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

To wit,

"I painted my boobs with a sun and a flower/ I'm peaking just before Franklin's Tower"

— Emily Hilliard (@hey_emhilly) August 30, 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR4_D6P6Hrc

posting this just so we can appreciate weir dressed like an amusement park employee and lesh's glorious dolphin shirt/sweatpants combo

One of my favorite Lesh outfits outside of the Heineken years.

I hate that they dressed like shlubs. If you look at the Europe '72 photos and footage, they made an effort to dress up a tiny bit onstage (except for Weir)...but man, by the '80s, it was like, "Thanks for coming, guys, we really need our lawn mowed...oh wait, you're the band?"

https://store.dead.net/dw/image/v2/BHCC_PRD/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-warner-master/default/dwd4a88a95/pdp-img/Dead/daves_picks_vol_44_product_shot_1000x1000.png?sw=550&sh=550&sm=fit

We're easin' on into the last Dave's Picks of the 2022 series with the complete show from AUTZEN STADIUM, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, OREGON, 6/23/90 and you're going to need your sunglasses because the forecast for this one is bright. Doors were at noon with Little Feat opening (fun fact: Little Feat's Lowell George produced SHAKEDOWN STREET) and the Grateful Dead taking the stage at 2pm to deliver what is surely one of their longest later-era performances and what can most certainly be classified as an upper-echelon late-Brent era show.
It's lazy in the best possible way, with the band taking their time to get each note just right, giving Dead Heads a real chance to soak in the day's incarnations of long-worn favorites like "Cumberland Blues," "Tennessee Jed," "They Love Each Other," and "Cassidy" in the first set, and the occasion to lose themselves in the second set's crescendo of jams capped off with a shimmering "Morning Dew" and of course, a rocking "One More Saturday Night."
Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 44: AUTZEN STADIUM, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, OREGON 6/23/90 was recorded by (no, not Dave himself, as you will soon learn from the liners) Dan Healy and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. Grab a copy while you can.
P.S. Remember how we couldn't fit "Cold Rain and Snow" from Dallas 12/26/69 on Dave's Picks 43? You'll have it here now to complete the two shows from Volume 43. Huzzah!

what can most certainly be classified as an upper-echelon late-Brent era show.

damning with faint praise...

sorry not fair, i don't know the show and i retract that in the spirit of this thread remaining a safe space for dead fans of all stripes

after 77, 74 and 69, dave probably wanted to dive into (slightly) less explored waters. 1990 definitely has its moments!

Gotta shout out Download Series 6, 3/17/68 Carousel Ballroom, SF. As far as official live releases go I tend to overlook the Download Series, which feels relatively tossed off and low profile coming between Dick's Picks and Road Trips. But there's some really great shows in the series, and this one has become my absolute favorite 1968 release. The China Cat -> Eleven -> Caution -> Feedback is as Primal as it gets if you need to be reminded how hardcore and tripped-out these guys were in that era.

1990 definitely has its moments!

Based on my one incomplete listen to Dozin' At The Knick, I wouldn't have thought this was the case. The "Space" section on it sounded like someone in a music store going through all the DX7 presets. "Oh cool, this one sounds like lasers! Pew pew!" But that Dave's 44 is surprisingly solid, and a "Morning Dew" certainly never hurts.

I just listened to that chunk of 3/17/68. I've often said 60s Dead pretty much isn't my deal (my eyes roll when Pig starts his "gypsy woman" rap in "Caution") but that was good, especially the drumming.

Speaking of "I've often said..." I rep for Dozin' based on the "Playin'/Uncle John/Terrapin" segment, thanks to an evening spent with a hippie friend with a kickass stereo and kind bud. That was my first time ever hearing "Terrapin." We stopped before "Drums" though, so I missed the space lasers. (lol Tarfumes, you've told that tale before as well!)

xp yeah, i mean, I'm not going to go all in on 1990 Dead, but I have been enjoying most of the new Dave's. That "Morning Dew" is great.

Ha, yeah, I posted that elsewhere I'm sure. This Dave's is also fortunately light on the digital vocal harmonizer.

xp

So, 19 years after saying I'd check these I'm in lol

Live/Dead is my go to Dead, it's the only thing of theirs I really care about so I'm gonna keep to that.

Dick's Picks 22 is really amazing. Jams hard (as ward f talks about up thread). Garcia's playing has an edge, the band are very on it. The organ playing makes me think a bit of Dylan's band in those Judas concerts, it's all very spicy. It was the late 60s after all.

i choose to believe that this james ball is that james ball

Vol 4 and "Two from the Vault" will be next xp lol no

Also check out the Fillmore West 1969 box, which are expanded versions of the concerts from which Live/Dead was taken.

I'm also a huge fan of Dicks Picks 16, which is from the same venue later that year.

