New Grateful Dead July 1978 box set*

I'm generally a 68-74 guy but I'm enjoying the new 78' box quite a bit. Give it time to get in the blood a bit my friend. Glad to hear about the pitch.

The best way I can describe it is that the 78' material for me is good ole' "Summertime In New England" GD music.

There's no 40 minute passes through "The Other One" or super intense versions of "Dark Star" showing up here, but play it loud while you're driving down with the road with the windows down and the sun shining and it'll put a smile on your face.

 

$30.04 Cdn.

 

I'm glad you said this. I like May '77 well enough but your phrase 'sterile perfection' does speak to something missing in it.

 

Arrowhead sounded great. I listened up to Terrapin. Really high energy and Phil is wonderful and loud. This is much better than many of the '78 college tourney shows we listened to earlier this spring.

And if I'm not completely misstaken I think Jerry pretty much nailed the lyrics of Terrapin. And his voice sounds better than I thought(Red Rocks is a bit up and down)

 

Amen brother

 

Just got my box today (#3,421) just in time for the holiday weekend. Thanks to all the men and women who have honorably served in the U.S. military. Any active duty, veteran, national guard, etc. on this rock is welcome to come over to the house and have a beer, bbq, and listen to some GOGD. Have a grate weekend y'all!

 

03880 in the house.

And for some reason there doesn't appear to be any sort of customs charge!

 

I have ordered stuff on the interwebs since the late 90s. Customs have pulled my orders less than ten times in total. I can't complain.

The last time was actually on a Garcia order from his homepage. I was surprised by that

 

That 7/1 version is amazing!

 

Although they played it very often in those years, I don't know of a bad version of "Estimated" from 1977 or 78.

 

I'm disappointed to see that Mojo gives this set a mere 3/5 in the July issue, with a review that looks as though it was written by someone who has barely a clue about the band. It's strange to me how little The Grateful Dead's influence permeates beyond fervent little communities like the one on this thread, but with reviews that take this tack it's hardly likely that they will reach out to new fans. (Not that new fans are going to be beginning with this particular 12-disc set of course, but still ...)

I listened through to St. Paul yesterday as my first taste of the set: in terms of sound quality that's a great recording, because the prominent bass really gives some weight and conviction to the performances, and even the drums seem more audible than usual (albeit at the expense of the vocals and guitars). I think things take flight after Weir's fluffed lyric in "Mexicali", resulting in a brief "Mama Tried" that provides a (very) unexpected highlight. The guitar solos in "Peggy-O" and "The Music Never Stopped" are top tier from Jerry, but my first impression is that the band is pretty much spent by the end of "Fire" and that "Dancing In The Streets" places a major obstacle between the listener and the decent "Stella Blue" to come.

I'm not exactly a connoisseur of "Scarlet > Fire" but this one to my ears sounds about as good as they come.

 

So far through 7/5/78 Omaha. The only issue I have so far is that the opening Sugaree on 7/5 fades in slowly with the sound getting correct at the 30 second mark. Maybe this could be that the source was not perfect at the start. Other than that the show sound is fine.

Anyone else have this issue? If not maybe I have my first bad disc in my career of collecting the Dead.

 

Yes, I figure it was a problem with the master tapes. They never circulated before, so hard to know for sure though, but not a defect with your disc

 

Thanks Rob!!

 

Great box! High energy playing all around. Good choice to release these shows.

 

Of course, we don't know the opportunity cost: the other projects on the table that they could have released instead.

Still, I think that the box makes a better case for itself "in the flesh" than it did as a concept. I like the range of venue types, and I didn't realise when I ordered this that these are the complete shows from this run (unlike May '77, which is just a bunch of fairly random entries from a longer series). I think the danger is that the GD industry just draws the conclusion that any run of shows will be a viable boxed set. To me, there has to be a "story" to a set like this, and I think they manage to pull that off in this case. (I don't buy the narrative that they were running twice as fast to catch up with the cancellation at Milwaukee but ... okay.)

It's just a shame that Mumford & Sons had already appropriated the title "The Road To Red Rocks" because that would have suited this one perfectly.

 

I believe that is Betty dialing in the mix and it sure doesn't take her too long.

 

Replacement disc received from good ol' Dr. Rhino. No issues with this one.

 

877-332-3638

 

It's been a while since I listened to it before the box came out but that "Wharf Rat" from 7/8 is pretty special! Love Jerry's intro & playing throughout. If the ending went on a minute or so longer it would be even better!

 

Well, Mojo is an English publication, and the Dead were never much of a big deal on the other side of the pond. But in the US, the influence goes well beyond little communities like ours. They are huge here, and their cultural impact cannot be overstated. I mean, the president congratulated them on their 50th anniversary... I'm not even sure David Cameron did that for the Stones in 2012.

 

It got a Dark Star vibe. Great playing by Jer and that beefy tone man