After Garcia left, the Grateful Dead organization has clearly changed its way...looking to find a way to keep the heads satisfied with the wealth of old material they have available for release and a way to keep the cash flowing in.
To think that the organization was not an actual business before is foolish, so I get it. They were giving me what I perceived to be a good deal at the time and that's why I, and countless others, continued to come back for our regular dose of crazy.
There are some good decisions they've made, most notably the Dick's Picks series. These are generally-unedited master tapes of classic shows. The sound quality on them is amazing and gimmickry is kept to a minimum...just like the old days.
Likewise, some of the videos they've put out, like the Closing of Winterland (admittedly not released by GDM, but you get my point) and Downhill from Here have kept true to the groove.
They miss the mark, however, in their latest release, RoadTrips Volume 1. Let's hope that this series goes the way of Caveman.
They've strung together the hit performances of the boys' east coast Fall Tour of 1979. While interesting in concept to the uninitiated, it struck me as akin to selling a picture book of just the punchlines from Peanuts cartoons. Sure they're very clever and you can probably piece together the setup to the joke, but the cartoons are best taken in as whole, not a series of parts.
While I can get in the mood for an isolated song (as I am kind of forced to do on this blog, for instance), you really have to take in a show in something approaching its entirety to fully appreciate what they were up to. That's what I like about their new station on Sirius. Three times a day, they play full, uninterrupted (with the exception of some David Gans commentary at halftime) shows. I tape one each night at 3AM to have something to kick off my day on the way into work.
"Where did they get it right", you ask?
On the band's official site, they've opened up the bottom-up fan commentary and this is a good thing. Fans can come on and offer up their thoughts on the product. This dood hits the nail on the head.
Good day.
>>Addendum a few minutes after posting. If you follow the comment link I had above, the poster refers a few times to the "Movie." He's talking about The Grateful Dead Movie, a really cool piece they remastered and re-released a few years back. Footage came from the marvelous 1974 run at Winterland in San Francisco. There's apparently a lot left on the cutting room floor and this guy wants it all.
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