Peoples that be ignoring the July 78 box continue to do themselves a disservice. The opening 7/1/78 Arrowhead 1 Set Show (long set) is a truly great show. First set type tunes (beginning of the long set found on disc 1) are all great versions (especially Jed & Jack Straw) and then the Terrapin>Playing>Drums>Space>Estimated>TOO>Wharf Rat>Around & Around produces in spades. Kinda compressed (short PITB, Drums & Space & TOO). The other middle shows from 7/3, 7/5 & 7/7 all have much to offer and the stand-alone well known 7/8 show speaks for itself. Never did Jerry’s guitar sound so good and a Phil is rubbery Beauty throughout.
It's worth noting in this discussion that on official releases the band gets publishing credits if they give a dopey name to some improv and names themselves as the authors. They may also benefit from having extra tracks on disc in a similar way, though I'm not sure about that. I have no idea what some people on the archive are thinking with the way they track things. Good Lovin>Drums>Good Lovin is another that causes steam to come from my years.
Woohoo! That is a must buy for me when it comes around at Real Gone (that and 2-14-68 are the only 2 I am 100% definite on.) That still might be the best complete show release they've ever put out.
I can't agree with you on this. In my opinion, it's not even the best '69 release. It's nice, though.
Relistening to 5/19/74 this afternoon, and my immediate impression is that this is a particularly good show for Keith and Donna. Keith's sound sparkles just a little more than usual. Donna is rock solid. Might be the mix and they're a bit more up-front than usual, but I'm really enjoying this.
Offhand the only early 70's shows with multiple reel SBD masters I remember are the Fillmore East Feb 70 shows, and the shows they recorded multitrack for Skull, E72 and GD Movie. But I'd be glad to be surprised.
Well, now I have to...plus, you have Good Lovin' all as one track, so its cool. (and of course I'm just being hyperbolic, I put the thing on, navigate to another window, and don't even notice the tracks.)
It's easy to see why the band liked 89-90 so much. Just look at Jerry. He's sharp and looks very much alive!
I don't think they did a good job with the track order, they should have kept all of 5-24 continuous. There's a radio program, Morning Dew, on WBAI in NYC that I used to tape back in school, and I remember hearing that as they broadcast it, and it was like 'ho-hum, here's Lovelight, the organ doesn't work,' and then they reeled off the rest of that set and I almost couldn't believe it (and I didn't know that they really didn't do anything like that all that much in 1969, that was more like an 80s set the way they mixed and matched the repertoire.) It's still my favorite St. Stephen ever, something about the way they start it from nothing.
For sure 3/28/73, 6/22/73 and 4/2/73 had 2 sets of reel masters made, and I'd be very surprised if they were the only ones. Charlie Miller thinks there may well be 2 sets of masters for 5/19/74, which only makes sense if they are actually releasing it.
I like this description very much. I'll modify Jerry's quote to say that when Phil's rubbery, the band is rubbery. For a really good example of what rubbery means (if'n y'don't know already, but you should), see 5/3/72, 2:10-3:39 of Good Lovin'. Rubbery Dead is the best sort of Dead.
That show needs an official release some day. The second set jam is the fraternal twin of the Aarhus show.
Earlier today I finally got around to putting on disc 2 of the last Dave’s and it got me thinking that I might need to re-evaluate the ‘71 bummer with which I had come out of last summer having.
I'm all in on '71, which seems to be a minority opinion. Particularly the end of the year when they're breaking in Keith. Bonus hot take: I've never liked '72.
Ha, I used to tape that show on WBAI in NYC in high school as well. My only gripe is that they eventually sometimes started playing Blues Traveler shows instead of the GD, which was always a disappointment.
AAAARrrrGGGhhhhh Hard time getting past don’t like 1972 Grateful Dead but DO like Blues Traveler Nothing personal Just sayin’
I never heard any of that, though I've been working my way through a dozen or so unlabelled tapes, most of which are from BAI. (One was my little brothers' Everclear mix, not one of my tapes at all.) All of them I've heard are either GD or GD related (Garcia's side projects, there's a Ratdog show from 97, David Murray's Dark Star etc.) I wouldve been glad to hear some Blues Traveler, as long as it wasn't too frequent, as it would have meant I got to go out with my friends instead of spending Saturday night at home waiting to get the tape flip just right. In those days it was hard to find everyone once they were out, no one had cell phones yet. (I probably would've taped BT anyway, I just wouldn't have been too fussy about how it came out.)
Maybe I'm thinking of a different show. This would be early Friday morning from about 2:00-5:00 AM, so I'd have to set the alarm, and my listening days were circa '87-'92, although for the last several years only when I was back home from college. Definitely a local NYC station and I thought it was WBAI. I got my first copies of 5/8/77 and 5/9/77 from taping off of the show, among many other tapes, although I was able to upgrade almost all of them within the next few years. The heavy Blues Traveler airplay phase was around the time of their first two albums.
I've just been listening to 10-23-73, which is a strange tape, apparently out of order with a lot of missing songs. The jam is brilliant, and we get to hear some more of Keith playing organ (evidently the skating rinks Wurlitzer, which they soundcheck using what sounds a lot like Wang Dang Doodle, and is titled that way on the transfer.) The big story is there's big fracas during Casey Jones, I will quote the archive review here: What really sucked was that this show was advertised as "The Grateful Dead Performing 3 Sets". Casey Jones was the first song of Set 3. The fight was ugly - several security dudes beating on one guy who was dancing in the aisle right in front of the stage, even Bill K. jumped off the stage to help break things up and security started pounding on Bill, that's what Phil is so upset about. The melee ended soon after. By then, Jerry and Phil were both sitting on the stage floor - everyone seeming quite upset by this sudden change of weird energy and bad vibe. The band had several discussions - you could see that they were at serious odds about whether they should continue with the plan and do a third set. After all, the first two sets were well played, creative and joyful. When they finally tried to play Saturday Night, you could tell their hearts and minds were no longer into continuing this night. Too bad for all of us. Those security punks must have left their 'Minnesota Nice' at the door or when they donned their uniforms.