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    Friend of The Devils: April 1978 (Dead.net Exclusive) [19 CD]

     

    WHAT'S INSIDE:
    Curtis Hixon Convention Hall, Tampa, FL 4/6/78
    Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, FL 4/7/78
    Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Jacksonville, FL 4/8/78
    Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA 4/10/78
    Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA 4/11/78
    Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke University, Durham, NC 4/12/78
    Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, VA 4/14/78
    Huntington Civic Center, Huntington, WV 4/16/78

    Recorded By Betty Cantor-Jackson
    Newly restored and speed-corrected audio by Plangent Processes
    Mastered by Jeffrey Norman
    Liners By Author Steve Silberman
    Artwork By Acclaimed Artist Matthew Brannon

    Limited To 10,000 Individually Numbered Copies
    Dead.net Exclusive

    It’s been said before but April ‘78 was an incredible month for the Dead. Like May ‘77, you could throw a dart and guarantee you hit a stellar show. - KyloRensPecs, r/gratefuldead, Reddit

    .... April/May '78 has a lot of the same qualities of Spring '77 but with some extra edge and a much bigger sound from the Rhythm Devils. A really special era that often gets neglected. - viewtiful_alan, r/gratefuldead, Reddit

    Sportatorium - April 7, 1989

    when drums started I thought, oh s*#!, i hate drum solos and Billy and Mickey stopped me in my tracks. Wow, these guys are really good. Little did I know the pervasive influence this phenomena would have on my life. - pearlybakerbest, Dead.net

    Huntington Civic Centre, West Virginia – 16 April 1978

    This is another must-hear concert by The Grateful Dead. The sound and mix are almost ‘absolutely perfect'... It’s difficult to pick out highlights because everything is played so well; the band are tight, Donna is great and the set list is strong. - Grateful Ted, gratefulted.co.uk

    We're hitting the bullseye with the eight previously unreleased stellar shows that make up FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL 1978. Filled to the brim with peak performances from the Grateful Dead's post-hiatus period, this collection captures the historic tour where "Drums" begat "Space," morphed into "Drums">"Space" and cemented the Rhythm Devils' second-set power move from the music business to the "transportation business."

    Spring 1978 finds the Dead consistently weaving spontaneous magic, showing signs of great promise and potential - from the no-nonsense rock'n'roll in Tampa, where scholars cite the first "Drumz" leading into "Space," to the lengthy communal get down in Pembroke Pines to Jacksonville where the twain emerge fully formed, offering the primordial opportunity for "soul retrieval." It's evident in the dynamic range delivered on back-to-back nights at the intimate Fox Theatre and through the laid-back unity of the band's performance in Durham at Duke, a comfort that carries over to Virginia and West Virginia where the playing is unbridled, bursting with momentum, threatening to carry itself away. And nowhere can you hear that more clearly than through Betty Cantor-Jackson's original recordings, reliably crisp, bright, and vivid.

    Individually numbered to 10,000 copies and exclusive to Dead.net, FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL 1978 has been mastered by Audio Engineer Jeffrey Norman using Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction. Steve Vance designed the collection’s custom box, which features a removable wave drum. (We invite you to unleash your inner Rhythm Devil.) Acclaimed artist Matthew Brannon created the set’s original artwork. The collection also includes a 48-page book with original liner notes by author Steve Silberman and photos by James Anderson, Bob Minkin, and more.

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  • #491
    nitecat
    Joined:
    Travels in California

    On my way to and from Lake Tahoe this month, I passed Nevada County Fairgrounds, where I saw JGB and the Dead in 1983. I also passed Boreal Ridge Ski Resort, the home of the infamous " Worst Dead concert ever" in 1985. I recall the Fairgrounds being pretty pleasant, and the Ski Resort being a pretty rocky, dirty location. I don't remember the show being all that bad, but the boys did have several technical difficulties. I'd go back in a second.

  • #492
    JoeyMC
    Joined:
    What's the line on, on time…

    What's the line on, on time delivery?

  • #493
    JimInMD
    Joined:
    Re: Steve Silberman's Obit

    Nice Post Dr. Robert

    When I run that obituary through HowNow (C) TM, the proprietary software I wrote to get wordy musings through this website during the HeyNow period, it would have taken 6,234 separate posts to get the entire thing through without getting HeyNow'd. (unfortunate to see it get fixed the day my patent came through...argh)

    anyhow... I'd call that tremendous progress.

    A tip of the glass and a moment of silence for all those deadheads worldwide that we lost jumping off bridges, hanging from neckties, joining monasteries, becoming uber drivers, starting tech companies, worm farms, etc. during the dark period when HeyNow ruled the land. May the four winds blow you safely home.

