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.
re;Nick1234....
....'65 - '75 IS the best decade for music in my opinion.
Let's do a decade #1!
Another edit. Check out The Warning. A three piece sister power rock band from Mexico with impressive riffs. Whoa! Paulina, the drummer/harmony singer is on point!! Her enthusiasm is evident. Awesome.
Guess I'm on a girl band kick lately.
Happy Veneta Day!
It's the 50th anniversary of the greatest GD show ever. (Yeah, I said it.) Please celebrate irresponsibly.
Happy Veneta
I upgraded to Blu-ray and what a difference. The audio is great. I am watching this thinking how freedom looked back then. It seems like there was more freedom but I believe the music was just better. We had our problems back then too. I agree Crow, this show is terrific. I guess it helps that the source tapes are so good. Sometimes that's half the battle.
What would be a sure fire way to bring this 🌎 together?....
....everyone at a Dead show.
Make it so number one.
Insert your favorite Picard gif here.
TTB
I think TTB is excellent. Derek Trucks is legendary as far as I am concerned and Susan is wonderful. Talk about a power couple. Plus they really lined themselves up with some great musicians and vocalists. I hear a lot of influences in their songs. I really like the fact that they are not a jam band, or even a band that jams as Greg Allman would say. I think it is cool direction to take, especially for Derek who we all know can go after the improvisation from his Allman Brothers days.
A great footnote to this is that there is a YouTube video of TTB playing Anyday from about 11 years ago. Now this in itself isn't anything new, as the Allman Brother played that song and TTB continued to as well. However this video I am referencing has shots of many celebrities in attendance at this particular show. Just off of the stage there is shot of none other then Eric Clapton, who is singing along and rocking out to TTB playing Anyday. Talk about a great honor. I wish I could remeber the exact title of that video but I tihnk it is from a show or festival from 2011. If anyone gets adventurous I say it is worth the search to find it.
Time takes a cigarette
The records I first heard when I was 15 never really grow old. A magical time - for me 1972-73 was illuminated by...
Electric Warrior - T. Rex
Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie
Paranoid -Black Sabbath
Fireball - Deep Purple
Space Ritual - Hawkwind
and the one that really amused my parents..... the incomparable Slade Alive!
Singles were great then too - All The Young Dudes, Starman, Silver Machine, Schools Out, Virginia Plain come to mind.
I was oblivious to The Dead playing various dates in England at the time.
The Jayhawks....
....Hollywood Town Hall is just happy from front to back.
Upbeat. I love it. Thanks!
Thumbs up VGuy
Glad to hear you like the J’s, VGuy. The Jayhawks are terrific, and I’m finding out this offshoot group called Golden Smog (thank you Sixtus) is the bee’s knees.
Warning about this “Americana” music - it’s pretty infectious.
Once you tick that box marked “Americana”, the amazing music that unfolds is incredible, from all the performers mentioned, but including some other favourites of mine such as Neko Case, Gillian Welch/Dave Rawlings, Lucinda Williams, to old standbys such as Buddy Miller (I saw him play with Plant & Krauss - wow!), Ry Cooder, all the way back to the Band.
Do the Dead constitute “Americana”? Certainly, they were masterful interpreters of so many veins of music, from Motown to Reggae to Disco (yikes) to Jazz to Folk to….etc. Americana? Originators? Certainly American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead could be worthy of serious consideration, and notable for being ahead of their time, before this vein of music became defined as such. Hmmmmm…
Gratefulhan
That video is the 2011(?) Clapton Crossroads Festival. That's where I first saw TTB and fell for them immediately. They also interview a bit in there and describe how they found all the early influences like Delaney and Bonnie and wanted to revive that influence. It worked! The other melted happy face besides Clapton's was the host Bill Murray. You can lipread him saying, "WOW". To honor Clapton at his festival by doing a Derek and the Dominoes tune was a brilliant choice. The recent release of their whole live recreation of the Layla album really tops it off. And Trey guests on it too.
Cheers
In my humble opinion...
GD _define_ Americana.
