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    A sealed, unlabeled box sat undisturbed for decades on a shelf in the Grateful Dead’s San Rafael tape vault on Front Street, its contents an enduring mystery, even to those few with access to the vault. All David Lemieux knew about that box when he became the Dead’s archivist was that it contained tapes belonging to Bear—Owsley Stanley, the Dead’s first soundman and architect of the Wall of Sound. Even in the Dead Heads’ Holy of Holies, the taped-up box was tantalizing. But this was Bear’s personal property, and so he didn’t touch the box out of an abiding respect for the elder luminary of sound. Bear’s archive of Sonic Journal recordings had been kept safe for him for years within the Grateful Dead’s vault—over 1,300 reels of tape stored in heavy-duty cartons like old banana boxes. At any time, David could have popped the tops and explored them to his archivist heart's content. But they were off-limits without the nod from Bear. - Starfinder Stanley, Hawk, and Pete Bell, Owsley Stanley Foundation

     

    With a wink and a nod from Bear, we've peeled back those banana boxes to find some of the oldest and rarest of all recordings of the Dead including the double dose of shows that make up DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 43. The two virtually complete performances from San Francisco 11/2/69, Live At Family Dog At The Great Highway, and from Dallas 12/26/69, McFarlin Auditorium, are complementary in their clarity and consistency thanks to Bear himself, and in their ability to foreshadow where the Dead were headed in the years to come. If the two killer 20-minute+ "Dark Stars" don't get ya, how about the Pigpen-centric sets featuring "Midnight Hour," "Next Time You See Me," "Big Boss Man," "Good Lovin'," and the once-lost-now-found complete rendition of "Dancing In The Streets," or the first full acoustic set ever performed? And we're certain you'll be fascinated to uncover the "Mystery Of Bear's Banana Boxes" as told by Starfinder Stanley, Hawk, and Pete Bell in the liners.

     

    Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 43 was recorded by Owlsey "Bear" Stanley and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. Grab a copy while you can.

     

    *2 per order. Very limited quantity available.

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  • Oroborous
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    Simple must do audio rules

    There are many things that can be done to get your system set up correctly that often can facilitate noticeable performance improvements equal too or greater than any electronics! Best part, they cost little or nothing!

    SPEAKER PHASING: one of the most notorious mistakes that makes a huge noticeable difference and is super easy.
    Make sure your positive amp/receiver terminal is connected to the positive of the speaker, ON BOTH speakers!!
    So positive to positive, negative to negative etc. on both speakers.
    If one is wired opposite of the other, your speakers are out of phase which means their working against each other instead of with each other. Speakers move back and forth, or in and out. If one is wired out of phase that means one speaker is pushing air out while the other speaker is pulling back in, thus effecting bass coupling dramatically! So what you say? You will likely laugh or gasp at how much better your speakers sound (bass enhancement) when you hear them in phase after getting used to them being out!

    SPEAKER HEIGHT: the tweeter should always be placed at ear height. So if using stand speakers, measure so stand places the speakers tweeter exactly at listening position ear height. In conekids case he’s a little higher, which might effect his main position, but since he’s trying to cover 2 zones IR areas it’s a trade off. This is an example of how the situation may dictate slight tweaks, but you should at least start following these rules then tweek.

    SPEAKER PLACEMENT: optimally should form an equilateral triangle: same distance from listening position to each speaker, and same distance between speakers. This can be tweaked depending on several variables.
    Spread them out too far and you lose acoustic coupling and stereo imaging etc., too close together and your sound field collapses and you lose stereo effect etc. This is something you can play with and doesn’t cost anything.
    Obviously you should try to avoid placing objects in front of speakers…
    They should be placed along a wall, but out from the wall. Too close to the wall causes boundary issues that make bass bloated and unnaturally loud etc. Too far out from the wall and they can sound too thin (not enough bass).
    Again, depending on your speakers and other factors you can play with this until you get it right.
    Same with listening position: if you sit too close to any wall, but especially the back wall you’ll again suffer from boundary issues that unnaturally bloat/muddy bass.
    Really you should never put speakers or listening position next to a wall!

    RULE OF THIRDS: look it up. Though using the third dimension is usually not practical, the rule of fifths is and works perhaps better. What’s that you say? Divide your room into fifths. Place the speakers one fifth of the way in from the side walls, leaving three fifths between them. So a 20’ room would have the center of each speaker 4’ from the side walls with 12’ between speaker center points. Then, to form the equilateral triangle, measure 12’ from the center of each speaker to your ear position at your listening sweet spot! Depending on your speakers you may want to toe them in slightly versus having them point directly forward. Again, play around and tweek. Tweeting should be done vary slightly, sometimes an inch or two can make a big difference! Be slow and methodological.