  • #494
    boblopes
    Joined:
    Steve Silberman's Obit courtesy of David Gans

    Steve Silberman’s vocation as a Grateful Dead scholar and writer began organically, on a blanket on the grass at a concert in the sun. He happened to sit next to Blair Jackson and Regan McMahon, publishers of “The Golden Road,” an essential fan magazine.
    “Steve wasn’t just a fan who ran off at the mouth about how many shows he had seen,” recalled McMahon of that chance meeting. “He had all these layers of spiritual and countercultural depth.
    Everything he said about the Grateful Dead was intellectual and perceptive and poetic.”
    By the end of that afternoon, Silberman had been invited to contribute an article to “The Golden Road” and that led to the high honor of writing liner notes for albums and box sets, and ultimately co-authoring the episodic glossary, “Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads.”
    Silberman was known for wearing a custom T-shirt to a Halloween show bearing the message “Your Hallucinations Are My Costume,” and for his skill at putting cultural, scientific and medical complexity into common language, which he did during decades as a science journalist and in his 500-page treatise, “NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity” published in 2015.
    He spent four years on that project, followed by six years becoming an expert on cystic fibrosis. An upcoming book titled “The Taste of Salt,” was scheduled for publication in 2026. Silberman was to Silberman Chronicle obit.rtf the point of submitting chapters to his editor when he died suddenly at his home in San Francisco on Aug. 29. Cause of death was an apparent heart attack, said his husband Keith Karraker.
    “Steve lived an exciting life and wrote a book that changed the world,” said Karraker. “He could walk into a grocery store and make a friend for life with the counter guy, just from commenting on the music playing on the stereo.”
    Silberman also made friends for life by starting and maintaining a Facebook group titled “Cole Valley, a Not-So-Secret SF Neighborhood.” It has 8,000 members, including his sister Hillary Shawaf and mother Leslie, both of whom moved here from the East Coast based on Silberman’s recommendation.
    “He just loved this beautiful small-town neighborhood on the N Judah line,” said Karraker, a high school chemistry teacher. “Steve created a town square for the neighborhood,” added his sister. “One of the greatest talents he had was keeping it civil.”
    Silberman spent many years as an editor and writer for Wired magazine, but perhaps his greatest creative outlet was the Dead, having seen his first Dead show in 1973 at Watkins Glen, N.Y. He also developed an expertise on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and became a close friend and confidante of the often-difficult David Crosby. He wrote the liner notes for the Crosby-Nash live album “Another Stoney Evening,” released in 1998, and the 50th anniversary edition of Crosby’s solo debut “If I Could Only Remember My Name,” from 1971.
    “He understood people,” Shawaf said of her brother. “Making human connections was his life blood. When he walked down the street people approached him constantly.”
    After the death of Jerry Garcia, in 1995, Silberman wrote an essay called “The Only Song of God,” that was originally published in Dupree’s Diamond News. In it, Silberman described walking by the Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium in Oakland after Garcia’s death, where he estimated he had seen 40 of the 56 shows the Dead played there, often on weeknights when only the cognoscenti came.
    Silberman in an undated photo at the Oakland home of Regan McMahon and Blair Jackson, publishers of “The Golden Road,” an essential Grateful Dead fan magazine. He met them at a concert and soon became a contributor.
    “If you weren’t from the Bay Area, after three or four shows at Kaiser, eventually, you’d move here,” wrote
    Silberman, who had followed that migration himself, though he had the extra incentive of earning a master’s degree in English literature at UC Berkeley.
    His tryout with “The Golden Road” explored the connection between the Beat anti-hero Neal Cassady and the Grateful Dead, a connection that the band’s historian and publicist, Dennis McNally also visited in his biography of Jack Kerouac.
    “Steve was always willing to chat about some angle of the 60s music scene in general and was a very reliable source,” said McNally. “What he said was trustworthy.”
    Stephen Louis Silberman was born Dec. 23, 1957 in Ithaca, N.Y. His father, Donald, was an English professor at Queensborough Community College and an anti-war activist, as was his wife, Leslie Hantman.
    “We saw my parents get arrested and be led away in handcuffs,” said Shawaf. “My dad did 11 days at the Queens Detention Center.”
    Silberman’s first literary goal was to be a poet and he had success in sixth grade with a poem called “the
    Math Battle.” It began, “Cubes are swirling through my head, π’s attack me in my bed,” and built enough momentum to win a poetry competition sponsored by Fordham University. That became his first published work. Silberman attended John P. Stevens High School in Edison, NJ., and gave a graduation speech in 1975, declining to cut his shoulder-length hair for the ceremony.
    Seen here in an undated photo, Silberman helped author David Gans write a collection of reminiscences about Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead co-founder and guitarist.
    “He was a magnificent human being,” Gans says of Silberman.
    By then he was already a Deadhead, having attended his first show and begun a live concert tape collection that was to include “tons and tons and tons of tapes,” said his sister, “and some very obscure ones.” He had also come out as gay, which was not immediately accepted.
    “My parents reacted very badly. It took some years for them to come around,” Shawaf said.
    He attended Oberlin College in Ohio, and his slow migration west began with a position as a teaching assistant for Beat poet Allen Ginsberg at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colo. Silberman planned to continue as a poet himself until his father, the English professor, advised him that “he was better at prose and would reach more people that way,” said his sister.
    He also reached people by helping them with their own writing. After Garcia’s death, David Gans, who has published five books about the Grateful Dead, was having trouble putting together a collection of reminiscences. When he told Silberman of his struggles over the phone, Silberman immediately drove from San Francisco to Gans’s home in Oakland, read through Gans’s essay, tore it apart and restructured it for him.
    “That was one of dozens of times Steve improved my work with his generosity of spirit and his wisdom,” said Gans. “I know dozens of other people who were similarly blessed with Steve’s generosity. He was a magnificent human being.”
    Later, Silberman, Gans and Blair Jackson co-produced. “So Many Roads 1965-1995,” a five-CD box for which Silberman wrote an essay. He also appeared on camera in the 2017 documentary “Long Strange Trip.”
    Silberman on vacation in Europe in 2023. “He really brought empathy and compassion to a topic that had only been covered negatively in the press,” says Shannon Rosa, whose son Leo was featured in Silberman’s book about autism.
    “There are Deadheads who are extreme but Steve had a historic overview that made his observations sensible and a little more grounded than some,” said McNally.
    Silberman’s expertise on autism began when he was working at Wired and got a tip that there was a spike in diagnoses of the developmental disorder in Silicon Valley. This became an article called “The Geek Syndrome,” published in 2001, and greatly expanded in “NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity.”
    “Steve’s book gave hope to a lot of families like ours that had only had messages that our lives would be one of doom and gloom,” said Shannon Rosa of Redwood City, whose son Leo is featured in the book.
    “He really brought empathy and compassion to a topic that had only been covered negatively in the press. I
    can’t tell you how many families I’ve heard from whose lives have been changed for the better because Steve showed us with compassion, not pity.”
    That came through in everything Silberman wrote, especially the essay on seeing the Dead at Kaiser Auditorium.
    “At shows in those years, up at the front on ‘the rail’ where you could observe the musicians at work, the crowds could get so dense on a Saturday night that you would lose your footing,” Silberman wrote in Dupree’s Diamond News. “But if you relaxed, you could nearly float, like a cell in a bath of nutrient, the rhythms coming to you as a gentle push in one direction, then another...”
    “It was one of the safest places in the world.”

  • #495
    daverock
    Joined:
    Rip this joint gonna get down low.

    51 years ago tonight I saw The Stones for the first time. I can remember wondering if they would be any good - Mick Jagger had just turned 30, and they seemed like a bit of 60's throwback. Perish the thought. I only new about 25% of the songs - I'd never heard either Let It Bleed or Exile on Main Street but it mattered not a jot. It was incredible. I have just been listening to "The Brussels Affair" double album from the same tour, and featuring the same songs. One of the best live albums of all time.

    I don't think I've ever seen a hummingbird. In Lowestoft we have great big seagulls - I swear they are getting bigger every year - and during summer, if anyone eats food on the seafront they sometimes swoop down and take it out it out of their hands. It looks great, the surprise on the people's face when it happens. The most rock n' roll bird I have seen.

  • #496
    itsburnsy
    Joined:
    Hummingbirds

    Stupid bear kept raiding my bird feeder so I had to very begrudgingly get rid of it. In the summer I got birds from as far as S America heading for AK. Now all I can do is have a Hummingbird feeder, which is cool, but I never seem to have more than one regular at a time. Right now he's green with a red head, the second, not sure what happened to the first. Read somewhere that they are the most territorial birds of all, maybe that's why I only get one at a time? Anyway, they are fascinating little guys aren't they

  • #497
    billy the kiddd
    Joined:
    Happy Birthday Mickey Hart

    Joan Baez sang Mickey Hart Happy Birthday before the start of 9/11/81 at the Greek. They brought a big birthday cake out on stage. My favorite Grateful Dead years were when Mickey Hart was in the band.

  • #498
    RyXs
    Joined:
    Belated Wishes

    R.I.P. Steve Silberman

    Happy B~Day Mickey Hart

    Can't wait to bang along with Mick & Bill on that wave drum when it gets here!

  • #499
    JimInMD
    Joined:
    Re: Hummers

    Love our Hummingbirds. They are still alive, well and fighting over the food in the three feeders here, but not for long (again except for the stragglers that are migrating).

    Don't know any GD references for Hummingbirds, but I bet there is at least one. The closest I can come is the Nuthatch. A tiny bird, wings a mile long? I guess you wouldn't need binoculars looking for the Hunter Nuthatch.

