Search - Grateful Dead :: Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings (9 CD Boxed Set)

Truly the best of '77 ...

AEOC | Colorado, USA | 01/27/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"1977 is one of my favorite years for the Dead, and with the recent purchase of "Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings" I asked myself, what of the '77 commercial material is best in terms of sound quality? I already know which shows I enjoy based on performance, setlist and energy, but I really wanted to know which shows have the best sound and balance (instruments and vocals).



The only way I could trick myself into not being biased is make up some mixed CDs of random songs in shuffled order from all the shows, then listen to them independently and give each song its own rating. This is of course subjective as any other review you're going to find, and since my focus was primarily sound quality it is directly related to the quality of my home stereo (which is pretty decent). Just to keep things fair I also threw in one of my favorite bootlegs and an import CD.



Below you will find the results of my little test, ranked from best sound quality (#1) to worst (#15):



01) 06/08/77 - "Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings": Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA

02) 06/07/77 - "Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings": Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA

03) 05/12/77 - "Winterland June 1977: Bonus Cuts": Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL

04) 06/09/77 - "Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings": Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA

05) 04/30/77 - "Grateful Dead Download Series, Vol. 1": Palladium, New York City, NY

06) 11/05/77 - Dick's Picks, Vol. 34: Community War Memorial, Rochester, NY

07) 05/22/77 - Dick's Picks, Vol. 3: Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, FL

08) 05/28/77 - "To Terrapin: Hartford '77": Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT

09) 05/07/77 - SBD Bootleg: Boston Garden, Boston, MA

10) 05/19/77 - Dick's Picks, Vol. 29: Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA

11) 10/29/77 - "Play Dead" Import CD: Evans Field House, DeKalb, IL

12) 05/21/77 - Dick's Picks, Vol. 29: Lakeland Civic Center Arena, Lakeland, FL

13) 10/11-16/77 - Road Trips Vol. 1 No. 2: Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana

14) 09/03/77 - Dick's Picks, Vol. 15: Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ

15) 12/29/77 - Dick's Picks, Vol. 10: Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA



Note: Several of the items listed here are only available on dead.net or iTunes."

Partial from trade

Martin Kasdan Jr. | louisville, ky United States | 10/19/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Briefly, I have had the 6/7/77 show through trader circles for several years. Great playing and jamming. Inasmuch as this box is readily available on deadnet for $100 +s/h, there is no excuse for selling it for more than twice that, as was the case on Amazon when I looked at this on 10/18/09."

Nothing Left To Do But Smile, Smile, Smile

wm | ...onward....thru the fog! | 10/21/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
Rhino have really outdone themselves in every way possible on this one.



The first thing you notice is the elaborate artwork of the package, which was painstakingly and beautifully done by neo 60s rock poster artist Emek. Each of the 3 CD packages that contains each of the three shows folds out, and when put together, form a new picture.



But the packaging is just the beginning of these great shows. The sound quality is literally mind blowingly unbelievable. Each show was carefully remastered by longtime sound engnineer Jeffrey Norman, who has worked on a long list of previous Grateful Dead recordings.



Over the years, I've amassed somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 or so official live Dead releases, and can confidently say that nothing even comes close to the sound here. I will just stop writing about it now, because words can't describe the clarity and definition.



If you're reading this, you probably already know that 1977 is widely considered among the Dead's strongest. Assuming that to be true, then these 3 shows are the cream of the crop.



So sit back, get yourself properly regulated ahead of time, insert the disc, and you might just feel like you've been teleported three decades back to the legendary Winterland."