Dick's Picks Volume 36 | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | October 2005 | |||
Recorded | September 21, 1972 | |||
Venue | The Spectrum, Philadelphia | |||
Genre | Rock, country rock, jam | |||
Length | 279:10 | |||
Label | Grateful Dead Records | |||
Grateful Dead chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
The Music Box | [2] |
TheBestOfWebsite | A+ [3] |
Dick's Picks Volume 36 is the 36th and last installment of the Dick's Picks series of Grateful Dead concert recordings. It is a four-CD set. This release contains the Dead's complete show recorded on September 21, 1972 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It also includes three bonus tracks from September 3, 1972, at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado.
The release includes a 28-page booklet made of seven sheets of paper stapled together in the middle. The front duplicates the cover of the CD and the back features a color photograph of the band on stage in Boulder, CO on 9/3/72.
The booklet starts off with seven pages of liner notes and contains two newspaper clippings interspersed among several pages of photos of the band playing on stage. The last two pages list the contents of and credits for the release. [4]
The liner notes were written by Owsley "Bear" Stanley on 9/26/05 and are entitled "Notes: on sound, my theories and my techniques". Accompanied by a few small black-and-white photographs of the band members, the essay is true to its title, offering a detailed description of how Bear, the band's soundman, set up the public address systems the band used in its shows along with why he used these techniques.
Technical details fill these notes, and the author demonstrates an appreciation of the acoustics of the venues and the brains of the people in the audience. For example, at one point Stanley writes that "This is simple physics. Sound travels through air at a speed of one foot/millisecond, and human ears are set 1/2 foot apart, giving us a discrimination of 1/2 millisecond max in arrival of sound in each ear. It is this sense for arrival time (phase/delay) which is used to determine direction."
Sound engineers may appreciate these technical details more than most people, but Bear is apparently writing for an audience of regular fans. He closes his piece by writing he "hope[s] all this chatter is of some interest—or better, use—to you, the reader of these notes. I also hope you enjoy this album." [5]
The booklet includes two newspaper clippings, but does not reveal when or where the reviews appeared.
The first clipping features a review by Jonathan Takiff entitled "Grateful Dead leaves 'em alive, thankful". Writing that "Fifteen, 25, 40-minute jams pass without a time sense because there is no waste, no sense of repetition", the tone of the piece is very positive and the author demonstrates a solid understanding of the band, its music and fans, and the overall scene. Published in Philadelphia Daily News, September 22, 1972 The second clipping features a review by Ralph P. Bobb entitled " 'Dead' make Phila. more bearable". Asking rhetorically "What makes Greatful [sic] Dead concerts so enjoyable?" the author explains that "The Dead is one group which can experiment with their music during a live concert and make it sound like a polished product." [6]
Each volume of Dick's Picks has its own "caveat emptor" label, advising the listener of the sound quality of the recording. The one for volume 36 reads:
"Dick's Picks Vol. 36 was mastered from the original 1/4" analog sonic journal tapes recorded at 7.5 ips, and were not produced with commercial intentions. However, due to the masterful skill of the recordist, these tapes sound remarkably rich and true to the live sound. Being more than thirty years old, the tapes exhibit some minor signs of the ravages of time, as we all do, but rest assured that everything possible has been done to make them sound as good as possible."
The album cover art for Dick's Picks Volume 36 was created by Bob Minkin. Drawn with the aid of computer software, it depicts an abstract image, and is part of a series of similar art works used for Dick's Picks volumes 31 through 36. Minkin is a San Francisco-based graphic designer who received a BFA degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Dick's Picks Volume 24 is the 24th installment of the popular Grateful Dead archival series. It contains selections from the March 23, 1974 concert at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. The two-disc, vault release is mastered in HDCD.
Dick's Picks Volume 20 is the 20th installment of the popular Grateful Dead archival series. It documents the majority of the concerts on September 25, 1976 at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland and September 28, 1976 at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, New York.
Rockin' the Rhein with the Grateful Dead is a Grateful Dead triple live album released in 2004. It was recorded April 24, 1972, at "Rheinhallen", in the German town of Düsseldorf, during the band's European tour of 1972. The complete concert is included, but the order of the tracks on the CD was altered to fit the show on three discs, while preserving groups of segued tracks.
Dick's Picks Volume 4 is the fourth live album in the Dick's Picks series of releases by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded on February 13 and February 14, 1970, at the Fillmore East in New York City, and released in February 1996. It was the first of the Dick's Picks CDs to have three discs. It was also the first Dead album to include the song "Mason's Children".
