GRATEFUL DEAD LIVE PART 1: A Vault Is Worth A Thousand Notes

In the early summer of 1991 I was on a contact high for the Grateful Dead.  At this point I was well on my way being a Deadhead/fanatic.  I had a about two dozen cassettes of shows from recent years and even had Live Dead from 1969 which I was going to write about here, but I decided to write about a bootleg (at the time) of one of the few shows they did in 1975.  They only did four if you wanted to know.  One of these shows kicked off the Vault. Dick's Pick's, Dave's Picks revolution of archive recording for the Grateful Dead.  This being the first they picked an important one and one I love just as much as Live Dead from 1969.

One From The Vault is one of the smallest attended show by the Grateful Dead with only about 470 people in attendance.  It is also a show that included one of their albums in its entirety. The then released Blues For Allah was played all the way through with a few other songs thrown in.  Probably the only time the Grateful Dead played an entire album of any of their releases.  Some of these songs like "Sage and Spirit" were only played twice in their career.  Once for this show and once in 1980. Another song "King Solomon's Marbles" was never played in the time was The Grateful Dead was touring. So in another word, just once.  One other interesting note of this performance it might the only time the Grateful Dead did two drum breaks in an entire show.

Other songs like many other songs had new creative spins on them and seemed like perfection when heard in this new fresh setting. This music gave me a contact high of 1991. I was ready to finding any Grateful Dead that was accessible to me.  At this time I was already on my way to be a full fledged Deadhead.  I seen many a show and with One From The Vault this made me go explore either official live Grateful Dead which there was only seven official live albums of material to go through at the time of this release.

The Steal Your Face album was only the tip of the iceberg of live music that was circa 1974-1978 era of the Grateful Dead.  Also One From The Vault show from August 1975 gave the charge they needed to get things moving again.  It did not take till the next year, 1976 to go back and tour, but it was exactly what they needed. So as I hunted around for shows I went to local head shops and went looking for live performances of some Grateful Dead shows.  Some of the quality was not that great either.  The sounded borderline okay to barely listenable.  I started listening to the Grateful Dead Hour and taped each show.  I must have taped about 200 episodes.  God knows where these tapes are, but I love to have them back.  This gave me the idea to pay attention to any future live releases the Grateful Dead put out.

After careful listening I became more away of what each Dead show was like.  As well all know they never played the same song twice.  Some songs slowed down the tempo and other songs were sped up.  It was great to hear songs that you only heard through the bootlegs and then show up on a crisp clear soundboard performance.  One From The Vault was also the first official live release of Grateful Dead music that was of an entirely one show.  All previous live Grateful Dead releases where of various shows.  This was a bonus for me and countless others because we finally got a quality gig and a higher quality sounding show.  By the way both songs that lead in to the drum solos are quite awesome "Crazy Fingers" and "Eyes of the World"  are pretty damn' stellar.

So as a huge Grateful Dead now and have countless recordings bootleg or official releases I have to say this one of the few Dead Show's I love.  Live Dead from 1969 is pretty awesome and their are a few Dick's Picks, but every time I listen to One From The Vault it brings back memories of my first legitimate Grateful Dead live purchase.  The photo below is just how I got it. Went record shopping and bought them on cassette. It was cheap for $9.99 and it was the best money I have ever spent.  The Grateful Dead need no introduction to most of you readers.  If you have a good amount of Dead in your collection and seem to always pass this buy, then don't pass on this again.  It shows again and again how creative and fun the Dead were in their time. Since this is the only with a select audience of about 470 you can tell the Dead are going to treat their fans with something special and this is truly special.  Enjoy!!