Customer Reviews

Dick's Picks, Vol. 5: Oakland Auditorium, Oakland, CA, 12/26/79

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No doubt the Dead of the early to mid seventies was the best if you have to chose a show at random and get lost in it. If you have to restrict yourself. After that, the Dead were less consistent. But the Dead with Brent were great too, different and great in other ways. I love that Hammond B-3 sounds, and I love Brent's voice. He could certainly sing better than Donna. In fact, tuning out Donnna from seventies shows can be quite exhausting. Hart's percussion jams also seem to get more interesting in the eighties.

There were two 80's shows early in the Dick's Picks series, volumes five and six. (OK, I just noticed the date, this show preceded the eighties by about five days, but if you had to classify it, for all practical purposes this is early eighties Dead) Both vol. 5 and 6 provide good historical illustrations of what was wrong with the Dead in the 80's as well as what was right with them. Overall, though, Dick's Pick Vol. 5 is the one I would go with. Vol. 6 has a great second disc but overall the band sounds too haggard.

Volume 5 starts off shaky and we realize there will be too many of those R&B numbers that they were so fond of in the 80's. It hurts to say it but, they just don't do those well. C.C. Rider, Around and Around, Promised Land... I don't know why no one in the organization had the courage to tell Bobby he doesn't sound good trying to belt out soulful numbers. Maybe they never went back and listened to their shows. More likely they just didn't care because the fans have demonstrated that they will continue to pay and show up. But lets not dwell on the negatives. Though off to a bit of a weak start, we have a Brown Eyed Women in the first set in which Jerry sounds great, brings you back to the days when he had the energy for thirty-second notes, ripping off high energy, intense sheets of sound. When disc 2 starts, there's a great Uncle John's Band followed by Estimated Prophet. Phil tries to transition them into He's Gone but Jerry is on fire and takes off in a different direction for a five minute or so track labeled "Jam 1." They finally do get back to He's Gone, which then transitions into The Other One with a massive bone-rattling Phil bomb. We get a good drums>space, a couple other tunes, and then the track that alone makes this a worthy purchase, Shakedown Street. There aren't too many official releases of live Shakedowns, but of them this is the best, better than off So Many Roads for sure (the single best Live Shakedown I own is off a bootleg from a 1990 Madison Square Garden show with Branford Marsalis). It's a high energy jam that eventually transitions a little sloppily into an Uncle John's Band reprise.

Overall, a worthy Dick's Pick. There's enough great music that it would be a shame to miss this. Don't overlook the Brent era Dead.

Generally, I concur with previous reviewers who provide spot on summaries. Why write then, you ask? Well, no one has mentioned Bobby's killer slide on disc one's New Minglewood or the great version of disc one's Brown Eyed Women. Disc one's songs have wonderfully played versions of the songs and one may attribute this to the likely lenghty practice sessions that preceeded this tour as the band got Mydland up to speed.

Disc two especially is just a killer and disc 3 has a great Jam-NFA-Brokedown Palace section. The excitement of the band during disc 2's UJB is simply palable and you will listen drop jawed as you understand that the band knows that the audience knows that they sound great.

Absolutely, Weir and Mydland and the rythym section steal the show. Jerry is starting to show signs of deteriation and does seem at times to be "trying to keep up" as the Amazon reviewer above wrote.

However, as an attendee to several Dead shows in the late 70s one must concur that by the late 70s the Godcheauxs were personas non grata and the addition of Mydland who both sang and played keyboards head and shoulders above his predecessors absolutely re-invigorated the band. You will note from the opening of Cold Rain throughout the jamming on discs two and three that Garcia and the others were thrilled with what the personnel change had wrought. This show will please your ears immensely.

A solid show, but the highlight is an amazing second disk, that offers one of the most intense Other Ones ever. The second disk is worth the price of the whole set, and is essential for any deadhead.

The odds of getting a tape(bootleg)of this quality from this early of a concert is 1 million to 1. It's a raw, clean, soundboard recording. More than anything, this (and ALL of the Dick's Picks collection) is a CD that is truly for tapers, or those who have had the privilage of listening to a first gen. soundboard tape from a DAT.Truly a case where the "music plays the band". It makes me miss Jerry more than ever. Hopefully there will be Dick's Picks through number 100 or so.

Good first set! Bob really gets it going with C.C. Rider. But, the 2nd set is awesome!!! Really incredible. Shakedown Street really stands out for me on this CD. Especially the last five or six minutes of it....the jam is .......WOW!!!

Cold Rain and Snow is a great opener for this disk, however i feel there is some lag until Bobby breaks out Big River...but the highlight of the first disk is by far Brown Eyed Women, Smokin. Jerry tears it up. Disk 2 by far steals the show. Uncle John's is great but when they move into Estimated, you better hold on because Jerry's solo gives me chill bumps every time I hear this. All in all, this is a great pick. If you like Brent and his Hammond, then this is a must have. It is early in Brent's career with the Boy's, but you can't tell, because he doesn't miss a lick...very tight...and if you think I'm kiddin', skip striaght to Shakedown on the third disk, it seems as if Brent has been playin with the Dead his whole life, when actually it had only been a couple of months...a must have for any true head

