Grateful Dead

More or less decided to leave the analog system alone.
Likely go to a separate 5.1 A/V receiver dedicated to some new old speakers.
There is great stuff available for next to nothing as folks upgrade their systems.
Have some very reliable vendor/techs I trust too.
Esta todo bien.
Cheers and thanks again

If you have a power amp, I have an Integra DTC 9.8 pre pro in mint condition only used for about 2 years.
Top of the line back in like 09. Still in box etc. just a thought…
Does 1080p, DTS master audio, Dolby HD etc, just no 4K or Dolby Atmos etc.
only reason I stopped using it was I was able to get a McIntosh.

Thanks for that great response. Iv'e been out and about a bit today, so I think I'll leave it now, and have a good look tomorrow ansd see what I can find out. Cheers!

So, I am still prevaricating about getting this set, having been increasingly disapointed by the need for, and presence of, aud patches, on recent sets. Anybody who knows these shows have an idea what we might expect? I mean El paso on the waiting for the river really sank my enjoyment!

I know nothing about the tapes. What I do know is that within minutes of this box announcement I had purchased it.

Now, I may be biased, because I caught six shows in '73 and thought the band and the new Wake of the Flood material was (is) fantastic. So this era is really what hooked me on the band.

I guess a few patches won't impact me much. Especially if they occur during an El Paso. Eyes of the World or Stella Blue or Mississippi Half-Step? I would hope not. But ~$11 per disc for '73 GD and five complete shows? C'mon! Buy it!

I should add that, generally, I try to support archival releases for the GD, Jerry, the ABB and Hendrix, to keep the releases coming. After completely not studying the matter, I'd say that GD boxes are 90 percent what you want.

Okay, felt like doing a little raving over vintage GD here this afternoon. Ta ta!

and like the wind he goes ; )

Make up how much of the STL Box, 1% maybe 2%?

Read the caveat emptor on Dick’s Picks.
“This live recording is not a professionally made studio recording……”
Or something like that.

Buy it Dogon.
It will sound better than what’s currently available.

I seem to remember that a recent episode of the GOGDeadcast said there were 2 decks running, both Betty and Kidd(?), for one of the first shows in the box, I'm thinking it was the first at Des Moines. First I had ever heard of anything like that. So hopefully any patches in that case would be one reel source for another. In the end, so thirsty for this box that even an audience patch or 3 don't matter all that much. Seconding the advice of my compadres here - buy the box, tons of great music and hard to believe any regrets.

(Bluecrow checking in on a1bar LTE personal hot spot from the "wilds" east of the Capitan Mtns.)

Why wait? Release for order Watkins Glen soundcheck and show in July for August delivery.

Got Iowa in earl 2000's, umh good show. Read it was a windy day and towers were a concern.

USCB never heard, excited

Kezar grew up on an xl90 with 3rd set, love it.

DC had parts of 9th, all of 10th grew up on it, yes. I believe on my old tapes Phil says before Dark Start something like we're gonna get real weird or stretch out? Yes indeed.
Side note caught the rare Dew set opener at Giants 87' as a junior h.s., also best Dylan set I ever caught out of like 10 shows over the years. Sher sold way low amount of floor tix, at showtime 100's to 1000's or so jumped down to flood floor. Great crispy video exists pro shot.

Thanks for your replies.
A clarification perhaps.
I know these releases where never meant to be released and are as such audio artifacts with glitches and occasional drop outs I ve been buying releases for long enough to have seen the caveat emptor warnings!
I have enough Dead to last the rest of my life! I also like Wake...I think I maybe got the first available copy in the UK, I was waiting at the shop Musicland in Berwick st, Soho, when the first box of imports arrived and I grabbed the first one.
I am not one of those who need every last note to be released, I was actually disappointed when the Roadtrips abandoned its original focus. So to me, the release of a aud/substandard El Paso, was pointless and spoiled the listening experiance. Anyway thanks for the responses, perhaps we can revisit the subject when the boxes begin to land.
Onwards and upwards!

