Grateful Dead

....is be caring. And be humble. And don't be stupid.
Spinning that Crazy Fingers again, because it's that good.
Dancing in the Living Room. Just as long as you are there. Dancin'
Its an invitation, across the nation.
Positive vibes to Carlo. My job is also day to day.

Well, here we are in the U.K. in lockdown. Stay safe everyone and listen to the good old Grateful Dead.

Here in the Netherlands we are not quite as locked down as in England, but the new normal is anything but normal. This is not nice and its not going away any time soon. The consequences are already far reaching. Be sensible, be strong and good luck. The box should be here soon to brighten the mood.

so i got my email reminder yesterday letting me know this was supposed to be delivered today. checked the tracking info a little while ago and said it was in transit. i'm in the bathroom a few minutes ago and hear a knock on my door. figured it was the ups guy so headed to the door but by the time i got there they were already gone and it was just sitting on the floor outside my door. the weird part is they didn't deliver it with the outside box and packaging intact it was just the cd set itself. :-k

wonder if ups is taking the outside packaging with them due to the corona virus?

Also i forgot who posted earlier but couldn't agree more about 6/29/76 getting released one day as well as the day before that someone also mentioned!! Carlo sorry about your job..... bob t

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-weir-workout-playlist…

Zuckfun had a question on the titles the releases get: Get Shown the Light, Nightfall of Diamonds, Ready or Not, etc. I will give it a shot (though no inside knowledge).

1. They ALL have names. Dicks Picks Volume 16, Europe '72 The Complete Recordings, etc. Have to call them something. The choices they have made are: series #s (Dick's, Dave's, Vaults, Road Trips, View from Vaults), concept references (30 Trips), tour/time references (Europe '72 CR, May 1977, June 1976), venue references (Winterland '73 CR), and song titles/lyrics, or some combo. Why are some lyrics and some not?

2. Get Shown The Light.

Technically, it is May 1977: Get Shown the Light. They already had a May 1977 Box, so they had to call it something to distinguish it.

3. The big boxes that have smaller releases also need two names. If the secondary release is just one show (Say 7/8 Red Rocks) then they usually just ID the show. If it is a bit from each show, then a lyric or song title is typically used (Spring '90 Get Shown the Light, etc).

4. As for one off releases, if the show is famous for something, use it (Nighfall of Diamonds, Formerly the Warlocks). If not, go with the venue or mood (So Many Roads).

Then again, who knows?

These shows are real and they are spectacular. Not a weak show in the box, not a weak song in any of the shows. At least from my point of view. Most partial to that 6/14 Beacon show, from the Cold Rain and Snow opener to the scintillating Crazy Fingers and fantastic High Times along with that Help-Slip-Franklin's just put this one over the top for me, but all of these shows are hitting the spot. The DITS and TMNS in this box did it for me in a way that they don't always do, something just extra cool about these to me.

Has anyone come up with some good cover art scans for these shows?

I've been playing around with the images and cannot come up with a good square image that I am happy with.

There has been some mystery about ABCD Enterprises, LLC. Here's an interesting link I found...

http://legalnews.com/detroit/1457673

Seems they are a bunch of Detroit lawyer heads who just wanted to get those Betty Boards out. Not sure we'll ever get the full story on who purchased the storage lots, but we all owe these folks a debt of gratitude. Thanks, y'all rock!

I thank all you guys wishing me luck. Good bunch of dudes and gals. Disk 6 is some heavy shit. I like to stretch out the listening in order and this is one great box.

I am quite convinced that Hippie Chick is Terry Hatcher.

https://liveforlivemusic.com/news/phish-dinner-movie-webcast-archival-s…

Sorry to hear that Carlo. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a common thing.

Sorry to hear about your job Carlo. This is a very bad time and we all hope it ends soon. Hang in there and we hope we all get through this soon.

Oh and I think Hippie Chick is actually Dave.

....hey! That's me!

