DAVE'S PICKS VOL. 41: BALTIMORE CIVIC CENTER, BALTIMORE, MD 5/26/77

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January 19, 2022 - 10:51am

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Dead Admin

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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.

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January 23, 2022 - 4:20pm

#1251

proudfoot

Joined:
August 2, 2020

Trivia

"yours truly on public saxophone"

Who said that, and where were they?

Answer correctly and win a smile
January 23, 2022 - 3:02pm

#1252

Crow Told Me

Joined:
October 15, 2020

That was Rich

Wow, great story, Rich! Really nicely written. I could almost smell the back seat burning.

Pretty sure I was at 7.13.84 along with Proudfoot. We used to call those early summer shows at the Greek the High Holy Days. I still wonder why there has never been a Greek box. Tape quality issues, maybe? I sure remember those shows fondly.

I think maybe that particular show was the one where we decided to get a room at this motel on University Ave maybe a mile from the Greek. Which was convenient cos we were none of us in especially good shape for driving after the show. We had like six of us staying in a one bed motel room. We couldn't really sleep, for various reasons, but fortunately a party started up in the parking lot. The whole hotel was filled with Heads, evidently, because some guy started playing tapes out of his van, that night, but instead of complaining everybody just started hanging out in the parking lot, passing around beers and whatnot. I still remember this one couple, they might've been the owners/managers, they were older, the guy was wearing turban, and they were watching us all with wide eyed amazement, wondering who the hell were these crazy people and what was that music?
January 23, 2022 - 2:02pm

#1253

nitecat

Joined:
November 1, 2010

Third Listen - Dave's 40

Ok I gave this Dave's release a third listen over the last few days. I really like it. I think Spring 90 was more together and energized, but Summer 90 is pretty damn good. I'm finding I like the second day, 7/19 a little better. It has a Foolish Heart, one of my favs, and some really great guitar work by Jerry throughout. The jam after Playin is really cool, as is the jam out of Uncle John's. I found myself playing those jams a few extra times, they were so good. Jerry sings with passion on all the ballads, even if his voice isn't as sweet as it used to be. The crowd singing the NFA chant at the end gave me shivers, and reminded me how much I loved to see the band with a crowd of deadheads. With such excellent playing, I even look forward to hearing the US Blues encore when we get it in a couple weeks. No shipping notice for me yet.
January 23, 2022 - 12:34pm

#1254

PT Barnum

Joined:
December 2, 2009

gr8 story Rich

had an olds delta 98 that was as big as that biscayne, that back seat was literally a couch on wheels.
January 23, 2022 - 12:24pm

#1255

proudfoot

Joined:
August 2, 2020

And now

I think I heard Airto on 4 22 79

Probably cant be released

Hot show. Ignore the sfb review in the compendium.
January 23, 2022 - 12:21pm

#1256

proudfoot

Joined:
August 2, 2020

The Great Trek To The Greek

1984
Drove from LA to Bay Area on 7 13 84

Mike's 69 Ford LTD

big ol' thang

AC didnt work

But it got us there and back
January 23, 2022 - 11:29am

#1257

icecrmcnkd

Joined:
October 20, 2015

Good story Rich

Detroit Land Yachts.

I’m not familiar with the Biscayne but in the mid-80’s my friend had a 67 or 68 Oldsmobile Luxury Sedan that could easily fit 8 teenagers comfortably.
January 23, 2022 - 11:25am

#1258

Vguy72

Joined:
June 29, 2007

Awesome story Rich....

....slow burn lol.
January 23, 2022 - 10:52am

#1259

Rich McManus

Joined:
January 23, 2022

Remembering Baltimore '77

Burnin' the Seats of the Biscayne
or
Leavin' Town a Quart Fuller
by Rich McManus

The trip to Baltimore from the District of Columbia is virtually a straight run up the neck of a guitar--almost as invariant as a string. You get on I-95, point the car north and let about 30 minutes go by.

