Revisiting The Latest Batch of Grateful Dead Archival Releases (ALBUM REVIEWS)

As illustrated by David Lemieux and his crack team of Grateful Dead archivists, there’s a big difference between ‘predictable’ and ‘consistent.’ Continuing from late 2021 into and throughout this year, their ongoing efforts to provide provocative exhumations from the vault of the iconic band span decades of performances by the various personnel lineups of the Dead. And each in its own way supplies incremental insight into and information about the pros and cons of the different eras in the group’s half-century career. 

As usual, the skill with which the (usually complete) concerts were recorded, then prepared for the issue is noteworthy, as is the ongoing recognition of another longstanding aspect of Grateful Dead history, the original cover art. More often than not too, liner notes of prose, photos and images of memorabilia, etc. expand the self-renewing perspective on this work, all of which holds true for the quarterly editions of Dave’s Picks as well as the annual thematic releases devoted to the psychedelic warriors’ work.’

Volume 40: Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, IN 7/18/90 & 7/19/90 – Wherein Dave embraces the late Dick Latvala’s archiving ethos for two largely complete shows from consecutive nights at the famed Indiana venue (a single outlying snippet shows up on #41). With Brent Mydland still in the band, albeit in his last days, the group still thrives on the spontaneity of improvs cropping up over the course of a broad range of material: jams evolve out of nowhere in a number of spots besides “Uncle John’s Band,” while “The Other One” appears to have been discovered in that netherworld between “Drums” and “Space.” Three dollops of Dylan also serve as signposts for the ensemble as it touches upon virtually the entire expanse of its estimable canon, ranging from “Morning Dew,” off their self-titled 1967 debut album, all the way up to “Foolish Heart” a cull from their thirteenth and final studio effort twenty-two years later, Built to Last. And talk about capturing the end of an era: these concerts turned out to be Brent Mydland’s last shows with the Grateful Dead: as Lemieux notes in a liner essay that reads like an excerpt from his personal diary, the man passed away some six weeks later.

Volume 41: Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore MD 5/26/77  This is the show to play those skeptics unconvinced by the superiority of Cornell ’77 (and perhaps enamored of its companion piece of 2009 To Terrapin: Hartford ’77).To be sure, the tactile presence in the sound quality reveals the simultaneously intricate and emphatic work of drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart (not to mention the agile fluency of Phil Lesh on bass), but it’s even more significant in how it highlights the fluid and melodic playing of Jerry Garcia: it’s arguable the titular leader of the band has ever played with more effervescent ingenuity than here. The drama in the finale of “Uncle John’s Band,” plus “Terrapin Station” in the early stages of its live development, is more than enough to make up for the abbreviated playing time of disc two (32:34) and the errant inclusion of the mediocrity that is Donna Jean Godchaux’ composition”Sunrise” (off the forthcoming album titled after the aforementioned magnum opus). 

Volume 42: Winterland, San Francisco, CA 2/23/74 – In presenting a hometown recording captured just prior to the introduction of the legendary ‘Wall of Sound,’ this Dave’s is actually a genuine anomaly in the canon of Dead archive releases: despite the usual mastering expertise of Jeffrey Norman, as reported in various quarters it suffers in terms of its sound quality (with vocal dropouts). Less of a blemish is some performance issues (ironically enough, the strained harmony singing at various junctures). Still, it’s not that the band doesn’t redeem itself through the better part of its musicianship before this is over–the segue from “The Other One” into “Eyes of the World” is sublime–while the front cover art is unusually evocative of the San Francisco locale in which the show took place. Still, in the end, this title does not offer further documentation of how generally superb is the era of 1973-74, but rather substantiates how erratic the Grateful Dead could be on stage. 

Volume 43: San Francisco 11/2/69 & Dallas 12/26/69 – There’s a decidedly begrudging air about the otherwise laudatory reviews of Live Dead replicated inside Dave’s #43. Yet these late 1969 shows, roughly a month apart, reaffirm what those self-styled skeptics might’ve preferred to deny: Grateful Dead music of this era radiated a preternatural sense of purpose. At the core of the drive is the alternate counterpoint and complement of Jerry Garcia’s guitar and Phil Lesh’s bass, but it’s not possible either to overlook keyboardist Tom Constanten’s insistent but nevertheless unobtrusive playing. Comprised of two complete shows, recorded by Owsley ‘Bear’ Stanley, some unusual track sequencing designed to fill each of the three CDs as fully as possible requires some agility and creativity to hear it all in the proper order. But that’s merely the same approach the band itself displays throughout this just shy of four hours of playing time. 

Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (3/9/81)  –  On this cull from the seventeen-CD box set In And Out of the Garden – Madison Square Garden ’81, ’82, ’83, the definition of the sound (originally overseen by recordist Dan Healy) mirrors the relaxed precision of the musicianship. During the nearly ten minutes of “China Cat Sunflower,” the warmth which so clearly radiates from the recording must also have permeated the cavernous expanse of the world-famous venue. Still, that’s hardly a surprise: with Brent Mydland now comfortably ensconced within the ensemble after two years as keyboardist/vocalist the musicians are as comfortable with each other as the room. The fluid bond so prominent on the segue from “Estimated Prophet” to “Uncle John’s Band” (ragged vocals on the latter aside) is a reflection of the abiding chemistry, while the deceptively amateurish graphics inside and out of the triple-disc package are also reflective of the intricacy of the sextet’s interactions. 

Related Content

One Response

  1. Not to be too picky but The Other One from 7/18/1990 is not between Drums and Space and Brents last shows were in Chicago 7/21-23/1990. Just thought you’d like to know.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter