Opposite for Spring 90--start with the first set. Not that you wanted to hear my advice about it. Or, an emergency measure--start with the first Garcia song in the first set.
Well, yes, no one has to like everything, and no one is wrong for not coming around to something that's widely popular. One of the things I enjoy about this band is there are a lot of things to like, and eras where one of those things is found in abundance, vs. others where you never ever see it, and this thread is a useful tool for finding out what it is that people like in a given era, and the opportunity to check it out. I've been assigning myself years to listen to in full, and I haven't listened to any of them for almost a week because of following suggestions and reminders on this thread. And that's just fine too.
I have the box downloaded. (Like many I haven't given full listens to yet), I'll go with your suggestions with a glass of scotch tomorrow.
Now I'm listening to 11/30/1973---the best of the best right there, baby. 1973 is my thing. And also some other years! The Grateful Dead are my thing. And other acts. Oh well... Anyway I want to listen to Spring 1990 next, having just been reminded of it. Any suggestions what show? I am leaning toward something from March. Relix says these are the 10 best 1990 shows. I was at 5 of them, but I am a little skeptical aboout 2 Wembley shows being on the list: 20 Years Later: The Ten Best Grateful Dead Shows of 1990 I haven't tried in 25 years or so but I don't remember thinking the tapes that starting coming back from that Europe tour were all that great. Anyway that's not Spring anyhow, but post-Brent. I missed the third Nassau show but on tape I like it the best of the three, even better than the Branford night, so I might listen to that.
I think you'll change your mind. I say that assuming from what you say above that you haven't really given it a college try yet. For me Garcia's singing and playing in Spring 90 is one of the good things in life.
The third Nassau show is better than the first one, at least. Any top 10 of 1990 list that doesn't include 3/24/90 Albany is pretty suspect from the get go. I don't think Tinley deserves to be on there, and the Paris show released on 30 Trips is probably the best of the Europe run. I also would take the second Hartford show or either Copps show over the Landover show, although the latter is very good, too. The MSG picks are spot on, though.
AUD's are recordings of the PA system and the acoustic space. SBD's are basically recordings of instruments and voices. A SBD allows my system to determine how I hear the instruments, AUD's add layers of complexity in hearing the music. I have built my listening system specifically to reproduce Grateful Dead SBD's in all the Betty-influenced glory.
Fantastic AUDs are kinda cool. I remember having a few back in tape trading 90's daze long ago. Pretty sure one was a one tape SET II '76 show.
I'll take a good AUD tape of something like a Wall of Sound show any time. Some of those Winterland audience tapes are really good--to continue the discussion of 6/9/77 from earlier, that's one of my favorite AUD tapes of them all. It's great. Almost prefer it to the SBD. If you've never taken the time to listen, David Gans did interviews with Charlie Miller and the Oade brothers about recording in the pre-taper section days. I think they're on Archive somewhere? The Oades tell a great story about recording at the Carrier Dome in the 80s. Those people really did some work.
Yeah the MSG picks have to be right. I was at both too, so good for me. I think we've talked about those before...
OK it's 3/24/1990. Man, hearing this brings out starkly how little I've been listening to the Brent era this time out. It's like coming home, listening to Jerry's creaky soul man voice, and hearing the extra filigrees and peel-offs he puts in his solos in the later era (before the Decline, that is)...I love Brent-era Dead, and I accuse anyone who doesn't of Philistinism!
Yeah I used to listen to auds all the time in the cassette days. I remember a lot of good ones although not specifically what they are. I remember how much energy you could pick up from an aud, with the crowd out there in the mix.I even went through a period where I proclaimed that I preferred them...but its just easier to go for sbds these days. Unless it's a show without a board...11/13/72 is a good example, and it really shows how much power the Dead could put across in 1972 which sometimes seems a little more genteel than 77--91, going by sbds...
Look, I don't rate it above the Branford show lightly, especially as I was at the latter. But it's not like it knocks it into a cocked hat, I just for some reason like listening to it more.
While admittedly I am no expert on 1990 GoGD, one thing that the Relix article totally swung and missed on was Phil's use of a Ken Smith six-string bass in 1990-1991. Nary a mention, and it was a big reason why those years sound like they do. I own a Ken Smith six-string fretless that's much like Phil's (Ken hand-built those basses to very exacting specs in those years and they had different models and various tone woods (save that argument for another time, please), but they were, by and large, quite similar in end result). I could open a building demolition business with my Smith 6-banger and GK rig. That tone is thick, cutting and quite yummy. Listening to the 9/19/90 (ha! 20 years to the day...) Slipknot! and liking what I'm hearing.
If you had to pick between the first and last three, you made the right choice. I have a soft spot for 9/14 though, especially through an odd set of circumstances I found myself front roe center that night.
I was going to pick up a copy of the 2006 Rhino CD remaster of Go to Heaven today, but I noticed a couple things: 1) there was no booklet inside the digipak, and 2) the cover pic looked rather "faded" compared to most of the other copies I've seen. Is this how the Rhino CD is supposed to be? It seemed odd to me that there was no booklet, as all the other GD Rhino discs I own contain at least a few pages of liner notes.... and the faded cover didn't look quite right either, although I don't own any other versions to do a side-by-side comparison with. Can the forum GD experts shed any light on this?