They are the ultimate American success story.
Anniversary show 8/28/82. Lane County Fairgrounds
40 years ago today, I was up in Oregon for a good time with the Good Ole Grateful Dead. The show was a blast and the whole scene was just a lot of fun.. I had 3 tickets for the 3 shows in 1992, unfortunately it never happened.. 1982, what a great year to be seeing the Grateful Dead , with the Frost ,Greek , Ventura, and December Oakland shows, it was fun times. Hopefully, some of these Bay Area shows will be released some day.
Clicking Americana....
....I clicked an Americana playlist on Spotify. That's how I discovered Larkin Poe.
Proudfoot
I think you described the Dead's story very nicely in just a few words. To me they didn't just embody the American spirit, they imbibed it and reflected it back to us in the form of music. And they lived a free lifestyle exactly how they wanted to live it.
I have seen the breathing walls!
The breathing walls actually see you....
....Last Five
McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run.
The Jayhawks - Tomorrow The Green Grass.
GOGD - Dave's 30 Bonus. Fillmore East 1.3.70.
The Warning - ERROR.
Tedeschi Trucks Band - I Am The Moon Vol IV : Farewell.
TTB & Peanuts & The Moon
“Best of” and “Greatest” designations when assessing art and music are pretty ludicrous yardsticks to use, such as in the Grammy awards and other such nonsense, but I have to admit, it would be hard, if not impossible, to claim TTB’s four-part opus “I Am The Moon” not THE best music to be released in 2022. It is absolutely transcendent, beginning to end. If it was Sun Tzu that taught that a warrior’s greatness is measured by the strength and cunning of his enemies, then by that thinking, this suite is all the more remarkable when measured against all the incredible music also released this year.
Although I have their library, and definitely enjoy their music, I was ambivalent about their standing as a premier musical act, but I gotta tip my hat to them for this one. It is an absolute gem. A live reading of this four-parter would be a show for the ages.
My only kicker: This all would have made a killer double album. But once the marketing people get a foot in the door…
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” 5 CD set! 5 CDs!!!!!
The marketing people….
Godspeed to the stuffed Snoopy dog aboard Artemis 1, as it attempts it’s launch to the moon today.
Little Village - roots, americana, whatever you want to call it
I'm assuming most people on this board know about this album, but if not, it is worth a listen.
John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, Jim Keltner only made one together but it is very good.
1STSHOW70878
I did also see Bill Murray off to the side in that video footage too. I was just stuck on Clapton's reaction. Still it was defintiely cool to see Bill Murry enjoying things. I need to check out that TTB Layla Revisted album. I have been working on few projects that involve listening to a bunch of live shows so I have been occupied with that. When I get chance, I am going to give it a listen.
Layla Revisited
Y'all HAD to bring up the breathing walls...
C'mon, after 50 years, I was just getting over the breathing walls and ya had to mention them... Dang it!
As for Snoopy, a classic Rosie Magee pic of Pigpen shows his Snoopy pin on his greasy corduroy hat, plain as day. So maybe a piece of Pigpen's soul is heading to the moon on Artemis. (Though none of the reasons given for our return to the Moon make any sense to me. Except to stake our claim in the face of China's interest, which unfortunately smacks of militarism and control...)
And as for TTB, I keep tellin' ya, that's the hottest band on the planet right now. If they've got Los Lobos in tow, that's THE package. At least according to me, and, as you well know, I've never been wrong before...
Dear Dave-
So I've got Your Picks Vol. 43 in my hands and CD player. Cool music.... BUT...
I ask you, sir--is this how YOU listen to these shows? The first 9 songs of 11/2/69, then the 5 songs from 12/26/69, then 4 songs from 11/2, then 11 songs from 12/26??
If yes, then I don't feel you really appreciate the experience of live Dead--how each show is a unique event and piece of musical art, how each show has a rhythm and a story all its own. (This is WHY so many of us spend thousands of dollars buying these very shows on CD when we are content with just getting the best studio releases from other artists we love.)
