Grateful Dead

I got on the wagon a little late with Dave's Picks. It would be cool to do re issues if that is monetarily feasible. The way they sell out so fast to include some of the accompanying merch, one would think there are folks out there wanting this stuff. I do pre order the sets now and the box sets. Keep em coming. Dead Ahead!

What's in store here?
> Just the standard format of a single show on 3 discs?
> A single show spread over 4 discs? (a handful of shows qualify)
> 2 shows on 4 discs? It's the same as Dave's 36 and 40.
> a compilation of highlights of 4 shows each on their own disc?

....Phish does a decent cover of it. But they totally slay 1999. Man o man.
I would linq a video of them getting the entire arena down at the MGM Grand Garden when they busted that dance fest out, but.....rules.
My current avatar is of a card a random person handed me on Halloween. Thank you.

I had a thought about something different for a bonus disc. Probably too late for 2022, but perhaps it's worth mentioning for future years. When I first started seeing the Dead, the New Riders opened for them. I was thinking that if you use a show for Dave's Picks at which the New Riders opened, and there's a decent recording of the Riders set, a fun bonus disc would be the New Riders set at that show. Also, just totally selfishly, I pretty much only saw the Grateful Dead at their Michigan shows, so I'd love a Michigan show as a Picks (my favorite - other than my first show on March 11, 1971, for which I'm sure there's no tape - was Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, April 6, 1989).

Everything tastes better with a side of '68.

....I think I taste pretty good. Nom, nom, nom.

That's a pretty good idea. My original tape of 5/2/70 included the New Riders set, and it added to the aura of the show as a whole. It felt like a historical document -even though it was only about 17 years old when I first heard it.

I remember reading about that once. If it's the same show I'm thinking of, I read that the audience overdubs are also a relatively short loop. So if you listen closely enough. The same audience sounds should be repeating every 15 minutes or so with maybe the exception of volume fades between songs. Pretty sure this is the show I read about.

Yes, I think that it is a loop, you keep hearing the same woman scream.
Seems worse at the beginning of the DVD, the end with Sweet Home Alabama and Freebird might have a different audience track.

Everything TASTES better with a side (or front) of 1968 Eva Gabor.

I tell ya, I'm smitten....

Nice random affirmation

....this is true.

Joachim Jogerst for turning me on to slamgrass through a band he was a founding member of, Leftover Salmon.
Chris A. for introducing me to jazz fusion.
Tim J. from CA for introducing me to the Grateful Dead through Steal Your Face and his tapes during the hiatus.
Barry my school chum for playing whole albums of Jethro Tull and Dave Mason when we were in high school.
Tucker M. for playing the first real rock (whole) album I ever listened to, Steppenwolf.
Dad for playing Glenn Miller, classical, musicals, and country western ("we have both kinds of music, country and western", Animal House) which opened up bluegrass for me many years later.
Thanks folks! And cheers all!

Edit: I put this on the subscription thread as things are really getting good on the DaP40 and I don't want to break the chain of first rock shows. Great reading!

Dave's Picks 40 is a piece of crap. All the sound, including the audience is on the left side. Threw it in the garbage. You should be ashamed to release shit like this.

Perhaps it’s your equipment?
Outta the other 25K recipients haven’t heard one other similar complaint.

I’ve taken the plunge and subscribe for the year ahead. I really enjoyed Dave’s releases this year, especially during lockdown!

You solved that problem

Not sure that I see the logic in putting 20 or more sold out items on the sale page. I know the Dave's Vinyl #1 and the DaP40 glass were sold out before they posted the sale, and I doubt that the other sold out items went within a few hours so... what's the point? Just curious, no biggie.

Dave's 40 sounds fine to me

seriously, though..."sorry that you feel that way"

"Backstage passes to meet Jerry!"

psyche!

I really wonder about all the crap they offer for insane prices

sunglasses that say Grateful Dead for $119 ON SALE no less

Focus
On
Releasing
Music

FORM

Why would they put something on sale when the item is sold out?

Is anyone minding the store?

How about releasing Detroit, Cobo Arena, 1977 show?

(to DDDerek)Cobo arena 77 has been released on 30 Trips around the sun in 2015.
I paid 14€ tax for last dave's pick 40. I have been usually suscribing the early birds each year since Dave's 5 (LA73). I would like to know what is the real tax for Europe countries as I only paid a tax before for a boxset (The Other One Spring90). as i stay unsucriber for 2022,I am just wandering if old customers may take adventage of one day to buy "a la carte"?

