Grateful Dead live, Dick's Picks etc - S&D

Dick's Picks #4 -- Fillmore East, February 13-14, 1970 -- Better than Live Dead, but do have a chance of finding it? 9.4

Nightfall of Diamonds -- Winterland, 10/10/89 -- Great sound; a bit noodley in places, but right nice. 8.6

Dick's Picks #8 -- Harpur College, 5/02/70 -- Three-Quarters of this is impeccable; good form, nice song selection - one disc acoustic, one disc electric, and one disc rave-ups (i don't much care for their R&B covers like "Dancing in the Streets" and "It's A Man's Man's Man's World"). 8.5

Ladies & Gentleman... The Grateful Dead -- Filmore East, April 1971 -- A good listen, but it delves a bit too much into the Helter Skelter for strict listening. Works better as background -- but is noteworthy for the block of Pigpen's blues numbers. 7.8

my alma mater! (aka "the liberal arts college of SUNY Binghamton")

will do

You can still get any of the Dick's Picks from the Dead's own site (gdstore.com). DP4 is $21 plus postage.

So I don't know why they don't release more albums that take stuff from a variety of performances (and eras), cherry-picking the really juicy tracks. 'The Phil Zone' is a good example of this - it's got a great range of stuff, even some not-bad performances from the late 80s. And it's got an absolutely monster version of 'Hard to Handle', which not only rocks like a bastard, it's from an audience tape so you can hear everybody going mental as they crank it up.

(I also wish you could hear more audience on a lot of the Dick's Picks. They capture the music well, but not always the whole occasion. OK, I know they're mostly taken from the mixing desk so maybe that's not possible.)

Aaron or chaki - could you recommend any good Dick's Picks from 73-4 or 77?

search GRAYFOLDED - Oswald's "plundering" of over 100 versions of Dark Star from 69-95. Essential drone

Anthem of the Sun and Live/Dead are pretty much perfect legit albums btw

And I've just looked at the tracks for 22, that also looks tempting. I listened to Two From The Vaults over the weekend, from the same year (and with a similar set). There's something about the sound of the band/Garcia's guitar from that time (68/69). I can only describe it as having a lot more bite.

Completely agree with you roger about Live/Dead - that's the benchmark for me, both the version of Dark Star and the album as a whole.

I was surprised the first time I heard Grayfolded how 'ordinary' a lot of it sounded i.e. not ordinary as such but just like a great extended version of Dark Star, the first CD at least. The vocal 'swooshes' and 'folds' sound good though.

Just listening to vol 12's lovely version of China Cat Sunflower, as mentioned above by Aaron M.

Any new opinions?

i'm too tired to elaborate, but if you consider that Neil Young has Candian citizenship, and if you exclude the American contingent of Fleetwood Mac at their absolute peak, The Dead are the greatest American rock and roll band of all time.

Trux and the Drive By Truckers are tied for me personally, but we're looking through history's lens here, people. The Dead. the fucking DEAD!!!!

http://usa.festivalexpress.com/

I do have to admit, I didn't get that excited about Closing of Winterland though. THen again, I watched it at like 3 in the morning a couple months ago when I was pretty wiped out. I'll give it another go.

haven't tracked down that Arista set - 71, eh? I'm more a 72-77 kinda guy, but will check it out - thanks!

Yeah, the Ladies and Gentlemen thing is '71 but it's pretty song-oriented. Sort of midway between the psychedelic blow-outs and the Europe '72 stuff. It's a nice, pleasant listen. GREAT version of "Bird Song".

Donna was probably just as proficient a musician as Phil Lesh (making her twice as proficient as Bob Weir) and an all around great, great vocalist. Her live performances were hit and miss due to lack of proper monitor support, everyone knows that.

She never gets a fair shake. It's not like she was Linda McCartney fer chrissakes.

The Godchauxes broght so much life (not to mention a a very vital jazz-informed musical eloquence) to The Dead. I love Pigpen and Mydland as much as the nxt guy, but the 70s are where it's AT because of Keith and Donna!

Rocking the Rhein is good stuff as well.

Au contraire. Au contraire.

i take umbrage with this comment.
and so would CCR.

me rawk.
you snow.

Help/Slip/Frank rules

Thank You

I’m currently seeing my second Dead cover band in a week. I think I may have finally succumbed.

One of us, one of us!

There's (or was) a whole festival of Dead tribute bands in Ventura, CA. I always enjoy going to this divey place in Pasadena that does "Dead Night" once a month. Through strange circumstances, one of the best bands to ever play that place later opened for Vampire Weekend at the Hollywood Bowl. Blew my mind.

Any chance that was Taper's Choice? Not exactly a Dead tribute band, but jam adjacent and Vampire Weekend's Chris Tomson is a member...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYauWP1boZg

that's honestly a really fun game to play along with imo

I love how they can't help but get into that Sugar Magnolia.

