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    July 1978: The Complete Recordings

    What's Inside:

    • Five Complete Shows on 12 discs
    • 7/1/78 Arrowhead Stadium: Kansas City, MO
    • 7/3/78 St. Paul Civic Center Arena: St. Paul, MN
    • 7/5/78 Omaha Civic Auditorium: Omaha, NE
    • 7/7/78 Red Rocks Amphitheatre: Morrison, CO
    • 7/8/78 Red Rocks Amphitheatre: Morrison, CO
    Mastered in HDCD by Jeffrey Norman
    Artwork by esteemed cartoonist Paul Pope
    Intro and show-by-show liner notes by Nicholas Meriwether
    Producer's Note by David Lemieux
    Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 15,000
    Release Date: May 13, 2016

    Announcing July 1978: The Complete Recordings

    We’re pleased to announce JULY 1978: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS, five incredible unreleased shows and the first official release from the long-lost tapes, recently returned to the Grateful Dead’s vault. Follow the Dead on a sonic journey through a superb selection of settings, an often epic adventure that finds them winning over Willie and Waylon fans in Kansas City, conjuring charisma in Omaha, and elevating the Red Rocks beyond their already spiritual planes. With five distinct performances painting the masterpiece of 1978, Betty Cantor-Jackson's always-pristine soundboard recordings, and the "hall-of-fame pedigree" of the Dead's first-ever shows at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre, this is one release that far exceeds excellence in music, sound quality, and rarity.

    Limited to 15,000 individually numbered copies, JULY 1978: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS includes Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO (7/1/78), St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, MN (7/3/78), Omaha Civic Auditorium, Omaha, NE (7/5/78), and Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison CO (7/7/78 and 7/8/78) - all of the performances in this collection are drawn from the band’s master soundboard recordings, each newly mastered by Jeffrey Norman. The set also features original artwork by esteemed cartoonist Paul Pope (D.C. and Marvel comics) and in-depth liner notes written by Nick Meriwether (Grateful Dead Archives at the University of California, Santa Cruz), as well as a producer’s note from producer David Lemieux.

    Due May 13th, we anticipate that this extraordinary box will sell out. Your best bet is to pre-order it now, then sit back, relax, and enjoy all the exclusive content we'll be rolling out over the next few weeks right here.

    Looking for something a little more byte-sized? The collection will also be available for HD digital download in FLAC and ALAC, exclusively at dead.net, on release day.

