By my count, there have been 148 concerts officially released by The Grateful Dead. These releases have come in various incarnations, most notably Dick’s Picks, Road Trips and, the series of late, Dave’s Picks.
And while it is a boon for Deadheads to receive any recordings from the archives, a black hole has emerged in these releases – 1982-86 – which is coincidentally the years of my touring. A grand total of four shows have been released from this era – amounting to only one third of the 1977 releases alone. Even if we excuse the release of all 22 shows from the 1972 European Tour, this works out to a lousy 3% of the releases from almost 20% of their touring years.
So what gives with Dave Lemieux and company? Is it that these years were particularly weak? I would argue the opposite, that these years offer stellar shows with stellar versions of stellar songs.
Check out these recordings on the Grateful Dead archive and hear for yourself:
Greek Theater 1982/05/22 (Lazy Lightnin’-Supplication)
Madison Square Gardens 1982/09/29 (Loser, China Cat-Rider)
Seattle Auditorium 1983/08/27 (Jack Straw)
Indianapolis Sports and Music Center 1984/06/30 (Shakedown-Playin’-Terrapin)
Worchester Centrum 1984/10/08 (Terrapin-Samson)
Augusta Civic Center 1984/10/12 (Cold Rain, Uncle John’s, Morning Dew)
Hartford Civic Center 1984/10/14 (Estimated Prophet)
Oklahoma Zoo Amphitheater 1985/09/02 (Bertha, Me and My Uncle, Stagger Lee)
Henry J. Kaiser 1986/02/11 (Bird Song)
Hopefully one day Dave will wake up and get these shows packaged and shipped. (Providence 1986/03/30 is pretty good too.)
