Pick of the Day, with Discussion

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April 6, 2020 - 9:47am

8,081 replies

marye

Joined:
May 26, 2007

Bolo24 says: An Idea, Perhaps? Since we're all going to have a fair amount of spare time on our hands for the foreseeable future, what about starting another thread where we all listen to the same show/release on a given day and then share impressions afterward? Folks can submit suggestions and one person (not me) picks what we'll all listen to - call it Deadnet Picks or something. Anyway, if this idea is deemed to have merit, I'd suggest one of the loyal regular posters take the lead and do the picking - y'all can decide who. Might be fun. If it does go forward, I nominate Dick's Picks 18 for the first listen. Been talked about here lately, and, had it been a single show rather than a compilation, we'd probably be talking about it in the same conversation as Cornell, Veneta, etc. Or perhaps even Gainesville?? Stay safe and healthy, friends - this planet needs as many Deadheads as possible.

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August 11, 2022 - 8:22am

#1911

Dennis

Joined:
November 1, 2012

Came across the desk

Out there in the internet world

A quote from John Mayer on Jerry's playing from a guitar players perspective ...
Part of the genius of Jerry Garcia, was all guitar players have little segments we work with, little riffs, and licks. We work in these building blocks: at the bottom are scales, then working up to riffs, then licks, then inverted licks if you are the best around.
Jerry's building blocks were molecules of playing. Not licks. The smallest pieces that could be put together. Everything you are hearing is original, off the top of his head, and represents his spiritual place he was in on that day. John Mayer on Jerry Garcia
This is the forward John wrote for Jay Blakesberg's book "Secret Space of Dreams"
"I’m a good enough guitar player to know a great guitarist when I hear one, but I had to become an even better one to begin to understand the depth and complexity of Jerry Garcia’s playing.
I’ve always said that musicians play like they are, and in the case of Garcia, his performances serve as a detailed map of a man, his intentions, his desires, and his impressions of the world around him. And going by that map, Garcia was a lovely, mighty soul. I never met him, and will never understand the loss of those who did, but the vast archive of his music amounts to the makings of a starry night sky that turns listeners into explorers.
Several years ago I set out not just to learn Garcia’s approach to the guitar and the songs he played, but to learn what about it has allowed millions of people who don’t play the guitar to key into it for hours on end. Soloing has been known since its inception as a kind of self-indulgent expression. Why, then, could so many listeners, myself included, listen to him do it endlessly without fatigue?
To best understand what makes Garcia’s guitar playing so unique, it helps to start with what it sidesteps: though it drew from blues and R&B, his guitar approach left a few traditional elements out of the equation, he didn’t play from that well-worn feral, sexual place that traditional blues music traded in, nor did he really touch the sinister aspects that were born into the idiom. Garcia didn’t sing about wanting to rock a young woman all night long, and any of his deals with the devil existed metaphorically as mere setbacks. (What’s 20 bucks, anyway?) These changes affect the fundamental color palette of the storytelling. I’m not sure the sun ever rises in Chicago blues music, but in the musical storytelling of Garcia and the Grateful Dead, it shines so bright it hurts.
On a more technical note, he played most often in a major blues scale, which added to this mix of innocence, and even joy. Minor blues notes lend themselves to the exquisiteness of pain, while major blues scales kind of explore the relief from it. Garcia played to relieve people of pain. That melodic innocence must have something to do with bringing so many people to their “happy place.” He wasn’t pulling notes from an anguished place within, he was catching them with a butterfly net as they went flitting by overhead. On a tactile level, he held the guitar with grace. It wasn’t a weapon, it was a vehicle. He took it easy. He may have played fast, but he was thinking slow. And that makes us listen with a smile.
I put Jerry Garcia on the same level as Miles Davis and Bill Evans because of the intention in his performing; once you’ve learned all the notes, and the chords, and the bends and the runs, you come to the final frontier of playing which is the why of it all, and that’s where the power was and still is in his playing. He played from a real place, a place that faced out to the world, not for his own reception or gratification. He played for the joy of interacting with the band and with the music he loved. If you listen close enough to a musician, you can tell what they’re looking to get out of each and every note they make. Garcia, to me, was looking to bring music to life out of the tacit, sacred duty to use his gift. Even after learning these things, they offer very little help in sounding anything like the man. That’s because he didn’t play anything stock or repetitive. There are no “signature Jerry Garcia solo riffs” as exist with so many revered guitarists. To “sound like Jerry,” you have to make people feel like he did, and well—good luck with that.
The real magic—the kind that will make the Grateful Dead music live forever—that’s in the way we carry it on in our hearts and minds. I don’t listen to Garcia and the band play—I watch it. I believe we all do, and that what we see is a blend of the music, the year in which it was played, the season and location of the show so as to understand the state of mind the band was in that night, that week, that presidency. We see it differently from one another the way we do our own dreams, but we all agree that our dreams contain these songs, and this band, those places and names. And that’s how the Grateful Dead managed to freeze time. We discuss our favorite years in present tense; we say we just heard the best version of something last night as if that was the moment it first took place. Your favorite year of their music "wasn’t", it "is." And in that way, inside that beautiful dreamscape the band created, the Grateful Dead is still up there, still playing. And Jerry is right there in front of them, and time is held in place by those who refuse to let it fade, and even as we sleep, as long as one of us is listening, the band is still playing.
We lose the ones we love, we pine for those who have left, and we lament the changes of modern times. But the makers of this music dug a tunnel, and it runs beneath time and space, and we, the ones who love it like family, crawl through to visit 1974, and 1969, and 1987 and 1990. If we were alive at the time the show took place, we see ourselves as the people we were in the lives we had, and if we weren’t born yet, we get to wistfully dream what it must have been like.
We only get a few minutes on earth, and Jerry Garcia gave all his minutes so that we could forever visit his life and times through his playing, and let it unravel into a new kind of now." --- John Mayer on Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead
August 11, 2022 - 8:15am