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  • rajha2
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    Why is this still on sale?
    I can only answer for myself, and it's very simple; DiP 18 and, if i felt I needed any more than that, Red Rocks is available separately. on a separate note; does anyone know, is Betty getting her dues; I and several others have asked, and I haven't seen any kind of response at all. If not, surely a Pledge page would be good; or is there already one up? Anyone know?
  • wadeocu
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    Kayak Guy hit the nail on the head
    "This should make Rhino happy, the release of widely circulated Betty shows does better than the Betty's that never circulated.Maybe all those years of circulation gave people a taste of what they are willing to pay for now and the stuff that stayed hidden is too unknown to buy?" This is very insightful indeed. I can see no other explanation for the disparity.
  • Kayak Guy
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    Taking the threads back from the hackers
    This page for a while was filled with hackers posting away. when i translated some of it through google before it was cleaned up, it was polish slang for "i like this place" and "these people are funny". This set rocks BIGLY, you should consider yourselves lucky its still available for cost and still numbered editions. If you don't have it yet, it's worth the money and the artwork is fantastic, in the style of a graphic novel. Compared to other recent boxes that feature Normanized versions of Betty's that have been in circulation for 30 years, This July 78 box has 4 unreleased Betty's, well 3 and a Stereo upgrade from the mono that circulated. This should make Rhino happy, the release of widely circulated Betty shows does better than the Betty's that never circulated. Maybe all those years of circulation gave people a taste of what they are willing to pay for now and the stuff that stayed hidden is too unknown to buy? In any event if you haven't got it yet, you really should grab this box before it sells out and it becomes speculative on ebay, if just for the box and artwork.
  • JimInMD
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    The Bigger Question is....
    Why has this not sold out, its fantastic. Yes.. music today and the constant Russian Hackers is a big part of the reason, the other part is beyond an initial rollout strategy, they have no involvement. For the longest time this thread faded was not even prevalent from the home page of dead.net. I'm not complaining, I have mine and love it.. I just come to this thread from time to time and think wtf?
  • Kayak Guy
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    Why is this still on sale?
    You all have good guesses, as good as mine, which is. The real reason this is still available is the meltdown of Music Today shortly after the release, the website going to comments only mode for months until the Dave's subscription was announced, when NOTHING was available for purchase, and the still cryptic hint above that at some point it will be available digitally "on release day". Its very likely there are 2000 people that would have bought the box if it was the only option, but waited for the digital version instead. Add to that some short term memory loss and short attention spans and you have over 2000 copies left of this box set which I like much better than the Spring 77 box. I love this artwork and would have spent lots of dead presidents on T shirts, posters, and other schwag if offered. I also feel many people pay attention to their browsers and for months this site has been unsafe and I have to click through 2 browser warnings just to log in that say the site is bad for my internet security. NO where else on the internet do i have to click the 2nd "Are you Sure?" dialog box. What's up with that, someone saving IT money by waiting for a new interface, maybe ROAR as the core in the fall? Meanwhile the site limps along on, unsecured until the next explosion when Dave's 22 goes on sale shortly before May 77 part 1 ships and people find out if they got a limited edition or music only version. I bet that will be fun times on the board ;)
  • wadeocu
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    I agree Dschian on each of your points. I think it is noteworthy, however that this one is dragging on with 17% of the inventory still left after a year. I think they planned on this one moving faster and I don't blame them. I would have thought that 3 totally uncirculated betty boards and two classics with one only circulating in mono would have generated more buzz. I suspect Rhino and Co. thought the same and thus the 15k. It seems like each release gets core customer sales in the 10k range. That number represents those of us who are so pathetically obsessed that we buy everything no matter what. Then the remaining 5k in sales are the "investors" and occasional buyers. I think that dependable 10k in sales per release is pretty clearly indicated by the numbers set for the FW69 box, early DaPs etc. I think the DaP numbers have gone up only because of the demand created by the second hand market. I do find the hue and cry over limited editions a bit exasperating as I think I understand the considerations being made here and the need to limit stock on hand and warehousing. Really, if we would dependably buy 100k per release they would gladly print it; I'm sure of it. We cant blame the manufacturer for trying to avoid inventory warehousing expenses. This release is a clear indication to me that they have the number set just about right to accomplish their goal of printing and moving releases on a continual release schedule.
  • Dschian
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    Yup, 80% of the run sold in one year- Rhino knows its base well
    Yup, 0ver 80% of the run sold in about a year; at this rate, the rest will probably sell in the next two to three years. Based upon what I've seen buying modern cd and lp releases, it's not unusual for a run to take a few years (and sometimes up to twice that time) to sell out, even for many popular releases. In that respect, wadeocu, yes, Rhino knows its customer base quite well. Nearly every other Dead limited edition/limited release has sold out relatively quickly (from a few days to several months), and even the slower ones, like the second Spring '90 box and the May '77 one, sold out within a few years or less. Believe it or not, Rhino's goal is probably not to make sure that these sell out in a heartbeat, but to sell the greatest number without multiple production runs or endless inventory. I for one am glad that people don't always have to rush to immediately buy one or have to otherwise search for it on ebay at inflated prices. Recently Rhino sold over $2 million dollars worth of the new box set (before the all-music release that followed) within three days, even with the first marked by technical difficulties- by any standard, that's pretty impressive nowadays for physical media.As a follow-up to my recent post below, finally got a chance to hear my Winterland 1977 box again (I have a huge listening backlog) and came away much more impressed by it than by the first May 1977 box, with the exception of the latter's 5/13 show, which is excellent and the best of them. I still do think, though, that overall the Summer 1978 box outranks the May '77 box in quality of shows.
  • Dschian
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    1977 the last great year for the Dead?
    Rbmunkin, while in some respects 1977 WAS the last great year for the Dead- chiefly in the reliability of their musicianship, according to what I've heard from later years- it certainly wasn't their last great year for many listeners in terms of many, many great later performances. To put my bias in context, my favorite Dead years are 1969 and 1972-'74, so I'm not an '80's deadhead, though I attended the bulk of my shows during the earlier part of that decade and love many of the shows from its first half.I have both the May 1977 box set and the July '78 one, and to my ears the 1978 one is substantially better. I say that because while the 1977 performances in that box are all reasonably strong, they're not always particularly exciting to me. The band, and Jerry in particular, strike me as being in a more predictable, professional mode at the shows in this earlier '77 box release (though I expect the new '77 box to be substantially better performances, based upon the bits I've heard). I find the improvisation more raw, energetic, and dynamic in the 1978 box, and to me that's what makes shows stand out. Also, the song selection is a bit more varied, which I appreciate. While 1978 may be weaker overall as a year (and I haven't heard most of either year), I find these performances to be better than much of what I've heard from '77. Similarly, according to what a listener likes, great boxes (if not great recordings) could be put together of performances from the early 80's or even the Spring/Summer 1985 tour, I believe. One slight drawback of the 1978 box is that the recordings have a bit less depth to the sound, but that goes with the territory of later 2-track soundboards. If you like the '78 sound, definitely get this box while it's still around! I think that they're all (and not just the Red Rocks shows) excellent performances and better ones than the Dave's Picks releases from '78 so far.
  • wadeocu
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July 1978: The Complete Recordings

