Live Tour Rehearsals #3: Season 4 Preview

Summary

---

Podcast Summary: "36 From the Vault"

Episode: Live Tour Rehearsals #3: Season 4 Preview
Hosts: Steven Hyden & Rob Mitchum
Date: April 1, 2022

---

Episode Overview

In this live rehearsal episode, hosts Steven Hyden and Rob Mitchum offer a definitive preview of the fourth—and final—season of "36 From the Vault." The series chronicles every volume of the Grateful Dead's landmark "Dick's Picks" live releases, exploring their musical and historical importance. This episode dives into the upcoming season's setlist, discusses the lack of 80s and 90s selections, considers the enduring glory of the 1970s Dead, and highlights trends in Dick's Picks releases. The hosts also bring their signature humor, deep fandom, and playful banter—making this an engaging primer for Deadheads old and new.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Apparel & Deadhead Fandom (03:20–06:27)

• The episode opens with the hosts riffing on their Grateful Dead t-shirts, with Rob sporting a bootleg 1991 Dead shirt (03:44).
• Early lamentations surface over the absence of 80s and 90s shows in the final season. Rob notes:

  “If you're talking Brent era Dead, 87 to 90 is the golden era.” (05:01)

• Only one "Brent" (Brent Mydland era) show will be featured this season, a point of disappointment for both.

---

2. A 70s-Centric Season: The "Twitter Deadhead" Canon (06:27–07:46)

• The upcoming season is almost exclusively focused on 1970s shows, save for one 1982 performance.
• Mitch observes:

  “This season is kind of... a very Twitter Deadhead season because we're pretty locked into the 70s here.” (06:44)

• The hosts joke about their own "canonical" approach to Dead history and acknowledge that while the 70s are a gold mine, variety is lacking.

---

3. The Podcast Returns—and Some Wilco Chatter (07:46–09:29)

• Acknowledgment of the podcast's lengthy break ("3/4 of a year before canonical 36 From the Vault") and excitement about returning to full-length episodes.
• Spirited banter about their upcoming Wilco concert outing and differing Wilco opinions injects lighthearted flavor, with Rob quipping:

  “I'm the reverent one of Wilco on the show.” (09:07)

---

4. Sponsor Shout-outs & The Skull & Roses Festival (10:13–15:20)

• Promo for the Skull & Roses Festival—a gathering for fans of the Grateful Dead and its extended musical family.
• Rob declares:

  "Phil is like second in command to Jerry, right? Or is it Bob?" (10:46)

• Discussion of Phil Lesh’s enduring prowess as one of the Dead's anchors, especially in the early-to-mid-70s.
• Playful contemplation of hypothetical backstage rivalries between Dead bassists ("no knife fights between Otiel and Phil!") reinforces the community’s camaraderie (12:48).

---

5. Season Four: The Dick's Picks Preview (15:29–37:33)

A. General Overview

• Rob and Mitch express excitement but note a touch of disappointment about the lack of era diversity. Rob sets the tone:

  “If you're just going for a high batting average of bangers, staying in the 70s... you can't really dispute that.” (16:44)

• The length of each Dick’s Picks set is noted—nearly all are extensive multi-CD affairs.

  “Was that the right approach? For Dead fans, more equals better, but... maybe there could have been a little bit more editing?” — Mitch (19:49)

B. Show-by-Show Breakdown

• Dick’s Picks 28:
  • Two shows from Feb 1973 (Lincoln, NE & Salt Lake City, UT).
  • “It’s a heater,” Rob promises (18:19).
• Dick’s Picks 29:
  • Two massive 1977 shows (Atlanta & Lakeland, FL). Six CDs! (18:39–19:34)
• Dick’s Picks 30:
  • Academy of Music (NYC), March 1972—including the famed Bo Diddley Hell’s Angels party (21:40–22:42).
  • Rob riffs, “You’re gonna want to smoke a lot of cigarettes while listening to this volume, I think.” (22:29)
• Dick’s Picks 31:
  • August 1974, Philadelphia & Jersey City, deep Wall of Sound era with epic versions of “Playing in the Band” (23:47–24:49)
• Dick’s Picks 32:
  • 1982, Alpine Valley. The lone Brent show.
  • Venue nostalgia: “It’s the Red Rocks of the Midwest.” — Rob (26:09)
• Dick’s Picks 33:
  • October 1976, Oakland Stadium with The Who as co-headliners—a glimpse of the post-hiatus Dead (27:35–29:29).
• Dick’s Picks 34:
  • Rochester, NY, November 1977 plus bonus tracks from Toronto. Mitch is skeptical but open.
  • “Coming in with low expectations, that’s usually when you get your mind blown.” — Mitch (37:01)
• Dick’s Picks 35:
  • Three 1971 shows from the “houseboat tapes”—tapes originally made for Keith Godchaux found decades later (31:46–32:31).
  • Rob dreams: “I want a life where I just have a houseboat for 35 years and someone... finds Grateful Dead tapes.” (32:43)
• Dick’s Picks 36:
  • Philadelphia Spectrum, 9/21/72—a legendary Dark Star (“Might be the best... we’ll see.”) (34:39–35:17)
  • The September ‘72 run gets much love for its transcendental jams.

---

6. Community Questions & Bonus Chatter (39:34–46:02)

A. Dick’s Picks vs. Dave’s Picks Art (39:34)

• Fans prefer Dave’s Picks for artwork, but nothing beats the classic red-and-black Dick’s Picks design (40:19).
• Rob:

  “Dave's Picks has better artwork... but the red and black Dick's will always be my favorite.” (40:19)

B. Dark Star vs. The Other One (41:04–41:31)

• Discussion of the greatest eras for each jam vehicle.

• "That's my favorite period of Dark Star, so I'll say Dark Star, but... the great thing about Dick's Picks 28 is you get a Dark Star AND an Other One." — Rob (41:20)

C. Songs Discovered and Learned to Love (41:55–43:44)

• Mitch: “Sugaree” and “Peggy-O.”
• Rob: “Big River”—surprised at how Jerry’s playing reinvented his appreciation.

