Yes. I meant again, after that, since I sat on the fence too long when that reissue came out, as I had said earlier in the same post.
Terrapin Station (Limited Edition) is not available on Spotify, so I'll have to make due with YouTube. I've warmed up to Spring 1990 a lot over the years, so looking forward to this one.
Terrapin Station > Mock Turtle Jam on 3/15/90 is another nice example of how they could still conjure up magical moments in the later years. It’s a good show overall with a fun, lively vibe presumably due to the birthday celebration. “And my best friend, my drummer, won’t even tell me what it was that I dropped!” The release itself was more expensive because of the fundraising aspect but the packaging is nice. I’d say it was a worthy addition to the catalog.
So, I listened to the entire thing once now. It's a fun, quality show, but doesn't stand out from the other 1990 shows I've heard. That's a good thing, since that means that pretty much all of 1990 is of stunning quality (although, admittedly, I have not heard all the shows, so it's hard for me to judge). The main reason I can think of is the fact that it's Phil's 50th Birthday. The show gets off to a rocky start with Bob flubbing the lines to Jack Straw, but they really don't look back after that. I love Phil's rendition of Tom Thumb's Blues (and especially the effort he puts into singing it right), lovely China>Rider and Terrapin > Mock Turtle Jam. Agreeable Drums > Space (doesn't feel very long) and Revolution is a nice encore (lots better than Hey Jude).
I wonder if Fallout and the 3/15/90 release were sort of concessions to Phil; in exchange for recusing himself from the Dick's Picks process, Phil had a chance to mine the vault for himself, and here's a Phil Birthday show on top of it. Prefiguring the 30 Days of Dead (and Phish Live Bait) free giveaway series, I suppose that Fallout represents Phil's idea of what the archival release program would look like if it were up to him. Was there ever a plan to make it the start of a regular series? I'm reminded of one Christmas when my Grandma just sent me a big box of stuff she had accumulated from dollar stores, garage sales, random mail-order catalogues, and whatnot. Now, I'd love to be able to go through the box again, just so I could think about her and wonder about what had been going through her mind when she bought the various items, and when she'd decided to put them together for me. At the time, it was sort of odd and baffling. Maybe it was nothing but she just realized that she had all this stuff that the kids might like, and she'd wanted to clean house. Most of the items in Fallout are not really special or notably significant. It's just stuff that happened to catch Uncle Phil's ear at the time. Oh, hey, you like that Harpur College thing, do you? Well, here are a couple more acoustic performances from that month, and how about another "Dancing" and "Viola Lee" from around that time? And you know the stories about how Pigpen could just go on--well, here's the longest "Midnight Hour" that I could find, anyway. (No, you can't hear the rest of the Rio Nido shows! Don't make me sorry that I'm doing this!) I can't recall where I found this "Jack-A-Roe," or why I picked it up, but what hell. Here you go. Of course, you kids always liked to hear me sing, so here's a "Box of Rain"--and a random "Music Never Stopped" from that run, as long as we're here. Alpine Valley, that was a good time. Maybe that will be a Dick's Pick, someday. Haha! And finally, here's a touching recording of Uncle Jerry singing Dylan just before he died. Sad. Bless him. All right, kids. Come visit this summer! Take care! Jerry singing "Visions of Johanna" might actually be my favorite track, although I wish that I could hear him with just acoustic guitar & bass, and maybe Grisman. The band's playing behind him isn't anything to write home about. I'm also not sure why 3/15/90 was chosen for a special release to raise money for their planned museum/community center project, except that they had multi-tracks, the show included a "Terrapin Station," it was on Phil's birthday, and the Without a Net and Dozin' at the Knick releases had gone Gold, so another one from the period seemed like a good bet. But it's odd to release this just before another 1990 show was coming in the Dick's Picks series, and it doesn't persuade me that Spring '90 really is all that it's cracked up to be. The "Mock Turtle Jam" in "Terrapin" and the "Space" are fairly interesting (and it was nice of them to give Bob Bralove a bit of a songwriting royalty for the "And" in between "Drums" and "Space"). "Tom Thumb's Blues" isn't exactly good, but Phil's line about "my best friend, the drummer" is cute. The rest sounds like an old band going through the motions. The "Revolution" bustout/encore is just about the sleepiest, soggiest rendition that I ever hope to hear--except that I know they always performed it like that. Like they knew that people would be happy just to hear the song, and Phil would be happy that they just agreed to do it, so why bother with putting out any real effort to make it count? It's no wonder that this "Limited Edition" was available for a couple decades.
I think it was total BS that they priced 3/15/90 to fund their project, then eventually abandoned it and kept the money. A refund or store credit should have been given out. Not cool at all!