Dick's Picks Volume 1 is the first album in the Dick's Picks series of live releases by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded on December 19, 1973, at Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, Florida, and contains a rare recording of the band playing the blues standard "Nobody's Fault but Mine".
Dick's Picks Volume 11 is the 11th live album in the Dick's Picks series of releases by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded at the Stanley Theater in Jersey City on September 27, 1972.
Dick's Picks Volume 23 is a three-CD album by the rock group the Grateful Dead. It is the 23rd installment in the Dick's Picks series of live archival recordings. It was recorded on September 17, 1972 at the Baltimore Civic Center in Baltimore. It contains the complete concert, except for the encore, which was "One More Saturday Night".
Dick's Picks Volume 25 is a four-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It was recorded on May 10, 1978 at Veteran's Memorial Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut and on May 11, 1978 at the Springfield Civic Center Arena in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was released on July 20, 2002.
The Closing of Winterland is a four-CD live album by the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert performed on December 31, 1978. The concert was also released as a two-disc DVD. The title derives from the fact that it was the last concert in San Francisco's Winterland Arena, which was shut down shortly thereafter. The Dead celebrated the closing as an approximately five-hour-long party and invited some guests including guitarist John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Ken Kesey as well as actor Dan Aykroyd who provided the midnight countdown. It was certified Double Platinum by the RIAA on December 15, 2003 under the category of longform video, selling 200,000 units. The New Riders of the Purple Sage and Blues Brothers opened the show.
Dick's Picks Volume 26 is the 26th installment of the Grateful Dead's archival series. It was recorded on April 26, 1969 at the Electric Theater in Chicago, Illinois and on April 27, 1969 at the Labor Temple in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It contains a rare cover of the Jimmy Reed song, "I Know It's a Sin".
Dick's Picks Volume 28 is an album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. Released on four CDs on April 20, 2003, it is the 28th installment of the Dick's Picks archival series. It was principally recorded February 26, 1973 at the Pershing Municipal Auditorium in Lincoln, Nebraska, and February 28, 1973 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Dick's Picks Volume 29 is an album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. The 29th installment of the "Dick's Picks" archival series, it was recorded May 19, 1977, at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and May 21, 1977, at the Lakeland Civic Center in Lakeland, Florida. The six-CD release is the longest album in the series and the only one with more than four CDs.
Dick's Picks Volume 30 is the 30th installment of the Grateful Dead's archival series. Just prior to their Europe '72 tour, the Grateful Dead played seven shows at the Academy of Music on 14th Street in New York City. Included in this four CD set is the entire March 28, 1972 performance plus selections from March 25, 1972 and March 27, 1972. The March 25 show featured Bo Diddley as a guest, whose performance, backed by the Grateful Dead, is included in Disc One. Other rarities contained in this volume are the only Grateful Dead live performances of "How Sweet It Is ", "Are You Lonely for Me" and "The Sidewalks of New York".
Dick's Picks Volume 31 is a four-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It was recorded on August 4 and 5, 1974 at the Philadelphia Civic Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and on August 6, 1974, at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was released in March 2004.
Dick's Picks Volume 33 is the 33rd installment of the Dick's Pick's series of Grateful Dead concert recordings. It is a four CD set that contains two consecutive complete shows, recorded on October 9 and October 10, 1976 at Oakland Coliseum Stadium in Oakland, California.
Dick's Picks Volume 34 is the 34th installment of the Dick's Pick's series of Grateful Dead concert recordings. It is a three CD set that contains the complete show recorded on November 5, 1977, at the Community War Memorial in Rochester, New York. It also includes additional material recorded on November 2, 1977, at the Seneca College Field House in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Dick's Picks Volume 35 is the 35th installment of the Dick's Pick's series of Grateful Dead concert recordings. It is a four-CD set that contains the complete shows recorded on August 7, 1971 at Golden Hall in San Diego, California, and on August 24, 1971 at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. It also includes bonus tracks from August 6, 1971, at the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood, California.
Dave's Picks Volume 6 is a three-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains two complete concerts: one from December 20, 1969, at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco and the second from February 2, 1970, at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis. It was produced as a limited edition of 13,000 numbered copies, and was released on May 1, 2013.
Dave's Picks Volume 11 is a three-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert recorded on November 17, 1972 at the Century II Convention Center in Wichita, Kansas. It was produced as a limited edition of 14,000 numbered copies, and was released by Rhino Records on August 1, 2014.
Dave's Picks Volume 46 is a three-CD live album by American rock band the Grateful Dead. The album contains the complete show recorded on September 9, 1972, at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California. It was released on April 28, 2023, in a limited edition of 25,000 copies.