Grateful Dead Dave's Picks 2020 Subscriptions

you usually know 2 shows, no?

 

correct

 

Dave should just rip off the band aid and release 7/31/94 with 8/1/94 filler+bonus disc in 2021.

 

I don’t come to you with my problems.

I’d welcome more ‘72-‘74 as much as the next Head, and I’d welcome more 60s and more rare 1970 gems (The kind we should’ve gotten with the WD and AB 50 collections) too. But I refuse to stay locked into the same period(s) of this incredible band’s rich history. I love the Brent years, and I like ‘87-‘90 as much as any era.

Yeah, I said it.

(An aside, I’ve had my fill of 1977. Great stuff, but I burned out on it. A break from that year would be fine by me. I dig ‘’78 and ‘79 though).

Regardless, I was simply responding to @notesofachord, saying that while the 80s stuff has sold well (As he pointed out) it’s interesting to note Dave hasn’t gone deep into that decade for his Picks. Not to mention plenty of Heads have wanted an Alpine box — which should be no-brainer — for ages.

More 60s and more 80s in the picks would be my choice. Maybe one of each of decade per year, and then two 70s shows? But then, if we ever got two 60s or two 80s, or even a (gasp!) good 90s show now in a given year I wouldn’t complain.

Rhino will still sell these things with or without you.

 

Prior to subscribing this year, the obligatory post-Godchaux show was always the thing stopping me from plunking down the dough, just assuming there would be at least one show per year I wouldn't enjoy. However, now that I've subscribed and received my obligatory post-Godchaux show, I've changed my tune; honestly I'd probably still subscribe now if I knew it was going to be 4 post-Godchaux shows, if I had some semblance of confidence that they wouldn't be terrible ones. The 4/20/84 Pick really opened my ears to this era -- I don't think it touches the '60's or '70's, not by a long shot, but having spent all of my GD fandom to date living in that '68-'78 decade, I now feel like this is the period of Dead that remains most unexplored for me. I've snagged a few things that are still available (Road Trips 4/6/82, Road Trips 12/28/79, Saint of Circumstance 6/17/91), but disappointingly, so much of the officially released post-Godchaux stuff seems to be out of print and going for unreasonable prices on eBay and Discogs. So I'd love to put it on Mr. Lemieux to enhance my appreciation of this period further via the DP series. But I'm glad to lap up more golden-era stuff too

 

The antipathy towards Brent era Dead is something I’ve never encountered in the wild. A preference for the 70s? Sure. Total aversion to Brent? Definitely not.

It’s 11 years worth of music, do people think they just sucked for all that time and didn’t play anything worthwhile that entire time?

I’m glad people are coming around and discovering the jewels that exist in the second half of the band’s career.

 

A different sound for sure (especially the shows when Brent really “digs in”), but hot dang, I love 80s and 90s Dead.
Disclaimer: I love 60s and 70s Dead too.

 

Sometimes things have to get at least 30 years old before they are really valued . The shows I went to were in the Brent and Vince era. Thought they were great. Over the last several years I have focused on listening to 66 thru 73 because I felt like I already lived the 80s and nineties stuff and I wanted to be fully educated on the early days not because I didn’t like the later stuff. These days u can listen to all of 72 if you so choose without listening to anything else because so much is available . In 80s and 90s I had much less of the old stuff to listen to and frankly I was less focused on listening to the tapes than I was about how I was going to get to the next show! I enjoy all eras and glad I have been able to go back and get so extensively educated on what I missed prior
To the Brent era but love the Brent era too.

 

Sorry for replying to my own post, and sorry for what seems unusually harsh from me as I read this back now. Didn’t mean to. Should never reply to people before my morning coffee.

I just don’t think a little more variety on the Dave selections would hurt anyone. But I have enjoyed most of the picks so far!

 

I agree, I never encountered it before this forum tbh. I started seeing shows when he was stillthe new guy literally and watched him grow along with the bands sound. Like bob, he def got some good natured needling over the years in the scene but the out and out disdain is a newer phenomenon imho. Some didn’t prefer his songs but his playing, never. Donna and Vince got some negative views for sure but rarely Brent...

If I were to guess the majority demographic, I would venture it was mostly fans of all ages but those that have jumped on board in more recent years

 

Brent's songs are godawful and I don't really like his singing. Aside from just his presence, the sound of the band in the 80s changed - the guitars got really cleaned up and clinical sounding and the drums (at least on the tapes) sound very cardboardy a lot of the time. I enjoy some 80s Dead, but for me a really great 80s show still only rises to about 80% of what an excellent 70s show would be.

