Grateful Dead

How about a run from the Greek..say '84 with the Scarlet/Touch/FireDark Star encore...was that Friday the 13th?... i wasn't there but had the tape many years ago and it has slipped away. i have another 40 or 50 recommendations but i'll leave it at that for now. oh...one more... shoreline fall '88. and... "sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down"

What ever happened to the Download Series and will the 12 vols that were released be avaliable for purchase in the future?

OK thanks a lot

I bought all the download series on iTunes, but I didn''t get the cover art before the old Dead site shut down. I'd love to see them posted again so I could fancy up my backup discs. What the heck: as long as I'm asking, how about some official Grateful Dead CD labels for the download series? Thanks. DW

Miami with a monster Dark Star Bob W - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

Is iTunes the only way to get the download series now? And are they still available in a lossless compressed format? I'd really like to get the rest of the series, but I'd rather get it from dead.net and not iTunes. "See you next Wednesday."

Does this mean that the download series will become available again through Dead.net?

I can't tell you how unhappy I am with the current customer service. I happily preordered and paid for expedited shipping so I could receive it on June 26 (guaranteed on the preorder page). Along comes the 26th, and I anxiously awaited to no avail. Calling customer service was a joke. The phone rang for two minutes and then went to a busy signal. No voicemail, no please wait and we'll be right with you, no nothing. I tried calling four times with the same miserable results. I e-mailed twice, but to this day still no reply. I finally got someone on the phone late the next day. Seems like there are only two people working there...literally. No apology no nothing. The girl I talked to was clueless. She had no idea why my order hadn't shipped yet even though my card was charged on the 14th of June! Four days later, and still no VFTV III here in SoCal yet. I expected a lot more. The thing that pisses me off the most is the lack of customer service. This is a huge company we're talking about here not some mom and pop operation. If you can't handle the job, give it back to Music Today.

That sucks, Rek. I hope you have 3FTV soon. It's too bad there's no other way for folks to vent about the Store. Communication and customer service should be top priority for Rhino...To be fair, the Mods around here have no control over that part of the operation. There have been some stellar releases over the years...I'm still waiting for the next one.

Customer service seems to be a thing of the past. I do realize the mods have no control, but just needed to get it off my chest. Calling customer service obviously didn't do anything. I am looking forward to hearing it though. More on topic, I'd love to get a listen to the Normanized Winterland Box.

Anything from 1979 to 1990 with Brent. Some Fantastic Years!

Jeeze, REK. I'm sorry you've had to deal with this. I'll get this to the attention of the store folks, but that's all we can do here. Customer Service is supposed to be getting better, for what that's worth. Our admin folk here on this side of the house are as blown away as we are about the level of service at the Store.

It's all good Izzie. No problems getting the first release (1-1-77!). **it happens. I will survive.