If this is NOT how you would listen to these shows, and you do enjoy and appreciate listening to a show as it was performed, then you are not really respecting the rest of us who want to listen to the shows in that way but don't have the privilege of access to GD's vaults.
You make great choices of shows-- just let us listen to them as Jerry intended please. It's doable. Every single box set release does it.
Thanks!
TTB's I Am The Moon....
....twenty-four songs, and not a bad one to be found. Very impressive. I raise my glass to you.
And J3ff. It's due to the 80 minute time limits on the CD format.
Deadworld problems.
If they used a 4th disc then
people would complain about that.
Yeah running order aint perfect, but I'll take what I can get.
Anniversary show 8/29/87. Electric on the Eel
35 years ago, I was up on the Eel River to see Jerry Garcia put on a fantastic show, one set acoustic, two sets electric. What a fantastic spot, up in the Redwoods in the mountains right on the Eel River. It was definitely electric, what a swinging party.
Mixed up shows
Yes it's a gripe of mine too,I did mention this several Dave's Picks ago, when I was reminded of the Road Trips series of fragmented shows.
I am grateful to have the 2 shows on 3 discs,but it does annoy me at having to break off listening to a show to change discs.I do not have the means to re arrange the songs on a computer,& besides I enjoy the HDCD resolution.
As much as I enjoy my vinyl in my opinion the Grateful Dead live recordings are more enjoyable to listen to via CD, as you are not changing record sides between certain flows of the music.
Vinyl, cds and fragmented shows
Conversely, I do enjoy listening to live Dead on vinyl. It seems to make me focus a bit more. I don't listen to whole shows in one go- in about an hour I will have some lunch, and maybe listen to 2 sides of an L.P. That will be it for me for music for a few hours - I'll go off an do something else, and tune back in a few hours time, but again just for 40 minutes or so.
I don't listen to music during the core of the evening - but about 11.00pm...that's when cds come in handy. Sit back and let it all wash over me for a few hours.
With fragmented shows, I don't mind so much as long as it is clearly labelled on the sleeve what music comes from what show. Some of the earlier ones didn't do this - so you have to get Deadbase down to work out where different songs come from. If you can be bothered. The Dicks Picks from late July early August 1974 comes to mind-but there are quite a few.
And although Dave's Picks 43 works really well for me as a whole - I don't think it's necessary to fill every second of every cd with music. I have never liked fillers. Many of the greatest albums from the past clocked in at little more than half an hour. Quality-not quantity is the key, for me.
Dear Dave
I have received your Pick numbered 43. Cool music BUT, you really have a lot of nerve squeezing the absolute MAXIMUM of Dead music possible onto 3 cds(just under 4 hours worth).
As you may know, if us Dead Heads can’t listen EXACTLY the way we wish, and you know what way that is, then I’d rather have NOTHING!!
I love the Dead sooooo much, that if I can’t listen to a whole show, complete and in order, and not have to get up off my a$$ to perhaps change a disc, then you can forget it, the deal is off!! How DARE you give me 2 shows for the price of 1, of this band I love sooooo much. I’d rather just have 1 90 minute show, spread over 3 discs, IN ORDER, so that my entitled, lazy a$$ does NOT have to move while I am listening.
A rational person might think “oh my God”!! I’m getting 2 COMPLETE shows(minus 1 song) instead of 1, for the same price!! But no, we Dead Heads don’t want more music. We want LESS music, and only if it’s presented PERFECTLY. Perfect sound, NO PATCHES, no dropouts, in proper order, so that all I have to do is push 1, ONE button, and then I can laze back, stoned to the gills, and forget about life and how hard it is to be alive.
We want LESS music, PERFECTLY prepared, the less music the better, so long as it’s PERFECT, at least to me. Because after all, you ARE doing this just for me, right?? Seeing as how I’m the MOST important person in the universe.
To those who are Grateful to have the MAXIMUM amount of Dead music, no matter how poorly it’s presented, well, you happen to be so so wrong. And of course I am right!!
It must be so sad to not be me.
I have SPOKEN!! This is the truth, so sayeth the Lord.