#1912

JimInMD

Joined:
June 27, 2011

The Zoo

A nice little show. I explored this one a little before this thread started, probably late 2019. It makes a good companion to the night before in Austin. Apparently hot that day and Jerry was up most of the night celebrating his birthday. Hot jams in China > Rider.
August 11, 2022 - 7:52am

#1913

DeadVikes

Joined:
October 26, 2016

8/1/82

Looking at the 8/1/82 show from Oklahoma City for today. The hot summer 82 run.
August 10, 2022 - 1:20pm

#1914

1stshow70878

Joined:
September 11, 2014

Yes Jim

One of the joys of old age.
Stuff (or hair) growing out of places it shouldn't.
Or where it hadn't before at least.
Cheers
August 10, 2022 - 12:28pm

#1915

JimInMD

Joined:
June 27, 2011

Re:

Wow.

Tell Phoebe to stay away from the Special K. Catnip and a little cannabis are fine but stay away from Keratin and all the other hard stuff. Some cats never learn....
August 10, 2022 - 7:25am

#1916

1stshow70878

Joined:
September 11, 2014

Thanks BC & DV & Jim & Oro

Phoebe the 17 y.o. cat has made a comeback as she has done many times.
Just when I think she's used all of her 9 lives she does the energizer bunny.
The vet says her lameness is a growth of keratin and not anything worse.
As long as she is not in pain and loving a hobbled walk in the sunshine we will keep on truckin'.
We've had a series of one dog and six female cats with as many as three at a time.
And when she goes the wife wants two male kittens next time.
That should be fun! We can never wait more than a month between loss and adoption. There are so many out there who need us.
Cheers all!
August 10, 2022 - 7:22am

#1917

bluecrow

Joined:
September 21, 2015

thank you friends

Spirit was such a sweet strong beautiful doggle woggle.
August 9, 2022 - 8:13pm

#1918

DeadVikes

Joined:
October 26, 2016

Bluecrow

Sorry to hear about your dog Bluecrow. Hang in there and 8/7/82 is a great way to put the mind in the right direction.

Sorry to hear about your issue as well 1st show. Be well.
August 9, 2022 - 4:40pm

#1919

Oroborous

Joined:
June 19, 2007

Ahhh fuck dude (&1st show too)

May the four winds blow him safely home!
I swear damn pets are harder than people.
Still gets me all chocked up if I start thinking about my ole buddy : (
I suggest David Bromberg’s cover of Mr Bojangles off of Best of Album.
After 25 years I still grieve, which is to say we feel your pain brother.
Sounds like he hit the lottery finding you, so at least you can celebrate a good life well lived!
And, the good ones never really go away, their with you when you need em…that joy they brought will always live on in your heart!
August 9, 2022 - 3:35pm

#1920

JimInMD

Joined:
June 27, 2011

Sorry Blue Crow & 1st Show

freak flag is set to half-mast X 2

John Perry Barlow

John Perry Barlow

Forums

Currently Listening To...

