Many years ago, while looking at my bootleg collection, my brother asked me if I really needed so much Grateful Dead.
In their 30-year career, the Grateful Dead created at least five distinct sounds, had hundreds of songs in their repertoire, and lived on improvisation. Truly, every concert they ever played was a unique and different beast. They never played the same song twice. They have, in fact, released no fewer than 30 live albums and continue to do so, on a regular basis. And as anyone in business will tell you, they wouldn’t be doing so, if there weren’t people buying them.
So, my answer to my brother then, as it is now is, “definitely, dude.”
Their newest live outing, Live at the Cow Palace, comes from a performance on December 31, 1976, and it’s a smoking one. The Dead’s New Year's Eve performances were legendary for their monolithic length and monstrous sound. Clocking in at well over three hours, this one is no different, and since it didn’t get started until a little before midnight, it must have been some party through the wee hours of the new year.
This is actually my favorite period for the Grateful Dead, in terms of live performance. By this point they had a large body of songs in which they performed, both those they had written themselves, and a wonderful collection of covers. This ensured that the set list remained consistently interesting and different. Bob Weir had grown into a significant leader, the band’s best singer, and a power house rhythm guitarist. Gone were the days of the long-haired, spacey-looking kid who sang cowboy songs and plinked along with his guitar.
Jerry Garcia is as fiery as ever, and the rest of the band was now able to keep up. While the band may have toned down slightly from the growling hell-beast of their earliest years, they could still tear into a song like no other act in rock music.
The sound on these three disks is clear, crisp and brilliant. The disks say they are optimized using the HDCD technology, and while my crappy speakers are no where near anything anybody would call high definition, the sound is still on the far side of awesome. Each instrument (and there are six of them, not including vocals) comes in without the slightest hint of fogginess and everything is beautifully clear.
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Article comments
1 - El Bicho
"my brother asked me if I really needed so much Grateful Dead."
That's a good one.
The sound quality does sound fantastic. And I won't tell anyone you don't like the spacey jam stuff. Luckily, the others will be so high they won't notice the difference.
2 - Mat Brewster
It's the really out there stuff that bugs me. Like the end of "playing" on this disk where they've lost all semblance of a tune. I do dig some of the 80's midi space jams though.
But yeah, don't tell anybody. Those hippies can get mean.
3 - Jerry
Well, first of all, I do like the "out there" stuff. I find most of the first set, although great sounding, so so. However, starting with Playing In The Band, the band hits the next level and we're off for the rest of the show. Cosmic messengers indeed
4 - Mark Saleski
...or they’ll take away my secret Deadhead card
revoked!!!! ;-)
5 - Mat Brewster
Jerry, it definitely takes a couple of songs for them to get warmed up, but like you said, once they do they pretty much hit it dead on for the remainder of the show.
Saleski, I'll trade you your mancard for my deadcard.
6 - Jerry
If you like this release, check out Dick's Picks 20 & 33 as well as Download Series 4.
7 - Mat Brewster
Yep, have both those dicks picks and love them. Haven't done any of the download series yet.
8 - Connie Phillips
Congratulations! This article was chosen as a Editor's Pick this week!
9 - pomo
Review was right on. Fantastic sound quality and a solid, enjoyable show from a peak era. On the other hand, this is not an all-time great, epiphany-inducing show and some of the reviews I have read are completely over the top. All in all, I would recommend the purchase. BTW, the material on the bonus disc from dead.net accompanying pre-orders is outstanding.
10 - pablo
Matt,
If you had of been on 200 micrograms of acid, and been seeing the Dead live, when they went out into "space" you might be singing a different tune, a rare and different tune, if you catch my drift.
I saw the boys from Marin more or less around 700 times over a 30 year period beginning in 1965, and ending in 95. I had the time of my life, and only a fellow deadhead can even begin to understand or appreciate how magical this band really was. Pure unadulterated joy, mixed in with the "Joyous Cosmology" that Alan Watts wrote is the closest that I can even begin to relate to someone that never partook of the fun.