The Grateful Dead – Dick’s Picks, Volume 3: Pembroke Pines, FL (05/22/77)

The more I review this music, the more I realize how little I know about it. I’ve been listening to the Grateful Dead since I was in high school. Though admittedly, the only record I had back then was Skeletons From the Closet. In college, a friend really turned me onto them, and by my senior year I was already collecting live tapes. That’s some thirty years of being a Deadhead. Yet I’m still discovering new stuff about them.

Or maybe rediscovering. I have an absolutely terrible memory. Many’s the time I’ll start watching what I think is a new-to-me movie only to realize halfway through that I’ve seen it before. Sometimes I go to log it on Letterboxd only to realize I’ve logged it before. I listen to a lot of live music, but I can’t keep track of which dates I’ve listened to. I have vague notions of time periods. With bands like the Grateful Dead, I can tell you some basic info about most years, but I can’t narrow it down any farther than that.

I know folks who can rattle off so much detailed information about their favorite bands. Mention Bob Dylan in the Fall of 1989, and they can tell you who was playing guitar or drums, which dates are the best, and how you shouldn’t miss that version of “Desolation Row” in Chicago. Or whatever. Me? I can give you a few years that I like, but that’s about it. And I can’t keep up with what songs were played when or that sort of thing.

I also pay very little attention to artists outside of their art. I rarely read biographies or behind-the-scenes stories. It isn’t that I don’t find some of that interesting; I just prefer to listen to the music play.

I say all this because as I listen to Dick’s Picks Vol. 3 and start to write about it, I realize how little I actually know about so much of it. I’m aware there were Dick’s Picks and that Dick was Dick Latvala, the Dead’s original archivist. And now there are Dave’s Picks, plus loads of other official releases. But I couldn’t name all those releases, and I couldn’t tell you what my favorite Dick’s Picks is. I’ve listened to some of them, even owned a few on CD, but I couldn’t tell you what those were now. I didn’t know this volume was released in 1995. That’s eight months after the release of Dick’s Picks, Vol. 2, and just two months after Hundred Year Hall. That’s three live releases in 1995. They’d only released five live albums in the previous five years. In the previous two and a half decades, they’d only released eight live albums. But from here on out, they’d keep up a steady pace. The cynic in me wants to note that they didn’t start releasing live albums so quickly until after Jerry died. All that good touring money dried up, so they started to cash in.

But the rest of me is just thrilled that they’ve put out such incredible music in pristine quality. And it isn’t like the rest of the band weren’t making bank touring in their various solo projects.

I often say that 1977 is my favorite year for the Grateful Dead. Like a lot of folks, one of the first live tapes I ever received was that Cornell show on 05/08/77. It knocked me out. From there, I grabbed a few more shows from that year, and then it became the first time I systematically tried to collect shows from anybody from any era. I still love 1972 and ‘73, 1990, and I’ve warmed to the early 1980s. 1969 packs a punch when I’m in the mood for it. But there is something special about 1977. The band was still flying high – at the top of their game. But they had more songs than they did in the early 1970s. Songs like “Scarlet Begonias” and “Fire on the Mountain” (matched together for the first time in 1977) or “Terrapin Station weren’t written in 1972. That gives the year a bump in my estimation. I’ve also mentioned before that I don’t tend to like it when the Dead get really far out there – when they explore the farthest reaches of space. And while they still do some of that in 1977, it isn’t quite as often or as annoying to my ears.

But really, you can hardly go wrong while listening to the Good Ole’ Grateful Dead.

Dick’s Picks Vol. 3, like the two volumes before it, cuts out several songs. This includes a pretty good chunk of the first set and a few songs from the second. But what’s left is crazy good.

It begins with a short version of “Funiculì, Funiculà,” the old Italian wedding song they used to warm up with. But quickly this turns into a rousing version of “The Music Never Stopped.” Donna Godchaux gets a lot of flak for her vocals (and Lord knows I’ve rolled my eyes at some of her cat-wailing in those “Playin’ in the Bands” but she’s in fine form here. She does an excellent job of singing off of Bob Weir’s lead. The closing jam of the song is incredible, ending with an intense crescendo of awesome.

“Sugaree” continues the awesome with a long, glorious first solo followed by a second jam that is initially led by Keith Godchaux’s excellent keyboard work. Jerry and the boys then take over and build and build and build until we finally get relief with the final verse. “Supplication” has this middle jam where Jerry and Bob almost harmonize with their guitars. It’s like Bob draws in pencil, then Jerry marks over it in marker, but he isn’t great at tracing, so he goes outside Bob’s lines in a fascinating way.