Bolo24 says: An Idea, Perhaps? Since we're all going to have a fair amount of spare time on our hands for the foreseeable future, what about starting another thread where we all listen to the same show/release on a given day and then share impressions afterward? Folks can submit suggestions and one person (not me) picks what we'll all listen to - call it Deadnet Picks or something. Anyway, if this idea is deemed to have merit, I'd suggest one of the loyal regular posters take the lead and do the picking - y'all can decide who. Might be fun. If it does go forward, I nominate Dick's Picks 18 for the first listen. Been talked about here lately, and, had it been a single show rather than a compilation, we'd probably be talking about it in the same conversation as Cornell, Veneta, etc. Or perhaps even Gainesville?? Stay safe and healthy, friends - this planet needs as many Deadheads as possible.

OB

You are correct sir! It is only money and it seems to fly out the door faster and faster as time goes by.
Good to hear you enjoyed TTB.
Yes and the new box for 2024, not sure anyone had this on their radar. I am excited, as this is a big box with 8 shows from a great time period. Plus they get the Plangent treatment.

Okay, since I still don't have my #51, how about 9/8/73 (Dave's #38).

10/17/72 by the way was great again. What a box!

DV and Oro

I think you befriended an AI bot.

Mighty nice of you.

But, other than Bender, we probably don’t need any bots around here.

Drown AI bots in the pond

>:(((

Dead is capitalized, derp

Best song? Best show, ya AI schmucklicker

Uh...if you are a real person iced then

Welcome

I just flashed on john belushi smashing that guitar...

Ooopppsss

…Idiot! I am lol

Shoot

Shoot, I was burning this bot some CDs.

You guys are very kind

You’ll be rewarded when the bots are our masters.

Obviously the bots can get around reCRAPTCHA, yet the humans have to keep taking the quiz.

Picks of the day

Road trip

So far
11/11/67
Disc 3 of 51 thru Wharf Rat

I Robot

Better to mistake a robot for a person than a person for a robot.

Bots

I'm not tech savvy. What does a bot get out of posting here unless we go to their website like a spammer is trying to get you to do? "I'm not a smart man but I know what love (of the Grateful Dead) is." Gump!
Cheers

More road trip pix

Rest of 51 disc 3
5 15 70 road trips disc one. The TIFTOO is H O T

9/8/73

This gem of a pick has been the soundtrack many a day on my walk the dogs/exercise routine. The mix on this is really raw and robust, in a good way!!

#38 is in my top 10 from Dave and Comapny, actually top 5!

Rock on, gang

9/8/73

Hey Johnathan,

I agree, this is a great show and I haven't listened to it much. Didn't even remember that we get a double encore with Stella Blue and OMSN. Solid show. Need to hit the bonus disc on Monday.

I think I only had one double encore, in Alpine in 89. Oh yes, and it was spectacular!

Double encores I attended

7 18 82
7 22 84

Maybe one other

Three can keep a secret, if two of them are Dead.....

Morning rockers!!! Happy Sunday!!!

Triple encore: Toronto June 21 1984, New Orleans-Big Boss Man-Iko Iko. Hey now!!!!! Big fun.............

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self......

Slightly big rainstorm heading my way................

Rock on,

Doc
There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.......

My Triple Encore

Terrapin>OMSN, Werewolves
Bet you can guess which show.
Just look at my name.
Cheers

Show with no encore because the show is so good

5 4 77

I just listened to the 5 4 77 bonus disc

A m a z i n g

Triple Encore

Now that is impressive!

Might have to que up 7/8/78 tomorrow Firstshow. You in?

I always loved the anticipation of the encore.

Kind Of...

Just did 7-8-78 on tape (my earliest copy of the show from 1996 taken from an Italian boot CD on Red Robin label that cost my buddy $70! The sound is raw and unfiltered SBD and amazing) on July 16 to keep the cassette deck lubed, so I will defer to the 7-7-78 show from the box which has one of BC's favorite 1st sets. I heard some of the 7-7 show from the parking lot as I had to work and got there late with no ticket and no plan. Long story short I got chased out by security and ended being needed as a spare driver when my posse came out after the show. But I did have a ticket for the next night. Nothin' like jumpin' in with both feet!
Cheers

TTB

We made it to the show at The Armory in Minneapolis on Friday night. Big thanks to all for the nudge in the right direction.