Cobo 76 was in 30 Trips.

Hey, I also just paid that tax. Until recently DaPs and other purchases from Dead.net arrived in my Paris mailbox without any surcharge of any kind. A massive tax and shipping surcharge was added to the St. Louis boxset as well. So I’ve cancelled the 2022 subscription. It’s no great loss, there’s plenty to enjoy out there and I’m always grateful for it.

Since earlier this year the rules on import tax and duty for packages from outside the EU have changed. What you will have to pay is country-dependent. You should be able to find the information for a particular country by looking on either the tax authority or postal service website for that country online.

Here in the Netherlands the charges are as follows:
Value up to €150: VAT - 21% plus a handling charge (€4 if paid online, €7 if paid at a post agent)
Value above €150: VAT - 21% plus import duty of between 0% & 12% (0% for CDs) plus a handling charge (€10 if paid online, €13 if paid at a post agent)

Examples of import costs here in the Netherlands:
Dave's Picks: €9.60
Listen to the river box: €51.64

thanks simon, we 're nearly to the same cost, i will try to shake my money maker. Maybe i will subscribe in Amsterdam and will visit your beautiful country.Nightfishing, postman rang me in Spain to say I received a 4cd package with a 14€ added tax. I beg her to pay for me if she may. and I eventually found the 40TH in the mailbox. Try to iumprove your relationship with post service. what about sending a mail a day earlier to old subscribers? I am afraid to miss a great 73 show like RFK...

Do UPS know the correct charge for things, though? It seems quite random what I have to pay here in England. I don't recall paying anything extra for the last Dave's Picks-number 38, nor for the vinyl "Light Into Ashes". But I was over charged for the box. I have been told I willget a refund for that one though.

I was a bit naffed off having to pay import duties for my last purchase from Bear Family Records in Germany, which I have never been tasked with before. A new and frightening development.

Daverock, the simple answer to your question about UPS charges is "No". They have no idea what the correct charges are. For the Listen to the River box, UPS charged people in the Netherlands a massive €116.07 when the correct amount was €51.64. We managed to get refunds within a few weeks but why should we be subjected to this sort of ineptitude.
I didn't have to pay anything for Dave's 39 but I did have to pay for Dave's 40

As for having to pay for stuff from Germany, think Brexit. As a majority (albeit a tiny majority) chose to get the United Kingdom out of the EU, one consequence of this is that you now have to pay VAT and import duty on goods imported from the EU. Similarly EU citizens have to pay for goods imported from the UK. Naturally, like all taxation, this sucks, but is something we have no say in.

Fifty years ago today…………

It was a day between, a travel day, now, fifty years later, giving us time to ponder the deeper mysteries of music, because there is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres…..

I have been asked by a fellow traveler in 1971 Grateful Deadness to post a comparative analysis of two December 1971 Dead shows. I won’t tell you where his own tastes lead…….

Monet or Renoir? Joyce or Dostoevsky? Ellington or Mingus? Whitman or Frost? Wells or Bradbury? Rubies or emeralds?

Second Felt Forum or Second Fox Theater????

Every precious gem radiates and luxuriates in its own unique brilliance. One mustn’t necessarily outshine the other. Must we be forced to choose that single one that touches our hearts, and ears, most deeply?

The "1971 challenge" is a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. I generated a single page/single post rough draft already, and while it's nice, I'm not totally satisfied with it. After all, 12/5 vs 12/10 is serious 1971 Grateful Deadness. LOL it's like Ali vs. Frazier, Cowboys vs. Steelers, chocolate chip cookie dough vs. pistachio.

The analysis itself isn't that hard, as long as you try to apply uniform criteria to both shows. And in attempting to be "objective" (always an issue while trying to analyze/criticize any art form), one has to try to put aside personal, subjective feelings and opinions. Which in this case, is truly difficult. I'm very familiar with both shows, but 12/5 has been a favorite of mine for a long long time.

When comparing different years, one comparative factor is "style". Here, that's not an issue since the shows are only 5 days apart. Which is actually good, because that factor is quickly eliminated and therefore one can concentrate exclusively on "content". Which means things like lengths of first and second sets, characteristics of the big jams, encores, etc. Naturally, the two shows have a lot in common, but there also have some very important differences as well.

