I’m sure you’re right, it was my 2nd time getting those discs out since I got them last summer so I was just freeballin the dates to the best of my memory; probably wouldn’t matter, though, even if it’d been my tenth, remembering dates has never been a strong suit. Anyways, if so, I only missed one out of three and that ain’t half bad (I mean, literally, because it is only one-third bad).
I have an empty 30 Trips box that I'm trying to fill with essential officially released GD. It has expanded to two boxes, truth be told, but the exercise got me thinking. What would a best of officially released 30 Trips box look like? This would be whole shows released on disc. No Download series, no compilations. I came up with this... 1966: 30 Trips Fillmore West, San Francisco 07-03-1966 1967: 30 Trips Shrine Auditorium, L.A. 11-10-1967 1968: Road Trips V2: N2 Carousel Ballroom 02-14-1968 1969: Fillmore West 03-01-1969 1970: Dick’s Pick 8 Harpur College, Binghamton, N.Y. 05-02-1970 1971: Road Trips V3: N2 Memorial Auditorium Austin, Tx. 11-15-1971 1972: Dick’s Pick 36 Spectrum Philadelphia, Pa. 09-21-1972 1973: Dave’s Pick 5 UCLA Los Angeles, Ca. 11-17-1973 1974: Pacific Northwest Memorial Coliseum Portland, Or. 5-19-1974 1975: OFTV Great American Music Hall San Francisco, Ca. 8-13-1975 1976: ???? 1977: GSTL Memorial Auditorium Buffalo, NY. 05-09-1977 1978: Dave’s Pick 23 McArthur Court Eugene, Or. 01-22-1978 1979: 30 Trips: Cape Cod Coliseum South Yarmouth, Ma. 10-27-1979 1980: 30 Trips: Fox Theatre Atlanta, Ga. 11-30-1980 1981: Dick’s Pick 13 Nassau Coliseum Uniondale, N.Y. 05-06-1981 1982: 30 Trips: Manor Downs, Austin, TX. 07-31-1982 1983: ??? 1984: 30 Trips: Civic center Augusta, ME. 10-12-1984 1985: Dick’s Pick 21 Coliseum Richmond, Va. 11-01-1985 1986: ???? 1987: 30 Trips: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY. 09-18-1987 1988: 30 Trips: Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, ME. 07-03-1988 1989: NFOD Brenden Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ. 10-16-1989 1990: Spring 90: Copps Coliseum Hamilton, Ontario. 03-22-1990 1991: VFTV2 RFK Stadium Washington, DC. 06-14-1991 1992: Dick’s Pick 27 Coliseum Oakland, Ca. 12-16-1992 1993: 30 Trips: Knickerbocker Arena Albany, N.Y. 03-27-1993 1994: 30 Trips Boston Garden Boston, Ma. 10-01-1994 1995: 30 Trips Delta Center Salt Lake City, Ut. 02-21-1995 Bunch of tough choices. 1971 was a coin flip. 1973 was rough. 11-11-73 might be better, but that UCLA show is sublime. 1974 doesn't have many complete shows. 1977 has too many solid shows. 1-22-78 isn't really representative of 1978 as a whole. 10-27-1979 might not be better than 12-26 or 12-28-79 I think there are better-unreleased shows from 80-82. 3-27-1988 might be better than 7-3-88, but not a physical release. They need to release 6-23-90.
17 July 1976 is the one you're missing. 19 May 1974 has not been released yet. This leaves 24 February and 14 May in a dogfight.
April 28, 2016: "I'm listening to the '79 30 Trips show. I'm in the first set and the Bobby tunes are carrying the proceedings. Ooooo, sudden conversion to aud. tape during the Minglewood Brent solo. Finally some Hammond! Before that Brent is sticking to electric piano--the Plinkmaster 8000, I believe. Anyway, next time you listen to "Easy To Love You", imagine Michael McDonald singing it. It totally works. For me, anyway. OK, gotta pay attention to Jerry's "Stagger Lee"..." Listening to the '79 30 Trips show so I'm reposting my 2016 review of same. I will add that the Plinkmaster is well-suited to Easy To Love you, and really nothing else unless you're into plink tones. I'm a big fan of Saint>Sailor though.
Now listening to 12/8/89[Great Western Forum Inglewood California]on SiriusXM's Grateful Dead channel.......now playing Franklin's Tower
I’ve still barely listened to anything much from beyond ‘79 but, from the little I’ve heard thus far, I’ve really enjoyed Saint > Sailor.
Griping aside, I am completely beside myself at the thought of having that Portland 74 show in vinyl...and getting it for nearly $60 less than the dead.net price has me giddy.
