Two From The Vault is an Outstanding Sounding release. I have the 3cd version from the From The Vault Boxset release. Just played it yesterday and from beginning to the end there is some awesome music played on these 3 discs. This is the kind of release that makes you want to play it again and again. You know what, I am going to play it again today. The whole set is a highlight for me.
Listened to this on the 2014 4LP set. Mostly one song a side so you miss the transitions and you have to get up every 15-20 mins. This is the first LP that truly made me think "Vinyl may not be the best medium for the Dead" but maaaaaaan does it sound good. I think there are many better Pigpen performances than found here, The Eleven is astounding and New Potato Caboose is glowing. Essential listening for some good primal dead but it's not something I would recommend to someone who is looking to get into them. I am really digging everyone's opinions on these releases by the way.
1. Just digging into my chair for a listen with headphones. I haven’t heard this in a while, but am looking forward to it. 2. GMLSG - my first thought is a comparison to Infrared Roses: why does this work so much better for me and many others? One reason is lack of guitar effects compared to the late 80s. Here they are the effects. Obviously also it’s an amazing song, and Pig sounds awesome.
Yeah, I don't understand their marketing at all. 1FTV says "First time on vinyl in 22 years" but the copyright notice on the copy I bought from them is (c) 2013. I guess that was about 22 years since it was pressed originally.
Future Days did 1,2, and 3 FTV in 2013-2015(16) and they are doing a repress. Looks like LITA just used the same marketing they did last time and forgot to change some things.
Just revisited Two From The Vault. I have the three disc version but for fun I went back to the original two-CD which is now scuffed up discs in an old Case Logic CD wallet. Good Morning Little School Girl is not my favorite song but this is a nice, tight version. There’s a good early Dark Star (although the night before is better; a top-shelf version for the era). St. Stephen is good and The Eleven is hot! And then this might be my favorite Death Don't Have No Mercy. Strong That’s It For The Other One and a really good New Potato Caboose. Lovelight does its thing and then the power cut during Morning Dew hurts! Excellent release.
My re-listen was interrupted at the end of “Death...”, so I’ll try to recapture the experience. 3. Dark Star aka Lady’s Choice - love the banter just before DS, especially Weir’s announcing it as Lady’s (Ladies’?) Choice. I’m a big 73-74 Dark Star guy, so this one’s a little different than my favourites, like 11/11/73. This has a beat you can dance to, reminding me at this point the Dead were still a dance band, something Jerry reminded himself about with a guitar sticker in later years. I get up and dance to this Dark Star, with the door of my man-cave closed and the curtains drawn, and it is blissful dynamic space-yoga. A gentle warm- up before 4. Stephen’s pastoral groove launches into the psychedelic stratosphere of 5.The Eleven (still dancing at this point, that’s my work out for the day). The rest is a blur. I’ll start at “Death ...” when I can get a free hour or two. Have a good night all.
A pristine crystal-clear testimony of two excellent 1968 nights. My favorite tracks are the ones that were originally left out and years later included as bonus tracks on the remastered Anthem: the astonishing Alligator>Caution>Feedback sequence. "Dark Star" was slowly becoming the great monster we all know and the Other One>Caboose combination is splendid. I didn't buy this album in 1992, because I started listening to the band in 2005, but it was one of my first archival releases.
Final thoughts - this is amazing psychedelic dance music. The Dead didn't make this music for people sitting in easy chairs with headphones (like me right now), but as part of an immersive live experience for people they could see dancing right in front of them. And that symbiotic energy is palpable, even for me, sitting in a chair, dancing in my mind as I follow the swirling cosmic fractals of the music. Infrared Roses didn't work for me in the way that albums like Bitches Brew or Dark Side of the Moon do, but Two From The Vault is a living document and works like nothing else but the Good Ol' Grateful Dead doing what they do best. Boogie!
An awesome release and one of my best recent discoveries. If 1968 is still Primal Dead (I though that only applied to 65/66), then this is surely them at their primal best. Awesome (I sound like a Ninja Turtle) versions of Potato Caboose, Eleven and Other One. Really cool, tight version of Dark Star. And Pig surely is a beast here, great blues raps on both Schoolgirl and Lovelight and really digging his organ playing. The organ can be intrusive and distracting, not here. Hadn't noticed the curfew cut on Morning Dew yet, but sure is a pity, that was a nice riff he had going on there. What I especially like and wish they had done more often is the liner notes on how this release came about (all the technical details on how they 'fixed' this show). Nowadays, they include nice essays in their releases, but I would have loved to know which patches were used on Cornell 5/8/77 for example. I don't have a keen ear (I am far from an audiophile who hears earth shattering differences after exchanging a power cable or an interlink), but I'm always interested in the technical side of how things came about, equipment used, or how a specific sound was achieved, difference in mixes, etc. Which is exactly why I like SHF, it's not just about how much we like the music, but also the technical side. Anyway, I'd rate this 4.5/5. An essential release, no doubt. And if you don't mind missing out on the bonus disc, not hard to find at a decent price. PS: I very rarely rate music 5/5. First of all, to be able to do that, the music has to have been a part of your life for a long time, etched into your brain, if you like. It's those records that you keep coming back to most.
Patches are never acknowledged in GD releases, and I still don't know why. Maybe they enjoy reading our detective work here.
