It has been a great year for Dead releases. Though the Dave's Picks
series didn’t quit explore and honor the 80’s as we hoped, probably because all
those Betty Boards, there were a couple of great releases. We particularly love
the Giants Stadium boxset, which had the stellar 1987 and 1989 shows. Since the
last blog post, Warfield October 1980 and Dave’s 27 (Boise) and Dave’s 31
(Chicago 1979 more in a bit on this in a moment) were also released. Open your
minds, hearts and ears and check out those 80’s shows.
When we last checked the numbers in 2018, Dave Lemieux had just released Dave’s
Picks 26. We were so excited with the
next release of Dave’s 27 (9/2/83) and its very hot first set. They are now on Dave’s
Picks 34 and the recently announced June '76 boxset. As of February 2020, the total
number of released shows is 224. Since our last update, there were shows
released from the following years: 1 from 1960s, 12 from 1970s, 7 from 1980s
and 2 from 1990s. Yes, some great Giants shows from the 1990s!
So is Dave’s 31 (Uptown Theater, Chicago) a 80’s show? We say hell YES! and we give Dave a little
credit for putting out this fantastic show. Like Dick’s 5, which was also a
December 1979 show, this show signals a true rebirth of the Grateful Dead,
totally reinvigorated (or cocaine fueled) and a foreshadowing of their 80s sound.
[NOTE: We are loving @36ftv and they are about to discuss both Dick’s 5 & 6]. What
makes Dick’s 5 and Dave’s 31 so new and special is in part due to the newly-ordained
member Brent Mydland, who is bringing the organ back into the sound and giving Jerry a friendly smile and a new zest for
exploration. It is like the Lakers picking up Pau Gasol in 2008 and giving Kobe
a new teammate and a championship era.
From the first notes of Alabama Getaway you know there is a new person
on the keys bringing his own magic to the group. Set 1 keeps rolling along with never-ending energy of one classic version after another of Ramble On Rose, Althea, and
The Music Never Stopped. Set 2 is highlighted by an outstanding Scarlet>Fire and the new songs Lost Sailor>Saint of Circumstance. The
show is capped off with a “Holy mackerel that was awesome! ” version of Truckin'. Throughout, Brent’s organ is driving the others to a peak that hadn't been felt for a
couple years.
OK, back to the numbers. With the addition of the 22 released shows
from February 2018 to February 2020, there won't be a great change in the stats
but let’s look at them. Looking at the aggregate data in the below table, 66%
of the total releases were from 1970s, 8% 1960s, 13% 1980s and 14% 1990s but
you will see that the 70s make up only 29% of all shows played over the band’s
thirty-one year career. In other words, less than one third of the total shows still
make up more than two thirds of the total releases.
Grateful Dead Shows Released
versus Shows Played/Documented, 1965-1995
Shows
|
Released
|
% of shows released/decade
|
%/total
|
% / Total releases
|
% / Total shows
|
|
1960s
|
492
|
17
|
3%
|
1%
|
8%
|
21%
|
1970s
|
686
|
148
|
22%
|
6%
|
66%
|
29%
|
1980s
|
729
|
28
|
4%
|
1%
|
13%
|
31%
|
1990s
|
427
|
31
|
7%
|
1%
|
14%
|
18%
|
2334
|
224
|
The below figure shows the distribution of the releases by year and by
series type. The graph shows there is still significant deficit in shows from
1981 to 1988, which is only represented by a handful of releases from Dick’s
Picks. Sorry 1984, 1986, 1994 and 1995,
you are still at zero.
The following graph shows the distribution of releases by year compared
to the total shows in a given year. The 1970s are shown to be still greatly
over-represented in the releases. The graphs also shows the lack of 80s and
late 60s and early 90s era shows.
Because we love Brent, actually we love them all, we updated the shows
by keyboard players. As you can see in
the below, Brent played in 31% of all Dead shows and is on 32% of their released
shows. On the other hand, Keith played
in 16% of Dead shows but 64% of his shows have been released. Tom C. gets more respect than Bruce and
Vince put together.
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