25 years ago today (6/14/97), The Grateful Dead released Dick’s Picks Volume 8 – which is significant because it was the famed May 2, 1970 show at Harpur College in Binghamton, NY.
The album contains the entire concert, except for one song — “Cold Rain and Snow”, which was played between “Good Lovin'” and “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”. In a 1993 poll of Grateful Dead tape traders, the 5/2/70 show was ranked #6 on the list of all-time favorite Dead concert tapes. The first set contains acoustic material from the recently released Workingman’s Dead album but it’s the electric second set with an explosive “Cryptical Envelopment” and “Dancing in the Streets” followed by a supercharged “Viola Lee Blues” in the third set that makes this one for the heads. Check out that “Viola Lee Blues” below…