    Eyes of the World:
    Wondering where the nut-thatch winters
    Wings a mile long just carried the bird away

    Love that lyric full of whimsical imagery.

    Love that song, sometimes it feels like it was written about any one of us. A song with hope for tomorrow. Hope that what we do makes a difference and than any one of us can and does make the world a better place.

    Listening to it can completely change my mood and turn a shit day into something meaningful. Come to think of it, a charm of Hummingbirds can do the same. (they call a group of hummingbirds a charm, how apt)

    Favorite Eyes of the World, impossible to pick. Louisville 6/18/74 and Winterland 10/19/74 are both standouts, but there are many post hiatus, with Brent and beyond Brent hold their own amongst the giants.

    Two weeks until the box? I guess that will have to be ok.

    Where do nuthatches winter? It's a trick question, if there's ample cones and food they probably won't migrate at all. (at least here in the mid-Atlantic)

  • #500
    1stshow70878
    Joined:
    Hummers Etc.

    The wife gets the hummingbird close-ups as she is a natural strawberry blonde. Here in W. Colo. they are mostly gone and the few migrators we have are young ones, mostly Black Chinned and Rufous with the occasional Broad Tailed that make the most noise in flight because of that tail. The Rufous are very territorial and come late in the season. This year they stayed for shorter periods. Usually dominate the feeder for weeks at a time but not this year.
    Putting out the flag today, a somber remembrance.
    Also my deadnet anniversary. Thanks to all.
    Can't wait for '78! Two weeks!
    Cheers

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Friend of The Devils: April 1978 (Dead.net Exclusive) [19 CD]

 

WHAT'S INSIDE:
Curtis Hixon Convention Hall, Tampa, FL 4/6/78
Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, FL 4/7/78
Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Jacksonville, FL 4/8/78
Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA 4/10/78
Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA 4/11/78
Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke University, Durham, NC 4/12/78
Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, VA 4/14/78
Huntington Civic Center, Huntington, WV 4/16/78

Recorded By Betty Cantor-Jackson
Newly restored and speed-corrected audio by Plangent Processes
Mastered by Jeffrey Norman
Liners By Author Steve Silberman
Artwork By Acclaimed Artist Matthew Brannon

Limited To 10,000 Individually Numbered Copies
Dead.net Exclusive

It’s been said before but April ‘78 was an incredible month for the Dead. Like May ‘77, you could throw a dart and guarantee you hit a stellar show. - KyloRensPecs, r/gratefuldead, Reddit

.... April/May '78 has a lot of the same qualities of Spring '77 but with some extra edge and a much bigger sound from the Rhythm Devils. A really special era that often gets neglected. - viewtiful_alan, r/gratefuldead, Reddit

Sportatorium - April 7, 1989

when drums started I thought, oh s*#!, i hate drum solos and Billy and Mickey stopped me in my tracks. Wow, these guys are really good. Little did I know the pervasive influence this phenomena would have on my life. - pearlybakerbest, Dead.net

Huntington Civic Centre, West Virginia – 16 April 1978

This is another must-hear concert by The Grateful Dead. The sound and mix are almost ‘absolutely perfect'... It’s difficult to pick out highlights because everything is played so well; the band are tight, Donna is great and the set list is strong. - Grateful Ted, gratefulted.co.uk

We're hitting the bullseye with the eight previously unreleased stellar shows that make up FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL 1978. Filled to the brim with peak performances from the Grateful Dead's post-hiatus period, this collection captures the historic tour where "Drums" begat "Space," morphed into "Drums">"Space" and cemented the Rhythm Devils' second-set power move from the music business to the "transportation business."

Spring 1978 finds the Dead consistently weaving spontaneous magic, showing signs of great promise and potential - from the no-nonsense rock'n'roll in Tampa, where scholars cite the first "Drumz" leading into "Space," to the lengthy communal get down in Pembroke Pines to Jacksonville where the twain emerge fully formed, offering the primordial opportunity for "soul retrieval." It's evident in the dynamic range delivered on back-to-back nights at the intimate Fox Theatre and through the laid-back unity of the band's performance in Durham at Duke, a comfort that carries over to Virginia and West Virginia where the playing is unbridled, bursting with momentum, threatening to carry itself away. And nowhere can you hear that more clearly than through Betty Cantor-Jackson's original recordings, reliably crisp, bright, and vivid.

Individually numbered to 10,000 copies and exclusive to Dead.net, FRIEND OF THE DEVILS: APRIL 1978 has been mastered by Audio Engineer Jeffrey Norman using Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction. Steve Vance designed the collection’s custom box, which features a removable wave drum. (We invite you to unleash your inner Rhythm Devil.) Acclaimed artist Matthew Brannon created the set’s original artwork. The collection also includes a 48-page book with original liner notes by author Steve Silberman and photos by James Anderson, Bob Minkin, and more.

