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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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  • Vguy72
    Joined:
    Mister Mickey Hart brings it....

    ....always has. It's on Spotify and I'm digging it. Tiding me over, which brings me to my next point....
    I haven't gotten it yet either Mr. Ones. All good things in all good times. We're both are looking forward and it seems we're in the same boat. Our friends here seem to approve of it. Good enough for us!

  • Mr. Ones
    Joined:
    Dave’s 43

    Hey, has anyone got this one yet?? I’m super excited to hear it!!
    You know, I’m usually one of the last to get these, even later than some of our Euro friends, but damn, I’m really starting to wonder how much longer. I know, I preach patience, and I’ve been patient, but Damn!!

    Music is the Best, even when you have to wait for it!!

  • That Mike
    Joined:
    MacOro & All That Jazz

    MacOro - First off, a great tutorial on speaker placement and room alignment. Excellent, and I kept a copy of it. I’ve said it before: You know you’re stuff!
    Next, the jazz - great news you loved it! Welcome aboard. It gets under your skin, and before you know it, you are chasing those hard to get Blue Note classics from the 50s, or checking out European jazz on the ECM label. This all circles back to the Dead - their open minded ethos is a big reason I got into jazz.

    Unrelated, but for those who cannot get enough Dead literature or Europe 72, I see author Howard Weiner, who writes frequently on the Dead, and has published a couple of lightweight (IMHO) but ok books on them, has a new one out - Europe 72 Revisited.

    About seven sleeps until I see Emmylou.

    I received the new live Neil Young CD and the new Mickey Hart on Friday, still untouched, that kind of weekend. But on deck, for sure!

  • Oroborous
    Joined:
    Planet Drum

    Oh, speaking of ridiculously sounding new recordings: Mickeys latest with Planet Drum In The Groove is a hi fi wet dream! As per youssh, our illustrious Mr Hart has provided superior aural magic and kinda in your face grooves. In a good way, as compared to say the more new age stuff (some of my fav!) I was hitting over 100db without breaking a sweat. Started freaking myself out, I could have gone louder but I was afraid I’d piss my neighbor off lol.
    This phenomena has never been experienced before. Usually my room modes make things too much for clean, intelligible volume at more than 95 DB or so. You can say what you like about Micks role in the Dead etc, but that mofo knows how to produce audio nirvana! Kudos to you good Sir!

  • Oroborous
    Joined:
    Stereos & Bear

    Yeah Charlie I don’t get it either, maybe that’s why I’m a geek!
    I think it’s just generational/cultural. The lure of convenience and suddenly being able to take huge collections anywhere (relative to the time) at a time when radio could be argued had completely been ravaged by greed/commerce. So I think at first people noticed the aural differences but for the majority it was a trade off worth taking, for the previously unimagined convenience, and then add to that what a “trend” this was and well…
    But the problem to me was when it got even more convenient I.e., phones, and another generation came along that only ever knew this new, but horrible aural spectrum and it’s like any of the other fine things in life. If your not given proper exposure, you might not get it? I probably wouldn’t know a expensive wine from a just good one because that’s not my thing: I haven’t been exposed. As you mention Charlie, when given the opportunity to experience the music they already know well, but on even a modest step up in quality, they could appreciate it.
    I guess it’s that too: quantity versus quality. Like BITD I bet most folks had decent, but modest collections by todays standards (I’m looking at you Dennis ; ) but we KNEW, we KNEW the music we did have! How many of us now have so many shows we have only heard many once, and gulp, some never (I’m still working my way through Boxilla)
    I with you, from an early age I wanted a stereo. I worked so hard landscaping in the summer and snow blowing in the winter for all the older folks in the hood when I was young just so I could feed that Jones!
    Even as I got older, I didn’t even have a car, but I always had a good stereo and musical equipment!
    No mater how poor, best gear I could wrangle, cus good gear will get ya through times of no money better than lots of things!

    JIM/DaP 43: only once through, so not ready to “review”, but I can’t help but add to your insight with, holy pha king sheet what a amazing recording!! (Gets the Eddie Van Halen unusual dbl exclamation) When you consider he was first and foremost probably tripping hard much of the time (yas yas tolerance build up, but still) and mixing the band live when equipment sucked and often the venues etc, it’s damn near spiritual how fucking good these Bear recordings are, “please sir, may I have some more”?
    Yasss, amigo, what is in those boxes!!

