Grateful Dead

Set one is phenomenal

Dont look at the set list

Be warned though...
37 minute lovelight (ugh...some other time perhaps)

First 5 tracks or so...verrry nice GD

My GD69 bender will continue with 11 8 69 and the compilation FW Feb 69 and 12 31 69

GOD BLESS THE GRATEFUL DEAD

I currently have no plans for the DaP 23 1/22/78 vinyl. It's a good show, raging Jack Straw and somehow Row Jimmy rocks more than usual, and that's one side itself. 16 seconds of Close Encounters Theme is a bit more than the Stayin' Alive tease a few months later that led to DaP 7 4/24/78, but much ado about very little, to me. There are probably 20 DaPs I would've picked for vinyl release over this one. It is kind of funny, the two with space-themed movie cover art kick off the series, but I thought the DaP 1 choice was perfect, mainly because that was a much cheaper way for some of us to get a physical copy of that one than ebay.

Vguy so glad you liked the 10/20/17 show!! Enjoy next weekend's show

I am more tempted by doubling up with Dicks Picks on vinyl than Daves. I always think that because the Dicks were released on cd so long ago, the chances are that newer vinyl editions will have an improved sound quality that might not be as noticeable on Dave's vinyl.
Having said that, I never check it out. And I only have a few Dicks on vinyl because they aren't on general release in England and are often prohibitively expensive. I have Dicks 8 -5/2/70 on vinyl and that is amazing. Dicks 26, excerpts from 2 shows in April 1969 is a good, too, although much less played. I have been looking at Dicks 19 just this morning - and the two October 1976 shows from Days On The Green. But we are talking hundreds of pounds for a show I already have. RSD shows are more affordable.

I generally like vinyl more. Maybe it's my age. I don't mind the side changing - if anything it helps me to focus on what I'm listening to more -I'll maybe just play 2 sides at a time. Later in the day - in the early hours of the morning - when I am drifting in and out of sleep - I play cds - but that is much less focussed listening. More like spacy background music.

....we aren't very good. But we're working on it. It's fun though.
Need more girls.

DARK STAR

....is not helping my decision making decisions.

Nice fun fact about that song, the bass line, played by Bootsy is a whole step down (making it sound slower) from the original Bring Down the Birds, played by bassist extraordinaire, Ron Carter. It was a song by Herbie Hancock on the Blow Up soundtrack in 1966. Very influential British film and soundtrack, which also featured the Yardbirds in the Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page era with them appearing in a scene playing Stroll On. It wasn't released in the US until 1968 and its scandalous sex scenes led to the introduction of the rating system.

The 5/7/77 RSD release was inevitable, hope the 3/2/69 is not too far behind. But it will be nice having those 3 shows on vinyl. Cornell sounded great on vinyl. Now I'll have Wharf Rat and Terrapin, and that great Peggy-O. Speaking of '77, finally finished DaP 45, and it's a good one, definitely drum heavy as noted, and more disappointingly, other things would seem to drop, mainly Bob's guitar and vocals. Oh, and may have missed it, but didn't see anybody noting the Lazy Lightning Jam in Let It Grow. It pops up twice. Supplication Jams seem more common, never heard that I recall a Lazy Lightning Jam, it took me a bit to register whatbit was, because it made me think it was related to the "Listen to the Thunder shout 'I am!'" part. Really liked the classical sounding figure Jerry did at the end of the Scarlet Begonias, he plays a theme, then a variation on it, then another sort of progressing ahead before they drop into Fire On the Mountain. Wharf Rat was excellent, sounded like significant tape degradation/warble at the end though. Oh, and Phil's intro for Samson & Delilah is great. I think it was DaP 25 11/6/77 where Weir introduces is with, "This being a Sunday, we're gonna do a song of spiritual derivation." This intro is even better, almost as wacky as the Jones Gang on Dap 12 11/4/77, though the king has to be DaP 27 9/2/83 with the citizens of Boise being asked to submit to being a conquered people by our beloved bespectacled bassman. But to DaP 45, a good selection. One I'll note has no thanks to ABCD Enterprises, so a couple of Betty Boards that have been there all along. Think that's the first such Betty since July '78 started the deal in 2016. And instead of being done with '77 for a while, I queued up 4/25/77 next. With the drop in Dead vinyl, I may be able to get that one for a reasonable price. I once almost had one on ebay for $150, but lost it to an auto bid. So, that will have been a few weeks in 1972 and 1977, think I'll throw caution to the wind and go for 1974 for my next excursion. After all, a whole bunch of 1973 is headed our way this year, methinks.

Edited to add: to Crow Told Me, I get your point on the double dipping, but it does genuinely seem to have a different feel to me, if it does come with the frustration of flipping it every 20 min. But it's worth it for some recordings. 5/3/72 sounded so good, I played the whole damn thing in one sitting after planning to sample a couple of songs that day it came out. I hope that doesn't put in any crack's in Pandora's Box for you, but I don't discount the vinyl warmth as a myth as easily, because I can hear it. If you can't that may excellent news for your wallet. :)

I screwed up, thinking about Umphreys McGee got me thinking about the Humpty Dance. You got that right. But the song, I didnt. I was speaking of Bootsy Collins, of Parliament Funkadelic and before that James Brown. An incredible bass talent. The song I got confused was "Groove Is in the Heart" by Dee Light. Got those confused as they were both on MTV around the same time...I got a little lost. Sorry. Although, it is interesting, as I also saw Larry Graham when he played bass for Prince in 1998. What an incredible show indeed, and I am not a huge Prince fan. But those two together were quite funky. One reason I love a great funky Shakedown, although most of the funk come from Jerry instead of the bottom.

Oh well, oooopss.

There's a rule I try to follow when it comes to vinyl purchases: no double dipping. If I already have the music on CD, and the seedies sound good, I try to resist the temptation to buy the vinyl reissue. Hence I have no plans to get the vinyl versions of DaP 23 or Boston '77.

Just to state the obvious: the audio isn't going to sound better on your home system just because it's vinyl. It might, or it might not, depending on the quality of your turntable vs the quality of your CD player, the quality of your phono preamp, quality of the vinyl, blah blah blahbitty blah. All things being equal, if it's the same mix from the same source, and your turntable and CD player are roughly equivalent quality, it's going to sound the same, trust me.

Or at least that's what I tell myself, as I try to keep Pandora in her box.

Random GD -related thingy: I was playing a bunch of Brad Mehldau videos on Youtube last night, checking out his new album, which is all Beatles tunes. (Do yourself a favor and consume the video of him playing I am the Walrus: it's fucking genius.) After a while I switched to a live performance where Mehldau is playing at a festival in France. After the first two songs (a nice version of Bittersweet Symphony that segued into (I shit you not) Smells Like Teen Spirit) he removes his sport coat, and underneath is ... a Grateful Dead t-shirt! Aw, Brad, I knew you was one of us.