For any and all who wish to weigh in, vote early, and often!!

Tomorrow: Felt Forum---how much does weirdness count?

Rock on!!!

Doc
What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit…..

Felt Forum December 5 1971

Set 1: 15 songs. Opener: Bertha. Closer: One More Saturday Night. 7 Garcia, 5 Weir, 3 Pigpen.

Substantial, top notch first set. Perhaps the greatest one-off ever, revealing Garcia’s old soul. Muddy Water sounds so well rehearsed, as if it had been in the repertoire forever. Garcia’s picking is so so sweet. Solid Weir and Pigpen material. Excellent first set.

Set 2: 15 songs, plus one ‘loose jam”. Opener: Truckin’. Closer: NFA reprise. 5 Weir, 7 Garcia, 1 Pigpen, 2 “group” (NFA, NFA reprise). Encore: Johnny B Goode. Big jam: Dark Star.

A Truckin’ for the ages. A nonverbal—but certainly not silent---version of their signature psychedelic opus. Fine jamming in the NFA suite. Really fine second set.

We should revel in the gooey exotic weirdness of the Felt Forum show. Twists and turns, peaks and valleys, Pigpen and Bakersfield, rock and roll, Grateful Dead. In December 1971, did it get any better than this???

Overall rating: classic of the first rank.

Tomorrow: Second St Louis, Rodney Dangerfield’s favorite December 1971 show…..

Rock on!!

Doc
Embrace your weirdness!

Fox Theater December 10 1971

Set 1: 12 songs. Opener: Bertha. Closer: Casey Jones. 6 Garcia (including two back-to back), 4 Weir, 2 Pigpen.

Well played, somewhat Garcia-centric first set. No major surprises or weirdness. Appears “typical” for late 1971, which still means “excellent”. Even so, clearly, on this evening the goodies were delivered in the second set.

Set 2: 14 songs. Opener: Good Lovin’. Closer: NFA reprise. 5 Garcia, 5 Weir, 1 Pigpen, 2 “group” (NFA, NFA reprise), 1 loose jam (sometimes labelled “China Cat” jam”, which lasts perhaps one minute, does that count as a song?).

Encore: One More Saturday Night. Big jam: The Other One.

Really fine Good Lovin’ to open, here Pigpen reveals his old soul, the only time it was played this month. Excellent big jam, as the Other One bobs and weaves along, seamlessly transitioning into and out of Sitting On Top Of The World. Typical fine late 71 jamming in the NFA suite. Rockin’ Saturday Night to close the show.

Now, after all these decades, we are treated to the full sonic majesty of the second Fox Theater. Now, without doubt, it shall get its due respect………..

Overall rating: Excellent!!

Rock on!!!

Doc
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth……

I’m not big into analyzing—or choosing--one show over another. I like what I like, but I am interested in what criteria folks use to judge what is “best”. The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis.

Style? Content? Quantity over quality? What is the value, if any, of weirdness? Whose tunes are “better”? Decisions, decisions, decisions, every song is like a painting. Speaking of which, Renoir-Dostoevsky-Mingus-Frost-Bradbury-Rubies. Just for the record….

Honestly, I love BOTH shows. One is “merely excellent”, while the other is “quirkily classic”. Which one is which? The only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions. By constant contemplation of excellence, we clear our selfhood of all dross and impurities. Freedom comes with the impossibility of choosing…..

This may surprise no one, but if I had to choose a “desert island show”, it would not be either of these shows, although clearly, both are exceptionally fine, and worthy!!! Music is the best means we have of digesting time…..

Tomorrow brings December, be prepared! He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter……

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk. Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life……

Rock on!!

Doc
Truly fertile music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, will be a music conducive to dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate reason.

Anyone know when they announced the second Dave's Picks release last year? Antsy to know what follows 5 26 77 ...

Also, the Dead played COBO in Detroit twice: 10-3-76 (30 trips) and 11-1-77 (unreleased ... the original post on this was referring to the 1977 show, which he correctly notices as unreleased).

Good time to make a donation to the Internet Archive, if so inclined.

"Giving Tuesday: Triple Your Impact
Thanks to a generous donor, every gift you make to the Internet Archive until the end of the year will be matched 2:1. That’s right: donate $10 to the Internet Archive today and it turns into $30 to keep our servers humming."

