Grateful Dead Live Compilation "30 Trips Around the Sun" *

To a certain degree this set shares the fan experience more than any. Many shows that had AUD patches still have those, so not all of those that circulate were cases of Dick taking a razor to a section and letting it out the rest. For those who hoped for some sort of vault magic for the cassette years we’ve learned that they weren’t fooling in their apprehension to release shows from those years as the fidelity just isn’t as great as with reels. It’s also testament to the fine unofficial work by some highly talented fans to bring out the best in circulating sources. So we get a few warbles, patches, even the space saving trick of tucking in the ending songs on the 2nd disc of a 3 disc set, and because every year is represented we get many opportunities to hear what didn’t thrill us, along with perhaps some pleasant surprises for years that were written off. As one who initially thought the concept was deeply flawed (gimme some sort of fall ’72 box!) the experience of going through this box has been one of both pure enjoyment and at times cause for reflection given all of the associations relating to the time passed & people too from the era that I saw the band.

Just 7 trips to go, and the randomness which early on drew mostly ’79 & after shows finally worked it’s way into a more normal distribution. The ’66 and 2 from the remaining decades left.

 

So the USB set still hasn't shipped? That's appalling.

It's also a worry for me that some are still available because I might get drunk one day, come home and buy it, the forget about it although maybe that's not such a bad thing.

 

My favorite era is 1979 through 1990. I loved Brent! His style fit perfectly with this iteration of the band. He was the longest tenured keyboard player and his vocals & background singing were as strong as anyone in the band. Doobie Brother analogy is way off as far as I'm concerned. But hey, to each his own. . .

 

after pigpen the magic was never the same with the keyboard guys

 

Keith was a thousand times more interesting behind the keys than Pig. He did some of the best rock n roll piano ever as far as I'm concerned

 

he may have been more interesting but it just seems the chemistry isn't the same

 

Regarding the old Dead keyboardist discussion, I will add my very brief two cents, but not without pointing out that it is a highly subjective matter.
Pigpen was a fair organ player. He could also play some nice piano (check the studio versions of "Tastebud"), but was not very fond of doing it. He provided some nice songs to the band and was a natural frontman.
Keith was much more accomplished as a musician and could add a lot to the integral sound of the band. He was great at piano (acoustic and electric), but unfortunately didn't want to get into other electronic keyboards.
Brent was an excellent musician, was eager to explore new sounds, but his songs were quite forgettable.
I don't have much to say about Vince, I haven't listened enough (but I like "Samba In The Rain", though).
Each keyboard player had his style. If I had to choose, I would go with both Pigpen and Keith, together, as they played during our beloved European tour of 1972. That's my favorite line-up.

 

It is very subjective, as you say, but man, I would take "Tons of Steel" or "Blow Away" any day of the week, while the Vince tunes are an absolute low point for me. And it's not like they were a rarity - the two most often played songs in 1995 (apart from "Drums" and "Space" of course) were "Samba in the Rain" and "Way To Go Home"!

 

How did the rest of the band feel about Pigpen on keys? I know by the time Keith joined he was having health problems but what about when TC played? Was he meant to take over as the primary keyboardist, and what would Pigs permanent role have been?

 

Others here probably know more, but I would start off with it was more about the new songs they were writing at the time rather than their opinion on Pig Pen’s playing, and TC could get further out there with the more intricate compositions while Pig Pen probably was not really interested in trying. Phil met TC, TC and Phil hit it off huge, TC pushes Phil to study under avant-garde electronic composer Berio, Lesh goes further into inner space, Phil has TC get involved with composing and playing, including prepared piano, on new compositions for Anthem and Aoxomoxoa, and so as they hit the road to play these new numbers TC comes along but in the end it was not his scene. I generally find very few things in the band get done in pure black and white concrete fashion; all the while this is happening I don’t think Pig Pen had any problem with any of it, he would have his numbers and from what I gather he had no problem laying back on the organ whenever things got weird.

 

Gee, I mentioned the keyboardists and forgot TC! He did some brilliant stuff in the studio, but never felt that comfortable on stage due to amplification issues, he was having problems listening to himself. A really insteresting musician that finally didn't click with the band.

 

With the main stereo finally back up and running, I ended up tackling this box different than I expected, with an amuse-bouche if you will. I am listening to those discs with the biggest scratches first, there were 4 or 5, so that lead me to disc 2s of ’73 and ’78, no problems so far.

Without commenting on the performances I have to once again say I am thrilled with the Plangent on these; 2 track Plangented reel shows are fast becoming my favorite form of Dead on tape, they are so alive and feel true to the mix of the day. It is hard to describe but Plangent is like a dog whistle to me, my ears heart and spine just snap up a bit, I feel it in the pace as it becomes rock steady relentless and demands your extra attention, and I think @jamiehowarth put it as the removal of temporal masking, it gets you to a new level past the tape, in the case of those shows it gets you extra edges of grunginess especially with Garcia both guitar and voice on that ’78 show. If they ever put out individual hi res downloads I can see trying out a few of these Plangented years. No hi res LIVE Plangented stuff has been put out yet right?