    SUB WOOFERS: I’m not a fan of subs for 2 channel stereo, but they can be a necessity for small bookshelf speakers etc.
    Subs suffer even more from boundary issues described above! Corners are usually the worst place to put a sub woofer!
    Here’s a trick. Place your sub in your listening position and put on some bass active music you know well. Now crawl around on the floor and listen. When you find the place the bass sounds best, put your sub there. This is a cheap down and dirty way to deal with room modes, one of the biggest negative factors in music enjoyment. (Look them up).
    I have a fairly large above average system in a dedicated room, but my room is too narrow for my system so I often have horrible bass bloat issues because of these room modes etc. (funny but it’s mostly only a problem with old Dead when Phil was still playing Alembic lol). Usually I can just roll off a little of my 30 hertz eq nob on my C 40 pre amp. I have a DSP room unit that uses excellent Dirac SW, but haven’t gotten around to it (slacker).
    There are many solutions and sometimes DSP can help (but that won’t do pure analog folks much good) but often the best way to deal with many of these issues is to follow these fairly simple rules and play around with things.

    Oh, lastly. You can help smooth out your room by dampening first reflection points. There’s diffusion and absorption and more. But to keep it simple. We’ll just look at some basics.
    Have someone with a mirror move along the side wall with the mirror. The place where you can see the speaker in the mirror while being seated in the listening position is the first reflection point. Put something (all kinds of things both diy and professional) in that spot along the wall (and ceiling if you want to go the extra distance) that will absorb the sound, so that your hearing the direct sound from the speaker without the phase issues and coloration of the reflected sound off the wall. This is another simple but big improvement.
    You can experiment with placing adsorption in other obvious places like directly back from the speakers on the opposite wall. If you have a big room, perhaps look at second reflection points.

    NOTE: this is not sound proofing! That is a whole other field above and behind this tutorial. Save your money! Putting egg crates, foam, or most of the items for sale on line DO NOT WORK! They will not stop bass from passing through walls and structure! Some of these products may help the sound in the room, but will do nothing for stopping it’s transmission out of the room!

    SPEAKER ISOLATORS: another thing you just have to try. Using the pointy spikes or not for speaker feet. Sometimes they help other times you may want to isolate your speakers from the floor to eliminate too much bass and our help with transference to another room or dwelling.
    Oh, use a heavy carpet on the floor at least between the speakers and listening position if not bigger. Put this is yet another situational thing that you may have to play with.

    Remember folks: the situation is the boss!
    Hope this helps!

    HDCD: if everything is set up and functioning properly you can hear a difference. How noticeable or if noticeable will depend on your equipment, set up and ears. If you have a nice system and actually play discs, you might find some improvements but for many you might not really hear a difference, certainly not a huge difference so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Following the above mentioned rules as much as possible will!

    Oh, ps, the above assumes best case practices. As no room is perfect, and some are just plain awful, and many of us need to live with our significant others, ahem, obviously not everyone will be able to follow all of these.

  • daverock
    Joined:
    Replacement

    Cnkd - It never occurred to me at the time that I could have asked for a brand new replacement. The replacement from the shop floor is better - the first one used to skip tracks out - with this one it's just the delay in registering which track is playing by about a second that's a bit odd. It plays to perfection apart from that. And really sounds good.

  • Dennis
    Joined:
    Sound systems

    Good talk.

    More important to system?

    Listening!!!

    When I bought my system the guy told me, you will not hear what this system does, while doing the dishes, while cleaning, while doing anything else. You have to sit and listen.

    It's true.

    Sound systems and people are a funny thing. I think MOST people listen to the radio and only own a handful of cd's/albums, usually the stuff they listen to in high school or college,,,, after that they stop buying. Kids today seem to live off spot-e-fied and own nothing. I have found the largest genre in people's collection is christmas albums (go figure!)

    I think this group of people are the exception to that.

    What'd ya think?

  • KeithFan2112
    Joined:
    Since there's a CD player discussion going on...

    For people who are listening on HDCD players, what sort of improvement can you hear in the audio? I would think there is some discernable improvement.

    I think I've listened to these shows 10x each. Moved on to others in the time period. Doing Dick's Picks 4 at the moment. I was not hardcore into the Dead when it was released. I imagine people were reacting even more positively into it than even this Dave's Picks, due to the Fillmore legend of the Feb 13 & 14 shows when it came out. Was there a discussion board up at the time to spread the enthusiasm?

    Vguy - good to see the red dice and green felt has returned - it's positively you.

    Nitecat - also digging TC's contributions on these shows. When he was "on" and audible, he really filled out their sound nicely.

  • icecrmcnkd
    Joined:
    More audio talk

    Wow, Daverock that’s a pricey player to be malfunctioning, and then be replaced by a floor model (which apparently has the same defect). They should have given you a new one from the factory.

    I thought that my new Cambridge Audio CD player was defective but then realized that my Vizio TV remote interferes with it. I had the TV on and was going through the menu adjusting settings but every time I hit a button on the TV remote the CD player would jump tracks or stop playing. Was relieved to find that the CD player was fine.

    Nick, go with what sounds best to you.