After reading all the comments and replys. It seems you guys have really sold out. It's a real shame, and I'm sorry to say, that Jerry isn't stearing this ship anymore. I can imagine he's spinning like a top where ever he is. iTunes only. Apple is the Beatles. They, that were left, should have done all they could to have Jobs and co. change the name in the very beginning. While I don't particully like Bill G. and his hold on OSs etc. I won't buy into i.... anything. Everything I've learned is from The Grateful Dead and Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Well, I finally received my copy of Three from the Vault today (hooray!). First off, the re-mastering is awesome! Really sounds great.This was an interesting show on many levels (Micky's last show the day before, a slew of new songs). Total rocked out Dead. Lean and mean. No time for subtlety, just hard assed rock and roll here. A prelude to Skull and Roses. Billy really played his heart out on this show! Wow! There were times I think he overplayed a bit, but I think I can empathize (his bother had left and who knew when he would return?) He seemed to be trying to fill in all the space left by Micky. The MVP's of this show were (IMHO) Pigpen and Phil. Pig is in total command during his numbers. Phil is just sick throughout. First set: It's hard to really say much about Loser, Bertha, and Playin'. They sound much like they did the night before. It's unfair to criticize the performances as the band is still feeling their way around the songs. Okay, so Truckin' takes a little bit to get truckin' but eventually they manage to get something going. Cumberland is tight and fun, despite the lyrical flubs (who cares about missed lyrics at this point anyway? I just fill it in myself). Dark Hollow is a nice little nugget. I don't think I've ever heard an electric version before. The band throws out a stunted and perfunctory China, but they really get running during a spirited Rider. The MVP of the first set is Pigpen. Man he is in great voice throughout, really pushing the band. It Hurts me Too and Smokestack are incredible. I've always thought the Dead's blues playing was as if really advanced and hip aliens from Alpha Centauri had learned to play the blues and genetically engineered Pigpen from the DNA of Lightnin' Hopkins and Odetta. Interstellar blues! I love Jerry's eerie hoots and whistles during Pigs rap in Smokestack. Set Two: Greatest Story and Deal are to new to really comment on. But Bird Song is a nice debut. Raw, but well performed. Wharf Rat, on the other hand, seems as if it had been sprung Athena-like from the ether as a fully formed song. Sure it would become a bit more dynamic, but this performance, as well as the debut performance the night before, are brilliant. (The Wharf Rat on 2/18 comes out of Dark Star and goes into Beautiful Jam>Dark Star. Yeah.) So, to continue, I actually like the JBG here. I've never really thought the boys ever did JBG justice, but this one is alright. Easy wind is some more psychedelic-swamp blues. Very tasty grooves. Pig is in full command. That's it For The Other One gets tasty during the Other One section. Phil is really on fire. This would be a good version to play for someone you want to turn on to the Dead. Good Lovin' is fun. Pig's rap is funny, although he seems to run out of steam toward the end. Maybe a few minutes too long. All in all, a decent release. Sound is stellar; can't ask for much better than this. A lot of green curios I probably won't listen to much, but a few kick ass bluesy performances I'll definitely return to! Yo Soy Boricua!

I checked out the Download Series on iTunes, and I gotta say, I'm pretty disapointed. They are now only available as 128k sound files in Apple's audio format, what a bummer. When these were for sale on dead.net they were available in multiple file formats, and with no DRM. I really appreciated having these shows available in FLAC format for the great sound quality. I always opted for the FLAC files. And it was nice to have the jewel case inserts to download also. I'm sure the Dead organization have their reasons for doing what they do, but come on, these shows deserve much better treatment then being turned into another overpriced, crappy sounding iTunes product. I don't have the entire Download Series, and I would like to buy the ones that i don't have, but I refuse to buy them from iTunes. These are great shows, please bring them back to dead.net where they belong! And on a much happier note, I love the 3FTV release. Great sound quality, and a great show! My thanks to everyone involved for puting out that fine show. Keep 'em comin' Rhino!

so there I was happily buying and downloading DPs and Download Series thru Dead.net when I had some spare cash.....then the whole lot stops. Now all I can do is buy Downloads (and only some DPs) thru iTunes you folks in the US may not be aware that iTunes will only sell you items thru the site in the country where your credit card is registered..so I cannot buy from iTunes US. And guess what. iTunes France (where I live) does not sell DP or the Download Series. So I am shut out completely. Folks in Europe only had sporadic chances to see the Dead and now we are not even allowed to hear them! Perhaps this is for the same reasons that French Fries became Freedom Fries!! Who's in charge here? They shut down SBDs on archive.org presumably to make some money, but don't seem to want my hard earned cash. Make your minds up please! Either give it away or let us buy it!!! Look, I know you nice folks who moderate this wonderful site are not personally responsible for this mess, but the fact remains that all the music that was available as downloads thru the old site no longer is on the new one. Can you PLEASE use whatever contacts you have to express just how infuriating this is. Oh and please also say a big big thanks to David L for maintaining the lifeline that is 'Tapers' Section'...............at least someone is thinking of us!! 'Big Boss Man...can't you hear my call??????????

thanks to you too Marye....hey I just realised you got that lot for breakfast..sorry..it was lunchtime for me when I lost my cool! I'll get back in my box now!

by withdrawling the vault downloads series in lossless format you have assured that these recordings will be traded illegaly - most hardcore GD fans i know who collect thousands of hours of recordings aren't going to download any significant quantity of lossy crap from itunes and they aren't going to let the fact that they are no longer available for purchase to stop them from acquiring them. . ITUNES can't even get the name of "MARS HOTEL" right. Most deadheads I know will pay a few cents more for the lossless CD with a case, a cover, and can be converted to a WAV, an MP3 or a FLAC. the itunes track comes in 1 crappy lossy format. dumb move - really really stupid.

