Dick's / Dave's picks


Anyone else into this series of Grateful Dead recordings?
If so, please list your fave (s) or collection.
128x128jafant

It took me about 3 years to get them all, but I just purchased the last two Europe 72 shows. That was the Grateful Dead at their finest hour. 1977 was also another notable year as I think Keith Godchaux added a nice soft touch on the piano and kept the music simple and true to the roots.......I have all of the Dicks Picks and some are better than others and No#25 stands out for me.......so far I have all of Dave's Pick's and actually waiting for No#17 to be delivered today. I have not found them as good as the shows picked for Dicks Picks....in my opinion,    

The Dead also had some highlights in the eighties with Bret Mydland who was very good ......but they seemed to have moved away from the country / blue roots that I personally enjoyed. The band got even moved heavily involved with different drugs of choice from cocaine to heroin which unfortunately made Jerry just an average guitar player.......he got sloppy and lazy at live shows which I was there for a bunch and can attest to.    

There are a couple of box sets for the 90-91 tour and one is sold out and they are good at best. You can totally dismiss the Vince Welnick era of  Dead. That was a very dad time and was the ultimately the end of that band.  

Two From The Vault is from 8/23,24/68 and has an excellent New Potato Caboose.

As far as "big label" releases, the primary criterion is not performance quality but rather sound quality.  The vast majority of the major label releases are from multi-track masters rather than 2-track, and vice-versa for the Picks series.