  • JimInMD
    Joined:
    Good Vibes, Good Music

    Great vibes on this thread lately folks.. many thanks to all.

    I'm just starting my second listen to 43 as I write this. Man.. this one is special. Great performances, great sound and although these shows did widely circulate, this one has a rarity aspect to it.. It might not be as out there as 11/8/69 but I really rank it right up, in fact I think it's better.

    Also, I think there is something to the sealed Banana boxes.. how many were there? Like I wrote after my first listen.. This has a Bears Choice feeling. Also, Bears Choice was called "History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice)."

    Volume 1 of 1???

    To those that rename these (thinking of you KeithFan), Bear's Choice Volume 2 rolls right off the tongue. So my question is... how many freaking Banana Boxes are there Lemieux? We need to start a new Bear's Choice series. Brought to you by the person who coined the phrase Boxzilla.. it's better marketing for these highly special, ancient Bear recordings left to age like fine wine in Banana Boxes.

    That's all I've got.. back the previously scheduled technical workshop on Wall of Sound, home version.

  • Charlie3
    Joined:
    Equilateral Triangles and Collections

    Oro, nice write up, my equilateral triangle is set up just about perfect according to your guidelines, which were also the same as the guidelines provided by the speaker company. Even have the first reflection point situation covered pretty good, and I can verify that the sound changed in my living room after we got a large area rug a few months ago in front of the speakers where the area was previously just bare laminate floor.

    Dennis, I was thinking similar thoughts about my kids and nephews, ranging in age from late teens to young adult, and their lack of any music collection outside of whatever they stream. Seems like it is more and more common that people don't have any actual collection beyond access to a streaming service or satellite radio. And honestly, streaming seems more limited to me than the radio. When you listen to the radio, the radio plays whatever is on the playlist and it may have nothing to do with your likes and dislikes, so you get exposed to new stuff you might not seek out on your own. With streaming, it seems like it is set up to select songs that are similar to songs the algorithm knows that you like, so it seems like you would get a narrower slice of available music, and would decrease the chance of some serendipitous discovery of something new and different. Also, none of my kids or nephews seem to give much thought to what they are listening on, which often seems to be a phone or earbuds hooked to a phone. I finally got my kids each a small bluetooth speaker to connect to the phone and they agreed that it sounds better than the phone alone, but I doubt they would have picked it up on their own. Just seems odd to me as I started jonesing hard for a stereo system in like 6th grade when I first started buying records and collecting music.

  • Oroborous
    Joined:
    MIKE/JAZZ

    In a Word: AWESOME! Obviously some things resonate more than others. I’ve been meaning to, but just don’t have much time lately. But I’ll try and give ya tge quick and dirty…

    Keith Jarrett - Koln Concert: Nice surprise, perfect mellow piano vibe. Other one approved!

    Hank Mobley - Soul Station: Awesome! OO approved!

    Night Train - Oscar Peterson Trio: Awesome. OO approved.

    Christian McBride (& Inside Straight) - Live at Village Vanguard: holy crap Batman, this one’s been the one, the biggest surprise and perhaps fav (so far lol). Warrren Wolf is da man! Good vibes, both literally and figuratively lol.

    Wyton Kelly Trio w/Wes Montgomery- Smokin at the Halfnote- indeed, the name says it all. Complements what I already had by WM nicely.

    Tito Puente - King of Kings: always felt I should have some Tito and this one shows up on a lot of those “lists”. Good stuff, great fir FAC vib. Niche stuff might not get played a ton, but when the situation calls for it, iiieeeeeeEEE!

    Pharaoh Sanders - Karma: haven’t got to this one yet. Think it might be too out for the OO, so need to find right alone time?

    SUN RA - Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel: same as above ?

    MONKS DREAM: seen on many lists like the above so figured it would round out what I have. Need more time with this one but think I was surprised that it wasn’t too boppy? I used to listen to mostly bop and fusion but over the years I have to be in the mood. Mostly because that music is so demanding and takes real listening which unfortunately is getting harder for me to do.

