Grateful Dead - Dick’s Picks 32 and 33 Review

As an avid and decades-long and clearly incorrigible Grateful Dead fan, I have spent a great deal of money (but significantly more time, if we’re thinking in terms of overall expenditures) on this band’s music. Does that make me more or less qualified to come up with an objective opinion on these two releases (re-releases, actually, put out by the commendable troupe at Real Gone Music)? I dunno. Sorry.


But since I sort of have to assume that anyone who has clicked on the link to this review is either A) like me, already afflicted or B) looking for a place to start listening to this band’s fairly daunting catalogue of hundreds of commercial releases, this review will try to place these two concert albums into some kind of framework that’ll help you decide whether to buy them or not. Because as the folks in the A) camp already understand, and the folks in the B) camp are soon to discover, there is so much amazing stuff already available, one needs a bit of a roadmap to make decisions about what to pick up and what to leave out. But, let’s face it, most of the ensnared folks in that A) camp are going to buy these anyway, no matter what I say, because this is their lot in life it would seem. So, B) people, take some heed, I guess?


Anyway. As the Grateful Dead’s merchandising arm embarks on its new series of concert releases from its voluminous vaults – now named Dave’s Picks after Dave Lemieux, chief musical archivist for the band since the 1999 death of Dick Latvala, namesake of the first series of such releases – Real Gone Music has dug up and repackaged two excellent volumes from that first run....full text understandably focused on the band's 1970s shows, it's great to hear some music from the 1980s. And 1982 in particular was an interesting year for the Dead. That was the year they introduced some of the material that would eventually find its way onto their 1987 studio release, In The Dark, including "West L.A. Fadeaway," "Touch Of Grey" and "Throwing Stones." And at the time of this concert, Jerry Garcia had just turned 40. This two-disc set contains the complete show the Grateful Dead performed on August 7, 1982 at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, in East Troy, Wisconsin. (The encore is moved to the end of the first disc, because it wouldn't fit at the end of the second.)

By the way, the liner notes include a copy of a local newspaper review of the show. I always find those interesting, and often the writers get the songs mixed up. The writer of this review is no exception, declaring the band played "Me And Bobby McGee" that night. They did not; they did play "Me & My Uncle," the song most often played by the Dead during their career....full text