I'm glad to see that there are people other than me who hate El Paso. Easily one of the worst songs of all time, the guy is dead at the end of the song, so how can he be telling this story ! ? !

For me, whenever I get a new box set or Dave's Picks, I Iisten to the version(s) of El Paso once, simply to make sure the disc plays properly. After that, it's hit the skip button whenever I listen to the disc again.

STAT OF THE DAY: Over 46 Dave's Picks, there are 22 versions of El Paso. There is one version of Shakedown Street.

But I love the original El Paso by Marty Robbins. And the teller is telling the story in first person as it is happening to him. No mystery there when he knows he's dying. That said, there aren't many ripping solos versions and, like some of the polka-time songs, it does wear out it's welcome. Listening to an El Paso as I write from 7-8-78. Had no idea that would happen, but odds are....
Cheers
And while I'm sure there are other El Paso haters Dogon only said he didn't like it because it was a substandard aud. patch. My don't care for/skip list has mostly songs from the later repertoire like Victim or that Mickey one.
Only three weeks to go for HCS!

I have had a look at my telly etc, Oro, and remembered that the telly is an Oled 48A2. It has 2 HDMI video outputs on the back, but there is just the one HDMI outlet at the back of the blu ray player. The cd player does have DAC included I think, and cds do sound really good. As for my amp...I can't get at the back of that so easily, as it's fitted in a cabinet with it's back right up against a wall. And working with my head bent down for more than about a minute gives me dizzy spells!
I am happy with the sound of everything - it's just a bit disconcerting when discs sometime say "blank disc" on the display panel when I put them in. I take these ones out, put them back again - and hey presto - music. It also sometimes takes a long time to read a disc - and the goes straight to track 2. But again, it's easily remedied. But I wish it wouldn't happen.

As for "El Paso" - I like it. Along with "Mama Tried", "Big River" and "Me and My Uncle". I prefer these covers to the blues ones they used to do. Possibly because I don't listen to authentic country music as much as I do blues. "El Paso" peaked in 1971, though. Very nicely sung at the April Fillmore East shows.

... as Bob says. I always look forward and pay close attention to the Big Rivers.
They have some of the best ripping Jerry solos. Many are just downright Hot!
Even when I hear similar riffs elsewhere I'll say Jerry just Big River-ed that.
I know Oro has tired of Me & My Uncle, mostly because he played it so much himself in his performing days. To each his own.
Cheers
I've heard Raga has some of the best CD players out there. I need to look up what exactly SACD and HDCD are.

Istshow -yes,that's the pick of the tunes I mentioned - stunning rock n' roll/country picking by Jerry, as you say. The original recording by Johnny Cash is great too, but in a completely different way

…..

I like Big River too.

I like em. These are the songs you may not expect much out of when they start, like they'll only be a 4 minute throwaway and then.....

No such thing as a bad dead song, just a song you haven't heard tore up yet. When the magic hits, the song doesn't matter.

Sitting On Top Of The World-Me and My Uncle moves along at quite a clip during the show I am half way through at the moment - Munich 5/18/72. A great show already, and I haven't got to the 3rd cd yet.

How could that be? I'm always crystal clear. In my own head.

Just weighing in that I was jesting on whether a patch would be acceptable if used on an El Paso. I too enjoy the cowboy songs because, as 1stshow alluded, Jer is free of vocal duties to craft killer fills and solos. Big River is a favorite of mine for that reason.

Are there GD songs I'm lukewarm on? Definitely. But I'd have to think too hard to name them. Maybe a couple late era Weir-Barlow songs.

Did someone mention the Watkins Glen soundcheck?? It's only been 50 years since we laid on our sleeping bags right in front of Jer, just far enough from the stage to see the band, heads resting on water jugs, snorting good mescaline and smoking opium on a lovely summer evening at age 15. Now that was a great way to spend my mid-teens!