D. Slide Guitar Disputes (43:44–46:02)

• Mitch prefers slide guitar “dripping with guitar effects” (cites David Gilmour).
• Rob: “I love all kinds of slide guitar... pedal steel is, like, one of my favorite sounds in all of music.” (45:06)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “If you're talking Brent era Dead, 87 to 90 is the golden era.” — Rob (05:01)
• “We're not going to get any Brent. We get one album of Brent, which we’ll get to...” — Rob (05:35)
• “It's all 70’s except for the 182. So... Man, straight 70’s, man. That's 70 season.” — Rob (06:55)
• “You don’t know ’til you’ve been to Alpine Valley. It's the Red Rocks of the Midwest.” — Rob (26:09)
• “I want a life where I just have a houseboat for 35 years and someone… finds Grateful Dead tapes.” — Rob (32:43)
• “You know, coming in with low expectations, that’s usually when you get your mind blown.” — Mitch (37:01)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Time | Segment | |-----------|----------------------------------------------| | 03:20 | Show start & T-shirt/Dead Era banter | | 06:27 | Overview: All-70s Season | | 07:46 | Podcast return, Wilco tangent | | 10:13 | Skull & Roses Festival & Phil Lesh chat | | 15:29 | Start of Dick’s Picks Season 4 Preview | | 18:19 | Dick’s Picks 28 – Season premiere | | 19:34 | Dick’s Picks 29–36 rundown continues | | 31:46 | “Houseboat tapes” story (Dick’s Picks 35) | | 34:39 | Dick’s Picks 36 and the ultimate ‘72 Dark Star| | 39:34 | Fan Q&A: Dick’s vs Dave’s Picks, artwork | | 41:04 | Fan Q&A: Dark Star vs The Other One; favorite songs rediscovered | | 43:44 | Slide guitar & pedal steel preferences |

---

Conclusion

The hosts wrap up with heartfelt thanks to listeners and sponsors, high anticipation for the marathon season ahead, and a casual “see you soon” to the Deadhead community. Their enthusiasm for the Dead—and for each other’s hot takes—makes this an essential primer for anyone following the band’s live archive or just ready to revisit the golden age of the Grateful Dead.

---

Next Up: Dick’s Picks 28 (1973)—the season premiere "heater."
Release: April 11, 2022

---

For More:

• Skull & Roses Festival Info
• [Follow @36ftv on Twitter for updates]

---

Transcript

[Lawrence Lanahan]

When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, like Skims or Allbirds, sure you think about a great product, a cool brand and great marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making, selling and for shoppers buying Simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify, it's home of Shop Pay, the number one checkout in the world. You can use it to boost conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going through. To checkout, upgrade your business and get the same checkout Allbirds uses. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com income all lowercase go to shopify.com income to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com income.

[Mitch Roberts]

Osiris.

[Distrokid Advertiser]

Independent artists looking to release music have probably heard the name Distrokid, and for good reason. Distrokid is one of the easiest ways for artists to get their music onto Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, YouTube, and dozens of other streaming platforms. Artists upload a song or album once, and Distrokid distributes it everywhere. It also makes collaboration simple. With splits, artists can automatically pay producers, bandmates and collaborators without awkward follow ups. And when it's time to send large audio files or artwork, Instant Share lets users Securely send up to 1 gigabyte for free, complete with optional passwords and download controls. Promotional tools are also built right in. Hyperfollow creates free landing pages with pre saves and streaming links, while features like promo cards, mini videos, and a free Spotify Canvas generator help releases stand out. Plus, the Distrokid app, available on iOS and Android, automatic, lets artists upload music, check streaming stats, and withdraw earnings right from their phone. For artists who want to release music quickly, professionally, and without the hassle, Distrokid makes it easy. Head to distrokid.com VIP EVG to get 30% off your first year with DistroKid. That's distrokid.com VIP EVg.

[Mitch Roberts]

We should just be talking. Here we go live in true we're live from the vault fashion.

[Rob Mitchum]

We're live now.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. We should be. You know, we're. We were already tuning before, before the broadcast even went live. We were jamming. We're so warmed up on the third night of rehearsals.

[Rob Mitchum]

We were just talking about our T shirts like before we went live.

[Mitch Roberts]

We both brought our T shirt game for the final. Nice run, I think.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah, I'm wearing, I'm wearing like a, you know, my Grateful Dead shirt here can we see this? I worn on my Grateful Dead shirts. This is a bootleg shirt.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Repping for 91.

[Mitch Roberts]

You didn't make that yourself, Steve.

[Rob Mitchum]

No, I didn't. This is shout out to Conrad Doucette. He turned me onto this shirt. This was like some bootleg company. I can't remember who made this, but Conrad ordered this, and he was like, you got to get this shirt, too. And I was like, yeah, exactly. You gotta represent for 91 dead in this live episode because we're gonna be previewing our final season. No 90s dead. No. And barely any 80s dead. Shout out to 80s grateful dead. By the way.

[Mitch Roberts]

Twitter account. Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. He was busting our chops for not picking any 80s dead in our Dick's Picks draft. And, you know, I'd be with you, but there's not much 80s dead to choose from, you know, and. And that's not our fault. That's the Dick's Picks series. I wish there was more Brent.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right.

[Rob Mitchum]

To choose from. We're not. And we're. And we're getting so little Brent in our final season. And I have to say, really, like, if you're talking Brent era dead, 87 to 90 is the golden era. And I feel like we just get, like, early 80s Brent and there's some gold there, too. But, like, 87 and 90s dead is like the golden era of Brent.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

And I think, like, when the Dick's Picks series launched, that was maybe too recent.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right. Well, they. I think they were trying to avoid. Without Annette had just came out.

[Rob Mitchum]

Right.

[Mitch Roberts]

Next big series started. So they were like, we're gonna stay away from that era of the Dead. But by the time the Dick's Pick series ended, it was.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah.

[Mitch Roberts]

A decade later.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. We're in the aughts.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

This point without it, that's been out for, you know, well over a decade. They could have. They could have delved into the late 80s a little bit more. That's definitely the Brent glory years. It would have been nice to have more Brent. And I'm sad that we're not going to get any Brent. We get one album of Brent, which we. We'll get to, because we're going to be previewing briefly all of the Dick Picks volumes that we're going to be talking about. But yeah, that's. That. I think that's the most glaring complaint. Right. One volume of Brent. It's. It's a 1982 show. Would have liked more. And for me Personally, wearing the 1991 shirt would have also Loved a little bit more Hornsby. Right. As well. But, you know, there's also tons of great stuff in our final season.

[Mitch Roberts]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, tons of gold. As you mentioned the other. The previous episode when we were talking about our. Our picks in the Dick's Picks draft of episode one, that picking only the 70s was a very Twitter deadhead thing to do.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yes.