I don't remember any talk of making it a regular series. I think Phil was the only band member who was interested in the old recordings at all, and he seems to be a fan of the early years, which I guess is why there was a lot of 67-70 stuff on Fallout. I bought Fallout but didn't end up listening to it much; was mildly interested in the Terrapin set, but I had Dozin' which wasn't really a favorite, and as I recall the price was higher than usual, so I didn't get it.
Terrapin Station [#20248] I got this when it first came out (23yrs ago) and still haven't heard most of it before this week. (this thread was a good idea!) Set 1: Easy to Love You. This may be a cheesy pop confection, but I love the live versions. Jerry's playing was always very sweet on it. He must have enjoyed the song. Tom Thumb. I love all the Dylan covers and this is a favorite. Phil is having a blast with his vocals. The werewolf growl "howling at the moon", the faux-drunk slurred "blackmailed the sergeant at arms", the Foggy Bottom callout. So maybe Phil was staying at Foggy Bottom (a perfect location for DC museum-hopping between gigs). Set 2: Terrapin. I seldom listen to this song, but this is an exceptional version. There's just seems to be more going on than in other versions. If you include the Turtlejam-drums-space this is a pretty epic 45 min Terrapin jam. I'm going to give this some deep dive listens. IWTYH. hard pass. Revolution. One of my least favorite Beatles songs but this version is great. I love the raunchy arrangement and vocals. Maybe better than the original for this head. I don't listen to this era much but the band's chemistry is undeniably great here. The Jerry/Phil/Bob instrumental blend is a delight on every single tune. My rating: 6.5/10 for the Dead, 10/10 compared to everything else. I'm going to get a head start on next week's offering (DP9), another one I've barely listened to!
The idea of the Terrapin Station Museum was extremely exciting at the time. A Grateful Dead themed complex with promises of having access to the archives and (I seem to recall) a concert hall and hotel too. The packaging even gives the impression of a golden "Hall of Justice" style building as a shrine to the good old Grateful Dead. The high price point and my small collection of tapes (mostly SBDs from 71-77) made this release a low-priority. It was available in the dead store for a long time and I always said - "someday I should grab that." Perhaps if I had plunked down the $$ Terrapin Station would have become a reality =) A used copy appeared about 8-9 years ago (#27820) and I finally made the purchase. It's a *great* sounding release and we all know that the band was energized in the spring of 1990. Disc one is solid with highlights being: Sugaree, EZ to Love You, Althea (always a highlight - even with the false start), and fine Tom Thumb's Blues. Disc 2 kicks off with a nice China>Rider, but the real star on this disc is Terrapin Station>Mock Turtle jam. The Wharf Rat, Throwing Stones>NFA to close set 2 is nice and the Revolution encore is a treat. Overall a nice release - not essential.
I don't have the Terrapin release, but I'm listening this morning to 3/15/90 from the Keo audience source which is a good alternative to the SBDs (for me 90's SBDs are often hard to enjoy as they lack air and have the guitars mixed too low).
Yes, for several of the spring 1990 shows there are multiple SBD sources available from CM. What I found interesting is that SBDs of some of that tour got out initially from tapes given by the band to keyboardists later that year auditioning to replace Brent.
Comparing "Walkin' Blues" on Without A Net with the 3/15/90 audience tape, Bob's vocals have been redone but Jerry and Brent's solos are the same.
I haven’t listened much to the “ Terrapin Limited” show over the years but it is a treat to hear it again.The overall sound quality is decent given that it must be a digital recording given the date of the show. Sounds like Bobby had trouble with his guitar amps in the first set. Happily that was fixed at the set break. You tend to forget that Brent had a sweet voice when he was using it at moderate power (at full power he sounds like a member of the Doobie Brothers at times) and his 2 songs are maybe the hidden gems in this show. The “Terrapin Station” is a monster of course and it could actually have ended there and still been a decent show. Shame it’s a bit short for 3 CDs. If they had put more of the second set on disc 2 then there would have been room for bonus material. No real complaints however. Another listen before Dicks 9.
Surprisingly these 1989/1990 recordings for Without A Net were done in 24-track analog from what I've read in various liner notes, and the two-track sources Charlie has shared were apparently cassette masters.