“Help on the Way>Slipknot” is great, and then the “Franklin’s Tower” closing jam is tremendous. When I first put this show on my phone, I somehow didn’t get “Franklin’s Tower” moved onto it. I was really confused when “Help>Slip” abruptly stopped and suddenly there was “Samson and Delilah.”

“Estimated Prophet” gets a lot of praise, and it is a good version, but Jerry leads with a lot of “wah wah” on his guitar, which I’ve never loved. “Eyes of the World” is very good. Not as robust as 1972 but still good. The last several minutes are Jerry searching for a song. The keys do the “Eyes” riff for a bit, then give up. Then the rest of the band more or less drops too. Eventually Jerry gives up and moves into “Wharf Rat.” The transition from “Wharf Rat” into “Terrapin Station” is really good. Weirdly, they do not play the “Lady with the Fan” beginning section of the song. I don’t think I’ve ever heard them do that before. This is especially weird since the song was still so new. They close out with an intense “Wharf Rat.”

One of the reasons I want to keep doing this is that I have such a terrible memory. Writing things down will help me remember. And then when I forget, I can go back and read these reviews. So far I’m thoroughly enjoying the process. I hope you are too.

You can see the full show setlist here, and read all the info on this disc here.

Grateful Dead – Dicks Picks, Vol. 2 – Columbus, OH (10/31/71)

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While doing a little research for this, the second volume in the Dick’s Picks series, I came across a Reddit thread asking why this volume wasn’t the first one. It is so good, they said. One of the answers was that Dick Latvala was so obsessed with “Here Comes Sunshine” from Vol. 1 that he just had to have it at the start of his series. If that’s true, then it might answer some of my questions concerning that volume, namely why did he choose the songs that wound up on those discs, and leave off the others. If Phil Lesh was as picky as they say he was during this period, then maybe Dick let him have his way with things as long as he got “Here Comes Sunshine.” That’s just speculation, of course, but maybe that’s also why Vol. 2 begins with “Dark Star.”

Actually, Vol. 2 includes the entirety of the second set, sans the encore. I read that they had initially planned on including the first set, but then somewhere along the line they decided it just wasn’t quite good enough. That’s a bunch of hogwash, as Set I is plenty good, especially considering the sets that have been officially released since then. I don’t know what this does to my claim that the Dick’s Picks series took a warts-and-all approach. Maybe they had to warm up to that concept.

This is the only volume in the entire series that’s just one disc. It is fantastic. Don’t skip this one, folks.

In my review of Vol. 1, I noted that while I love the Dead’s improvisational style, I don’t love it when they start exploring deep space. There are moments when a jam loses any semblance of what any normal person would call a song that I tune out. So, it seems funny then that I actually love me some “Dark Star” which is probably their biggest launching pad for exploration.

I don’t really know why that is, except that maybe the “Dark Stars” I’ve heard usually don’t get that wonky. Or maybe I just turn those ones off. Admittedly, I’m not an aficionado, and I absolutely have to be in the right head space.

The “Dark Star” on this is exceptional. It begins with that familiar bass line, then the band picks it up and immediately starts playing with it. An idea occurs to me as I’m listening. When the band started improvising, maybe they were always searching for a song – or like that line says in “Unbroken Chain” (which lends its name to Phil’s book), they were searching for the sound. Where do songs come from anyway, but musicians playing around until they find something.

There is a wonderful video out there of Paul McCartney just strumming his guitar and humming, which eventually turns into “Get Back.” There is another one where U2 are playing around with “Mysterious Ways” and suddenly they invent the riff to “One.” I feel like that’s what the Grateful Dead were often doing in their improvisational jams. Except, they weren’t in a studio trying to write and record an album; they were on the stage in front of thousands of people.

Often the jams went nowhere. Sometimes they led into songs that already existed. Sometimes they invented something new. Jerry Garcia would often play some chords or line up a rhythm and just kind of test it out for a little bit. If it worked, he’d play with it some more, and the band might join in. Sometimes it wouldn’t work, and he’d move on to something else.

He does that quite a bit in this “Dark Star.” He’ll lay down some lines, then move to some different ones. After a few minutes he returns to the song’s themes, then he ventures out a little bit more. It is seven minutes before he actually sings the first verse. Then they take off for a long ride. There are moments that I get annoyed. The notes hurt my ears, but then they always return to something more interesting. At some point the jam turns into something that sounds an awful lot like Archie Bell and the Drells’ “Tighten Up” which goes on for several glorious minutes. That jam alone makes this disc worth your money.

Then it turns into something else, and they try out varying motifs for a while. There is a moment right at the end when you can hear Bob Weir play the first few notes of “Sugar Magnolia” but Jerry doesn’t hear it, and he keeps firing away at something else. But the rest of the band caught it and after a few seconds, they dig in. Then Jerry catches it, and they launch right into the song.

