What's Spinning, Vol 17
A Grateful Dead kind of Saturday
I know I'm supposed to not play favorites when other records in my collection might feel slighted or left out. I also know that saying this is the greatest live album for, The Grateful Dead, is also very controversial. Oh well... It's Saturday and I'm spinning my favorite album in my collection.
Everyone who follows the Dead and their live shows know the three days stretch from May 7th - 9th, 1977, are quite possibly the greatest three nights in music history outside of the Woodstock Music Festival. From Boston to Cornell to Buffalo, the Dead were at their peak, performance wise and totally in sync with each other.
Ask anyone except me and a handful of others and they will say Cornell is the best of the best. I beg to differ for two main reasons:
1. Opening up with Slipknot/Help Is On the Way/Franklin's Tower, is quite possibly the most epic start to any show.
2. The setlist is 🔥🔥. They played so many of their best songs, a few great covers, and the band is totally jamming out in the best possible way.
-----
I was lucky enough to score this album from Pitchfork Records in Concord, NH. It just came in from someone trading it in. The owner said I could get it for $125 because I had about $100 more in vinyl to buy. I waffled in true, Joe, fashion. It was my wife that said I'd kick myself if I didn't get it. You know, she was right.
It was also my first live Grateful Dead album I ever purchased. Now I own five others and it kickstarted a love for them that only grows as I appreciate them more and more.
-----
Grateful Dead - May 9th, 1977. Buffalo, NY
Rhino Records, 2020
-----