My brother Tom was the wheelman for the ride up to catch the Dead at Baltimore Civic Center. He was then in his first year of law school and, with proceeds earned from pumping gas, had bought a 1962 Chevy Biscayne, which is basically a living room on tires.

The bench seats, front and back, were full of guys. There was a cassette player, but it was one of those $89 models plugged into the cigarette lighter, with speaker wires trailing into the rear of the car where they attached to tinny speakers free to wander the car's rear deck as the vehicle pitched and rolled up the highway. At several points, the speaker wire was spliced by hand; once in awhile someone had to reconnect errant strands.

The tape for the ride up had to be one I had just scored in Chapel Hill, where a kid named Ivan Spector had allowed me to dub cassettes from his reels. He had permitted me to copy an April 1977 WNEW radio performance including a song I had called "Inspiration," and another I labeled "California."

So we had recent Dead to enjoy as we rolled up 95 on May 26, 1977. Somewhere along the way, a pipe was filled and passed across the expanses of the Biscayne interior. Hand to hand, to mouth, and front to back, crossways, frontways and oops, it fell into the crease in the back seat.

"A prophet on the burning shore..." Ten minutes after the pipe had made its rounds, reports of the scent of smoke reached the driver. Some in the back seat complained of warm bottoms. But there was no smoke or visible flame, just a persistent odor of burning leaves.

Tom pulled the Biscayne into a gravel lot near the Civic Center and we all hopped out, more curious now about the source of the smell than about the impending concert. We pulled the rear bench out, flipped it upside down and discovered an ever-expanding black circle in the straw matting that formed the interior of the seat: the thing was on fire, albeit a slow burn. The only thing with which to douse the sleepy blaze was cold beer. It seemed a shame to spend beer on the little fire, but that's what we did, then reloaded the bench in the car.

On the walk up the ramps inside the Civic Center, I wondered if such a secret fire would outwit our attempts to extinguish it. Would there be just ashes when the show was through?

We were in the balcony, on the left side as you faced the stage. Jerry was on the far side. All I really remember from that night is Bobby chastising the crowd for arriving late to the show, and Jerry grinning broadly as he rocked back and forth playing, the music rising out of him and his bandmates. They seemed like happy spectators at a circus they had called forth.

The pipe came with us on the trip inside. There was a girl sitting by herself in the row in front of us. The custom in those days was to pass what you had around. I leaned over to interrupt her concentration on the show, but she declined. She couldn't take her eyes off the stage.

Walking out after the show, I was convinced I'd just seen the best Dead show of my life. Which is exactly what I thought after leaving perhaps a dozen previous shows. "How can they play any better than that?" we wondered, worn out, giddy.

"Roll on up, gonna roll back down." One of the guys in our group, Dan, was from Baltimore. He knew of a corner bar nearby where the bartender would fill any container you had with beer, call a price, and you could walk out the door.

From somewhere within the acreage that is the trunk of the Biscayne, Tom produced an empty glass Tropicana jar. He disappeared into the corner bar, which on that May night was wide open, not even a screen on it, and emerged moments later with a frothing jug that the barman guessed was worth around $2.50.

"Took a whole pail of water..." The seats were mercifully cool as we whisked down 95, passing the glass from mouth to mouth. The dirty little six-banger under the hood was purring that night, past exits and overpasses and open spaces that are no longer there. It would be almost 20 years before we learned that people taped the show that evening, and would share that show (thanks Rick Wurster and Tom Melvin!) with whomever showed an interest.

Back then, it was as likely as your pants suddenly bursting into flames that the world's greatest rock and roll band would roll all over the world for 30 years, amaze everyone, and preserve performances--for that broad bench seat that is the future--that burn, unextinguishable, like a secret fire.
January 23, 2022 - 10:39am

#1260

1stshow70878

Joined:
September 11, 2014

Blues Interpreters

Not my favorite interpreter but a Muddy & Wolf Joe Bonamassa at Red Rocks show is on PBS next Saturday. Probably an old one recycled for begging. I find him difficult to watch but there's no denying the skill of the once child prodigy. Virtually all the true blues legends have said speed doesn't equal soul, starting with the "British invasion" blues interpreters. But influencers they are and thankfully many of us did trace back the true roots eventually. Give me a Stevie Ray any day.
Cheers

John Perry Barlow

John Perry Barlow

Forums

Dead Store Products

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.