What's Inside:

• Five Complete Shows on 12 discs
• 7/1/78 Arrowhead Stadium: Kansas City, MO
• 7/3/78 St. Paul Civic Center Arena: St. Paul, MN
• 7/5/78 Omaha Civic Auditorium: Omaha, NE
• 7/7/78 Red Rocks Amphitheatre: Morrison, CO
• 7/8/78 Red Rocks Amphitheatre: Morrison, CO
Mastered in HDCD by Jeffrey Norman
Artwork by esteemed cartoonist Paul Pope
Intro and show-by-show liner notes by Nicholas Meriwether
Producer's Note by David Lemieux
Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 15,000
Release Date: May 13, 2016

Announcing July 1978: The Complete Recordings

We’re pleased to announce JULY 1978: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS, five incredible unreleased shows and the first official release from the long-lost tapes, recently returned to the Grateful Dead’s vault. Follow the Dead on a sonic journey through a superb selection of settings, an often epic adventure that finds them winning over Willie and Waylon fans in Kansas City, conjuring charisma in Omaha, and elevating the Red Rocks beyond their already spiritual planes. With five distinct performances painting the masterpiece of 1978, Betty Cantor-Jackson's always-pristine soundboard recordings, and the "hall-of-fame pedigree" of the Dead's first-ever shows at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre, this is one release that far exceeds excellence in music, sound quality, and rarity.

Limited to 15,000 individually numbered copies, JULY 1978: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS includes Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO (7/1/78), St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, MN (7/3/78), Omaha Civic Auditorium, Omaha, NE (7/5/78), and Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison CO (7/7/78 and 7/8/78) - all of the performances in this collection are drawn from the band’s master soundboard recordings, each newly mastered by Jeffrey Norman. The set also features original artwork by esteemed cartoonist Paul Pope (D.C. and Marvel comics) and in-depth liner notes written by Nick Meriwether (Grateful Dead Archives at the University of California, Santa Cruz), as well as a producer’s note from producer David Lemieux.

Due May 13th, we anticipate that this extraordinary box will sell out. Your best bet is to pre-order it now, then sit back, relax, and enjoy all the exclusive content we'll be rolling out over the next few weeks right here.

Looking for something a little more byte-sized? The collection will also be available for HD digital download in FLAC and ALAC, exclusively at dead.net, on release day.

