Go To Nassau

Dozin' at the Knick	Dick's Picks, Vol. 1	Rockin' the Rhein with the Grateful Dead Always revered for marathon concerts, The Dead's famed 1972 tour of Europe is roundly hailed as one of their finest live jaunts ever. And this inspired (and rare) 3-CD recording presents one of the most stellar shows from that now-fabled sweep of the continent. The first complete...	Without a Net	Live at Fillmore East 2-11-69
One from the Vault	Dick's Picks, Vol. 20: Landover, Maryland and Syracuse, New York, 9/25/76, 9/28/76	Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72	Three from the Vault Readied in the early '90s (but not released until the summer of 2007) this multi-tracked document of a strong twenty-song, two-hour set by the Dead from February 1971 in Port Chester, NY brims with subtle pleasures and myriad rave-ups. The sound is immaculate throughout, thanks t...	The Closing of Winterland This 4 CD set contains the entire Grateful Dead performance from the Closing of Winterland on 12/31/78, mixed from the 24-track analog master tapes, and includes a 24-page booklet containing photos and essays.

Worth a listen
I actually enjoy a lot of the 1979-1981 period. Yes, a lot of the freeform exploratory jamming of the 1977-78 period is not there. But there are some good crisp shows from this period. Brent has not come into his own yet but he is a welcome addition to the fold after the way Keith played(or I should say not played) during the 1976-79 period. His vocal harmonies are a welcome change as well. Let's face it, Donna's live vocal harmonies were atrocious. This show is good, not great. It will not blow your mind by any stretch. The sound quality is very good and it has some good moments. A lot of people were bashing 1980 as a horrible year, it had some great moments too. Let's not forget the Warfield/Radio City run. 1982-1984 were some horrible years. Talk about uninspired playing. Yikes. Jerry was such a mess during those years it is painful to listen to. His health wasn't much better during 1985 but the shows got better. Has anyone ever noticed (or is it just me) that during the 1983-1986 period there are very few pictures of Garcia taken. If you look at say an old Relix from that period they will have a lot of pictures of the rest of the band and very few of Garcia. It's almost as if they were trying to protect him by omitting his pictures. There was no denying the guy was a complete mess. Look at the cover of the book Playing in the Band by David Gans. You can actually see all the soot and residue of the tips of his fingers from the heroin that he was smoking. All in all this CD is worthwhile to have in your collection if you're a head. The Nassau from 1981 that became a Dick's Picks is much better show from this period.

"...Heaven " songs sound better in Nassau
1980 was the last year I saw the Grateful Dead. The two shows I caught in Springfield, MA and New Haven, CT that year were underwhelming. The Spingfield show was embarassing, with Garcia flubbing lyrics, forgetting lyrics, stumbling through solos, and stumbling on the stage. The following night in New Haven was "ok" ,with Phil saving the evening. But still, pretty bland and slow. So I was surprised when a friend lent me this two CD set. Somebody must have brewed up a batch of double expresso for the band on these two nights, because these performances really move. The songs from "Go To Heaven" get a kick in the ass, and the "Althea" is the best that I've heard. The one critisism I have is Brent's keyboard sound. That Fender-Rhodes sounds like a door-bell. Otherwise, this set is a pleasant surprise and worth adding to your collection.

Underrated Dead
People seem to have two problems with this album: it's not a complete show, and it's from 1980 (many people say "There is no good Grateful Dead after year x"). First, while it is not one full show, it flows nicely and has the feel of a show. Second, there is good to be found in every year of the Grateful Dead's career. I'll agree the later years were far less kind to them than the earlier, but in 1980 they were still rockin out just fine. If you're wary because "Dead Set" is also from '80 and you're not happy with it, know that this album has something that one lacks: it's brimming with energy. The Jack Straw>Franklin's Tower is great, the China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider is one of my favourite versions, and the run on the second disc from Playing in the Band to Good Lovin' is like the Dead of old. Give this a chance, and I don't think you'll be disappointed. Edit of this review(5/18/05): After owning this album for a while and listening to it more, I feel that my original review, while accurate, was a bit generous. I would now give the album four stars instead of five (I'd change it, but I don't know how). There is some filler or songs that sound kind of cheesy, such as Far From Me and Lazy Lightnin' (although the Supplication jam is very good). In all, this is still a great album with the highlights for me being the ones I originally mentioned, but it's not perfect.

Mandatory Dead.
After becoming obsessed with the Dead about two months ago, I've obtained in various ways a fairly large number of their live CD releases, though seeing as there are about sixty of them released, I am nowhere CLOSE to having them all. So far, I haven't found a "vault" release that I like better than this one, including the famous Closing of Winterland and England '72 4-disc sets. Sound quality: Excellent. The instruments all come through clearly and are perfectly balanced in the mix. As an added bonus, some of the audience noise is mixed in. This adds a lot to the songs; the opening strains of "Franklin's Tower" sound especially powerful when the crowd cheers loudly after hearing them. Song choice: Again, excellent. Most of the "classics" are here, along with some rarities. Pretty much every song from Go To Heaven worth listening to also makes an appearence, which is really convenient for those of us who want to hear them without wasting money on a studio album with a notoriously tacky cover. There's also a welcomed absence of some of the more obnoxious "cowboy songs" that can make the first sets of some performances quite tedious and hard to sit through. Performance quality: Excellent for the third time! The band is clearly not "dead;" in fact, they seem more vibrant than usual. Lots of great jamming in pretty much every song, especially "Franklin's Tower" and "New Minglewood Blues," plus no little mistakes that can drag down an otherwise exemplary performance (see "The Other One" from Dick's Picks 5). Granted, there isn't any free form, "Live Dead" kind of stuff, but there's plenty of CD's out there filled with it (see Dick's Picks 16 discs 2 and 3), so I don't see it as a necessary addition to a Grateful Dead live album. Bottom line: This is one of the few Dead albums that I'd rate as completely essential. Perfect for someone who likes Live/Dead, Anthem of the Sun, and/or Blues for Allah but isn't quite comfortable with the "roots rock" that defined a good deal of the Dead's playing. This sounds more like a "jamming" version of Radiohead than the better-than-average Southern rock band that recorded Europe '72. Recommended for anyone interested. Oh. And don't get all intimidated by the fact that this was recorded in 1980, depsite the fact that the Dead arguably hit their apex in 1969. Just remember: in the same year, Pink Floyd released The Wall... and they'd been around for just as long.

Grateful Dead rocks Nassau
This album has not left my cd player in months. It is simply amazing. Although I am a big fan of the earlier dead recordings, my favorite era of the dead is the late seventies, early eighties shows, when their catalog of tunes was getting huge. With this release, there is no sense in buying their studio album Go To Heaven, as it takes all the notable tracks and improves them greatly. This is a mostly Bob Weir album with stellar versions of Lightning-Supplication, Sailor-Circumstance, and Althea. Not to mention a slightly rare Peggy-O. This album is unbelievable and I HIGHLY reccomend it to anyone!