[Mitch Roberts]

Well, I think, you know, this season is kind of. It's a very Twitter deadhead season because we're, we're pretty locked into the 70s here.

[Rob Mitchum]

I mean, is there any 60s ahead of us? I don't think there's any 60s.

[Mitch Roberts]

It's all 70s except for the 182. So.

[Rob Mitchum]

Man, straight 70s, man. Yeah. That's 70 season. That's what this is.

[Mitch Roberts]

Before we get into that any further.

[Rob Mitchum]

Should we introduce our show?

[Mitch Roberts]

We'll introduce our show. We'll give a shout out to our sponsor. But let's introduce ourselves first.

[Rob Mitchum]

36 from the vault. I'm Rob Mitchum.

[Mitch Roberts]

I'm Mitch Roberts.

[Rob Mitchum]

You're Mitch Trubisky?

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah, no, we're Robin. Steve. And we're on the last night of rehearsals.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yes.

[Mitch Roberts]

And you're gonna have a. A full episode. I know these like 3045 minute episodes are just like a. Like a tease, basically. It's like the. It's like Beer Barrel Polka, but people are enjoying it. Little sampler in between episodes. Oh, people love it. I'm sure. I mean, an appetizer can go a.

[Rob Mitchum]

Long way and because we haven't. We haven't done anything and like Happy Year. And the Dead and Company episode. I don't know if we even want to count that. I feel like that was just a. Which was great. I mean, I think that's a good episode. But like the real 36 from the vault has not existed for like 3/4 of a year before canonical.

[Mitch Roberts]

36 from the vault.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah, yeah, the can. Yeah, exactly that. The Dead and Company episode that exists in its own universe, own continuity.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. And so, yeah, it doesn't even. Even count. So the least we can do is these rehearsal episodes and hopefully people are. Are digging it. I've been really missing the show. Thank you. Oh, I like the Wilco reference. Thank you. Crossing the streams with that one. Rob and I are gonna see Wilco together.

[Mitch Roberts]

That's right. Just a couple weeks.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. Gonna see some. Gonna see a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot anniversary show. That's gonna be amazing.

[Mitch Roberts]

So I'm gonna see them play the last album I liked by Woke Up. It's gonna be great.

[Rob Mitchum]

See, I don't want to say that because you're my plus one. Maybe the publicist that's hooking me up is watching the show, and they're like, don't take. Don't take Mr. Dad Rock here.

[Mitch Roberts]

I'm sure if I'm not on a list already for Wilco shows, I don't think it's gonna start now. So it could be.

[Rob Mitchum]

Jeff Tweedy could be watching this himself. And he's like, oh, wait a second. You're taking Rob Mitchum. Yeah, Foxtrot show. Wait a second. I'm gonna rescind your. Yeah, I'm not ripping Wilco. That's Rob taking shots at Wilco. I revere Wilco. I'm the. I'm the. I'm the reverent one of Wilco on the show.

[Mitch Roberts]

I'm surprised Woko didn't come up in the curveball conversation, to be honest. Like, that they should. That would be a contentious episode for sure.

[Rob Mitchum]

Like. Like you're taking shots at Ghost is Born with your comment, which I think, you know, Sky Blue sky to me, is a masterpiece.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right.

[Rob Mitchum]

I know you're not a fan of that, but, like, I think Ghost is born. You don't even have to argue about that album. But Rob apparently sticking shots at.

[Mitch Roberts]

I know what I'm doing. I know what I was saying.

[Rob Mitchum]

I know. See, this is. This is the longest standing argument between me and Rob. Yeah, well, before the Dead just arguing about 2000s era, Wilco. We could spend three hours on that alone. But I feel like we should get into our show. Should we shout out our sponsor, Skull and Roses?

[Mitch Roberts]

We got to shout out Skull and Roses, Wilco. Not playing Skull and Roses, unfortunately. But there are a ton of, if you like, the Grateful Dead. This is just four days of solid Grateful Dead immersion. The greater. What's the word? The Diaspora. Grateful Dead bands, cover bands, bands influenced by the Dead. Bands that love the Dead. You're gonna get. Of course, the headliner is a member of the Dead himself, Phil Lesh.

[Rob Mitchum]

We love.

[Mitch Roberts]

But good things to say about Phil.

[Rob Mitchum]

I haven't seen Phil live yet. I feel.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Like, I'm a terrible. I know. I mean, Phil. I mean, honestly, all aside. I mean, Phil is like. He's like second in command to Jerry, right? Or is it Bob?

[Mitch Roberts]

Man, That's. That's the debate. Right?

[Rob Mitchum]

I mean.

[Mitch Roberts]

I mean, I would go Phil probably, but you can make an argument for both.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. I mean, you know, it's probably like their co. Second in commands, but Phil to me. Yeah. I mean. And, you know, we're looking ahead to Our season premiere, April 11th. Dick's Picks 28. We did a 73 show, so I'm feeling especially reverend to Phil, because 73. Phil Lesh. I mean, come on.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

You're not gonna do any better than that. I mean, just his playing on Dixfix28. Don't want to spoil it. I feel like it keeps saying that, but, like, his playing on that record is unbelievable. Yeah. And he's. And he still kills it. And he, you know, what is he, like, 81?

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. It was supposed to be his 80th birthday at the lock in in 2020.

[Rob Mitchum]

Oh.

[Mitch Roberts]

So he might be 81 or 82. Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

He's still out there, though. He's. He's playing great.

[Mitch Roberts]

I know this restaurant, unfortunately, but there's people out there. Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Who feel like, you know, not that we're going to compare Dead and CO to Phil and Friends, but I know that. That there's a contingent out there who feels like Phil is the more adventurous, you know, post Dead iteration. You know, he's. Oh, absolutely super exploratory. So, you know, you're going to get an amazing show with Phil and Friends. That's right.

[Mitch Roberts]

And if Phil and Friends doesn't do it to you, if you're more of a newer generation Deadhead. How about OTL in France? O. Berbridge? He's. He's moving in on the An Friends territory. He's got his own thing now. Ot we were talking about how they probably are gonna, you know, like, have a, like, beat it style standoff backstage, but I forgot that Oto Berbridge seems like probably the nicest dude in all of jam bandery.

[Rob Mitchum]

Exactly.

[Mitch Roberts]

I mean, I'm sure there. We're just joking. There's not gonna be a knife fight between.