Went on StubHub on Thursday night and bought two tickets on the floor in row 20 for $125 for the two of us. No brainer at that point.

What a venue, so much fun. We had a blast. Maybe 8,000 people. Sound was great. Huge bars surround the full length of the venue. Really cool, no waiting. Band was outstanding. So great to see a band live again. The anticipation, the living in the moment and being around all kinds of different people.
Teschedi and Trucks definitely know how to deliver live. Would love to see them again and can't wait to get back to the Armory.

Armory/ multiple encores

Place looks cool DV. Bigger looking than you’d think?
From outside, reminds me of old Syracuse War Memorial Aud.
Glad you dug it! Sounds like first time back to live music? Nice!

Multiple/encores? Ok, I’ll play lol
4/12/83
6/21/84 (3)
6/24/84
6/27/85
7/1/85
6/28/86
6/29/86
6/22/87
6/25/88
4/3/89
7/17/89 DB says only 1?
6/6/92
7/1/92
7/9/95

Ahhh, Good ole summer tour!

Armory

Yes OB, the place is great and good size on the inside. First paid concert for me in a long time. Great to be back.

Nice list of multiple encores.
Deadbase is incorrect, 7/17/89 had a double encore, We bid you Goodnight and JBG. We were there.

The 1st Red Rocks Shows

Trying to compare the July 7th & 8th, 1978 shows is like trying to pick your favorite child (or grandchild for some of us). Both shows have that crazy energy and all out playing that often characterizes last shows of a tour. And that follow up Aug 30-31, 1978 (Hey Dave! Release the hounds!) was the just exactly perfect style having just come from the studio for Shakedown Street. Quite a different beast altogether but no less satisfying. Finishing up 7-7 this morning at Dead volume and loving it. That NFA with a Nobody's twist in the middle is the stuff!
Cheers

Red Rocks 78

Hard to beat these shows, Firstshow.

Such an interesting little tour and then to end up at Red Rocks. What a box. Looking forward to more 78 in September!

The Dead always made it a priority to play in MN for most of the late 70s to 1989- Then never again. And not in my second home state WI.

8/13/75

Purely by chance, I found myself listening to the Great American Music Hall show from 8/13/75 today- without realising it was it's anniversary. I'm not pulling your leg here. As everyone knows, it is a great and unique show. If I was compiling my best 10 or 15 shows, I would make room for this one. It's a level playing field of excellence from the opening HSF triumvirate through to U.S Blues.

I also love the closing "Blues For Allah" which is so off the wall it's in a category of it's own. Seems more weird in the way "What's Become Of The Baby" was than anything else in their repertoire. Shame they didn't do more with it in the later years. It would have been perfect for Egypt.

Daverock

If you don’t have it,
8-13-75 vinyl sounds pretty good and I don’t think it’s even 180 g.

Just occured to me that I have all 3 FTV’s on vinyl.
Nice!

OFTV

And the remastered version sounds spectacular as well.

I will have to get it going on Thursday.

Don't forget Milking the Turkey.

Cnkd

Yes, it was listening to 8/13/75 on vinyl yesterday - it does sound really good. I have Two From The Vaults on vinyl, but not Three - I've been on the verge of getting it for some time.

While we are on the subject, I wondered what the quality of the vinyl was like on your copy of Daves 2 ?On the first few sides, every now and again there is a loud crackle type noise on a song. It's over immediately, but then reappears a few songs later - and again disappears a soon as I've registered it. The last few sides are fine all the way through.

Daverock

I don’t recall any issues with my DaP2 vinyl.
Do you have a gel stylus cleaner?
I got the Hudson Hi-Fi one and it seems to do a good job at removing dust and debris.

stylus cleaner

Cnkd - I'm not so sure about that...it's only that album that suffers in this way. Both the vinyl versions of 8/13/75 and 5/25/72, played this morning, are completely free of surface noise. Maybe I should get a better record cleaner.

8/13/75-OFTV

The beginning of the release of the vault tapes! Yes!

I beat the hell out of this release when I first got it in 91. And listening to the remastered version in 2024 still makes me smile. I can't get over how good the audio is on this release. From the iconic intro into Help Slip Franklins to the Blues for Allah finale. Love the Eyes into King Solomon's Marbles.

These are the kind of releases that keep me wanted more.