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As far as I'm concerned there ain't a stinker in the bunch in the box or singles! You can't go wrong with any show. @Fogle - in case you didn't know 'Jack Straw', 'Ten. Jed' and 'China/Rider' were all used for the original 3 LP set back in 1972. The 'China/Rider' is still my personal favorite.
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Love it too. That guitar solo in China Cat is intense. I don't care for the overdubbed vocals in Rider. Too intrusive. They actually carry the end of the verse longer than normal, so the difference from the original makes it sound weird. Wild geese in the Weeeeeeeeesssst instead of the staccato West!
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I need to be more disciplined, like One Man, Sixtus and Keithfan.. I never take notes but I do listen. When the E72 box arrived, I did a complete listen show by show. Took me a couple to a few months, mostly on a good system or headphones if I didn't want to wake people up. Then I revisited shit. There was a China Rider that stood out to me, but it took me another few weeks to find it. Its still my favorite for a very subtle reason. I was taking queue's from KeithFan this week (I trust him, he's a doctor) and really dialed into the 4/17 version. As always, its the improv in the transition that makes it. In the last half minute before I Know You Rider, Keith has this great fill that's really unusual and fits right in. He more or less connects the two songs in this instance. I need to give this version more attention. Its a Keith, Phil and Billy party. The problem for me with the China>Rider from 5/3 is its the one on my 35 year old, worn out hunk of vinyl. Sure its the best.. but this is the Grateful Dead and variety matters. ..The version from 5/3 is one of the pieces of music that made me a deadhead, in the days before I was trading tapes this was pure gold. It is that good. Captivating, transformative, the interplay between all musicians, the communication is profound. A classic. But my current favorite (the one I listened to last [kidding]) is 5/25 at the Lyceum. The hand-off between Weir and Garcia is beautiful, Bobby gives it his all and his part ends very deliberately. There is a distinct pause, part of a tension / release theme that I really like, and then Jerry slides into it with this elastic groove that is so appealing to my ears. The pause to me is a great example of colored silence Bobby spoke of referring to a similar pause in Born Cross Eyed, right at the hand off. Like a pronounced deep breath after a significant accomplishment. Give that version a spin, that show doesn't get much love.. but the China>Rider>Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone>Playing in the Band is worth the half hour it takes to listen to. ________ Edit: Oh, then there's Veneta, but that's a whole other story.
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Thanks for the 5/25 recommendation Jimbo. I am going to revisit 4/17 too. I love hearing about the nuances everyone gets out Dead music, because at the end of the day, that's what makes all of these vault releases so appealing. Someone on one if the the threads recently said you can't judge a show by the set list, because you can get anything from any song on any night. Minas, agree on 5/3 Rider, they do sing it differently. Lovejerry, I think you tapped into something significant about the nature of DL's relationship with the execs - interviews with him reveal that not only did E72 come first, but that it set the precedent for the Mega-Box marketing strategy. He's said in a couple of interviews that he had to pitch the idea repeatedly for a few years before they gave the green light. Not the case anymore. He said 30 Trips was something like 3 years in the planning, which means he got the green light almost immediately after the smashing success of E72. And of course we had two other big boxes in the interim (Spring '90), and several mini-boxes in short duration. This is all due to Dave's diligence, make no mistake. Then along came a subscription series to replace the failed Road Trips (failed because they did not sell out in the overnight fashion that we see with Dave's Picks, which is an essential component of the sales & marketing strategy). I don't think there is a soul out there that could have accomplished this other than Dave. It had to be a DeadHead, and it had to be someone who had been tuned into Dick's world. I don't think we'd have seen anywhere near the volume of music that has been released since E72, had it not been for Dave Lemieux.
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I'm not sure I buy into all the speculation tossed out there about the Lemieux / Rhino relationship and who pitched Road Trips, how E72 the complete records came to be etc. My guess is there was more an evolutionary aspect to all this than Rhino vs. Lemieux. Here's Blair's insight on Road Trips http://www.dead.net/features/blair-jackson/blair%e2%80%99s-golden-road-… What's revealing here is how Dicks passing lead to a flood of high quality soundboards uploaded to Archive.Org, something no one really expected and this has a greater impact on releases than pitches from Rhino or David Lemieux. Also, I believe Rhino paid a good bit of money for the rights to produce, distribute and license releases over a ten year period. I bet declining sales as a result of downloading and streaming soundboards had a greater impact on the push for larger boxes than personalities or ideas from a particular person. In other words, I bet this whole thing evolved is a bit more nuanced than one would believe reading over a few of these posts. Just my two cents.
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Dave makes it clear here and in other interviews I've read, that he had to convince Rhino to do Europe '72 Complete. My only point is that people should not rip Dave Lemieux or call him a shill or anything of the like, if they are happy with the volume of music we've had available in the last 5 years. Without his pushing for Europe '72, there would be no 30 Trips, Spring '90, or any of the other large box sets, as Rhino was clearly too risk averse to even put E72 on the market. http://ultimateclassicrock.com/grateful-dead-archivist-david-lemieux-ta… Beyond that, Dave's instinct for Dave's Picks and the other mini-box sets led to sell-outs that happened fast enough to allow for the next project / release to get on the books. No sell-outs, no continued releases - the revenue drives the release schedule. Again, my only point is that without Dave Lemieux, there would be fewer releases for us to enjoy today. There are several interviews with Dave where he indicates he is not a fan of partial-release shows, unless there are simply not quality tapes to allow for a full release. And there are interviews with him where he indicates that more freedom was given to him for the latest series, hence the moniker "Dave's Picks". The only speculation is that Dave's Picks is a more successful series than Road Trips, but I think the premature ending of Road Trips, coupled with the large overstock of the series (half of it was available for months / years after their initial release dates), along with the fact that the current series is "Dave's Picks" is enough to connect the dots. Just saying, there's plenty of interview footage available to put 2 and 2 together, so nobody who is enjoying the quantity of releases should be ripping Dave as someone who is a shill or incompetent vault keeper.