 

I'm pretty sure there was some pitchfork article 4-5 years back, at the beginning of the recent surge in attention that was heavily biased towards the 70s.

'They sucked after year X' has been a standard trope of dead fandom since c.1968 though.

I was reading some of my posts from 4 years ago when I signed up here, I was burnt out on Brent-era then, though I never stopped liking the 90s. Plenty of greatness to be found in all eras, I'm playing a 92 show right now, one of their weaker years and it still has its moments.

 

As I’ve said previously, I love 80s Dead. As well as 60s and 70s.

To use your logic and math, if you’re getting 80% of an “excellent” 70s show out of some 80s shows, I’d personally be very happy (though to clarify again, I don’t do comparisons of Dead eras. I love each era for what it is...peace, love, sharing, pure joy...)...that’s just me, I’m not judging at all...

I don’t mean to be argumentative - just thinking about your 80% reference...

 

Oh, I am happy to have them. I'm pleased that the last couple of years of Dave's have included an 80s show. I'll always give any Dead show a listen, but the 68-78 decade will get more listens from me.

 

Really? Jerry bought his Boss "Heavy Metal" pedal in the 80s and started tearing it up on songs like "Hell in a Bucket". I think his guitar was a lot more "clinical" sounding during the Travis Bean years.

 

Not me....if it was just 80% as good as a 70s show, I'd probably never listen to it. Instead, it's different, and what's good about it is different.

I actually agree with @AlienRendel to some extent about the sounds...but there are compensating glories....

Morning Dew from 1987-09-18 is just as great as a 1972 Dark Star, for entirely different reasons

 

As a side note, I’m curious if you intentionally excluded 1974 from your pre-hiatus listening or if that was just a typo.

 

Not intentional just didnt make it there yet

 

"Clinical" for me means less organic and more manufactured - yes, Jerry had a HM2 pedal, which he'd use on Hell In a Bucket, Watchtower etc., but it's a hi-fi approach to something that he'd have done using proper amp gain in years gone by. You only have to look at the scale of his rack and overall live rig in the 1980's and 1990's to see just how far he'd moved away from guitar > pedals > amp > PA of the first 10 years or so of the Dead's career.

It's the same with Weir too - think about the rich, clean but chunky sound he had in 1974 for example, compared to all of the various Bobby variants of the latter years.

All of this is personal taste of course, but I'm with the OP here.

 

Well, it is personal taste, but I think that if you look at his actual playing, i.e., the note choices, nothing to do with gear or tone, I would say that his playing on songs like "Jack Straw", "Deal", etc., got a lot more exciting, a lot more "riding the edge of chaos" than his more sedate style of improvisation (on those songs) in the early 70s.

 

I would respectfully disagree with that - if anything, his playing on those tunes in later days is often considerably less inventive than in the early/mid 70s. Others have discussed this here in more detail in the past, but from about 1979 onwards, Jerry started to incorporate very fast circular runs in his playing (both in the context of the jams and his solos on the shorter rock songs) which, whilst sounding exciting on first blush, actually mask a more boxed-in, introspective attitude to his music - to my ears, he's playing for himself, within his own tightly-defined parameters, without the leaps of imagination (in timing and note choice) that you would hear in say, a typical 1973 or 1974 show.

Jerry's playing on the tunes you pick as examples does SOUND exciting & I can sorta hear what you're saying about "riding the edge of chaos" but, to my ears, that's more a product of speed and the use of heavy distortion as appropriate, to generate a particular emotion in the perception of the listener.

I don't mean any of this sound like a slur on fans of 80's and 90's GD - what's great about this band is that they have THEIR Dead & I have mine - but hope it makes sense, at least.

 

BOOM! Thank you for this, I feel you have nailed a big piece of the puzzle. There is an interview with Jerry from the 70's, possibly as late as 1978, where he talks about his desire to play well-articulated notes. Yet by late '79 he is beginning to "slur" a bit, where speed displaces articulation.

This fits in with the feelings of other band members in the early to mid 80's when they felt Jerry was not listening to the rest of the band. And it also articulates an aspect of the "arena rock" band that differs from the psychedelic band.

Bravo!

 

That makes sense. It's wrong, but it makes sense.

 

The better analogy I might’ve even read on this forum - can’t remember- is post 79, he was like a pitcher who lost his fastball, but still had enough ability to get you out with his secondary pitches.