    Last night spun the Anthem of the Sun CD that I bought in 1989 (it’s the 1971 remix) and it sounded pretty dull.
    Then put in Steppin’ Out CD3 and started at Truckin’. Sounded better, but not that great.
    DaP43 sounds far superior to those older CD’s.

  • daverock
    Joined:
    Magic Ingredient

    To me, the best sounding recordings I ever heard were the first ones I got, between 1971 and about 1978. They were records, and what made them great was the magic ingredient. It had nothing to do with what I played them on. If your system captures that-you've got it. For me you can no more improve on that than you can The Grand Canyon

    Nick1234 - having said that, I got a Rega Saturn-R cd player about 3 years ago. And it sounds great - but the first one I bought had to go back to the shop after about 9 months, as some cds wouldn't play-and others jumped to the 3rd or 4th track when I wanted to hear the 1st one. They eventually replaced it with a display model from the shop floor. That is great - although I have noticed that half way through a cd...when the music for track 4 starts, the display unit still shows track 3 for a few seconds - it is slightly behind the music. But the sound quality is top notch. As for the magic ingredient....

  • Charlie3
    Joined:
    My Wife

    I joke, but my wife has put up with my idiosyncrasies and such for 30 years, 36 if you count the time we were together before getting married. She deserves a medal, 'cause I am aware that I can be a difficult person to live with sometimes.

    The speakers have a clear pretty clear path to spread the sound around the space and the actual speakers are at the upper two thirds of about a 43 inch high tower, so a bit above the ground, and built to tilt ever so slightly to direct the sound slightly upward and fill the space nicely, so I exaggerate about the impediments, or more accurate to say I just get a little obsessive about the impediments to the sound.

    For tonight's classic '70s movie I went with the Godfather, the first one. I've watched it several times before but it never disappoints, I love that movie every time. A near perfect movie, weirdly gratifying.

  • Nick1234
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    System advice

    While we're on the subject can I ask for a bit of advice? I'm in the market for a new system and at the moment I'm thinking of a Naim Supernait 3 amp and B&W 702 S2 speakers. I can audition these at my local hifi dealer. What CD player to accompany these? I'm not going for a turntable at the moment. I have 5 weeks to audition anything at my local shop before I move to the Shetland Islands and there's no hifi dealer there that I'm aware of so it's now or never. I'd sort of like to support Rega as their factory is about a mile from my current house but at these prices I'll go for the best fit for my ears.

  • Vguy72
    Joined:
    Also point out....

    ....that at concerts, they raise the stacks on cables for maximum efficiency.

  • icecrmcnkd
    Joined:
    Charlie, etc

    Point out to your wife that at concerts they don’t put the speakers on the floor, that would block the sound.

    My kitchen and living room are connected end-to-end, about 12 feet wide, so not a huge area to fill with sound. The speakers in the air project the sound into the kitchen perfectly, with the sweet spot from the front of the couch back to the island in the kitchen. Can also see the TV on the wall from the kitchen.
    It’s just me and my dog, so I can turn the volume up as loud as I want.

    I’ve had this new CD player for 2 weeks and have also been playing non-GD CD’s to see how they sound. The Cambridge Audio dealer that I got it from said that it needed about 100 hours of use to get broken in so I’ve been spinning CD’s instead of using my iBasso music player.
    Once the CD player is broken in I might then run it into the DAC via stereo RCA cables which I did at first, and it boosts the signal by about 20 dB according to having to turn down the volume, but I wanted to break it in sending the signal to the receiver.

    Spinning Rush - Exit Stage Left currently.
    This morning was Floyd - More and then Piper.
    I’m thinking next the Anthem of the Sun CD I bought in 1989, want to see if that sounds good or if it’s a victim of crappy 80’s mastering.

    The iBasso music players come with a burn-in adapter which simulates the electrical resistance of being plugged into a stereo system. You plug that in and put a show on loop and just let it run for about 50 hours, and then it’s supposed to be broken in.

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A sealed, unlabeled box sat undisturbed for decades on a shelf in the Grateful Dead’s San Rafael tape vault on Front Street, its contents an enduring mystery, even to those few with access to the vault. All David Lemieux knew about that box when he became the Dead’s archivist was that it contained tapes belonging to Bear—Owsley Stanley, the Dead’s first soundman and architect of the Wall of Sound. Even in the Dead Heads’ Holy of Holies, the taped-up box was tantalizing. But this was Bear’s personal property, and so he didn’t touch the box out of an abiding respect for the elder luminary of sound. Bear’s archive of Sonic Journal recordings had been kept safe for him for years within the Grateful Dead’s vault—over 1,300 reels of tape stored in heavy-duty cartons like old banana boxes. At any time, David could have popped the tops and explored them to his archivist heart's content. But they were off-limits without the nod from Bear. - Starfinder Stanley, Hawk, and Pete Bell, Owsley Stanley Foundation

 