The cowboy songs are good. The first couple hundred listens, anyway.

But the 'problem,' if there is one, is that they don't vary much from one version to the next. If you've heard one Me and My Uncle, you've pretty much heard 'em all. And it says here that song got performed 629 times, behind only Drums, Space, and PITB on the all time list. So it's often bathroom break material for me.

I still like El Paso, somehow. The melody is more interesting that uncle, and you get the harmony vocals, too. And there some country covers that were played less often (You Win Again, or even Race is On) that are still easy to appreciate. Not sure if those count as cowboy songs.

My favorite of the country covers is probably Sing Me Back Home. That version from Veneta still blows me away: after playing outdoors for 3+ hours in record-setting heat (and doing it for free, no less), they're still singing their hearts out, and a better live vocal performance was never captured in all of Deadom.

You Win Again - Hank Williams
The Race Is On - George Jones (Don Rollins; not the one who wrote It's 5 O'clock Somewhere)
Good picks Crow.
Country - Cowboy. Close enough.
Cheers

Definetly my favorite version. It would have been very cool if Garcia would have pulled it out for an encore instead of Quinn the Eskimoe in the 80s.

It's always struck me as a bit odd that the Dead's country rock covers are often referred to as cowboy songs. Johnny Cash wasn't a cowboy. "Big River" is one of the great songs Sam Phillips recorded at Sun Records, and I associate it more with rockabilly than I do with cowboys. For me, the term "cowboy" reminds me of Hollywood westerns. John Wayne and all that.

once something sticks, it's stick-y. Maybe those songs are deemed "cowboy" because they use "cowboy chords"? Getting stickier now....

I'll say this, I think it was 8-1-73 when the GD did Dark Star and dropped into El Paso, went back into Dark Star, then Eyes. (Setlist Programs confirms this memory.) Just a brilliant example of what the band would do to f*** with our heads. And, indeed, when Dark Star resumed, we looked at each other (thank the gods we didn't go it alone) like, "What just happened?"

Probably the best placement of an El Paso in GD history. And they had to have discussed it beforehand as the transitions were flawless.

Just another of my patented, yet completely pointless remarks. Thank you!

Yes, contrasts like that are great. Another good one was when Me and My Uncle mysteriously appeared in middle of The Other One. 8/6/71, comes to mind.

Not wishing to rain on anybodies parade, but for me the crux of the matter is the sheer number of times these songs appear on the artifacts we listen to at home, ie not in the moment of the concert. The Dark star/ el Paso/ Dark Star is of course magnificent but very often the little songs(Cowboy or other covers) dont really go anywhere. This is the problem when the Release Everything model won over the only release the Best Stuff tendancy. Of course sometimes the best stuff does include whole concerts or even whole runs, sometimes a compilation would do just fine.
I mean how many El Pasos do we need? Or even - sacrilige -Lovelights? ( hej, wait a minute, wait a minute...)
For me the Europe trunk is magnificent even with the occasional longuers , sorry, mostly down to Pig, and the very best shows should be released uncut, but a fair few not exactly stellar shows have found their way into the various box sets or Daves since then, even taking into account our individual preferences for certain eras or line ups, the best bits of these shows could of course been compiled into anthology releases. Perhaps, just perhaps stuff taking so long to sell out these days might be down to the fact that so much is already out there, which appeal to the completeists and stamp collectors on Dead Net, but not the average Joe, who may just buy a wrong un, factor in the scalpers, and the notorious difficulties getting access to this stuff/ non existent customer service, and perhaps we are nearing the end of the golden road chosen back in the middle of Road Trips.
Thanks for listening, As usual YMMV! Respectfully and
Back to my breakfast

…it’s the listener, and this listener has perhaps just heard some of these songs too often.
So not the songs fault it got played too much, or that I’ve listened too much!

Very good Oro!