Maxmillion: not Taper's Choice, but I have seen them too. This was Richard's Pictures.

listening to 10/28/79 at Cape Cod this morning, not sure how I'd missed this one until now, it's a pretty hot show and one of those where the first set damn near bests the second set. you know you are in for a treat when the first set opens with a 12-minute "Half Step" into an 18-minute "Franklin's". the outro jam on the set 1 closing "TMNS" is fire too.

lol that's about 50% more "Franklin" than I need! I did listen to set one this morning, Jerry starts creaky but warms up. Good setlist, nice "Althea."

yeah it's a lot of "Fraklin's" but I think it's 100% justified

the second set "China > Rider" is worth it for the Phil bombz and when Bobby mistakenly tries to steal Jerry's "I wish I was a headlight" verse

79 fall tour is pretty great, I've always been partial to 10/31/79 Nassau Collisium.

dipping into some '83 shows - an absolutely unhinged Jerry performance on "New Minglewood Blues" from 9/2/83 went waaaay beyond my expectations.

Yeah, that was a surprisingly decent show when it came out as a Dave's Pick a few years ago, I dug large parts of it. Although I always laughed when Phil opened the show with his, "Citizens of Boise, submit or perish – you are a conquered people" intonation and the band promptly launched into...... "Wang Dang Doodle".

Ha. I don’t think the dead doing WDD conquers anyone.

xp i clipped that exact section afterwards!

New to me, the "Dark Star" from 2/21/69 at the Dream Bowl. Really liking this version a lot, feels like one of the earliest versions where it feels like the entire band is locked into the improv.

Thanks, Jon!

https://archive.org/details/gd69-02-21.sbd.owen.7859.sbeok.shnf/gd69-02-21d1t03.shn

Not the longest version, but nonetheless an epic, prismatic one.

Thanks for this. I needed a good Dark Star>St. Stephen>The Eleven to lift my spirits. That last one is just so joyous to me.

Listening to without a net, was wondering who the smokin trumpet player was on “let it grow”, realized it’s Jerry’s midi guitar lol

Just caught on that Paul Pope did the artwork for the 7-8 78 Red Rocks release, That was a bit of a surprise.
Pretty good show.

Yeah, I know, no one wants to be bothered with more versions of this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC3h0b8C-ls

That's a killer version. Behind the Europe '72 trunk, the Dead box set I most wish I had was that complete Winterland one.

wanted to listen to the Dead today because of Bill Walton. I'm not a megafan and don't seem myself becoming one. I know there's so much out there I haven't heard but I'm not really inclined to make a job of wading through it. So I tend to return to Sunshine Daydream/Old Renaissance Fairground/Venta 72 show.

it's all the things I like about the Dead live and not much of what I don't like (they don't even butcher Promised Land the rock n' roll cover), they seem really locked in, great jams and the sound quality is that of an official live album. So, for the number of times I'm going to want to listen to a whole show, this is it for me.

best choice, imho

That is such a good show.

I've been really into 07/31/74 (Dave's Picks, Vol. 2). Probably the best Truckin' I've ever heard with some stellar jams that lead out of that. Great Ship of Fools, which is now one of my favorite GD songs thanks to this show.

Can never go wrong with Veneta, easily one of my top five shows and one that always hits right. Definitely has earned the reputation.

When I heard about Walton, I pulled up Dave's Picks Volume 5 - 11/17/1973, due to the UCLA connection (this was performed at the Pauley Pavilion). It's another one probably in my top ten at least, not a whole lot of huge, lengthy jams but so many great versions of songs.

Walton got me thinking about the Dead. I listened to Live Dead and have been working through Dicks Picks vol.36 which is a 72 show from Philly.

Had not heard that show for a long time. Excellent mix for a board recording by Bear on this one. It has a great Dark Star that ends up in this kinda driving country guitar jam leading to Morning Dew.

Never been a huge Weather Report Suite fan, but the one on 06/28/74 is something else and the closest they ever got to jazz.

I will say this, sure it was the Dead and Co. version and not like a prime '72 version or whatever, but listening to a "Dark Star" with the Sphere visuals was pretty fuckin' cool. I can't lie. Glad I got a chance to see a couple shows at that venue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQskcr4v0LI

That's a classic version. Love the Zacherle intro on that show.

the latest Dave's bonus disc (5/4/77) is pretty hot.

Listened to that Dark Star again and realized that has a "feelin' groovy jam" in the middle, so named because uses Simon & Garfunkel's The 59th Street Bridge song as the takeoff point.

xpost - yeah I really like that bonus disc, the main show itself was just “fine”. I get that they want to milk ever show from May of 77 for official release, but kind of a lackluster show for the 50th pick. Glad I subscribed though, that bonus disc is fire.