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Nice discussion - food for thought (great UB40 song) - I can see both sides. Love the out of body thread as well. I would say I'd be in the camp back then when the Road Trip series came out to stray away from incomplete shows. As for the Download series, I'd prefer the physical products, so I did not participate and enjoyed the archive.org. Looking back that was a bit presumptuous on my part and I missed out on some solid releases. All of my Dick's Picks were first editions ordered when I got the email. I was travelling a lot for work and did not keep[ up with the later releases cause I did not want to peruse website on company assets. After missing out on Fillmore West back set and missed out on E72 Trunk, became more diligent at seeing what Dead.net was up to. I was also off the road. The Road Trips releases in contrast were acquired just as they were selling the remaining stock. My WAG is that it's probably a little bit of both. Rhino had a ten year deal to skim the cream of the crop. Dave wants the music released, as a deadhead he knows first hand what some of the holy grail recordings are. He's also probably shrewd enough to know that the ten year deal is a tryout on both sides (Dead & Rhino). If it's beneficial to both parties, it will continue. If not Rhino who would you trust or the band trusts to continue the work. There's not that many "independent" music production companies out there. I don't think they'd trust Warner or Arista again. Look how Columbia or Sony bastardizes the live shows for other artists. One of my favorite live albums back in the 90's was Tour De Force by Al Dimeola - the re-release is shameful. The recent Genesis live releases (with exception of Lamb from LA) was shameful. Second's Out still had Steve Hackett's guitar low in the mix. When the live album was originally produced, Hackett had left the band rumor had it Tony Banks was pissed and Hackett's guitar was mixed low. The Yes Songs box (2015) is a good release and that was produced by Rhino. I loved being able to purchase the live show for several of the Smashing Pumpkin, Pearl Jam and Phil & Friends shows. Great memory, but from a live recording standard like a Betty board - not even close. We're spoiled! Devil's in the details, but I personally hope this ride (relationship) continues to evolve and we keep getting awesomest of awesome releases. I've feel lucky that two of the shows I have attended have been released - one from the Brett and one from the Vince eras have been released. Still dreaming about RFK 90 and the other Oxford 88 show get released, but I have not been disappointed in any of the releases since I re-upped starting with Dave's #2 and made it a point not to miss another release. My biggest fear is the next ten years becomes a subscription based streaming model. You just pay a monthly fee and this leads up to less than stellar release quality since typical streaming is lower than redbook cd or HD files. No more need to go to Jeffery Norman for the mix, no more plangent process to clean it up. I hope I'm wrong. I gobble up as many Charlie Miller, Hunter Seamons and all the original tapers as the next crazed deadhead, but I like getting the official release, even if I have that show in better than average archive quality. Dave, keep up the great work. Given the musical canon over the last five years (series, individual and box releases) since you started the Dave's Picks this has been truly special. We are the luckiest fans in the world. Glad to see bands like Phish and Pearl Jam adopt and evolve the model. Thank you! Sorry for the ramble... Ramble on Rose!
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I read that article when it came out. I think this is an example of they evolutionary conclusion I came to. There was certainly a lot of back and forth. I have also read in Dave's words that he was considering a few mini boxes from the E-72 tour also. A Paris box, a 5/10 and 5/11 min box. So they had several ideas and took their time and came to the right decision. Similar to the Road Trips project. They tried a few things and it didn't work so well. I believe Dave was picking the shows for those releases also, and I'm glad they switched to a mostly whole shows only approach. Anyway, I'm not here to argue just offer another point of view and I certainly do not speak for Dave nor was at the table when these decisions are made. Have a good one all.
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Thanks for posting LJ. Jimbo, Sixtus, others, help me out brothers - Who IS Dr. Rhino? Is he the Mark Pinkus mentioned in the article? Is he the owner of Rhino entertainment? Is his last name Rhino? Is he a Dr.? I keep hearing about the 10 year deal - when does it end? These questions keep me up at night. Those and how did Snoke get his scars. I have a theory....
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No clue about FE April 71, haven't read anything on that. No insider knowledge, silly little goose egg, just reading what's published publicly!
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So Kayak Guy, just catching up from...A Little Diversion...I was never aware of the Ten Year Deal....is this true? I Love the link provided, and the threads, but they are loooooooong....I'm not sure I can make it to the end. But listen - I think we all can get what we want, when we want it - via The Archive - even if only still via stream - but there are other avenues too, here. A friendly poke or request usually does it; gratitude and offerings abound. Those who receive, give. And vice versa! I couldn't be happier with whatever has been released since whenever. I recall gathering XLII's and reveling in each thread of tape; what has landed and continues to arrive in our laps is amazing all things considered. And KeithFan, I'd love to trade Snoke Theories. My mind's been churning since mid-December. Sixtus