It seems to me that repetition is a characteristic of box sets generally. I have quite a few that have multifarious versions of songs included - here's one by Jerry Lee Lewis - 25 versions of a song called "Break Up"! This is on "At Sun Records-The Collected Works". It's clearly not for someone who just wants to hear only his best work.

I wonder if Dead box sets, and the Daves Picks series are similar? I would expect there to be some dull moments on the upcoming 1973 box - going off what I have already heard from this year. To me it will be worth it for the jewels. A lot won't think that though - it just depends how much of a completist we are. There are definitely shows in box sets that I don't think warrant releasing in their own right - but which just seem to be there as a build up to the better shows. I listened to 6/7/77 last week - and that seems a bit like that.
Same with Daves Picks. I have got a bit tired of that format, which is why I no longer subscribe. I now just want to cherry pick shows I think I will like, rather than buy everything. That might be a mood that is becoming more prevalent.

though I still like the Dave’s format (enough 77 though), but I understand why some folks are dialing things back.
I agree totally otherwise.
Really, when you think about it, most bands play THE same set every show, or damn near, often year after year!
So comparatively, the Dead’s not so bad. Again, I think it’s just some of us have been listening to too much? Ok, blasphemy I know, but no matter what you dig, if you’ve done it a looooot over the last 50 or 60 years you might experience at least a little burnout?
So even with hundreds of songs in the set list, after all that time, I think it natural that maybe some have grown long in the tooth? And of course it’s often situational.
But hey that’s perhaps just me, as we know some folks here that only seem to listen to the same 2 or 3 years, and years where the set lists were significantly repetitive, and don’t seem to tire lol.
I think earlier the band didn’t worry as much about repeats for two reasons: they wanted to get the new material out, Bob especially likes to saturate the newbies, and second, not many people were going/traveling to so many shows.
I think they thought about the sets more later on, as so many folks “toured” or did blocks like we did.
In my early years, I was lucky if I saw a few one off shows relatively close by. When they started playing multiple nights at one venue it was a game changer in many ways including set lists etc. You could now see 2 or 3, or even 4 shows without a repeat!
So yeah, a box of shows from a same tour, especially from the earlier years, is likely going to have some of “those” songs repeated. But like Daverock states, it’s the jewels were after, and hey, that’s what the skip button is for lol.
I can understand Dogon’s etc point about getting saturated and too much etc, but personally I’d rather get the whole show as a completist and just skip or delete from playlist.
If I was younger and if the digital only, no clutter/stuff generation, I’d probably still get the sub, rip it, then give it away, or sell it to cover the cost. That way still supporting the cause, because when sales drop to a certain level it’s all over now baby blue…
But I’m also fine if a show is smoking/must have but not complete, as long as we get the jewels! Ddddaaaawwkkk Ssttttaaaarrrrrr Jerrryyyyyyy!
Yes sir, it’s all bout dem jewels, the weirder the better!

It doesn't appear anything is selling out this year, regardless of the year.

I would think this box would be gone by the end of the summer, but who knows, the first two Dave's are still available as well as the last two years Box Sets.

Put me down as wanting the full shows released. I definitely prefer to listen to full shows.

With the complete show release model, there will always be repeats, often of songs that don’t jump off a setlist as special. On the other hand, if you just release the special favorite tunes, you are going to end up with a lot of out of context highlights, at which point the question may become “how many Dark Star, Eyes of the World, Fire on the Mountain or other highlights do you need”. I am eager to collect more complete shows, very strongly preferably not chopped onto the disc out of order, as I find the highlights to be more special in the context of a complete show, and sometimes it is an unexpected tune that turns out to be the gem of a show. The ebb and flow of the individual shows is part of the appeal for me. The other factor is that today’s perception that a particular performance is “meh” may be replaced by tomorrow’s perception that the performance is cool in some way that I had not realized before. More than once I have put something on to give another listen to something that might not have really hit the spot on the first listen and found myself asking, “holy shit, what was my glitch last time, how did I miss how cool this actually is.”