The medley that starts off the electric set on DP 8 (05/02/1970) is straight fire, especially The Other One. Sometimes 70 Dead is the best Dead.

Ok, sometimes 68 Dead is the best Dead. Dick's Picks 22, excerpts from February 23 and 24, 1968, is maybe the most storming live Dead I've heard.

so J Sam can you recommend some fave good-sounding archive.org shows from, say, each year of the 70s? I am looking for a nice Help/Slip/Franklin in particular but I love all yr recommendations so far

― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Monday, May 29, 2023 9:48 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was reading back through this thread and forgot I said I would do this almost two years ago. So see below, archive.org links included. Sorry for the delay, sleeve :)

8/18/70 - You asked for good-sounding shows so it's a bit perverse for me to start off by recommending this murky yet listenable audience tape from 1970, but this show is so good and so historically important that I can't not mention it. The acoustic set opens with the first known Truckin' and also has the debuts of Ripple, Brokedown Palace, and Operator. Basically American Beauty Live. And a sick Dancin In the Streets jam in the electric set.
(Alt 1970 pick if (partial) SBDs are more your speed: 9/19/70)
11/7/71 - This primo SBD is from an FM radio broadcast. Utterly unique vibe to this show, thanks in chief to Keith playing a legit honky tonk piano. Me and My Uncle materializing from the saloon dust of the Other One jam is a peak moment. If you only listen to one of these shows, make it this one.
10/28/72 - Another sonic caveat here: This SBD has a wonky mix, but it's wonky in a way that sounds great to me. Basically Billy's drums are mixed HUGE and Bobby is prominent while Jerry and Phil are de-emphasized. I like hearing the band from a different angle sometimes. It’s fall 72, so it goes without saying the show itself is fire.
2/15/73 - Sparkling SBD featuring early versions of a bunch of the Wake of the Flood + Mars Hotel songs and one of the most beautiful Dark Stars.
10/18/74 - From the Winterland run famously featured in The Grateful Dead Movie. Some of this show, including the Dark Star, was released on the movie soundtrack album, but imo that is not the version you want to hear, for two reasons. First, the official release truncates the jam sequence; on the Archive you get the Seastones -> Jam -> Dark Star -> Morning Dew in all its glory. Second, the Movie Soundtrack version was sourced from 16-track tape, and while it sounds great, the Dark Star is missing Ned Lagin, who sat in on a second Fender Rhodes that apparently wasn't hooked up to the 16-track mixer. The version on the Archive is sourced from a separate two-track tape that was recorded simultaneously with the 16-track, and that one has Lagin's keys, which are essential to fully appreciating this phenomenal Dark Star.
6/7/75 et al. - They only played four shows in 1975, and they’re all worth hearing. But this is not one of them. It’s a recording of rehearsals at Bob Weir’s studio, mostly consisting of jams and instrumental takes of Blues For Allah tracks. I recommend heading straight to the “Spacely Noodling jam” and letting it wash over you.
6/14/76 - This show embodies everything great about 76: laid-back vibes, strong vocals, fusiony Playin’ jams, and Cassidy and The Wheel in regular rotation.
4/23/77 - April 77 hits different than May. Maybe it’s some residual 76 mellowness hanging around. Great Help->Slip->Franklin's in this one. Franklin's is extra special.
5/6/78 - That Peggy-O!! The rest of the show is real good too.
1/10/79 - I mentioned this show upthread because of the rare 79 Dark Star (the better of the two they played that year), but the whole show is excellent. No SBD circulates, but this AUD sounds wonderful.

xp PBKR have you heard 3/17/68 (Download Series 6)? Unbelievable heat on that one

it's still crazy that there's so little of the workingman/AB live era because owsley was behind bars.

Thanks, J Sam, I have not! Per the other GD thread, I'm having a bit of an early Dead moment so I will definitely check it out. Two From the Vault's Dark Star is so fast!

I think you recommended that 11/07/71 show previously and my recollection was it is incredible. I need to listen to it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY7vbqbNrRM

praying the woody harrelson midi ass solo performance is real

8/17/91 Shoreline has both a Tennessee Jed & Drums->Space

Until last year, the Dead held the record for largest crowd at a show (single band, so not counting Watkins Glen, Woodstock, etc...) with 107,019 people.

George Strait set the new record, at 104,793 people.

sorry, wrong Strait show- the actual record is 110,905 people.

Probably less nudity at the Strait show.

There is a little jam at 9:45 during the The Other One on Dick's Picks 36 (from the 09/03/1972 show from Folsom Field, Boulder, CO) that sounds like one of the parts of Help on the Way (released 1975). It's a pretty simple little riff, but . . . .

Holy shit I’d never heard the 72 Rotterdam “Dark Star” until today. That one is something special.

thanks, that's my next 47 minutes of listening sorted