Audio CD review:
Grateful Dead - Dick's Picks, Vol. 1

Grateful Dead - Dick's Picks, Vol. 1

Band: Grateful Dead Title: Dick's Picks, Vol. 1 Rating: Release Date: 31 August, 2004 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Here Comes Sunshine 2: Big River 3: Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo 4: Weather Report Suite 5: Big Railroad Blues 6: Playing in the Band 7: He's Gone 8: Truckin' 9: Nobody's Fault But Mine 10: Jam 11: Other One 12: Jam 13: Stella Blue 14: Around and Around

Customer Reviews There's a reason why this was DP #1! After several listenings, I "got it. As a new Deadhead, when I first heard this, I was perplexed why this would be chosen as DP #1. " This was recorded live in Tampa in December, 1973, in the period between "Wake of the Flood" and "Mars Hotel". It's a jazzier, more exploratory dead. The tone of the jams in Weather Report Suite and Playing in the Band, particularly, is light, trippy and optimistic. Keith and Donna were very very good on this release. I keep reading complaints that she shreiks but that's just Southern soul gospel coming through and all I can say is that it worked here. Having just lost Pigpen earlier in the year, what I am hearing in these grooves is emotional commitment to the music and to each other. I remember being in the car, kind of thinking that maybe they shouldn't have made this DP #1, when it hit me that this Weather Report Suite and Playing in the Band are both really tight. They were just soaring. Disk 2's laconic, lilting He's Gone flows effortlessly. The disk reaches a high point with Nobody's Fault But Mine and the Jam preceding The Other One which reveal the band at an artistic and emotional high point. DP 1 is jazzy where it has to be jazzy, twangy where it has to be twangy, and it rocks in all the right places. The tape hiss is quickly forgotten once you get into the quality of the performances. . . Turn up your bass a little bit to correct the problem one reviewer mentioned with Phil being a little too low. You may also want to crank up your treble since it's a bit muddy in the high range. It's a DP, after all, and not a perfect recording but overall a very good recording, and as deserving as any to be called DP #1. yup, this is the one right now i am listening to the jam/other one and my whole apartment is melting. wow. and i'm not even on drugs! this one features the dead at their "almost-acme. " it is something to truely behold, somebody chain up phil, already. the here comes sunshine, the playin in the band, the truckin, quickly it becomes clear, this is the penultimate release of the pickin' dick. whoa and right now is the time people, honk your horns and listen to it. jam has never tasted so good. Awsome DP#1 delivers. I have all the Dick's picks and always come back to this one for the version of Here comes Sunshine. For another great show, check out DP#8. the first set is all acoustic and will blow you away. Keep Jamming. DeadHead Phil. SC. . You can see a complete list of all Grateful Dead discography, or go back to the Grateful Dead tabs