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First off congrats Sixtus on the paper and the imminent arrival of #2, it must be busy in the Sixtus household right now. The GDM final release was April 2006, it was Download series #12. That was 10 years ago this month. Given that it takes a while to put together the packaging and distribution, the contract was probably finalized in summer 2006. The first Rhino release was Jan 2007 with Live at the Cow Palace, which was followed with 3 from the Vault in June 2007 both from multitracks and then Road Trips Vol 1 #1 in November 2007 which was the first of the Rhino 2 track releases. Like I said, ten years of the original deal is probably close to the end and has the rest of Dave's Picks 2016 and a fall box left still under contract. I predict more downloads and vinyl releases, that's where Rhino makes the best margin and CDs are continued as limited releases for the hardcore collectors.
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My dreams were riding tall.. _____________________________________ Yea, I have no idea what the implications are of a contract extension vs. letting the contract expire might be. I have no idea what's going to happen and I imagine we won't find anything out until it in the rear view mirror. I can't imagine GD Merchandising would want to take this in-house again though. The website would have to be completely rebuilt or absorbed, manufacturing would have to be spec'd out and outsourced and they would be responsible for marketing, distribution, warehousing, etc. David Lemieux would likely become even more distracted than we thought possible. Unless Rhino really pissed off someone in the organization (which is possible) I would think they have a shot at renewing this. Then it becomes an issue of money, terms and contract iterations. Then again, if the money wasn't right.. they could afford to take it in house and beef up their staffing, etc. I also wonder if the overall strategy would change as Kayak Guy seems to think, specifically less emphasis on CD's and more on digital and vinyl. I have no information on this, but I can't see them turning their back on CD's and Box Sets just yet, its currently their bread and butter for all things GD. I bet its happening now though.. so either we will find out or we won't in which case it will be business as usual. To complicate things, I hear wjonjd is just days away from finishing his tunnel and punching through building foundation five floors below the vault. When he finishes the contract details will be moot and we will be marketing KeithFan's picks from our island in the Pacific. Apparently the drought has made the soil there rock hard... so digging has been arduous and slow. On that note.. back to my regularly scheduled listening of 4/25/77, what a great Wharf Rat > PITB out of drums. Mesmerizing... _________________________ Walking along in the Mission In The Rain
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First, congratulations on the arrival of a new addition to your family! Bless you and your family. Anyway, I felt compelled to jump in here because of your very interesting posts on the subject of higher consciousness, the Tao (OK, I added that part, but it's the same point), and the different ways people may find their way there. I am reminded of a story in I book a read long ago by Ram Dass, who was an associate of Timothy Leary. Now, my memory is not great, and it has been at least 25+ years since I read this book, but if I remember correctly, Ram Dass traveled to India in search of a Guru, which he did eventually find. So, he gives this Guru an extremely large dose of LSD, fully expecting said Guru to lose his mind. Much to his surprise, this Guru does not seem at all fazed by this mega-dose of LSD. Ram Dass asks him, "How did you like the LSD?" The Guru responds, "It was very good, but not as good as meditation." Perhaps in the same book, or maybe somewhere else, I remember reading something that has stayed with me all these years and made perfect sense to me...(paraphrasing here)... The person who takes LSD is essentially drowning in the mystic waters that the meditation practitioner swims in. That is to say, that LSD offers an ephemeral glimpse of the hidden reality we are usually unaware of, while the practitioner, little by little, learns to master it. Which only makes sense when you think about it; one puts a little blotter on his tongue, while the other spends years perfecting his art. You get out of it what you put into it. I don't think there are any shortcuts. This is not a judgment on my part (I have been on both paths personally in my life; fleetingly, in both instances), but rather an observation based on personal experience. Take from it what you will. But back to the Grateful Dead...there is no doubt in my mind, that what the boys did was as close as one could get to the "oneness" with the universe that can be attained through music. There are times when you listen to the Dead where you hear, without question, that they have, as musicians and as a group, transcended time and space, and have reached the pinnacle of "being here now" with the music. Or, as we all know, many times "the music played the band." I once seriously considered giving my Zen Master/Martial Arts Master (I'm talking 26 years ago) a bootleg tape of the boys to listen to, just to see what he would say. I never did, figuring (probably correctly) that he wouldn't have the baseline knowledge of Americana music to really appreciate the transcendent nature of it, and to experience what I did. Anyway, all that is to say, that I know just what you're talking about. And I agree...the Grateful Dead do often open the door to that realm for us as well.
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"Take your 16-shooter up to the mountains to protect yourself from the liberal masses, don't care." I AM a Liberal, silly. Don't expect you to understand what that really means, though. Few today do. I won't hold it against you, though. I know, the gun thing has you all confused, doesn't it. Heh. Sorry about that.
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Speaking of 4/25/77, I picked up the wax on RSD. I was spinning it this weekend, and I must have had the volume at just the right level. During the jam out of Terrapin, I FELT Mickey and Billy's presence in the room, like they were playing in my living room. I could see them clearly in my mind's eye with my eyes open. It was definitely one of those moments. I LOVE the vinyl releases. They really bring a whole new depth to the sound.