With a wink and a nod from Bear, we've peeled back those banana boxes to find some of the oldest and rarest of all recordings of the Dead including the double dose of shows that make up DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 43. The two virtually complete performances from San Francisco 11/2/69, Live At Family Dog At The Great Highway, and from Dallas 12/26/69, McFarlin Auditorium, are complementary in their clarity and consistency thanks to Bear himself, and in their ability to foreshadow where the Dead were headed in the years to come. If the two killer 20-minute+ "Dark Stars" don't get ya, how about the Pigpen-centric sets featuring "Midnight Hour," "Next Time You See Me," "Big Boss Man," "Good Lovin'," and the once-lost-now-found complete rendition of "Dancing In The Streets," or the first full acoustic set ever performed? And we're certain you'll be fascinated to uncover the "Mystery Of Bear's Banana Boxes" as told by Starfinder Stanley, Hawk, and Pete Bell in the liners.

 

Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 43 was recorded by Owlsey "Bear" Stanley and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. Grab a copy while you can.

 

*2 per order. Very limited quantity available.

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Check out the following article by writer Kendall Hamilton “The Great 'Touch of Grey' Debate” - an enjoyable read, and always nice to see the Dead get some contemporary press coverage.

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into the transitive nightfall of diamonds. not one, 2 Darkstars. what's not to love, thanks Bear and all the rest of you crazies at Deadnet. More of this kind of music is what we all need in these times. If only the orange sunshine that was around in those days was around now, things would be quite different. Peace, Love, Dead.

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not AT the great Highway. No longer there, heard it's just sand dunes now with a condo across the street.

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Direwulf, that's a very funny comment you made regarding Nurse Ratched, what a great sense of humor. I think if I saw the Dead pulling off a live version of Lovelight in 1969, it would be much more interesting then just hearing it on a tape some 50 years later Seeing Pig Pen and the Dead tearing it up live would have been very cool. Seeing hockey live is the best, seeing it on TV, not nearly as good.. I saw Bobby Blue Bland close out the S.F. Blues festival with Lovelight, and it was a knockout . Fireworks are the same way, they are way better live then on tv.

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Nice release, I like the two shows on one release because of the shortness of shows. Recording sounds GREAT!

I just thought the cover was "The Hippy and the Cowboy",,,,, San Francisco and Dallas.

My cohort and I was listening to "Little Sadie" last night (one of my faves)

He commented he thought Garcia's E string was missed tune,,,, he wasn't sure if it was out of tune or tuned intentionally that way. I had no clue.

Anyone?

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Help on the Way!?

David, can you please illuminate this HDCD spec for us? It seems to be an increasingly esoteric format. The critical question…

Is a special player, transport, or DAC needed to realize the full value of these HDCD discs?

There is conflicting and unclear information online; mainly in forums like Reddit. Be nice to hear officially from the horse’s mouth.

Thanks!

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In reply to by BartStephens

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I'm not sure you'll hear anything from TPTB regarding HDCD.

You need to have your digital gear decode that codec to get full benefit and I think the end digital stage would have to decode it as well as your transport. I have not had success playing any release in HDCD. My Oppo DVD player is capable of HDCD but my digital Parasound preamp is not. If I had an analog preamp, I think it would work.

I had looked a few years back at new CD players and did not have much success finding any. If you don't have HDCD capable gear, best bet is to find on used market.

I don't think it was widely adopted, but some of the digital converters on PCs like dbpoweramp or foobar might work. I don't have any experience playing with that stuff. Maybe a search of Steve Hoffman forums may help.

I mainly rip and play music thru my phone or my sonos system, so I never really pursued it further.

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I ditched my long term DaP subscription when the 80s releases started flying again.

Have confirmed many times over that my era is essentially 1967-78, but that I've got enough already that only 1968-1971 will tempt me with new purchases. So here we are again. Yay!

Still monitoring for an eventual Ark release, and now any more surprise bananas that may pop out of Owsley's boxes.

Mixing things up the last couple years!!
I’m a all the years guy, so having a 60s pick is truly wonderful.
If it were up to me, I’d release 2 70s, and 2 of a revolving varying mix of 60s, 80s, 90s, etc.
meaning, each year 2 of the picks would be from 60s, and/or 80s, and/or 90s.
Since theres probably not a lot of usable tapes from the 60s (though I’m dying to know what else is in that box!), and so many people hate the eighties?, and perhaps there’s a tad less interest in the nineties (overall?), and of course tape quality must factor, I think it would be a fair way to get the most music to the most people.
I mean I get you folks who LOVE what YOU love, and pretty much only that, which is cool, hey we all want what we want etc. But it’s not fair to everyone else, AND it’s probably not as good for business.
So my 2 centavos, PLEASE keep mixing em up!
1965-1995, all the years combined…

Really psyched for this one: a fine lil 69 samich with a tasty acoustic center! And hey, who dosent like Sammiches!