I think we'll know around mid-Dec when they announce the second release w/bonus disc of 2022, to gin up subscriptions before they cut off folks from the subscription sign-up.

So, could be two weeks from now. As usual, I have no clues, only a wish list. As stated previously, I wish they'd package the Watkins Glen soundcheck with the 50th reissue of Wake of the Flood, whenever that's scheduled. I wish they'd make DP 42 out of 6-10-73. I wish they'd find the missing reel to my first show, 9-19-72, and release it. I wish they'd release 7-31-73 and 8-1-73, shows I attended. When they get to the 50th release of Blues for Allah, I wish they'd release 6-17-75, the only unreleased '75 show. And I wish they'd make a release out of the '66-'67 tapes left in the vault.

And I wish they'd bust out some '68, '69 and '70 tapes. There. I think that does the wish list for now.

Okay, most likely none of that will see release as DP 42, but I'm putting in my two cents mojo just in case!

Yo! Rockers!!!

We’re in the home stretch. Cold winter beckons, warming music arrives……..

This is not the winter of our discontent. The anniversaries of eleven fine shows await. Two bona fide classics, maybe more, all worthwhile. October good, November better, December best. Be prepared!

Rock on!!

Doc
A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened…..

50 years ago today……

December 1, 1971
Boston Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts

Set 1: Truckin'-Sugaree-Mr. Charlie-Beat It On Down The Line-Comes A Time-Jack Straw-The Rub-Tennessee Jed-El Paso-Big Railroad Blues-Casey Jones-One More Saturday Night

Set 2: Ramble On Rose-Me And Bobby McGee-Big Boss Man-Cryptical Envelopment>drums>The Other One>Me And My Uncle>The Other One-Not Fade Away>Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad>Not Fade Away

Deadicated to Albert, where ever he may be. Don’t go all existential on me…..

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. After an absence of eighteen shows, Pigpen returns, albeit in a slightly subdued mode. But it’s good to have some grease back………..

This was the first show with both Pigpen and Keith Godchaux. It includes the final performance of The Rub, which is actually a pretty decent, hard rocking version. The Other One reprise has some nice, energetic “interior jamming” before they return to the Other One theme and the second verse, after which they fairly abruptly stop. This is followed by extended tuning prior to the start of Not Fade Away.

Hard to assess the first set due to “suboptimal sound quality” of the first set audience recording, but it seems well played and well received. The second set is very fine, highly recommended!

Rock on!!

Doc
I have just returned from Boston. It is the only thing to do if you find yourself up there……

Yo! Rockers!!

My DaP wishes:

42: 2/15/73, bonus disc 2/19/73
43: 6/30/74
44: 6/27, 28 1985

Save all those summer 73 things for a big box set. That would be sweet!

Rock on,

Doc
Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes......

50 years ago today…..

December 2, 1971
Boston Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts

Set 1: Bertha-Playing In The Band-Mr. Charlie-Sugaree-Beat It On Down The Line-Black Peter-Next Time You See Me-Jack Straw-Tennessee Jed-Mexicali Blues-Smokestack Lightning-Big Railroad Blues-Casey Jones-One More Saturday Night

Set 2: Sugar Magnolia-Deal-El Paso-Brokedown Palace-Uncle John's Band-Not Fade Away>Turn On Your Love Light>Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad>Not Fade Away-Johnny B. Goode

Deadicated to Ken Kirk and Joe Lydon, for all the shows we shared together……

Maybe not a top-tier classic, but it has its own quirky gooey goodness. One of only two 1971 shows with both Black Peter and Brokedown Palace, and the only 1971 show with both Smokestack Lightning and Turn On Your Lovelight.

Back in the very early years of my crazy tape trading daze this was one of the first “local Dead show recordings” I had, so it has a special place in my Grateful Dead heart of hearts. It never seemed like the greatest Dead show ever, yet I still treasured it then---AND now.

Definitely worth a listen…………

Rock on!!

Doc
There may be a great fire in our hearts, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke…..

Yo! Rockers!!

Speaking of messages, does anybody check PMs any more? Hint hint................

As they say at my office, "Sure is dead around here......"

Rock on rockers!

Doc, paperwork day
You die, but most of what you have accumulated will not be lost; you are leaving a message in a bottle.....

Some people have claimed that PM’s no longer work.
I’ll send you a test.

Test successful. Well done!

Never had a problem with my PMs. Except maybe getting too many, or not enough, especially after I had my stroke.

