Grateful Dead

My copy of HCS arrived via UPS on Sunday, just a couple days after the official release date. Had a good time yesterday listening to the Kezar show (which I've heard, but never in such excellent sound) and now today checking out the first RFK (which I've never heard before). The music's great, of course. The Dead could do no wrong in '73 (unless we count Seastones, right?) and they are playing and singing at a creative peak here. But you knew that.

Sorry to hear that along with the standard shipping woes some folks have also encountered issues with corrupted discs. So far so good for me through 5 discs (and counting). It always worries me when I get a big box set that I might not get to some of these discs for weeks or months, so if there's a problem I might not figure that out for a while. But I have to say the one time I did have a problem (the June 76 box) TPTB sent a replacement quickly.

The fi is especially hi on what I've heard so far. I love it that KG is so nicely audible. He was really contributing to the jams during that period: check out his "dialogue" with Garcia on the Kezar TTO. And I always love it that Bob's guitar is equally well represented as it is here. Vocals are often a little low in the mix, but if you're like me, that's just fine as long as you can hear each individual instrument at any given time. Which, praise ye gods, is what we get.

So, big kudos and a giant THANK YOU to EVERYBODY who was involved in choosing and remastering and shipping this material. Now, on to the petty gripes!

Not super thrilled with the packaging. I prefer it when it's easy to grab an individual show and take it with me on a long car ride (such as with the NW box for example) and I don't like it that much when the CDs are stored in thin card board slip cases that are both unwieldy and flimsy (as with Spring 77 and this set). Kind of surprised there's no booklet with none of the insightful essays we've gotten with some other sets, just flimsy inserts with brief notes on each show. And it takes a lot of shelf space, which is an issue for me: I'm going to either have to stop buying these boxes or get a bigger house.

I suppose I could go with the FLACs, but those orders seem always to be plagued with technical problems, and they're almost as expensive as the physical product, for some reason. Seems like they should be a lot cheaper. Seriously, it's been a great run with all these lavish boxes with deluxe packaging, but I'm getting to the point where I might prefer cheaper, less lavish, cheaper and more compact physical editions. Just sayin.

Wah wah wah, right? Let me return to my origin point: I am beyond stoked to have this music, which is outstanding in every respect, in my collection. We're so lucky these recordings got made, and that there's this reissue program that brings them to us in such good sound. I was thinking about it the other day: Zeppelin was the biggest band in the universe during the time these concerts were recorded (and played Kezar shortly after the Dead did), and how many quality live recordings do we have from them? How much would Zep fans love to see a reissue program like the Dead has? But alas, you want live Zep (so much of which is outstanding) you have to listen to somebody's 50 year old cassette recordings and use a lot of imagination.

OK, I'm done. Back to the BBQ, IPA, and GOGD. Have a great Fourth y'all.

Received mine at the beginning of the weekend. Shows no movement but estimates it's arrival on Saturday. No sweat. Would have been surprised if this box didn't sell out before the release date. It contains at least a couple of highly coveted shows and perfect companion shows to go along with those. Any shows they performed with The Allmans are essential.

Hope Dave hits on a choice '91 show for a pick this year. 4/1/91 and 9/26/91 are two gorillas in that room.

Like I said, I'm so glad that the folks who were not there when we were lucky enough to have been there can enjoy the music now, but the same 50-60 songs for the past 8 years from D & C ???? .....so much more to choose from. Seen one Dead and C show, you seen them all.

Seems ironic that this is the first release that has sold out for a while, and most of the posts about it on here concern problems with shipping and/or packaging. Not exactly a recommendation for prospective buyers of future releases.
Maybe they should take more care about the way discs are stored within a box, and less on what the actual box looks like.
These box sets are sometimes referred to as "works of art". If they are, then this surely because of the music, not the packaging.

....That's. The. Entire. Point.
Congratulations man.
You got the goods. Drive safe and enjoy the beauty that this county has to offer.
She's a beautiful.
I was just looking at Oracle Park tix. But, I shot a huge wad to see the Cup.
Ebbs and flows.

Oro - mind blowing show. Whole bunch of folks flying eyeballs deep. Magic and more magic all night long. Couldn't ask for more. The Playing > lightning delay > crazy dark clouds just to the north moving so slow with a few big bolts > early Set Break > Playing > Uncles Johns > Playing Reprise was dream time stuff. Then Help > Slip > Frank > He's Gone > Other One verse 2 into drumz. No fucking way. Watchtower w/ Dave Mathews was absolute complete craziness. Nights 1 and 3 were my favorites - where Momma hides the cookies - and Night 2 damn fine also. And yes V-Guy there were the drone Space and it was super cool - "what is happening??!!" They kept flying the drones after the show was over - at one point they read "Please Be Kind" I'd write more but hitting the road now. Should be passing through Eagle in next 2-1/2 to 3 hrs if traffic up mountain ain't bad.

Wishing everybody a happy and safe July 4th with abundant good food and icy drinks and the company of family and friends.

Denver '73 Road Trips is my driving music right now.

....just caught one in the junk. Ouch! I feel ya bro.

Every freakin' time.

My only issue is, like I said...I don't want a scumbag stealing my box set from my porch.

I would be more patient if I knew its delivery were going to be safe.

Meanwhile...what about Dave's 47???

"Mowr, mowr, mowr"

- Bill Graham

Release date was 6-30. I wouldn't sweat it yet. I'd wait til next week to start freaking...

Until then, freak freely.... :-) :-) :-)

....and to also quote Talking Heads.
"Same as it ever was.'
Oh. And The Sphere here is doing test runs on the exterior display. Looks pretty awesome. There's a couple of neat videos of it on you toob. The news says they are going unleash its full power tonight.
Currently watching the Marlins/Cardinals game. Baseball is cool. Liking the pitch clock when originally i was against it. Arraez still flirting with a .400 batting average.