Grateful Dead

so, 2015 is right around the corner and this could be rhino's way of unloading their inventory of dead music, all of the box sets have sold out, so this is all they have left in the warehouse. Will there be anymore box sets? Lets hope rhino goes out with a bang and gives us a great box this year.

Amazing, I think even without the bonus disc that it was a fine release. With the bonus, forget it, it's among the very best. (Hard To Handle from the Hollywood Palladium, anyone?) I love the Dark Star and pop riff jam, and the Cryptical is a terror. That '82 release from Philly is weak; no way top eight. My all-time fave is The Carousel '68, but it is fun to see these opinions reflected in this manner.

...but only because that was possible. My first final four was Denver, Penn State/Cornell, Summer '71 and FE '70 or something like that. I didn't put a whole lot of thought into it - - only first thought, best thought. Part of the results of this unscientific survey can be chalked up to matchups. Pretty fun if only minorly (is that a word?) consequential game, though.

I'm with you, danc. The Summer '71 release was/is criminally underrated - even sans bonus disk, IMO! Not sure why this period isn't more highly thought of. Jerry was particularly inspired, and the band rocked hard with a playfulness that gave way to precision during Spring '72. The sound quality is also terrific. Also surprised to see MSG '90 ranked ahead of "From Egypt With Love." Bruce was and is a fantastic musician, but - contrary to popular opinion - I never thought his [rather loud] presence had much of a positive effect on Garcia. The post-Egypt stuff, on the other hand, finds Jerry in decent form and the band turbo-boosted by some very cool guests.

I'm surprised Return From Egypt polled so low too.

Danc wrote: "Amazing, I think even without the bonus disc that it was a fine release. With the bonus, forget it, it's among the very best. (Hard To Handle from the Hollywood Palladium, anyone?) I love the Dark Star and pop riff jam, and the Cryptical is a terror. That '82 release from Philly is weak; no way top eight. My all-time fave is The Carousel '68, but it is fun to see these opinions reflected in this manner." Danc - I agree about the Summer '71 release. It is one of several I regret not buying at the time. One of many problems with the horrible Road Trips bonus disc setup is that I feel much less inclined to go back and buy those releases later... it's like going to buy Dick's Picks 18 at it's original price, but with disc 3 missing. I like the way they are doing bonus discs now with Dave's Picks, but the Road Trips bonuses were mostly essential to the set. I don't agree, though, with your assessment of the '82 Philly release - I freakin' love that one! Just try the Terrapin one more time, Jerry's singing give me chills on that. As for the Carousel show, I did finally order that the other day, with the 25% off (my old CDR of that show isn't quite as awesome sounding as I remember, ha). I do, oh I DO wish I had bought that with the bonus disc (but at least that is a real "bonus" disc, not an integral part of the show). As for the voting - well, this was hardly a scientific poll of Road Trips. Seemed like you could "vote" every time you entered the Final Four thingie. Huh, I wonder if anyone voted multiple times for their favorite show or era (I'm looking at you Spacebro, with the 1988 release, heh).

In '82 and '84 I saw some really bad shows, much different than what I experienced in '81 (great shows all year long i thought), '83 (crackling high energy from Jerry) and '85 (over the top fun to be on tour). I saw good shows in '82 (Duke) and '84 (Philly Civic!) but I didn't like the RT release because of this: "Truckin'" (Garcia, Lesh, Weir, Hunter) – 6:42 > "The Other One" (Weir, Kreutzmann) – 2:11 > I can't process that just looking at it, and when I heard, it was even shittier, just ragged. Listless and under-rehearsed playing and heroin distractions got pretty bad in the 80s. A lot of Grateful Dead sets from the era are not fit for release, let alone celebration. Lots of what we get from the 60s and 70s isn't very polished either, but at least it doesn't sound perfunctory or ragged. Great moments and stretches in the 80s yes, but almost none of it is in the same class as 1968-1980. I think New Years Eve '81 was the end of the hey-what-happened-to-that-77-magic? era, pretty solid years with a long pause to the '84 Dark Star at the Greek. As one who saw roughly 100 shows between Englishtown and the '86 sabbatical, I think I know this turf.