That’s some lame shit Bra! 25 years of loyalty and ppppfffffff....lame. Unfortunately I think we’re just seeing the start of many game changers and not just economic. Anyway, hang in there lad. “If you get confused just listen to the music play”

Chuck: nice Seinfeld reference, and they are, aren’t they!

I happen to know for a fact that Hippie Chick is scared to death of Sasquatch. And Dave is a Sasquatch hunter. Does not compute.

Not sure how they could possibly be the same thing unless both facebook and the internet lie. Crazytalk I say.

I ordered this without even looking at what was on it. 5 shows from 1976 is all I needed to know. That being said the sound is outstanding! But like a couple other people mentioned it's very repetitive in the setlists. Probably more so than any other era of their career than pre Workingman's. I think by May 1977 there's a bit more variety in the setlists and even in the performances themselves in May 1977 there is more improv than this box set. The only place they really make some changes is on Slipknot. I'm also a little bit disappointed with the Playing in the Band jams. It felt early in a tour and early in their getting to know each other musically again. I know they put out Blues for Allah and everything and that's one of my favorite records but the live band on these shows is just a little bit repetitive. The energie is great and they sound terrific. Any of the shows would have made a great single Dave's Picks. Put them all together and there isn't as much variety as most box sets. There were so many older songs they could have gotten into the mix. I certainly don't regret picking it up but I think it's an honest evaluation.

Angry Jack Straw I saw your very positive comment about Pacific Northwest box set. Am I the only one that thinks the 1973 shows in that box sound kind of like those bad 80s cassette recordings? The 1974 shows are great sounding to my ears but the 73 stuff has a lot of drops and uneveness to it, hiss, clanky symbols, etc.

Carlo sorry to hear things are going bad your way.

Sounded like an honest evaluation Mind-Left-Body, no requirement for everyone to share the same opinion. The repetition in the setlists doesn't really bother me, but to be fair, I am often redundant myself. So maybe given my own tendency to redundancy, the repetitive nature of the setlists doesn't bother me as much as it might bother others.

A repeating theme. The early years were the worst offenders yet there was plenty of variation from night to night even when setlists were similar.. On years where they introduced a lot of new material, they repeated songs.

I don't have this box yet, but that's not going to be my beef with it. 73 was equally repetitive, but the shows were on average an hour longer, the difference being super long first sets and a typically a jammier, far reaching second set.

I don't know, we can pick to death every year, every show the GD ever played. Yes, repetitive, but perhaps not. 76 was as unique a year as any, even if they played the same songs. Look at the first sets of E72. I am so glad they played them, they are great, but they don't get many repeat listens, it's the improvisational second sets that get my attention.

Be good all, just another box set in the life of. The question is.. will I ever get mine?

?

C'mon...

Almost every artist repeats songs, there is only so much material. The Rolling Stones do some of the same songs every single show of their tour.

in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I heard and saw the UPS truck stop on the street this morning (Monday), leaped from my chair, and somewhat broke social distancing parameters by slightly opening the door and gleefully taking the box from the delivery person's hand with a merry, "Thanks!"

The box and music are shiny and silky. Soooooo good . . .

Carlo--sorry for your troubles, man.

Thanks again all you guys for the sentiment.

In theory, the smaller the set list at any given time, the greater the scope for improvisation and development on specific songs and themes. The most remarkable example of this is from late 1967 to mid 1969. Limited set lists but exponential development. One song that devel0ped almost like a narrative was Playing in the band from late 1971 through 1972.

Not all songs played continually were vehicles for improvisation of course, but maybe if they hadn't played songs on a regular basis they would never have discovered which ones could be developed and extended. If they had only played Dark Star a handful of times in 1968, its doubtful it would have progressed the way it did into 1969 and beyond.

Great reasoning Daverock - I hadn’t thought of that before.

