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Grateful Dead Dave's Pick's Volume 48 ......time to put a fork in this !

I am a collector of this band's material and have been since the 70's. Fast forward about 20 years and bought all of Dick's Picks volumes and really enjoyed them all. Rhino pushed out '' Road Trips '' series which was when the Grateful Dead had Rhino distribute their live shows which were made up of partial shows and were okay at beat. I have all of those as well. Then picked up all of the box sets and there are a lot of those and some were mixed and recorded by Dan Healy which all of them sound like they were recorded under water or by a 12 year old. A lot of them were terrible sounding and he should have been sent to Siberia.

Then David Lemiux picked up the series after Dick Latvala passed and has put out 48 volumes of complete shows and most of them aren't too bad if they were recorded by Kid Candelero or especially by Better Cantor Jackson ........you can tell her stuff right off the bat or even Owsley Bear's stuff.

But the last one and a bunch before volume 48 are just bad.....it seems like they may have got to the bottom of the barrel and are just pushing these put now. I did although reluctantly sign up for the 2024 subscription but just can't help but feel that the quality in sound or the show itself was just not in the same league as others when this journey for them began doing this.

The mid year big box sets have been pretty good for the most part and maybe they should concentrate on just doing those for now. Also, the Dead and Rhino could skip all of the elaborate and sometimes just silly art work on those box sets and bring the price down on them. Some of that stuff is just unnecessary. 

So would like to hear from other's on what their thoughts are on if the Grateful Dead Dave Pick's Series has run its course .......thanks and stay well.  

     

garebear

Showing 5 responses by zlone

zlone
805 posts
 

I only selectively buy these and have not purchased one for a while, so can’t comment on any change. I have been disappointed by some in the past, especially the ‘77 stuff, that doesn’t seem to clean up well IMO. Europe 72 is spectacular, especially considering its age and the available technology at the time. I will be interested to see what others have to say. 

zlone
805 posts
 

Not part of any of the collections we are discussing, but have a listen to the Soundtrack to the Grateful Dead Movie. The performances are brilliant, and for the audiophile crowd the recording is one of the best. 

zlone
805 posts
 

Okay, I will bite and answer the question. My opinion, based on sheer numbers of shows, there is more to mine. The question is whether they have good quality tapes for the shows that are worth publishing. I don’t get the subscription because I am not interested in many of the shows they pick. You can always try before you buy by listening to the show on archive.org. 

zlone
805 posts
 

@stuartk 

I guess I'm in a small minority -- I much prefer the band's sound-system in say, '72, to the Wall of Sound. To my ear, the WoS creates way too much space around each player. 

There are some excellent performances on the Movie sound-track, no doubt, although "Donna Skreetch" does spoil a few.  I don't know what changed  (better monitors?) but when they came back from "retirement", her singing was much, much better. She was no longer over-singing and her pitch was hugely improved. I know some people hate her but when she sang in tune I enjoyed what she brought to the band. 

I like the '72 sound as well, the redone Europe '72 mixes are well done and really convey the energy of the band. I understand your thoughts on too much space around the players, but I guess I sort of groove on that a bit. 

Probably the most disappointing box set I bought was the Winterland '73 discs. They are just lifeless unless you turn them up really loud, and my ears won't take that anymore. Not sure what happened between 72 and 74 with their sound system.

Donna always said she could never hear herself on the monitors, guessing they improved that for her, a bit, after the hiatus.

zlone
805 posts
 

Good stories @larsman ​​​and ​@stuartk, I would have loved to see them in the 70's. Alas, my first show was '81 in St. Paul. Eye opening for sure! And very confusing to a new Deadhead with a post-space UJB->Playin->China Doll->UJB->Playin, what the hell is going on here?

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