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I have heard the complaints of redundancy in the recent vinyl releases, and I agree. It would be cool to have more releases on vinyl that have not already been included in other releases (5/30/1971, for example). That being said, I hope and expect to see 7/8/78 as a vinyl release, either as the Black Friday RSD release, or some other time this year. The JGB studio RSD releases seem to have dried up for now. But I really hope we get a repress of Cats Under the Stars like the first two albums. I'm thinking blue wax for the RSD release.
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I have been getting the Vinyl releases too, but do to space constraints had to dismantle it a couple years ago. I used to do vinyl nights on occasion, crank it up on festive occasions. Would sound great with an old Macintosh amp.. I will get my system up and running soon. Totally agree about the warmth and boom presence in the room. Lets not forget about the Phil factor too.
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16 years 8 months
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If not for any other reason...Phil.
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I am a bicycle commuter, so I spend very little time in a car. Most of my music listening is at home on the weekends, sometimes in the evenings after work, and it is usually from vinyl. I had a friend, a music professor, who used to talk about the progression (regression) of experiencing music, from the concert hall to the home stereo, to the car, to the mP3 player. He talked about how music became background noise for many. That is a main reason I enjoy vinyl. It forces me to slow down or stop, and appreciate the music. It is more of an experience. I can't go far because I am going to have to flip sides in 15-20 minutes. I might as well sit down and just listen. There are my usual listening times, weekend mornings and such when I make my coffee and sit in front of the hifi and listen. But there are other times, spontaneous times such as evenings after work. I hadn't planed to sit down and listen, but I throw on a record after dinner. Next thing I know the whole family is gathered in the living room with books, or markers, all sitting and doing their thing while the record plays. These times are idyllic, and they cannot be planned. (Disclosure: this is not a rip on CD's or other digital formats. I use them all, and they all have their time and place, and I can have similar spontaneous moments with any format.)
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....from Hamburg 4.29.72. Thirty minutes later, I thought to myself, "What the hell just happened?" Mind blowing....
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Great post Matchewy. Love that your family gets some old fashioned creative time. Mine is set up in the basement so it's rare that I get the wife down there but my kids do get to soak in some music especially if they are looking to put off bed time. About 12 years back I set my old turntable back up. Ran it into a relatively weak sounding system but got to respin my old 12" faves as well as pick up some new releases along the way. I was holding the Veneta LP release in my hands at the store a few years back and balked at spending the $70. That was a huge mistake! I have picked up a few others since & the all Phil 72 Hoffheinz RSD LP can still be had new on Ebay for about $30, grab it. In fact another great deal is the Jerry Garcia Compliments LP. Green vinyl, gorgeous cover. It's a great Sunday morning spin that has a real New Orleans rootsy vibe. The new rsd 77 is a bit too steep for me but who knows it may just come down in price like the Wake Up to Find Out release. That market crashed last summer but has rebounded since then. Perhaps they made too many. Last month I invested in a great set of new speakers and my listening experience has been transformed for both CD's & my old classic Technics 1200 turntable. Too bad my old 3 head Onkyo cassette deck refuses to play (Though it does fast forward and rewind) I am reposting my post from the Shrine thread on my thoughts on vinyl. A lot of my love for the LP format is nostalgic, but so what: I grew up on vinyl where you held that 12 by 12 piece of art gatefold cover in your hand as you listened to the music. Pre MTV/youtube, only in your imagination could you visualize what the band looked like while performing. Wondering how did they make this record, what exactly were they doing? (especially if you played an instrument). Your imagination ran wild and you had a connection. So for that reason I still get a kick out of vinyl, as well as that warm sound off the needle. Not yet 50 but I'm feeling old writing this...
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I was just reminiscing to a friend about the hours I spent as a child, thumbing through my Dad's records and looking over the covers, mind engrossed by the thought of what sounds may be captured (lenticular cover of Satanic Majesty's Request comes to mind). My Dad's collection became my first collection. Now, my 10 year old son thumbs through my vinyl and CD's, and he requests to borrow based on cover art and band names. He told me the other night he wants to listen to everything in my collection. His favorites include the Band/Levon Helm, The Clash, Led Zeppelin, and the Dead. Speaking of pre MTV, before I had MTV as a kid, I remember thinking Michael Jackson was a girl based on his voice. I never discussed this with anyone, because to me it was a given; it just was. Imagine my surprise the first time I saw the Beat It video!
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For those interested, I just snagged up copies of 4/24, 5/24, 5/25, & 5/26, which just appeared back up in the store. I was late to the party and realized this sale could be my last chance at physical copies of Europe 72 shows. So, I've been checking since late Friday after missing out on these as well as a couple of others I'm still missing (4/26 & 5/11). I'm happy now without those last two but I know how good they are so if I get a chance to I'll grab them if they pop up again. Have a happy dead evening...
