Grateful Dead - Recommend An Album

Reckoning 

Reckoning, for Cassidy 

This has been an interesting thread. Not having any GD in my collection i thought i'd test the water with 'American Beauty' and have it on order. 

James

The phrase 'blue collar country' had me wondering how white collar country might sound

C.

On the subject of the Dead - Looking forward any day now to receiving a copy of " Get Shown the Light" series of concerts from May 1977 including the famed Cornell University gig.

The Cornell gig is truly wonderful, I've had an excellent 3 disc bootleg for some years and if the sound quality of the the official release matches or exceeds that it will be awesome. 

Pev posted:

The Cornell gig is truly wonderful, I've had an excellent 3 disc bootleg for some years and if the sound quality of the the official release matches or exceeds that it will be awesome. 

Mine has just arrived. Looking forward to listening to it later (when everyone's out) - the 3-CD boot I've had for years is excellent quality so the official version must be stellar.

This 21 CD box set is a collection of good live shows and its well worth £25.

I'm interested in this but wary of the sound quality. What do people think?

Kevin-W posted:

Pev posted:

The Cornell gig is truly wonderful, I've had an excellent 3 disc bootleg for some years and if the sound quality of the the official release matches or exceeds that it will be awesome. 

Mine has just arrived. Looking forward to listening to it later (when everyone's out) - the 3-CD boot I've had for years is excellent quality so the official version must be stellar.

Lucky you, not got mine yet.

Charles44 posted:

I'm interested in this but wary of the sound quality. What do people think?

Charles44,

If you mean the 71 Dead CD collection.

I got it the day it was released and still working my way through them.

The SQ on the ones i have listened to is very good.

Some are better than others and you do get a great feeling of the time and shows.

It's a great VFM box set with some real gems in it.

That 71 box is one of many bootlegs around at the moment. For an excellent legit 71 live release try Ladies and Gentlemen, Fillmore East.

Clive

Charles44 posted:

On the subject of the Dead - Looking forward any day now to receiving a copy of " Get Shown the Light" series of concerts from May 1977 including the famed Cornell University gig.

Hi Charles

Do you have your Get Shown the Light set yet? I'm still waiting.

Clive

Not yet but I've had the Cornell 1977 bootleg for some years so I've given that a play. Hopefully Royal Mail will deliver today.

Charles44 posted:

Not yet but I've had the Cornell 1977 bootleg for some years so I've given that a play. Hopefully Royal Mail will deliver today.

My Cornell bootleg was stolen amongst other CDs many years ago. I didn't replace it as I was sure it would be officially released, but it's been a long wait! From what I have read online I think you will find a considerable SQ improvement. I have been listening to my June 77 box as preparation!
Clive

The new 5-8-77 release is incredible

My Get Shown the Light box has arrived today - at last. Been listening to Cornell (8th May 1977), which sounds great, and looking forward to the other concerts.

To go back to the original question, the Cornell individual release would be an excellent recommendation for anyone to hear what the Dead could do live. It's from a particular phase of the band's career and therefore has a somewhat different set of songs from earlier periods like Europe 1972. Beyond its significance within the context of the Dead's history, it's regarded as an important document of American culture and is included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. And you can have it from the usual suppliers for the price of a few coffees!

Clive

Drones posted:

This 21 CD box set is a collection of good live shows and its well worth £25.

I'd avoid this collection of bootlegged material. All the shows contained on this set are readily available for free online and can be found with minimal effort.

Save your pennies for the material that has been officially released via Grateful Dead Productions. These are sourced from the master reels, mastered by professional sound engineers using state of the art equipment and process. The difference in sound quality, particularly for those who read this board and are using Naim gear, is staggering.

The only bootlegs I have been impressed with are Cornell and a 3cd set I picked up really cheap titled "Hogmanay 1972". I only got that because 1972 is the middle of my favourite Dead period and the quality I was pleased to hear was very good. My rule is generally not to buy because sooner or later they will be released.

I now have one of the concerts from the new set to listen to and so far I think it is a great buy, but the whole set is a tad on the expensive side, even buying direct from the USA.

Just came across this link which may be of interest to those wanting to dip their toes in the deep and murky waters...

http://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/10078-the-grateful-dead-a-guide-to-their-essential-live-songs/

I must admit to recently dipping my toes into the murky waters with American Beauty. Quite enjoyable but it's not tempting me to go deeper at the moment