I've got 4, 8, 16, 30, 35 in my list. Will definitely check out 4 and 16 before a break.

Nice, glad you've found your '69 hot spot xyzzzz. And right on re: Dick's Picks 22. The drums on that one sound like firecrackers. For me '68 is the peak year for early Dead, all white-hot hard psych all the time. Check out Download Series 6 (3/17/68) for more of same.

And you're in for a major treat w/the "Dark Star" suite on Dick's Picks 16. You'd probably also dig Dick's 26, from April '69.

re: dicks picks 22, i thought my brother would like it and sent viola lee blues from it and he responded "they have two drummers, don't they? are they on the same stage?" it really hurt lol

Lol nothing you can do, this stuff really is like licorice.

I love the effect of listening to Dick's 22 on headphones, with the drum kits each hard panned to opposite channels, cracking at the edges of the sonic picture. Unreal how amazing it sounds for a live soundboard tape from 1968; thanks, Owsley

Garcia's proposed/rejected live album w Dylan (somebody preferred notorious Dylan and the Dead)---haven't listened to it all, but have heard some okay Dylan show excerpts on The Grateful Dead Hour, so maybe this is okay too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll1FV5VF-Us

Dave's Picks has covered 1977 pretty well, but also here's this handy-looking stsh from Real Gone Music (started by veterans of Collector's Choice, I think, and source of some real gone collections such as Dusty Springfield's Complete Atlantic Singles)

Spring ’77 shows get the ink, but the Dead’s Fall ’77 tour through some of the lesser-traveled byways of America goes toe to toe with that deservedly legendary series of performances. And by cherry-picking from three October ’77 gigs (10/11/77 in Norman, Oklahoma; 10/14/77 in Houston; 10/16 in Baton Rouge), this Road Trip offers the greatest show that never was. A great, 10-minute rendition of “Let It Grow” from Norman kicks the whole thing off, followed by a 17-minute “Sugaree” from Baton Rouge…and how about that epic, 13-minute version of “Black Peter,” also hailing from the Baton Rouge show (which contributes the lion’s share of the songs here). And for you obsessive Dead Head collectors, the Houston excerpt also captures the last time the “Help on the Way”/”Slipknot!”/”Franklin’s Tower” medley was played for six years. A 16-page booklet featuring notes by Steve Silberman accompanies this “Betty Board” recording, mastered by Jeffrey Norman and presented in HDCD sound. Great performances lifted from superior shows from one of the Dead’s best tours…hard to beat that combo!
Disc One

1. Let It Grow
2. Sugaree
3. The Music Never Stopped
4. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
5. El Paso
6. Help on the Way
7. Slipknot!
8. Franklin’s Tower

Disc Two

1. Playing in the Band
2. Drums
3. The Other One
4. Good Lovin’
5. Terrapin Station
6. Black Peter
7. Around and Around
8. Brokedown Palace
9. Playing in the Band

Grateful Dead Road Trips Vol. 1 No. 2 (2CD-Set)
$ 31.99

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0810/5567/products/6d3aa626eba0ce4825764c6e595c5be9_1024x1024.jpg?v=1657222636

I need to listen to that projected Dylan/Dead live album, but I can already tell it will be much better than the one that was released.

The always impressive Albums That Never Were included a bonus disc of Dylan/Dead highlights along with their reconstruction, for those wanting more: https://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2018/05/dylan-dead-jerry-garcias-original-mix.html

"This tour ushered in Dylan’s “Cookie Monster” era in which much of his lyrics were indecipherably mumbled in a vague melody escalating upward, rather than the actual vocal melody of any given song. " hehe

And by cherry-picking from three October ’77 gigs

http://image.email.dead.net/lib/fe93127176650d7b77/m/2/6b6b81f0-22e7-460e-8045-70cfcd1a4bc3.png

October 1 & 2, 1977: Portland OR

What a setlist!... Made me jealous of those who saw this era live. Great sound… like ‘77 was yesterday. @derekb192 on 10/1/77, YouTube
Wow! Just as when you think eyes is gonna go to drums out of the bliss comes dancing! One of my all time fave moments! Not just classic 77 but classic ever dead! - @emrysdavies1215 on 10/1/77, YouTube
...this show was off the hook from the very get go. The Casey Jones is the best I've heard... beginning a jam that goes through each member going off on an instrumental solo. The end has them jamming so hard you can no longer hear them singing through it. Now you know you're in trouble (The Good Kind) when a show starts like that... Weirtheir on 10/2/77, Dead.net
Holy hell, the 10/2/77 Betty Board sounds incredible... I just wanted to pay homage to this unreleased gem, which features the lovely, tight playing you'd expect of a 77 show with some of the highest audio quality I've ever heard ... What a treat. u/monsteroftheweek13 on 10/2/77, Reddit
I told my mother I was going into Portland with friends. I never told her where I went... @jamesmoore3694 on 10/1/77, YouTube
We know where you've been and we're taking you back with the twice as nice DAVE'S PICKS VOLUME 45: PARAMOUNT THEATRE, PORTLAND, OR - 10/1/77 & 10/2/77. Back-to-back complete previously unreleased shows on 4CDs? You betcha! Why? Because we couldn't pick one over the other of these two nights that have been described as "fire," "mind-frying," and "crispy" (bit of a theme here) too many times to count. Witness it for yourself when you dig into the inventive medleys and pristine sound, not to mention the first "Dupree's Diamond Blues" since '69 and the first live "Casey Jones" since '74.
Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, this release was recorded by Betty Cantor-Jackson (with a boost from Bob Menke, more about that in David's video below) and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. Grab a copy while you can.
Limited quantity available