1967 tape lists

"About 120 shows were played in 1967 and only about a dozen tapes are in the vault". Hopefully more will show up, were lucky to have the tape from the Shrine Auditorium.

Re: Mr. Jinks

Nappy, as soon as he figures out your passwords you're done. With your PC and Amazon two day shipping they have little use for us.

Vguy, check your pm

Re: Red Rocks. Nappy, too.

I got gas for $2.57 yesterday....

....unfortunately it was at Taco Bell.

VGuy, Take A Bow

I tuned in quickly for a laugh, and VGuy, you don’t disappoint! LOL! Cheers!

I voted for you

Hey Pedro, I ordered the re-released DP 19 CD directly from Real Gone.

They are producing the correct Disc 3 and mailing out to everyone who got the duplicate disc through them.

Mine is theoretically scheduled to arrive today, after an epic USPS routing journey from California to Denver to Harrisburg PA to Lancaster PA to Chicago and finally back to Denver.

Chicago, New York, Detroit, it's all the same street...

From across the stars

So, after Jimmy Buffett dies and enters the pearly gates, God takes him on a tour. He shows Jimmy a little two bedroom house with a faded parrot banner hanging from the front porch.
This is your house, Jimmy. Most people don’t get their own houses up here, God Says.
Jimmy looks at the house, then turns around and looks at the one sitting on top of the hill.
It’s a huge two-story mansion with white marble columns and little patios under all the windows. Tie-dyed flags line both sides of the sidewalk and a huge Grateful Dead banner hangs between the columns.
Thanks for the house, God, But let me ask you a question.
I get this little two bedroom house with a faded banner and Jerry Garcia gets a mansion with brand new Grateful Dead Banners and flags flying all over the place. Why is that?
God looks at him seriously for a moment, then with a smile God Says,
That’s not Jerry’s house, it’s mine.

As a boy I believed I could make myself invisible...........

Hey rockers!!!

Is it just me, but did every DaP just disappear from the Dead store. In the past, they always left even the sold out one up there for a while..........

Rock on, with a tip of the hat to H G Wells and Claude Rains,

Doc
I'm not sure that I ever could, but I certainly had the ability to pass unnoticed.

Weird

Dave's Picks are gone..

Forensic doc

I was wondering the same. Dave's picks have disappeared completely.

When all else fails there's always delusion.......

I think it's because they're all going to be replaced by Doc's Picks..............

Ah, one can dream.......................

Doc
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.......

Dick's Picks 19 / Oklahoma City

Thanks for the heads-up, JB. Hope Amazon will also do the right thing.

Dave's not here

"Rock on, with a tip of the hat to H G Wells and Claude Rains"

Here we go gathering nuts in May!....

Dave's not here....

....man!

X Los Angeles

Fn awesome album

XLA....

....fun.
Nausea is a keeper.

If a bear s**ts in the woods, can it still discuss Dave's Pick's

...Just curious.

@Proudfoot...

Lene Lovich!!! Mas cool...saw her at the Whisky in West Hollywood way back when...Her and Les rocked the joint!

Caught Los Lobos last night in Boulder....

Lots of fun people and not crowded. The band came out smokin' with a new killer drummer (so sorry, Bugs, you were major fun) and Conrad's son played electric bass throughout (no guitarron, unfortunately), as Conrad is recovering from a non-threatening health thing-y. With a new rhythm section, these guys simply rocked out, though they also did some multi-instrumental Mexican folk songs for which they're deservedly famous.

Naturally, especially for Boulder, they did NFA and Bertha in a medley that turned into an insane, long jam. Caught up with some of my peeps after a too-long hiatus and we had a blast, with a little whiskey and a little Indica to sweeten the already amped mood.