First and foremost - Happy Birthday Mr. Weir! You are loved more than you know!!!

Second, forgot to mention, I met this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nihon Hidankyo, in 1996 in Hiroshima Japan. I was there for education. This was both a school group touring Japan and part of a summer employment internship. I was with the group when he singled me out to give a tour of Hiroshima park at the blast zone. How he could since a kind soul by looking at me blows my mind. Spent 2 hours with him, have a lot of pictures.

Life is strange indeed.

New Widespread Panic Archive release from 4th of July at the Warfield looks pretty tasty as well. Only have one of their official release, from hometown. They have excellent spacial thickness on their releases. They had help from some GD experts to educate them both on sound and lighting. Of course, Candice Brightman ran their lights and educated others. I know Phish (Chris Kuroda) has incredible lighting but at times I prefer Panic's lights. They create a spacial context in their lighting to go with spacial context in sound.

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Submitted by Cousins Of The… on Wed, 10/16/2024 - 17:04

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They played what may be the best 1980s set, at the Melkweg in Amsterdam:

Playing in the Band >
Hully Gully >
The Wheel
Samson & Delilah
Gloria >
Lovelight >
Going Down the Road Feeling Bad >
Playing reprise>
Black Peter >
Sugar Magnolia

Previous night was very good as well.

Btw, it looks like the Archive has been down for a few days now, not sure what's going on there.

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9 years 10 months

Submitted by bobbyqking on Thu, 10/17/2024 - 10:10

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What happened to that black and white video from Duke ‘78 that made the trading rounds back in the day? My copy was multi-generational but it was a great companion to a very strong show.

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Submitted by Oroborous on Thu, 10/17/2024 - 10:35

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? Saw it up last night after watching the GDM thingy?
Are you looking on the GD channel on the toob of you?

It’s pretty good all things considered, at least if you grew up watching what we had as lads! Definitely helps illuminate the approach at the time…

...bc I listened tonight to 4/16/78 for the first time EVER. Rawrrrr strong stuff!

I started at the Scarlet ->Fire because I was in the mood to hear that, and then I just kept listening. It's all been good, but I have to say, what a sublime Sugar Magnolia! Maybe it's because this song was played so often, but I feel like it takes a special rendition to really make me wake up and take note. But this one got to me. I've replayed it at least half a dozen times tonight, mainly for Garcia's work after Weir finishes the verses but before they launch into SSDD.

Tomorrow I'll take the entire show with me to work and give it a start-to-finish playing.

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Submitted by wissinomingdeadhead on Sat, 10/19/2024 - 20:06

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The Duke Show OR 11/24/78

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Submitted by icecrmcnkd on Sun, 10/20/2024 - 09:17

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It was on utoob this year.
4-12-78 a few weeks ago and GD Movie + Bonus a couple days ago.

I played the GD Movie Bonus DVD yesterday. Good stuff. Time to remaster all the video from that run to Blu-ray and/or 4k ultra HD and Plangentize the reels.

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Submitted by JimInMD on Sun, 10/20/2024 - 21:01

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Give us the goodies and clean them up first.

I'd love to see the whole October Winterland '74 run released to CD in its entirety. Anything they can add to the movie would be great too. Spare no expense.

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Submitted by Byrd on Mon, 10/21/2024 - 15:14

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Sad to say that this was not the Dead's finest hours. A total transition period with very little continuity of song choice as we saw in earlier years. Cocaine had also made its presence highly known during this period, so that probably accounts for a lot of it. I saw the Atlanta show and it was nice to hear Peggy-O and Candyman, but things just didn't seem to quite flow so easy.

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Submitted by daverock on Tue, 10/22/2024 - 00:24

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I'd rather the complete run be released on cd than dvd. When I am listening I can go anywhere, but when I am looking at a screen I tend not to lose the plot as easily.

It always strikes me as a bit strange that cocaine is often cited as a reason for 1978 shows being the way they were. I got the impression that it became their drug of choice for playing live many years before then. 1974 being a good example, going off reports from the time.

I wouldn't worry about the All the Video Edition. As I understand it, Jerry rode that horse to death, and it almost bankrupted the band (or did it bankrupt them?). I don't think they have the resources to pull it off and even if they did, I do not think they can make a return on the investment.

I even think the All Music Edition is problematic. When Steal Your Face came out (anybody remember that double album?), Bear and Phil complained that the recordings were problematic, something about the original mix being in Quad or the differential mics bleeding through or something like that. I seem to recall the box we got didn't come easy but I could be wrong.

So who knows what if anything we will get from this run, but I still want it. Each and every glorious show, yes to audio. If they somehow cobbled a few more hours of video that would be a cherry on top but I'm not holding my breath for that much new video from this run being released.

