How's it goin guys? I'm in FLorida for my last day with my dad. Headin' back to South Carolina tomorrow. No Dead news from me other than some random 1977 sampling the other night. Right now it's all about the new Judas Priest album that is just phenomenal. Peace, guys.
Well, to be fair, it's not like there's a set-in-stone pattern for spring announcements. Far as I can tell: 5/6/13 - May '77 box 6/2/15 - 30 Trips box 3/15/16 - July '78 box 2/17/17 - GSTL '77 box I'll put my bet on one week from today.
Charlie also says he has 7/28/73 from the same source. CRAZY. Could you imagine if that also included the "Summer Jam Finale"?
Paris, Idaho? The interior of the Paris Tabernacle - the other great hall that the boys played in '72. Just kidding, of course...
I attended the next mid-hiatus show, the Dead’s unbilled set at the Bob Fried benefit show at Winterland on June 17. Same deal there. To jump from the October 1974 farewell shows to hearing “Crazy Fingers” coming out of the blue opening that Winterland appearance just eight months later, plus the “Franklin’s Tower” and “Blues for Allah” at the same show, was a measure of how inexhaustibly creative they seemed during that period.
'76 is a great year for Slipknot! and this one stands out. Almost Dark Starry for a few flashes in the first Slpiknot! (pre-Samson). And, yeah, that Spanish-style picking at the beginning of the reprise is worth writing home about. Heck, that whole 2nd set is pretty swell through "Franklin's Tower."
I get the impression Jerry didn't like new music much but tried to, and he sometimes stumbled a little (by the lights of my own--perhaps idiosyncratic--preferences)--I don't think Living Colour stands the test of time, for instance (although his compliment was markedly left-handed--something to the effect of "they're a great band--once they figure out how to write a melody there'll be no stopping them"). It's hard to imagine him digging The Wall for some reason--it just seems so un-Grateful Dead. But it doesn't surprise me he said that, I just can't picture him blasting that more than once or twice. Garcia seemingly made a desultory attempt at liking punk (and Kahn too-- there's a radio interview, probably still on Youtube somewhere, with both of them praising punk--sort of lazily, though; it was more "that punk stuff is great" than it was "album X by band Y is great"). My biggest regret on his behalf is that he, as far as I know, never seriously paid attention to the Ramones. Garcia was a man who loved good old-fasioned melodies and song structure, and the Ramones were geniuses in that regard. I think if he ever seriously sat down with Leave Home (for instance) he would have been blown away by the songcraft involved, and the soul as well. It is very difficult--perhaps impossible--for me to think of a less Garcia-like guitar player than Johnny Ramone, but I can't help but think that if Jerry ever really listened closely to what they were doing he would have appreciated the way Johnny played, as his minimalist clamor was rendered in the service of some of the truly classic songs of the 20th century, making them hit home with a massive wallop. It would have been interesting to me to hear JGB tackle a Ramones song--"I Remember You" would have been perfect. Jerry would have somehow figured out a way to play that in a Jerry-like way, and I'd give a month's wages to hear what that would have turned out to be like... Interview comments above are all from memory but I am sure I have the gist in each case.
I think this is the Garcia-Kahn interview I was thinking of, but I haven't played it yet to find out. If it is, Kahn sounds wasted, as I recall...
There is a distinct change - at the start of the set they “sound” almost legless but by Truckin’ they are hitting light speed. I coildn’t see what the fuss with this show was about until they hit the ending of Wharf Rat. The quality of the rest of it, including the beloved first set, hadn’t impressed me...but then that Truckin’...
Watching Jonesy's Jukebox with Dwight Yoakum, who covers "I Want You To Want Me" (the songs are cut out on youtube but I went and listened to that video when the moment came). He mentioned that the pedal steel kick-off is an homage to Garcia's kick-off on "Teach Your Children"--Yoakum says Jerry wasn't a technically accomplished steel player, but due to his tastefulness the kick-off is "sublime." Nice little thing to see/hear, and the breadth of musical touch-points in that moment is noteworthy--Country, Cheap Trick, Sex Pistols, CSNY and Jerry!
"It's hard to imagine him digging The Wall for some reason--it just seems so un-Grateful Dead." Garcia was practically living that record, at that point in his life.
New 3/19/73 Nassau uploaded by CM in the usual places today. I'll leave it those more in the know about the recordings of this show to assess but the staff comment on LL is "MASSIVE UPGRADE". (The previous CM transfer I have is from 2013 which only included PITB from Set I and then the second set). This new one is still downloading so I haven't heard it yet. Some things of interest from Mr. Miller in the comments on the LL page: "The channels were swapped on the reel which was corrected. Luckily Betty's reels and the vault reels have different flips which allowed me to put this all together. Rob Eaton did a great job restoring and transferring the reels. He used Betty's (restored) Nargra to do the transfers." "We also have 7/28/73, 12/8/73, 5/13/73 set 3 (from the same source)." "another step closer to the 1,000 new sources in 2018"
Glad to see a SBD of the rest of the set. I listened to 3/19 a week ago, so I will need to revisit this one. Great show, excited to check out set 1 and the potential sound upgrade. Once I’m done with the Winterland 77 box that is. 6/7 was a very good show, 6/8 is off to an awesome start.
I'm looking forward to this one too, but I really wish the LL staff would quit putting "massive upgrade" or "mandatory download" comments. If those comments were true even half the time I wouldn't care, but they don't even make that low threshold. 12/8/73 should indeed be a large, significant upgrade; I'm looking forward to that one even more (it's a better show, IMO)
Good point, and one I hadn't thought of--it might have really struck home. Horrible to think of it that way, but especially after watching LST I get exactly what you're saying.
I hope he sticks the 16-er up soon....I haven't played a note of Jerry in about 2 months, I just burnt right out on it. In a way it's good because sometimes I wind up in the other direction...all other music seems inferior. The middle is the place to be, though.
Actually I always wait for the 16-bit, but do I have to? Can I just convert 24-bit to AIFF? What's the difference?
IWYTWM is OK but this is fantastic: The Dead connection is of course that Furthur did it too. Also, something about the idea of Dr. Ralph playing/singing the Clash is quite satisfying, even though I am not a huge Clash guy (I am a Ralph guy, though!).
it's easy to convert, I think free XLD does it, and this (3/19/73) is only a 24/44.1 recording anyway, despite being in a 24/96 fileset. LL hyperbole notwithstanding, it is a huge upgrade of the first set (no surprise) and a bit of an upgrade for set 2. Better show so far than what I remembered too.
OK, I don't know what all of that means but I think I get the gist, Rob. I'll try Xact, which is what I usually use (I have a mac) and see what happens...if not I'll check out XLD.
The converted from 24 bit will be identical to any 16 bit that is posted later (I’d actually argue that 24 bit and 16 bit are identical anyways but that is another can of worms.)
Do yourself a favor and start using XLD. It's faster has has far more functionality than xAct. It won't handle .shn files, though.