HDCD: don’t quote me, but my recollection is that you only need a player with HDCD software/licensing to play that codec. Long, complicated, and sometimes controversial story about what it does etc, but how it does it is pretty simple.
Should only need appropriate player, but I wouldn’t go outta my way/worry too much about it. If your player has it, then do more research (try more audio centric forums like audiogon etc) and mess around with it, if not, I’d say most people couldn’t tell the difference especially if you didn’t know any better, and HDCD discs are backward compatible so will play just fine normally on any normal player. So nothing to worry about! Hope this helps…

BOBLOPES: I’m curious if your using the DAC in the Oppo, or the parasound?
I have an Oppo that HDCD worked fine, but I was using the Oppo’s DAC and thus passing analog output.
Wondering if using a digital out and the use of a different DAC (in this case the parasound) is the issue?

EDIT: oh, glad they seem to have rapped their pointy heads around the idea that 2 super but short shows are just as good, perhaps better than one good long one! Think this door opening could open up a whole new slewfoot of possibilities. I still think the ultimate 60s box is out there, just waiting to be born: bits of 66, 67 etc, with some short but great 68, followed by some fine 69, and topped off with something from 1970 on top! Boo-yah!

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I'm in that category. I was lucky enough to have been able to catch a decent number of shows from my first on 7-1-84 up until the very last one with Jerry. This series helped open my listening to era's I had my personal biases away from, and in the long run its all good.

From my tape collector days I pretty much stopped worrying about source recordings and find that it's lucky any of it got documented. When there's such an abundance of very listenable recordings it's interesting to follow the translations, member changes, the evolution from pizza parlours to multi-night stadium venues and mega-festivals. You don't get that with every popular band or musician.

Ultimately I felt much better about the more variety angle with the series and was more likely to stick with subscribing. I don't own every single release they put out because there so much and it's cost prohibitive, but for what you get with the subscription and the early bird pricing, you can't beat it. I love the Deer Creek and Hartford 4 disc releases. They were nice surprises. At some point a 90s post Brent show will makes its debut in this series. It might take 44 releases or more to get there but I have faith that a great 91 show is screaming for the Norman treatment.

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and they released the 30 Trips box. I'm with you as far as another look at '66 to '70. They probably have some full shows in that era, but they probably also have some choice material that would be good to release. They've done a nice job on the bonus tracks for the first three re-released 50th album releases. Surely there's more!

Even a mini box of one disc per year would be awesome. Of course, we're on the fan side, not the business side, so who knows what the biz thinking is. Even if not destined to be a big money maker, releasing music purely for the fans would still do better than break even. Maybe it's on Dave's to-do list.

So we get two '69 shows right quick here. Works for me!

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In reply to by Oroborous

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Since my AV preamp is all digital with no analog bypass, could not really test it. The Motorola DSP in it does not due HDCD. I think the DACs in it are Wolfson.

I could hook up the Oppo to my NAD Integrated from the 1980's that's in my office but have not tried that. Not sure it has the wattage to power the low end where I think you notice the difference. The cool thing with my old NAD was there's a u-connector that can be removed that allows you to use just the preamp stage to power a separate AMP. I had done that for a bit, but my fancy interconnect cables I think were too bulky and may have caused a cold solder joint which prevents me from outputting one channel. That's at the bottom of my list of fixables since it works fine as an integrated setup.

Someday I will test it out and try to A/B it with an old Sony 5 CD carousel unit, but looking forward to this set up for the upcoming Lyceum vinyl!

About to turn my Nephew from France onto the glory of live releases. My Brother and his boys flew over from Paris for a family get together in GA at my sisters place. His son is really good at guitar but has turned his muse to painting and is trying to make a career of that. But he's been checking out the Grateful Dead via Spotify and was asking me which albums he should listen to. He was really impressed with Jerry's playing of Althea on GoToHeaven. So I recently ordered a portable hard drive and ready to blow his mind with some archive releases.

My brother was definitely the DARE generation with an anti-dead mentality. I think he was jaded by an ex-GF in college that probably got into them in the late 80s. When DaP11 came out, I grabbed an extra and sent it to him thinking the ripping Me & My Uncle might change his disposition since he plays guitar and had a large Rickenbaker collection at the time. Funny with me being older I turned him on to Kiss, the Beatles and classic rock, but our paths diverged when he went the Alternative route (DuranDuran, Joy Division, Smiths, Echo&Bunnyman, Replacements, Butthole Surfers) while my working concerts in college exposed me to so much different music (most I liked). As he got older and learned to play guitar as a stress relief from his divorce, he got into Elvis and some country but now exploring Jazz, he still has no desire to check out the Dead. Psyched his son does! My sister's youngest just saw Dead and Co @ Citi. Her boyfriend's parents grew up in the Bay area and his mother and uncle saw over 500 shows - they met @ Columbia Medical School a couple of years back. I turned her brother on to the Dead early on and he's been to a bunch of Dead & Co but has seen more Phish shows around the Big Apple, which is fine too.