Thanks Dave and Norman
For packing 2 grate shows onto 3 80-minute CD’s.
And for putting that missing Cold Rain and Snow on a future release.
Fortunately for me, I learned how to use a computer in the 1990’s, and now in 2022 can rearrange the order of digital music files.
As an alternative, some CD players let you program the order that tracks are played.
No offence but...
No offence but it's only my opinion, if I prefer to sit on my backside and listen to a whole show in order that's my choice.
Chieftains
I see the next Sonic Journals is by the Chieftains.
It is already available to order from Amazon UK and I’ve ordered it.
TTB and MMJ
Glad to see these guys getting love over the last couple weeks. I had the good fortune to see TTB at the Greek in LA, then MMJ at Red Rocks for the Saturday show. Both killer shows. Every time I want to whine/complain about something my life or something in the world at large, I immediately flash back to these 2 shows within 8 days and tell myself to STFU.
As Vguy is wont to say, "Music is the Best."
As Patterson Hood of the DBT sings, "It's fuckin great to be alive!"
Yes, Patterson, it sure as fuck is.
Always Nice...
...to see the expression of different opinions about song sequencing and filler met with scorn and ad hominem attacks. It's one of the things I like least about this site.
As the great Rosanna Banana Dana used to say
“If it isn’t one thing, it’s another” lol
Snoopy Pin
Was Pig's Snoopy pin the one with sunglasses? Joe Cool was my favorite Snoopy alter-ego, followed closely by the WW1 flying ace. I had the Snoopy Cowabunga on a surfboard poster in my room when young. Hallmark has made thousands off of my family and I as Shultz cards are still our favorite greetings. As I got a little older the Lange ski "Tips Up" girl poster moved in next to Snoopy. Mom was OK with it likely because Lange girl's nipples were airbrushed out.
Gotta go with Charlie3 on today's comments although I got a good laugh out of Mr.Ones, who by the way is I believe the originator of Music Is The Best. I did have to listen in corrected order but like Daverock I usually have to break it up anyway so no biggie.
Cheers all!
Edit: Last 5
Airto - Seeds on the Ground; The Natural Sounds of Airto (an RGM reissue), cool smooth jazz w/ Ron Carter on bass.
DaP 43 - Excellent recording. Very enjoyable with the acoustic. IMHO no way the best Dave's, sorry just not my era.
Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning
Moody Blues - In Search of the Lost Chord
Little Feat - Time Loves a Hero
All on LP except DaP 43
Snoopy & the Moonikins
I have to figure the Snoopy stuffed toy and 3 manikins (now known as “Moonikins”) aboard Artemus 1 are relieved to get a reprieve from launch, at least until Friday. I guess these aren’t just random manikins pulled out of a Macy storefront window (“Your country needs you!”), but fairly elaborate robots that will gauge all the pressures and hazards of space travel expected for when the Artemus project goes to manned space flight (including putting the first woman on the moon. NASA declined my offers of “Take my wife, please”). These “dummies” were going to be enduring 26,000 MPH thrust just to escape the Earth’s gravity. I thought my brother’s old dressed-up Mercury Cougar hauled ass! This Artemus project is pretty “Holy Shit!” stuff.
As for DaP 43, I’ll just agree with others that it may be one of the best of the series, and I respect others may not agree. But TWO prime Dark Stars!!! This DaP 43 is pretty “Holy Shit!” stuff!
Thought for the day
Funny how some people seem to get a bit humpy if they see a point of view expressed that isn't in accordance with their own.
Acceleration
I think I heard that Artemus does 17,000 mph in 8.5 seconds.
ThatMike, I loved the Rodney Dangerfield reference.
I had a buddy that had a (67?) Mercury Cougar XR-7 with the 428 Cobra-Jet. This was around 1975-6 so it was well used by then. But it WAS fast.
He wrapped it around a tree in like a month after buying it.
I've always said if I'd have had a fast car I'd be dead already.
Fastest thing I've ever had is my inherited '95 Mercury Grand Marquis.
