Grateful Dead Flac

The 14th installment of Dave's Picks is devoted to another 1972 show, this one taken from an appearance at New York's Academy of Music on March 26, 1972 - i.e. before the Dead headed across the Atlantic for their legendary series of European shows. Generally, it's a pretty muscular performance, getting off the ground with a driving "Greatest Story Ever Told" and featuring a hefty dose of Pigpen in the first set, including "Mr. Charlie" and the one-two punch of "Big Railroad Blues" and "Big Boss Man." Here, his blues leanings seem of piece with the other roots the Dead lay down early - Jerry Garcia sings Hank Williams' "You Win Again," Bob Weir turns Marty Robbins' "El Paso" into one of his signature cowboy rambles - but by the time Pigpen surfaces toward the end singing the crawling "The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)"…

We are thankful to be here today celebrating the Grateful Dead's most lauded studio masterpiece with a 50th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION. Available on October 30th, the three-CD set will feature the original album with newly remastered audio, plus one of the most requested archival recordings in the Dead's vault - the unreleased concert recorded on February 18, 1971 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY. On stage that night, the Dead debuted a whole new batch of songs, five in all: “Wharf Rat,” “Playing In The Band,” “Bertha,” “Greatest Story Ever Told” and “Loser.”

We're easin' on into the last Dave's Picks of the 2022 series with the complete show from AUTZEN STADIUM, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, OREGON, 6/23/90 and you're going to need your sunglasses because the forecast for this one is bright. Doors were at noon with Little Feat opening (fun fact: Little Feat's Lowell George produced SHAKEDOWN STREET) and the Grateful Dead taking the stage at 2pm to deliver what is surely one of their longest performances and what can most certainly be classified as an upper-echelon late-Brent era show.

"And with this incredibly tight batch of prime 1987 Grateful Dead, we’re thrilled to bring you Dave’s Picks Vol. 36, matching the number that will be forever tied to Dick’s legacy. Thanks for sticking around this long, and for joining us through these past nine years of archival live Grateful Dead releases." - David Lemieux

“For the Grateful Dead's second live album, released two years after its predecessor LIVE/DEAD, the band delivered an equally magnificent, but entirely different, Grateful Dead sound. Whereas LIVE/DEAD was a perfect sonic encapsulation of the band at the peak of their Primal Dead era, SKULL & ROSES captures the quintessential quintet, the original five piece band, playing some of their hardest hitting rock 'n' roll (‘Johnny B. Goode,’ ‘Not Fade Away’), showing off their authentic Bakersfield bona fides (‘Me & My Uncle,’ ‘Mama Tried,’ ‘Me & Bobby McGee’), and some originals that would be important parts of the Dead's live repertoire for the next 24 years (‘Bertha,’ ‘Playing In The Band,’ ‘Wharf Rat’).

We're easin' on into the last Dave's Picks of the 2022 series with the complete show from AUTZEN STADIUM, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, OREGON, 6/23/90 and you're going to need your sunglasses because the forecast for this one is bright. Doors were at noon with Little Feat opening (fun fact: Little Feat's Lowell George produced SHAKEDOWN STREET) and the Grateful Dead taking the stage at 2pm to deliver what is surely one of their longest performances and what can most certainly be classified as an upper-echelon late-Brent era show.