(Re)discover the Grateful Dead through streaming

Every occasion is a good one to (re)discover a band that is still too little recognized in Italy, despite having made rock history: the Grateful Dead. Outside America they may seem like a phenomenon of Californian freaks, but in addition to the wonderful music they produced, they were also ahead of their time in the way of making it arrive, in the business model and in the way of involving their fans, with innovative and still current ideas.

The opportunity to talk about the band is the birth of Play Dead, a streaming app entirely dedicated to the endless catalog of concert recordings. It debuted in recent days thanks to Nugs, the live streaming platform founded by the avid deadhead Brad Serling, who already manages the concert catalogs of artists such as Springsteen, Metallica, Santana and the whole world of jam rock.
For once the Dead come second: there is already a band that has its own app for concerts, Phish – who are the direct heirs of Jerry Garcia’s band in the spirit of understanding live. But the Grateful Dead’s catalog is in a league of its own: in 30 years they played more than 2,350 concerts performing more than 500 different songs, never played the same way twice. Of these shows, 2200 were recorded officially or by fans (there are thousands of different versions on the Internet Archive, remixed and remastered by fans). But since the ’90s, the Dead have been officially releasing full concerts, most of which are for direct and exclusive sale on their site – so much so that there are over 300 concerts in Play Dead, some of which have never been shared digitally. There’s the Dave’s Picks series, curated by Dave Lemieux, the group’s official archivist – previously only available on CDs and 20 never officially released.
We chose 8 concerts, avoiding the classics “Live/Dead” and “Europe ’72”, published already during the group’s career. Some are available on all streaming platforms, others only on Play Dead (which costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year).

Cornell University 8 May ’77

It’s impossible not to start from here, the “holy grail”, what many fans consider to be the best performance of their career, circulated for years in bootleg form and then finally released officially a few years ago. The band, while outside it is the punk years, is in the midst of maturity: a little less psychedelic in the strict sense, but still dedicated to epic jams. “Scarlet->Fire”, the legendary jam with “Scarlet begonias” and “Fire on the mountain”, is the song to start from.

Sunshine daydream – August 27, 1972, Veneta/Oregon

Another legendary concert – officially released in 2013 – also on video. A slightly earlier phase, but with one of the most beautiful versions of “Dark Star” ever, almost 30 dream minutes. The song, with its jams, is a possible avenue of research into Play Dead. And in fact…

Dick’s Picks Vol. 4 (February 13-14, 70 Fillmore East, New York)

The third concert I chose is the one with another legendary version of “Dark star”, perhaps my favorite (and not just mine, from what the fans say). I also chose it because Dick’s Picks were the first “official bootleg” publications in the 90s and therefore are an obligatory step into Play Dead. Dick was Dick Latvala, the band’s first archivist, who passed away in ’99.

Greek Theatre, Berkeley, July 13, 1984

Another beautiful “Dark Star”, in a period in which the band no longer played it except on very rare occasions. Like this one: the band is in an advanced stage, perhaps not the most loved but this concert is remarkable: it was only released in its entirety in physical form in “The music never stopped”, a gigantic 60-CD box released last year for the band’s 60th anniversary.

Fox Theater, Atlanta, November 30, 1980

Speaking of exclusive content: in Play Dead there are all the Dave’s Picks curated by Lemiux, so far only printed physically and sold on Dead.net. This is the eighth in a series that has almost 60 and which reaches digital. Here too a memorable “Scarlet->Fire”.

Community Theater, Berkeley, August 14 and 15, 1971

The first two concerts – chronologically – of the 20 exclusive to the app. Especially in the second, a memorable second set that starts from “Truckin’” to get to “Turn on your love light”, passing through “The other one” and “Wharf rat”