You can listen to Grateful Dead records over and over again and never understand the attraction they have for certain people until you attend one of their concerts. Sometime during the Dead's usual five-hour set, it will all click: Jerry Garcia's Indian bead string of notes on the guitar, the ozone ooze of the vocal harmonies, the shifting, shuffling rhythm of bassist Phil Lesh and drummer Bill Kreutzmann, and the distant echo of the oldest of American folk music. - Columbia Flier
"Certain people" will know that we're coming in hot with one that's got all these things and more, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 41: BALTIMORE CIVIC CENTER, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, 5/26/77. Yes, there's still plenty of spectacular May '77 to go around. Nearly chosen for Dave's Picks Vol. 1, 5/26/77 delivers three-fold. There's one count for the energy - all the precision of the Spring tour conjuring up the raw power of the Fall tour that was to come. There's another for the setlist which featured beloved songs from WORKINGMAN'S DEAD and soon-to-be favorites from the freshly recorded TERRAPIN STATION. And a third for its element of surprise (or shall we say surprises) from an astonishingly peak 15-minute "Sugaree" to new delights ("Sunrise," "Passenger," "Jack-A-Roe') to a rare first-set finale of "Bertha" to the second set's "Terrapin>Estimated>Eyes," traveling leaps and bounds towards the improvisational journey that is a nearly 17-minute "Not Fade Away."
Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 41: BALTIMORE CIVIC CENTER, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, 5/26/77 was recorded by Betty Cantor-Jackson and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. Grab a copy while you can.
2/9/73 Maples Pavillion
This would make a great release, it needs to be cleaned up a bit. My brother was at this show.
Question on 41
I'm sure most read the newspaper article that was in the middle of the "booklet".
It compared the recent "dead" show with a recent "zep" show.
I know there are people here who were seeing zep in 77, what was your opinion about the comparison?
2/9/73
An early tape of mine, and an early favorite. This one will get released one day. It's one of those shows with so many firsts. Some of the embryonic jams and solos are unusual and catchy. It really highlights the birth of some of the great songs in their cannon. So yea.. it's not if, but when this will get released.
Wasn't it also the test of a brand-new sound system? I seem to recall someone saying they blew out all the tweeters or blew out the tweeters on one side of the stage or something along those lines.. One of those shows that has some warts but shows so much promise.
@BTK & Dennis......
On Maples your Brother wasn't the only one there...Listening to an ESPN broadcast of a USC - Stanford game recently, Bill Walton talked about it...made me laff as he stopped talking about the game and talked about the show, all the new tunes and how the newish WOS sound system kept breaking down...his broadcast partner made a comment about how "After all these years of working with you I still don't get it..." And Dennis as far as '77 Zep goes no comparison...Page was out in La La Land behind his smack addiction, boring crowds endlessly as he nodded and bowed his guitar...Bonham wasn't much better with his plodding drum solos, his well documented addiction to alcohol did not make for being a great timekeeper...the last good Zep shows I saw were in '73...by '75 it was on it's way downhill...
Led Zepplin
My friend was a big fan of Led Zepplin; he saw them play at Kezar Stadium in S.F. in 1973 ( a week after the Dead played there) and he was real disappointed in the show. He was used to the songs on their records and he didn't think they sounded as good live.
re: 2/9
Whenever this date pops up in real life, anytime I go to write it or type it, I ALWAYS instantly write-in '1973' because 2/9/1973 is so embedded into my psyche on this date for all of the reasons noted here.
Perhaps the best Eyes of the World ever played; ever so skillfully, subtle, improvy, and delightful at almost 20 minutes for a 'first timer out of the gate'. A definite highlight that gave and gave and gave until the very last days of this band. One highlight among so many from this monumental show.
It will see the light of day.
One Day.
Sixtus
Nappy/ Muddy Waters
Nappy, is that a picture of you with Muddy Waters? If it is , let's hear the story. It looks like Muddy from the late 1970s. If it's you, it doesn't get any cooler then that.
Latest
On recommendation from Liner Notes, I spun Dick's 13- Nassau Coliseum 5/6/81 several times. Very enjoyable high energy show, with lots of jamming in the second set.
My original cassette transfer project had me listen to:
Greek Theater 5/21-22/82
Red Rocks 7/27/82
Fine, fine shows indeed.
I Keep Meaning to Comment
..but so many people beat me to it. Still, I cannot remain silent.