[Rob Mitchum]

We say this in Jess. We say it because it's a funny thing to suggest. And part of what makes it funny is that Oto was such a nice, spiritual guy. He would never pull a switchblade on Phil Lesh. You know, that would never happen. But it's funny to think about the two Grateful Dead bass players brawling it out backstage at Skull and Roses. But just a joke never would happen because they're both such spiritual, beautiful human beings. There's not gonna be any, like, Will Smith, Chris Rock action here.

[Mitch Roberts]

Oh. Is not gonna slap Phil in the middle of his set.

[Rob Mitchum]

All love between these guys. And you got Dark Star Orchestra. They're doing their thing, Right.

[Mitch Roberts]

Melvin Seals and the jgb. Keller Williams, Jackie Green, Circles around the Sun. Yeah, we can go on and on. We talked about a lot of the other bands. I am fascinated by one of the bands at the very bottom of the bill here called Legion of Mario. What? Like, I don't. Is this like Chip tune eight bit covers of the Grateful Dead?

[Rob Mitchum]

No idea.

[Mitch Roberts]

What is Legion of Mario all about? That. That's.

[Rob Mitchum]

No idea.

[Mitch Roberts]

If anybody knows, drop it in the chat.

[Rob Mitchum]

We got Legion of Mary, which is a Jerry Garcia right side project. Did you get the Mario aspect of it? I don't know. Is it like Mario Benvenuto. Marco Benvenuto. Sorry.

[Mitch Roberts]

I like Mario. Maybe it's his, his brother Mario.

[Rob Mitchum]

Right?

[Mitch Roberts]

You got.

[Rob Mitchum]

I thought you're gonna say pink talking fish. I thought you're gonna shout out them because that's.

[Mitch Roberts]

Oh, we had pink talking fish.

[Rob Mitchum]

We had.

[Mitch Roberts]

We talked about them. We talked about Big Steve and the as fights from hell, which I learned today from the skullofroses.com website includes Don Waz. Don Waz is one of the hell. Apparently so. So, yes, this is a week from today. It starts April 7th through 10th. It's at the Ventura County Fairgrounds in California. So maybe a little late to buy those last minute plane tickets. I don't know. Have flight prices come back up? Flight price is still pretty cheap. I haven't had, I haven't had to book a flight lately. But yeah, if you're on the west coast, you can make it to Ventura County. Check it out. There's tickets for sale on skull and roses.com right now. They're announcing all sorts of like musical news and sort of the, the extra musical themes and parades and the vendors that are going to be there and the beer and foods that's going to be there. So out the website. And thank you, Skull and Roses.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yes.

[Mitch Roberts]

For sponsoring these episodes. They've been a lot of fun and yeah, I think we're good. And I think we should get into to previewing.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah, we had a mailbag, but let's, let's, let's do the mailbag for a future episode of our show. I think we should get into the preview here. And by the way, if our fans like want to do a patreon to raise money for a private jet to send me and Rob to Skull and Roses, we aren't going to discourage that. Like if you guys want to send us there, that'd be amazing. So, you know, just the gentle room. Just a gentle suggestion. We're not saying you have to do that, but if you want to do that, that'd be great.

[Mitch Roberts]

Or if you're flying in a private jet from the east coast and you want to stop over in the Midwest and pick us up and then go, you don't have to give us our own private jet. We'll ride in yours.

[Rob Mitchum]

If Bill Walton is watching this and he. Because he probably has a private jet access, you want to hook us up, that'd be amazing. But, yeah, let's get into our season preview here, you know, because this is what it's all about. Looking ahead to season four, I have to say, like, okay, so we've already touched on the lack of diversity in terms of different eras. It's. It's straight 70s, and we've talked about this in some of our other preview episodes. Like, I like the diversity. I like getting into different eras. I think Rob feels the same way. Right. Like, we both like that.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

But at the same time, if you're just going for, like, a high batting average of. Of bangers, staying in the 70s is, like, you can't really dispute that.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, looking at this lineup for the fourth season, I am. I. I will say I'm a little bit disappointed that we're not getting, like, you know, the one. We get the 180s show, but I liked getting the 190 show. I like to get in the 60s show. I like mixing in a little bit of variety. But, I mean, we're covering all the 70s. We've talked about it a million times. The Dead changed so rapidly in the 70s. The band that we're gonna hear, you know, in 77 is a mile, a thousand miles away from the band that we're gonna hear from, like, a 1971.

[Rob Mitchum]

Show and even, like, from, like. From, like, the fall of 72 to, like, the spring of 73. You're getting, like, a different band, so.

[Mitch Roberts]

Exactly.

[Rob Mitchum]

Pretty exciting. So let's get to. Let's get to our preview here. So we're going to talk about.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right. Steve's got props.

[Rob Mitchum]

I got props here. Dick's Picks 28 is our first episode of the season. Season premiere. This is two shows. We got Lincoln, Nebraska. We have Salt Lake City. 226, 73, 228, 73. Little spoiler alert. We've actually already recorded this episode, so Rob and I have sounded off on this already, so we don't want to. I keep saying spoiler alert when I talk about Dick's picks 28. Yeah. I don't want to dig too deep into what we've already said about this, but, yeah, it's a heater. We could say it's a heater. All right. Yeah.

[Mitch Roberts]

I mean, I think we're not blowing anybody's mind to tell you 1973 show is good. So if you want to hear two and a half more hours on that, you know, stay tuned. About a week and a half from now, it'll. It'll be up, it'll be live. And look at this. Can you even lift that? How heavy is that thing?

[Rob Mitchum]

Look at this. This is like. This is. This is a six banger, man. This is six CDs. Dick's Picks. 29.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Two shows. I don't know if they're complete shows. If they're not complete shows, They're.

[Mitch Roberts]

I think it's missing one song. I. I was looking it up today. There's one song they had to leave off, but it also has filler from yet another.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah, I believe it's like October 21st.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

77. But yeah, mainly we're talking about Atlanta, 5, 1977, and Lakeland, Florida, 521. 77, right here. I think for this, we're gonna have to talk about this like the shows as complete shows, rather than breaking it down per song or per disc, because this could be a very long episode. But, you know, it's also lots of glorious Grateful Dead on this one.

[Mitch Roberts]

One. One thing I'm. We'll. We'll talk about it this season. We'll have plenty more time to talk about it. But every Dick's Picks this season is. Is quite long.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah, they really.

[Mitch Roberts]

There's only one two disc. That's the smallest, and that's the 82 show, of course. So the 80s get slighted again.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah.