I am going to have to not read this topic in the morning anymore. It just pisses me off. I get yelled at often enough at my dayjob for things that are beyond my control.... Look, we're frustrated too, okay? But there is nothing we can do for you, with regard to the store, that really, you can't do for yourselves. Here is the email address, yet again, for the store people. customerservice@deadnetstore.com I know that's not as fun as letting off steam here, but if you want to blast the people in charge, there's your sign. They may not provide you the immediate gratification that MaryE and I seem to provide in this outlet, but at least you'll be heard. And creating a record of discontent where it matters makes more sense to me than just venting over here. Thanks for listening. izzie

i didn't have any fun venting here and i'm still pissed that i can't PURCHASE something that was available a few weeks back. what point is there to even having a store anymore if the official GD website doesn't have everything that is available. just seems weird - at a time when there are THOUSANDS of free gd downloads, people are CLAMMERING to purchase recordings and yet, they are taken down. bass-ackwards. thanks rhino and itunes for further eroding deadheads ability to enjoy their beloved band.

thanks for the good news - sorry to come off sounding so... er un-Grateful. to many hard core GD music collectors (u know the ones who have > 5 terabytes of lossless files archived on HD with SBD, schoeps, beyers, naks, akgs from multiple shows), this move smacked of the ongoing downward spiral of bitrate/sound quality that is permeating the music "industry". the GD have always embraced improvements in sound and on the leading edge using HDCD encoding and DVD-A releases and it was disheartening to have the lossless files yanked and then seeing that the only option is lossy AAC. seemed like more of the same. i've got a couple of hundred bucks itching to blow on some GD downloads and i don't even own an ipod.

Thanks for Billy's drum solo on disc 2 of 3FTV ... it was awesome! "From day to day, just lettin' it ride, You get so far away from how it feels inside, You can't let go, 'cause you're afraid to fall, But the day may come when you can't feel at all."

thanks for the hopeful news on the downloads. I am sure everyone appreciates your efforts. As for why people have chosen to sound off in these forums...well isn't it the point that they can share their feelings here and find that many others feel the same way. If that has has created a snowball effect and accelerated changes then this site has proved its worth........and the flipside of having had to deal with all this crap is that you get to make a lot of people very happy!!!

Thanks for helping to get the word to the powers that be for the download series. Maybe that will encourage some new additions there as well. Theres a few I still need to get. Now that I have had a chance to listen to this release in full, and especially because I'm pretty busy with pther things this summer, I can say that it's a nice sounding release from a popularly traded run of shows. I like hearing the songs as they progressed into real staples in later shows. This is one I'll listen to on occasion but not nearly as often as 1-2 FTVs, Dozin' At The Nick, Nightfall Of Diamonds, Terrapin Limited, Truckin' Up To Buffalo, VFTV I-IV or the vast majority of Dicks Picks and Downloads. Being somewhat of a completionist I'll by them all (except f-ing up and not getting the 10 disc Fillmore box and not having the extra $400+ dollars on hand to get it on EBAY - still bummed about that - maybe someday it'll be reissued in it's entirety).

I just checked the store and Download Series seems to be back, with all the format options available. I bought 'em all as they came out, but it's nice to see 'em back!

Howdy GD folks, I'm old school. I remember the days before the internet, before digital recording and I'm not even 40 years old yet, but some days I feel like I"m 60. I don't care for downloading becuase the loss of the human element, that's was the sentiment of Latvala as well. The old days you had to take out a ad in Relix or Golden Rd.; I actually traded with all the heavy's back in the early 90's. About 85% of my collection (of which many e-tree "unknown transfers" were from me) came directly from DAT>CDR without loss less compression. I like to go into a good record store and purchase music. As for folks who rip off musicians with illegal downloads, there is a place in purgatroy for you. Don't expect dead heads to be organized for customer service, most of us; are very un-organized people. Don't pre-order stuff either, I never have and never will. I will never say to the seller "it's already sold before it's in my hand". Sure, I waited in many lines for tickets for Deer Creek during the 90's, I actually saw all Deer Creek shows except 89 and 92. I don't think the GD cultrue was really ready for the 21st century, anybody who went to Deer Creek 95 will attest to that statement. The "scene" was changing and not for the better, too many folks were coming to the shows without the music being the primary function. I knew that ticket prices were going to skyrocket in price for GD, and future venues were going to be hard to obtain. I would like to hear the quality of the latest Dick's Picks; I bet it's very good compared to the original source. I was pleased with the 4 disc set fillmore east 71, but like I wrote to Dupree's Diamond back in the mid 90's. WE WANT COMPLETE SHOWS!!!! I think that comment had been said after "dancin in the streets" was omitted on the Harpur College 70. You know I would probably like the download scene , but why should I work that hard to obtain great music; I certainly didn't have to work that hard when I traded. In fact, some of the best sources you'll ever hear for Grateful Dead come from the audience tapes. So look for those recordings as well! I mean the GD didn't have the best sound system for nothing. Ursa Minor I wish that for just one time, You could stand inside my shoes, and for just that one moment, I could be you - Bob Dylan, Positively 4th St.