Listened to #24939 of the Terrapin limited yesterday. I bought this one right away, despite what the high number might seem to indicate, as I had been at the show and was excited to have a pristine sounding copy. (I wound up attending Phil's 60th as well as the 50th). After getting shut out the previous evening (a rarity for me, but most of the times I was shut out occurred at Landover), this one was a ton of fun. For this night and the next one, we stayed in the hallway where they had speakers, so the sound was at least as good as at our seats and there was plenty of dancing room. No hall speakers at the other two stops on that tour that I hit (Hartford and Albany), so those wee the only two hallway shows of the run for me. Everything was well played, Tom Thumb's was still a rarity around then, Easy to Love You was the first one in many years, and the Revolution encore (also the first in a while, and the only one I caught live) was a blast, even if not a song they really pulled off all that well. Great versions of Sugaree, Althea, China Cat>Rider, and Terrapin Station, plus the jam out of it. Althea is really an all-timer in particular. I wish they had parked I Will Take You Home somewhere in the first set rather than always playing it out of Space. Other than that, the post-Space sequence of Wharf Rat>Throwing Stones>Not Fade Away is really well played, not on autopilot at all. ("Throw Away," as we called the latter two songs when played together back then; a "Total Throw Away" would be the common post-Space sequence of The Other One>Wharf Rat>Throwing Stones>NFA. So this show split the difference between the two). I noticed one thing I'd never caught before on this listen. During the outro to Wharf Rat, Jerry plays the Dark Star melody once. Not for long, but clearly no accident. 3/24/90 Albany was my favorite show among the ones I caught that tour in Landover, Hartford, and Albany, which were all good-to-great, but this was probably my second favorite.
Clickable thread guide List of releases By Release Date One from the Vault (1975-08-13 San Francisco, released 1991-04-15) Infrared Roses (1989-1990, released 1991-11-01) Two from the Vault (1968-08-24 San Francisco, released May 1992) Dick’s Picks 1 (1973-12-19 Tampa, released 1991-10-31) Dick’s Picks 2 (1971-10-31 Columbus, released March 1995) Grayfolded (1968-1993, released 1994 and 1995) Hundred Year Hall (1972-04-26, released 1995-09-26) Dick’s Picks 3 (1977-05-22 Pembroke Pines, released 1995-11-07) Dick’s Picks 4 (1970-02-13, 14 New York, released 1996-02-23) Dick’s Picks 5 (1979-12-26 Oakland, released 1996-05-30) Dozin' at the Knick (1990-03-24 Albany (mostly), released 1996-08-29) Dick's Picks 6 (1983-10-14 Hartford, released 1996-10-07) Dick's Picks 7 (1974-09-09, 10, 11 London, released 1997-03-04) Dick's Picks 8 (1970-05-02 Binghamton, released 1997-06-14) Fallout from the Phil Zone (Various, released 1997-06-17) Terrapin Station Limited Edition (1990-03-15 Landover, released 1997-09) By Concert Date Various (released 1994 and 1995 on Grayfolded) Various (released 1997-06-17 on Fallout from the Phil Zone) 1968-08-24 Los Angeles (released 1992-05 on Two from the Vault) 1970-02-13, 14 New York (released 1996-02-23 on Dick's Picks 4) 1970-05-02 Binghamton (released 1997-06-14 on Dick's Picks 8) 1971-10-31 Columbus (released 1995-03 on Dick's Picks 2) 1972-04-26 Frankfurt (released 1995-09-26 on Hundred Year Hall) 1973-12-19 Tampa (released 1993-10-31 on Dick's Picks 1) 1974-09-09, 10, 11 London (released 1997-03-04 on Dick's Picks 7) 1975-08-13 San Francisco (released 1991-04-15 on One from the Vault) 1977-05-22 Pembroke Pines (released 1995-11-07 on Dick's Picks 3) 1979-12-26 Oakland (released 1996-05-30 on Dick's Picks 5) 1983-10-14 Hartford (released 1996-10-07 on Dick's Picks 6) 1989, 1990 (released 1991-11-01 on Infrared Roses) 1990-03-15 Landover (released 1997-09 on Terrapin Station Limited Edition) 1990-03-24 Albany (mostly) (released 1996-08-29 on Dozin' at the Knick) This week: 1990-09-16 New York (released 1997-10-19 on Dick's Picks 9) Next week: 1969-02-11 New York (released 1997-10-28 on Live at the Fillmore East 2-11-69)
Dick's Picks Volume 9 Recording date: September 16, 1990 Recording location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York Release date: October 18, 1997 Recorded by: Dan Healy Disc 1 First set "Hell in a Bucket" (Bob Weir, Brent Mydland, John Barlow) – 7:03 "Cold Rain & Snow" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 6:42 "Little Red Rooster" (Willie Dixon) – 10:21 "Stagger Lee" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter) – 8:32 "Queen Jane Approximately" (Bob Dylan) – 7:47 "Tennessee Jed" (Garcia, Hunter) – 10:35 "Cassidy" (Weir, Barlow) – 6:26 > "Deal" (Garcia, Hunter) – 9:48 Disc 2 Second set "Samson and Delilah" (traditional, arranged by Weir) – 8:10 "Iko Iko" (James Crawford) – 10:15 "Looks