Picking Over Dick's Picks
Grateful Dead Dick's Picks
As the Grateful Dead's tape archivist, the late Dick Latvala had what would be a Deadhead's dream job. For nearly 15 years, until his death in 1999, Latvala spent his days and nights working through the Dead's vast vault of live recordings, a job he took to with the ear of a musicologist and the attention to detail of a museum curator. The most tangible fruits of his efforts have emerged as a series of CD box-set releases titled, appropriately, Dick's Picks, which began in 1993 and have been coming out three or four times a year since the Dead disbanded in 1995. (Archivists David Lemieux and Jeffrey Norman are now in charge of the series.) Currently numbering 21 volumes and 60 discs, this series offers a sweeping overview of many of the Dead's best moments, although thus far it has not surveyed the band's formative years (1966-68) or its final years (1992-95). The bulk of these releases consist of entire concerts (although, following a long tape-trader tradition, several of these also include "filler" from other shows). Still others include the highlights from a chronological run of shows. To date, these have also been balanced between "classic" shows (such as Harpur College 5/2/70 [DP 8] and Englishtown 9/3/77 [DP 15]) which have been widespread among tapers, and rarities (such as Columbus, Ohio 10/31/71 [DP 2] and Oklahoma City 10/19/73 [DP 19]), which were previously all but unknown outside of the Dead's tape vault.
Although there are certainly commonalities in these shows, such as Jerry Garcia's unique vocal and guitar stylings and the adventurous flights of the rhythm section of Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and (sometimes) Mickey Hart, the series offers a panoramic view of the evolution of the Dead's sound, from the long, R&B-based extrapolations of the Pigpen (Ron McKernan) era through the concise, song-based formats that followed Hart's sabbatical, through the subsequent succession of keyboardists in the 70s through 90s....
Read all of Michael Parrish's reviews of the series in the current issue.