    I didn’t listen to much mellow stuff, but now it’s my preferred, what I call “heroin Jazz” my best example of this is probably soundtrack to the cool film Round Midnight starring the great Dexter Gordon! Bill Evans too, pull a few tubes, and this music just eliminates all my stress!

    MINGUS AT CARNEGIE HALL: great album but I probably won’t spin it as much (see above about bop) but magnificent playing none the less. The Seattle Live Train that I got last winter same thing: awesome, but perhaps not for everyday normal spins?

    GRANT GREEN - IDLE MOMENTS: another cool surprise. I don’t think I was aware of Mr Green, and thought he was a pianist lol, but what a smooth player and a great album. Think this one will get lots of spins especially since it’s OO approved lol. In fact, she dug all except a couple of the hardest things.

    Oh, and last but not certainly least, GETZ/GILBERTO: another holy crap situation! Only heard once so far but wow wow as Jim would say. Pairs nicely with Melody Gardot - The Absence, and My One and Only. Funny, my music servers maker loaded some hi res albums on my machine when he built it, or he’ll add some stuff when it’s getting fixed etc, and so it’s been on there for years but I never checked it out until this winter, yet another cool surprise, cool mood music!
    I got there because I discovered Nora Jones, (more I had but did not know) this past year and man, I need more! Any suggestions? (We have Day Breaks, Feels Like Home, and FAC fav so far: Come Away With Me) Need More!
    She also in turn got me at least listening to Diana Krall. The Other One has had several for years but I blocked it until recently. I’m still trying to figure her out? Not bad, but I’m not sure I see “it”? Well we have like seven of her albums so I guess eventually I’ll figure it out lol.

    Oh, and whomever suggested GEORGE WINSTON - Linus & Lucy, thanks for the reminder! Got that as a gift years ago, another nice mellow good vibe album, of course then there’s David Benoit - It’s a DB Christmas, and tge real deal and one that you might think is “just” a Xmass album, but man what playing and vibe (heroin Jazz) from Vince Guaraldi Trio on the original peanuts influenced material! Speaking of holiday Jazz, check out Jazz to the World from 1995 with various artists!

    So many of the choices provided by all you knowledgeable nice folks had me salivating, but alas many currently not available or too pricey used, so I’ll keep my eyes open. And hey, with what we did get we’ll be busy for awhile. Throw in the once through and supremely excellent DaP 43, and next up Mickeys new Planet Drum outing: In The Groove and I’d say Im good to go lol. Well…; )

    Thanks again too all y’all for the great suggestions and for just being you!

  • Vguy72
    Joined:
    Went to a reggae fest last night....

    ....Tribal Seeds, SOJA and Dirty Heads. Forty bucks for five hours of solid entertainment. Great crowd.👌
    Check out Rage and Vacation by Dirty Heads. Catchy af. They also do a solid cover of Life's Been Good.

  • daverock
    Joined:
    Dicks 4 and 8

    Both Dicks 4 and Dicks 8, Binghampton 5/2/70 were indeed cause for celebration. I used to visit a friend at that time, and he had 100s of tapes - so we had copies of these 3 shows already. But to have them on an officially released cd was amazing. They are still my favourite Dicks Picks.

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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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Absolutely. Let's have two shows. In order.

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In reply to by 1stshow70878

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I would have been phucing bald as Uncle Fester if I was a passenger in your sister’s boyfriend’s car! Amazing he never got picked up by highway patrol. I drove to my grandmother’s funeral in ‘81 with my brother driving, and one of my father’s siblings in the backseat of a Mazda - Toronto to Montreal, should be 5.5 hours, we were there in 3.5 hours.
I noticed my aunt did not drive back with us, and I think we made it back even quicker.
You’re right - that is an awesome Jerry tune!!! Gotta pull out one of the Jerry collection tonight!

There are other Dick's Picks and Dave's Picks with 4 discs. Or they could even drop the fourth disc in a cardboard sleeve inside the case like they do with bonus discs...

For those of you who are so protective of Dave/Dead.Net... do you really think they're too greedy to include a 4th disc?

Most bands take a couple years to put together an album to sell for $12 to a lot fewer people than buy these shows... I don't think it's a lot to ask that DP add an extra disc to preserve the original order.

