Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead: Duke '78 [4 Vinyl LP]

The Europe '72 Album<br/><br/>In another industry-defying move, the Grateful Dead followed up their first Gold Record, the 1971 live showcase Skull & Roses, with another live album, one that to most fans and critics surpassed even the excellence of the previous offering. From April 7 to May 26, 1972, the Dead performed and recorded 21 live concerts, plus a set in a television studio, with every night being an exceptional display of the magic that was uniquely the live Grateful Dead. These concerts and this tour, 50 years later, are still considered one of the highest of high points in the Grateful Dead's performing career. In an era when a double album was rare enough, the Dead outdid even their own lofty standards by producing a 3-LP masterpiece that to this day is considered one of the finest live albums ever produced. Re-mastered from the original analog tapes, the album has never sounded better.

Grateful Dead: RFK Stadium Washington DC 1973 [8 Vinyl LP]

One of the shortest-lived iterations of the Grateful Dead was the band that existed December 1971 through March 1972. Jerry, Bob, Phil, Bill, Pigpen, and Keith formed a formidable version of the Dead that only played a few shows together before Donna Jean joined as vocalist, and before Pigpen would depart the stage for good in June 1972. What this sextet lacked in quantity of shows it made up for with creativeness, power, and inspiration. When Pigpen rejoined the Dead on December 1, 1971, after a few months off during which Keith had joined as piano player, the band was now an unstoppably powerful live juggernaut it hadn't been since the height of the Primal Dead era in late 1968-1969. Widely considered one of the best shows from the Pigpen-Keith era of the Grateful Dead, December 10, 1971 in St. Louis has it all: Pigpen singing lead on four songs including an 18 minute version of Good Lovin' and a very rare performance of Run Rudolph Run; a deep dive into the Dead's psychedelic recent past with a monster version of The Other One; plus plenty of the new material from earlier in 1971 like Bertha, Loser, Sugaree, and Playing In The Band. They also hit upon much of the music that would appear the following year on Europe '72, such as Jack Straw, Tennessee Jed, Mr. Charlie, and One More Saturday Night. And no Dead show of this vintage would be complete without the "hits": Truckin', Sugar Magnolia, and Casey Jones all make appearances. This is truly one of the deepest, most dynamic, exciting, and accessible live shows in the entire Grateful Dead canon.

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