Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 08

Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks Vol. 8-Harpur College, Binghamton, NY May 2, 1970 (3-CD Set)

If there were a college course taught on Grateful Dead bootlegs (and if there isn't one, there should be!), the concert preserved on Dick's Picks Vol. 8 would occupy a prominent place on the syllabus. That's because this evening at tiny Harpur College in upstate New York was for years probably the most highly touted and sought-after single show on the tapers' circuit (Jerry Garcia himself later singled it out as a memorable performance); and it appears here, complete save for one song, on this 3-CD set. The first disc offers one of the most beguiling acoustic sets the Dead ever performed, full of gems ('Dire Wolf,' 'Black Peter,' 'Uncle John's Band') from the already-recorded-but-not-yet-released Workingman's Dead, plus a passel of old folk and blues tunes highlighted by a beautiful, slow-burning version of 'I Know You Rider;' it's doubtful the band ever harmonized as beautifully as they do here, and the off-the-cuff atmosphere is simply charming. Discs two and three present the (very) electric Dead at their most probing, with a healthy dollop of greasy soul 'n' blues served up by Pigpen; highlighted by Garcia's guitar and Phil Lesh's bass spiraling ever upward in a lengthy solo section, the version of 'The Other One' in the 40-minute medley that opens the second set is unsurpassed, and the third set's 'Viola Lee Blues' sports not one, not two, but three mind-warping crescendos, while their version of the rarely-performed James Brown tune 'It's a Man's World' is as gritty and gutbucket as the band got. The closing 'We Bid You Goodnight' is twice as long as usual because the delirious crowd wouldn't let them go'out of print for years and a must for any self-respecting Dead library.

Disc One
Set One
1. Don’t Ease Me In
2. I Know You Rider
3. Friend of the Devil
4. Dire Wolf
5. Beat It On Down the Line
6. Black Peter
7. Candyman
8. Cumberland Blues
9. Deep Elem Blues
10. Cold Jordan
11. Uncle John’s Band

Disc Two
Set Two
1. St. Stephen
2. Cryptical Envelopment
3. Drums
4. The Other One
5. Cryptical Envelopment
6. Cosmic Charlie
7. Casey Jones
8. Good Lovin’

Disc Three
Set Two cont.
1. It’s a Man’s World
2. Dancing in the Streets

Set Three
1. Morning Dew
2. Viola Lee Blues
3. We Bid You Goodnight