"The archive is free"? That seems like a perfect response to people who disagree about keeping the shows in order.

If you listen on the archive why are you arguing about the CDs? If you listen on the archive then what's the concern about packing as much music as will fit on the CDs?

I think it makes sense to package the CDs for the CD-using audience... no?

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In reply to by Vguy72

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I didn't say you were being a jerk, because you're not.

I'm fine with you arguing-- I'm arguing as well.

But if you want to use a different word for the act of making repeated contrary assertions, feel free. I won't argue. :D

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It must not be too big a problem to add a fourth disc to a release because they had four discs in both Dave's 36 and 40, which to be clear, I appreciated. I thought it was a sign that the folks at dead net and rhino are not just looking to maximize profits at the expense of customer satisfaction, but are willing to throw us a cool surprise now and again, on top of providing us with historic recordings that I still can't actually believe are being released in such quantities. We are, after all, kind of a niche market, and while I'm sure dead net and rhino are making a nice chunk of change off of these releases, I hardly think that we're all essential to their bottom line, pretty sure Warner and rhino will be just fine without us.

I would fall in the group that would prefer to pay a couple of dollars more for the subscription to include a fourth disc for one or more of the quarterly releases. Whey I pay for a disc, I just want to drop it in the player and play it, not program something every time to get it in the right order or burn it to a new disc to accomplish the same thing. Sorry if that just leaves anyone distressed or offended. Personally, I hear the arguments in favor of more music despite the disruption to the original song order and I see the merit of the argument, but I just have different priorities. And really, I just don't care enough to get upset that some of you folks prioritize the quantity of music over the actual sequence from the show. I enjoyed Dave's 43 a lot, I would have preferred it all to be in the right order - these statements are not mutually exclusive.

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That US Blues is from the 90's release before that didn't fit. I look at it like old traders putting some extras on some bonus stuff for the weary...just because why not more GD. Really digging the Bobby Weir/Wolf Bros stuff, plus the Anthrax XL just noticed dug a few tracks off that always like ' keep it in the family.' Track order I didn't even notice on DaP #42 that Johnny b Goode and we bid you goodnight was on the second disc until...not sure? Didn't bother me, I just think to myself maybe they felt like coming back out for a long encore (disk 3). As for Dap #43 they could've hit random placement of songs with this (maybe not that extreme but you get it)and still wouldn't have mattered I listen to as is, and for this one I just think maybe I may have bogarted that j (digging some Little Feat today) and don't know what's going on anyhow. Hehe to me when its double 1969 gold blowing me up and suddenly disk 3 has the nerve to have everything it has but High Time, and Dark Star>New Speedway Boogie. YES! So my two cents that matters not is that we don't ask for more ways to increase pricing the current format is ok, like others mentioned with surprise 4th disks nice probably not always needed, just put whatever is left off on the next one that has time/space. My music varies favorites right now include Nick Cave, The National, Lord Huron, Been doing Beach Boys, Also listened to Zabriske Pointe SDtk today good stuff,. Plus not sure who mentioned the Garcia Bonnie Raitt show? Playing together or separate? Wow would've loved that. Also Traveling Wibury's that first album hits a couple spots hearing GH and RO to the end of the line. Everyone have a Grate Evening.

Laughing my ass off reading these posts.

Everybody just relax man we have you all night long...

Love Dave's Picks 43. An instant classic, just add jello.

...as for breathing walls, circa 1982 side 4 Electric Ladyland at high volume. Not only did the walls breathe, but they got very large and me small at the same time. I thought it best to leave the room and go outside until I could make sense of it all. Perhaps the best decision I made that night.

It's good to hear all these years later that I am not alone. Walls that breathe. Haa. Whew, mystery solved.

BTK, what I would give to have been at those Eel shows... ah, well, thankful for the ones I caught, wishful for the ones I missed.

As you were.. let me know when you get the song order thingie fixed.

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I believe that That's What Love Will Make You Do is originally by Little Milton, and what a cool version it is.