Good news on the downloads and thanks again. Better put my money where my mouth is now!

Also I have just been invited by Amazon here in France to pre order a GD DVD titled 'Still Alive and Well' to be released on 30 July Tracklisting is shown as follows Introduction Bird Song My Brother Esau On The Road Again Far From Me Ripple When Push Comes To Shove Me And My Uncle Mexical Blues Not Fade Away Iko Iko Tons Of Steel Ramble On Rose West L.A. Fade Away Still Alive It looks very unofficial and is it seems not to be from one show. Does anyone know what this is?

....and now something else from Amazon. Another DVD entitled 'the Grateful Dead' to be released on August 20th. No tracklisting or details available.....

I would really like to see the store offer the option of being able to download all live and studio albums in the various formats. I am moving away from CDs as they take up too much space and putting all my music in .mp3 or whatever format. I would rather buy from the dead.net store than from iTunes as well. Hopefully, new live music offerings will start to be released on a more consistent basis as well. Just my 2 cents.

Hi izzie and marye! I know you two get an eyeful of complaints in these forums, so I just wanted to give the both of you a big, grateful thank you for all your patience and efforts in getting the Download Series back. I just checked out the store, and I am so happy to see that the Downloads are there once again! THANK YOU! And a big thanks to everyone involved as well! Can't wait to wrap my head around some more of that good ole Grateful Dead! Does anyone there at the Dead orginization know if there are any plans for more DVD Audio releases? The Workingman's Dead and American Beauty DVD's sound absolutely amazing, and I would love to hear more of the Dead's material released in a surround sound format. Perhaps the Vault shows? I bet they'd sound pretty sweet!

Hi Guys, big thanks for pushing all of the comments to the store folks. I d/l two shows this weekend, but no art files, can you guys pass those comments along ? I'll contact customer service as well. Thanks a lot, Chris

Might these be bootlegs? I'll have to go check Amazon France, (Ca me donne l'occasion de faire la pratique en francais! Ecoute, donc! Je suis ne, puis m'agrandis a Montréal!) ;-)

this review from a buyer just appeared on the Amazon uk site, concerning the so called new 'Still Alive and Well' DVD------------------------------------------------- "This release is a total rip-off, and probably even bootlegged. It is not new - I bought it in a store years ago, thinking it was a newly surfaced show. This DVD contains a jumbled collection of - mainly short - tracks from two official releases: "Dead Ahead"(recorded in 1980) and "View from the Vault Vol. IV"(recorded in 1987). There is no continuity at all; one show is indoors the other in a stadium, but at least the lineup is the same. The official releases are well worth seeking out, but don't accept this poor substitute. " ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have a similar hacked together bootleg entitled 'BirdSong' and have also now been told of a bootlegged Ticket to New Years being sold thru Amazon in Europe under the title 'Broadcasting Live' How do they get away with it..Rhino should tell Amazon to stop selling this rip-off material. Check it out on amazon.co.uk search under Grateful Dead DVD.

Is it reasonable or even possible for all of the sbds to eventually be available for downloading? My technological knowledge is limited, but it seems to make sense to me to offer everything and let each person buy the shows they need/want. I know I would buy most of the 70 or so shows I attended. As Jerry would have said: "That would be the hippest, man." BTW, Happy Birthday up in heaven.

Are the Dick's Picks out of print with only a limited supply available? Having fallen behind on picking up some of the later releases, I would really like to do so now. Used to be an option of buying "sets" of the Dick's Picks for a discount. I also really wanted Vol. 36 as my next one, but not available on the site. Anyone know why?