5-13-77

[schwerty]

Love the 30 days gig!

[cdubski]

4-3-82. One of the spaciest Scarlets ever and warts and all GD sloppiness with some flashes of brilliance in the rest... good stuff.

[Angle Parking]

Everyone here has probably listened / viewed this one a thousand times but I thought I might share my solace on this rough day in my life. (haven't perused the whole thread yet so i apologize if this is a repeat)

[Binky]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...GpfQnNiTHVKa1k

JGB soundboards from 84-94 (all lossless)

[bodywhomper]

happy palladium day

[ticketchecker]

http://cornellsun.com/2017/05/02/cor...ation-concert/

[bodywhomper]

happy new haven day!

[bodywhomper]

Yee haw, Boston garden day!

AND THE WHISTLE IS SCREAMING

[BigDaddy]

Cornell is celebrating today with a bell tower concert: http://cornellsun.com/2017/05/02/cor...ation-concert/

I will update when I find a link...

6:00-6:30pm. Cornell Chimes to perform the following arrangements:

����⚡️❤️��

Touch of Grey
Written by: Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia
Performed by: John Lee ’18

They Love Each Other
Written by: Jerry Garcia
Performed by: Serim An ’17 and Billie Sun ’19

Hey Jude
Written by: Paul McCartney and John Lennon
Performed by: John Lee ‘18

Ripple
Written by: Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia
Performed by: Jennifer Lory-Moran ’96, ‘97

Playing in the Band
Written by: Robert Hunter and Bob Weir
Performed by: Serim An ‘17 + Josh Chan ‘18

Blackbird
Written by: Paul McCartney and John Lennon
Performed by: Josh Chan ‘18

Sound of Silence
Written by: Paul Simon
Performed by: Billie Sun ‘19

Uncle John's Band
Written by: Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia
Performed by: Jennifer Lory-Moran ’96, ’97 and Gretchen Ryan ‘97

[BigDaddy]

And if you want a quality recording of the 5/8/77 show: http://www.rhino.com/article/out-now...ive-to-deadnet

Direct from the Betty Boards. Only thing close, was a recording from JGB, but this is in proper order and pretty clean. Props to JGB for getting me through for many years, though

[Tye 1on]

[bodywhomper]

My favorite scarlet fire (that I've listened to)

[buttahflake]

It's overrated. First night Richmond '85, is the best show ever played. Just check the She Belongs to Me. Jerry emotes so much in both solos. Truly the best. I might have show bias, I was there. But it was good enough for Dick Latvala, so there is that.

Got to be funky!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3oere9NT9u0

[bodywhomper]

We all have show bias

[BigDaddy]

It's overrated.

Best $6.50 I ever spent.

My favorite scarlet fire (that I've listened to)

It was the first time I'd heard Scarlet Begonias. I was completely and totally blown away... spiritually moved.

[buttahflake]

You were drunk, frat boy. Don't pretend you member it.
I was spun on the perfect dose, for Richmond. Every note is etched into my hard drive.

[FussyDutchman]

^

Way too many to count as bias for shows is hard to discount (saw both Richmond shows, they were fantastic and She Belongs is easily top 3 ever played) but if I'm going strictly on the shows themselves here are my top 5 of 85 off the top of my head.

6/24 Riverbend
6/30 Merriweather
11/1 Richmond
3/13 Berkeley
7/1 Merriweather


In the mix:

6/14 Greek
11/11 Byrne
6/28 Hershey
9/15 Chula Vista
4/27 Frost

I am sure I left a few out but 85 was such a great year for quick availability of boards that it became a favorite for many even though on the whole it was a very hit or miss year night by night, mainly dependent on Jerry's voice and coherence. Phil on the other hand, monster year imo!

[BigDaddy]

You were drunk, frat boy. Don't pretend you member it.
I was spun on the perfect dose, for Richmond. Every note is etched into my hard drive.

Sorry buttah, I guess you gotta deal with it. Why you have to be so bitter about it, I don't know, but it's your problem, not mine. Kinda sad, but hey. Your choice.

