Jump to content

The Grateful Dead

Analogman

By Analogman,
in Someone Else's Song

 Share Followers 2

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 964
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Posted Images

calvino

calvino

Posted
Posted

Two great shows from 1970 are 6.24.70 and 9.20.70.  6/24 is great audience recording.

 

9.20.70

https://archive.org/details/gd1970-09-20.135798.sbd.smith.droncit.flac16

 

6.24.70

https://archive.org/details/gd_nrps70-06-24.aud.pcrp5.23062.sbeok.flacf

 

Get the Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead set from 71 - 4 cds from the April, 71 Fillmore East shows.

Link to post
Share on other sites
jw harding

jw harding

Posted
Posted

I'd drop Without a Net from the curriculum, and replace it with a viewing of the Dead movie.

Agree on the GD Movie. Thinking Without a Net to get some exposure to late era electric Dead when they were at their peak in that period, and the Eyes with Branford makes it a keeper.

Link to post
Share on other sites
jw harding

jw harding

Posted
Posted

Starting with 8/27/72 — pretty great so far!

There is video of much of the show, which has kind of been hobbled together into a documentary called Sunshine Daydream. Probably available on youtube, it was officially released just a few years back after being an underground thing for many years. May be The Dark Star, and certainly recommend enhancing your consciousness to fully appreciate it. It will take you places.

Or Infrared Roses.

Not sure if this is serious or not. I listened to it when it first came out, but not much since. The Dead at their weirdest in the late era, playing with the midi effects. I do love the Crowd Sculpture.

Link to post
Share on other sites
choo-choo-charlie

choo-choo-charlie

Posted
Posted

I'm sorry, but that is not a good place for a casual Dead fan to start. Personal preferences aside, the 80's were not the high point for the band.

 

Go with the big ones from across their top years:

 

8/27/72 (Sunshine Daydream)

6/9/77 or 5/8/77 (Pretty much any show from Spring 77)

12/19/73 (Dick's Picks 1)

8/13/75 (One from the Vault)

8/24/68 (Two from the Vault)

5/19/74

The AllMusic review cites 8/27/72 as a perfect show for Deadheads and novices alike. Just check out the last two sentences: https://www.allmusic.com/album/sunshine-daydream-veneta-or-august-27th-1972-mw0002567468

Link to post
Share on other sites
Sun Caught Fire

Sun Caught Fire

Posted
Posted

the April 1971 shows mentioned above are 4 solid CDs of great live Dead. Harpur College 5/2/70 also released is a must have. Agree generally on the 80's (was at both listed MSG ones but 9/18/87 was better in my opinion (also released, as was one I was on the rail for 10/12/84 which is great). I prefer to early stuff so agree with the late 60's mentions and 1970 my favorite year. The box of 30 shows from 1965-1995 is a great collection and picks the "best" from each year after giving effect to many already released picks. As one of my Dead buddies likes to say, the well is deep. Enjoy. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
EMF

EMF

Posted
Posted

yeah my choices may have been a bit esoteric for the newish casual listener.  it was my main era of seeing the boys (79-85) so i am biased in that way and I do feel that they did some of their finest playing therein although they were consistently great up until Brent passed   Might suggest Go To Nassau as a better representation of the era for a casual listener.

 

Both Europe 72 and Skull and Roses were major stepping stones for me and my buddies back in the day  

Link to post
Share on other sites
Shug

Shug

Posted
Posted

Nothing like asking Deadheads their opinions on what Dead shows they like to get some conversation going!

 

jw harding's recs were easy to agree with, very solid stuff there for sure.  

 

8/27/72 (Sunshine Daydream)

6/9/77 or 5/8/77 (Pretty much any show from Spring 77)
12/19/73 (Dick's Picks 1)
8/13/75 (One from the Vault)
8/24/68 (Two from the Vault)
5/19/74

 

 

I can also strongly agree with winston on:

Dick's Picks, Vol. 28,  : Lincoln & Salt Lake City, 2/26 & 28/73 - an excellent representation of the solid start of 1973 and hits similar stuff to the 2-15-73 that lammy recommended but has not been officially released

Dick's Picks, Vol. 29,  : Atlanta & Lakeland, 5/19 & 21/77 but you could also consider Dick's Picks, Vol. 3,  : Pembroke Pines, 5/22/77 or get both of them, unless you want to pick up the May '77 box set with New Haven, Boston and Cornell. or the Winterland June '77 box.