[Mitch Roberts]

Everything else is at least three. There's a lot of four CD sets. So I'm. I'm interested to talk about, you know, was that the right approach? I mean, Grateful Dead fans, you know, for them, more equals better. But I'm wondering in some cases already, even just at the start of the season, if maybe. Maybe there could have been a little more editing. Maybe there could have been a little curating by the Dick's Fix team here, but I'm gonna. I'm just gonna throw that out there and leave that for further discussion.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah, I think at this point, they were just like. And this was still, I think, pre Live Archive. I. I wonder, like, when Live Archive started, if that was.

[Mitch Roberts]

I think the. The archive was. I remember listening to the Archive back, like, when I was at College in the 90s like, it existed in some.

[Rob Mitchum]

Form, but, like, in terms of it actually. I'm sure it existed back then, but, like, in terms of it actually being something that you could stream and it would. It wouldn't take, like, you know, an hour to stream, like, one song, you know, Was that, like, early aughts? Mid aughts. I mean, I know for me, as a burge Deadhead in the early 2000s, I feel like the development of the. Of. Of. Of. Of the Live Archive was like, a big thing with growing my own fandom, and. I don't know. At any rate, I feel like maybe with the Dick six getting longer, they were still feeling like, well, people don't have access to all of this music, so we'll just throw it on these discs. They didn't know that people would be podcasting it about it in 20 years and. Right. Of course, make very long episodes.

[Mitch Roberts]

And I think every time, all those early ones that did, like, partial shows, I think people were probably like, God damn it, why didn't you? And so that's what was. I think maybe they went a little too far in the other direction. All right, you're holding up volume 30.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yes.

[Mitch Roberts]

Which is the Academy of Music Shows. So this is. I'm really excited for this one. We just. We're just off the 50th anniversary of these shows. A more sophisticated professional podcast would have timed the season so that we hit these shows right on the 50th anniversary. We are not that podcast.

[Rob Mitchum]

No, we'll hit this, like, in about, what, like, early May, I think.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah, it'll be early part of May, so about five weeks from now. It'll still be fresh off the anniversary. Right. You'll still want to hear it.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. And, like, they're playing, like, with Bo Diddley.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. On one of the discs. It's a Hell's Angels private party.

[Rob Mitchum]

Pretty amazing. Yeah. They're doing, like. Yeah. Oh, this looks pretty goddamn sick. I'm really excited. This is gonna. This is like Hell's Angels, Grateful Dead. This is, like, badass.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right?

[Rob Mitchum]

You know, anchor tattoo, Born to Lose tattoo across your chest. This is gonna be. You're gonna want to, like, smoke a lot of cigarettes while listening to this volume, I think.

[Mitch Roberts]

Dmt. Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. This is gonna be a good one.

[Mitch Roberts]

Our friendly rival, Jesse Jarno, just went through those shows on Twitter. So if you. If you need a little. Want to wet your taste for that, that's.

[Rob Mitchum]

That's.

[Mitch Roberts]

That's where you can find some good.

[Rob Mitchum]

Info you're only following because he's hosting the other Grateful Dead podcast.

[Mitch Roberts]

That's right.

[Rob Mitchum]

I think there's only two or there's three, actually. This broke down podcast got shot to broke down podcast. You got us and you got the official Grateful Dead podcast. We're the show where you. Where you don't actually want any facts or information. Right. You only want takes.

[Mitch Roberts]

Jesse can tell you the exact date when the live music archive went up and streamed the music. We just guess randomly off of Foggy College memories.

[Rob Mitchum]

We're giving you takes. Yeah, we're giving you priceless takes here.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right.

[Rob Mitchum]

You know, he's giving you facts, which is, you know, that has its place. But we're giving you takes which are.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. No knife. Hypothetical knife. Knife fights on Jesse's podcast. All right, Dick's picks 31. Back to the sweet spot of 73 to 74.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yes.

[Mitch Roberts]

This time we're in August 74. We got shows. This. This one is kind of a grab bag a little bit.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. We're in Philly and we're in Jersey City. More east coast bias, of course. Yeah. And I have to say the least attractive cover design of all time. It increasingly gets worse with Dick's Picks. As the music gets better, the typography.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right.

[Rob Mitchum]

Gets worse.

[Mitch Roberts]

This is like an inverse relationship between. Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

I don't know what's going on here. It's like sort of like a.

[Mitch Roberts]

It's a screensaver. It's a screenshot of a screensaver.

[Rob Mitchum]

Pretty non committal font here too. Not the best font selection, but amazing music.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. Wall of Sound. It's a wall sound show.

[Rob Mitchum]

It's got two.

[Mitch Roberts]

Two plans that I think are each about a half hour long.

[Rob Mitchum]

Oh, man.

[Mitch Roberts]

It's gonna be. Yeah. Phil. Beardy Phil at the peak of his powers.

[Rob Mitchum]

We got a. Yeah. CD1 kicks off with playing in the band into Scarlet Begonias, into Jack Straw into Peggio. That sounds like a pretty amazing progression. CD1 and CD4, Eyes of the World into playing in the band into Scarlet Begonias. Back into playing in the band. My mouth is watering already. Sounds pretty amazing. 31. Here we go. Brent, Right? Finally.

[Mitch Roberts]

The little skinny package is Brent, unfortunately.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. Skinny banger. But you know what? What? You get less in quantity. You're getting all in quality here, I think.

[Mitch Roberts]

Hey, Alpine Valley.

[Rob Mitchum]

Alpine Valley.

[Mitch Roberts]

Steve and I have been Alpine Valley together. We're going again this summer. A lot about Alpine Valley.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yes. Forget the east coast bias. We're all about the mid coast bias. Middle of the country. Alpine Valley, I think. Is this the first Alpine Valley. I think it is in the Dick space. Sure.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. I don't know when Downhill From Here came out. The video, which is a later 80s show. Right. At Alpine Valley.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. Or 89, I think, for Dick's Picks. It's definitely the debut. I'm excited. I mean, I'm excited to talk about Alpine Valley in this episode.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Because all you east coast people, east coast chauvinism, east coast elitism. Get that out of the. Get it. Get that out of here. We're going to talk about Alpine Valley, one of the great music venues of all time. One of the great jam band venues. You don't know till you've been to Alpine Valley. It's. It's the red rocks of the Midwest.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

We get a Man Smart Woman Smarter too on here.

[Mitch Roberts]

Oh, God.

[Rob Mitchum]

Wow.

[Mitch Roberts]

Well, I'm less enthusiastic all of a sudden.