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

couldn't stop laughing when Etta James is given a bouquet of flowers and she tokes on it in front of the crowd.

Yikes, Jerry's pretty out of it. He's looking at his guitar like, "What...what is this thing? What do I do with this?" But as guest spots with the Dead go, this isn't bad, even if the Tower of Power horns can't really grok the Dead's ecosystem (or vice-versa).

After listening to an insane amount of GD last summer, I stopped almost entirely from late September until tonight. 4/23/77 is such a great show with which to brake the drought.

brakebreak (ugh)

I can almost never listen to a full Dead show, I either get turned off by ropey vocals or bored by noodly performances, but I left this one on all day while I was working. Great setlist, really nice, laid back performance.

I'm finishing it up tonight. It's really good! That Help/Slipknot/Franklin's Tower is sweet. Good energy throughout.

Bob doing ‘Around and Round’
Bob pulling out the slide
= hit next

There is one — and only one — truly great Dead Chuck Berry cover, and it’s “Around And Around” from 9/27/72. It’s nearly Stonsey in its intensity. I don’t know why it only clicked on this (and on no other) show, but it did.

They played it a LOT, so you would hope one time it did not sound like they were on ludes.

At least for me New Minglewood Blues has a comedic factor of this squirrelly voiced blues guy saying how he is going to steal yer woman, but you pull out that slide and hell practice on your own time.

Jerry doing Chuck or anything is mostly fine.

I can almost never listen to a full Dead show, I either get turned off by ropey vocals or bored by noodly performances, but I left this one on all day while I was working. Great setlist, really nice, laid back performance.

I’m curious: what is everyone’s modus operandi when it comes to 3-4 hour Dead shows? Do you listen to them when you have time to absorb the whole thing, or spread it out over time? Listen to the whole thing, or skip overly familiar tracks?

Even on the shows I dig, I find I get restless after an hour and a half, and seem to thus rarely finish shows. Last year, I thought it’d be fun to commemorate the Europe ’72 by listening to each of the shows on the day it happened, but didn’t make it; three hours was just too much for me to sit through multiple times a week, and when I got the the fourth time that week hearing “China Cat" or whatever, I felt a bit burnt out.

Do find it odd that you would want to listen througha whole gig if it is one of teh longer ones., I thought the fact that it was improvised heavily did mean that some of it just wasn't going to work certainly not for repeated listening. THought part of their magic was that they flew by the seat of their pants and could heavily misfire then find a way back to communal communi9cation. So you would find a significant part of it not being exactly stellar.
Have been struck previously about the need to catch all of a past performance whether live or studio in a cinema verite like way as in not fast forwarding though bits of it etc. Like if we're in teh current now as opposed to teh performer's present one can just edit out a lot of things which I think is a usual process. You do probably want to know or work out for yourself what those bits are and may come back and revalue some of it as worthwhile but just forcing yourself to sit through misfiring is not something I would necessarily think of as a mandatory voluntary sentence, like.

Like looking at things in hindsight I would concentrate on the highs and not necessarily listen to the lows. You're not a young person stoned out of their head (or possibly less comfortably, not)at the actual performance or anything. Or finding that this is the moment to check out the concession stand or whatever other activity was available to the audience if they are stuck waiting for the next high point. Does leave you open to missing good bits possibly but is it worth teh wait?
There were at least a couple of books and possibly threads on which bits of certain gigs you needed to hear and what to avoid. I have one of them the Deadhead Taping Compendium from back when you wanted to know what you were trading for in terms of tapes. It's only been more recently that you have had the whole show being sold in one spot. I think the trading network would intentionally only have part gigs and concentrate on the best bits, possibly mix them up on sides of tapes etc

*always skip Chuck berry cover
*If Bob's already sung one song about being sad in the rain, skip the rest
*Most of Bob's songs suck except for Sugar Mags
*I don't care for PITB
*Starting with a second set is always a good idea
*China Cat rules, I always want to listen to it. . .

all of this is ymmv, but it sounds like you might need some dead rules.

