Grateful Dead

This late summer '83 tour has long been my time capsule Dead. If I could travel back in time and do any single GD tour this would be it. Boise/Sawtooths to Park West/Wasatch to Red Rocks/Rockies to Santa Fe/Sangres camping and road tripping all along the way would have been a real hoot. I have an older cousin who first turned me on to the Dead with tapes, including Boise '83, and he was living in Park City when this tour blew through the Mtn West. He still talks about this tour with reverence, one of his first after leaving MN behind. There's a vid out there of the first set of the band at Park West, and it looks just like shows I still enjoy at State Bridge or Rancho....but with the goddamn Grateful Dead on stage! Phil in particular is a BEAST with his new Modulus and girlfriend front and center. (He devotes at least a couple pages of his autobio to this particular tour and period....the beginning of his renaissance.) Sooo I'm very psyched to have an official release of this one after diving in to another DLP sub despite misgivings. In fact this is my favorite Dave's release of the last few years hands down. Admittedly I'm biased for the aforementioned reasons, but I think the uniqueness and energy of this show standout despite some sound and era limitations. Frankly the peak 70s Dead releases from Dave over and over and over again have started to bore me despite their obvious musicality. I guess I like my Dead a little less predictable and rougher around the edges in order to really highlight the truly inspired moments. Like the Boise Big RxR Blues! My one suggestion for Lemieux on future early-to-mid 80s releases would be to stick to the matrix format of the Fox '80 release. It definitely serves the music and context better than a straight Healy SBD mix, and I know from my own listening that there is no lack of worthy AUD recordings on the LMA and elsewhere that I'm sure any taper would be willing to share for the greater GD good. Cheers to the Citizens of Boise and their Surrender to the Cause!

Every fool who ever did blow and made music thought they were a genius at the time, this proves they were not. Almost done with my first and last listen to make sure the discs (made in Mexico) don't skip. Then this piece is going on the shelf behind my bootleg copy of Brent's solo album. Looking forward to some good stuff come the PNW box, Go Hawks.

It's comical that people are arguing that DaP 27 is better than DaP 7. KF, alvahanso, you may prefer DaP 27 and for the sake of making a coherent point, I'll agree with you. But here we are, the three of us in our DaP 27 creek without a paddle (and Space brother with his pom poms cheering us on from land), but all of those people voted for a quarter of the songs on DaP 7. I'd like to say nay, but let's see, we are not talking votes in the 10 or even top 5 lol, it's 1st place, 2nd place, etc. Let's be reasonable gentlemen, we are in the minority. DP36 I don't understand your post. You said the sound isn't the problem, but half of the dissention is being cited for bad sound. And what do you mean when you say DaP 27 is about Brent? Are you saying people aren't truly unsatisfied with the sound but rather with Brent? Please explain. KF, PM me your email, I'll send the pic.

As I was deciding where to go in '73, I scanned Dick's Picks 1 and thought, hmmm, I never listen to this one, why did Dick choose this as numero uno? Solid HCS I know. There are a lot of great WRS now, but this was a novelty at the time. Truckin' I don't recall too well, but how much better could it be than '72? Probably none better. Anyway, I thought I would put on DP 14, then reach out to you guys for DP 1 impressions. And then I saw the postings from kyleharmon and Terrapin Moon with Truckin' and WRS. Maybe I should just listen to it. Alvarhanso, I basically said the same thing you did, I think you might be mixing my comments with Ace Freh...I mean Mind Left Body - awesome picture dude! Where was I - oh - DaP 7 has some highlights in my mind, and better than a ton of 1978 shows, but not as good as DaP 15. Love Donna on Scarlet, love the Fire and the let it burn, and can't think of a song more ruined by Bobby's slide than this FOTM performance. Mind Left Body has the bonie for it, but I have to admit, that's a lot of Gold and Silver on Heady. Some people are bigger fans than me for sure. Mind Left Body - I just googled Ace and can't find that pic - can you hook an Ace fan up?

Spacebrother and I agree on DaP 7 as weak. The Music Never Stopped is very good, but I don't recall anything else that stands out to me. Yes Jerry says "let it burn, let it burn, let it burn" in Fire, but there's nothing special to me about that Scarlet Fire musically. The novelty of the briefest of Stayin Alive teases does nothing for me either. And I like Werewolves of London as a song, but also a relative novelty. But, just to prevent the world from spinning on its axis, my points of divergence with Space would be that while this would rank below almost every other DaP for me, 27 and 20, and possibly 4 are all right there with it, if not below. The challenge though was for a 70s official release worse than 27, so obviously 20 doesn't meet that criteria; still 4 and 7 are my bottom of the barrel 70s releases. The most glaring issue with DaP 7 for me is Bob's slide "playing". More like the sound of 2 street cats making love while someone steps on their tails. But on DaP 27, 5+ years later, it ain't any better. And you don't have the Healy effects on vocals on DaP 7. Another place Space and I agree: DaP 15 from 2 days before is fantastic. Especially, the Deal and Wharf Rat. Jerry botches his first Wharf solo (or is slightly out of tune), but definitely makes up for it with a second go at it. Also, it's fairly ironic that my agreement is with Space and my disagreement is with KF, so this is like Elaine's trip to Bizarro World to continue the Seinfeld theme.

I remember that episode stoltzfus. Man that brings back memories. I think a lot has to do with what I listen to DaP 27 on, at least for me. It sounds much better in the car than on headphones to my ears. I also prefer this early 80s keyboard sound to the late eighties. I would say it's definitely growing on me. At least the parts I've been listening to, disc 2 mostly. I like the raunchy tone on Jerry's guitar, is that the Tiger?

Is this Box of Rain that I'm cranking from April 2nd 1973. I'm having a blast prepping for "The Box". It's been 73/74 Fetivus this week. I guess I should have posted this on the other page. Oh well what are we talking about here, Dave's Picks 7. That was my first Dave's Picks. I bought it after reading how good the music never stopped is. It's no joke folks. I don't remember much about the Big River and me and my uncle, but I much prefer those pre hiatus. The Scarlet fire is pretty solid, let it burn let it burn let it burn. It is a ripping Promised Land, even though the opening lyrics get missed or flubbed or something I forget which. Anyway I'm not sure how Dave's Picks 7 ends up in a worst of conversation but, I don't know how accurate that is. Definitely one of the better shows from 1978. I think it might even be in Rolling Stones top 20 shows. That being said, I think I also prefer the show from the 22nd which was Dave's Picks 15 that space mentioned. I think the first set of that show is almost flawless. Although it does have a couple pallets in a row that I'm not fond of. The second set is pretty solid too. I definitely don't have to fit over the equalizers much on this one either. I am in full babble mode how long has this been going on for? Feels like forever, what was in that stuff I smoked. Good luck hippie chick. Yours in coherence, KeithFan2112 P.S. This DaP 21 sounds unreal. I'm talking audio at the moment. If "The Box" sounds this good we going to get high high yes sir.