As for 78 and cocaine, etc. I find attraction to different years and eras at different times. Some things do not appeal to me but given a different time and setting sometimes they break through, and I get sucked in. On the other side of the same coin, the GD never got everything exactly perfect. They came close but there was always something that ventured off course, seemed astray. Like they were constantly striving for something just beyond their grasp and then by chance when they got there, they didn't quite know what to do with it. And for me, that's the appeal. That's what keeps me coming back. The adventure, not the destination. The willingness to take chances and keep things fresh.

My favorite Brown Eyed Women's are from Spring '78 and some of my favorite Peggy-O's. Was there excess, of course, but there were diamonds in the rough. Go through some of those older boxes or shows less travelled, toss one in the player and don't be surprised if it sounds better than you remembered. Like the Stella Blue on Steal Your Face.

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Submitted by 1stshow70878 on Tue, 10/22/2024 - 11:20

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I think SYF was my 1st GD LP. College dorm guy next door was a very knowledgeable CA deadhead and he seemed to think it wasn't a very worthy release at that time (during hiatus) so then I worked backwards to Skull & Roses, Aoxomoxoa, Live Dead, EU72 and by then Blues For Allah came out. Needless to say I was hooked.
Cheers

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Submitted by DeadVikes on Tue, 10/22/2024 - 21:26

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Oh yes Jim, I remember Steal your face. It was very hard to find in the mid eighties and when I finally got it, I was excited at the time.

I believe they put it together very quick to try and raise some money after Ron split with $650k of the bands money.

I will say the 2004 Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack is some of the best sounding 74 I have ever heard. Love it. So, certainly think they could give us some more. Dave also mentioned (in the 2004 Grateful Dead reissue) that they had more movie footage to put out another movie. Don't know for sure, but again it would be great.

Pinkus has a new unboxing video for this year's box. We owe him a lot and he has been very instrumental in bringing us tons of fantastic releases. Keep them coming!

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Submitted by daverock on Wed, 10/23/2024 - 00:45

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That was my first Dead album too. Summer 1976 it came out in England. There was one side of the triple album "Glastonbury Fayre" which featured about 23 minutes of Dark Star from Wembley 4/8/72 that I got a few years before that.

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Submitted by mmonhart on Wed, 10/23/2024 - 10:21

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I also found numerous skips and gaps even after downloading the flac files twice. Support has been unresponsive. I finally instituted a disputed charge

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Submitted by augwest11 on Thu, 10/24/2024 - 13:54

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Count me among the disappointed customers who shelled out hard-earned currency for a very flawed product. I lost count of the number of songs across various shows in the set that were marred by skips and pauses.

When I first reported this I received a quick reply and a new set of download links. There was no acknowledgement of the problem, just new links. I downloaded one of them and it too had songs with skips. I have since reached out again, and now the folks at dead.net/rhino are silent.

I'll provide an update if I hear anything. In the meantime, anyone else who has experienced the same thing with the Friend of the Devils download set, please make your voice heard.

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Submitted by JimInMD on Fri, 10/25/2024 - 13:37

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Phil just passed away. It's a sad day at casa JimInMD. I am flying my freak flag at half mast. Phil was a legend, a talented musician, he spoke his mind and he was a kind soul.

I had the pleasure of meeting him once, we hung out and drank beer for four or five hours and talked Grateful Dead and assorted stuff. I will never forget that night.

Rest in peace Phil. Let it be known you made a great difference in this world. Come hell or high water I was going to venture to the Capitol Theatre this March to see his 85th Birthday shows if they could pull it off. I'll have to wait until I get to the other side to make that happen.

Such a bummer.. no smiles for me today.

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Submitted by Doingtheneedful on Fri, 10/25/2024 - 18:46

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As I sit down to start the onerous task of shredding Friend of the Devils CD's to add to my "cloud" library, I see the news that Phil has laid his last bomb on this plain. I'm staring out of my den window into the dark, Salisbury Live Fire Range well within earshot, quiet tonight, and I chuckle at the irony.

Here's to Phil. Not just unrivalled at his craft, but also one of the tidiest, most free, incredibly lucid, beyond comparison instrumentalists, Phils is up there in the pantheon of all time great improvisational musicians to ever have played. Phil bought it each and every show... A living oxymoron of precise freeform melody and wildly inventive noise. All performed literally live and without a net. Many a time have I mentally isolated Phil's "space", in awe of the effortless contortionism of his unique antithetical ouvre.

Personally, I think that Phil was to the 'Dead's lower register, what Jerry was to the High side. It seems almost sacrilegious to suggest it, but I'll put my money down and suggest that Phil's space in the band was as pivotal as Jerry's... No Phil, no 'Dead.

Thank the maker that we have all of this legacy music available still. I look forward - should I be so lucky -
to many more years of getting lost in the Phil Zone.