Dennis.. hats off for being both such a stand-up guy and the finest dressed short haired hippie I have ever seen.
A class act.
I've never been wrong before, but.....
what if Dave's comment on "variety" means NOT a box of '80s DATs and cassettes BUT a box of
68? I listened to So Many Roads and they've got a key segment from 3-18-68 (Dark Star>China Cat>The Eleven...
For me to formulate this notion is evidence that hope springs eternal in my GOGD heart.
I have really enjoyed DP 41 and have no issue with letter-perfect GD. Perhaps over time this release will be recognized as one of the high water marks for Betty's recording work.
Just Exactly Perfect
Have thoroughly enjoyed Dave's 41. You can't argue that the "just exactly perfect' period was one of the highlights of the of the whole trip. But I am with all of you who are ready for some not exactly perfect 67 to 69 era GOGD. On that note, I'm not sure if its been talked about on here before and I missed it or it got lost in the space called my mind, but the one the stand outs on the 30 Trips box (IMHO) was the 67 show. I loved all of the shows in the box, some more than others, but the 67 show is the one that always catches my attention when it shows up on my playlist. Am I right that this is the only official 67 release so far? Surely it can't be the only one in the vault for the whole year.
Pester, pester, pester!!!
@Billy...
Yes it's me and THE Man...done in the lobby of The Ash Grove, Spring '72...I had come back to LA from a San Luis Osbispo Forestry Camp where I was living and working after breaking my arm, hence the short hair....My Bud and I went to see Johnny Shines play and Muddy was in the lobby...My bro' Dogweed Al always carried a camera with him and told me to go up to Muddy to ask for a picture...I was like, no, don't want to bother him and Dg Al kept insisting and finally he walked over to Muddy to ask if it was ok to take his picture with me...He beamed and said sure thing and threw his arm around me for the shutter snaps...I was blown away....fast forward a few years...Muddy was set to headline a few nights at the Roxy behind the "Hard Again" LP release...my buddy went one night and took a 5 x 7 print of the picture and was able to get Muddy's autograph on it for me...he mounted that along with the promo placard that was on each table for the LP release party and framed it and gave it to me...sadly that one has disappeared through the years...
Thanks Nappy
That's as cool as it gets Nappy, thanks for the story.
Muddy Waters Hard Again
How I wish I could time travel to catch a Muddy Waters show(s) from the tour to promote Hard Again. I discovered that cd long afterwards but loved it. That voice! Wow!
That's one cool story and photo.
nitecat ... I was at all…
nitecat ... I was at all those shows ... I second your emotion .. fine, fine shows indeed! All three red rocks shows were in sometimes gushing "cool Colorado rain" .... and I can specifically recall being at the Greek and hearing Let It Grow and thinking ... how can they continue to build it up and up and up ..... and the crowd is going nuts because they are absolutely KILLING IT !!! Good times had by all, unquestionably
I met Margo Timmins from the Cowboy Junkies once....
....not as cool as Muddy Waters though.
Short Haired Hippy
I've looked like this my whole life, ok, thinner and color in my hair. The best thing about this look,,,, I've never been asked to get out of the car!!! Tripping balls with a bong between the seats and bags of product, gotten plenty of tickets, but really who asks Mister Rogers to get out of the car :-)
Nappy, wow, Muddy, wow! I've never met anyone famous! Seems most have met someone, but me, no one!
Sixtus,,, indeed nice Eyes from 2/9/73. But like Jim and Cumberland,,, never met an Eyes I didn't like. But aren't most of their songs like that, they were all done GREAT at some point. Maybe you just haven't heard that "blew me away" one yet. I sure there has to be at least one GREAT touch of grey!
Sometimes I wonder if Jerry didn't think Eyes was his greatest tune, that the lyrics affected him as much as most of us.
Sometimes.......
I sat down for a minute, just now, to pick the junk up in the living room before the cleaning people come. Turned on the TV and the Andy Griffith show was on. A bunch of hillbillies are in Andy office and their doing "Shady Grove". I laughed. Apparently they were there to get Andy hitched to their daughter. But the guy who really loved her, gets her in the end. The guy was Gilligan (bob denver).
I met Bobby McFerrin
he gave me a grape
no kidding
word salad time: bosses are like diapers: full of $#!+ and all over your @$$
Agree
with: the Zep/Dead comparison contained in the old newspaper article in the DaP 41 booklet. That dude totally got it, unusual for the press; 82 Greeks; Tramjams; Conekid.