Like Rain" (Weir, Barlow) – 8:47 "He's Gone" (Garcia, Hunter) – 16:26 > "No MSG Jam" (Grateful Dead) – 7:50 > "Drums" (Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart) – 8:59 > Disc 3 "Space" (Grateful Dead) – 10:49 > "Standing on the Moon" (Garcia, Hunter) – 9:28 > "Lunatic Preserve" (Grateful Dead) – 5:45 > "I Need a Miracle" (Weir, Barlow) – 5:19 > "Morning Dew" (Bonnie Dobson, Tim Rose) – 13:12 Encore: "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" (Dylan) – 7:35 Dick took a bold step into the Vince era with Dick’s Picks Volume 9. It’s a show from the well-regarded September 1990 run at Madison Square Garden. Many fans were surprised that the band toured at all after Brent’s death just a couple of months earlier, but the show went on. The choice of shows wasn’t without controversy because some Deadheads consider other shows from the run to be better, particularly the final night. It's actually a consistently well-played show with some great highlights. The first set isn’t spectacular but is enjoyable. I’m a sucker for Stagger Lee and this one delivers, while Tennessee Jed has some fun exchanges between Jerry and Bruce. A fine Cassidy gives us the first real exploration, and the set closes with an amazing Deal. “We’ll be back in just a little bit.” The second set gets off to a slow start with Samson, Iko, and Looks Like Rain; the performances are solid but they’re not my favorite songs. But then the band starts a slow, delicious He’s Gone. It takes its time to unwind, before evolving into the No MSG Jam, which is really an unusual extra Space segment before Drums. I’m not going to try to describe it, but it’s worth hearing multiple times. Standing on the Moon is a fine choice coming out of the real Space, even if it does start abruptly instead of organically. A wonderful, chaotic jam arises, another example of this show’s unpredictability. Miracle isn’t especially surprising, but Morning Dew seals the deal; it’s not the best version of the song but it’s still a great way to close the set. Baby Blue is a nice encore. Again it’s a simple fold-out insert with basic information. The release's drawback is the sound quality, which is a little dull and has Vince's synthesizer too loud in the mix, at times overpowering the rest of the music; the left-channel drums are also a bit too high. But musically, it's a great example of the band's two-keyboard sound. Dick’s instincts were good with this one.
Dick’s Picks 9 – 9/16/90 MSG In my early tape collecting days, you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a Hornsby show. It seemed like everyone I knew had a bunch of them, so I’d heard a lot of the more well-known performances by the time Dick selected this one. Before this week, though, I hadn’t listened to this in years – the density and busy-ness of the two-keyboard lineup wore thin for me after a while, and it’s an era I haven’t turned to in quite some time. That said, I had fun revisiting this pick, and it’s actually better than I remember. Notes & Highlights: One thing that always annoyed me about this release is the recording: it’s strangely muted, sterile and not very crisp sounding. I guess you could say it lacks air. It sounded better once I bumped the high end a smidge to get the high-hats and snare where I wanted them, but it's still a little dull. This is a Good Bruce show, in that he’s not overplaying or trying to do too much and he’s very tasteful with his fills and accents. I’m guessing he was more restrained since it was only his second show, and he was still finding his sea legs. I’ve heard Bruce shows where he’s just stepping all over everything, and while he’s a great player, that’s not his role (or anyone else’s) in this band. The Vince elements are, like the Vince era in general, a bit uneven. There are moments where he hits the sweet spot with his synths and organ (Good Vince!), and others where he’s just too overbearing and makes me feel like I’m at the circus or a carnival in a bad steampunk novel (Bad Vince!). The first set gets off to an inauspicious start with a bumpy Bucket, but things settle down from there on. Vince holds down the organ on Rain and Snow, there’s a strutting Rooster, and an excellent Stagger Lee with perfect piano work from Bruce. Tennessee Jed is the kind of tune that benefits from this lineup; it’s an outstanding version with nice tradeoffs between Bruce and Jerry while Vince lays down the carpet. Queen Jane nicely showcases why Vince can often be tough to listen to – just way too dominant with an annoying sound. Hard-rocking Deal to close the set. The second set is significantly stronger and more interesting to listen to, perhaps because there’s just more room for everyone to operate. The opening Samson-Iko pairing gets things off to rollicking start; the Iko is especially tasty and is a good example of what the Midi can bring when Jerry chooses the right