[Rob Mitchum]

We get a. We get a China writer, then a Man Smart Woman Smarter. Ship of Fools playing in the band and then drum space. Is that. I think that's the debut of Man Smart Woman Smarter.

[Mitch Roberts]

Really?

[Rob Mitchum]

I think it is. I don't think. I don't think we've. Because we haven't had much, Brent. I don't think we've had that.

[Mitch Roberts]

Oh, you mean for the. For Dick sticks? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

What do you think I'm talking about here?

[Mitch Roberts]

I thought you meant it was the first time they ever played it. I thought you were trying to drop some, like. Well, you think.

[Rob Mitchum]

You think.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Smart Woman smarter. Heady jams. Like, I don't know what to do.

[Mitch Roberts]

With your free time. It's.

[Rob Mitchum]

No, I know Dick's Picks. I don't know the history of each song. I know Dick's Picks history. We have not heard that yet.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. No, I would remember. I would have the scars if we had heard that. Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Oh, come on. Come on. Can't be talking like that already. All right, here we go. Dick633.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right. 76 show. So I was really excited about the. The Dick's Fix 20. I haven't listened to Hardly Any Grateful Dead. 76. Dix Fix 20 was really interesting. I don't think it was the best Dick's Picks, but it was one that definitely sort of whetted my appetite for digging deeper into 1976. So I'm excited to double dip on that shows.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yes.

[Mitch Roberts]

From Oakland stadium.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. It's October 9th and 10th of 76. And this is a four banger for you CD fans. Four CDs on this record. And. Yeah. 76. You know, they're coming back from the hiatus.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right.

[Rob Mitchum]

Integrating Mickey back into the band. They are, you know, gearing up for the 77.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. Not as slick.

[Rob Mitchum]

No.

[Mitch Roberts]

And a little more creative in the set listing. So.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah.

[Mitch Roberts]

Steve, do you know who co headlined those shows with them? That's right, the who.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. And. And we've talked about this, I think, a little bit before, but there's an interesting, you know, interaction with the who and the Dead. You don't think of the who really being jam friendly, but like, Townsend had a lot of respect for the Dead and vice versa.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. Yeah. So maybe we should see if those who shows are out there. See if there's some bootlegs of the who. Four CDs won't be enough for an episode. We got to listen to two other shows by a different.

[Rob Mitchum]

I mean, that's kind of the end of the who Keith Moon era being great. I mean, you know, because they reconvened like a year later to film the Kids Are All Right performances. And Keith Moon by then had already precipitously fallen off. Was not playing nearly as well, but he was playing pretty hot in 76. I see we get a might as well on here. I don't know if we've had a might as well.

[Mitch Roberts]

I don't think we have. No.

[Rob Mitchum]

It might be a Dick's Picks premiere. Yeah, we'll see. Oh, I'm seeing a Johnny B. Goode as a encore on here too. Getting a Berry. Lots of good stuff here. All right, here we go. Dick's picks 34.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yep.

[Rob Mitchum]

We have an exclusive company price tag on here that is so stuck on there, I can't get it off. But this is the value. Well, but you know, it's also shouting out record company, you know, record stores. So I appreciate that. It reminds me of when I bought it. This is Rochester, New York. 11-5-77. Another 77 show following up Dick's picks 29.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. In the fall this time. I. I don't know much about this show. What's. What do we got to look forward to in Dick's picks 34?

[Rob Mitchum]

Well, we're also getting quite a bit of 7-2-77 from Toronto. We're getting about seven songs from there as well. This is a three banger. I don't know. I mean, it looks like a pretty straightforward 77 show. Although on CD2, you can see that here. I can hold it right here. You get a Phil solo and then you get Take a Step back as its own track going into Eyes of the World. So you get you, get a Phil solo. Take a step back. Eyes of the world. Hell of a progression right there. Yeah, pretty excited for that. Dick's Picks 35. I do not have this CD yet. I just bought the CD. This was like the hardest Dick's Picks for me to find. Yeah, I've. I've literally searched for this for about three or four or five years. I just recently got it, so I don't have a CD to hold up for. Dick's picks 35. That's a 71.

[Mitch Roberts]

Does that complete the whole set for you?

[Rob Mitchum]

I will have. I'll have everything at that point. Wow. And this is another, this is another four banger.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah, 71. Going back to 71 for the first time since sticks fix two.

[Rob Mitchum]

I believe this is covering three shows. We got San Diego, Chicago and Hollywood. Hollywood actually I had as a bootleg for a long time. Ah, nice. That's a really good show.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. And these tapes were discovered as part of the houseboat tapes, which are the tapes that they've dubbed for Keith when they, when right before he joined the band. Like Jerry dubbed him some reel to reels and, and said here, listen to these and learn the music. And then I believe they sat on Keith's parents houseboats for 35 years until somebody found them and they were still playable and they turned them. I think it was a pretty quick turnaround from when they found them until when they put out Xbox 35. So, so they just some fun history.

[Rob Mitchum]

They had like a houseboat just sitting there for like 35 years apparently.

[Mitch Roberts]

Or I think they still live there, you know, long after Keith passed away.

[Rob Mitchum]

Just like grateful that tapes on their houseboat.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah, like under shoved under a hammock or something. I don't know. Whatever you have on a houseboat, it's kind of life.

[Rob Mitchum]

I want, I wanna, I want a life where I just have a houseboat for 35 years and someone like, let's, let's like pick up this dirty laundry. What's under here? Oh, it's Grateful Dead tapes.

[Mitch Roberts]

Right. That nobody's ever heard before. Nobody had ever heard soundboards of these 1971 shows until they, they found him on the boat. So. Yeah, yeah, I want a house Grateful Dead history.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah, I want a houseboat. Man, a houseboat would be amazing.

[Mitch Roberts]

I could see you being a houseboat guy. The only problem is you'd have to live somewhere warm. Well, not, not, not your style.

[Rob Mitchum]

Well, at some point it will be. I want to be like, like Sonny Crockett in Miami Vice where he has the houseboat and, like, the alligator on board.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

And I don't know if there's any Grateful Dead tapes on the sunny Crockett boat. Right. But it'd be pretty amazing.

[Mitch Roberts]

Well, it's like the Jimmy Buffett retirement village. Are they gonna have a Grateful Dead retirement village?

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah, just.

[Mitch Roberts]

Just all houseboats, and then they put some tapes underneath all the beds for you.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. Houseboat. That just seems like such a romantic idea, having a houseboat.