Rest up old boy. You done good! Best to Phil's family and friends. Thank you in absentia to the donors and their families who helped Phil in later life. I hope there's some salve in the legacy and the joy still to share and share again.

x

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Submitted by Darkstar BGE on Sat, 10/26/2024 - 05:09

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Like many, I work long grueling hours. Toward the end of the Day, I learned Phil had passed. I finished the day stunned. With no thought, I loaded a Binghamton Show into my car cd player (yup, I still have one). That helped me sort things out on my 1/2-hour drive.
Once home, I went first to my beer fridge and grabbed a choice IPA and chilled glass and headed straight to my living room for my "Friends of the Devil" box. I could almost say I own too much Dead, but I didn't have to give it much thought as to what I wanted to hear. I own the majority of the Dead boxes; I have to say this has been one of my favorites. I have been taking my time and savoring the shows. In truth, I've worked through about 75% of this one. I'm usually a methodical listener. Not last night, I just randomly grabbed 4.16.78 and loaded it into the changer. As I sat and listened, texts poured in from friends, knowing I had to be home mourning. 4.16.78 was a joy, it reaffirmed all that Phil and the Dead were and perpetually are. It was like an IV drip; it brought me back to my center. I couldn't ask for a better life support system. Dave and company, thanks for this box. The doctor doesn't make house calls anymore, but if you are feeling loss right now, take one Dead show and call me in the morning! (Thanks for having been in the world Phil!)
P.S. I had trashed the box artwork before this box arrived, it really quite ingenious.

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Submitted by Chuck on Sat, 10/26/2024 - 09:25

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DOINGTHENEEDFUL

You are correct To me Phil is as much responsible for the "Grateful Dead" as Jerry

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Submitted by 1stshow70878 on Thu, 10/31/2024 - 11:02

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Finally getting to Duke and having a great time in 1978. The dynamics of this year are so noticeable. The quiet parts are quieter and the loud parts are louder! Almost like they have that group mind thing down pat. Or like there is a master volume control that keeps everyone in balance. So good. The sound quality of this box is superb.
Cheers

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Submitted by daverock on Thu, 10/31/2024 - 15:23

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I also decided to pick up where I'd left off - which was 4/11. Good show - especially the first set and the Scarlet-Fire. Drums is now 22 minutes, though, which dissipates the energy a bit for the last cd.

Bit dischuffed that neither the 1st or the 3rd cd would play on my hi fi. But they played okay on my portable cd player, so I am hoping that now they have been played through once they will work on the main one. Maybe I'll do copies of them, and see if they work any better

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Submitted by JoeyMC on Thu, 10/31/2024 - 18:20

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Awesome Dave!

I got through the box one time, pretty slow for me, and was into 4/10 again when Dave's 52 arrived.
I could not resist, I always have to hear everything right away...
I can't believe it when some people sit on releases for a while.
Anyway, box is on hold for a bit. I really did like Blacksburg so far.

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Submitted by billy the kiddd on Thu, 10/31/2024 - 18:27

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36 years ago I was up at the Oakland Auditorium to see the Jerry Garcia Band. It was the 1st time I had seen him since his coma, He hadn't played with the Grateful Dread yet. They did Forever. Young and it was very cool.

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Submitted by Obeah on Thu, 10/31/2024 - 19:15

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A good sentence to be able to utter!

Myself, I was up at Oakland 33 years ago tonight. Hard to really put that show into words... at least into just a few words. I will say that it does makes me miss Phil all the more thinking about the bass lines he played as Kesey took the stage...

So, during the Deadcast, season 10, episode 03 (Duke) at around 52 minutes, Jarnow says that the recordings in this box aren't soundboards but "special mixes" Betty made using the soundboard feed.
He doesn't say matrix either, and doesn't elaborate enough for me. I think a statement like this requires explanation.

This explains Jerry's vocals at the beginning and maybe, possibly, why some people don't like the sound of the box....

EDIT: So, having thought about this a little longer I think I understand what he meant, Betty was taking the board and remixing for tape, unlike Healy definitely and probably Bear too.
But it was strange the way he said it...

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Submitted by iangillespie on Mon, 11/04/2024 - 05:52

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Betty was fed audio - probably pre-mixes of vocals, guitars etc (although I have seen a photo of her with what looks like a 16 track mixing desk) and she would mix using headphones
A soundboard recording is what is mixed for the venue and output to whatever the recording device is

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Submitted by icecrmcnkd on Tue, 11/05/2024 - 14:39

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I believe that there is video of it in the basement recording during the GD Movie.

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Submitted by nitecat on Thu, 11/07/2024 - 10:43

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I don't remember that basement scene, have not watched the movie for a few years. I'm guessing since they were recording 16 track for the movie, Betty might not have been recording two track those nights.

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Submitted by nitecat on Thu, 11/07/2024 - 10:47

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Wow that third disc is a doozy. I've listened to that Wang Dang > Dew three times, choice stuff!!