I love the Dead passion here. Stray a little bit and take a pouncing if you don't fall in party lines. It was a spot on review, was plenty complimentary and most important was relative to other releases. Stoltzfus, setlist "gripes" would have been if I wrote a thoughtless one liner that said "this box set sucks because the songs are all the same" Not what I did.
Charlie 3 I appreciate your sinncere and objective response. Daverock, thank you for supporting my point whether you intended to or not. That's to say, if these recordings had come from later in the tour, after they had a few weeks to gel again musically, the improv in Playing in the Band would have been "better", having had that timeline you spoke of to develop, as they did in '72. The Orpheum is a good example from July. Much more in tune with one another by then. JimIn MD thank you too for supporting my post. 1976 as I said was as unique a year as any, and I will restate that any one of these shows would have made a great Dave's Picks. Was all I was saying guys. I will say this about 1969, that while the setlists were repetitive. They had less songs to choose from in their canon, but the songs were longer and lent themselves to improv. I would have been clearer about that fact if I had anticipated the defensive posture some have taken. I get it though. I'm going to listen to it again right now!

Take care all. Good talk.

Is in the house. Just had time for the first part of the June 10, 76. So far loving it, but want to listen to it all before final judgement.

How close is this to being sold out? I think I have heard some in the 10000s? Wouldn't be too much longer you would think.

I love looking back at this band over it's 30 year career. These guys were always changing and definitely a lot of highs and lows throughout their career.
When they returned in 76 many new songs and many old songs no longer played.

Just a few that I can think of that were no longer played:
Dark Star- returned 12/31/78
China Rider- returned December 77
Truckin- returned at Englishtown 9/3/77
Dire Wolf- returned fall 77

I will say, I wish the liner notes were bigger. I have no chance of being able to read some of those personal letters and news articles.

Enjoy the box folks!

Regarding the favorite box set discussion, I'd like to make a case for 30 trips. Like (just about) everybody, I agree that Europe '72, Spring '77 and Spring '90 are consistently great tours, resulting in consistently great box sets. And given my overall preference for pre-hiatus Dead over post-hiatus Dead, my vote would go to Europe '72.

But this consistency has two slight drawbacks:
* limited set lists and
* only one version of the band.

With Europe 72 you miss out on Brent, Bird Song, Eyes of the World and many other great songs.
With Spring 77 you miss out on Pigpen, Dark Star and loads of others.
With Spring 90 you severely miss out on Pigpen and Keith, as well as loads of great songs.

With 30 trips you have a (somewhat concise) overview of the bands' career, its band members and its repertoire. Based on this box set, you may very well decide what band or what period is your favorite, and proceed from there. But, imo, 30 trips is the mother of all box sets, and in fact a template for how other bands should tackle their career and / or vault.

It's funny that the Playing in the Bands are up for discussion. I was looking forward to all three of these when I first looked at the setlists. I find the instrumental sections to sound more like the spacy jams in Dark Star from '72 - '74. That's alright by me - if the Dead gives you brown weed make brownies :D

I'm also very stoked that these recordings sound so good. That wasn't necessarily a given in 1976. I would have to call these A+ quality right? I would not give the 30 Trips show from October an A+ for audio (but man what a setlist ;-) Jerry is nice and loud on this box set and so is Keith. 1976 - last year for a lot of acoustic grand piano from Mr Godchaux. Get your piano here folks, enough piano for all!

I'll tell you what else I am digging - Bobby is coming in pretty clear too, and he hadn't quite adopted that sitting sound did I associate with the Ibanez. To be honest I don't know what he played on this, but it's my understanding that he had dropped the Gibson ES at this point. Maybe it is the Ibanez with a different rig or more distortion or something. Whatever it is he sounds good.

Book binding issue
I see a few posts regarding the binding, or lack thereof, on the book in the 76 box. My book is missing binding completely. The pages are held together with some glue gobs. Not sure how long the pages will remain in tact. My S/N is 9547. Is there any chance those of us missing the binding can get a replacement book?

