....a new Hard To Handle I've never heard. The thing is, in my personal experience, it is the most flubbed song they ever performed. Finding one just exactly perfect is like catching a unicorn.
Pigpen was this close to nailing it here though. Cred where cred is due. 🍻 🦄

....albeit with not so great news.
Thinking of you and your wife sir.
And yes. Been through that.
Chin up and play music. Soothes more than just the savage beast.
A Cumberland just started. Yee-haw!

Hey y’all. I’ve been away for quite a while. It’s been a very tough trip around the sun. I first got fed up with the hey now BS. Shortly after that found out that my wife had colorectal cancer.
6 weeks of radiation & 2 weeks of chemo. Became a full time caregiver and stopped working for 8 weeks. Somewhere in there I got #50 with bonus disc. And just now spinning set 2 of the Scranton show. It’s difficult to describe what it’s been like (for both of us). Some of you folks have been through this and you know.
I WILL say music has been a lifesaver, but it’s been extremely difficult to fully enjoy these last 4 1/2 months. The wife finally was able to get out of the house last Wednesday. A corner has been turned. I was so heartened by the couple of folks who mentioned me. Been back to work for 2 weeks now and life is a struggle. Maybe now I can really LISTEN to #50. I have not read any reviews of 50. I guess I should go back and read them. I’ll post when I can, but I appreciate the brotherhood (and sisterhood) around here. Don’t really care what #52 will be, I just hope to be somewhat back to normal and semi-rested by then. I guess you really CAN’T keep a good man down. Peace & love to all.

My first show was 6/16/74 (50 years ago?) and it was an awakening.

We entered the Des Moines Fairground horse racetrack area with the Wall of Sound sitting in the middle of the track area. It is hard to describe how striking that 'Wall of sound" was sitting in front of us. It was simply immense.
The Dead ambled out to tune up. There is Keith on his grand piano, Billy at his drums in the middle under this cylindrical-suspended-speaker-section, Phil in his shades, and Bobby with a flannel shirt (to ward of the cool breeze blowing in). But who is that in a red 'Mars Academy ' sweatshirt? It looks like a chubby Dustin Hoffman? No it's JERRY, he shaved off his beard! He still had massive sideburns ala the sixties.

The Dead tuned up and began playing and off we go-"Bertha" yes!!!!!!!!! and the crystalline sound of that system. unbelievable, and Phil's bass took your breath away. And the Grateful Dead took me on a journey, of Americana, country, space, rock, jam, fable, fun, roller coaster, turn on a dime.

My first Scarlet Begonias (which I thought it was going to be China Cat when I heard those first simmering leads), but I was then gifted with my first China Cat> I know you Rider later. Scarlet was a 'stand alone' back in those days, but was so perfect to hear that song that I would delight in hearing for decades to come. Mexicali, Row Jimmy, Around and Around and others were in that first set. Then the first break.

Second set included a ethereal Eyes of the World that magically segued into Big River. That segue required a psychedelic whiplash collar to keep my head from spinning off the planet. Other new and old tunes. This is stupefying, I was thunderstruck with Phil's bass bombs and then a staggering Playin' in the Band to end the second set. My mouth was hanging agape, I look to my buddies, and they stared wide-eyed back at me. The Dead will be back for more? Another set? How much more can they show us?
This was the old days and this was to be a 3 set show. I thought that I was saturated, no more wonder will fill this cranium. My buddy who had been at last year's show smiles knowingly at me and leans back with that Neal Cassady guffaw and we all break up giggling. Then yes, the Dead come out to astound us with more tales, mysteries, and celebrations,.... Set 3 Truckin' >Wharf Rat> Nobody's Fault Jam> Going Down The Road Feeling Bad and the encore was Casey Jones. Beyond belief...........

Yes, I am constitutionally incapable of making a long story short.

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself"

My 51 is seated in limbo a few hours away since Saturday afternoon. Brown doesn’t have it anymore and Blue says they didn’t get it yet. Don’t ever bother with customer service chat bots for either outfit.

88 and still going strong. I saw him play at the S.F. Blues Festival, he put on a knockout of a show. He influenced Clapton , Hendrix, Richards and on and on.

55 years ago today the 45 rpm version of Dupree's Diamond Blues / Cosmic Charlie was released in the U.S. I bought a copy up in Village Music in Mill Valley years ago.

Love the story!

....thats it. That's the post. 🇺🇸

It came on Monday. Great show and has great packaging, because I love the poster and newspaper clipping. At 68 years old, I remember hearing about this show and reading this review. In 1971, I used to deliver the Morning Call Newspaper and read the small write-up. I used to frequent the Whitehall Mall Record Shop, too, but mainly from 1979 through '85.
My first Grateful Dead show and first rock concert was just over 2 years away, 6/10/73 RFK in DC.
I first got segments of this show during the old "tape" trading days on CD-R in the early 2000s and I loved it as a mono soundboard. I wanted to listen to it earlier this year, 2024, but I must have misplaced it and given up trying to find it. In mid-June, I decided to stream from the Internet Archive and I picked "unknown32015", I was in heaven with it. I was going to revisit other copies of the show on the IA a little later, but Dave's Picks Volume 51 was announced...