Also hit 6/14/76 from the Beacon, probably my favorite show from that Box.
Might have to hit the capitol theatre show from 6/19 today as well.

Be well out there.

1 from the vault

That was amazing when it came out on CD.
Of course, I couldn’t afford the CD (had to use my money on beer and cigarettes), so had to make a cassette copy of a friend’s CD.
Now I have the original CD, the remastered CD, and the vinyl.

Four From The Vault

It’s overdue Dave.

8/13/75

The first time I heard it was when they broadcast an hour of it on the radio shortly after the date they played it. I recorded that on a cassette. I think it became the basis of quite a well known bootleg in England called "Make Believe Ballroom".
I didn't know about the remastered version that has been mentioned as having been released this year. I am very happy with the vinyl version...I'll give it some thought.

Remastered OFTV

Daverock, it was remastered in 2007 to HDCD specs and it is a huge upgrade. This was the same timeframe they discovered Three From the Vault was produced and ready for release in the 1990s but never released.

At the time in the 1990s they were trying to have multi track releases as a separate track from the two track Dick's releases.
Long live Don Pearson!

Might As Well

Might as well hit Three from the Vault, 2/19/71 tomorrow!

Love

Love TFTV. I am so happy they cleaned up and released most of that Capitol Theatre run.

I will gladly queue up that show tomorrow (today, oh the time). I have so much freaking yard work to do that will help pass the time and take me to another place altogether while the work does itself.

Thanks DVikes.

Hello, hello, hello

Is there anybody in there?

Just keeping the page active,
So nod if you can hear me.

Alive and Well

Still alive Conekid.

Do you have a pick for us?

Finished Three from the Vault III over the weekend. Love that Smokestack and Easy Wind. Never understood why that wasn't played more live and zero times during Europe 72.

The Dead always kept you guessing and that was part of the fun.

Those Port Chester shows are special! Let's get the rest of them out.
I mean they don't compare to the Scranton show, do they?

A pick…..

Watch this is you’ve never seen it.

youtu.be/JVoetvW7HuY

?si=bn

C0AfGEPktIeleX

You’ll have to piece it back together.

Just keeping this page going

The “what are you listening to right now” page is the current place to be.

Conekid

Appreciate it.

Yes, we need a pick of the day. Conekid, couldn't piece together your last one.

Maybe we need a Gene pick or a Vincent pick?

The new box hasn't sold out yet. With just 10,000 copies, I thought this would sell out in 30 days. I am looking forward to the end of September.

DV

The lynk was to Hard Working Americans 2016 at Lockin’.
Good stuff.
No pick for now, I’m going to bed.

Study the past, if you would divine the future......

Hey rockers!!

August 26, 1971, because why not? The bittersweet end of an era. Not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning......

In this bright future you can't forget your past...........

Rock on,

Doc
When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness......

8/26/71

8/26/71 it is.

Thanks Doc.

4/30/88

This one is for Doc. 4/30/88 from the Frost. Maybe we could get OB to check this one out?

4/30

Sorry for being the erratic participant. Lot's going on, the summer when I was never home, exception being today.

I did manage to get this one loaded just in time to do start what turned out to be a big yardwork day with perfect weather.

First Let the Good Times Roll. A great late-era collaboration, Jerry and Bob get extra points for effort > Feel Like a Stranger. A great song to hear when 'it's just starting to kick in.' Let it grow, strong effort. Second set, fun, a good balance of energy and relaxed vibe. Sound seems more dialed in. Jerry is outstanding in parts, at home with Tiger.

88 is one of those years. The Healy tapes vary a bit, probably the peak of the ultra-mix before the multi-tracks of 89 / 90 and Don Pearson's increasing influence thereafter. I'm not a huge fan of dan's experiments with audience mics, (sorry) but after the first song or two the audience portion seems to behave itself.

A good show for the era. I like the 88 Greeks too, sort of similar.

Thanks dvikes, a new one for me. A good Jerry centric show.

Not even wrong.............

Morning, rockers!!

Day off, tending to my wife after round one of new chemo, all I have to say is......

1988?????!!!!!!

1968? Sign me up! 1978? On rare special occasions. 1988? Sorry, way too far outta my comfort zone...........

However, if folks dig it, great!!! Whatever floats your boat, as long as it doesn't hurt too much, break too many local laws, or create extra work for your local medical examiner...............

Time for more coffee, and 8/29/69.................

Doc
In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.....