Cool CliveB. Thanks for posting. I don’t have this book in my, otherwise, extensive Grateful Dead library. I will check it out.
Gary
Welcome Sten. Happy to see you here. I should have known (or at least suspected) that among all the Naim enthusiasts worldwide that there would likely be lots of Dead fans among us. All of a sudden recently I thought it would be great to reach out and connect. When I searched the Music Room threads and couldn’t find any Grateful Dead threads I knew it was time to start one.
Yes, I was thinking about the Cornell May '77 vinyl box set recently and was going to mention it on here. Great pickup and a great show. I can’t remember, exactly, without looking it up, but I do remember seeing it recently (as well as when these shows came out) that this show is so famous that it is part of the Library of Congress here in the U.S. The entire cd box set from those May '77 shows is awesome. Both the spring and fall tours in 1977 were great Grateful Dead times.
I was finishing high school in May of '77 and I lived a few hours south of Cornell in the NYC/Long Island area but wasn’t yet that deeply into the Dead, nor was I someone who was going to travel a few hours north with some friends to see a concert at that time in my life… things were about to change however. I arrived at college in upstate NY in late August of '77 and began my GD concert going with the Nov. 6, 1977 Binghamton (Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena) show. Interestingly I saw shows at Cornell in the spring of 1980 and the spring of 1981 but missed the 1977 show.
One more “fun fact” about the Spring '77 Cornell show - my girlfriend at college, who had arrived at school a year before me and had gone to that show, it was a beautiful warm, sunny, spring day in May when they went in to the show and while they were in there there was a blizzard so all these tripping heads came out of that monster of a show into massive snow everywhere. There was so often “magic” of one sort or another around Dead shows.
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And, I am expecting my St. Louis box set to be delivered either today or tomorrow. I also, in the same “haul” am going to receive the 5 LP box set of the Fillmore West 2/28/69 show (still available on dead.net) and the the two LP set they are calling “Light into Ashes: Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO, 10-18-72” which is an hour long continuous jam from that night that includes “Playing in the Band” > drums > Dark Star > Morning Dew > Playing in the Band." It is a relatively inexpensive 2 LP set and I couldn’t resist.
Hey ToddHarris, I think most of the “D**k’s Picks” and sold out “Dave’s Picks” are only available on the “secondary” market where people often want a lot of money for them. 1972 was also a great year for the dead. That is definitely a great show. I saw some shows at The Spectrum back in the early '80’s.
I meant to comment, when I first saw you pop up on here but never did, not only is your avatar cool with the SYF but that you have the Rangers logo in there. I am originally from NY and grew up playing hockey for much of my pre-college life. My dad was a life-long Rangers fan and he and I used to sit on his bed and listen to the home Ranger games on the radio (back in the day) since in the pre-cable days you could only see the away games on tv. It was always interesting, though, as I grew up a Boston Bruins fan (still to this day) due to a book I read when I was 9 years old.
Normally, on the Forum, I would be sensitive to “hijacking” a thread but hey, since I started this thread I guess that gives me the “right” to hijack it… lol. OK, hijacking done… back to your regularly scheduled Grateful Dead programming…
ToddHarris,
So many great things in this post of yours about the 72-74 Dead and the various quotes and musical comments. I hadn’t ever heard that Phil quote about “Billy playing like a God” from the Europe '72 tour. Awesome.
Somewhere, and it may have been in the great Dennis McNally book about the Dead (“Long Strange Trip”) or somewhere else where it was talking about the Bill Graham shows at The Fillmore (W & E) and the interesting lineups that they would put together. It turns out, in those years, when the Miles Davis band was on the bill they were usually the opener. Miles said that they would intentionally show up very late so that the headline act would have to go on first and Miles and his band could wind up playing after them. Miles said he never did that with the Dead dates and that he respected them and that their approach to playing music was more “Jazz like” than any other rock bands of the time.
As for the influences and Phil’s comment, I am sure one of the things that many of us find so interesting is how the Dead’s music took bits from, paid homage to, and incorporated so many different American musical forms; jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, etc. How they mixed all that with the avant garde classical stuff that Phil and T.C. were into and the other things they were listening to… so cool.
From the “Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast” (an amazing fountain of information!) I have recently heard about this professor of music at Ohio State University, Dr. Graeme Boone, who has lots of writing and speaking engagements around the Dead, their music, “Dark Star,” etc. I am just diving in to him on the internet and seeing what kinds of things I can find. Very interesting.
Yep got the Filmore West 69 box - also a cracker! You mentioned the hour long jam session of playing in the band - is that the same as was released for RSD a while back on a single LP - Seattle 1974?
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Hey Sten,
No, the “PITB” I am referring to is not the one you have pictured. I don’t have that and would love to as Seattle is where I live now. I love those shows from that box set even though I messed up by not getting the box and only buying the 3 disc cd set that had various cuts from those shows. I have never seen this RSD disc you have pictured above.