Also this box was mastered by both Jeffrey Norman and David Glasser, they split up the shows; has anyone noticed any differences yet? I would think it would be pretty tough to notice.

 

Are these the Betty board tapes? Not sure what. ' plangented reels' are. Never heard a set of shows/tapes described as such? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

(Haven't read this article but was looking for a quick link that might provide the basics. Jamie Howarth is a member here, btw.)

 

The problem I have had with Dead.net is lousy customer service. Their choice of the slowest possible method for the "free shipping" on Dave's subscriptions is what caused my delay. By the way, I got my Dave's 16 on Wednesday, cracked case and all. It only took 25 days. Being at the bottom of a shipping container on the open sea (again, the method) is likely what damaged it. Even before it shipped, I called and offered to pay additional postage to get it sent 1st class. They refused. Other things I have bought from them and paid for first class shipping have arrived in 6 days. I have bought things from members here that took three. So it's not Hawaii - it's the method they chose and their inflexibility, at least in my case, that bothers me.

 

This week I received my replacement Disc 1 from the 1977 show. Box now complete, thank you dead.net.

 

It has nothing to with who originally recorded the shows, it's a "process" that has been used for the Europe '72 box and other releases, including this one. Here's an article about it.

 

Fascinating article. And now I know the rest of the story. Thank you, sir!

 

You probably have the gist of it by now, but reel to reel GD recordings are far juicier than cassettes which is pretty undisputed, or than DAT IMO, so let's use reel recordings as the starting point. Of course multitrack reel recordings are a different animal but I am going to skip that for now and just focus on the 2 track reel tapes-- yes Betty Boards are, exclusively I think, 2 track reel recordings, but other engineers mixed 2 track reel tapes sometimes at the same time Betty did and most times when she did not until '79-- in each case Betty or otherwise it is a multichannel mix done live during the show to 2 track reel tape; one could argue Betty had a better touch than most other engineers, but it is generally the same process mixing choices or tape or tape machine aside I suppose.

Now I have read about 6 or so articles on Plangent and the one provided here is the best overall for getting the essence of what goes on with the process. Plangent works on 2 track and multi track reel tapes, but they don't have a method for cassettes yet, and DAT or digital recordings would not apply.

To your question on are these Betty board tapes, I don't think anything in the 30 Trips Box is a Betty board but there are better experts we can rely on to confirm that. A list of Betty boards that, if my info is correct, are not in the vault and hopefully the rumors that someone is cleaning them up and trying to get them home is true is here. Remember the band might have their own 2 track reel of some of these in the vault already.

We talked about Plangent, with Jaimie making some comments, on the Hardware thread here and on page 2 I listed out the Plangented Dead and Jamie corrected a few things afterwards so I am going to put the hopefully corrected Plangented Dead list here:

Complete Studio Albums Collection
Dark Star (Studio Version) Single
Live at the Cow Palace: New Year's Eve 1976
Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings
Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978
Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings
Europe '72: The Complete Recordings– and subsequent compilation, Dark Star LP, and individual shows
May 1977
Sunshine Daydream
30 Trips Around the Sun: The Definitive Live Story 1965–1995 – partially, for the non-cassette and non-DAT tape shows – and subsequent compilation partially.

I think Jamie is saying he did not work on Formerly the Warlocks but Wikipedia credits him and I don't have that box to confirm what it says.

 

I'm really enjoying this set a lot. I think every concert I've played so far is a winner.

 

I just the article about the process. Very interesting. I hope they can develope a technique to implement this technology with the cassettes in the vault from the 1980's. It's a period that is sorely underrepresented over the years of picks, trips and box sets.

 

And as we were reminded once again today in the listening thread fraught with tape speed issues and I have to assume plenty of other gremlins... from your lips to right ears.

 

You'll get no pushback from me when it comes to your opinion of dead.net. Their ways are...convoluted, bordering on useless. But I guess over the years, I've mastered their ways.

In your case, if I'm reading this right, you maybe should have sprung for first class as you had the times before. The fact that dead.net is completely unhelpful in simple situations like this is pretty ridiculous though.

Whenever I've had an issue, which is rare, I usually contact Marye over at the dead.net message board. She's most helpful

Tom, I hope you know I'm not trying to be a jerkoff or anything.

 

I had no plan for how to tackle the porch crusher. So I ultimately started ripping from 1995 going backwards. Usually 3 or 4 shows at a time. I've only gotten through 1983 so far. That's given me a unique chance to focus on an era of GD I usually avoid, namely the 80s and 90s. It's been a wonderful experience. So many really unique set lists. Each one a treat!

I've even stopped the ripping process just so I can stay immersed.

 

The ripping process is over. Luckily, I had no repeated or missing discs. I've listened up to 1977 (some concerts twice, some others only once), and I'm tempted by the idea of hitting some 90's material, but I'll stick to my initial chronological plan.