 

​I'd also suggest considering the Fillmore West 1969 box, although its basically an expanded version of Live Dead although mixed slightly differently. Great performances and recording quality.

 

Another great Dicks Picks is:

Dick's Picks, Vol. 18, : Madison & Cedar Falls, 2/3 & 5/78 - pretty charged up playing that carries over the strong energy of late 1977 and precedes Keith's steep decline into lethargy later in the year.

 

You also might seek out individual shows from the Europe '72 tour, such as these that are fairly agreed upon to be tour highlights by most people who have listened extensively.

Copenhagen 4-14-72

Roterdam 5-11-72

London 5-26-72

 

​If you like compilations, the Steppin' Out: London '72 set is a solid way to get some highlights. 

 

For 1970, I like Dick's Picks, Vol. 4, : Fillmore East, 2/13-14/70 over Harpur College Dick's Picks, Vol. 8, : Binghamton, 5/2/70 because the sound quality of the 5-2-70 leaves a lot to be desired, at least by me.

 

The recording on the April 1971 compilation Ladies and Gentlemen is great, but I prefer the performances from the August 1971 shows, particularly the Hollywood Paladium on 8-6-71 and the two shows in Berkeley on 8-14 and 8-15.  Some of 8-6-71 has been released as Dick's Picks, Vol. 35,: San Diego, Chicago and Hollywood, August 1971 but they left off the best-ever Hard To Handle which had already been released on Fallout from the Phil Zone.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Mr. Heartbreak

Mr. Heartbreak

Posted
Posted

Great change of topic. Of course, ask 10 Deadheads for show recommendations, and you will get quite a variety. If I'd jumped in earlier, I probably would have listed the following myself:

 

8/27/72

5/8/77
8/13/75

6/10/73

10/9/82

 

One thing I didn't see you say is I want to spend a shitload of money on this stuff. And a lot of these shows are available on archive.org for streaming. The problem/embarrassment of riches with the archive is that most shows have multiple copies up, including many audience recordings. That's a whole other can of worms in itself, the AUD vs. SBD argument. Your mileage may vary. But the great thing with the archive is that you can literally Google a random date like 8/6/71 and get a link to that show right at the top of the results!

 

​A great source for downloads of unreleased shows that are (mainly) soundboards is themidnightcafe.org. Lots of stuff other than Dead, too, but that guy posts a lot of quality stuff in FLAC and mp3 options. In fact, he just recently posted one of my all time favorite shows, 7/18/72.

 

Anyway, for me, the Europe '72 shows, the 1974 Grateful Dead movie soundtrack, and the cream of Spring '77 are the prime ones to get, and everything else is kind of a lesser priority. Well, except for those '69 shows that feature Mountains of the Moon. Oh, what am I saying, I've got like 1,700 folders of Dead stuff on my external hard drive. Fuck it, just download everything.  :stunned 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Shug

Shug

Posted
Posted

Yeah, archive.org is a way to listen to almost all of these for free, although debatably not cleaned up quite as much as the official releases in some instances.  The Relisten app and website, for me, make searching for specific dates and shows a lot easier than on archive, org itself.  (Relisten links to the archive.org recordings and you can scan through all the different recordings for a given show.  its pretty cool.)

Link to post
Share on other sites
Mr. Heartbreak

Mr. Heartbreak

Posted
Posted

Yeah, archive.org is a way to listen to almost all of these for free, although debatably not cleaned up quite as much as the official releases in some instances.  The Relisten app and website, for me, make searching for specific dates and shows a lot easier than on archive, org itself.  (Relisten links to the archive.org recordings and you can scan through all the different recordings for a given show.  its pretty cool.)

Oh, that looks like a very cool resource. I was not familiar with it. It's easy to go right to a certain date and show and play any track you want, and you can do it on your desktop without having to download the app.

The archive used to be much easier to navigate. When they made some major changes to it awhile back, they created a huge cluster. This is better. Thanks for posting that.

Link to post
Share on other sites
jw harding

jw harding

Posted
Posted

The 8/6/71 Hollywood Palladium show that Shug mentioned is also a great recommendation for the casual fan. The Dead at their most rocking. That Hard to Handle is one of their great peaks. The audience recording is actually probably superior to the soundboard release that Shug mentions, as it really captures the bonkers energy in the room that night. One of the few times I'd take an aud over sbd.