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38 years ago today, I was at the Greek Theatre, ( along with a lot of other great folks on this forum), for another great day with with the Good Ole Grateful Dead. The Dark Star from 7/13/84 caught everybody's attention, but this was a great show as well. I think the new box set is fantastic, what a great time to be following the Grateful Dead. They were playing at some great venues, Greek, Frost, Ventura ,Warfield Theatre, Oakland Auditorium, and on & on . What a blast to be seeing them at this time! I would love to see them put together a Fillmore East/ Fillmore West box set, man that would be a knockout!

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HDCD Playback- fair share of older CD players have it which means can be bought cheap (think Toshiba and 20 bucks) on Ebay. Because the CD player does the work, you need analog hook up in order for it to "pass through" so you can hear it. There are some preamps that will do HDCD, like Marantz 8003, just make sure you don't have both the player and the preamp HDCD set to ON.

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Thanks for the primal GD, Dave. Please keep them coming!

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In reply to by RKDeadhead

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Appears that there are <25,000 people who need more grease in their collection.

Wonder why the resellers aren’t grabbing them, maybe they know what the true demand is for that era.

Might As Well start shipping now to the subscribers, don’t make us wait now that it’s been announced.

Beyond FW69, I think the 60's stuff doesn't necessarily gel to the mainstream. But that bothers me not.. I never care or cared how much things sold or sold out or if anyone at all liked what I like. I just know I like it. I like it all, but my desert island stuff is 67 through 74.. yet I find myself on a bender of post hiatus and it is working oh so well. I was listening to the NCal 76 Jerry Band release today and got tingles up my spine on Midnight Moonlight of all songs. When it works, it works. I have really enjoyed several of the later era releases lately.

That being said, I am really looking forward to this. It's about friggin' time Lemieux! and thanks.

On a separate note.. anyone out there a netflix subscriber? I am watching a kick ass series based on the book called How To Change Your Mind. I had to pause it just now as my 14 year old came down the steps and strolled by while some young woman in the late 50's (footage is black and white) was describing what she was seeing while wacked out on 250mcg of pure Sandoz lsd. Holy cow.

Highly recommended, emphasis on HIGH

Edit: I think the 25k number might haunt them, but I could be wrong. It's possible they might reach a number that combined with saturation and perhaps a recession where they might possibly have excess inventory, which would blow a hole in their collectible, limited edition model. That question, does 25k mean limited, or is it 50k, or 100k. If you pump up the numbers indefinitely, eventually you wind up where the cut-out albums were 40 years ago. (Anyone have albums where the corner is cut out? regardless of how kick ass the album is/was.. if the corner was cut out, you might as well be selling at the Dollar General store). Just a random thought.. as you were, and thank you Dave for finally releasing some 1969 kick ass GD.

Of all the shows I've seen, that '84 Greek Dark Star is one of the highlights ... actually, loved ALL the SF-area shows ...
The early 80's is when I saw the boys the most and looking at the MSG set list just makes me smile, smile, smile. Being a sheltered SoCal cat, I've never (to this day!) been to MSG (my loss for sure) and I can't wait to take a deep dive into the shows at that iconic east coast venue. I'm a little saddened tho, that a Greek boxed set that I KNOW Dave will put forth, will just have to wait a bit longer......tc

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now anything over $600.00 in sales is taxable income, so I suspect that there will be a lot less resellers now. It used to be 20,000$ before you had to pay taxes. Its not worth it to go thru all the hassles that go along with ebay to have to pay taxes on your measly 5 dollar profit. These new rules will, in my uneducated opinion, be the downfall of ebay.

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I always feel that these early shows would sell out faster but they don’t. I have the subscription like always so I am covered but I have a problem I I order another one because I am paranoid that I won’t get it. 😂 12.26.69 is one of my favorite shows. When people ask me what my favorite show is I always give them 12.26.69 they pause for a bit calculate and try to think 🤔 of why and if they remember that being a great show. Like Dave said it’s short but great never the less. Dave finally did it 12.26.69 might not surpass Dicks picks 7 but I think 🤔 it might equal it not in length but acoustic beauty. Thanks Dave Dick Bear Norman and yes even Rhino also the Dead themselves long live Pig let it shine let it shine peace

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It's not Ebay's doing, it's the Fed and IRS; not only Ebay is affected, but other marketplaces like Amazon, Facebook, Etsy.
This was part of the American Rescue Plan, to help pay for the millions spent on stimulus for the pandemic.
Ebay has actually been lobbying to get the fed to bring the $20,000 threshold back.

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In reply to by Cousins Of The…

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Isn’t only the profit taxable?
If you sell something that you previously purchased, and have the receipt, then only the profit is taxable. That’s my understanding, but I haven’t gone to the IRS or eBay websites to check.

Sounds fair, why should only brick and mortar sellers have to pay tax on profits?