If I listened to this

https://www.discogs.com/release/9956898-Grateful-Dead-Europe-72-The-Complete-Recordings-Jahrhundert-Halle-Frankfurt-West-Germany-42672

I'd likely skip Black Throated Wind, Next Time You See Me, Playing, Chinatown, Greatest Story, and One More Sat Night

I'd extend that idea beyond the Dead and think of what one actually wants to hear if listening back to things when not in the moment of performance. Like definitely dropping songs that don't work for you from listening to an lp. Or possibly going back and reediting out sections of tracks that just don't work for you. Like I did wonder to what extent a listener would remix tracks one would listen to if not for that one turn off bit etc.
Probably a lot more work than necessary but might be interesting to hear the results. Presumably already happening.
& authenticity is often a chance element isn't it? The way the performer was feeling at taht moment might have been different teh next day or 10 minutes later .
I thought Gadamer's comments on the process of tradition were quite interesting the way that elements were continually reinvented to keep things relevant for the performer at whatever interval. That it doesn't come down as a non changing monolith but one kept vital by that reinvention while still keeping a core of the original.
Just thinking about the idea of what is relevant in one's current horizon. Which is an extrapolation on the original thought

*Starting with a second set is always a good idea

Honestly I'm the opposite, I've discovered I'm a first set guy. I like the songs as songs, with a certain amount of improv. I'm interested those first few selections and from that I'll determine the quality of the recording, and if the vocals are on point. And then I'll listen until they wear out my patience.

They pick some weird songs to jam out in the first set. I love "Sugaree" and "Row Jimmy" and "Bird Song" but none of those need to be as long as they often are imo. Second set, when they hit the 20 minute "Playin' in the Band" is when I completely lose interest. Hence why "Dark Star" has never been a big deal for me.

I'll often cherry pick a show for my favorite songs or head straight for the second set jams, but when I decide to listen to a whole show I try to commit to it, no skips. Most recent full show listen was 3/26/73, which is amazing pretty much all the way through--example of a great second set without a "Dark Star" or "The Other One."

The key to unlocking the Dead for me was realizing that while the big jams are in the second set, these guys were really jamming through every moment of every show. The foundation for this is Phil's constitutional inability to ever play the same thing twice, which sets the stage for Jerry, Bob, et al. to precisely fill in the space around him in an ever-shifting wall of polyphony that is busy yet always, to my ears, clean-sounding. The key to this cleanliness and clarity is in Bob's playing; instead of playing big blocky chords like most rhythm guitarists, he tends to play cleanly voiced chords and quasi-lead lines higher on the neck, leaving ample space in the mix for Jerry and Phil to do their thing. And then of course you have Jerry attempting to improvise the sickest guitar solo imaginable in every song (and often succeeding). The result is that no song is ever played the same way twice, and there are unique instrumental interactions happening at every moment if you care to look for them.

So this is why I like to make time for whole shows, because I'll often encounter versions of ostensibly uninteresting/overplayed songs like "Beat It On Down the Line" and "Don't Ease Me In" that blow me away for one reason or another, whether it's the overall energy, a particularly great Jerry solo, or interesting/unique polyphonic interactions among the players.

The occasional bum notes and flubbed lyrics are part of the deal, and I've made peace with that. I listen to a lot of 72 and 73, and in those years they were operating at a consistently high level, so the screw-ups are less of a problem than you might think.

If I listened to this

https://www.discogs.com/release/9956898-Grateful-Dead-Europe-72-The-Complete-Recordings-Jahrhundert-Halle-Frankfurt-West-Germany-42672

I'd likely skip Black Throated Wind, Next Time You See Me, Playing, Chinatown, Greatest Story, and One More Sat Night

I get not caring for the song itself, but those Europe 72 PITB jams are like perfect bite-size journeys into Dorian-mode lava lamp deep space before they started routinely stretching it out to 20+ minutes. To each their own tho...

yeah for sure--I love Dark Star and get plenty out of their jams on that one and (ha) The Other One. I just kinda hate the wah on it

I can't listen to just part of a show. I'm not sure why, but I have to listen to the entire thing in sequence, and even if I really want to skip a song, I just can't. There's something about...um...well, the journey. Even sub-par shows like Chicago 12/3/79 or Richmond 11/1/85 I have to listen to all the way through because I know something fantastic will happen, and the meh events that surround it are just part of that journey.

The only show I can only listen to one song of -- "Feedback" -- is Dick's Picks 16 (11/8/69). Everything else in the show is (and I may be overstating this) flat-out listless meandering garbage, but the "Feedback" is my all-time favorite.

I love 16 or at least the Dark Star that has an instrumental Uncle John's Band (pre-release) in between parts 2 and 3.

I’ve listened to 2-3 sets straight through but mostly I listen in pieces.