Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 14 (4-CD Set)

GRATEFUL DEAD: Dick’s Picks Vol. 14—Boston Music Hall 11/30/73 & 12/2/73 (4-CD Set)

• Dick’s Picks 14 Presents an Unusually Stripped-Down Version of the Grateful Dead without Mickey Hart or Donna Godchaux 

• Includes an Unprecedented “MorningDew” Show Opener and Final Encore 

• Highlights Keith Godchaux’s Expressive Work on Keyboards 

• OUT OF PRINT AT RETAIL FOR YEARS 

This is one of the more unusual volumes in the entire Dick’s Picks series, both with respect to band configuration—neither Mickey Hart nor Donna Godchaux (who was off tour having a baby) are here—and the circumstances of the recording, as the first disc begins with a version of “Morning Dew” that had to serve as both a show opener and a sound check because the band was three hours late arriving for the gig! Interestingly, the last disc ends with an encore of  “Morning Dew” (in a particularly spectacular version) too, and one imagines archivist Dick Latvala chuckling over that symmetry as he put together this 4-CD set, which compiles highlights from two nights of a three-night stand at Boston Music Hall. Lovers of Keith Godchaux’s keyboard work will find much to savor, as he is higher in the mix here than on probably any other Pick, and the “Mind Left Body Jam” on Disc Four coming out of “Playing in the Band” is stellar. And how often do you hear (on Disc One) a FIRST set that begins with “Morning Dew” and ends with “Playing in the Band?!” All with a uniquely mellow vibe throughout…this is the Dead easing away from the jazzy 1973 sound towards the next step in their ceaseless evolution (the Wall of Sound is four short months away). Another keeper

DISC ONE

11/30/73 

Set One

1. Morning Dew

2. Mexicali Blues

3. Dire Wolf

4. Black-Throated Wind

5. Don’t Ease Me In

6. Big River

7. They Love Each Other

8. Playing in the Band

DISC TWO

11/30/73

Set Two

1. Here Comes Sunshine

2. Weather Report Suite

3. Dark Star Jam

4. Eyes of the World

5. Sugar Magnolia

DISC THREE

12/2/73

Set One

1. Cold Rain and Snow

2. Beat It On Down the Line

3. Brown Eyed Woman/The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down/Beer Barrel Polka

4. Jack Straw

5. Ramble On Rose

6. Weather Report Suite

7. Wharf Rat

8. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo 

DISC FOUR

12/2/73

Set Two

1. Playing in the Band

2. Jam

3. He’s Gone

4. Truckin’

5. Stella Blue

6. Morning Dew