After a break I'm listening to this now. FWIW, I love this song. TOTALLY is the Steamroller though.

I'm kind of pissed we didn't get a Shakedown.

So this is a catch up day? What's the next pick, we're in the final stretch people.

I guess so. I think Bloor is up?

In meetings all day. I'll advise our next move later.

if you guys are such big GD fans, you should be able to spot the GD sample on the new Animal Collective.

dude, i'll waste time on porn, but not the GD damnit.

Picked this because its a complete show from one date (I've grown to really dislike having the flow of a show interrupted by filler or sequencing)...

It has been noted that Grateful Dead tape archivist Dick Latvala, the Dick of Dick's Picks, was especially fond of the '70s, so it's not surprising that the first volume in the series of releases of Dead live shows to be issued after his death is not only from that decade, but from 1977, a year that has already been chronicled on two previous Dick's Picks albums. Still, in any examination of the band's history, its performance at Raceway Park raceway in Englishtown, NJ, on September 3, 1977, is a significant one. The show was the first the Dead had played in almost three months, and the first since the release of Terrapin Station, the album that marked their return to the world of major-label record-making. It was also an extremely big gig, with an audience estimated at upwards of 100,000. The Dead had a reputation for blowing big gigs. This is a band that played the Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock, and the 1973 Watkins Glen show said to have drawn the largest crowd in history, not to mention a performance at the pyramids in Egypt, but no one has ever said they played well at those concerts. Yet the Englishtown gig was an important one on the Dead's terms, nobody else's, and they were up to the occasion instrumentally, if not vocally. This is certainly not the show you want to own if you care about the lyrics to the Dead's songs. Starting with Bob Weir going up on the words to the opening song, "Promised Land," there are several vocal gaffes. But the main reason the show is a popular one with tapers is that there are some interesting musical excursions. The versions of "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" and "Eyes of the World" have extended instrumental interludes that sound more like new songs in the development stage than just jamming, and in the second half of the second set a lengthy version of "He's Gone" gives way to more than 20 minutes' worth of "Not Fade Away," with the vocals not coming in until after the nine-minute mark. There are other highlights as well. The group is unusually animated, with Weir, Jerry Garcia, and Phil Lesh all talking good-naturedly, and sometimes facetiously, to the crowd. There are several selections from the new album -- "Estimated Prophet," "Samson and Delilah," and the 11-minute title suite, and the band plays "Truckin'" for the first time in almost two years. Thus, there are many elements to appeal to the average Dead Head, even if Dick's Picks, Vol. 15 can't be recommended to the more casual listener as being among the Dead's finest performances.

dude, i'll waste time on porn, but not the GD damnit.

I sorta like the loose feel here so far. This feels like a party.

music never stopped

Dick's Picks, Vol. 20 finds a revived Grateful Dead circa autumn 1976, after a self-imposed 20-month touring sabbatical. Barely three months back on the road and the Dead are forging unique performance characteristics -- some of which they would retain for the remainder of their touring career. This massive set celebrates the Dead's triumphant return with over five hours of music spread among four discs from two nearly complete performances. This collection is actually two songs shy of containing both shows. According to Grateful Dead tape archivist David Lemieux, the absence of "All Over Now" from September 25 and "Bertha" from September 28 owes to irreparable flaws in the respective master tapes. However, both songs were played at both shows and therefore appear on this volume at least once. "Let It Grow" and a decidedly disco "Dancing in the Streets" are among the other titles performed at both concerts and duplicated on this set. The return of the Grateful Dead in 1976 also heralded the restoration of rhythm devils Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart for the first time since early 1971. Their frequent percussive excursions -- such as the exquisite sequence that links "Comes a Time" to a feisty "Eyes of the World" -- melt away the intervening years as if the two drummers had never been apart. Notable among the material showcased by the Dead during this tour are the addition of new songs and the revival of some old ones. Chief among the new tunes are Bob Weir's "Lazy Lightning" and "Supplication" -- originally performed by Weir and Kingfish during the Dead's hiatus. Among those returning are "Cassidy" -- which had been sparsely performed before the break -- as well as primal Deadhead favorites "St. Stephen" and "Cosmic Charlie." The latter popped up six times only -- the performance found here being the final.

Starting now with a shitload of optimism.