spot and dials in a good sound. After Looks Like Rain, a great He’s Gone brings us to the meat of the set. There’s an inspired outro jam mostly featuring Bruce, Vince and Phil; everybody is staying in their lane, not trying to do too much, and there’s great interaction between them. Space is actually pretty enjoyable – I like a lot of what Vince does here and Standing on the Moon is really a nice choice to come out of it with. This song is up there with my favorite late-era Jerry ballads and is a terrific version with excellent complementary playing from Good Vince and Good Bruce. Then we get a surprise meltdown, with everyone doing some pretty wild things – it’s chaotic, but it’s also cohesive (as most of their meltdowns are, actually), which is not an easy trick to pull off. These types of passages and setlist oddities are one of the coolest mostly dormant aspects Bruce reawakened in the band – they could pop up almost anywhere, which was a departure from most of the Brent years. The Dew that comes out of Miracle is an awesome set-closer. I wish Jerry had used the middle solo tone for the outro and the outro tone for the middle solo, but whatever. It still rocks. Baby Blue is up there with Brokedown as my favorite encore choice ever, and this one rules – perfectly played by everyone, beautiful Jerry solo and an emotionally ragged Old Jerry vocal. I really enjoyed revisiting this, since I haven't gone back to the Vince/Bruce well in a long time. While that era is near the bottom of my favorites (out of those I listen to, anyway) and this Pick isn't anything I'd deem a must-have, it's still a very strong showcase for that lineup and I'm happy Dick picked it. There are certainly wilder Bruce shows out there (especially in '91 after he settled in), but if you're into this lineup, this Pick is definitely worth hearing.
Love me some Bruce shows but that setlist was always a huge turnoff to me. Coupled with the surprisingly muffled sound it’s an easy skip for me sorry to say.
Here’s my take, previously posted in The Grateful Thread— Late-1990 is one of those periods that I rarely dive into, with Vince and Bruce in the band, so this afternoon’s listening is Dick’s Picks #9 — Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY, 16/09/90 . . . 1st Set: Hell In A Bucket — a meaty, hefty-sounding opener; Cold Rain And Snow — a killer version, first-rate all-round with a cool vibe. I love this song; Little Red Rooster — real bluesy, confident and swaggering with some outlandish keys playing from Vince and Bruce; Stagger Lee — slick with a super jammy outro; Queen Jane Approximately — tight version with bubbling bass and graceful keys/synth; Tennessee Jed — bouncy, countrified version with sweet trading interplay between Jerry and Bruce. It sounds like a fiddle being played during the jamming, which I guess is Jerry (MIDI), that is cool; Cassidy — exceptional jamming, another solid, well-played version; Deal — smokin’ hot, swingin’ set-closer. 1st set highlight. 2nd Set: Samson And Delilah — an upbeat, solid rockin’ start to the 2nd set. Phil playing like a monster; Iko Iko — this one grooves with a toe-tapping dance-beat and there’s some cool horn/trumpet sounds coming from Jerry (MIDI). A highlight!; Looks Like Rain — a really exquisite version with twinkly, sparkling keys/synths. Bobby is in fine voice and there’s some lovely interplay between the whole band; He’s Gone > — there’s some emotion to this one, not long after Brent’s death. Touching, with an epic jamming outro. 2nd set/show highlight; No MSG Jam > — uniquely-named beautiful jam featuring Phil, Vince and Bruce. Exemplary keys-playing here, almost classical-esque at times; Drums > Space > — this is some scary-sounding, eerily intense stuff. There’s a section in Drums that is almost tribal with some weird distorted chanting voices. One of the best I’ve heard. Really rhythmic; Standing On The Moon > — again, this is stirring, emotional and soulful. Really poignant and beautiful sounding; Lunatic Preserve > — I don’t recall hearing this before, but I guess it’s just a variation of Space, segueing nicely into; I Need A Miracle > — comes riding in off of the previous jam. Rollicking hot stuff; Morning Dew — an impassioned and gorgeous rendition from this era. Phil-bombs and heady heights; It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue — a nice and satisfying encore, I dig the Dead’s cover of this Dylan tune. I really enjoyed that Pick, it’s nice to hear from a different era/line-up of the Dead. You can sense an obvious, emotional mood throughout, which is no surprise. There were some really quite extraordinary, amazing jamming sequences scattered throughout and everyone’s playing is slick and sounded pretty damn good, most notably Phil’s bass and Vince and Bruce on keys and synths. More from this run at MSG was released on Road Trips Vol. 2 No. 1 — MSG September ‘90.
