Dick's / Dave's picks

"Guys the reason most of May 77 hasn't been released is exactly because so many of those shows are already out there as great sounding soundboards. Official releases would be redundant."

Thats just not true. There are plenty of official release shows that were widely traded and with great sound. It has never stopped Dave and crew from releasing what they want. He has even stated "many of you probably already have upcoming release 'x' but...yadda yadda." To name a few famous ones that were widely traded before being releaced- 2-13-70, 8-27-72, 3-29-90, just to name a few... 

5-8-77 and the surrounding shows would sell like crazy. BUT they are NOT in the vault. Dave has said so himself. Last time it was mentioned, on a "Weir Here" episode I believe, he said " not yet." Eluding to the fact that they were working on it, but I really don't know. And during one of his "seaside chat" vids OR during one of his U-stream chats he used to do, Dave mentioned "we're working on it." I can't recall what exact show he was referring to there but its all in reference to trying to make a deal to get a bunch of shows back.

When Healy left/was fired from working with the band in 93, that was it. He has many many SBD masters that he recorded and belong to him...and he, as of now, is still hoarding them, as far as we know.. For bad blood reasons. [Read the thread on the Steve Hoffman forum for more on the split.]

Years ago, back in the bootleg CD days (meaning those 'official looking' unofficial pressed and packaged CD sets), there was a series of shows put out by bootleggers called "Left In The Vaults". those shows --all very good-- were rumored to be from Dan Healy. He has the masters for some very very good uncirculated shows, along with the masters for some of those famous shows. 

The "house boat tapes" is a great story of some very good early Dead tape masters being found. One or two of them have been released as Dick's and Dave's Picks and I believe a few more are to come. 

I originally brought this subject up hoping that someone would have some updated 'good news' for us about the 77 shows and/or others. Dave's Picks is starting to get juuuust a little hit and miss...

Personally I would LOVE to see and hear them all --known or unknown gems-- given the Deadnet treatment, mixing, liner note booklets, artwork and everything. I love that stuff (: 

rhyno got it and sent you an email.

It's not Dan Healy who has the reel masters ("Betty Boards") of the missing May '77 shows (and many others as well), but the anonymous buyer of 2 steamer trunks worth of reels auctioned off in 1985 from Betty Cantor-Jackson's storage locker.  Then there is a third trunk which included the Academy of Music '72 shows (released officially from DAT copies of the reels; those reels are also missing from the Vault), and even a 4th batch (!) recently "uncovered", some or all of which may be returning to the vault.

Either way the shows are out there and honestly I'll take a Charlie Miller master any day of the week over official releases. Listening to his remasters of 8/29-30/69 of Family Dog at the Great Highway and holy crap they sound amazing!

Not to take anything away from Charlie, but he only very very rarely does any "mastering" in the traditional sense.  He will try to clean up recording or transfer mistakes (clicks, pops, dropouts, volume irregularities, etc) but does nothing else (e.g. EQ, compression, etc)

rbbert, 
thanks so much for completing the story here! That is just what i was hoping would happen. Great news! Or at least better to hear than Healy having the May 77 shows with him, as that would continue to seem hopeless. He does have some but sounds more promising than I had suspected. 

Perhaps not so hopeful, as the owner of the first 2 Betty batches, the ones with the most desirable shows and best physical tape condition, isn't willing to part with them except for a ridiculous amount of money.  That part of your post was unfortunately quite correct.

But it makes one wonder just how long these folk are willing to sit on these tapes? I can pretty much bet that they aren't being collected for the shear love of owning them.

Ah, I see... Funny how easy it is for the 'grapevine' to get distorted. With that said --and apart from totally spacing that these particular 77 shows we were speaking about were Betty Boards (duh!)-- there are even a few good ones that Healy has or so Ive been told.

Oh well... As mentioned, the music is all still out there for us but just imagine how David Lemieux and crew must feel. You know they want to continue to give the best possible Dead music to the fans that they can. It must be so frustrating for them, trying to make a deal like this happen with a 'seller' that seemingly just doesn't care.

Guys-

which shows were mastered by Charlie Miller?

Jafant go to archive.org, hundreds of Charlie Miller remasters and to be clear these are all unofficial bootlegs but Charlie has a huge following and is a very good guy.

If you want to get the shows in 16/44.1 or better resolution, archive.org won’t let you for soundboards. There are a number of bit-torrent trackers where the sbd’s can be freely downloaded. www.bt.etree.org, www.shnflac.net, www.gdvault.com, www.dimeadozen.org are a few. www.db.etree.org is a much easier place to search for specific shows and the various recordings of each one. There are built-in links there to the show pages at archive.org and bt.etree.org

TY- jond & rbbert

Just make sure Charlie Miller is in the source info details.

He has done his "clean-up" / "fix-up" work on both SBD recordings and AUD recordings. 

Enjoy! 

Also if you've never torrented before best to get some help from a friend who knows what he's doing it can be pretty daunting.

Thank You- guys.

Anyone, if you could pick one show from Dick's and one show from Dave's, which would you choose?

Excellent question- goofyfoot.

Dick's Pick 4 and I've only hear about five of the Dave's Picks nothing really has stood out to me.

To quote Jerry--- "It can't be done!" (; 

Also 5/15/70 which is  Road Trips Vol 3  is totally amazing.

Thanks! jond.

