The Grateful Dead Dark Star

[jazzbo]

Yes I will get the three cd set of American Beauty/American Reality. I don't listen much past 73/74 either, though the official releases do sound so good these last five years or so and are good shows.

Edited September 9, 2020 by jazzbo

[Gdgray]

I agree the Dead releases are some of the best sounding. I sold off the two Spring boxes and 30 trips, but the second Spring  set was particularly fine sounding...... just couldn’t take Brent any longer. The vinyl releases have been really good to my ears as well. Looking forward to American Beauty if the latest Workingman’s Dead is any indication of what to expect.

[jazzbo]

I neglected to add I have all the official product of shows up until Brent showed up. . . nothing after that. Just can't get into Brent and beyond.

I just pre-ordered the three cd set of "American Beauty" (ever since I finally saw it, I call this to myself "American Reality").

[Brad]

I’m going to pass on ordering the new one. As someone on Hoffman said, new mastering but no new content. 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Brad

[Steve Reynolds]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

I’m going to pass on ordering the new one. As someone on Hoffman said, new mastering but no new content. 

2/18/71 show is a 16 track live recording - only the 5 minute “Beautiful Jam” from the Dark Star has been previously released.  

[Brad]

1 hour ago, Steve Reynolds said:

2/18/71 show is a 16 track live recording - only the 5 minute “Beautiful Jam” from the Dark Star has been previously released.  

I should have clarified that I meant the tracks on American Beauty, not the Port Chester concerts. 

[Tom 1960]

Like I needed another show from 77 but managed to pick up a pretty affordable copy of the Englishtown show for about $40 on discogs.

[mjzee]

I'm pretty well set on Dead shows.  Not sure what else I'd need.  I'd like to hear more shows from the second half of 1969, if tapes exist.

[Steve Reynolds]

18 minutes ago, mjzee said:

I'm pretty well set on Dead shows.  Not sure what else I'd need.  I'd like to hear more shows from the second half of 1969, if tapes exist.

There are quite a few - probably the only thing holding back the end of the year Boston Tea Party shows are a missing Owsley reel on one of the shows. Still expect some of this late 69 stuff coming out over the next couple of years. A good amount was recorded by Owsley on reel to reel. Some don’t love his recordings but I think they are tremendous despite the odd stereo that he recorded the music with - with vocals primarily on one channel. I also LOVE the metallic sound he got from the guitars, the ultra crisp sound of the dual drums (MUCH more to my liking than the post-hiatus sound of the dual drummers although the 76-78 Betty Boards are of course spectacular).

Very glad we got 1/2 & 1/3/70 via Dave's 30. Very strong release - maybe especially the 1/3/70 stuff on the bonus disc. Great Owsley Stanley reel to reel recordings.

[mjzee]

47 minutes ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Very glad we got 1/2 & 1/3/70 via Dave's 30. Very strong release - maybe especially the 1/3/70 stuff on the bonus disc. Great Owsley Stanley reel to reel recordings.

Would've loved to hear that.  It's a problem with their subscription business model: they want you to pay a year in advance, and you don't know what they plan to release.  For every 1/2 & 1/3/70, it seems we get far more 9/2/83 (to give just one example).

[Gdgray]

I have always liked the ABB show from February 1970 that Owsley taped and was out on Greatful Dead label. I still prefer that CD over the Bears’ Sonic Journal version. Definitely funky mix. The book on The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III is an interesting read, what a life. IMO the Dead would be a different band without him in the early years.

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Gdgray
Grammar

[Steve Reynolds]

35 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Would've loved to hear that.  It's a problem with their subscription business model: they want you to pay a year in advance, and you don't know what they plan to release.  For every 1/2 & 1/3/70, it seems we get far more 9/2/83 (to give just one example).

Usually it’s been 3 out of 4 winners. I expect a great show for Dave's 36. This year Dave's 33 was a great 10/29/77 show, Dave’s 34 was an even better 6/23/74 show with amazing bonus material from 6/22/74 on the bonus disc. The 4/20/84 show released as Dave's 35 was good for almost one listen but the other 3 releases more than make up for it. 
 

last year was also great:

Dave’s 29: 2/26/77 - one of the best shows of the year - I like it better than the famous May 77 shows 

Dave’s 30 - see above

Dave’s 31 - 12/3/79 - like the 1984 show - lousy cassette based sound and a so so show

Dave’s 32 - 3/24/73 - great show 

[mjzee]

13 minutes ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Dave’s 32 - 3/24/73 - great show 

I saw them the week before: Nassau Coliseum, 3/16/73.  It was my first Dead show.  Available on archive.org.

[Steve Reynolds]

Just now, mjzee said:

I saw them the week before: Nassau Coliseum, 3/16/73.  It was my first Dead show.  Available on archive.org.

I expect that show gets released in the next year or two along with 3/30/73

many people were surprised they went with 3/24/73 over this show last year

It has a great set list including an opening China>Rider which is very unusual - includes Bird Song, Playing & Dark Star. There has been only one show from 1973 released with a Bird Song (6/22/73 from the Pacific Northwest box) and both 3/16 & 3/30/73 include versions of the Garcia/Hunter classic. Later 1980’s & 90’s versions do not compare to the great late 72 & 73 versions. Plus we need 2/23/74 released which includes the last pre-hiatus and only 1974 version.

how much about the show do you remember? 