The one I am referring to, which is part of the releases for the new “Listen to the River” St. Louis shows is called “Light into Ashes” and it is 2 LP’s and a continuous jam of "Playing in the Band > drums > Dark Star > Uncle John’s Band > Playing in the Band… I believe it is an hour’s worth of music spread over the 4 sides.
Here’s an image of it - you can find it on dead.net…
Whilst I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a Deadhead, I love a lot of their music.
I was lucky enough to see them play live at the Rainbow Theatre in 1981, which was a lovely change from my normal musical diet of Punk Rock at the time. The first Mrs Nicos didn’t like them at all, and left early after a blazing row, but that was pretty much par for the course as we had very different tastes in music!
I certainly haven’t explored their catalogue as much as I would like to, but for now my favourite of their studio albums is Blues For Allah, and Live/Dead is one of my favourite live albums ever.
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What an opportune thread!
I have been listening to a bit of Gratefull Dead, tried a few times to get into them but I think this time could actually be on to something. Listened to Live Dead yesterday and thought it rather good so have ordered the CD which arrives tomorrow and have looked up the best albums to try and Workingmans Dead has been recommended.
Tim
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Despite being chronologically close together, Live, and Workingman’s are poles apart stylistically, so liking one may not mean you like the other!
Live was at the pinnacle of their early psychedelic period, Workingman’s was a massive shift to a more country/folk rock vibe. American Beauty, released later the same year, continued in similar vein, and IMO is the better choice from this era.
I couldn’t agree more. I had that first UK pressing, and the engineering (?) of the recording was quite superb, in terms of instrument placing, co-ordinated handovers of the lead etc. That set of discs was ‘disappeared’ by an ex-flatmate (who went on to further dishonesty): the replacement copy, pressed in Germany, was frankly a bit muddy and imprecise in comparison.
This appears to be a not uncommon problem, as demonstrated by some of the ‘Hi-Res’ stuff on streaming sites.
Hi Nicosrex,
Well you might not call yourself a Deadhead but being into “Blues For Allah” and “Live Dead” definitely represents being somewhat deep into the pudding as they used to say. I think it is pretty safe to say that anyone who listens to, and appreciates, “Live Dead” definitely “gets” the Dead’s music. Welcome to the thread.
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Welcome Timbo, as Nicosrex points out below, “Live Dead” and “Workingman’s Dead” are quite a bit apart on the spectrum of the Dead’s music. One (“Live Dead”) being a wonderful “picture” of the band at the end of their “Psychedelic '60’s” phase and the other one (“Workingman’s Dead”) the beginning of their move into incorporating more country, bluegrass and more attention to a different song structure for the first time. Both are, indeed, excellent albums.
One thing about the Dead that has always been true is that every time they play a song live they tried to come at it differently, invent new ways of playing, phrasing, and delivering it so once you get into their music it becomes more and more interesting to check out the copious quantities of live discs where you get to hear what they could really do with each song they played. That being said, there are lots of cool live and studio albums to check out. Another recommendation would be to check out the album referred to as “Skull and Roses” which is live material from 1971 and is another example of the band really on it’s game.
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Ashamed to admit that I have come to appreciate them very late in life - blame an over focus on hard and prog rock in the 70s. I have the recent anniversary American Beauty release that has two CDs full of live material from the Skull & Roses time. Should I get the latter as well or is it more of the same.
You should get Skull and Roses because it’s from a bit later in the year and their playing is stronger. The run which is on the American Beauty anniversary CD was recorded just at the time that their second drummer had left and they were also introducing new songs, so they were adapting to changed circumstances. That said, the live material from the same run on the Working Man’s Dead anniversary release is very good.
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Thanks very much, didn’t really like Workingman’s Dead, but early days and will try it again sometime.
Will give Skull and Roses a go next time I’ve got a chance.
Grateful for the guidance.
Tim
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My favourite GD vinyl set 
The Complete Sunshine Daydream Concert
Limited Edition Of 5000
Four 180-gram LP’s housed in a 4-panel “M-pack” jacket featuring original artwork.
Mixed & Mastered From The Original 16-Track Tapes
Mixed at TRI Studios, San Rafael, CA
Mastered at Mockingbird Mastering, Petaluma, CA
Lacquers Cut at Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood, CA
Recorded by Alembic
Tape Transfer, Time-base Correction, and Restoration using Plangent Processes
<<>>
Cost me 50 quid seven years ago, now seem to be fetching silly big bucks money pre-owned…
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Sunshine Daydream is an excellent set.
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Been thinking of getting the Daydream 3CD/DVD set, thanks for reminding me!
And…bought. A nice sealed ltd edition cos it has the 40 page booklet.
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