My appreciation of different music varies by mood and season - what hits the spot on a melancholy fall day is probably not what is going to hit the spot on a sunny summer day and a bright mood., at which point the June 1976 or July 1978 Box Sets are often the stuff. Sometimes I want to hear “the Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five or maybe “Nice Shot Man” by Filter, or “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath. Loud. Other days it might be “Quiet Storm” by Smokey Robinson, or some mellow jazz. If I’m feeling weird it might be some King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard or some Butthole Surfers, maybe the Desaturating Seven album by Primus. Not to mention all of the well known and often discussed bands of the 1960s and 1970s, all of the great soul and funk, as well as all of the cool stuff from this century that has come out over the past 23 years. I don’t seem to have any trouble finding new (or new to me) stuff to pick up despite my best efforts to rein in my compulsive acquisition of new CDs. And now that King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard has apparently decided not to release Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava on CD, just opting for a vinyl release, I may have to pick up new vinyl for the first time in decades. I’m running out of space for CDs, let alone adding vinyl back into the mix. But, the more choices, the more everything stays fresh. Besides, there is way too much cool stuff out there to limit yourself to a single band or genre of music, even one as cool as the Grateful Dead.

So I recall reading this snippet from an article a few years back when Bobby was getting Blue Mountain off the ground. This is what he said about the origin of the cowboy songs and how they got their name:

"...back in the early ‘60s when I was working ranches as a kid and living in bunkhouses. My eyes were opened to a culture, which still existed that predated radio. It was a total oral culture and a rich one. And what the old cowpokes did at night—what they naturally fell into—was storytelling and songs. I was a kid with a guitar, so I learned to accompany those songs, and it was good ear-training because I had to intuit what the next chord was gonna be and when it was gonna arrive—or I was gonna suffer some abuse. That was something that stuck with me. Over the years, if a cowboy song came up and caught my ear for one reason or another, I might do it with the Grateful Dead simply because it seemed natural, whereas other folks wouldn’t have thought it was cool to do a song like “El Paso.” It was a little bit of an enigma to me and I felt I could breathe a little life into that stuff."

Inspired,
Sixtus

Sixtus - That really is an inspired quote by Weir regarding his passion for Cowboy songs. Thanks for sharing. Not just a “cool” thing to do, this music really touched him. I feel the same about guys like Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, in that it was not just a fad with the Burritos repertoire, it was a vocation of sorts.

Here's a novel idea Dave stop making box sets with a bunch of novelties and just sell bricks of shows in a nice sturdy storage box to lower the price. All those novelties I can't use anyway, so they just sit in the box not to break up the item.

Over $200 after cost, tax, and shipping is a bit too high. How about 5 shows twice a year at a $100 each?

I am getting anti-virus warnings over at dead and company site due to expired security certificate for livedead.co. I am trying to see if there may be some pay-per-view opportunities for D&C's final shows. Can you let the web admin know this. THANKS!

Sorry to interrupt, back to scheduled discussions...

Sixtus -thanks for that post about Bob Weir and his experience of hearing cowboys singing and playing when he was young. It seems as though it was more the context of the songs sung than the actual songs themselves that defined them as cowboy songs. If Jerry Lee Lewis had sung the same songs, they wouldn't have been defined in quite the same way.
I have a book on the history of National Resonator guitars, and that has several photographs of men dressed as cowboys playing these exceptional instruments in the 1930's. Names I would never otherwise of heard of - Hoot Gibson is one, and I have a great cd which compiles country slide guitarists called from the 1930's..."Country Slide". A guy called J.D Farley is referred to in the sleeve notes as a singing cowboy.
Apart from that - I am reminded of the singing cowboys who were occasionally show in old films on T.V. when I was a child - Roy Rogers and Gene Autrey.

I really hope this year's showing of the 91 Soldier Field show gets released on CD at the very least if not a Blu Ray CD combo. I personally thought this show was superior to both RFK and Giants Stadium, which are great shows and releases.