It is a fine, well played version. Then they launch into an incredible “Saint Stephen>Not Fade Away>Going Down the Road Feeling Bad>Not Fade Away” medley that rocks my world.

“St. Stephen” has this great jam just before the final verse. The first second of “Not Fade Away” is just brilliant as well. The transition into “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad” is about as perfect as it gets. They’d been doing that medley for a while, so it wasn’t like the transition was something new, but it still slays. “GDTRFB” has a fun little jam at the end, before turning back into “Not Fade Away.”

All in all, an incredible set of music, and it makes Vol. 2 an essential album.

You can listen to the entire thing here on Youtube.

And you can listen to the entire show over at the Archive.

Grateful Dead – Dicks Picks, Vol. 1 – Tampa, FL (12/19/73)

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I find myself fascinated by Dick’s Picks and why he chose the shows he chose. I’m especially fascinated by This first one. It must have been both a wonderful opportunity and immensely stressful. You’ve got the keys to the vault; you can release any show you like. But which one do you choose? It must have felt important to him. Like that first pick would define who he was as a Deadhead. And if it failed, there wouldn’t be any more picks. He might lose his job. That’s a lot riding on one single show.

Dick was clearly a big fan of 1970s Dead. Almost all of his picks come from that decade. I wonder if he looked at the chronology of the releases that had come out by that point. There was Live/Dead from 1969 and Europe 72. Bear’s Choice came from 1970, and then you’ve got a release from 1974 (Steal Your Face) and another from 1975 (One From the Vault). Did he figure he needed to fill in that 1973 gap? Or did he think about something from the legendary May 1977 shows?

Who the heck knows? I tried to do a little research on this Pick, but the Internet sucks now, and I was unable to come up with much. 1973 is a colossal year for the Grateful Dead, so it certainly makes sense he’d choose a show from here.

The band members each had veto power over Dick’s choices. My understanding is Phil was especially difficult to please, so it’s possible Dick had several other shows in mind but, for one reason or another, was given a “no” for them. They also say that Phil demanded his solo be edited out of “The Other One” for some reason.

Unlike other Dick’s Picks, this is not the complete show, and the songs have been widely rearranged. Most of the first set is missing, and parts of the second set have been moved about onto the first disc. To a degree, I understand this and don’t really have a complaint about it. To have put the entire show out would have taken at least three CDs, probably four. That’s a lot of additional cost to produce. Narrowing it down to discs seems much more manageable. Especially at this point when they didn’t know how well these things would sell.

I’m old enough to remember the days of CD trading. Figuring out how to fit the music onto discs was always a challenge. First sets could usually easily fit on one desk, but second sets, with their massive jams, often ran over. But you didn’t want to cut up those massive jams either. Or all those songs that ran right into each other and got a “>” notation on the j-cards. Sometimes if there was extra room on the first disc, a song or two from the middle of the second set, or even the encore, might be thrown onto it. That beat having only one or two songs on a single disc or tape.

I’m less enthused about Phil’s bass solo getting cut out. That seems downright rude.

It is fascinating too seeing what did make the final cut. Why is “Big Railroad Blues” included and not “Dire Wolf”? Why did they keep “Around and Around” and lose “Jack Straw?” I certainly would have nixed the Chuck Berry cover.

But whatever, this shouldn’t be a what’s wrong with this release? post (I imagine Dick got more than a mouthful of that from Deadheads at the time). Let’s talk about what is here.

“Here Comes Sunshine” is actually the tenth song of the first set, but it starts our CD out here. It is a phenomenal version and makes it worth the price of admission alone. It is also a great example of what I love about the Grateful Dead.

I have to make an embarassing admission here. I don’t generally like it when the Dead jams a song deep into the cosmos. There is a point when their biggest jams leave all semblance of a song, and things get wonky. Those moments are often filled with dissonant notes, and extended noodles and I tend to start tuning it out or pressing the skip button.

I love the Dead’s improvisational jam style, but sometimes they go a little too far for my tastes. “Here Comes Sunshine” is the perfect blend. They start with the song, which is a good one. It has a wonderful, slightly odd rhythm to it, some great harmonies, and some classic opaque Robert Hunter lyrics. The song had just been released on their Wake of the Flood album in October of 1973, so it was relatively new, though they had been regularly playing it live since February of that year.

But after a couple of verses, they start to jam on it. At first the bones of the song are still there. Jerry is soloing all over the place, and Keith Godcheaux is getting down on the keyboards. But the rhythm section is still keeping the beat, but they are playing with it. They are adding in some extra notes. Slowly the song stretches and stretches until it no longer sounds like “Here Comes Sunshine.” I bet if you started playing it here and asked an average fan to name the song they wouldn’t be able to.

But it still sounds like what most people would consider to be music. It still sounds like a song. It has a nice beat, and my feet keep tapping, and I’m shaking my bones to it. I love these moments. I love feeling the band slip into something new and exciting, but not feeling like I need to plug my ears.

It is an all-time version of the song.

Now let’s move onto “Playing in the Band.” It officially closed the first set, and ended the first disc on this album. It is a song that often finished the first set, and it became a powerhouse jamming launchpad. Often the band will drive it headlong into the deepest, darkest parts of space. They don’t quite go that far in this version. I’d say they leave the stratosphere, but don’t venture much farther out. Not even to the moon.

Like “Here Comes Sunshine” they definitely break the confines of the song and stretch it into something else. They get close to completely breaking it, venturing into me pressing that skip button. But before my finger gets there, they bring it back down. There is plenty of good stuff here, but I’d argue it slips just slightly out of “great” territory for me.

The “Jam>The Other One>Jam” that sits right in the middle of the second disc does fall into that skip territory for me. It’s just a little too much for my tastes.

Weirdly, the band skips the “Across the Lazy River” section at the end of “Mississippi Half-Step” but it is otherwise a very good – if rather mellow and slinky – version. “Weather Report Suite” is also quite good with some excellent slide work from Mr. Garcia.

The rest ranges from quite good to fine. Nothing is bad. As I said, 1973 was a great year for the Dead, and they are firing on all cylinders. This does seem like a slightly mellow show. That’s actually borne out on the full tapes with all the songs. It is a very fine show, but probably not the one I would have picked if I were Dick. Not even if all I had was 1973 to choose from.

But it makes for a great start to this series, and obviously it did well enough to continue these releases, and for that we can all be happy.

Here’s the track list for Dicks Picks, Vol. 1

Disc one

Here Comes Sunshine
Big River
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Weather Report Suite
Big Railroad Blues
Playing in the Band

Disc two

He’s Gone
Truckin’
Nobody’s Fault but Mine
Jam
The Other One
Jam
Stella Blue
Around and Around

And here’s the full setlist:

Set 1:
Promised Land
Sugaree
Mexicali Blues
Sugar Shack
Dire Wolf
Black Throated Wind
Candyman
Jack Straw
Big Railroad Blues
Big River
Here Comes Sunshine
El Paso
Ramble On Rose
Playin’ In The Band

Set 2:
Mississippi Half-Step
Me And Bobby McGee
WRS Prelude
WRS Part 1
Let It Grow
He’s Gone
Truckin’
Nobody’s Fault But Mine
The Other One
Stella Blue
Around And Around

Encore:
Casey Jones

Picking on the Grateful Dead: The Dicks Picks Series

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Dick Latvala was the original Deadhead. He first heard them play at the Trips Festival in 1966 and remained a massive fan until his death in 1999. He was one of the earliest tapers and collectors and reportedly he amassed one of the biggest collections of Dead tapes in the world. In the early 1980s he started working for the Dead’s organization, just odd jobs mainly. It sounds like he basically just started hanging around, and eventually they put him to work.

The Dead had been recording their concerts from the earliest days, but they weren’t particularly organized with them. Dick changed that. He convinced the band that those recordings were a treasure trove and they needed to be organized and safely stored. This led to the creation of the infamous vault.

Dick’s management of the vault and his enthusiastic desire for more officially released live albums led to the Dick’s Picks series. The band was no stranger to live albums, having released Live/Dead in 1969 and a double album covering their legendary tour of Europe in 1972, plus several others. Those had been professional recordings on multitrack tapes. They were good and edited, mastered, and on at least one occasion, overdubbed.

The Dick’s Picks series would be pulled from two-track tapes, and took a warts and-all approach to the music. No edits, no overdubs, and if there was a flaw on the tape, that’s what you got. Most volumes included one entire show, though some contained complete second sets of two different shows, and others might just be highlight reels.

The band had the final say which caused some delays in the releases in the early days but eventually they seemed to just let Dick do what he wanted.

Between 1993 and 2006, they released 36 volumes in the Dick’s Picks series. Over half of them were released after Latvala’s death in 1993. After Dick’s death an actual archivist, David Lemiux, became keeper of the vault and he began a similar series, appropriately called Dave’s Picks, in 2012.

I thought it would be fun to listen to and then review each of the 36 Dick’s Picks. This will become the page I’ll link to all of those reviews. I hope you enjoy it.

PS that cover image is of the first Dicks Picks I ever bought. I remember it being a rip-roaring classic. I can’t wait to revisit it and talk about it.

Vol. 1 – Tampa, FL (12/19/73)
Vol. 2 – Columbus, OH (10/31/71)