[BigDaddy]

Interesting take from a friend. Even has a skiing analogy:

The Dead’s longtime tape archivist, now dead himself, was Dick Latvala. It was after him that the Dead named their first series of archival releases (36 in all), Dick’s Picks. He was down on the Cornell show. He once wrote, “Best ever? It wasn’t even their best show that week.” There is a quartet of shows from that time that most every Deadhead agrees were gold: New Haven (5/5); Boston (5/7); Ithaca (5/8); and Buffalo (5/9). In fact, the Dead just released a box set of those four shows. It took so long because they didn’t own the tapes to Cornell. Their sound engineer from the time had kept them, gone bankrupt and left them in an unpaid storage locker until its contents were ignominiously auctioned off. It’s quite a cloak and dagger story, but the tapes finally made their way back to the vault, due in no small part to the intervention of Rob Eaton, an old taper himself but better known today as the guy who plays Weir in Dark Star Orchestra. The recent box set was limited to 1,500 copies and sold out in an hour. To this day, it’s hip and “countercultural” for Deadheads to say Cornell wasn’t the best show ever. But survey after survey reveals that most say it is and for good reason.



So, why Cornell?



1. Back in the late 80’s a taper in Albany sent me a copy - my first of 5/8/77. His note said, “they played like they had all the time in the world”. To my ear and after years of shows and tapes, that comment stands up as maybe the single best statement of the show’s greatness. It unfolds with a mystical, dreamlike pacing that still makes my hair stand on end.



2. 1977 was an apogee and a turning point in the band’s performance history. They traversed a series of phases from their birth in December 1965 to October 1974 when they hung it up. Everyone thought it was over, but it turned out only to be a hiatus until they began touring again for good in the spring of 1976. They were rejuvenated and more polished. By 1977, their ability to layer together the improvisational leads each member was unaccountably playing at the same time was unparalleled. No one else pulled this off with equal aplomb, even more technically proficient players in other improvisational settings, like Bill Monroe or Miles Davis. Yet, they still created surprise and astonishment by turning miraculously on a dime. The highs that accompanied earlier periods were certainly gone, but in those times peaks seemed to arise serendipitously, inspiring the kind of joy one might experience seeing a world class skier hit a rock at 90 miles per hour, turn fifty cartwheels, careen off trees, and then land unmolested on his skis to finish the race. In ’77, Jean-Claude Killy never hit a rock, not once. Ultimately, the epic quality their ’77 shows achieved was most evident in May. No one can say why, but there’s no arguing the point.



3. By acclimation, even among the 5/8/77 doubters, they played the “best ever” version of a number of their most beloved songs: Row Jimmy, Loser, and a “disco” version of Dancing in the Street. The second set, however, is what propels the show into history and likely explains why the Library of Congress enshrined a tape of it in the National Recording Registry: Scarlet Begonias>Fire on the Mountain; Estimated Prophet>St. Stephen>Not Fade Away>Morning Dew. That suite (they never played those songs in that order at any other show) is desert island stuff; in fact, it makes one want to find a desert island to be alone forever with it.



4. Barton Hall’s acoustics -- the big barn -- lend depth and reverb to the sound that tapes of few if any other shows have.

[wyeaster]

thanks for posting that

[FussyDutchman]

Very cool post BD, never had heard about the Eaton story, thanks.

[Danno]

Show bias is rampant. And even within that, it's often bias towards what songs they actually played. The Warlocks shows they played at Hampton in 1989 were amazing, but is that my impression because I was there? Because of all the old songs they pulled out for the first time in forever? Was MSG in 1983 the best show because they played St. Stephen, my favorite song as a high schooler?

My favorite shows are early ones, though, because I'm a Pigpen guy (sadly too young to have seen him live).

[ticketchecker]

Happy Buffalo '77!

[bodywhomper]

YEEHAW!!!!

(i'm a pigpen fan, too. i was turned onto his antics by an old friend who saw him many times). i know several old timers that grew up/lived in the bay area in the late 60's and saw the dead a lot back then. it would have been a very different experience than most of us.

[Sullywhacker]

My favorite shows are early ones, though, because I'm a Pigpen guy (sadly too young to have seen him live).

Today is the 40th anniversary of my first show: May 11, 1977 at the St Paul Civic Center >> did a shrooms and purple microdot combo -- wtf was I thinking? So 40+ years of being a Deadhead and I find myself listening almost exclusively to shows from the prime Pig years 68-70 >> as noted before, put some headphones on and listen to an audience tape of Lovelight from 1970 and see what kind of raucous religion Pig could bring to a crowd.