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Dave Picks 43 brought me out of the shadows and into the light. I'm as happy as a Pig in mud!
Just by coincidence, I was listening to Dave 30 a few weeks back (1/2/70) This show was also recorded by Bear. The performance was top notch and the sound quality was outstanding! Someone mentioned they were worried about sound quality as a reason for not being able to escape Dave's Fort Knox like vault. So I trust Dave's assertion that the delay in release was mostly due to show length and maybe a reel was missing on the 11/2/69 Dog Show is accurate. He also mentioned some prime early 69' shows remain in the vault. (I am assuming direct soundboard recordings) Hmmmm. Tasty!

Be Grateful!

Sam T

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You are correct, fair but it doesn't work for me though, I sold LPs that I collected for years and do not have receipts for, which if I understand correctly means the profit would be the sale price, even though I may sell them at a loss.

You are both correct. I will add to cousins point. If you have something very old.. and do not have a receipt but you have some sort of proof of what it was originally retailed for or the price when purchased, put that together. In the event you are ever audited, it is the best documentation available which will sometimes fly, so long as it is reasonable, and you get a reasonable auditor. If you get a prick that hates vinyl or GD or the old china dolls you are selling or the color of your hair / whatever all bets are off. So long as you are honest and not cheating, that usually helps move things along.

Anyway.. way off topic, not sure how it wound up here..

In a prior life I got roped into corporate audits from time to time.. only after they really screwed things up beyond what could be fixed. We are talking systems conversions, data loss property theft, acquisitions where receipts never followed, people took off and absconded with a magic briefcase and were never reachable again, whatever.. Complete corporate meltdowns with enormous audit exposure. We would rebuild what we needed with the best data possible and present it as such. Most times people would be reasonable, but not always.. so you do the best you can. Take cousins point, it's a hobby where something old was liquidated in EBay for whatever reason.. kid needs braces, college, whatever. If receipts do not exist, build a spreadsheet with what you know.. perhaps searches from the Archives Wayback Machine could be used to piece together some pricing and you at least have something. I wouldn't think it reasonable someone paid $0 for something and then sold it for a lot, so do the best you can with what you can put together. Tomorrow never knows..

Hope that helps.. Back to your regularly scheduled Pig in a Pen > Midnight Moonlight.

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Last Five or so (you might see a pattern here)

Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin
FBB - Burrito Deluxe
FBB - Sleepless Nights
The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Gram Parsons - GP ( first solo album with Elvis Presley's band, including Ronnie Tutt)
Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel
Gram Parsons - Alternate Takes from GP & Grievous Angel
Return of the Grievous Angel ( Tribute album organized by Emmy Lou)

I'm also looking forward to viewing a documentary "Gram Parsons - Fallen Angel) I tracked down on DVD.

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have you seen/heard this? recorded by Bear. from Amazon page....it's great. check it out

"LIVE AT THE AVALON BALLROOM 1969 - THIS PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 27 TRACK DOUBLE CD WAS FOUND IN THE GRATEFUL DEAD'S ARCHIVES. INCLUDES UNRELEASED COVERS AND IS A FULLY LEGITIMATE RELEASE. Amoeba Records. 2007."

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Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels "Live 1973" on Sierra Records (subsequently reissued by Rhino) is also well worth a listen.

I used to buy a number of things directly from Sierra Records years ago. It was a small independent label run by a fellow named John Delgado (sp), not sure if they are still around. I recall Syd Griffin and the Long Ryders - Byrds aficionados - were either signed to the label, or Griffin was. They were really big on all things Byrds & Parsons & Burritos & Gene Clark etc, stuff I grew up with and still listen to and love, and they were earnest in trying to promote that sweet country rock sound, and used to send you their typed catalogue with your orders. I’m sure their catalogue was bought out by a conglomerate, which was too bad, because he/they did a great job preserving a really unique niche of “rock music”, whatever that is.

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I too used to buy many LPs and CDs direct from John Delgatto. He used to dig up some great obscure recordings and lovingly do everything necessary to produce top quality releases. He stopped the retail operation a few years ago and I have heard nothing of Sierra since. Sadly missed.

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I recall even buying cassettes (!!) from Sierra, stuff from Gene Clark, Gene Parsons (Byrds drummer, who recorded with his wife), and obscure Clarence White with the Kentucky Colonels stuff. I bought some of my first CDs from them, including the first rate Gram Parsons & The Fallen Angels Live 1973 release.
Agree SimonRob - sadly missed.

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at least, I didn't use to. So, I've owned an item for say 50 years and now, I want to sell it. I don't have a receipt, I don't even remember what it cost. So I sell it on ebay for X dollars, now with new gubment rules, I will pay an income tax on all of that sale. I think this is a big mistake and one that will be quite detrimental to ebay in the long run.
I have read that ebay is fighting this and I myself have reached out to my elected officials to voice my concern about this assault on free enterprise, and there are bills in the senate and the house to increase this low tax threshold, but as of this year, 600 bucks is the limit.
This is exactly why this release has not sold out, there is no profit to be made off of releases if your main source of resale is now a taxable income source. I have sold many items on ebay and now, when it reaches close to 6 hundred which is now the limit before tax is applied, I will stop all resales so as to not trigger a 1099 and a possible audit. I have in the past sold way over this amount in a yearly total so yes, this will decrease resale and therefore initial sales.
The irs, or any other gov. agency for that matter, is not an agency that you want scrutinizing your personal life.