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Have you seen the Folio Society issue of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy advertised? I was slightly interested until I saw the price, £745 !!!! I still have my Penguin paperbacks housed in a card slipcase that I bought when I was about 13 in 1973. Absolutely enthralled me then and i still love that world. I did my first acid about a year later and found myself somewhere that felt very familiar and of course it was how I had always imagined Gormenghast to be. But £745 for three books?

Nick1234 - yes, that's taking the biscuit. I have never actually read the Gormenghast Trilogy..just never got round to it. Maybe it would be a good companion for these darkening days - although I am 52 years older now than you were when you first read it.

Dicks Picks 12 spinning this very minute-that's 6/26/74 and 6/28/74 highlights. Brilliant music - but case in point - I played the 1st cd last night, from 6/26/74, and opened today with the second disc from 6/28/74. Or so I thought-after a great "Eyes", Phil says "see you Friday night." Oh. I thought this WAS Friday night.

Incidentally, I always enjoy discussions - exploring subjects I am interested in with other people who are similarly interested. Arguing is a different matter-that's just someone trying to convince you they are right all the time. You can't really talk with people like that unless you agree with them. Or pretend to.

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In reply to by Vguy72

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Reading the comments on 3 or 4 CDs with a bit of amusement, sorry. If possible you should all be listening to these shows digitally . Long story short I replaced my 2012 Ram stereo this year and to find a car radio with a CD player and android auto and Ipod usable was really hard, especially with the supply chain covid issues so I opted for one without a CD player and although a bit of a pain in the neck I downloaded the CDs to my phone then played it in the car. That stereo malfunctioned rather quickly and I was able to replace it with one that had all the functions and a CD player. After all that I did an experiment and played a CD and then played the same show on Android auto on my phone and the difference was astounding! The digital version sounded so much better and clearer and I felt a little foolish insisting I get a stereo with a CD player since I haven't listened to one since! I know it's a bit time consuming but if you download the CD and then arrange the songs in the proper order on your device, which is what I believe Dave and Rhino believe most people do, there is no issue with the order the songs are on the CDs.
Just my humble opinion. Thanks

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In reply to by PeteH

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If the point was to accommodate folks listening from digital downloads I would think they would sell digital downloads. It's a very common practice. I think vinyl releases should be designed for folks to listen to on vinyl, and CDs designed with folks who listen on CD in mind.

I'm glad that it works for you folks who download your CDs and re-arrange them but I don't think that is a reason to not sequence the CDs in the correct order. If they put the songs in order you could still download them and have them in order (or shuffle them up if you wanted) and I could pop them in my CD player and have them in order.

I posted my comment hoping that JUST MAYBE someone from Dead.Net might actually read the comments on the "product page"--not to start a debate. Of course everyone is free to respond however they see fit.

But the point about how the customers can fix the messed-up CDs by downloading the music and not using the CDs seems silly. It's like if you gave a chair a negative review on Amazon because it arrived broken and I replied that it wasn't really a problem because I take all my chairs apart and make them into tables, so what's the problem with a broken chair-- they make great tables.

J3FF - I I have enjoyed reading your posts, but I think your'e barking up the wrong tree if you think anyone from Deadnet ( apart from Marye) reads them - let alone acts on them. To me, this is an outlet for discussion and expressing ideas - not changing policy. I think if I wanted to do that I think I send a pm to Marye, and ask her if she knew the best way of going about it.

Peteh - I don't even own a phone! I know....I'm living in the past.

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In reply to by Charlie3

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Charlie - I never did know who did the original version of this song, and I was not familiar with Little Milton, but you are right, a great version, and some pretty sweet fretwork.
It is incredible the wealth and range of music Jerry and the boys knew, considering the internet was not really a thing for most, if not all, of Jerry’s or the Dead’s life. We can check out new or recommended artists with a quick search, but these guys came by their influences quite organically. Jerry selected some real keeper tunes that he made his own during his solo career, and this tune was always welcome.
What’s your favourite Jerry/JGB solo song? Don’t Let Go…Dear Prudence…That Lucky Old Sun…anything Dylan…???

“Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain.”

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In reply to by PeteH

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I used to think all CD players are the same.. I mean, they playback identical digital information, right.. so if they do their job it should sound the exact same as the next player, right?

Writing this, I understand 90% of the people here know audio equipment better than me and most have better systems than me. I bet others chime in with more accurate information..

But there is a big difference between both players and the digital amps/preamps, etc. The digital encoder and playback functionality makes a big difference. The fact that your phone does a better job playing back your CDs than the CD player speaks more of the CD player and amp than anything else. Unfortunately.. things are not simple and rarely are as they appear. The folks that spend a small fortune on audio equipment are usually getting better sound and for a reason.

As to the previous point on song order, complete shows, getting the encore from one show two releases down the line as filler on a subsequent Dave's Picks, etc, I don't think anyone is disagreeing with you. Your point is singular, however, and other variables exist. What most find amusing, including me, is your tone. I think you underestimate Dave and what he has to contend with on the corporate side of things. These are first world problems to be sure and the fix isn't really that big of a deal. The model they set up is basically a three CD model that tries to release complete shows (or as complete as 'possible') four times a year allowing one bonus CD per year. They have on rare occasion tossed in an extra CD free of charge for subscribers, but they do charge extra ala carte for these. It's a minor inconvenience to tackle ripping them, adjusting the metadata so they play in the right order and burning the set using an extra disc or two. If you are constantly playing the originals, one day you will likely create a 'mistake' with one of these soon to be priceless discs and then you might be horrified to find it hopelessly out of print and have a decision to make in replacing it on the secondary market or sending your kid to college.. (sorry little Johnny!). We got an extra show for free, a twofer, and a spectacular one at that so most here are delighted with this one probably including Dave. Plus as DaveRock chimed in Lemieux isn't reading this and if he is, he certainly would not be mining our opinions to improve the series.

If it were my choice these two shows would have gotten their own release possibly meaning two 3 CD releases in the correct order with lots of black space on the discs (or some killer 69 filler) or they would have gotten stand-alone treatment in the form of Bear's Choice Volume 2. From my perspective, we would have gotten another 1969 release bumping up this neglected year. Both shows are release worthy, they sound great and the performances are worthy. I can only imagine the complaints we would have gotten, rotten tomatoes on the empty discs, etc.

Anyway, their primary responsibility is to restore these mostly ancient and delicate analog master reels and remaster them using the best tools and sound engineers (really these guys are master craftsman/artists) and get them out before they decay into oblivion and are forgotten to antiquity. The lonely reels aging in the vault are decaying and breaking down, but the time to restore and our ability to pay for all this is limited. If you look at it that way they are doing a very good job. Is everyone happy 100% of the time? Are decisions made in the production, packaging and marketing we find unfortunate? Yes! Well, we are fickle bunch, we cannot agree on anything.

Back your previously scheduled favorite keyboardist discussion complete with thoughtful analysis and detail supporting your points while still being very careful not to offend anyone who thinks differently.

I hope I did not offend. As you were.

...not to chum up the fray, but more to jimmy's point about the CDs being 'master copies' to us lay-folk, many of us do understand these are our own 'master' copies, and, therefore, a typical first procedure upon receipt for those who want to preserve these historical artifacts is to immediately plop them into our CD burners and burn them to a hard drive for forever safe keeping. A second step then, for those who love CDs (aka, me, others, most of us), is to burn a 'working copy' of said CD to then tote around. This way, it can get scraped, scratched, chain-sawed, whatever - and we can still go back to the original well and obtain an exact duplicate, pristine copy. And, if we do it right, that copy will have all songs in chronological order if that suits the listener.

Just my two cents.

At the end of the day - healthy discussion, seeing all sides, finding a throughway string, and meeting in the middle are talents that more and more human beings are unable to implement. This forum does go a long way to implement these tools, and for this I know we are All Grateful.

Be Well, People.
Sixtus

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I check and indeed had Little Milton,,, nice cut.

All that talk about fast cars,,,,, made me pull out Solomon Burke doing "Fast Train". (yes my mind make odd connections!) (if you don't know Solomon's cover of this tune,,,, find it!)

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Got amazon email,,,, Miles boot 7 coming on 9/16 (cd and vinyl).

Also, slow as I am,,, didn't realize that TTB I Am the Sun,,, sorry Moon,,, was a 4 part collection. Ordered all 4 yesterday,,, they are coming today,,,, thanks Vguy?

