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Grateful Dead Dave's Pick's Volume 48 ......time to put a fork in this !

I am a collector of this band's material and have been since the 70's. Fast forward about 20 years and bought all of Dick's Picks volumes and really enjoyed them all. Rhino pushed out '' Road Trips '' series which was when the Grateful Dead had Rhino distribute their live shows which were made up of partial shows and were okay at beat. I have all of those as well. Then picked up all of the box sets and there are a lot of those and some were mixed and recorded by Dan Healy which all of them sound like they were recorded under water or by a 12 year old. A lot of them were terrible sounding and he should have been sent to Siberia.

Then David Lemiux picked up the series after Dick Latvala passed and has put out 48 volumes of complete shows and most of them aren't too bad if they were recorded by Kid Candelero or especially by Better Cantor Jackson ........you can tell her stuff right off the bat or even Owsley Bear's stuff.

But the last one and a bunch before volume 48 are just bad.....it seems like they may have got to the bottom of the barrel and are just pushing these put now. I did although reluctantly sign up for the 2024 subscription but just can't help but feel that the quality in sound or the show itself was just not in the same league as others when this journey for them began doing this.

The mid year big box sets have been pretty good for the most part and maybe they should concentrate on just doing those for now. Also, the Dead and Rhino could skip all of the elaborate and sometimes just silly art work on those box sets and bring the price down on them. Some of that stuff is just unnecessary. 

So would like to hear from other's on what their thoughts are on if the Grateful Dead Dave Pick's Series has run its course .......thanks and stay well.  

     

garebear
jond's avatar
jond
5,807 posts
 

Well if you don't like the reissues you don't actually have to buy them. I know David and he is a super nice guy and passionate about the Dead and his work. Let him have his fun I say.

zlone
657 posts
 

I only selectively buy these and have not purchased one for a while, so can’t comment on any change. I have been disappointed by some in the past, especially the ‘77 stuff, that doesn’t seem to clean up well IMO. Europe 72 is spectacular, especially considering its age and the available technology at the time. I will be interested to see what others have to say. 

stuartk
2,779 posts
 

Because I only enjoy the Dead when they are not playing sloppily or singing off pitch, the yearly subscription model is a no-go. I hope the Dave’s Picks series will, like Dick’s Picks, be eventually re-released as single shows. There are a few I’d buy should this come to pass, such as May 77 Richmond. I've always found them maddeningly inconsistent.

I don’t understand their marketing decisions. For example, why the 2 disc version of Skull and Rose’s duplicates so many tunes, instead of choosing other, equally excellent performances of different tunes from that time period.

There is no other musical aggregation that both delights and disappoints me to the same extent.

 

 

wharfy's avatar
wharfy
323 posts
 

I was a collector of Dick's Picks, Road Trips and Dave's Picks. I lost enthusiasm for the same reasons the OP and StuartK stated.

I recently brought a boxful of CDs to a reseller, and he gave me full price on my DP, RT and DavP sets. Clearly, the GD live releases are still very popular, both as GD official releases, which sell-out, and the resale market, which sell for $$$.

Just wondering out loud when the GD archives will run out of shows?

garebear OP
1,146 posts
 

…….hello stuartk , you can buy Dave’s Pick’s on their own and not in the subscription format. The good shows sell out quickly . 

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