[Mitch Roberts]

I can't wait till we do three more hours on houseboats for our penultimate episode ever. We're just gonna talk houseboats.

[Rob Mitchum]

I just wanna. I don't know, does anyone else out there have a romantic idea of houseboats? I just think it seems so awesome to be on a houseboat. Anyway, our last electrifying conclusion here, Dick's pick 36. And hell of a. Hell of a conclusion to go out on. We've got the spectrum 92172. We've already had two shows from September of 72, and we talked about them both in our draft episode. Dick's Picks 11 and 23.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

And this one might be the best. We'll see.

[Mitch Roberts]

I can't wait. Yeah, they're all from, like, the same week even. Like, it's a pretty, like, tight run.

[Rob Mitchum]

Can you imagine if you're following the Dead that week? You're just like, oh, we're gonna see the Dead tonight. Maybe. Maybe they'll play Dark Star again. Maybe we'll do like another half hour Dark Star that will, like, you know, make me see Jesus Christ himself. And, you know, because that was, like, the kind of week, you know, they had this week in September of 72. Because this is. I think you referenced this earlier. Is this not Dick's favorite Dark Star on this?

[Mitch Roberts]

You know, that's. That's always what I've heard. Like, I tried to corroborate that shortly before we went on the air tonight. I mean, I'm gonna take a few more months of research to confirm that for sure. I think Dick was the kind of guy that anytime you asked him what his favorite Dark Star was, he gave you a different answer. Well, and so I think maybe he answered this one more than most. But I. I don't. I don't think they're even within the Man Dick lot follow. There was not consensus about the greatest Dark Star of all time. But certainly this is one of them.

[Rob Mitchum]

I mean, I've heard this one. It's a pretty amazing Dark Star. Like, I mean, and that we're not even counting you know the Dark Star from Vanita Veneta Bonita. Yeah. Is it Vanita?

[Mitch Roberts]

I think we finally found out it was Vanetta, though. Now I forgot. I forget which one is right. Which one is what I've been calling it for years.

[Rob Mitchum]

Which is like. Which is, I think, from. You know, it's like, from a month prior, it's 8-27-72. But, yeah, you go Dark Star into Morning Dew into Beat it down the Line. It's hilarious that they played that after that. And then Mississippi Half Step, Sugar Magnolia in front of the Devil. Yes. This is a four banger. I. These are all, like, three or four bangers.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah, exactly. We're not cheaping out on you in the final run here.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. So that's our season preview. Hard to find, like, a. A lame duck in the bunch.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. Unless it's the 82 show, but by then, we're gonna want some friends.

[Rob Mitchum]

I don't think so. I think the. Is gonna be great. Yeah.

[Mitch Roberts]

I'm skeptical of that fall 77 show just going purely on paper. I'm a little bit like. I don't know. I think it doesn't have that zing that the rest of these do, but, you know, coming in with low expectations, that's usually when you get your mind blown. So.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. And I just feel like that's an instance of us just being like we're looking to be disappointed at some point. You know, it's so stacked.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

You know. You know, there. There's no obvious weak points here. Right here. So I don't know.

[Mitch Roberts]

So we're reaching.

[Rob Mitchum]

So hopefully you're as excited as we are to dive into all these. We have already recorded our Dick's Picks 28 episode, and that's a heater. I think you're all gonna love that if you haven't dug into that already.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. Do your homework.

[Rob Mitchum]

You gotta do your homework on that. And it's not homework because. Yeah. And do we want to talk about. Do we want to, like, preview? Because we talked about a couple of 73 shows that we referenced in that episode. Do we want to mention that here now?

[Mitch Roberts]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Well, I. I just want to say, like, before you go into Dick's. Well, as you go into Dick's picks 28. Right. I would also just throw out 215 73. It's a show in Madison. More Midwest love there. That's the first instance of the Dead playing Eyes of the World. Wait, is it Dark Star into Eyes of the World?

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. And it's all. It's also like one of the first time they ever played Eyes of the World. I think the. The world premiere of Eyes of the world was 2973. Right. So you might want to check out that show too. But 2973, 215 73. And also was it 316 73.

[Mitch Roberts]

That's right. the Nassau Coliseum, which if you like the Dix fix.28 Dark Star. I feel like that one is very similar in the path that it takes, but maybe. Maybe gets the edge for me a little bit at least on for that particular song. I don't know about the rest of the show, but yeah. So, you know, no Deadhead is satisfied with just one Dark Star.

[Rob Mitchum]

So.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah, if you want to do some extra bonus credit homework, check out the dark stars. You know, around that whole month. You're not going to go wrong with spring. 73 dark stars.

[Rob Mitchum]

So I think that about does it for our last rehearsal episode. Thank you for your patience. I hope we didn't miss all of our cues. I think we hit most of them.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

And also shout out again to Skull and Roses. Thank you again for sponsoring our rehearsal week here. Again that takes place. Oh, we got a question here. Dick's Picks versus Dave Picks. Who's better? You know, I don't. It's hard to answer that because I don't know Dave's Picks nearly as well. I. I've been a subscriber to Dave's. Now I'm going on my third year.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

But you know, there's 41 volumes. I. I know like the last 10 fairly well. Right. But we are students of Dick's Picks. I am but a protege of Dave's Picks. I will say one thing unequivocally. I think I can say that Dave's Picks has better artwork.

[Mitch Roberts]

Well, there's that. Yeah, absolutely.

[Rob Mitchum]

Than Dicks. Although.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Although I will say that like the red and black Dicks.

[Mitch Roberts]

Oh, classic.

[Rob Mitchum]

Is forever my favorite. Like. Yeah, that's the greatest of all time.

[Mitch Roberts]

Dave pick should do a year that just throws back to the old oh, Apex cover.

[Rob Mitchum]

That would be amazing.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah, you can have that one for free, Dave.

[Rob Mitchum]

And you know, I believe because I think the first Dick's picks was. Was 93. So next year would be the 30th anniversary of Dick's Pick. So if we could just throw that out there. It's picks. Maybe tip the cap to Dick's picks 30th anniversary. Do at least one red and black volume. I think that'd be pretty amazing.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah. And we, our boy Ryan, we prefer Dark star or other one 72 to 74.

[Rob Mitchum]

Well, I don't know.

[Mitch Roberts]

I mean, we kind of get into this. In, in this, this episode coming out, I loved.

[Rob Mitchum]

I mean, that's my favorite period of dark star. So I'll say dark Star, but it's.