My first V-8, likely does 0-60 in maybe 11 seconds? It's a boat but no anchor in the trunk. But it rides nice and gets 30mpg on the highway.
Cheers
Geez, Mr. Ones
Sorry for disturbing you under your bridge there... but good job disproving the stereotype that Dead fans are kind.
I'm not sure why someone would take such personal offense to my request that the shows be presented in the original sequence. I'm not trying to deprive anyone of anything--if it really were not possible to fit both shows in the correct sequence on 3 discs there's no reason they can't do it on 4 discs... (there's a 153-disc collection of the complete works of Bach that sells for $125 so I don't think it can be that expensive to toss in an extra disc.)
1st Show - the need for speed
My older brother once drove his Cougar from my parent’s home to a friend’s cabin in a rural area in under 45 minutes, a drive that normally would take 2 hours and fifteen minutes if you followed the limit. As he had this car in the 70s, and had recently moved out of the family home, I forget all the specs on it, but he loved the speed of this thing, and while he crashed a few things, including a beautiful BMW Motorcycle on a speed track (amazingly just breaking his collarbone), he never wrecked the Cougar. Scary car, scarier driver.
I read Artemus 1 will be re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere at 17,500 miles an hour! Check those Moonikins for diapers!
Captcha: And a big yellow taxi come and took away my old man
Alternate alternate opinions
J3ff’s comments to Dave of:
(Read the whole post for context of these quotes)
“ is this how YOU listen to these shows?”
“ If yes, then I don't feel you really appreciate the experience of live Dead”
“ then you are not really respecting the rest of us”
“ just let us listen to them as Jerry intended please”
(How do you know what Jerry intended? Jerry wasn’t the sole decision maker of the band)
Can come off as more than just an opinion, but also as another attack on Dave.
In my alternate opinion this was the correct decision as a means to get these 2 shows released at the same time, even if the Cold Rain does have to be included in a later release.
The Jaguar
Mike, My sister's boyfriend in 1968 drove his E-type Jag from St. Louis to Denver, a trip of 850 miles, in under 9 hours. Mostly at night with only gas stops, he said he did 100+ mph as much as he could. Cannonball Run! That's what love will make you do! (One of my favorite JGB tunes. Who does the original? David Bromberg does one too.)
Cheers
Attack on Dave?
Some of you guys act like you're Dave's girlfriend or something.
Let me know where Dave is available to field gently-worded input please, because I haven't found it yet... if you send an email to Dead.net you get no reply; if you send a Facebook message they send an automatic reply trying to sell you stuff...
I will admit that my post expresses frustration with the folks selling this stuff. In addition to the non-responsiveness, there have been some truly baffling and annoying decisions in the assembly of these shows. On disc 2 of Dave's Picks 41 (only 32 minutes long BTW--so much for jam-packing the discs) we go from the 5/26/77 show to 7/19/90 (?) for two minutes of post-Not Fade Away audience chanting before starting U.S. Blues before returning to 5/26/77 on the next disc. What possible reason is there to include the chanting as part of "U.S. Blues"? Or a 1990 song on a 1977 show? (or is that a typo on the disc?)
It's weird that some of you want to mock me for valuing the song order that the band originally chose... but act like the order Dave randomly chose is sacred.
I'm happy for you guys that download these and re-assemble them in order but I don't think that's a valid justification for not putting them in order in the actual product being sold.
If Dave is offended by the tone of my post please let me know-- you should have access to my email. I'll buy you a beer.
Anniversary Show. 8/30/87. Garcia/ Proud foot the Eel
35 years ago today, I was at the Greek Theatre to see Garcia and Bonnie Raitt put on a nice show. Proudfoot, the Eel River show was really something special in a very special place. People were diving from high clifts into the Eel River, you would see the trails of the divers as they went off the clifts. Electric was the appropriate word , if you were not, you were in the minority. Garcia really played great. I can't say that I've ever been in a cooler place to see music, up in the Redwoods in the mountains. I've missed some cool shows in the past, but I didn't miss this one.
Yawn. At the end of the day....
....two shows are better than one.