[mjzee]

1 minute ago, Steve Reynolds said:

I expect that show gets released in the next year or two along with 3/30/73

many people were surprised they went with 3/24/73 over this show last year

It has a great set list including an opening China>Rider which is very unusual - includes Bird Song, Playing & Dark Star. There has been only one show from 1973 released with a Bird Song (6/22/73 from the Pacific Northwest box) and both 3/16 & 3/30/73 include versions of the Garcia/Hunter classic. Later 1980’s & 90’s versions do not compare to the great late 72 & 73 versions. Plus we need 2/23/74 released which includes the last pre-hiatus and only 1974 version.

how much about the show do you remember? 

It was announced just the day before that Pigpen had died.  There was a show the night before, and rumor was it was "off" - very low energy.  The show I saw was great.  We wondered whether they'd do "He's Gone" - they didn't, and didn't say a word about him.  I remember waiting outside the Nassau Coliseum for hours waiting to be let in.  It was St. Patrick's Day, and someone passed out green-colored bagels.  The Coliseum's doors were glass, and the crowd was pressing hard against the doors to be let in; those doors took a lot of punishment, and I thought the glass might break (they didn't).  I remember how long they took between songs to tune.  I remember a very upbeat "They Love Each Other," and was surprised by the slower version on Garcia's "Reflections" album.  

[AaronG]

Funny to read some of these comments. With a couple exceptions (Egypt 78 and Austin’71) I stopped buying this stuff after 2002. Bad blood and greed soured me on the Dead. Interesting that some people stop with Brent’s arrival. There’s been so much revisionism over the past 20 years.

Also, I swear some of my Maxell tapes from way back sound better than the official releases.

[jazzbo]

I've had a lot of tapes. . . none have sounded better to me than the official versions!

I get the revisionist comment. . . but I stopped with Brent. . . by 1980. Just never got into him, and I jumped off the bus and stayed off as far as anything the Dead did after that. Followed some Garcia Band after that, but not a lot.

[AaronG]

1 hour ago, jazzbo said:

I've had a lot of tapes. . . none have sounded better to me than the official versions!

I get the revisionist comment. . . but I stopped with Brent. . . by 1980. Just never got into him, and I jumped off the bus and stayed off as far as anything the Dead did after that. Followed some Garcia Band after that, but not a lot.

6-28-74 is one tape I like better than the CD, which sounded very thin.

I get not liking Brent. The first half of the 1980’s is probably my least favorite era. There was a lot of deification of Brent later on. But frankly, there was a fair number of people who were happy for a change. All the complaints about ‘90’s Dead strike me as Monday morning quarterbacking, so to speak. It had its detractors at the time, but, as your comments demonstrate, so did every era.

[jazzbo]

4 minutes ago, AaronG said:

6-28-74 is one tape I like better than the CD, which sounded very thin.

I get not liking Brent. The first half of the 1980’s is probably my least favorite era. There was a lot of deification of Brent later on. But frankly, there was a fair number of people who were happy for a change. All the complaints about ‘90’s Dead strike me as Monday morning quarterbacking, so to speak. It had its detractors at the time, but, as your comments demonstrate, so did every era.

I haven't liked '90s era that I've heard enough to pursue shows. I didn't hear them at the time. By the 'eighties I was abandoning rock except playing drums in three bands over the second half of the decade--my own listening was steadily flowing into jazz, and jazz has pretty much remained my main listening staple since. So yes, I can see people "happy for a change" as I was happy to make a change away from rock in general. I didn't come back to listening to the Dead with any frequency until the middle of the 2000s when my wife came down with lymphoma and we battled that disease, ultimately unsuccessfully, for two and a half years. Downloading shows and making artwork for them gave me something to do and to listen to in hospital waiting rooms, doctor's offices, chemo clinics, and extended stay rooms (we spent nearly an entire year living in another city for cancer treatment). I felt somewhat guilty involved in all these "free shows," and bought all the official releases up through '78 and still have those, though there's dust on a number of them.

[AaronG]

I basically abandoned rock when I abandoned the Dead. Jazz has filled that space ever since. Only now, during the pandemic, have I really bothered to revisit this, even avoiding this thread until today.

There seemed to be some magic in the past, but those days are over.

[Roundsound]

On the other hand, I only listened to jazz for many years.  The Dead got me back to rock.   I listen to jazz 50%.  

[mjzee]

Dave's Picks 2021 subscription now available.

[Steve Reynolds]

American Beauty 50th anniversary CD set arrived yesterday with the 2/18/71 Capital Theatre show in all of it’s multi-tracked glory. 
 

 

24 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Dave's Picks 2021 subscription now available.

First show (Dave’s 37) is 4/15/78 (a short show) with 90 minutes bonus material from another show of that college tour. Very excited as late 77 & 78 is my post-hiatus sweet spot. Only Mornind Dew of 1978 was played on 4/15/78. 

[mjzee]

Howard Wales, pianist who played with the Grateful Dead, dies at 77

 

[Tom 1960]