maybe around 11 or 12 minutes. Attics of My Life is up there with Brokedown Palace in my book. We could use a few more versions of that one. I think for the 70s it's this one and DP 11 only.
Vguy
The NHL playoffs start today. The single best sporting event on the planet.
Good luck to your Golden Knights. I am all over Canadaland this year. Edmonton and Connor McDavid are my team.
The big money is on Colorado. They are young and fast, as I said last year. Will be tough to beat.
I know you are hoping for a Leafs joke, but I will forgo one until they actually fold.
NHL playoffs....
....Vegas has injuries. Got Minnesota.
Should be fun.
Had a $50 bet with my Avalanche loving cousin for most points.
Ended up a damn tie.
Four months of trash talk for a TIE!
Good times.
Drop the damn puck already.
And yes AJS. The NHL playoffs IS the best sporting event on the planet.
VGuy, I would make you a wager . . .
But I don't know a damn thing about hockey, even though I live in The State of Hockey, about five miles from where the Wild play! Perhaps DeadVikes would like to bet with you . . . ?
I do know that Minnesota playing Las Vegas in hockey is such an odd juxtaposition that it boggles my mind. :) Here we have tons of water and uptight old people, and it's bitter cold much of the year. Vegas? Likely the opposite? I was there once, to see the GD in 1993.
Dead Airwaves
Settling into 5/16/72, Radio Luxembourg. Has one of the best Promised Lands of 1972 I think. There is also a soundcheck of Big River, with a cool mellow Jerry intro. Bertha is one of the better tour versions (and the last for E72). Small radio audience, 400 - 500 DeadHeads only.
Lost track of hockey several years ago. Grew up with the Broad Street Bullies. Lived next door to Machine Gun Kelly until I was 5, but the only recollection I have is the pool party at his house. Watching the Flyers lose it all in '87 against Gretzky in 7 ripped my soul out for a while. It was such a grind to get there and almost beat The Great One in his prime. Tough being a Philly-ite.
Estimated > Eyes...I'll Play
...a little late to the game but heck yeah, some of my favorite GD segments of all time are these two tunes smooshed up together.
April 16, 1978 - just a really great version of both tunes; the Estimated gets a little spooky in there for a bit as Bobby plays some slightly off sounding chords there toward the end of the segue....followed by a nicely played, relatively fast Eyes. Love how at the every end, they come back to the Eyes theme one final time before splatting away into drums: https://archive.org/details/gd1978-04-16.sbd.miller.82273.sbeok.flac16
October 15, 1989 - this one seems to get overlooked due to its proximity to the 'Nightfall of Diamonds' official release, but it is a great sounding show (and recorded to 24 track, I believe). The Estimated>Eyes is a standout section of the second set; Bobby plays some really interesting midi-stuff during the segue covering several different sounding instruments (including a xylophone at one point (!); it then drops right into a fast paced, blistering Eyes....just a really nice but more modern take on the duo if that suits you:
https://archive.org/details/gd1989-10-15.sbd.walker-scotton.miller.8329…
Wheelhouse discussions = good
Be Well People!
Sixtus