Didn't mean to be snarky, my apologies. Cabin fever and my box is still on the way.. I bet I would have chosen different words if I had a box in hand.

There was nothing wrong with your post, and there is a lot of repeats. It seems they do this whenever they are working out new material.

In any case, I didn't take offense I just have a different point of view. Saving comments until I get that first listen.. Happy Tuesday all.

Wooooooooohhhhhhhoooooooooo!
So after our crushing lost delivery on Friday, Monday we got back up on the proverbial horse and rode on out to UPS again....still not sure why they changed delivery address from PO, but they ended up delivering at our old house.
Funny, because we had thought about driving over there on Friday when we were freaking out.....Er, I should say I was freaking out, Lovey was just being supportive and a designated driver lol. Subliminally she might of been pondering about actually hitting that bridge abutment at 100 mph rather than being stuck in seclusion all day, everyday, for X number of days and me blasting nothing but dead....but I digress.
So head over there and Dude never answered the door, but there it was in all it’s splendor still sitting on the porch. So it was less than a Mile away the whole weekend...so near, yet so far!
Haven’t heard anything yet, going to finish ripping and get fully engaged later today, figure do 1 show a day at a time and try and give full attention etc.,
Box is simple yet nice, and enjoyed reading most of the book. I think it outlines nicely the musician changes, set lists, the venues and why/what they were after, basically reinventing themselves or X.0 in modern vernacular. Much of what has been bantered about here!
Anyway, got my miracle yesterday so gonna get me some good, good lovin’ today, hallelujah!
Perhaps one more run for “essential provisions” (before the state shuts down) along with new box set, several other new shows finally ripped...now we can hunker down and ride this shit out in style!
Good day eh?

KIETHFAN: Bob was playing a Ibanez....but not the Ibanez that most are familiar with that he mostly kept with until he switched to Modulas around 83 I think? The other difference in sound could be attributed to him using a Mesa-Boogie pre amp into McIntosh MC 2300 power amp, and I think still JBL Speakers, compared with the IVP Intersound pre, with Godzilla amp from Ampzilla with I believe various sized Gauss speakers that came soon after; (actually, this phase was when he really started to get gear crazy so there were other units and effects evolving constantly in his Racks from then on)

Hey, that's me too! Tonight's Dick's show is a real corker too! "This guitar is gonna F*** Your Face, because it knows how to scream" - perhaps the most Zappa-esque song in a catalog ripe with them.

Peace

here's a raise of the glass, or a burble of the bong (or both), to you.

y'all be cool

6/10 set 1 was okay set 2 picked up a little wonder what happened during set break a pep talk perhaps. haha Anyway 6/11 Big River and Scarlet both smoke. ps. Where is that June '70 box.

Estimated was played at almost every show in 77.

Jim, any tracking data on your Box? Maybe it was confiscated in retaliation for your absconsion of that beer truck.

Oroborous, yeah small town if they knew where your old house was. Not small enough if they didn’t know you had moved.

From a piano perspective I was thinking that this was a Box for Keithfan.

Got my Box loaded onto a HD and then converted into various audio formats for use on music players and my car stereo. While doing that job I did some anniversary listens:
3-23,24-92 Bruce’s last shows as a regular member.
3-24-93 set 1, will play set 2 today.

Then, back to the 76 Box and see how it sounds on my iBasso DX120 music player.

Yesterday was Oberon Day. All festivities were cancelled, but I found a beer store that had some. Tasted awesome.

Thanks for the heads up regarding significant others and bridge abutments in these times of quarantine. My wife has been out of town with a sick relative back east for the last month or so and as a result I have been able to blast whatever I feel like out of the stereo whenever I feel like it, at whatever volume I please, with no complaints, sighs or eye rolls. That may change when she gets back so I definitely will not be accepting any invitation from her to "go for a ride in the car" after reading your post. I would perhaps have viewed it as a harmless attempt to break the monotony, but after reading your post and being alerted to more sinister possibilities, I will be prepared. No surprise bridge abutment for me. Keep these quarantine survival pro tips coming.

