I would like to thank the two threaders that liked the above post as it is kind of dumb. I listened to the album on YouTube and, wow, it is very adult contemporary '78 Bob. I have seen him do Easy To Slip live. I followed it with Ace, which, get this, I had also never heard before, although of course am exceedingly familiar with through the GD's repertoire.
I definitely liked that because it was funny -- not because I'm at all supportive of the GD wasting their precious time this summer on a reissue of that album. As for Ace... REALLY? Wow! I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. It's one of the only studio albums I go back to with much regularity, most recently after Barlow died. Definitely a longtime favorite. I think they really did justice to most of the material, which can't always be said of the studio records.
77! With each passing year I'm a little more amused that Rolling Stone made a gigantic deal out of his 60th birthday. That was a great issue, from what I recall.
Right Now i'm listening to 8/22/93 on SiriusXM's Grateful Dead Channel via the webstream........Franklin's Tower is now on.
That version of Playin' is as close as they ever got to encapsulating their live experience on a studio release. Not over the top great, but really strong.
3/21/90 is really one of the last very special shows for me. It's got that epic Half-Step to start things out (the one that's on Without A Net) and it is just so in the groove it's ridiculous. Without A Net is one of the best live albums of all time. I think it's a great modern encapsulation of a band at the height of their abilities at that time which was a highlight of their career.
Those Fall '80s shows must have really been something wonderful to attend, taking things back a decade to the Fall '69 and Spring '70 shows with the acoustic / electric sets. The band were certainly firing on all cylinders on these runs. I don't listen to them often, but when I do I am always blown away by their power and consistency. They might be the best runs of all time.
4/8/71 is tonight's last stop. Dark Star is Jerry and Phil off to the races. Harsh cut right at the end, but well worth a listen, blown lyrics and all.
Power??? 1980 was a very weak year overall and while the acoustic sets were a treat, the fall electric sets were dismal. I find Dead Set unlistenable.
1980/15th anniversary served the band well. It began their rise to Mega Dead. Certainly a crossroads for their 30 year arc. Dead Set is good for a quick indoctrination for the uninitiated. I saw that in real time among my younger set co-workers and their crew. It can take time for 1st timers to take in a 30 minute Other 1 or Lovelight. Like when the studio Terrapin side worked well in real time for those arena rockers used to Tull, Queen etc.... "That's the Grateful Dead!??" Me: "Sort of..."
Haven’t Dead-ed much for ages but, iPad in hand and dangerously floating on a pool chair yesterday, I randomly chose a 74 show from the archive and was absolutely blown away by the Playin’>Scarlet Begonias>Playin’ sandwich. Cue much hard drive searching for a ‘I must have this somewhere’ downloaded version of the show. Nope - not there. So I found a decent version at LLegs and downloaded that. But it’s shn format. And then spent a while trying to convert shn to mp3 - it’s like being back in the early 2000s! Gave up because I couldn’t find a decent converter (I know there are probably loads - I was being lazy). Woke up this morning and had another look for the show, only to realize after reading some reviews that the Playin’ sandwich is on disc 4 of Dick’s Picks 31 - and I have two copies of it for some reason! Boring story but it made me realize that although I own all the Picks, I’ve barely listened to some.
Barely listening to DP 31 seems like a criminal act to me . The 8/4 includes my favorite Scarlet (the 8/6 disc 4 ain't no slouch either as you've mentioned). The 8/4 version has that cool Keith Rhodes sound near the end, someone in an earlier post had mentioned liking the sound of Keith on Loser from DaP 9 that is pretty much the same. The Playin' opening is what really got me on the bus a few years back. It's lightning fast and I still can't quite believe my ears listening to Keith and Jerry play off each other in that tune (esp around the 6:00 mark).
That interesting that you've never listened. You know all the songs but you have to hear the studio versions. This is my reset LP. Anytime I get a new piece of audio equipment this is the first LP I play as I know it like the back of my hand. Playing in the Band goes on first to test all new equipment. In my youth, this was a hard LP on vinyl to track down (at least for me). I was only 10 when it was released and didn't find my Deadness until some years later and spent many weekend in the PA/NJ/NY/DE area record stores trying to find a copy, which I had to settle on a palm tree version . Now I have several...a greenie (2)/WLP/palm tree/a reissue gold label (I think). Must hear music.
I was indoctrinated with Dead Set in about 1987. I had Skeletons since grade school, but when I got into high school, Dead Set was suggested by someone to get the feel of what current Dead show was kinda like.
