I’ve been listening and enjoy The Grateful Dead Album Pacific Northwest '73-'74. Since I don’t know the Dead that well and have only just started listening to them. I was wondering what everyone’s favorite live Grateful Dead performances were. I’d really appreciate hearing your recommendations and why you like them so much.
There are so many. The “Get Shown The Light” box set, particularly 5/8/1977 Barton Hall, Cornell is iconic.
Also, “Wake Up To Find Out” which is the complete 3/29/1990 Nassau Coliseum show is highly revered…
For the Jerry Garcia Band, try to find a copy of “After Midnight”, the 1980 Keene College show. It’s tremendous, except for the 2 songs Robert Hunter sings, which are hard to take.
For a change of pace, “Reckoning,” an acoustic set (except Phil still played electric bass) from a series of shows in 1980 at Radio City Music Hall in NYC and the Warfield Theater in SF (I saw four of the Warfield shows). “Dead Set” is an electric collection from the same shows. “Live Dead” is the classic psychedelic compendium from 1969. “The Closing of Winterland” is a personal favorite, partly because I was there and saw many shows at that venue. (An ersatz version of the New Riders of the Purple Sage opened, followed by the Blues Brothers (original line-up), then the Dead came on at midnight and played until 6 a.m. It’s also available on DVD (Dead portion only).) As suggested by dancingsea, 1977 and the 1989-1990 periods produced a lot of good material. The latter includes some of the best in terms of recording quality. Jerry was relatively healthy then and technically the band was at a peak (I say “a” peak because you will get a lot of arguments over when they were at their best). “Without a Net” and “Dozin’ at the Knick” are good collections from that period. Dick’s Picks 15 is a great show from 1977 (you can probably get it as a download from nugs.net). There is a lot to choose from.
I’ve been listening to the band for 47 years, but my two favorite albums are still Europe 72 and the live one just before, known as Skull and Roses or Skullfuck, but officially titled the Grateful Dead. They were the ones where the band overdubbed vocals in the Alembic studio over tracks played back through their amps to get appropriate leakage into the vocal mics. I know, I know… cheating. It really works, and especially in the early 70s when the band had just had a moment of focusing on those vocals.
What is the Betty Board?
Alpine Valley Music Theatre 1988-06-23
Unfortunately no official release, as far I know.
It is available to listen at:
https://archive.org/details/gd88-06-23.
sennheiser.ladner.17407.sbeok.shnf
I broke it in two sections as the whole show came up.
I was hoping to find a better recording, imagine my surprise when I saw who taped it. I have second generation cassettes of the show, as Craig is a friend of mine. We were both there. It includes some of my favorites, “It Must Have Been The Roses”, “He’s Gone”, a really fine “Morning Dew”, a rare live performance of “Believe It Or Not” *, and closed the run with “Brokedown Palace”.
*It was never released on an official release, but is on the box set “So Many Roads” minus the lead guitar that Jerry intended to add at a later date.
This show includes two of the three songs I want played at my memorial. Starting with the Crash Test Dummies “At My Funeral”, midway through “He’s Gone” and “Brokedown Palace” at the end.
If you are getting into the Dead, I would also suggest that you check out the Jerry Garcia Band, the double CD released on Arista, just titled “Jerry Garcia Band”. It has what I think is the best version of Dylan’s “Simple Twist Of Fate” and also a fine version of “That Lucky Old Sun”. And Volume 8 of JGB releases, available at the Jerry Garcia website. Check out his artwork, I believe most of it was done with an air brush.
A Betty Board were shows taped by Betty Cantor, taken off the soundboard, I think from the front of the house board. Often the taper section would be given access to the board out in the audience. It would have so many Y-adaptors, I often wondered if the output could drive 10+ tape recorders.
My friend usually taped from his seat, using a pair of Sennhieser mikes. We went to see David Crosby, I think it was his first tour after getting out of prison. He smuggled in his recorder and a mike in each sleeve. He would talk to the people around us, and take their addresses. For being quiet during the songs, he would send them a copy of the tapes.
David Kemper on drums! Good pal, genius drummer.
great thread, thanks for starting it dj.
i’ve been to about 30-35 Dead shows from 1989 to 1994. loved seeing them live. managed to see 7 shows in Europe in 1990. Those were great shows, with Bruce Hornsby on piano and accordion. Jerry and Bobby were really rocking. A time of transition for the band with the death of Brent earlier in the year.
for me, the best shows were from 1990 - earlier in the summer during the US east coast shows, then in Europe in the fall of 1990. for ‘studio’ albums of this era, check out “Without A Net”.
and to echo posts from others, definitely check out JGB. and if you’re into acoustic, the first Garcia/Grisman album is one of my all time favs.
have fun the well is deep! Deep Ellum Blues!
Sully
@tj-sully I think you hit the nail on the head. The well is deep and definitely daunting, that’s why I turned to all you aficionados here to help me get the lay of the land.
There’s so much. . . but to be honest my favorite may be anything from '72 Europe.
And I love Pigpen in earlier years. A longtime collector made me about 10 cdrs of Pigpen features from the years '68 to '71 and I love these.
That’s another one where the vocals are rumored to have been rerecorded. I don’t care. Great performances and sounds great, particularly the Japanese pressing if you can find it.
50 years ago - working my way through the famous four night run. There’s really not a dull moment… although I could do without Pig Pen singing “Hey Jude.” 
Yes you bet. Sometimes it just comes down to putting the time in….and listening.
1977 was a great year for the Dead, and the three Winterland concerts on June 7, 8 and 9 released on Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings are among the best of that year. Unfortunately, this 9-CD box set is out of print and getting really expensive on the secondary market.
cool album cover!
That is actually an internal graphic. The outer box cover of Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings is also very cool, and text-free:
“Go To Nassau”, taken from May 1980, and “Truckin’ Up To Buffalo” (particularly the vinyl rip) are also excellent official releases.
For me, the two Spring 1990 box sets are the best sound quality - and epitomize the last great period for the band since the late 70’s, everyone was mostly sober, the musicianship and audio quality are exemplary. Both were limited editions and difficult to find. Amazon has secondary market versions starting at $540! Which is absurd.
Keeping with the deadhead ethos of creative capitalism, and if PS Audio is ok with it, I’m happy to upload some of them to a free cloud account for anyone here to download. I think they’re all 24/ 192.