[Mitch Roberts]

Really hard to not go dark Star. There are other ones. They're great. What a great time for darks. For other ones, I think Dark stars still giving you a little more variety.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the great thing About Dick's picks 28 as a preview is that you get a dark star and an other one. Right. And like the disc 2 and disc 4 of 28 are such a great companion. Yeah. What song did you learn to love while you were doing your 36 from the vault homework?

[Mitch Roberts]

Man, I got a good answer to this. You know what I'm. You know what I'm really into? It's kind of a double answer because there's similar songs. Is Sugary and Peggy O. Oh, yeah. Songs that in. In my youth I maybe would have skipped over is just kind of like, ah, it's a Jerry. It's a slow Jerry song. Nothing exciting happens there. Sugary for sure. I was like, totally dumb about. There's some amazing Sugaries in the Dix Pick series and in the shows around The Dick's picks 77.

[Rob Mitchum]

Sugary.

[Mitch Roberts]

Oh, we got another one coming up in 29. That's I was listening to last night. It's great. But Peggy O too. Peggyo is a song that I totally underestimated my whole Dead listening life. And. And now I'm old enough to appreciate the serene sort of beauty of a.

[Rob Mitchum]

Nice Peggy O. I always loved Peggy O. And again, shout out to 91. They played Pagio in 91 so early in my dead history. I learned to love, or I didn't learn to love that song. I just loved it. I will say that the song that I've really come to love that I feel like, because I talked about Dick's Picks one being one of my favorites and I feel like I skipped over this when we were talking about it is Big River. I feel like. I feel like that song gets. You know, I was inclined to dismiss that as like a, you know, like a. This is like a Bobby.

[Mitch Roberts]

Bobby Cowboy.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yeah, but it's. But it's actually not a Bobby Cowboy song. It's a Jerry Garcia guitar solo showcase. Right?

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

And especially in the early 70s, just hearing him kind of rip off these, like, honky tonk guitar Solos at length. That's just become a song that I would have skipped before we started this journey. And now I always look forward to hearing that. It's always like a barn burner for me.

[Mitch Roberts]

When is slide guitar okay?

[Rob Mitchum]

Always. Always.

[Mitch Roberts]

We know Steve's answer. I mentioned this on one of the episodes when I was ripping on slide guitar. It's that I love slide guitar when it is just, like, dripping with guitar effects. Like, it's got tons of pedals layered over it. And it's just incredibly psychedelic and drippy. My favorite slide guitar player, I think, is David Gilmore. I think David Gilmore was an incredible slide guitar player. Because every time he played slide guitar. There's, like a whole pedal board of things going on over the top of it. And it sounds just ridiculously good. Like, One of these Days. Great slide guitar song. One of these Days. Yeah, One of these days.

[Rob Mitchum]

High Hopes. If you want to go, like, later.

[Mitch Roberts]

Oh, you can go late and get it, too. That's a little more like your standard slide guitar, I think. But, like, the early.

[Rob Mitchum]

It's still, like, super psychedelic. I mean, I don't know, like, the ending of that. I feel like that's the ultimate Dave Gilmore slide guitar solo.

[Mitch Roberts]

Okay. Yeah, I guess the ending. I was thinking of the ending. Yeah. So.

[Rob Mitchum]

I mean, I. I mean, I love all kinds of slide guitar. I like bluesy psychotar, like Elmore James. Going back to that. I think it's great. And obviously, Dwayne Allman, if you're going in more of, like, a rock context. But I mean, I like this. Obviously. I love psychedelics, like, guitar, too. But, you know, one of my favorite sounds in all of music is, like, pedal steel.

[Mitch Roberts]

Well, yeah, so I was going to say that, too. Like, maybe hypocritical, but I love pedal steel.

[Rob Mitchum]

It's not that far removed.

[Mitch Roberts]

I know. I know. You know, and I can't explain it.

[Rob Mitchum]

This is your version to blues rock. It's like, you are so against blues rock that any kind of blues affectation, you know, Because I feel like. Because pedal steel, I think, is more of, like, a melancholy sound generally.

[Mitch Roberts]

And I'm a melancholy guy.

[Rob Mitchum]

You're a melancholy guy. And, you know, we're talking about pedal steel, like. Oh, I'm sorry if we're talking about slide guitar with Jerry, I always associate that, like, with the beginning of Weather Report Suite. Which I think is more of, like a pedal steel type vibe that he's playing with there. And.

[Mitch Roberts]

Yeah.

[Rob Mitchum]

Whereas Bob, you know, it's probably more of the traditional blues rock type. Thing. But right, anyway, I love, I love slide guitar.

[Mitch Roberts]

All right. We gotta wrap it up, though. Thank you.

[Rob Mitchum]

We're wrapping it up.

[Mitch Roberts]

Thank you. Thank you for watching us live.

[Rob Mitchum]

Yes.

[Mitch Roberts]

Really appreciate it. It's so good to, to be talking to you at you guys again. I'm excited for the season. I hope you're all listen in. I hope, you know, we, we come up with a good idea for how to extend it if, if we go beyond the final 36 from the vault season. But shout out again to Skull and roses. Check out skullandroses.com to learn all about their festival. I hope it goes great next week. I hope if you go, you have an awesome time. I want to see some live music. Wish I was there seeing some, some Grateful Dead music in a field with beautiful weather. That sounds really nice right now. And yeah, let's, let's do this some more. Let's, let's, let's get back on tour.

[Rob Mitchum]

Thanks, guys. Thanks for listening. We'll see you in a couple weeks for a season premiere.

[Mitch Roberts]

All right. Later on. Sam. Osiris.

[Lawrence Lanahan]

This is Lawrence Lanahan, journalist, musician, and host of Rearranged, an Osiris Media podcast about music arranging. Once a song is written, arrangers make musical decisions that shape how we end up hearing the song. And we're not just talking about adding orchestral accompaniment like horns and strings, or doing a cover version of a song.

[Distrokid Advertiser]

Arrangement can be putting happy music over.

[Lawrence Lanahan]

Dark lyrics, using samples, recording all acoustic, even tiny decisions like putting an electronic loop into an acoustic song to draw your attention to an important turn of phrase. It's all arranging. Rearranged Episodes are documentary essays where I use arrangements to answer some big questions like what is a song and what can a song become? And how can the sound of a song change the meaning you take from it? Listening this way has changed my relationship with music. Tune in to Rearranged and maybe it'll happen for you, too. Learn [e-mail].

[Mitch Roberts]

Osiris.