The second night of Compton Terrace combined with the three in Denver from December 90 are also top notch.

Also 9/26/91. Possibly one of the last truly epic shows from the post Brent era.

Daytime show at Compton Terrace.
Good solid show. My first Bruce show.
Beautiful weather and fun Shakedown scene.
Everything available and no law enforcement on the Reservation.
Not exactly a pretty venue but a good trade-off for the freedom.
Never saw the earlier venue with that name. In Phoenix proper?
Desert Sky Pavilion (3-6-94, my final GD show) was a bit nicer but over-policed.
Cheers
I'd buy that PHX-Denver 1990 mini-box Spacebrother.

Last year was the first one I missed. AMC bought a 10 year old nice theater from a competing theater chain. Then COVID hit and things changed fast around here. Many older structures have been torn down to make way for newer larger facilities. Enormous R/E boom here. Sux cause last year and now this year we want be having muatm as the older AMC theater complex was demolished, waiting for a buyer on a large piece of R/E close to the heart of town. Wish they would at least run some small run bluray/dvds of these shows. Really not happy about missing these. Go to movie sight and it only shows 1 theater in the whole state. Whereas previously, there would be 8-10 theaters statewide. Not sure if the movie web sight is wrong, will continue to look for it though, maybe change browser for search.

I was there.
I’ll buy it on Blu-ray if released, but won’t be making it to the movie theater.

Cowboy/Country/Bluegrass/Folk/Appalachian Murder Ballad

All an integral part of how I view and listen to the Dead nowadays. Wasn't always so of course in some respects and for some songs. But early on - Skull and Roses w/ Mama Tried & Me and Bobby McGee were immediately brilliant, loved'em from the get go. El Paso is really pretty dressed up as country goes, but over the years, time and again, Jerry's fills and harmonies show complete care and respect for the story. Part of what informed all that for me was an early introduction, pre-dead, into Will The Circle Be Unbroken collaboration (legend) between the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and various giants of Country and Bluegrass. And even earlier to that was DXing the AM stations at night, that 1000 mile atmospheric reflection, and listening to The Opry and 50000 watts out of Dallas - did a lot of radio driving with that at times.

Guessing Hendrix Freak referenced the EL Paso smoothly dropped in to the middle of the '73 Roosevelt Dark Star and how revelatory/crazy that was. I mean - who does that??!! There were a couple+ tapes I listened to early with that sort of madness: 1) 12/5/71 Felt Forum - DS jam > Me and My Uncle > DS jam; 2) 8/6/71 Hollywood Palladium - Trucking > Other One > Me and My Uncle > Other One; and 3) 9/28/72 Stanley Theater - He's Gone > Other One > Me and Bobby McGee > Other One.

I revisited that 9/28/72 just now (and funny thing a heartfelt El Paso proceeds He's Gone). That He's Gone > Other One > Bobby McGee > Other One, Wharf Rat is maybe, still my favorite jam of that era. It is so good.

Sixtus - thank you for sharing the piece about Bob and his cowboy songs. New to me.

Good friend was at those McNichols 12/90 shows and loved em. I got tapes in my vault. Split Dark Star over 3 nights, out of space night 3, , Night 2 with an Other One > Morning Dew (which was an ideal combo for him), with Hornsby playing only Nights 1 and 2, I think.

And how could I forget - Handsome Cabin Boy intrumental out of Space Landover 3/ 93.

But early would be even better. Like, how cool would it be if they started mailing the box out NOW (is the time) so we had them and could enjoy them over the holidaze….siiigghhhh, oh well

The new box can't land until I'm back from paddling 35 miles down the Little Yampa Canyon in my one-man packraft, with frosty Peroni beer and the usual produce steaming out 'o my vaporizer. (Yes, I take a USB battery to recharge the old vapo, a jar of fresh flower and a few psylo caps...) The good news is that "the trip" starts tomorrow with a five-hour drive, runs Tues-Thurs, with a two-man party on the river Wednesday night in celebration of the Summer Solstice, which pagans prefer to the much-ballyhooed religious holidaze.