I was there too, and remember there being a few mistakes throughout the show, despite it being a fun and unusual setlist (6 potential first set openers in the first set). They bounced back hard the next night, which as I often mentioned is one of my favorites that I attended. I saw the other '89 Saint, which was at The Mecca in Milwaukee, and was my first one live. I was excited to hear it again at Shoreline, and a second set Cumberland was always welcome.
20 June 1974- The Omni, Hot Lanta, has a great second set of music, yet it is a full step or two behind in sound quality. The cassette generation(s) is sub-optimal.
I'll be onto it soon. First up, though, is speed correcting the Alligator Jam>Caution>Feedback, Midnight Hour on Road Trips Vol. 2 No. 2. Edit - Eeeek. It's worse than I thought. From 12:14 in Spanish Jam through to 12:00 in Alligator is from an inferior (non multi-track source) which sounds like it runs slow. I hadn't noticed that that before (and now I'll never be able to forget it unless I fix it.) Then from 12:00 to 12:47 is the multi-track source again that is pitched a fraction higher (which suggests that the bulk of Alligator is off-speed). At 12:47 the source returns to an inferior source, which is clearly much slower (and lower) than the 12:00-12:47 source. So, looks like the job is 1. increase the speed (pitch) of the 12:14 Spanish Jam to 12:00 Alligator section to match the pitch of the 12:00-12:47 Alligator section, and then 2. increase the speed (pitch) of the 12:47 Alligator to end of show section.
1-22-78 I'm interested in why that's not representative of 78 as a whole? It's kind of amazing how for so many years the 30 trips box is it. I'd recommend 4-20-83 in Providence for release, but obviously the sources from those years aren't up to snuff
Yikes. It's worse still. The beginning 2:10 of Alligator (and I suspect the end of the Spanish Jam track) seems to be yet another source running at a different speed from the Alligator from there until 12:00. This release is amateur hour. I wonder if there are three sources for this second set - the multi-track, a stereo board and an FM recording. Edit - the beginning of Alligator is totally off-speed from 2:10 onwards.
Dick's 22. Disc 2. Alligator>China Cat>11>Alligator>Caution. More Sunset Sherbet, please. This China Cat is in a different key from where it found it's home. 2 steps lower, perhaps. Or the tape is two steps slow. I don't think so, because the 11 sounds normal. China Cat's still fiery, and Jerry drives the transition to The Eleven, which is also fiery. A little more than 3 weeks until the Anthem 50th so I will be powering through some 1968 in the meantime. It is almost always thrilling. The same 12 songs (or so) played in amazingly varied ways. I'm not always in the mood for it, but it's perfect tonight.
I listened to that earlier today! I usually will put a star and some notes on the highlights, but for the older shows I frequently don't even bother, the whole thing is a highlight! It's crazy how they sustained that energy and intensity, and their sound is so unlike what they became, and yet the seeds of it are still there. Anyway, I just checked it out, on this recording China Cat is in the key of E (rather than its usual G) a minor third low (or a step and a half, if you prefer.) This makes sense coming out of the ending of Dark Star (featuring A mixolydian mode,) and going into the Eleven. The jam into the Eleven is in B (this is so even when paired with St. Stephen later on,) and the closing jam of China Cat goes out on the 5th of the scale, in this case B (whereas when the song is in G it goes out on D, the same key as I Know You Rider.) When they changed the key of China Cat in 1969, they kept the solo in the original key of E, adding some tension and interest to that part of the tune.
Perhaps we’re finding out why they don’t always fix these things. Seems like a time/cost/benefit analysis situation
DiP22 is a Beast! And kinda mental that one of the best sounding and transparent Dick's Pick is an vintage Feb 1968 show.
Grateful Dead Live at The Ark on 1969-04-23 Set 1 Introduction He Was A Friend Of Mine Dark Star -> St. Stephen -> It's A Sin -> St. Stephen -> Cryptical Envelopment -> Drums -> The Other One -> Cryptical Envelopment -> Sittin On Top Of The World -> Turn On Your Love Light Set 2 Morning Dew Hard To Handle Doin' That Rag Alligator -> Drums -> drummer's chant -> Jam -> The Eleven -> Jam -> Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) -> Feedback -> And We Bid You Good Night Encore Not Fade Away tease It's All Over Now Baby Blue
Everything on this release is off, and by different amounts (I think disc one is a pretty constant correction, though). IIRC, Midnight Hour is a different speed (tape source) than the end of Feedback, but I don’t remember exactly where the change occurs
Yep. Phil really took the music "further" with his bands. His projects generally paid homage and respect to the music, and is usually fun to hear. I have seen a bunch of Phil shows over the years, mostly in the 98-04 window. I saw Ratdog a few times, never really did anything for me.