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Perhaps it might be 05/24/70.

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So why is it a bad thing if fewer people are buying DaPs just to flip them for a higher price?

OK, it takes longer for them sell out, because they're only being bought by people who actually want the music, which means more fans are able to get #43 for $30 from Rhino, rather pay double or triple (or more) for the same product on ebay. Why is this bad?

I mean, yeah, taxes suck, but all of us working schmucks are paying them on everything we earn and just about everything we buy. Why should ebay be exempt? Your local brick and mortar record store pays sales tax and income tax on every record they sell. Why should selling the same product on ebay be tax free? I don't get it.

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25,000 requests for a (new) 50+ year-old recording.

Despite all the diverse age groups or ‘Gens’ (or however consumers are grouped) there is still a strong need to hear grate music…regardless the economy, world events, or eBay’s new tax tracking mechanisms.

Kudos to GOGD! (And thanks Dave and company!)

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I would think that most resellers that are flipping GD releases keep their receipts.
Making a $600 profit on a single DaP release is probably few and far between.
Brick and mortar stores also sell online, so they were probably already paying tax on profit.

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Instead of talking about taxes and shipping.. stay with me folks.. We could talk about how exciting it is to finally see another 1969 Dave's Picks, and a twofer at that. As for will it sell out, was there ever a question? This is exciting news.. really two moments in American and World history, preserved by the chemist in chief.. If you think about what was going on back then it's just surreal.. you could not make it up.. if you tried to write fiction and these events all lined up, no one would believe you. Or as Zacherlee once said, the Greateful Goddamn Dead.

Oro tossed 11/8/69 out for pick of the day a couple days ago. I just finished hit. Holy crap.. fall 1969, thank you Dave.

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I would venture to say that I am happier at the news of this release than any 3rd Dave's Picks release of the year in a while. I was surprised this did not sell out sooner, I thought it would be gone within a day. Looking forward to another 2 versions of Dark Star to immerse myself in when this arrives. The rest of the releases that were recorded by Owsley have a really nice, clear sound, so that these were also recorded by him is the day glo icing on the cake.

For anyone feeling a little salty, here are some thoughts from one of the greatest movies of all time, at least to my addled mind. Imaginary bonus points for the first one to recognize the movie. Double imaginary bonus points if you can identify the band that sampled the quote on their debut studio album.

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

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Faye Dunaway and the quote from the fed-up news anchor Peter Finch (?) who I always thought was too old for Faye. Or was that the bad guy William Holden?
I love that movie! Timeless quote that could have been from today so easily.
No clue on the band.
Cheers

Edit: It reminds me of how the series Newsroom starts with Will's (?) rant. Aaron Sorkin stuff is genius.
Thanks Charlie, thinking of these two made me feel energized after a rough day.

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Yes, you are correct, the quote was from the movie Network and the speaker was news anchor Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch. Enjoy your imaginary bonus points 1stShow70878.

I can never decide if I like that "Mad as Hell" speech better, or the "You see, I just ran out of bullshit" speech he gives, at a different point. Also really dig Ned Beatty as Arthur Jensen and the speech that he gave "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I will not have it!" Great stuff. Later paraphrased by another favorite television show character of mine, Jimmy McGill in an early episode of Better Call Saul, directed at Howard Hamlin at the offices of Hamlin, Hamlin, McGill in the conference room at the big conference table. I guess Jimmy dug Network too.

The band is Sublime from their first album, 40oz to Freedom, a masterpiece, especially the original Skunk records release with the tune "Get Out" which was not included on the album once it was picked up by a big label later on due to some sampling issues. Great album to put on, turn up, and listen straight through.

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and I thought 'sod it' I'll order it, but too late. I'm pleased this morning mind, I've got too much GD as it is, I doubt there's anything new there.

Top 5 distilleries

Glenmorangie
Caol Ila
Lagavulin
Highland Park
Bunnahabhain

my nose is getting redder every day

last 5

The Fall- Perverted by Language
The Fall-Hex Enduction Hour (do you have to be English to get The Fall? Just shows you don't have to be great musicians to make great music)
Suede-ST deluxe b-sides
Eliot Gardiner -Bach Cantata pilgrimage vol 25
Spirit-Spirit of '76

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In reply to by Charlie3

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I would say I'm happier with this Dave's Picks than I have been with any in recent years. 60's releases are few and far between these days, so each one is cause for celebration. Also this was the era that first turned me on to the band - through records not live shows - so anything from 1967-1970 has that glow for me.

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