Good point. But it's also a question of how punctilious you want to be. Live/Dead and Stepping Out would qualify as clear 5/5 for me, just as two random examples from the top of my head... In this light I should have rated 2FTV something like 4.3 for 2cd an 4.5 for 3cd edition, that would be more fair. Dang! Maybe ratings are not so good idea after all
Finished off my Two From the Vault listen today and of course, I loved it. Primal Dead (if that's what we're allowed to call this) is always fun, even if I don't revisit it as often as I should. 4/5
Two from the Vault I suppose you can look at it as a live Anthem of the Sun or an early dry run of Live/Dead but it does what any great Dead show should do and melt like butter on your mind. (if it melts like margarine, you're obviously listening to those fishy maple lizards, the ones that wear the muumuu.) Also, every '68 show in circulation is a precious snowflake, so...
Definitely going to agree with this sentiment...they reached an early peak of perfection with the live sets in '68. Not a huge pool of live songs they were drawing from at this point, nonetheless, there's an aura of mystery around each of them. Could listen to Two From the Vault all day long....
Question for the group. In a couple of weeks Grayfolded is up. Do people want to cover this one or skip it? I'm concerned that nobody cares about it and it won't provoke any discussion. If folks say they want to cover it, then they should be prepared to comment on it! Next up (this Friday) is Dick's Picks Volume One...
I'd love to cover it. I'd heard it once at a friend's place in the 90s, but didn't pick up my own copy until a bout of COVID-era completist compensation as part of a general recorded music spending spree in compensation for lack of live music led to finally acquiring it a couple months back, but I haven't spun it yet. This will be a good chance to dive in. I'll probably not get around to it until Thursday of that week, as seems to be my pattern, LOL...
I’m in favor of covering it too; it’s a cool release. The 2-CD version also has really good liner notes including interviews with Jerry, Phil and Robert Hunter. That is also available in a pdf with the download sold on Bandcamp if anyone is interested: GRAYFOLDED, by Grateful Dead
As Phil Lesh once stated: Grayfolded isn't a Grateful Dead project, it's a John Oswald project. That said, cover it. It's not really any different from Infrared Roses with the possible exception of being much better.
Clearly there's enough interest to cover Grayfolded, so we'll do so; those who don't care can tune out for a week. But first we've got Dick's Picks 1 (tomorrow) and Dick's Picks 2 (next week).
2FTV was when I discovered how much I love Primal GD. I bought it on the week of release, and played it endlessly. Most of my friends who were steeped in 1980s Dead seemed unimpressed at the time, but I couldn't get enough. They were really on fire that week; they played 5 nights in a row - Tuesday through Thursday at the Fillmore West, where the bill included Albert Collins and Kaleidoscope, then down the coast to Los Angeles for 2 nights at the Shrine. The Fillmore West shows are on archive, and they are well worth seeking out. Makes me wish there were more shows available from spring and summer 1968; it's one of the biggest holes in the story.
2FTV was my Primal Dead gateway also. I probably heard it not too long after it came out visiting one of my friends in FL, but I didn't actually pick up the CD set until I found it in the used bin a few years later. Was totally gobsmacked by the Dark Star/Stephen/11 and Cryptical. After OFTV and Without A Net this was quite a shock to the system, but I LIKED it. Very cool to have the bonus tracks on the reissue, but the original release is perfectly fine on its own as well. This and Live/Dead are outstanding intros to the Primal stuff.
I wish that I had heard 2FTV when it came out and I was a college kid deeply into grunge and psych. I had a Deadhead friend at the time who occasionally played his Dead tapes on his radio show at the student station, and he shared Aoxomoxoa and Without a Net with me, but for some reason he never told me that I should listen to Live/Dead, and I don't remember him making a fuss when this came out. But then I guess he was graduating at about that time. I really would've gone for this stuff, and it would've turned my perception of the band completely upside-down, but I had no idea. I came to it about 20 years later. "Schoolgirl" hasn't really worn well for me, so lately I've been skipping it more often than not, but the rest is a solid representation of '68 Dead. There are better shows from the year--and the night before just smokes it--but how many rock bands could match this on stage in '68? Hendrix, I guess. I'll take this over Cream, The Who, The Airplane, and everyone else. Always get a kick out of the end when Jerry calls out, "We got turned off... once again! Good night, everybody!"