Not sure I agree about 2/9/73? Always felt that one is way overrated? Guess I’ll have to listen again but would ya really want that instead of say, the next show as just one example? No offense ment, just riffing. Yes it’s historic, but imho there’s better 73s left to mine. Or fall 72s!
Perhaps Dave should start a side trip series called Daverock, Hendrixfreak & Company that only picks shows you want lol (I’m teasing of course ; )
DENNIS: Smart AND hansom! And apparently quite the badass!
NAPPY: how’s the knee? Great story, thanks for sharing. It’s fun to meet cool peeps!
Alas, I only saw Muddy once. He opened up for Clapton, and blew him away!
Digging this 41. Not a huge 77 guy, but the sound is awesome, and not too much bloomy bass/drums that sometimes hampers shows during this era.The crew seems to keep getting better at fixing these ancient treasures! Dig the set list for the most part. My only complaint, not that I’d call it that is just echoing what others have said about too much 77 COMPARATIVELY , like where’s the PRIMAL dead Dave??
Think we need a 67-early 69 box, AND a fall 89 or 91 box.
@Dennis...
The Hillbilly gang in Sheriff taylor's office were the Darling clan....they figured in quite a few episodes...Head of the family was Briscoe Darling (played by Denver Pyle)...the three brothers were actually members of The Dillards, a well known newer bluegrass group...My favorite quote is when Briscoe asks Andy if he wants to play something with the boys...Andy asks "do we have time for that?"...Briscoe answers "You Got Time To Breathe, You Got Time For Music..."
Celebrities
I met Sinbad at a bar in E. Lansing circa 2000.
Tuesday afternoon about 3:00. Dollar burgers. He must have had a show that night. He was the only guy in the bar besides us. I was joking with my friends "Hey look guys, it's Sinbad. Turns around at it was! I bought him a $2.00 beer. Cool dude.
Oro-side trips?
I was thinking more in terms of a complete takeover.
I met John Lydon - Rotten as he then was -in 1976. He said "uh" and I said "uh". A normal conversation between 19 year olds at that time. I think we were on the same page. And I smoked a joint with Phil Lynott and Scott Gorham ( Thin Lizzy) once, round about the same time.
Tripping Balls 😃
Dennis thank you for your post. I laughed out loud at 'who would ask Mr Rogers to get out of the car?' and especially 'Tripping Balls.' That's a term I haven't heard used in a sentence in many years!!
last five, Muddy celebrities
What a great photo, Nappy. Muddy Water's arm around you! The Stones put me onto Muddy Waters in the mid 60s, my first lp of his was Electric Mud which was a bit weird with psychedelic effects. Lucky to see him three times, best was the first, exactly fifty years ago, February 1972 at The Cellar Door, a 160 seat club in Georgetown, D.C. This celebrity thing, happening to be in the right place, right time. Early career as a chef had me cooking for lots of names, best was the night Cab Calloway came, he signed that evening's menu for me. Embarrass myself to start listing names. There's a local celeb in these parts, has a hill farm up on Star Mountain. Jim Rooney, 83 now, still does a show on a tiny independent local radio station WFVR, plays at a local venue that limits to 40 seats. Jim came out with a book maybe 40 years ago, Bossmen, wherein he wrote dual biography about Muddy and Bill Monroe. In various capacities of American Music, Bearsville, Newport Folk, some of the Nashville DNA. A few years ago when Lyle Lovett was touring with John Hiatt, they played locally, invited Jim up to play with them. Looping back, Rooney does a sweet bluegrass version of the Stones "No Expectations".
started on a piano mando thing
Chris Thile & Brad Meldhau
David Grisman Denny Zeitlin New River
Charlie Haden The Montreal Tapes w/Paul Bley, Paul Motian
Keb' Mo'
Frank in Paris: Any Way the Wind Blows
Nappy & Andy
I figured that they had to be "somebody". I never watched Andy enough to know "occasional" characters. Of course everyone knows Otis!
"can you say 'psilocybin'?"
you're either on the trolley or off the trolley
Mr. Rogers
A known shroom hound while Mr. Magoo liked his acid strong. H.R. Puffinstuff, well.. too much of everything was just enough.
There's a picture out there....
....of Fred Roger's flipping off the camera.
King Friday was not pleased.
Give me a minute to change my avatar for a day lol.
That's not kind at all Fred!!
Grew up watching that great man. Good to see he was human.
