August 6, 1974

Reliving a classic

August 6, 1974

From The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), August 6, 1974, page 24

Date Listened

It was rough, but I finished the whole show on February 8, 2025. The whole thing is nearly 4 hours long.

Sources

There are numerous sources of this show in circulation, including two matrix mixes that were created several years ago.

I spent some time comparing the various possible sources. In the end, I went with SHNID 166779, a copy of the soundboard master reel that GEMS released back in January 2024.

If you listen to even a single track from that soundboard, you’ll hear right away why I went with it. It’s the best possible recording of this show.

Incidentally, I’m surprised that this show hasn’t received a full official release. Dick’s Picks Volume 31 includes only 5 tracks that are not really in contiguous order. Now that we know that the entire show does indeed exist in such a high quality soundboard, it’s really hard to understand why those who manage the old tapes don’t capitalize.

Reputation

This is generally considered the best Eyes Of The World:

As much as I love that 3/29/1990 Eyes, I’ve got to agree with the consensus here. It feels like the jam will never end.

The other songs from this show are criminally underrated. This is a very well played show, and just so happens to have an amazing recording to boot. More people should listen to it.

Discussion

Have you ever thought about what it takes for a Grateful Dead show to go from “good” to “one of the best ever?”

It’s more than just great playing.

Naturally, given the type of band this was, you’d need a show to have quite a bit of improvisation to be truly considered one of the best of all time. It would also need to be improvisation that generally has some sort of structure, in my opinion, since you risk alienating the audience otherwise.

This show rises to that level frequently. My only real complaint is with Seastones, which feels like it lasts for an eternity.

The second thing a show needs to become “one of the best ever” is a great recording. I feel like we’ve got that now for this show, though it seems that a lot of people still don’t realize it. You really need one of those rare audience tapes from the “sweet spot,” or a clean sounding and well mixed soundboard, or maybe even a combination of both. The tape can’t just be adequate. To reach the higher levels, you need something that sounds good after repeated listening.

And, finally, you need wide distribution. And I think that’s what this show lacks, unfortunately.

65 minutes or so on a single disc doesn’t really cut it, in my opinion. This show really deserves the full plangent process — and this tape really should get a widespread release. More people need to listen to this.