Thanks for tuning in.
I can't say I'm a big fan of post-1977 live GD, but this late 1979 gig is a very pleasant surprise. I basically bought this as a result of reading about an outstanding version of Uncle John's Band (a major personal favourite) contained within by fan reviews here, and a couple of the music forum posters on Amazon UK.
Cold Rain and Snow starts off the gig in a very relaxed fashion - not particularly energetic, but well played and sung.
Things really pick up by the time they get to Me & My Uncle/Big River. The energy level & focus has increased, and it hasn't got much to do with the fact these are faster-paced tracks - it's the intent.
At this stage of my first listen, I've noticed that the recording is very clear and the balance between the instruments & vocals is mostly right - this hasn't always been the case with this series. The only slight problem, and I mean slight, is that Weir & Mydland should be a little lower in the mix at times.
I've never been a fan of Alabama Getaway in the past but this version absolutely rocks! The performance is adrenalin-rushed and Promised Land follows on in the same fashion. I will definitely never skip Alabama on this cd.
The moment I'd been waiting for comes next.....Uncle John's Band! Apart from the playing, I can see a major reason why this version is so highly regarded - Brent Mydland. This guy provides great backing vocals throughout the show and I wouldn't be surprised if Bob & Jerry, knowing that he hits the right notes, were using him as a guide to align their own vocal pitches to.
A very odd and unbalanced performance of Estimated Prophet flows on from UJB. It kinda stumbles along at the start. A few minutes later, it starts to build up beautifully in the first jam, then falls apart as the guys lose focus. Bob makes it even worse with a horrid vocal approach. I'm thinking maybe he was bored with the original vocals he used to do on this track and tried to inject it with a more aggressive approach - no Bob, it doesn't work.
Speaking of aggression, the boys are going for it on The Other One. Jerry comes in a line early for the backing vocals but have no fear, they're switched on to carry on a hot rendition.
Jam 2 contains great sound effects and goes into Not Fade Away - this is one of the songs where it's obvious that Bob is too high in the mix.
Brokedown Palace is so damn good at this gig - a highlight for sure - very sweet.
Being a pre-1978 fan, I haven't heard many versions of Shakedown Street. The few I've heard, including the studio version, have always impressed me. This is my favourite version so far - cool stuff - warts & all. The transition into the UJB reprise isn't a clean one but it works itself out into a nice reprise.
I held off wanting to purchase this 3cd set for most of the decade. Now after hearing it, I just laugh and know that I now have something else to look forward to listening to in the future.
There's plenty to like on this cd set and I'd definitely recommend it. Enjoy.

This was the fifth release in the series but the first in the series to feature a whole show. The show was recorded the day after Christmas and surprisingly the band sounds very together for the most part. the first set opens with a kicking Cold, Rain And Snow and is followed by the first officially released C.C. Rider. Dire Wolf is next and sounds fine. The cowboy medley of Me And My Uncle->Big River features some smoking playing and a cool electric piano solo by Brent who'd only been with the band about 8 months at the time. Brown-Eyed Women is good with a driving lead and some great vocals. New Minglewood Blues is good and Phil packs a punch. Friend Of The Devil is dreamy while Looks Like Rain finds Bobby in fine form. The set ends with a blistering Alabama Getaway->Promised Land.

The first Uncle John's Band since 10-6-77 opens the second set but rather than coming to an end, drifts off into a hot Estimated Prophet. Dispite a flub, Estimated Prophet is very strong before running into a mellow He's Gone. The Drums is very good with a lot of pounding on the big ones while space really sounds like something from a Sci-Fi flick. Not Fade Away falls out of Space in fine fasion and is a rock solid version before giving way to the first Brokedown Palace since 10-14-77 Road Trips Volume 1 No. 2 w/ bonus disc. The set ends with two Chuck Berry songs, Around And Around->Johnny B. Goode. The encore is a sleepy Shakedown Street that picks up with Brent's solo. Out of Shakedown, we get the end of Uncle John's Band.

I just put this DP on after listening to the very dissapointing "Dick's Picks, Vol. 6" to remind me of what a really great GD show is supposed to sound like. DP6 was recorded in 1983, and to me it's just amazing to me how much better these guys sounded just 3 years earlier. But then I am also a new fan to The Dead and I just read on Jerry's personal life during this time and he was definitely in the midst of a terrible drug addiction which really affected his voice and musicianship. I mean even at his worst, he was still better than 99% of other guitar players of course, but his playing is so spirited and emotional here. I don't understand the other reviews here saying Jerry is "behind the other guys" or not playing that well. I think he is absolutely on fire on this release. His lead playing on "Uncle John's Band" (one of my favorite versions, very spirited) and esp. He's Gone (which just sounds beautiful. Overall I have so far only listened to the first 10 in the DP series and this is tied with Vol. 8 as my favorite so far. I am so happy to finally be getting into The Dead's music. Thank God they had the foresight to record all these shows so we can enjoy them forever.

Dick may have said that Nassau '81 was the Big One - but this is the One. This night (and 12/28/79, not officially released) are just Smokin'. I understand what some other reviewers have said about Jerry trying to 'keep up' at times but make no mistake - he's all There on this one. (Case in point - the jam in between Estimated->He's Gone would have been much shorter if Jerry wasn't egging Phil on.) Speaking of that jam - there has never been a more unique 5-6 minutes of music played by anybody before or since, including the Dead. A compeletly different sequence of 'spaces', all woven together seamlessly. If you've ever wondered why people say the Grateful Dead could make magic - the 2nd disc of this set is the one that will answer that question. It's fleeting - but it's There, and it's Wonderful! Steve Urbauer Stephen Urbauer