Still no word on the vinyl release of the "from the vault" series?!?! (wiping tear now)

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.... think about how those poor bastards feel who bought the Lyceum digital. Now there's a bunch I feel for,,,, how can downloads not work????

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Yes, I'd forgotten Mr. Youngman. Another master of self deprecating humor.
And now for something completely different.
Three weeks until MSG.
Cheers

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Dennis, I saw Solomon Burke play at the S.F Blues Festival one year, he was great.

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hey now, it took me till 2000 before I got a computer, and I don't think I will be buying into that phone stuff either. But you never can tell. You can if you want to.
I remember back in the 70's we did a trip from Orlando to West Palm Beach in less than an hour and a half. We got behind a highway patrol car doing over 100mph followed him for many miles until he finally slowed down, got behind me and pulled me over. I got out of the car laughing and said, "I was only following you". He checked my license, said "slow down" and let us go. No roadside sobriety test, no ticket, nothing. Those were the days, but I don't recommend it today.
Breathing walls, yes, I have experienced that, kind of made me laugh. Now how about total loss of vision except for colors and patterns? I keep rubbing my eyes and saying, "did you see that?" No one did but me. The next time someone talked to me I said, "You can see me?" Those were the best days.
CD song order, mountain out of a mole hill.

You are correct - Henny Youngman was the source!
Did you see the Internet address I printed out a few days ago for the UHQR Clarity Vinyl Treatment edition of Kind of Blue? (If you’re interested, that is?).
So is it just 16 more sleeps until Miles Bootleg Vol 7?
Excellent choice on acquiring TTB. Truly the “double album” of the year (broken into 4 parts, I know…)

Looked great, but it was 150 bucks. My wife would REALLY not understand :-)

plus i've already spent a load on "other" things. Got that Eye-talian disease,,,,, fundsalow.

It's on the list though!

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In reply to by Dennis

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Mike - that is one of the all time classic movie lines. Thanks for sharing.

Dave - you stole my thunder. The song sequencing on both DP12 and DP4 are out of order. Would you rather have those shows not released? Again, they are among the best of the entire series.

....each release is relatively short. 35-40 minutes. They could have easily combined two into one and made it a double release.....(jk. I'm done)

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While I do agree with Jeff in theory, his proposed solution isn't as straightforward as he makes it seem. Just add another disc - it can't cost more than x. But its not that simple. Anyone who has watched Dave's seaside chats - and some people parse them as if Dave were Q him(/her?)self - knows that only after a big increase in subscriptions could Dave wrangle a 4-discer non-bonus situation release out of Rhino. They are not putting this music out only from the goodness of their heart; the bottom line has to work too. A lot of heads just don't seem to understand that this is a business, and with the way most people consume music now, Rhino, Dave etc. decided the increase in cost to produce shows with song lists in order, and the necessary price increase to cover that, weren't worth the squeeze.

And even if they did decide to do that, which they could - people would bitch and moan about that, or something just as silly. Just look over the last two pages of comments. Filler sucks! More filler! WTF?

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P.T., Daverock, and me.
I thought I was the only human on the planet that doesn't have one.
Wife has had a cheapo not smart one for years but never used it. We always said it was for emergencies. She finally got a smart one this year as she will need it for her planned new telescope. So we got the wi-fi to go with it and now my little computer is slower than ever. I'll open a tab and it will go to an error message saying I'm not connected for many seconds. Too cheap to have it looked at and too dumb to figure out how to reconfigure it. Only benefit so far is that we can both browse at the same time instead of taking turns on the desktop. Didn't even get this computer until 2015 by which time you had to have an email address to do just about anything. Got tired of having to go to the library to check my emails. We had a computer in 1990 but of course no internet back then.
Despite the conveniences I just don't need one. Leave a message on the land line and I'll get back with you in half a day or less. Ah, the good old days. Nobody calls me anyway unless they are trying to sell me something.
A favorite song with phone reference, Please Don't Leave Me Wondering No Longer - ABB
"Tell me why when the phone rings baby, you're up and across the floor" (add slide guitar here).
Cheers

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Jack - It is indeed a great line from a blockbuster movie (when “blockbuster” meant quality not ticket sales) said by the incomparable Robert Shaw. VGuy mentioned getting tix to see it in IMAX (not sure how that will look in that format), and so many great scenes and lines come to mind!