Link to post
Share on other sites
choo-choo-charlie

choo-choo-charlie

Posted
Posted

Thanks everyone. I’m laughing at how overwhelming this can become. And for what it’s worth, I’m going to start with the same 4-5 shows that multiple people mentioned because those seem to be consensus favorites and they’re available on streaming services (Amazon Prime in my house).

 

I don’t mind AUDs but I prefer a good, crisp SBD any day with great low end punch and really good clarity/separation. There are some AUDs that get pretty damn close or have just enough of the room in the mix (I’ve listened to thousands of hours of Phish shows) but I’ve also labored through plenty of boomy, lifeless AUDs too. We all like what we like!

 

I also should mention that I listen to other music too. There’s enough Phish or GD or whatever improvisational rock band to listen to exclusively for a lifetime. I like to get to know recordings pretty well before moving on, so I may listen to Sunshine Daydream for a month before picking something else, and of course, listening to other things too. Gotta cleanse the palate.

 

Thanks again for the recommendations.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Mr. Heartbreak

Mr. Heartbreak

Posted
Posted

I also should mention that I listen to other music too. 

:lol

The way we Deadheads go on here, you'd think we listen to nothing but them and maybe an occasional tune from that band Jeff Tweedy fronts, whatever the heck they're called.

 

I go through phases of listening to the Dead quite a bit, then do something like what I did last week: obsessively go through every single show I can find from the Yes 1977 Going for the One tour, with a mix of all sorts of stuff in between...from Mazzy Star to early 70s Miles Davis.

 

If you do listen to something like SSDD (and no other Dead) for a while, it would be interesting to skip ahead to a '75 or '77 show and see how that strikes you. Unlike almost any other band I can think of, pretty much every year of the Dead's live history is like a slightly, or even radically, different era.

Link to post
Share on other sites
jw harding

jw harding

Posted
Posted

For future reference, seems like GD curriculum would be:

 

101: Europe 72, Live/Dead, Working Man's, American Beauty, Reckoning, Without a Net, GD Movie

 

201: 8/27/72 (Sunshine Daydream)

6/9/77

5/8/77
12/19/73 (Dick's Picks 1)
8/13/75 (One from the Vault)
8/24/68 (Two from the Vault)
5/19/74

5/2/70

8/6/71

6/10/73

Ladies and Gentlemen

Steppin Out

Formerly the Warlocks

Infrared Roses

Long Strange Trip doc

 

From there, it would probably be graduate level courses focusing on specific eras/tours - Fillmore Box, Europe 72, Spring 77. Going through all the Dicks Picks. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
mountain bed

mountain bed

Posted
Posted

Man, this is such an impossible thing for me to wrap my head around I don't know where to begin. For an overarching look at the evolution of the band that 30 Trips box set is a good place to start. When I first heard about the project I started thinking about what I would choose, and lo and behold my choices were the same as Lemieux's on a number of shows - 11/10/67, 9/18/74, 9/28/75, 10/27/79, 7/31/82 and 10/26/89. 

 

Really, almost any official release is worthy of a serious listen - the discography on Wikipedia can give you an idea of what you might want to look into. 

 

As for things that have not seen an official release I'd suggest a few things ; The Ark (Boston) run from 4/21-23/69 needs a box set treatment - it's just about the pinnacle (other than the Fillmore West '69 box) of the TC "Baroque Dead" period. 6/10/73 might be my favorite show EVER. And any of the dozen shows that have a Dark Star > Dew (from 5/18/72 through 10/18/74) is essential listening. They've released about half of those.

Link to post
Share on other sites
jw harding

jw harding

Posted
Posted

2/15/73 Dane County is a popular starter tape.

 

Here's a pretty special stretch of music. 5/25/72:

 

Uncle John's Band ->
Jam ->
Wharf Rat ->
Dark Star ->
Sugar Magnolia

 

The Jam is really Dark Star, and they drift seamlessly into Wharf Rat, which really hits home how similar the music is to the two tunes. Then following the Wharf Rat they do go into Dark Star. The Dark Star is about 34 minutes. Really enjoy the buildup from Dark Star into Sugar Mag, which they did a few times on this tour. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Followers 2
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...