I usually do a quick first listen to make sure the discs are clean. Got that done & started at the 2nd listen yesterday. 2nd run through is usually at higher volume!

Finished 6/10. Set 1: Lovely BE Women & TLEO. Cassidy also. It is not fully formed yet, but still lovely. Ditto these shorter Sugarees. Love the Bobby/Donna duet LLRs. Sneaky good Big River. Mission is one of my all-time favorite Hunter/Garcia tunes. Always like Might as Well.

Great 2nd set: Samson, Help>Slip>Franks, Let It Grow, FOTD, Playin>Dancin. What is not to like?

The repitition does not bother me much foe 2 reasons. First, I am used to it, a lot of the 60s/70s boxes have it. Second, I really dig a lot of the repeated songs in this set (Music, Might as Well, Samson, Cassidy, Dancin, BE Women, Jed, LLR, Help>Slip>Franks, Sugaree, Let It Grow, etc).

Ahh yes. Tracking info:

WEA ECOMM GNARLYWOOD

Out for Delivery.

Left Cumberland this morning at 9:35 am. Cumberland, a good omen. Why on earth did they give up Cumberland from 74 to 81? I bet this box would have benefited by a Cumberland Blues.

Mr Carlo 13, I see they are hiring at the post office, all positions, some no experience needed. That's here in Calif, it might be in your state also. Federal job , good gig, check it out.

I ventured out in the car yesterday for the first time in a week.

Went to the drive thru beer store.
Told the guy what I wanted, popped open the trunk, handed money through the window, and was on my way. And the prices were as good or better than the store I’ve been walking into all this time.

6/11 set 2 Great Stephen->Dancin'; Sugaree, Sugar Magnolia>Eyes Of The World>Stella Blue >Sunshine Daydream, Johnny B. Goode was killer.

24 March: 1970; 1971; 1973; 1985; 1986; 1987; 1988; 1990; 1991; 1993

Not sure I am this time, anyone else? ... bob t

I also keep the decorated packaging box for the box sets, although I have recently wondered why as I see them stacking up in my garage. For this one I wiped it down with a damp paper towel with bleach before opening and then put it in the garage with the rest of them. Not saying this is recommended, just what I did.
Last 5 (singles) - Garden Party / Rick Nelson; Coming Into Los Angeles / Arlo Guthrie; Spooky / Classics IV; Stormy / Classics IV; Sunshine / Jonathan Edwards.

...what Comfortably Numb would sound like reworked as a disco tune? Check out the Scissor Sisters version for the answer. I admit it, a little disco hits the spot sometimes, I dig the discoed up Comfortably Numb. Your appreciation may vary.

I clorox wiped the box down also this time!! 6/14/76 is not letting me move on today!! One of my first betty board cassettes back in 88... "what will happen if the music ever started" Isn't it funny how you remember the tapes you use to listen to all the time!!! bob t

Is there anyone who does NOT have the binder issue? Wondering if I should try to get a new booklet.

Delivered by hazmat truck. Left on the porch for an hour, carefully opened the outer box outside, carefully opened the shrink wrap outside, set the case down, came in washed my hands, went back out and brought the box inside.

#2025 is ripping as I type. It's here, it's beautiful and it's real.

My book has the spine issue. It's either by design or the manufacturer took a short cut. I will carefully give it a read today and put it back.

My mood has improved.. first listen probably at dusk. Be safe all.

Hey, Folks,

I'm sure the spine is intentional. Take a close look at the unboxing video, and what you see in your hands is what you see in the video. https://youtu.be/0EEi664jNzU?t=89

Before I saw everyone's comments, I opened mine and thought it was a nice touch. I'd rather have stitches than what's known as "perfect bound" in magazines.