Dennis - I totally get it.

VGuy - After “reading the room” regarding the posts concerning the “4th CD” for DaP 43, I really shouldn’t have bothered mentioning making TTB’s “Moon” a double album. I think that is what they call a “rapport breaker”. It makes no difference, it’s a brilliant suite, regardless.
(Fun fact: We all know this “Moon” saga is loosely based on the ancient Persian poem that inspired Layla, which begat a classic Derek & the Dominoes album that featured Brother Duane, and how Derek Trucks came to be named because of etc etc etc. The fact that blew my mind was Susan Tedeschi was born on the EXACT day that Layla was released. Yea, I felt a chill run up my spine, too!)

I do think there's a possibility some of you are being naive in thinking that business realities preclude adding an extra disc.

Garcia Family Provisions puts out 3-disc shows from the 70s for about $22, with much lower sales volume and presumably making a profit.

I'm not ignoring business realities--I feel like to the contrary the folks that assume Dave/Dead.net/Rhino are doing all they possibly could to get the most music out are being Pollyanaish. I think there's plenty of wiggle room to put the music out in complete shows--with a 4th disc--and still make a tidy profit.

I think it's inconsistent to say "hey it's a business" and in the next sentence say "well Dave said it is tough to add an extra disc so it must not be possible."

They are a very lucky business though to have so many customers that argue against someone asking them to deliver a better product.

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Had to look it up to be sure.
"Pollyannaish, means “unrealistically optimistic.” If someone is acting Pollyannaish, then they are judged as showing an optimism that is extremely naive and unthinking. "

So I guess a lot of us are naive and unthinking, thanks a lot - Jeff, can you make your point without being so disparaging?

I don't really understand why so many folks want to step in and argue back against a customer asking for a better product.

If I put a review/customer feedback on any other website asking for something to be improved I don't think so many other customers would argue back about why Nike or Honda or whoever can't do what I'm suggesting...

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Hands down, no hesitation, Don't Let Go would be my favorite JGB tune. From the first time I heard it on a bootleg of the 1982 JGB Music Mountain show in NY I was hooked, but every version I've got is pretty killer. Particularly a fan of the version from the JBG 2 CD release titled Don't Let Go, from the May 21, 1976 Orpheum Theatre show. Lots of great stuff in that show.

My discovery of Little Milton was just random happenstance. I was listening to the radio and there was a radio show hosted by Bob Dylan which included That's What Love Will Make You Do by Little Milton. Never know what you might learn if you're not careful while making your way through the day.

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It ain't what you say, it's the way how you say it.
Your "I don't feel you really appreciate the experience of live Dead" comment was arrogant and unnecessary.

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In reply to by Cousins Of The…

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If someone told me they hit shuffle when they listen to Abbey Road would it be awful of me to say "I don't think you fully appreciate the experience of an album"?

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He cut some great tracks for Sun Records in the 1950s too. Incredible guitar sound. The word coruscating comes to mind.
Istshow - you seem to have a similar attitude to technology as myself ! The telescope sounds more fun than the phone.

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I'd tell them to get the original pressing of the LP on vinyl, no shuffling possible! Latest remaster wasn't great, by the way.

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Jack - I forgot all about the “doll’s eye” line! THAT is a classic! He made a bunch of great movies, agree on The Sting, and I always loved The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (before that sad remake with Travolta). Gone far too soon. RIP!

Charlie - Don’t Let Go is a great choice! My favourite is him and Keith going back and forth on that really extended version on “Pure Jerry: Theatre 1839”. But Garcia could even take songs that were so-so originals, like Bruce Cockburn’s “Waiting For A Miracle”, and make it way better (I read Gloria Jones, a gospel singer by trade, recommended that one to Jerry).

Jack - One more, I can’t resist. Which character’s line is this:
“Martin, it’s all psychological. You yell, “Barracuda,” everybody says, “huh, what?” You yell “Shark,” we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.”

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Thanks for the word of the day Daverock. Had to look it up, but now I know what coruscating means. Cool word.

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