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I think I posted on the other forum last night but anyway, Sunday I discovered that three shows that were previously sold out were available again and snatched them up. My cart said these items were backordered until May 3rd. Today I got a shipping notice saying they were shipping today. Hopefully this means the single shows aren't being discontinued yet but that is just a guess. I can't believe I didn't buy the box when it first came out but at the time it seemed like a ridiculous amount of money to spend on CDs in one transaction. Looking back, it was a bargain.
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11 years 4 months
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What I want to know is, was Jerry anywhere near the book depository building in Dallas on Nov 22, 1963. Hmmm?
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13 years 5 months
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I was there, I don't think it was Garcia. Perhaps Parish. Don't tell anyone though. He might just kick my ass for spilling the beans.
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Jerry didn't do it. But....if Jer were there he woulda been on the GRASSY Knoll. "Exibit A";)
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Do I start snapping up Europe '72 shows while I can (getting what's left on here) and then fill in the blanks over time, or should I hold out and try get a full-blown box on the secondary market? What say you in Deadland?
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three (count em) betty's that nobody has heard unless you were there, in official release quality. the first two shows ever at red rocks, including what most agree is a top 20 show all time, that were not previously in the vault and were being held hostage. an evidently very complicated work of diplomacy to make this happen; beautiful packaging, unseen photos, and untold stories in the liner notes. this is by all accounts an historic release of some of the best music the band ever delivered. in my opinion, it is a must-have how's that?
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17 years 6 months
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but I did miss KC, so that will be fun to hear. And I believe everyone within earshot will enjoy this 'package' deal. This was a muscular and magical run of shows. There are delights within this release. All, please give yourself the gift of a Red Rocks show in the future. Whoever you enjoy, you will delight in their show even more 'on the Rocks". Listening to your favorite band nestled in between those massive stone monoliths as the music beckons day transforming into night. You won't regret it. Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
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11 years 4 months
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Call it the "June 1973" box Three shows: 6/10/73 RFK Stadium 6/22/73 PNE Coliseum 6/30/73 Universal Amphitheater + Bonus disc: 8/1/73 Roosevelt Stadium DS > El Paso > Eyes > Dew Holy crap, what an amazing box that would be! ;)
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Of course, you're right ;) In fact, I have since stumbled upon a previously unreleased photo of the grassy knoll which proves your theory beyond a shadow of a doubt... Grassy Knoll
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I pulled up your link, Dantian. Looks to me like Phil did it. Problem solved, this should end all the conspiracy theories. The evidence is convincing. Look at the crazed expression on his face. I forwarded a copy to the Warren Commission, civic duties and all... Never would have guessed that.
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Haha Dantian - where is "Playing in the Band" from 6.26.73 ? It's not in the box ? 6.22.73 - should officially make its way to the masses sooner than later, as is part of the recently returned reels. Wouldn't surprise me if the next box was from 1973. June - October performances or something in between - that time period would be classic !! mention of 1973 - how about a stand alone release of 12.1.73 ? This is some pure gold , especially the transition from "Playing in the Band" into "Uncle John's Band" intro with Garcia skull splitters. This night is overshadowed by Dick's Picks 14, which is surely as a Top 10 official release for me, but would love to see 12.1.73 even though I'm sure most have a good copy
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That would be in the "June 1973: The Complete Recordings" box. I was trying to keep it small, along the lines of the two winterlands boxes (don't know why exactly), but I think your idea is better ;) Listening to that 6/26 Playin' right now...whoa, that's the real stuff right there!
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8 years 8 months
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Thanks for those wonderful selections and your recommendation! I just made my own box with those very exact contents using the nice sbd's available. And I've now got them cued up in a wonderful playlist to keep me happy until the treasures of May, (DaP 18/July 78) arrive in our homes, hands and ears! The only difference is my box has the COMPLETE Roosevelt show as the bonus. Big thanks to DL2 and Pinkus/Rhino for keeping us busy :) Having two deadheads on the "inside" helping push these wonderful releases through for us sure helps this fanatic sleep well each night :) But before I start the "Dream Mini-Box" from 73' I'm enjoying an especially crisp copy of 7/15/84 from the beautiful Greek. Happy Thursday everyone!
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Would love to see that as a set, whenever 7.13.84 is released I would request one of the classic GD artists for cover art Hey playin jam any chance you have soundboard of 4.29.84 ?
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8 years 8 months
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4/29/84....the first night of a great Nassau run. Not sure what my source is for this show but I will venture down into my vaults when home and check for you ;) I will let you know ASAP! And thanks for the mention of the Greek show w/the Dark Star encore. Heads must have exploded. And imagine Phil's bombs filling up that place the way they did/do. Forces tear loose from the axis.......
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I'm only seeing aud's circulating for this show. If there is a board, it likely never made its way out of the vault. The Miller seems to be brightest sounding.. but its an audience at Nassau... might be pitched a hair fast, but still not bad. Hell of a Let it Grow. I like the thought of Ventura + Greeks, add in a Merriweather a month or so earlier and you can have quite the little 1984 soiree.
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