You think you know me, but I'm not sure that even I know who I am anymore................

Rock on!

Doc
I've never been lost, but I was mighty turned around for three days once............

Doc,

The 2/15/73 show is long overdue for release. If memory serves, that would be tough to fit on 3 discs, so the 2nd release of the year would be perfect with the bonus disc. That show was one of my earlier tapes back in the late 1980s, but I didn't have the full show-- part of the first set on side 1 and then Dark Star-Eyes-China Doll on side 2. That tape got lots of play over the years.

To folks who say that everyone has it-- not in the remastered glorious sound that Mr. Norman is putting out. I just recently reset the shows on my phone for car listening after two years of the same shows on it (long story that I won't bore you all with here). One show was a non-official SBD of the 5/4/77 Palladium show and the sound quality was fine, but not Norman-fine. What he is doing with tapes that come his way is remarkable.

Lastly, Doc, thanks for continuing to share your love of 1971 shows. I love each report you give and you have made me love fall/winter 71 more than I previously had. I used to favor spring, but now see the merit in the Keith and Pigpen shows later in the year.

Why stop there!
How bout a Dane county box!
Kinda like St Louie or Giants
Most of the remaining shows from there are all quite good, including 10/25/73!

I've been drinking too much beer. Oh wait! I meant, about DP 42....

Due to the St Louis box being '71-'73, I'd say DP 42 won't be from those years. But it's gotta be a hot one to gin up subscriptions. So I'm going with either 1969, 1970 or 1974.

Despite Dave L's attempt to water down the flow of good shows with some suspect tapes (good shows, but suspect sound quality) they've got plenty o' good shows in the Vault. The only question is whether I can hang in there long enough to hear 'em.....

As Dave's 41 is a companion to Dave's 1, might 42 be a 1974 (like Dave's 2)? Especially given the 71-73 box ...

Then, if one looks at 1974 and what's left, maybe 2/22-23/74, or 9/20-21/74 ... or some combination of late July 74 shows (7/21, 7/25, 7/27)?

50 years ago today…..

December 4, 1971
Felt Forum, New York City, New York

Set 1: Truckin'-Sugaree-Mr. Charlie-Beat It On Down The Line-Tennessee Jed-Jack Straw-Run Rudolph Run-You Win Again-Me And Bobby McGee-Comes A Time-El Paso-Smokestack Lightning-Cumberland Blues-One More Saturday Night

Set 2: Ramble On Rose-Me & My Uncle>The Other One>Mexicali Blues>The Other One>Wharf Rat-Casey Jones

Encore: Johnny B Goode

Deadicated to evilyn2003, Mr.Dc, dissident1980, Maine Dave, Across the Rio, cosmicdavid, Lost Dantian Tapes, Dantian's Wei Lu, Heart of Dantian, Sydney Prentice, and Grayteful, because how cruelly sweet are the echoes that start, when memory plays an old tune on the heart…….

The food that feeds us all, the Grateful Dead………

We shouldn’t let the intense cosmic quality of December 5 overwhelm the other shows from this fine run. Here is a solid, well played show that you almost never hear about. The first set is long, well played, and has some nice, slightly oddball tunes like Run Rudolph Run, You Win Again, Comes A Time, and Smokestack Lightning. Equipment difficulties appear to be at a minimum. Admittedly, the second set is short, but does have the quirky, heavily Weirish jam sequence. Maybe not a top tier show, but certainly worth a listen…………

Rock on!!

Doc
To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher…..

For 1974, I would recommend Ally Pally 9/11 - spectacular Eyes.

Anyone keeping track of how many '74 shows are known to reside in the Vault, versus how many have been released? I have the feeling there's limited # of '74s left. (Whereas I think I counted 25-30 shows from fall '72 that might fuel a box.)

Again, anyone have a count for '69? I have the impression they played a lot that year and that many shows remain in the Vault?

Probably the actual numbers depend on whether DL and Co think that those show merit release, performance- or sound-wise. But if Dave thought some of this past year's '80s cassettes were good enough to release sound-wise because the performances are there, that should mean that decent tapes from the '60s are also good to go if the performances are hot.

So now I'm leaning towards a '69 show for DP 42, with, yes, '69 material in the bonus disc.

I need more time with my existing collection! It's huge! So many great releases and a hard drive with a shit-ton more, courtesy of you-know-who...