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

The first set on 3/24/73 (The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA) is really great, starting with The Race is On.

I've always liked Row Jimmy for a slow Dead song, but it's really been killing me lately. I find myself humming/singing the "ever since they tore the jukebox down" section all the freakin' time now, lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JukZBGgv8I

I probably have more tolerance for Playing in the Band than the average listener, but the middle jams of these Spring 1973 versions are really so much fun to get lost in.

Recommend divks picks 5, 1979, weird electric slow versions

put a random 76 show (LA 10/15/76) on and was pretty surprised at how great it went front to back - stellar closing run of He's Gone/Drums/Other One/Comes a Time/Franklin's/Sugar Magnolia. Crowd was going absolutely bonkers for the final two.

It's hard to go wrong with any show in 73/74, but for more Dick's Picks check out 19 (10/19/73), 12 (6/26 & 6/28/74), and 31 (8/4 - 8/6/74)

Don't think I'd ever listened to DP31 (8/4 - 8/6/74) ... just 10 minutes into the opening Playing, absolutely sick. Feel like Keith's keys have way more reverb than usual, sounds great. We'll see if I make it through 4+ hrs.

Had started DP7 and had to turn it off because the drums seemed mixed waaaay more up front than I rememeber.

man those 76 show can be great. check 10-15 at the Shrine

oh ha that's the one you're listening to

lol

since there's some 74 talk, too. I'll stump for Dave's Picks Vol. 34 (June 23, 1974), which was one of the first Dead shows I really clicked with. It also has the bonus of being recorded at a Jai Alai Fronton so the album art incorporates appropriate sports imagery.

^^^^ fantastic release, I think the night before another top-tier release, DP12. Another comp that gets lost in the shuffle is Road Trips Vol 2 #3, which is a best-of from three June '74 shows and is essential listening if you like that sound ... basically like new 2nd versions of all the DP12 stuff + a 30min Playing tacked on. I wonder if they found a mixing/recording sweet spot around then – a lot of these shows have a shared sound venue to venue on recording, maybe the most neutral they ever sounded?

Something small (1hr of mindless tagging) but really consequential in my GD listening habits via streaming from Apple Music finding a way to force a UI where I could easily see ALL of their live releases ordered chronologically, something I had 20 years ago with a finely-metatagged mp3 file collection that sits on some external hard drives I will never touch again.

I'm sure there's a simpler way, but I ended up:
- adding all live albums / comps into one single playlist folder
- manually changing the metadata year to the year it was played (comps listed as something like "2022")
- Set View to Albums
- Sort by Artist - Year - Ascending
- Let the warm wash of calmness wash over you as you browse

In Apple Music, it's ~115 live albums total (missing stuff like Dave's Picks, but lots of random releases as well ... I also left like 15 of the Europe '72 releases because I simply don't need that much choice, like 5-7 is enough). It's made browsing so enjoyable – and for the first time in the streaming era, I feel like I can browse through as I would've on iTunes in 2008, which is all I want! – that I ended up doing the same for a bunch of other live music that I like to browse by year/era (Miles Davis, Zappa, JGB, Phish). It also makes it pain-free to just line up all the Dark Stars or Playings, or search for a song, sort by year, and just plow through some '77 Dancings or w/e.

I don't spend a lot of time in the Vince era, but giving 10/14/94 at MSG a shot right now and it's surprisingly good. A short 50-minute first set that is really well paced, love the sleazy "West L.A. Fadeaway". But it's all about the massive "Scarlet > Fire" to kick off these second set, nearly a half hour long and about as inspired jamming I've heard from '94. I also like the jam out of "Corrina" that sets up "Drums > Space".

https://archive.org/details/gd94-10-14.sbd.perkins.9054.sbeok.shnf

Shame about that "Samba" that got dropped in there though, it's rough even by that song's standards.

I have been naming the Album Name for live albums as "Year-Month-Day - Album Name" since I started collecting bootlegs so they always order appropriately on digital platforms.

xp

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.