Let me tell you, folks, going to a show, hanging with a fun crowd, catching up with friends and partying to the hardest-working American band of 50 years standing (I've caught them maybe 15-20 times over the past 30 years) was, in a word, humanizing.

Got up today, went about my business with a smile, renewed, eager for more. This period right now is likely to be a lull in the pandemic and I'm going to take advantage of it by hitting my local open mic sessions and catching a few local bands. Once spring arrives, it'll be easier to be safe outdoors.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. As you were....

HF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o glad it rocked, but then again, how could it not! Fredo is fitting in better and better...I do miss Bugs though....let's see if any good pulls pop up....

The Wolves

Playing in Baltimore and Annapolis this weekend.

mmmmm....

Their fat psychopathic wives would thrash them

within inches of their lives

All in all you're just another brick in the wall

cow palace 76'

Just listening to the first set pitb. My daughter was visiting, and she said "good jam dad." The dead right? ...........yup.

Cow Palace NYE '76....

....they played my favorite Samson that evening 👍.
I've caught The Wolves four times. Never left disappointed.
Jim. Just Do It.
Thumbs up to the "good jam Dad" Carlo. My son did that during a Hell In A Bucket I played the other day.
And no, I'm not a Nike spokesperson. I'm an Adidas, Sketcher and Birkenstock kind of guy....yup.

V

Yup. That Sampson on 76' can be tricky for novice deadheads since it starts quite different , and can be passed by if not looking at set list. aka. Browsing.

Just browsing/easy money

Rodney dangerfield and joe pesci said in easy money, "we're just browsing". "Well , you dont look like browsers". "Mabey I'm just half browser, on my fathers side". I guess you had to see the movie.

Cow Palace NYE Samson

By the time that CD came out, I was looking for new Dead releases every time I went you the record store. I was only really into the two-tracks in those days, but I did try out a few Dick's Picks (16, 18, & 20). I understood two-tracks to be anything that was not a Dick's Picks (but they did sneak To Terrapin: Hartford '77 right under my nose; that thing was mixed perfectly at the board and they knew it). Anyway, I remember listening to Disc 2 first, because seeking out a Sugar Magnolia to supplant Rockin' The Rhein was an undercurrent in my Dead upbringing (I still love Rhein the best).

When that Samson pre-jam came on, I had lost track of where I was in the disc but remember being enthralled by it and thinking, yeah, this is why I love the Dead. And then the Jam merged into Samson, and all was good in the world.

Stoltz, that might be my all time favorite Floyd moment. The Echoes "guitar part" is right up there.

Only two more months until Winterland Feb '74 + Bonus.

That Samson

....from New Year's 76 also sticks out way far in my mind. The totally seamless switching they do during the Good Lovin into that Samson is something to behold. I still remember where I was the first time I actually *heard* that sequence, driving from DC to Baltimore to go hang with my brother. When this segment came on I recall jaw dropping, staring blankly at my car CD player saying *WHOA*. The light had turned green, I was none the wiser.
That show has been a top tier '76er for a looong time.

Be Well People.

Seventy-Sixtus

On the bright side...

A much happier story, "the light had turned green, but I was none the wiser"

then

"The light had turned red, but I was none the wiser"

Sampson and Terrapin Station (the studio version at least) are two songs that really benefited from two drummers.

Back to your regularly scheduled Dark Star > Discord & Mayhem. May the peak be with you.

The Obi-Wan teaser trailer dropped today....

....looking forward.
May the peak be with you too.
There was a strain of weed called Obi-Wan that I got last year that was just exactly perfect. Keep your eyes open for the Kenobi strain. You'll thank me later.

Favorite T Shirt Eva

Was I Peaked at the Greek. (which I did). It strangely disappeared before I outgrew it. I wonder where it is now?

Is it wearing tie-dye?

Apparently a mummified body was found in a wall at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.
Did someone get stuck while trying to sneak into a Dead show?

re: Obi-Wan

You're a Good Man, Vguy doing this public service.

Great Trailer, better weed.

