Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 33

Grateful Dead: Dick’s Picks Vol. 33—Oakland Coliseum Stadium, Oakland, CA 10/9 & 10/10/76 (4-CD Set)

Fresh from a year-and-a-half touring hiatus, and back to full, two-drummer strength, the Dead opened for The Who as part of Bill Graham’s historic Day on the Green concerts in 1976. This 4-disc set—which is among the cleanest soundboard recordings in the entire series—captures both dates in their entirety, and features one of the most monumental medleys (and that’s sayin’ something!) in band history with a 60-minute, 10-song journey through St. Stephen/Not Fade Away/St. Stephen/Help on the Way/Slipknot!/Drums/Samson and Delilah/Slipknot!/ Franklin’s Tower/One More Saturday Night on the first day. Day two offers excellent takes on two solo Garcia favorites, Might as Well and The Wheel, that were new to the concert repertoire and a particularly fine Ramble on Rose. Bill Graham had honored the Dead by selecting them to close the year’s stellar series of Day on the Green concerts, and that—perhaps coupled with the presence of formidable co-headliners The Who—sparked some of the band’s finest performances of the period.

Songs: DISC ONE 10/9/76 (Set One): Promised Land; Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo; Cassidy; Tennessee Jed; Looks Like Rain; They Love Each Other; New Minglewood Blues; Scarlet Begonias; Lazy Lightnin’/Supplication; Sugaree DISC TWO 10/9/76 (Set Two): St. Stephen/Not Fade Away/St. Stephen/Help on the Way/Slipknot!/Drums/Samson and Delilah/Slipknot!/Franklin’s Tower/One More Saturday Night; U.S. Blues DISC THREE 10/10/76 (Set One): Might as Well; Mama Tried; Ramble on Rose; Cassidy; Deal; El Paso; Loser; Promised Land; Friend of the Devil; Dancing in the Streets/Wharf Rat/Dancing in the Streets DISC FOUR 10/10/76 (Set Two): Samson and Delilah; Brown-Eyed Woman; Playing in the Band/Drums/The Wheel/Space/The Other One/Stella Blue/Playing in the Band/Sugar Magnolia; Johnny B. Goode