There's a Part of Me..
that thinks this must be photoshopped. It cannot be true. Or more likely someone slipped some brown acid into his mushroom tea. Either way I forgive him.
This is cracking me up nonetheless.
2/11/70, 2/I3/70 & 2/14/70 rerelease
2/11/70 could be used as filler on a. rerelease of 2/13 & 14/70. They are such great shows, that I would love to see them remastered and put out in complete form in the order that the songs were actually played by the Dead.
Muddy Waters
I am too young to have caught Muddy Waters, but he is absolutely my favorite bluesman. I have a tangential story re: Muddy Waters though. My now wife rented an apartment in suburban Chicagoland from blues pianist Barrelhouse Chuck and his wife in the early 2000s. Chuck had cut his chops going to Chicago blues clubs in the late 1960s and 1970s and knew all the players, including Muddy Waters and his band. Once he found out my love of blues, he showed me his collection and told me stories, including his favorite, which goes like this:
Muddy is opening for Clapton on the 1979 tour and Chuck has a backstage pass at the Chicago Stadium show. He goes to Muddy's room and Muddy and the band (plus Muddy's bluesman friends) all greet Chuck warmly-- hugs all around, chatting him up, beers offered. Rolling out the carpet for Chuck. The way Chuck told it, he breaks away for a minute and up walks a baffled Clapton, who asks him, "Who are you? These guys are treating you like their long lost brother." Chuck just shrugged and introduced himself, then a still baffled Clapton walked away.
Chuck was a great guy. We took a chance and asked him to play our wedding in 2006 and he agreed for a ridiculously low payment for a player of his stature. He was a national touring act and played the European blues festivals, was cutting records with Kim Wilson of the Fabulous T-birds-- definitely not playing weddings anymore. But he put a killer blues band together for our wedding and even got Muddy Waters' son, Mud Morganfield, to sing for it! Family and friends still talk about that wedding.
By the way, still loving Disc 3 of this release.
When Nappy met Muddy...
wasn't that a movie?
2/11/70: I highly recommend listening to the NFA real loud today
oh yeah: powers that be, please drown reCAPTCHA in the pond
Proud Inch and Psilocybin
I'm old these days, isn't that the stuff in Meta-Mucil?
An unused life is an early death.....
It would be nice if they would put out the early shows from 2/13 and 2/14 1970. They're out there and they're pretty good.
Because of all the "guest artists", getting 2/11/70 out might be difficult, legally speaking. But that would be nice also......
Back to whatever it was that I was doing. Oh yeah, 2/27/69.............
Doc
We are the product of quantum fluctuations in the very early universe.......
Last 5
‘In the court of the crimson king’ King Crimson
RIP Ian McDonald
‘Black ships ate the sky’ Current 93
‘Strange adventures on planet earth’ Commander Cody
The inner photo of them in front of the Wall of Sound is good.
‘Live a Longlaville 27/10/1974’ Gong
I like the liner notes ‘when it came to squirrelling away recordings for future enjoyment, enlightenment or even possible enrichment, Gong were not the Grateful Dead’.
‘Further adventures Live 2016’ The Orb.
One day I’m sure I’ll be able to comment on DaP #41 but not yet. The last update from UPS from 7th Feb has it still in the US. It’s only two weeks after the official release date so it isn’t overdue yet.
Ian McDonald R.I.P.
Colin - that's sad news about Ian McDonald. In The Court of the Crimson King still sounds astonishing - my favourite King Crimson album. This was the band that Jimi Hendrix declared to be the best band in the world, I think.
In fact, the multifarious versions of King Crimson are the bands I listen to most outside The Dead. I only really got into them about 3 years ago, when I was lucky enough to see the three drummer line up in London.
Only this week, I got the Larks Tongues in Aspic Box. I had been put off by reports of the live concerts having a poor sound - but they are nowhere near as bad as I was expecting - and the improvisations are incredible. I just listened to the first part of Hull 11/10/72 before logging on here, as it goes.
That Gong cd, "Live at Longlaville 10/27/74" is a great one, too.
check out...
McDonald and Giles album
lame cover art, but a good listen
RIP indeed, Mr McDonald
I got arrested for stealing kitchen utensils....
....it was a whisk I was willing to take.
Bob & the Wolf bros
got my email from third man records saying the Bob Weir tie-dyed vinyl is on the way! Also the cd version and a 45 from Pokey LaFarge,,,, Central Time. (if you haven't heard it check out the live boob tube cut), great lyrics and great sound)