Do you still have those links? I'm having difficulty with the original ones, expanding em.

So far managed to get through disc 1 and liked the Deal a good deal.

what should we do in the meantime?

You still have XM, right?

I listen religiously. Tales of the Golden Road lurker.

Was just thinking the other day how big a role this thread played in my developmental Dead listening. Lasting effects of the Fall of Dick.

I long for those mornings. Sitting around unemployed, listening to the Dead day in and day out, drinking coffee. Good times.

Tales of the Golden Road lurker.

We never did do the Download Series. Too redundant?

Of the literally hundreds of potential dates that could have been chosen for this package, there were multiple factors that made the band's August 13, 1975 show the best candidate for the debut installment in the Grateful Dead's One from the Vault series. For starters -- as is evident by the outstanding fidelity -- the audio quality of the master tapes was excellent. Another obvious plus is that the entire band are eager to dig in, dust off their collective chops, and prove that their 19-month sabbatical hadn't made them rusty. Deadheads concurred as the temporary cease in touring increased speculation as to the Grateful Dead's future. So it was with great anticipation that Jerry Garcia (lead guitar/vocals), Phil Lesh (bass/vocals), Bob Weir (guitar/vocals), Bill Kreutzmann (percussion), Mickey Hart (percussion/crickets) -- who hadn't been a participating bandmember since 1971 -- and the husband and wife team of Keith Godchaux (keyboards) and Donna Jean Godchaux (vocals) took to the stage of The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco -- for what was only their third public appearance in over a year-and-a-half. Add to the equation that they were not only going to preview material from their new album Blues for Allah (1975), but most every Deadhead in North America would hear the gig via broadcast on the nationwide Metromedia Radio Network. Proof that the Grateful Dead were still in demand was evident by the double-LP bootleg Make Believe Ballroom, which was lifted right off the radio and offered for sale within months.

In terms of content, Disc One is heavy on Blues for Allah, commencing with a flawlessly and passionately executed "Help on the Way" and the tricky syncopated instrumental link "Slipknot!" that connects it to a prototypical "Franklin's Tower" preceding a note-perfect take of "The Music Never Stopped." The latter two tunes would become permanent fixtures in the Grateful Dead's repertoire for the remainder of their existence. Most notably, this is the third (of only six) live rendering of the intricate instrumental "King Solomon's Marbles" (aka "Stronger Than Dirt") that evolves out of the excellent "Eyes of the World" via a feisty percussion duet between Hart and Kreutzmann. It should be mentioned that producers took the liberty to resequence the running order to accommodate the time considerations of the CD medium. Whereas the actual first set concludes here and would pick back up with a version of Chuck Berry's "Around & Around" to begin the second set, the song is tagged onto the end of Disc One. Disc Two opens with the familiar favorites "Sugaree" and the cover of Johnny Cash's "Big River" -- both part of the Grateful Dead's songbook since 1971. Rarer is the inaugural performance of Weir's beguiling acoustic composition "Sage and Spirit," which had grown from a finger exercise the guitarist used when warming up. In fact, the only other time he unveiled the melody was during the final evening of the legendary 1980 multi-night run at Radio City Music Hall that saw the combo play unplugged (read: acoustic) before their two usual electric expeditions. Other top-shelf and not to be missed offerings include "Eyes of the World," a note-perfect "It Must Have Been the Roses," as well as the funky and driving staple "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad."

Disc one

First set:

Introduction by Bill Graham – 0:46
"Help on the Way" (Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia) / "Slipknot!" (Garcia, Godchaux, Kreutzmann, Lesh, Weir) – 7:52
"Franklin's Tower" (Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Hunter) – 6:58
"The Music Never Stopped" (Bob Weir, John Perry Barlow) – 5:29
"It Must Have Been the Roses" (Hunter) – 5:05
"Eyes of the World" (Garcia, Hunter) / "Drums" (Hart, Kreutzmann) – 14:32
"King Solomon's Marbles" (Phil Lesh) – 6:36
"Stronger Than Dirt (or, Milkin' the Turkey)" (Kreutzmann, Hart, Lesh)
Second set:

"Around and Around" (Chuck Berry) – 5:59

Disc two

Second set, continued:

"Sugaree" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:55
"Big River" (Johnny Cash) – 4:50
"Crazy Fingers" (Hunter, Garcia) / "Drums" (Hart, Kreutzmann) – 13:08
"The Other One" (Weir, Kreutzmann) – 5:33
"Sage and Spirit" (Weir) – 3:24
"Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad" (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 7:13
"U.S. Blues" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:29
"Blues for Allah" (Hunter, Garcia) – 21:01
"Sand Castles & Glass Camels" (Garcia, Godchaux, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, Weir)
"Unusual Occurrences in the Desert" (Hunter, Garcia)

This, rather significantly, is the album that got me seriously into the Dead. I had some comps and random shit on tapes here and there, but my Deadhead friends pushed this and then TFTV when it came out like crazy back in the high school days and it stuck pretty hard. (It was hard for me to get into tapes, even soundboards when my main exposure to the Dead live were the Vault albums and Without A Net.

Flawless. 10/10.

As the title implies, this was the second complete show to be issued from the Grateful Dead's tape vaults. In contradiction of the "technical information" liner notes essay, this release was derived entirely from the second night of a two-night run (August 23 and 24, 1968) at the Shrine Theater in Los Angeles. These performances were documented using what was then a state-of-the-art multi-track machine provided (and administered) by the Dead's record company, Warner Brothers. After being shelved for nearly two-and-a-half decades, the band's longtime sonic gurus Dan Healy and Jeffrey Norman digitally reconstructed and released this aurally accurate and musically motivated performance. The set list is fairly typical of the band's mid-1968 repertoire. Having just issued their second platter, Anthem of the Sun, a month earlier, the Dead were concentrating fairly heavily on material from that disc -- including most of the first side. The extended "That's It for the Other One" suite is executed with the acidic fury associated with this era of the Grateful Dead. The band is also looking forward to their upcoming projects. These include Aoxomoxa -- their next studio effort -- which contains "Saint Stephen." However, the track appears in the context of their 1969 release, Live/Dead, linked with "Dark Star" on one side and "The Eleven" on the other. (Also from the genre-defining double-LP set is "Death Don't Have No Mercy" and "(Turn On Your) Lovelight"). The developmental stage of these tunes is nothing short of aurally palpable. The band is able to achieve -- if not arguably surpass -- much of the same energy that drove the versions which became indelibly stamped into the psyche of the counterculture, as well as Deadheads world wide. Two from the Vault is a fun ride, as well as a glimpse into the immense improvisational talents of the Grateful Dead in the late '60s.

difficulty expanding part 2... any help?

This thread is like a microcosm of my college experience. Some of my friends started listening to the Dead. Then really started listening to the dead. They never came back. Spent their days stoned almost unconscious listening to Dead live albums in the their apartments with unwashed hair and the same clothes for a week. Skin pale white and frames malnourished from a diet of Little Debbies.

Come back guys, come back.

I'm a juicer with a military haircut and have a robust physique. I'll be fine.