I have a bunch of Dicks Picks but they get lost in my collection of audience recordings and soundboards that I've acquired over the years. It bothers me that the Dick's Picks releases do not include full shows. I prefer listening to full shows because they give you a better glimpse into what the atmosphere and energy was like. Most of the DPs are good quality soundwise so that is a plus but I'll take a good audience recording any day...love to hear and feel the vibe of the venue. You can really see the shape of the venue on some of the better recordings.

ifmywormsdidglow (tee-hee) I totally get that. The vibe of the crowd, which city, what decade, these things are definitely compromised.
 

excellent points! ifmywordsdidglow & goofyfoot.

Happy Listening!

After over 45 years of listening to live Dead recordings, I'm not in the whole show camp at all (and actually haven't been for a long time!).  There are whole shows I listen to, of course, but probably less than half the time even if I have the whole show available.

JMO of course

There are some people doing some very nice stuff with matrixing aka adding crowd noises back in to great sounding soundboards.

ifmywordsdidglow, 
"It bothers me that the Dick's Picks releases do not include full shows."
Out of 36 volumes of Dicks Picks there are only a few that are not complete full shows... OR are you saying, you wish they were "un-cut", meaning still having the sometimes long breaks and tuning between the songs? I love that on the un-cut boards that are out there.

jond,
Not to get picky here or miss your "generalizing", but --and info for those that may not know-- a matrix recording (AUD and SDB mixed to varying percentages) does much more than just adds crowd noise. A good well done matrix can compleatly change the sound and feel of a show recording.

rbbert,
I kind of agree, as there is magic to be heard in every single Dead show [release] (to keep it with the thread subject)... Personally I am generally a 'one set at a time' listener but often just choose a run of songs to play at a time.

I want to whole "experience", warts and all.
I love the long breaks and tunings between songs.

Any fave "boots" outside of the Dick's/Dave's Picks ?

"The Pizza Tapes", although not sure if you now call it a "boot". Cheers,
Spencer

Thanks! for sharing- fjn04

Jafant, not in the series but don't forget 'Wake Up To Find Out' (3-29-90) with Branford Marsalis sitting in...the boys are on fire (as they were most of Spring '90). Most of my friends and I break up the Dead periods by who was on keys. Pig was short lived, Keith was solid but you also had to deal with Donna's vocals which in my opinion were not necessary. With Brent, his harmonizing growl and how he augmented the classics during the Dead's time of need was really remarkable. My only issue with Brent was his original songs. Some don't like the effects he used (or Jerry's mutron) but I could dig it. I've considered collecting the vinyl 'picks' but I am not a huge fan of the late '60's Dead...

Have you listened to The Stanley Theater show from Pittsburgh? Year? 70's?That's a pretty smokin show !! 
Also , check out the show from late 80's from Pittsburgh Mellon arena where they played a second set with the Neville Brothers. I spoke to Jerry the night before on the phone . I called his hotel room. He was very nice ! Told me that they had a surprise in store the following night. Did they ever!!
sold ,falafel for the faithful at Alpine Valley, drove out west for Eugene , Cali shows, saw them at Canada's Wonderland amusement park, Jerry on Broadway . Too many great memories!!:-) about 50 Dead shows and 25 Jerry Band shows. Funny,
 I have not really listened to their music in 25 years . No desire really. I mean once in a while when on a road trip , I'll cue up studio Shakedown Street.  So many awesome memories!!!!!!!! Zero desire to see the farewell stuff though. Todd

I think you'll get more useful information in a music forum like the SH Forums, or at a GD-related site like deadnetcentral.com.  Many posters at places like those have extensive listening experiences.

Thanks! for sharing- toddnkaya and rbbert.

DP VOL 3

Vicweast- try listening to the album Black Eyed Man by the Cowboy Junkies- it's terrific. 

Hey all, 
Looks like the Betty Boards ARE indeed back in the vault! At least some of them are so far! The newest boxset has been released and the are Betty boards from July of '78 and David L. mentions it in his seaside chat about the boxset... SO, maybe the famed 5/8/77 --and others-- are coming down the pipe. Regardless, its great to know  the people representing the owners of the Betty boards wanted to get the tapes back in the vault! Awesome news for Deadheads! 

Yep, got my notice yesterday- jriggy.

from above- I did nuy the "Wake up to find Out" 3-cd set. Very nice w/ Marsalis sitting in w/ the boys.

That Stanley Theater show is a legend! Happy Listening!

When I think about The GD and the year 1978, I always think of Egypt.

^ Soon you will always think of Red Rocks (; 

Many Thanks! jriggy

Whom owns the Cornell tapes/masters ?

if you can find it, 5/11/78 might be the best show i've heard (yes, i like it better than 5/8/77, 8/27/72, 2/13-14/70). best LL>Supplication ever, monster Scarlet / Fire & Jerry going apeshit on Werewolves of London. 

I have a feeling that Dead.net has this material, they are just awaiting some "special" occasion to release!

Not a big 78 fan myself but good to see some stuff released, I'm sure it will come my way eventually. Just checked I only have two 78's in my collection 1/31 and 5/14, plus 5/10 which was a Dicks Pick. I used to have the Red Rocks shows as tapes but they were lost along the way somewhere.

@peter_s I can't recall where I read it recently but Phil Lesh talked about what it was like playing under the air pressure of the wall of sound. I think it absolutely changed their experimentation.