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Submitted by icecrmcnkd on Thu, 11/07/2024 - 16:32

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I have the Movie on DVD and watched it a few weeks ago.
That’s why I think I recall the board being shown, although Betty may not have been at the controls.

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Submitted by wharfrat6969 on Wed, 11/13/2024 - 15:14

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For the life of me can't get through this box. For me 1978 just doesn't have it. July 78 box hit me same way. I thought the William & Mary Dew show overall nothing.

I got through about the first 3 shows and just puttered out.

Recordings are great, but band sound, playing, arrangements are just plain work to like.

I like the run of shows idea though.

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Submitted by RyXs on Thu, 11/14/2024 - 02:19

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I've been chop showin' this box up something fierce. Most Dead Boxes I do this to for pure fun and infinite playlists. I like making my own 'Road Trips' so to speak. Anyways as for the difficulties folks are having with the box I kinda understand, the Florida run is alright but not stellar yet. I mined mostly from the second and third of the FL shows, though 'Passenger' from 4/6 & 'Sugaree' from 4/7 are nice 1st set songs. Georgia's two shows is where it all gets going on full throtle I feel, from there its on to Duke & VA Tech. With the last show in WV a pretty fine gig too.

A real nice paring with Dave's #37!

It hasn't worked for me either, listening to the shows in this box one after the other. They sound much better for me one at a time, spread over a week or so with other shows and music in between. I haven't listened to them all yet, despite having it for several weeks. The next one up for me will be 12th.

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Submitted by onthebussince77 on Thu, 11/14/2024 - 03:12

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Wharfrat6969, I get the fatigue when diving deep into shows so close together. That's why I'm treating this set as an alternative subscription series like I've been doing with HCS 1973. After making sure all the discs play, I put them away and pull out a new show every three months or so. With DEVILS I started with Durham and plan to finish in summer 2026. As for HCS, I've been enjoying my deep dive into each show so much that I won't even get to the final one, DC 6/9/73, until sometime in 2025.

On a side note, this is why I really like the "stealth" boxes Dave has released over the years. I'm not sure I'd have been able to absorb "Turn On Your Lovelight: 11/2/69 to 2/2/70" if this massive set had been sold in one big box. But since it was issued slowly via DaPs from 2013 to 2022 I've never gotten tired of it.

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Submitted by freyaskye on Thu, 11/14/2024 - 03:40

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Can't believe this box hasn't sold out yet. Just finishing up 4/11/78 from the Fox. Great show, interesting Rhythm Devils into Iko Iko.
Keep these coming Dave. Great stuff!

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Submitted by 1stshow70878 on Thu, 11/14/2024 - 09:31

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Just did DaP 37 yesterday to keep in chrono order with the Box and I think Wm. & Mary won that football game. Will go back to DaP 37 after the 4-16-78 show and do the extra material from 4-18-78 to stay in order before finishing with DaP 15 4-22-78. So far I have not gotten the burn out doing them in order and not cleansing between but I have been pretty slow at getting it done so that may explain it. Makes me think the Devil box is leftovers from Dave's research into this era given the releases we've had. I love leftovers! Thanksgiving only two weeks away.
Cheers
Edit: Huntington is a ripper! Loving it!

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Submitted by Oroborous on Thu, 11/14/2024 - 11:15

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Yeah 1stshow, I wonder if 37 was a test to see how’d it go over before committing to the whole enchilada? Test test, tap, tap, tap…
Wonder if 51 was too? That’d be ok if he used better shows from later in the month
AND!
The tapes don’t sound so bad…

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Submitted by wharfrat6969 on Thu, 11/14/2024 - 19:15

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I like the idea. I'm usually a hound for boxes in past June 76, May 77, GSTL May 77, etc.

I got the 76' Oakland shows, DP33, on vinyl today, highly recommend. Cheap on Amazon $152.

Have always loved Duke, so not totally down on 78. RR, NYE love.

Just seems to much coke was going around this being the height of it with disco and all.

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Submitted by CmdrDarklighter on Sat, 11/16/2024 - 19:30

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Anyone else having issues with the flac 192/32 files having skips and dropouts? I am using multiple macs and hi rez players, including McIntosh DtoA, it’s the files for sure. Tried multiple unzipping with different programs, seems consistent.

I think I figured out the unzip problem.
1. To prevent Safari from automatically unzipping downloaded ZIP files, go to the Safari top menu and click on Preferences. In the Preferences window, navigate to the General tab and uncheck the option 'Open safe files after downloading
2. Use Zip one application to extract to a folder.

I think I figured out the unzip problem.
1. To prevent Safari from automatically unzipping downloaded ZIP files, go to the Safari top menu and click on Preferences. In the Preferences window, navigate to the General tab and uncheck the option 'Open safe files after downloading
2. Use Zip one application to extract to a folder.

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