Definitely looking forward to the new box. May eat a cap and spend the day cycling, guitaring, etc., then settle in as the hallucinations die down and blast the s*** out of the first show, saving the critical 6/9 and 6/10 for last. I don't care if it takes all summer; I love stretching out my box listening and having a few cannonballs in the barrel ready to fire. Leavened by the next Jerry vault release. Add the new book on the ABB's Bros & Sisters LP and the ABB's set from RFK '73 and we've got a killer year coming. (Not to mention an excess of as-yet-unlistened to discs by Bob Wills, David Lindley, Miles, Coltrane, Sinatra, and a zillion other discs just waiting for attention.) Blessed now and forever.

Summer's here and the time is right, for dancing in the streets!

Just an observation sparked by the recent conversations. When I looked at the set lists for this 1973 box set, I thought it was unusually repetitive for 1973, and it has me thinking the length of time between shows may have something to do with it. If you compare the RFK shows by themselves, there's a big variety. But the first 3 shows are all a week apart and seem to have the most number of repeats. In addition to playing the newer songs repeatedly, which I would expect, they don't mix it up a whole lot. Maybe these songs represent where their collectuve comfort zone was and they could play them well without a lot if rehearsal? I see a similar trend on the June 76 box set, which marked the start of playing after time off. The trend didn't last the whole year of course, but those opening shows for sure.

Is it unusual for 73 that they they stayed away from Dark Star for 4 shows, before breaking it out on the 6/10 show? Or was it beginning to wind down by that time? They certainly didn't play it much in 74. I wonder if Dark Star was difficult to play from a rehearsal standpoint. On the one hand it is largely improv, so you can't rehearse that. On the other hand, was improv easier for them when they were playing every day? I would guess the latter. When I listen to the brilliance of those old Dark Stars, I am bewildered that they would ever retire it as they did. I was reading a post recently where it was suggested that the 74 Dark Stars were not as good as preceding years. I never had that impression. The ones I know best are all really good DaP 13, DP 7, and the Grateful Dead Movie soundtrack.

For me, I'll take any Dead show that's mixed well and sounds great from an audio tape standpoint. For example DaP 16 and 21 from 3/28/73 and 4/2/73 have pretty much no audio issues, Cumberland Blues solo aside. If it's sounding THAT good, I'll be happy with a 75% repeat rate. On the other hand the three 1973 shows from the PNW box set are all over the place with the audio. They're a bit of a tougher listen. I am hoping these 5 new shows sound more like the two Dave's Picks I mentioned (and the two shows from Dick's Picks 28 in February 73).

Sorry if postage costs have been covered earlier in the exchage but..

I had decided it was time to press buy for the 17CD's set, but then saw postage was $70, so I then looked at the 8LP box set and postage is a very reasonable, dare I say cheap, at $24.99. Is the 17CD set coming in a stupendously, odd shaped box, that is big and heavy, that helps to explain the disparity in overseas postage? Needless to say I have held off pressing buy on the 17 cd set.

Maybe the postage is higher to pay for the custom-dyed Tenugui. Whatever that is. A gold statue, going off the price.

I was forced to Google it. Apparently it’s a thin Japanese hand towel! How did they know we needed one?

I don't think the message has quite got through that a lot of people would prefer smaller boxes with less novelties included. Still, if they gave awards out for the silliest items included in box sets, this would definitely be in with a chance.

I guess many of us are mere mortals who don't have unlimited shelf space for unusual objects which we don't really need or know what to do with. Bring back the delightful simplicity of the Winterland boxes or May 77. I still haven't decided what to do with last years In And Out "super" long box which fits nowhere. I guess I should venture under the stairs again and pack it with my E'72 suitcase, my 30 trips box, the PNW box and.. I know i am lucky but.....