Be Well People.
Sixtus

There was...

a DJ in LA early to mid 60's...his name was Gene Weed and he went by the promo name of "The Weedy One"...he worked at KFWB and also hosted the TV show "Shivaree" which was a syndicated answer to "Shindig"...the weedy one indeed...by '67 he was weedy no more...I say a strain should be named after him....

Mummy found at the Kaiser....

....thought you were joking Conekid. They actually did!

Deadle

Solve the GD concert date in 6 or fewer inhalations

Re: Mummy

Both tragic and hilarious. One of those things you just can't reconcile.

To all you kids watching at home.. being stoned does not give you walk through solid objects superpowers.

For Proudfoot!!!

In the early 90's there was a gig at the LA Memorial Coliseum ...Headlining was Guns 'n Roses, 2nd bill was Metallica and opening was Motorhead...A buddy of mine took his 14 year old nephew and copped a couple of backstage passes from a friend of his...his nephew was a big Metallica fan and wanted to get their autographs on an LP he brought...a band flunky was standing by the door to their motorhome/dressing room and rather rudely told them they couldn't go in...Lemmy watched this go down, told my buddy "we'll be right back" and steered the kid towards the door, gave the flunky an "I dare you look" and they both went in...a bit later they came out and Jace was loaded down with swag and his autographed LP...my buddy thanked Lemmy and then Lemmy asked Jace "do you want G'nR's autographs too?" and Jace told him "Nah, they suck"...Lemmy looked at my buddy and said "That's a smart kid..."

Mummy found

That's a wild story. I saw some great shows in that building. The last time I saw the Grateful Dead there was Feb 1989.

5/26/77

I've been digging on this one lately! I agree with Dave on his thoughts of this show sounding a little more raw/gnarly compared to other spring 77. Dave has spoken of this show often since arriving on scene. Another great pick!........ such a great time to be a Deadhead, right?........ have a grateful day, Gang!!

This just in!

The Mummy was a DH who got so high that at the exact moment he was peaking somehow his molecular structure vibrated at the right frequency to move through the first wall, but because of the composition of the second wall his progress was impeded at just the moment when his peak and the peak of the song subsided, thereby significantly reducing the molecular frequency such that he was now unfortunately trapped inside the wall. To make matters worse, his attempts to pound on the walls and yell were dampened by the unfortunate fact that Drumz was now in full progress and by the time the sound was quiet enough for him to be heard, he was unconscious due to lack of oxygen, thereby sealing his macabre eternal fate, until now.
Brings new insight into “you’d be better off dead” !
Goes to show, ya don’t ever know! Perhaps he shouldn’t have dropped that last tab? You all know the story “ well I dropped a couple hours ago but I’m not feeling it, maybe I should eat another one”

Another great story

from the Napster! Keep ‘em coming.
Too funny, nobody likes Axel, even other heavy metlers lol.

Contest answer

From my post on 2/19 -

here's the clue for Today: Miami greyhound squid

You may notice that the "T" in Today was unnecessarily capitalized. Hence, show date is 2/19.

The Dead played seven times on 2/19. But where and which year?

"Miami greyhound" was the nickname for Hall-of-Fame basketball player Rick Barry of the Golden State Warriors. The team played their games at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. But not on 2/19/91, because the Grateful Dead played there that night.

For extra credit, I was going to ask if anyone knew the historical significance of that show. That's where "squid" comes in. If you Google "Grateful Dead squid," a video pops up of a band called Squid playing "New Speedway Boogie." Rick Barry's jersey number was 24, and 2/19/91 was the 24th time the GD played that tune. It was also the first time they played it since 9/20/1970 - on hiatus for over 20 years!

Over and out.

The Mummy Returns

What a weird find! Gives new meaning to the phrase “If these walls could talk”. The press is speculating it may have been someone “accidentally” (on purpose al a Jimmy Hoffa) got caught in the wall during construction.
It begs the question - didn’t any of the other workers notice when the young carpenter’s apprentice disappeared after lunch? Stopped reporting for work? Never came for his pay?

I’d say there is skullduggery afoot in Oakland all those years ago…a mystery for the ages.

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